Absolut!

April 11, 2008

Contact: ALIPAC, press@alipac.us, (866) 703-0864

History was made today when American made SKYY Vodka sent out a press
release proudly supporting the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and
criticizing Absolut for their offensive advertising in Mexico.

"This is the first time we have ever seen an American brand stand up,
recognize, and support US Sovereignty against an import that is
pandering to illegal immigration supporters," said William Gheen of ALIPAC. "We
want to thank SKYY Vodka for showing themselves as a patriotic and top
shelf alternative to Absolut."

The National Illegal Immigration Boycott Coalition (NIIBC) plans to
incorporate the news from SKYY Vodka into their boycott website at
www.boycottabsolut.com All coalition groups will be encouraged to share this
historic news.

All boycott supporters will now be encouraged to try SKYY Vodka, as a
show of thanks to the American brand for standing up for Americans!

"I like SKYY Vodka!", said William Gheen. "It is great to be able to
have an occasional martini without contributing to a Global corporation,
like Absolut, that is encouraging the invasion of my nation."

###

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:50 pm

Folkie Josh Ritter and Violinist Hilary Hahn Discuss Their Collaboration, Intense Fear of Sandwiches

Hilary Hahn and Josh Ritter seem like a musical odd couple — she’s a violin prodigy who’s grown into one of the world’s foremost classical soloists, he's a scruffy folk singer compared to Dylan and known for his epic, literary-leaning songs. But the two happened upon each other and they’ve since teamed up as an act, performing together at the Metropolitan Museum of Art Saturday. The pair spoke to Vulture about their lives on the road, sandwiches, and finding a common ground between a Grammy-winning violinist and guitar-toting folkster.

So how did you two first meet?
Ritter: My parents and Hillary’s aunt have been friends for a really long time. They work together on neuroscientific things.

Hahn: It’s funny because we don’t have musical families at all. We’re both kind of freaks in our families.

Ritter: You should see the neuroscientist groupies…

Have you found your on-the-road experiences are similar?
Ritter: Ooh yeah, the groupies, and the drugs…

Hahn: [laughing] Well, you certainly have more groupies than I do. I think the rock groupies are maybe a little cooler than the classical groupies? Although classical musicians are kind of all geeks anyway. The people around us match us.

And how would you characterize your live show?
Hahn: When I see Josh perform, I feel like he doesn’t have to win them over. But when I’ve played those venues, I feel like there is a bit of victory in having everyone’s attention.

Ritter: Definitely. It’s asking a lot, but it’s a really fun time. And the audience knows that at the end of every concert money falls from the ceiling and there’s a big hot tub. I think that’s been key to our success up to this point.

Josh, did you have much experience in classical music before this project?
Ritter: I played violin for a long time, but I wasn’t good at it. I did like playing it, but there was never a moment when it became a personal thing. Like any music I listen to, it could have been written by aliens who beamed it down. I’m from a small town in Idaho. We had Travis Tritt and Billy Ray Cyrus.

So has this made you two see similarities between the classical and rock worlds?
Ritter: I imagine, somewhat like Hilary, I never really put classical in a different category … the word “classical” is such an amorphous thing.

Hahn: And inaccurate anyway.

Ritter: Mostly, getting deep into some of the music I worked on for these shows, or listening to things Hilary has given me … for instance I’ve gotten a huge respect for Schubert. When you really start to spend time with his writing, you realize what a genius of simplicity it is.

Hahn: With Josh, he kind of takes me back to the roots of performing. Every time he performs, there’s this feeling of contagious joy in the room, and that’s really rare.

Last summer you traveled to a lot of different festivals together. How was that?
Hahn: We stayed at a Swiss chalet in Verbier!

Ritter: The ones in Ohio were nice too, but the one in Verbier, the mountains were a little higher. None of my luggage showed up, so I wore all Hillary’s dresses.

Hahn: Oh, no, you didn’t. I wouldn’t even let you borrow my shampoo.

Ritter: I remember we got off the plane in Ohio and the person waiting for us there had chocolate. I’m used to showing up at dingy places at three in the afternoon that smell like beer, where they’re sweeping up and someone in the ticket area is having a meltdown and there are some sandwiches and beer backstage.

Hahn: There’s a sandwich in front of us right now.

Ritter: If there’s one thing I think I could deal with the rest of my life, it would be not seeing sandwiches. —Rebecca Milzoff

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:45 pm

All Comedy Is Theft

Back in June of 2005, Richard Rys of Philadelphia magazine* did a funny little Q&A with Adam McKay, a good friend of 30 Rock's Tina Fey (they were in Second City together, and McKay hired her on Saturday Night Live) and the creator of Will Ferrell vehicles Talledega Nights and Anchorman. Rys mentioned that he'd heard that Talledega Nights had been pitched in six words: "Will Ferrell as a NASCAR driver" and comes up with a few short pitches to run by McKay. One of them was apparently really good!

