Pardon my ignorance, but wouldn't the fact that she and her husband posed for a Vanity Fair article entitled Double Exposure pretty much seal her future fate with covert operations? seems to me she outed herself with that debacle.
Just to put this in some perspective and why I care, my brother was a covert agent and we had no idea what he did for a living. He disappeared and for ten years we had no idea what happened to him or even if he was alive. Then one day he reappeared. I know nothing about those days except that he was in North Korea at least once. That's it.
To answer your questions:
1. Valerie Wilson Plame was a Brewster Energy employee - she can pose for whatever magazine covers she wants. Agents sometimes live showy lives. One of my brother's friends is an MI6 agent who was a lead actor on a very popular British television show. Didn't slow him down. I know it seems counter-intuitive but I also know it's true.
2. As I said, all CIA employment is classified, and once someone has been covert, their employment status is ALWAYS classified. That's an entirely seperate issue as to whether they are still covert - that's where you're getting tripped up. Just because she's no longer covert, doesn't mean her employment is no longer classified - it still is. And plenty of covert agents drive to work every day at Langley for years on end.
3. Valerie Plame was apparently considered a real "looker" - someone in the administration called her that. She's not my cup of tea, but in the mid-east tall American blondes are probably a pretty hot item. The CIA probably gave her a very well paid job in the mid-east, and she was expected to date lots of wealthy, well connected men. Because of that, her marrying a former diplomat probably wasn't surprising to the contacts she developed. I have no way of knowing this as fact - it's simply a reflection of what i've learned over the years about how the agency operates.
4. While I don't know this for a fact, the fact that Joe Wilson was given the post he was given in Iraq by Bush Sr, suggests he had high level security clearance. If that's true, it would be legal for Plame to tell him what she did. However, lots of husbands, wives and parents of covert agents have no idea what their loved one does.
So, yes, the last two items are speculation but they are very well informed speculation.
Anyway, I hope that helps. This is a very confusing story, and it's going to take some real work to sort out. I just hope you remember that being an undercover agent is a very dangerous job, and we shouldn't take for granted the sacrifices they make.
It's clear someone somewhere at sometime revealed classified info. What we don't know is whether it was someone in this administration (which there is NO evidence of) or was it someone else? We're waiting to hear what Fitzgerald has to say.