See? It's a foregone conclusion that Obama will win! Everyone knows it! Hillary=LOSER.
Clooney won't likely take any flack for the joke because he's forthright in his political views and, more importantly, likable. In this video, the former contractor gets likable with Time writer Stein as he wraps up his journey through Stein's back rooms and crawl spaces, where he has been trying to find an alarm that interrupted dinner:
 E Canada Now | Brad & Angie to Pax: You're Officially One of Us! TMZ.com - We've learned they went to LA County Children's Court in Monterey Park, Calif. yesterday and appeared before a judge who finalized Pax's adoption. Pax Officially a Jolie-Pitt Plus: Lohan’s dad avoiding nude pics; good news for ‘Friday Night ... |
 Enews 2.0 | Parking attendant who claims Omar Sharif punched him wins lawsuit New York Daily News - AP A judge entered a default judgment Tuesday in favor of Juan Luis Ochoa Anderson when the actor failed to show for a deposition. Sharif Ordered to Pay Valet Omar Sharif Ordered to Pay Damages |
Apparently Aaron Carter couldn't wait to get to the party.
The 20-year-old singer was arrested Thursday in Texas on suspicion of drug possession after cops pulled him over for speeding...
Sam Lutfi has finally been served--and how.
A federal judge extended the restraining order preventing Britney Spears' once-constant companion from approaching the star until Mar. 17,...
The bloodletting has begun on "American Idol."
Randy Jackson may have repeatedly remarked this week that the pleasantly precocious teenage contestants are the forces to be reckoned...
There's something to be said for the oldies-but-goodies.
CBS, at least, is betting that fishing a few hits out of the archives will result in more online traffic and, subsequently, more...
UPDATE: Gawker discussed the email below with Erica by phone, her comments are [in brackets]. Also, an email from a Birmingham defender follows below.
i was the same year as erica at harvard, and she was by far the most notorious person on campus. of course she walked around in mini skirts and manolos all year long... [snip] here are a few examples of her party planning capabilities, for julia and anyone else considering inviting her to a soiree...a bunch of us went to acapulco for spring break senior year. erica paid locals off the sidewalk to push her shopping cart around the local walmart and buy party supplies [UPDATE: Erica says she hired help to help staff the party throughout the day, and they lived at the rented Villa, not on the sidewalk.] . their villa was hosting a big party the last night we were there, and erica loudly promised everyone that there would be mexican midgets walking around wearing sombreros full of guacamole [Erica says, sadly, the guacamole hat "didn't happen, and it would have been so cool if it did"]. sadly she could not find enough midgets in time [Erica says the midget thing did indeed fail to happen!]. but she did train a parrot to say really filthy things [the parrot was pre-trained, says Erica]. back on campus, erica fitted out plastic wading pools/scorpion bowls filled with 151 and giant straws for guests at one club's spring garden party.
awesome or terrifying? probably a matter of opinion..but either way far from cupcakes and tulle skirts.
Also, here is most of an email from someone identifying themselves as "Duchess Defender:"
As a fairly prominent student at Harvard, Erica was more than used to addressing rumors about her and almost always has a great sense of humor about them no matter how outrageous. I want to keep this short so let me just address some inaccuracies I've observed so far:
- I stayed in Villa Cristal with Erica in Acapulco that spring break, and Erica didn't pay off locals to push around a cart at Wal-Mart. Also, it was a Super Wal-Mart.
- The filthy-mouthed parrot named 'Lorenzo' had already been trained when we arrived. Erica had no part in his training, but that is funny.
- The scorpion pool did not contain giant straws, just little ones. So fun!
- And I'm not sure where you dug up that picture, but Erica's drink of choice is a Kir Royale, not a Bud Light.
Parker also figured prominently in Brill's Valentine's Day plans, hosting at his fur boutique on Madison Avenue a big party she attended and where she bought "100 lbs of crap." He also made his way over to Beatrice for Brill's late nightcap.
The movie was supposed to use real Manhattan socialites in fake "love" stories.
During the breakup, Parker had Pink escorted out of his apartment by security and, she said, took her dog (he claimed to own it).
Supposedly, Parker is totally past the high-class porno thing:
"She's just very high-maintenance," Parker said. "She threatened to leave me about 100,000 times, and I just had enough. As of now, I am out of that lifestyle. I think my involvement in that industry showed a lack of judgment on my part."
Or maybe Parker just got drunk and scuzzy at a bar the one time, and Brill is pursuing some totally innocent and tame media project she nevertheless can't talk about for whatever reason. Whatever. Point being: Emily, careful around this guy, and whatever you do don't let him buy you a dog.
Le caveman? C'est chic!Photo: imaxtree
Cathy Horyn on Jil Sander for the New York Times:
This may be the Milan season in which great significance is put on a pleat. The shift or sack dress seems a dominant trend (at Burberry, Alberta Ferretti, Ferre), at least on the first full day of the Milan shows. Dresses and full skirts have inverted or tacked-down pleats, all carefully placed but oh-so tedious–and not helped by the doll-like vague models lurching on high shiny heels.
