Tom O’Neil, the Los Angeles Times blogger who has never met a story he couldn’t work an awards reference into, wrote a fascinating column today that explains how he came into possession of the Emmy Award that Bette Midler won in 1978 for Best Variety Special and, ultimately, how he came to discover he had purchased hot goods. He then reached out to Midler’s people and returned the stolen statuette. Now that’s what we call journalism! [Gold Derby/LAT]