EI: I've got a few pitches to run by you. Feel free to move on these.
AM: I've got two lines on the phone, so if one's really cooking, I'm going to make it happen.
EI: Will Ferrell as an easy-listening DJ whose station flips to urban format.
AM: [laughs] There's a restaurant called Earth, Wind and Flower. We used to joke that that's a movie pitch, and that's what this movie would be called. You could actually sell that idea.
EI: That's kinda sad.
AM: It is. You could sell that. In fact, someone's going to read this and go, "I will buy that idea."
EI: Well, on the record, they need to talk to both of us first.
AM: God bless you.
EI: Will Ferrell as the Mr. Roarke figure in a new reality show called MILF Lagoon.
AM: Where did this word "MILF" come from?
EI: Um, since this interview is unrated, I guess I can just say it means a "Mom I'd like to [have relations with]."
AM: I think it does. "Mom I'd like to [have relations with]." I like the first idea. The first one's actually working.
EI: I'll have my people, which is me, talk to your people.

Probably a total coincidence but still. Look out for Earth, Wind and Flower, coming soon to a multiplex near you!

Exit Interview: Adam McKay [Philadelphia Magazine]

Related: So, How Long Before Ben Silverman Green-lights ‘MILF Island’? [Vulture]

*Where one-half on Intel once worked.

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:45 pm

The Dollar Sucks, We Can't Shop — So the British Are Coming!

You know how Soho sounds even more Euro these days, with dozens of different languages and accents? Well, that's what our oh-so-frail dollar sounds like as Europeans flock over to take advantage of their fortified Euros and British pounds. The British make up the largest group of Western European visitors; with their low airfares and pounds valued at more than $2, our fair city is essentially "on sale" for them. So many British are coming they now make up this city's No. 1 international market after Canada. (And so our country, after decades of "America, Junior" jokes, hangs its collective head in shame.)

According to the Guardian, 92 percent of British visitors said they came to New York for shopping, while only 69 percent claimed they'd do any sightseeing. Hadley Freeman notes, "You can't bring back the Empire State building, right?" Oh, rub it in! But seriously, it's a good thing the Brits are keeping our economic wheels greased because Lord knows we can't afford to. As long as cafés don't start replacing butter with coddled cream to cater to our new foreign friends, may they come and spend their pounds like they're going out of style. As long as someone's still shopping in Prada's Soho store — we'd hate to see that Brazilian zebrawood floor go to waste.

Underpriced and over there [Guardian]

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:20 pm

Photographer Laura Letinsky Fails to Clean Her Plate

Laura Letinsky has made a career of photographing elegant undone tables, always suggesting decadent meals shared, perhaps, between ballerinas. Letinsky, along with Alec Soth and Binh Danh, is among the handful of contemporary photographers at the AIPAD Photography Show showcasing new, less new (a.k.a. modern), and nineteenth-century fine-art photography this weekend at the Park Avenue Armory. —Emma Pearse

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:15 pm

Geraldine Brooks

Australian Pulitzer prize-winning writer Geraldine Brooks, seen here in MArch 2008, admits her latest book, with its drunken priest, gambling rabbi and Muslim librarian, is "rather like the set-up of a...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:09 pm

Estranged Wife of Schubert Organization Chief Delivers Quite a Monologue

Meet Tricia Walsh Smith. She's the British actress-playwright wife of Schubert Organization president Philip J. Smith. The pair are getting a divorce, and, since Tricia signed a pre-nup when they got married, she feels like she's losing everything. (In the video, she says she's getting summarily kicked out of their giant Manhattan apartment, but since Cindy Adams wrote about the nasty split last August, we're wondering how she didn't see it coming.) So what did Tricia do? She made a YouTube video, with low-to-medium production values, but high emotional intensity. In it, she claims, "We never had sex. He said he had high blood pressure and he was old, and I accepted that. Then, last year, when we went through all of this I found Viagra, porn movies, and condoms." Then she calls the Broadway titan's office to ask his assistant what to do with said sex material. And then she shows off her wedding pictures, which feature Elaine Stritch. The theater gossipmongers who found the clip over at All That Chat are a little torn as to whether to gleefully dissect it, as Phil Smith is well-liked in the industry. But we think Tricia speaks for herself well enough in this clip. It's not pretty, we warn you.