Suzy Menkes on Gucci for the International Herald Tribune:
The designer Frida Giannini had taken her decorative ideas — tapestry patterns, cross-stitch decoration, gilt studs and fringing — all the way back to Bohemia. Her collection of skinny hip pants, fancied up with metallic extras, were worn with snug jackets, where embedded in the thick fur you could find elements of Toy Town army uniforms or the kind of embroidery that gypsy Romas might have stitched around the campfire.
Robin Givhan on Giorgio Armani for the Washington Post:
Creativity demands that one take leaps of faith, but Armani seems to lurch, while insisting that he has found the way to a bold new sensibility. Perhaps Armani's long-range vision is sharper than most. Perhaps he sees something on the horizon that others cannot: a world in which harem trousers are the new low-rise jeans, perhaps?
Carolyn Asome on Pringle of Scotland for the Times:
There’s no irony lost that Pringle, a name Scottish to its very core, also shows in Milan. Happily, there was not a stitch of tartan in sight. In another role reversal, Clare Waight Keller, the creative design director, showed gorgeous cashmere coats, some duffle-shaped, some funnel-necked, and all illustrating the best that the “Made in Italy” label can offer.
Hadley Freeman on Ferragamo for the Guardian:
Lady Thatcher is unlikely to wear any of it and some might see this as, frankly, a bit of a shame. Today the former prime minister's favourite fashion label, Salvatore Ferragamo, showed its first collection under the new creative director, Cristina Oritz. It's hard to imagine that the lady will be for turning towards satin jumpsuits, white minidresses trimmed with silver discs or halterneck one-pieces trimmed with white fur.
Hilary Alexander on Cavalli for the Telegraph:
Broderie anglaise frocks with ribbon details, continued the demure parade, before giving way to a South American, ethnic inspiration which included Inca-style knits in the traditional tan, white, grey and black, embroidered vests and full, peasant skirts, in black, trimmed with multi-coloured embroideries, which referenced those worn by the Inca peasant women in Cusco, Peru. For evening, the folkloric details were richly beaded in multi-colours on dense, foliage prints.
Sarah Mower on Bottega Veneta for Style.com:
The fact that a grateful gasp of pleasure can pass through a room at the sight of an amazingly cut peacoat, the collar chicly turned up, over a pair of gray flannel pants says something significant about the state of fashion right now.
According to Stribling, buyers at the Plaza are actually mostly New Yorkers.Photo: Getty Images
• Contrary to popular belief, “the majority of buyers at the Plaza were Americans, and the majority of those were New Yorkers.” (In other words, recent press reports of loneliness at the new megacondo project — apparently few have moved into their digs so far — can’t be attributed to neighbors being away in Gstaad.)
• The third largest townhouse sale happened downtown at 11 West 10th Street, which went for a record $33.1 million.
• Seventy-nine coops worth more than $5 million are about to close — compared to 49 this time last year.
And this:
• Financier Ira Rennert is a really nice dad — two of the major sales closing this year are his doing, as he bought his two married daughters ultraluxe co-ops. —S. Jhoanna Robledo
Now that's a cow-ball-eating grin.Photo: Getty Images
New York: Mr. Fox, you grew up on a horse farm?
Fox: On a ranch, yes. [Ed: Hey, we live in the city. We think every farmer has a "dell."]
New York: Then you must have eaten Rocky Mountain Oysters. [The reporters around us look perplexed. Why didn't we want to know what his summer plans were?]
Fox: [Grinning slightly] Yes, I have. They were very good.
Victory! Another celebrity admits to eating bovine testicles! —Bennett Marcus
Related: Traver Rains Loves Him Some Cow Balls
Jamie Spears' minions finally tracked down Sam Lutfi.
After three weeks of dodging process servers, Britney Spears' former sidekick was officially bestowed with a temporary restraining...
If you've seen our safe, cowardly predictions for Sunday's Oscar winners, you'll know that we think this race is already locked up and decided (we've heard rumors that all supporting-actor nominees not named Javier Bardem are skipping the ceremony to play Rock Band at Hal Holbrook's house). Still, what's the point of entering an Oscar pool if your ballot looks like everyone else's? And if you want to win, the key is guessing one or two of the night's improbable surprises. Who might pull off an upset? Our hedged bets after the jump!
Earlier: Oscar Predictions: The Major Categories
Oscar Predictions: The Categories Without Famous People in Them
It's tough to imagine this Oscar going to anyone but the Coens, but Paul Thomas Anderson and Julian Schnabel do have devoted followings. Plus, who doesn't want to see Schnabel accept an award in his pajamas?
Daniel Day-Lewis is a lock (even more so than he was when he lost to Adrian Brody in 2002), but could George Clooney pull of an upset? Again, Michael Clayton does have seven nominations, and the Academy probably wants to reward it somewhere. Clooney's the standard-bearer for old-school Hollywood, and most Oscar voters are old.
Only a crazy person would bet against Julie Christie here. Still, Marion Cotillard was the early favorite, and Juno's box-office success could give Ellen Page an edge, making her the category's youngest-ever winner. And barring a Schnabulous victory, she's probably our only shot at a fun acceptance speech.
