As Gore Vidal debated William F. Buckley Jr., network executives looked on in horror. It is impossible to watch without being remind of what is playing out on cable TV and across the Internet this year.

Gore Vidal, who passed away yesterday at the age of 86, was nothing if not a man of words. Beyond his prolific writings, he was also an active debater and interviewee.

Gore Vidal, the author, cultural critic and man-about-the-world who penned 25 novels and thousands of essays dealing frankly with all facets of American culture, died yesterday at his home in Los Angeles at 86.

>> Giada De Laurentiis of Food Network’s Everyday Italian was in town this weekend filming a bit for her new show, Weekend Getaways. One Flickr photog caught her picking out plump tomatoes at the Dupont farmer’s market; did anyone else get a glimpse of the “Cooking With Cleavage” star? >> Oh, Clinton Portis, really? The Redskins player decided to come out in favor of dog fighting to defend embattled Atlanta Falcons quarterback Michael Vick. This…

TUESDAY We were wondering what the best way to entice you to come hear Maria Arana discuss her new book Cellophane, an alternately hilarious and disturbing tale of her native Peru, but then we remembered it was being held at the Inter-American Development Bank Conference Center Auditorium and we thought, heck, who DOESN’T spend Tuesday night at the Inter-American Development Bank Conference Center Auditorium? 1330 New York Ave. NW. at 6:30 p.m. Free. WEDNESDAY Over…

Through Petworth News, we learn that the essayist, playwright and thinker Gore Vidal will be laid to rest at Rock Creek Cemetery in Northwest Washington. While this isn’t necessarily anything newsworthy, it’s an interesting item for future chroniclers of the city’s various monuments to note. According to Petworth News (where we snagged this photo), Vidal buried his longtime partner, Harold Auster, at the cemetery last month. The Vidal plot is located near a monument to…