Related: Real-life Broadway Tragedy [NYP]

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 8:00 pm

Tim Kring–Dale Peck Novel Not the Weirdest Literary Collaboration of All Time

Yesterday's announcement of Heroes creator Tim Kring's $3 million novelistic collaboration with former literary critic Dale Peck is about the strangest we've heard in some time, but it's hardly the first eye-opening intersection between Hollywood and the literati. Take Digby Diehl, who founded the Los Angeles Times Book Review in 1969: Decades of moving through the entertainment industry as an editor and reporter culminated a few years back by…co-writing a novel with soap-opera star Finola Hughes. Or Chuck Hogan, the Hammett Award–winning writer of gritty, Boston-based crime novels, putting the finishing touches on a horror novel with Pan's Labyrinth director Guillermo del Toro. (The project is supposed to be secret, but agent Richard Abate let the cat out of the bag in court last year in the midst of his winning battle to leave ICM for Endeavor.)

But nothing quite screams head-scratcher like The Adventures of Slim and Howdy, which is being published by Hachette's Center Street imprint next month. The two good ol' boys, whose antics clearly echo those of the The Dukes of Hazzard, are the brainchildren of multimillion-selling country-music stars Brooks & Dunn. Helping them fashion their rabble-rousing characters from liner notes into narrative format is Bill Fitzhugh, whose 1996 debut, Pest Control, is one of the funniest crime novels we've ever read. Is this a recipe for disaster? Not according to Publishers Weekly, which calls Slim & Howdy "a comic caper that has enough plot twists and nutty one-liners to hook even twang-haters." Maybe so, but if this is a trend, hide your shock when Jonathan Franzen makes his long-awaited return to novel writing with co-credits alongside Gnarls Barkley. —Sarah Weinman

The Adventures of Slim and Howdy [Brooks & Dunn]
Related: Wait, WHO Just Sold a ‘Sci-Fi Trilogy’ for $3 Million?

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:50 pm

Ian Fleming

Letters written by James Bond creator Ian Fleming, seen here in the ealy 1960s, to his secretary Jean Frampton were sold Friday for 14,340 pounds (17,860 euros/28,260 dollars) -- nearly five times their...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:39 pm

Those Juice Fasts Are Not Exactly Healthy

Juice fasts are one of the fashion industry's favorite ways to slim down. Except unlike your average diet pill or Slim Fast shake, juice fasts promise to healthfully rid the body of toxins in addition to promoting rapid weight loss. We personally can't imagine lunch without chewing a turkey sandwich and we've always felt a little freaked out by the superiority complex that some juice fasters seem to adopt on their "cleanse." One Elle writer who tried out a five-day juice fast confirms we are not just imagining this:

Within 36 foodless hours, I had developed a sense of otherness and—okay, maybe I was bit delirious—a vague sort of superiority. I was a juice supremacist, an ascetic robot capable of survival, food or no food. Every whiff of emotion, every physical sensation could be correlated to the cleanse: Is this stuff making my hands cold? Is it making me tired? Sad? Irritable? Me! Me! Me! (See where I'm going with this?)

On Thursday, well past a work deadline and desperately in need of a chocolate chip cookie to temper my temper, I pondered food obsessively. Alone on my couch that night, picturing all my solids-eating friends out in the world chewing themselves into oblivion, I allowed myself one of the semisanctioned “cheats” on Blueprint's list: a measly cup of brown rice, which made me feel both absurdly guilty and utterly uncomforted.

People who sell juice fasts insist that "1500 calories of juice is better than 1500 calories of bagels." Doctors, however, disagree. Why? Even though this writer's daily juice regimen consisted of 1700 calories — including an unsettling 10 pounds of kale, spinach, romaine, celery, and cucumber (maybe that's why some of these cost $175 a day?) — she lost six pounds in five days. Doesn't sound healthy, does it? She became so gung-ho about the regimen she decided launch into a ten day plan. Eventually she developed a respiratory infection. And then shingles. Yes, adult chicken pox. “I'm not saying that going on a juice cleanse gave you shingles, but did it give you enough zinc? How about magnesium?” her doctor said. But she was getting rid of toxins! The toxins!