In the only major category without a clear winner, Cate Blanchett, Ruby Dee, or Amy Ryan would all be logical choices — so how about Tilda Swinton? Obviously the Academy enjoyed Michael Clayton, and her performance was mesmerizing.
Sorry to disappoint, but Javier Bardem has this one in the bag. The New York Giants stand a better chance of winning this award than any of the other nominees.
Photo: Getty
We're not mad, just disappointed.
—Jessica Coen
Photo: Getty Images
Criminal Intent's Vincent D'Onofrio Welcomes a Son [People]
One day only: Have a cocktail — do we have your attention? — while browsing the new Armani Jeans shop. Latino group the DEY entertains. Bloomingdale's, 1000 Third Ave., at 59th St. (212-705-2000); 6–8.
2/21–2/22 Fight breast cancer while you shop. At Saks, get a complimentary fitting in a Donna Karan or Wacoal bra from a fit specialist. And Wacoal will donate money to breast-cancer charity with every bra purchase. Saks Fifth Avenue, 611 Fifth Ave., nr. 50th St. (212-753-4000); call for hours.
For upcoming and ongoing deals, check out the Sales & Bargains calendar.
Gondry Watches Nick?: A YouTube video suggests that Be Kind Rewind's origins might lie in a 2000 Nickelodeon show starring Amanda Bynes. Defamer, bless their hearts, uses that as an excuse to post a red-carpet photo of Amanda Bynes. [Defamer]
Sony Looks to 2012: Roland Emmerich's 2012 lands at Sony after a heated bidding war; the film's likely $200 million-plus price tag makes it clear that Hollywood will stop at nothing to buy its way into your heart. Why not just send us a diamond ring, Hollywood? [Variety]
CBS Ruins Marriage: CBS green-lights a new reality pilot called Splitsville, in which a divorcing couple battles it out for the family's possessions in the grimmest, most awful reality show we'll ever DVR. We suggest a crossover episode with Kid Nation, so the kids' torture continues well past their time in Bonanza City. [HR]
Thriller Chart Drama: The Billboard Top 200 refuses to place the reissue of Michael Jackson's Thriller where it belongs, at No. 2 on this week's chart, classifying it as a catalog release. In a related note, Thriller was the first album we ever owned. In another related note, we are old. [Set List]
Why, hello there!Photo: Imaxtree
For more model madness, check out our obsessive Model Manual. It's like the only yearbook that's ever mattered.
Baaaaaaaaaaaabies.Photo: Getty Images
Related: Nation, Gird Your Loins: The Lopez-Anthony Twins Cometh
Days after showing off her her Lohans to the world, Lindsay has lined herself up a brand-new A-list project.
Producers have confirmed to E! News that the tabloid queen is resuming her day...
Photo illustration: Everett Bogue
Photos: iStockphoto, Fox Searchlight, AMPAS
Those Oscar bloggers and commentators who have given Juno a shot in this year's Best Picture race make a number of different cases: that feel-bad movies like There Will Be Blood and No Country might split the vote, letting Juno in as a feel-good dark horse; that the Academy likes a movie whose message is tidy and neat; that the guilds no longer represent the whims of the Academy. But the piece of evidence everyone continually repeats in making the case that Juno might beat No Country for Old Men: Juno is the only one of the nominees that's a box-office hit, with $125.5 million earned so far. The Academy loves hits!
But does it? We're not exactly gurus, but we do have a subscription to Box Office Mojo, so we went through the past fifteen years of Best Picture nominees to answer the question: How much does a film's box office affect its chances in the Best Picture race? That is, if you're the Best Pic nominee whose box office is the highest at the time of the awards, does that give you a better chance to win?
The answer? It doesn't hurt, but it doesn't help as much as you'd think. Certainly being the worst earner of the five nominees will kill you; none of the past fifteen Best Pictures were in last place in the box-office race on Oscar night. Sorry, There Will Be Blood and your $32 million gross!
On the other hand, of the past fifteen Best Picture winners, five have been the box-office champ among the nominees on the date of the awards: Forrest Gump, Titanic, Gladiator, The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King, and The Departed. So that bodes well for Juno, right? Nope! Because it turns out the place to be is second place. Eight of the past fifteen Best Picture winners were the second-most successful of all nominees:
Unforgiven (beat A Few Good Men) Schindler's List (beat The Fugitive) Braveheart (beat Apollo 13) The English Patient (beat Jerry Maguire) Shakespeare in Love (beat Saving Private Ryan) A Beautiful Mind (beat The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring) Chicago (beat The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers) Crash (beat Brokeback Mountain)
And guess which film, with a current box-office gross of $61.3 million, is in second place among this year's nominees? No Country for Old Men, that's which one.
Fun(?) outfits from the Sex and the City movie.Photo: WireImage
FIELD LOVES:
Elastic or any wraparound belt. Patricia's philosophy: "Give it a waist"
[A] A good waist belt is always a good investment.
Knee-high, thigh-high, or fishnets are the way to go
[D] Fishnets are for catching fish. Let's stop mistaking them for legwear.
