From Reuters.com

President Obama? Healthcare? Financial reform? VP Biden in Israel? If most-read lists are any indication, those are not the topics that make you lurch forward, scrunch up to the screen and read like your very life depends on it.  Herpes, however, does.  As does Lindsay Lohan. And the extremely rich.  By now, no doubt, you’re itching for more. Herewith, the stories that fired you up this week.

1. U.S. herpes rates remain high: CDC

It started as a little health story and then spread among readers like, well, like herpes, I guess.  I won’t go into the details – and I certainly don’t want to scare you — but it would appear that a good number of Americans are infected with the sexually transmitted disease. About 16 percent of them.  That’s almost one in five people.  That means that if you are in a room with four other people one of you likely has it. Let’s do a test: Look around the room right now …

2. Lindsay Lohan sues over “milkaholic” E*Trade ad

It seems the actress, who’s last movie was the wonderfully delightful  and highly acclaimed “I Know Who Killed Me” in 2007 (I think it won an Oscar! No, no wait. It was a Razzie – eight of them), is going after online trading company E*Trade for its “milkoholic” ad. Lohan says the “milkoholic” baby girl in the ad is modeled after her and she wants $100 million. You go girl!

3. World’s richest man, Carlos Slim, a born wheeler-dealer

$53.5 billion. That’s how much money he has.  Yep, more than Bill Gates.  More than Warren Buffett.  That’s a lot of money. I don’t have that much,yet. ‘Nuff said.

4. Runaway Prius in California

Let’s see: You’re driving down the highway in your cool, fun and eco-friendly Prius. A mean old clunker jumps in front of you so tap the brakes. You tap the brakes. YOU TAP THE BRAKES! Your Prius is lurching forward, faster and faster to 90 mph!  … Watch the video to see how this movie ends.

5. Sandra Bullock gets a Razzie – Worst actress of 2009

Sandra Bullock is good when she’s good, but she’s great when she’s bad. She’s also a girl of her word. She had said that if she won a Razzie – the tongue-in-cheek alternative to the Oscars – for Worst Actress she would show up to accept. Of course she won. Of course she showed up, noting in her acceptance speech that it was “an extraordinary award.” She added: “I didn’t realize that in Hollywood all you have to do is say you’ll show up and you get.” The next night she won an Oscar for best actress. Lindsay, are you reading?