Juice Cleanse [Elle]

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:30 pm

James Bond creator had own 'Moneypenny'

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:29 pm

Matt Taibbi to Erica Jong: ‘I Don't Want to Do My Mother’

One of the blessings of an unpaid-content site with many contributors like the Huffington Post is that its writers often stridently disagree with one another. There are political debates, humorous riffs, and, occasionally (like today), nasty fights. This little scuffle began yesterday when writer and feminist Erica Jong got mad about the way that male journalists describe Hillary Clinton's appearance. She singled out Rolling Stone writer Matt Taibbi as a perpetrator of this crime, as he once described Hillary's arms as "flabby." Jong called this, and other examples like it, "idiotic name-calling, which only reflects badly on the name-caller." (Her eventual point, conversely, is that it actually reflects poorly on all of America.) She also called journalists like him a Momist. "Momism is a kind of Oedipal obsession with the bad mother," she explains, "to counter a boy's attraction to his good mother." Taibbi, for his part, did not let this criticism go unchallenged. "I mean, wow," he writes in a riposte on the same Website today. "And I thought I was a hack."

Calling Jong an "eight-hundred-year-old sex novelist," he argues that he frequently describes male politicos in much less flattering terms, thereby deflating Jong's argument. It's an angry response, worth reading for its comic bitterness and also for the ruthless descriptions of people like Mark Penn, Rudy Giuliani, and Mike Huckabee, he recounts: Penn "looks like Karl Rove, only he's fatter and more disgusting." Giuliani has "the vestigial stoop of a once-chubby kid who grew up hiding tittie pictures from nuns." And Huckabee looks like "an oversize Muppet." Okay, okay, Matt, we get it. But where's the description of Erica Jong? Cop-out!

Misogyny, Momism and Militarism
Erica Jong Thinks I Want to Do My Mother: A Response [HuffPo]

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:20 pm

What's Next From the King of Dangerous-Job Reality Television?

Lost in all the excitement over the mysterious The Office spinoff (which is, for now, titled The Office Spinoff) were two equally tantalizing additions to NBC’s 2008–2009 lineup, announced earlier this week: America’s Toughest Jobs and Shark Taggers, both from producer Thom Beers and his Original Productions.

You may know Beers as the man who’s building a mini-empire based on dangerous-job reality shows, such as Deadliest Catch (about the perils of deep-sea fishing) on Discovery and Ice Road Truckers (about the perils of driving trucks on icy roads) on the History Channel. Back in December, Beers signed an interesting deal with NBC during the writers' strike, which essentially guaranteed him two one-hour blocks of programming a week.

And now he’s delivered: America’s Toughest Jobs will be like Deadliest Catch: The Home Game, in which twelve regular Americans compete while performing the world’s most dangerous occupations, from oil-drilling to logging. Shark Taggers is about, well, people who tag sharks; specifically, marine biologists studying shark attacks (cool!) and migration patterns (okay!). We’re not sure this is actually a dangerous job, but tagging sharks certainly sounds dangerous. And Beers has an undeniable talent for wringing maximum drama from America’s occupations, as evidenced by Lobster Wars, a series in production for Discovery about lobster-fishing off the coast of New England, and Verminators (also for Discovery), which follows an “elite team of pest busters to the front lines of their never-ending battle against infestations of all kinds.”

Personally, we’ll be rooting for all these shows, especially because, if Shark Taggers is a hit, it should clear the way (Brushcutters! Coming in 2010 from NBC!) for future Beers-NBC collaborations, such as Hornet-Nest Jostlers (“nature’s deadliest buzz”); Lawn Jockeys (“tackling America’s unsightliest yards — while riding just inches above three spinning blades of death”); and Grizzly-Bear Barbers (Short, back and sides? Or death?). —Adam Sternbergh

NBC Pilot Watch: 2008 - 2009 [Variety]

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 7:20 pm

Kanye Blogs: Mama Knows Best

You can't keep a good mama's boy down. Nearly five months to the day since his mother's death, Kanye West paid tribute to the late Donda West in a posting on his blog Wednesday, crediting...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:55 pm

Too-Small Lacroix Loaner Gets Passed Around

The socialites were out in full-on spring garb again — and we're starting to truly believe that it is, in fact, spring — at the party celebrating the opening of the new Christian Lacroix store last night. We shared a very candid moment with Debbie Bancroft, who wound up in a "mumu"-style number because the dress Lacroix had initially sent didn't quite fit. "Lacroix sent me something to wear and I said maybe it would have fit my thigh," she said. "I made my eleven year old daughter try it on, and it fit her!" Bancroft might not be the only one who didn't fit into the garment. "I actually saw another name crossed out on the label. I think the dress got passed around a little before it got sent to me," she said. "You know Somers Farkas? I mean she even told me that she had a hard time zipping it up, and she probably weighs 100lbs and she’s 5’10”." Then Farkas herself, clad in the thigh-sized number walked by, and Bancroft lowered her voice. "She’s peeking out of her dress a little bit," she said. "I feel much better now — I'm having more fun and I love my food!" If any other socialites need to vent do give us a ring. — Katie Goldsmith