Over-the-knee boots: "[They] make short girls long"
[D] These are so Devil Wears Prada, and they weren't even that cute on Hathaway.
Berets, all colors
[D] So Mary Tyler Moore over
Fedora men's hats for women
[AWC] In Williamsburg, or at night, only.
Skinny pants (think Babe Paley)
[AWC] If you've got the legs.
Bustier
[AWC] We will accept this as long as it's not neon with black lace on top and flesh does not pucker from either end.
Wolford's black high-waist panty
[D] Why do we need these? Give us reasoning and we'll reconsider.
High Christian Louboutin cream pumps
[A] Can't argue with the Loub.
Clothes that fit the body — sexy not frumpy. She loves a shoulder.
[A] As Donna Karan notes, you never gain weight in your shoulders.
FIELD HATES:
Brown, dull, or dark muddy colors
[D] We don't agree with banning entire colors. Some people will always look good in brown so let's not make them feel bad about it. Also, no dark colors? In New York? Preposterous.
Toe ornamentation on a shoe
[AWC] Buckles can be cool, but roses and bows kind of make us gag.
Baby-doll dresses
[D] These are very flattering for certain figures.
Flower pins
[A] See Carrie's shoulder.
Cupcake-shaped dresses
[A] And calling them that makes them so much worse.
Patricia Field: What she loves; what she's over [Glamour]
Bowery: No sooner had this lovable bum moved out of the street box he lived in and into a proper $300-a-month room than his troubles began. [NYT]
Bushwick: Behold the new 'swhick-specific haiku trend: "Dude with the corn rows/Stop selling crack, you scumbag/Sell good pot instead." [BushwickBK]
Coney Island: The fancy exterior redo for the New York Aquarium may have to be, uh, scaled back due to a planned $64 million exhibition on sharks. [Coney Island via Curbed]
Lower East Side: Luxury-rental tower the Ludlow is ruining this longtime LESer's walk to work. [The Jose Vilson]
Upper West Side: That empty retail space on the corner of Broadway and 87th? The Zabar brothers are co-owners, and (prepare to gasp) they refuse to rent it to a bank! It may be (prepare to sigh somewhat deflatedly) a Uniqlo or a Ricky's instead. [NYPress]
Washington Heights: Blasphemous images of "Prophet Muhammod" [sic] are showing up here. "But, hey, at least he's smiling." [Copyranter]
Woodside: Holy anti-Semitic tamale, Batman! We heartily agree that somebody needs to tell K*ke's Mexican restaurant that they might need to rethink their name. (Does k*ke mean something in Spanish?) [Let's Meet Up in Queens]
Sean Raspet's The Ones We Work For (2008).Image courtesy of the artist and Daniel Reich Gallery, New York.
Physically navigating Sean Raspet's new installation, The Ones We Work For, at Chelsea's Daniel Reich Gallery seems to require superhuman agility. His riff on commerce suggests layered messages and an unmaneuverable media landscape. In short: why we're so glad to own a DVR. —Rachel Wolff
Photo: Getty Images
Meet Mr. Man-Bangs [National Post]
Earlier: Chace Crawford Sips Merlot, Is Reluctant to Meet Kate Hudson
Photo: WireImage
Close on the heels of the announcement that he'll be playing Marvin Gaye in Sexual Healing, Jesse L. Martin is leaving Law & Order, the show in which he's starred for nine seasons. For fans of Martin, the news is bittersweet; we'll miss seeing him on our TVs every week, although luckily there's no shortage of Law & Order reruns on the air if we really need a fix. But we're glad that Martin is quitting in search of a movie career, especially one that — in his first major project, at least — will let him exercise those golden pipes.
Did Martin ever sing even a bar as Detective Ed Green? We don't think so. Maybe Dick Wolf, as a little gift to fans, can have Green go out not in a hail of bullets but with one of those patented surprising glimpses of a L&O character's private life? We like to imagine that for years and years, Ed has been auditioning for musicals on the side, and he leaves the NYPD for his big Broadway break. We can picture it now: A good-bye party at a downtown bar; Sam Waterston on the piano; and Martin, cocktail in hand, suddenly croons Boyz II Men's "It's So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday." We're shedding a tear even thinking about it.
Jesse L. Martin exiting 'Law & Order' [Variety]
Earlier: Jesse L. Martin and James Gandolfini Administer a Little ‘Sexual Healing’
Photo:Courtesy of NBC
But Meyers says the team doesn't want to write too much material about the candidates, anyway. They don't want the show, he said, to take “too much of a political slant." Plus, they missed the best part of the election. “It’s always really fun when there’s six candidates, because a lot of them are crazier and funnier than the viable ones,” said Meyers. “By the time it gets down to two candidates, they can be less fun. So every time one dropped out, we were like, 'Ahhhhhhh!'” The cast is grateful, however, for the persistence of Mike Huckabee. “He is a nut ball,” says Meyers. “The best thing about him staying in the race is that he literally cannot win, and he’s staying in anyway.”
—Kate Dailey
In the event that the denials about casting Glover are all a ruse and he’s about to become incredibly famous, check him out in action when Derrick performs tonight at the Upright Citizen's Brigade Theater.
Sasha, on the mend. Really.Photo: WireImage
There you have it. Without even this month’s shows wrapped, Sasha’s already looking to September. And she seems to be on the up-and-up: One of our spies did spot her at a video-rental store in Williamsburg the other night (we repeat: A SUPERMODEL WAS RENTING A MOVIE IN WILLIAMSBURG). Of all things, she was picking up Russian-mob flick Eastern Promises. —Kendall Herbst
Photo: Getty Images
Contemporary cinema's preeminent pop surrealist Michel Gondry returns to theaters this week with Be Kind Rewind, starring Jack Black as a junkyard worker forced to reshoot well-known blockbusters from scratch after accidentally erasing the VHS tapes at his local video store. Gondry spoke with Vulture about the making of the film as well as his next wacky project — skinheads! Sodomy! Daniel Clowes! — currently in the works.
Be Kind Rewind spoofs — or "Swedes" — 2001, Ghostbusters, and Driving Miss Daisy. How did you choose the movies?
Well, the movies had to be on VHS so that set us back a little bit in the past. I didn’t think too hard about it. I just needed movies that people had seen, so they’d be able to understand the humor. If I had picked obscure movies or ones that appealed to cinema buffs, I don’t think my film would have had the same meaning. I notice how you pronounce it; phonetically “Swede” sounds like “sweet.” I think that’s the difference between spoofing and Sweding: Sweding is a sweet vision of the film. It’s not mocking. Except in the case of movies like Driving Miss Daisy.
Were there any films you were dying to use but couldn’t?
We really wanted to do Back to the Future. In fact it’s secretly one of my favorite movies ever. It’s a really good example of a broad comedy with a smart franchise. But I always got really offended when they had a little white guy explaining to a black dude how to play rock and roll. I wanted to reverse that. I wanted to have Mos Def explaining it to Jack Black! I also thought about Sweding a French New Wave movie in black-and-white, and having Mos Def and Jack Black pretend to speak French, you know— [mumbling] huhbuhdubudieu — with the subtitles painted on a piece of glass in front of them. I had many ideas, but we didn’t have time to use them all.
It’s almost limitless what you could have done…
Oh yeah, yeah. Maybe they could have gone to the all-porno section! But we decided to keep it somewhat limited.
You ended up shooting in Passaic, New Jersey. What was that like?
The mechanic in the movie is actually a mechanic who’d been working with me, and the junkyard body shop is the place he works. There’s a power plant just behind it. That was perfect because at the time I was not sure how Jack Black’s character would get magnetized, and the guy who was running the place complained about how the power plant was making him lose his hair and giving him headaches. The people who lived nearby were extremely friendly, and it seemed like quite a peaceful place, though it really felt like poverty, like they were living in quite limited conditions. We tried to include the people living there as much as we could. In the end, those are the kids you see watching the movies. And to me, the reason why they have this very genuine expression of pride and happiness on their faces is that they’d seen us shooting this movie that didn’t make sense at the time, and once it was all put together, it was really fun to watch. That’s one way I applied my theory about the movie, this concept that people would enjoy films better if they shot them themselves.
So, your next film is an animated feature that you’re creating with your son. What kinds of things does he draw?
He draws comic books, he does paintings. He’s very skilled and very distorted. He grew up with a lot of freedom to decide what he wanted to watch on TV. I sort of gave up on trying to channel his influences, so he has a lot of ways to express violence and sex. He’s 16 years old, and his drawings can be pretty scary. He did the video for [the band] the Willowz based completely on this comic book he did based on the relationship between a dictator and a rebel, in a world where energy is made from hair and everyone is bald. We decided to take the next step and make it into a feature film. Dan Clowes is writing the screenplay, and we have the story line already. The goal for me is to try to integrate the dynamic between my son and myself and reflect it in the dynamic between the dictator and the rebel — my son is the dictator, and I’m being the rebel. It’s going to be a little wild.
What was the most shocking thing your son's shown you?
Oh, his drawings? I can’t say it! It’s… inappropriate. Sodomy, sex. There are Nazis, Hasidic Jews, skinheads in his world, and they cut each others throats. The movie will not be so extreme. —Sara Cardace
Related: How I Made It: Michel Gondry [NYM]
Hear from the cast of Be Kind Rewind at our complete coverage of the New York premiere. [NYM]
Anna might want to trade that water for a good
stiff one.Photo: AFP/Getty Images
This has provoked a backlash amongst Italian designers, with Roberto Cavalli telling reporters backstage before his Just Cavalli show that "If we [Italian designers] pull our advertising, editors are sure to be less in a hurry to leave Milan" — referring to the expensive adverts placed by the Italian labels in American glossy magazines, money on which those magazines depend.Referring to Wintour, Cavalli is reported to have said: "I don't need her in my front row."
Now that is a bold statement indeed! Gauntlet dropped. And Vogue didn't exactly feature any items by Cavalli in this month's issue either. Young designers in Milan, however, had difficulty attracting editors to their shows as the schedule was compressed from seven to four days. So Wintour gets what she wants for Milan, effectively, and, um, no one's happy?
Anna, we wish you luck in Paris.
Fashion's fat cats get their claws out [Guardian]
If Anna Wintour were a superhero, what would she be? [LAT]
Earlier: Armani Talks Smack About Anna Wintour in Her Presence! [The Cut]
Conflicted: Jamie Johnson is caught in an inner war over what
self-image to convey.Photo: Patrick McMullan
Indeed, the Times admits that they kind of love it when rich people sound dumb.
Mr. Johnson triumphs when he titillates. Although he sits down to speak seriously about economic inequity with the likes of Ralph Nader and the former labor secretary Robert B. Reich, he reaches the heights of his reportorial talent extracting offensive expressions of cluelessness and self-satisfaction from the moneyed and powerful. Here is the Kinko’s founder Paul Orfalea on why he wouldn’t mind getting even richer: “Well, one day I’d like to go to the Moon and look at the planet Earth and say, ‘Wow, there’s part of my portfolio.’ ” The Michael Moore fantasy just keeps going. Here is Mr. Orfalea talking about his random acts of charity: “I don’t usually give homeless folks money. Unless a homeless person is playing music or trying to better themselves, selling pencils or doing something, I generally don’t do much.”
And, they say, Johnson himself is called "an arrogant trustifarian" at one point by his dad's asset manager. This really has the makings of movie gold, if only because Johnson's interior conflict (graphically represented above) will play out before your very eyes. A documentarian who is self-loathing and self-congratulatory at the same time? Someone call Michael Moore, Jamie's stealing his moves.
The One Percent [NYT]
Jamie Johnson on 'The One Percent' [Forbes]
Earlier: Jamie Johnson: The Superrich Are Totally Psyched About Recessions
These girls are not "size 0": from left, Silvia Peretzki, Myriam Wiedemann, and Selena Breed.Photo: Courtesy of Quintessentially Models
Well, let's put things in perspective: These are commercial companies rather than the high-fashion labels that employ the scary-thin girls. After all, not many people complain that the girl in the Nivea commercial looks like she's dying, right? Which makes sense because you don't really want to buy skin cream from someone who isn't radiant and full-cheeked.
We checked out to see if the models really appear healthy on the Quintessentially Models Website, and though they don't look shockingly thin, they're still very thin. Many have 24-inch waists and 34- or 35-inch hips, which is not much different from the girls at any other agency. However, Quintessentially kindly lists the models' body mass indexes, which at an average of 18 are about half a point under the definition of "healthy." So maybe they're not a "size 0" — whatever that means anyway — but they're a size 1 or 2. However, if baby steps are all we've got, we'll take 'em. Here's hoping these girls book Prada.
All Bod Cons [Style.com]
Photo: Getty Images
"We used to get compared to Fall Out Boy, and I don't think that's accurate at all, and I would say the Beatles comparison is more accurate." —Panic at the Disco's Jon Walker [MTV]
"I need to make a call and see if there's any real scuttlebutt about this — I would love nothing better; I'm a huge fan." —Ed Begley Jr. on the rumors of an Arrested Development movie [Gothamist]
"Flav is not engaged. It's true he's on his eighth child but, as he's said in the past, he'd like 10. So there's two more to go." —a VH1 spokesperson on whether Flavor Flav's heart will really be into the third season of Flavor of Love [San Francisco Chronicle]
"I think it's because I have stringy hair." —Amy Ryan on always being cast as the "put-upon wife" [A.V. Club]
"Michael Stipe saw us at a festival last year and he asked Arcade Fire if we were nice guys and they gave us an endorsement as being nice, normal guys." —The National's Matt Berninger on how they scored a job opening for REM [Gothamist]
Steven Sater and Duncan Sheik at last night's event.Photo: WireImage
If fans of the preeminent nineties rock musical Rent are Rent-heads, are fans of the preeminent rock musical of the aughts, Spring Awakening, uh, Spring-heads? Whatever they're called, a pack of them showed up at Symphony Space last night for a Songwriters Hall of Fame discussion-cum-mini-concert with the show's creators, composer Duncan Sheik and lyricist-bookwriter Steven Sater. Sater and Sheik, two Buddhists who've been writing music together for nearly a decade and presented a nice yin-yang of effusive emotion (Sater) and cool irony (Sheik), talked a bit about their upcoming projects, like The Nightingale, a chamber-musicalization of the Hans Christian Andersen tale of a Chinese emperor who pines for the heart-piercing melodies of aforementioned bird. "There's no distorted guitar in it," Sheik said backstage, adding, "We're not following up Spring Awakening with another youth-rock musical." (That much was apparent when Sheik & Co. performed the plaintive "Song of the Human Heart" from the show, which they said might have a private showing at New York Theater Workshop in April.) They're also working on a musical about Nero, which, remarked Sater, "Duncan says makes Spring Awakening look like The Wedding Singer," and which may have a small preliminary run in New York this fall.
But they also talked a great deal about S.A.: how a movie deal is in the works, how they wrote endless finales before going with "Song of Purple Summer," how Björk's film Dancer in the Dark showed Sheik that a musical didn't have to be cheesy and all ta-da!, and how Sater came home and wrote the show's opener, "Momma Who Bore Me," after the duo saw the 2002 Lincoln Center Porgy and Bess together. And if you thought the lushly angsty show ends on an uplifting note, with not all its nineteenth-century German teens dying of suicide or botched abortion, think again: "The kids who survived grow up to be the parents of the Nazis," noted Sater. Springtime Awakening for Hitler? —Tim Murphy
MEDIA
• What is the New York Police Department's policy for awarding press credentials? Journalists wonder the same thing. [NYT]
• Time managing editor Rick Stengel ponders why newspapers endorse political candidates at a time when news consumers doubt the objectivity of the media. [Time]
• Details of the deal that Newsweek struck with George W. Bush's former brain have emerged: It's a two-year, sixteen-column contract. [NYO]
FINANCE
• It's a trifecta to be reckoned with: Google, George Soros, and Pierre Omidyar band together to invest in businesses in India. [DealBook/NYT]
• Is the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States seeing red flags after a Chinese-government fund invested in Blackstone and Morgan Stanley? [DealBook/NYT]
• Not everyone is bummed out by the current economic climate. Restructuring firms like New York's Alvarez & Marsal live for situations like the credit crunch. [Fortune]
LAW
• A judge ruled that the deliverymen who had been fired from the Upper West Side and Greenwich Village Saigon Grill eateries must be reinstated. This is good news for those who like to speed dial for Bun Xao and La Sa Tom. [NYT]
• New York City will pay a $6.5 million settlement to a man who lost part of his leg in the October 2003 Staten Island ferry crash. [NYDN]
• A Bronx landlord receives nine days in jail and a $156,000 fine for failing to correct more than 2,000 housing code violations — at one property. [NYO]
We've got documented port-a-potty usage, people. Photo: Everett Bogue
Work resumes on lower floors of Trump SoHo condo after fatal fall [Newsday]
Related: Intel's coverage of the accident at Trump SoHo
Courtesy of NBC
Have crazy fans rescued yet another critically loved, ratings-deficient series from the jaws of cancellation? Maybe! Following the success of Jericho fans' nut-mailing campaign, Variety is reporting that NBC is currently in talks to bring Friday Night Lights back for another season, almost certainly owing exclusively to Best Week Ever's brave crusade to send Ben Silverman envelopes full of broken glass. Apparently NBC is looking to share Lights with another network — possibly TNT or the CW — in the same way that it's sharing Law & Order: Criminal Intent with USA this season (episodes air first on USA, then a few months later on NBC).
So, as yet another network (probably) topples under the pressure of a hastily assembled save-our-show campaign, we're still waiting to hear back about our crusade, the one to save Cavemen. Given all recent successes, we're pretty sure ABC will renew it, just as soon as they figure out what to do with all the envelopes full of hair.
'Lights' may shine on other networks [Variety]
Earlier: ‘Friday Night Lights’ Fans So Angry at Ben Silverman They're Sending Him Envelopes Full of Broken Glass
Vulture's Crusade to Save Cavemen
The store has been getting shipments since January, so our minimal-concentration math tells us probably around fifteen people have actually received their goodies from the midtown Prada store so far. And a few of those could have been foreigners, which adds up to a very small number of people walking around the city with Prada fairies dangling off their shoulders. If you want to be that person within the next couple of months, get thee to Prada and give them your credit-card imprint. Yes, you actually have to go in person, no phoning it in. Godspeed, girls.
For more bags at all price ranges check out Shop-A-Matic.
Courtesy of AMPAS
Winning your Oscar pool isn't just about picking the obvious front-runners in the major categories. It's about getting lucky in the minor categories! Vulture continues our Oscar picks, this time focusing on the screenwriters, sound editors, and foreign people with funny accents whose moments of professional triumph will be brutally cut short by Gil Cates and his itchy-trigger-fingered orchestra.
Earlier: Oscar Predictions: The Major Categories
Best Original Screenplay
Diablo Cody, Juno
Nancy Oliver, Lars and the Real Girl
Tony Gilroy, Michael Clayton
Brad Bird et al, Ratatouille
Tamara Jenkins, The Savages
Hey, did you hear Diablo Cody used to be a stripper?
Best Adapted Screenplay
Christopher Hampton, Atonement
Sarah Polley, Away From Her
Ronald Harwood, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Joel and Ethan Coen, No Country for Old Men
Paul Thomas Anderson, There Will Be Blood
We could see the Academy hedging its bets by rewarding possible future classic There Will Be Blood here, but it's hard to argue against the Coens.
Best Animated Feature
Persepolis
Ratatouille
Surf's Up
It turns out that the 2007 film that best combined critical acclaim and box-office success was an animated film. What does the Academy do? Stick it in the ghetto! We can guarantee that Ratatouille will win, though.
Best Art Direction
American Gangster
Atonement
The Golden Compass
Sweeney Todd
There Will Be Blood
This category usually rewards gritty over pretty, but it loves it when a movie mixes both — so we'll pick Atonement's prewar and wartime London over Sweeney's rivers of blood.
Best Cinematography
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
The Academy might reward seven-time nominee Roger Deakins with his first statue, but for which film? He shot both No Country and Jesse James. Instead, we think Janusz Kaminski will take the prize as a de facto award for Julian Schnabel's visual verve in The Diving Bell and the Butterfly.
Best Costume Design
Across the Universe
Atonement
Elizabeth: The Golden Age
La Vie en Rose
Sweeney Todd
Which movie has the most outlandish, over-the-top costumes? Elizabeth: The Golden Age, so it's a good bet to win.
Best Documentary Feature
No End in Sight
Operation Homecoming: Writing the Wartime Experience
Sicko
Taxi to the Dark Side
War/Dance
Pick your poison: war (in Iraq), war (in Afghanistan and Iraq), war (in Afghanistan), war (in Uganda), or Michael Moore. We pick the one whose director gave us an interview first, No End in Sight.
Best Documentary Short
Freeheld
La Corona (The Crown)
Salim Baba
Sari's Mother
Freeheld's subject — a New Jersey cop's valiant struggle to transfer her pension to her domestic partner, even as she fought terminal cancer — is poignant and irresistible.
Best Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Diving Bell and the Butterfly
Into the Wild
No Country for Old Men
There Will Be Blood
The Bourne Ultimatum's frenetic chopping will be edged out by No Country for Old Men's deliberate, well-paced cut — finally rewarding imaginary octogenarian Roderick Jaynes.
Best Foreign Language Film
Beaufort (Israel)
The Counterfeiters (Austria)
Katyn (Poland)
Mongol (Kazakhstan)
12 (Russia)
Who cares? It's not 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days, and it's not Persepolis. Um, why not The Counterfeiters? It's about the Holocaust.
Best Makeup
La Vie en Rose
Norbit
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
We give the edge to the flashy character makeup of Pirates of the Caribbean rather than the delicate work in La Vie en Rose, but we hope Norbit takes the gold — because we love the idea of Norbit DVD cases getting slapped with a big, fat ACADEMY AWARD WINNER! sticker.
Best Score
Dario Marianelli, Atonement
Alberto Iglesias, The Kite Runner
James Newton Howard, Michael Clayton
Michael Giacchino, Ratatouille
Marco Beltrami, 3:10 to Yuma
The Ratatouille score is the most delightful of any of these, but we're willing to bet the Academy will fall for Marianelli's gimmicky clacking typewriters in Atonement.
Best Original Song
"Falling Slowly" (Once)
"Happy Working Song" (Enchanted)
"Raise It Up" (August Rush)
"So Close" (Enchanted)
"That's How You Know" (Enchanted)
Here's one of the few categories where we'll vote with our heart. The songs in Enchanted were all charming, but here's hoping they split (as did Dreamgirls' trio of nominees last year) and leave the prize for "Falling Slowly."
Best Animated Short
I Met the Walrus
Madame Tutli-Putli
Even Pigeons Go to Heaven
My Love
Peter and the Wolf
I Met the Walrus, based on a 14-year-old's audiotape interview with John Lennon, is cooler than all the other nominees put together. Nevertheless, we're picking it to win.
Best Live Action Short
At Night
The Substitute
The Mozart of Pickpockets
Tanghi Argentini
The Tonto Woman
We're inclined to go with the delicate drama of At Night over the song-and-dance of Tanghi Argentini, although when we type that out now it seems stupid.
Best Sound Editing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
There Will Be Blood
Transformers
In the sound categories, the big question is this: Will the Academy reward subtlety over bombast? Daniel Day-Lewis's assured win — and every sound Oscar ever awarded — suggests not, but so much has been written about No Country for Old Men's incredible sound design that we think it has a real shot at the sound sweep.
Best Sound Mixing
The Bourne Ultimatum
No Country for Old Men
Ratatouille
3:10 to Yuma
Transformers
Miramax's plan to put No Country for Old Men's technical staff out there for Q&As with Academy members might really pay off in the sound categories as well.
Best Visual Effects
The Golden Compass
Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End
Transformers
Because we hold a grudge against how badly the daemons were handled in The Golden Compass, we're picking Transformers — and you can never go wrong picking the big, stupid hit in any Oscar race.
This frock, while totally covetable, probably won't
change anyone's world.Photo: Getty
• Suzy Menkes, on the other hand, calls Giannini "cliché" but finds her fall collection "covetable" and luxurious. [IHT]
• Scientists have devised a material that can mend itself when broken. This means we could soon have artificial bone cartilage, bouncy glass that won't break, and, most important, SELF-MENDING STOCKINGS! [Times Online]
• A poll assessing the overall appearance of Oscar-nominated actresses ranks Ellen Page tops in the Best Actress category and Ruby Dee as the front-runner for Best Supporting Actress. So, you know, screw talent — because we all know this is the kind of success that truly matters in Hollywood. [WWD]
• Shampoo is going out of style. Dirtier hair holds styles like trendy beehives and waves better than clean hair, so fewer stylish young women are washing daily. [NYT]
• A Muji flagship is opening in midtown this spring. [Racked]
• Lost star Marsh Thomason picked a fight with Victoria Gotti in Vegas because of her waist-length fur coat. [NYP]
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