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:52 pm

Philip Roth: The Friars Club Roast

This Friday, Columbia University celebrates the 75th birthday of Philip Roth. And even though we're planning on being there that afternoon to hear Nathan Englander, Hermoine Lee, Jonathan Lethem, and many others toast someone who is arguably America's greatest living writer, we can't help but wish that another august institution — one just as appropriate to Roth's status as the grand dirty old man of letters — had taken charge of roasting Philip Roth: The Friars Club. Oh, to be a fly on that wall… —Sarah Weinman

Gilbert Gottfried: Good evening, everybody! We're here to wish a very happy birthday to Philip Roth: The man who put the putz in the Pulitzer, the number-one author in the Library of Cockgress. As a tit man myself, I will always be grateful to Philip Roth for writing an entire book about a giant breast. Jesus, Phil! My superego masturbates to that book! And we can thank Phil for this, too: After reading Portnoy's Complaint, millions of readers learned the joys of fucking a bologna. Now, every time you buy a bologna in the grocery store, you have to think to yourself: Whose dick was in this bologna? Am I right? Anyways, we've got a number of fine guests tonight, but let's start things off with one of Philip's favorite ladies (and second ex-wife)…Claire Bloom!

Claire Bloom: I know, you're surprised to see me here. I'm surprised to be here! But when my good friend Gilbert called me and said, "Come on over and let's tear Phil a new one," I couldn't resist. My relationship with Philip was…shall we say, difficult. I suppose I should have known what was in store when, after he kicked my opera-singing daughter, Anna, out of the house, her favorite role was…Elektra. And then we break up, and he writes a supposed piece of fiction depicting him as a philandering wild man and me as dull and middle-aged! I slept with Laurence Olivier, Rod Steiger, and Richard Burton. But now that we've traded revenge — me with my memoir, he with I Married a Communist — there's hardly any ill will between us. I wouldn't even dream of pointing out that Philip's been reduced to cybersex and ruminations on his poorly functioning penis.

Gottfried: Oooh! I think it's time for Claire to write another memoir. She could call it Indignation! Oh, wait…it's time for our next speaker? Sure, introducing…John Updike!

John Updike: At the rate he's going, it's not a question of whether Philip is more prolific than I am…but whether he'll outpace Joyce Carol Oates! But I feel like this would be the place to let you all in on a little secret. Back in the early seventies, Norman Mailer, Saul Bellow, Roth, and I got together at my house in Connecticut and made a wager: whoever pissed off the most people would collect a year's royalties from the other two. I thought Mailer was a shoo-in with the fracas with NOW, and for a while Bellow seemed to be the front-runner, but, Philip, you've managed to infuriate Jews and women for several decades running. But I know it must be tough going to know Doris Lessing got her Nobel Prize before you did.

Gottfried: Ouch, there's a real sting in that tail! And I don't mean the kind you chase. Heh, heh. Which reminds me, Mia Farrow couldn't be here, but she told me that she knew her relationship with Philip was over when American Pastoral sounded too much like Annie Hall. Finally, to wrap up this roast, who better to hear from than Roth's most famous alter ego? That would be…David Kepesh… No, Philip Roth… No, E.I. Lonoff… Hey, you, in the back, that was a very unfunny joke about Margaret B. Jones! Why, it's Nathan Zuckerman!

Nathan Zuckerman: Oh, the stories I could tell you about living in Philip Roth's brain. Both of them! It's hard work waiting every year for a phone call from the Nobel Prize guys. Or crying out for a chair because he has the temerity to fuck — I mean, to write — standing up. But it's funny: Here's this big stage, this big chance for me to toast my creator, and I've got nothin'. Well, that's not true, I have this: So, last week, Philip walks into Andrew Wylie's office on 57th Street all excited. I've never seen him so giddy. He has a new idea for a book. Of course, Wylie's interested — Roth could write a grocery list, and it would sell around the world for millions — but he's also curious, because he's never seen Philip light up this way. "So, what's the idea here?" Wylie asks.

"It's the culmination of my career," Philip crows, "a 900-page polemic told from the point of view of Zuckerman, Kepesh, Lonoff, a penis, a vagina, two breasts — one real, one silicone — everyone I've ever written about — even the bologna gets a few pages. It ends with a 150-page orgy in which every character is slowly replaced by me, until it ends with two dozen naked Roths sitting around grousing about their limp dicks." So Wylie nods, right?

"Interesting. Very interesting. I sent out a couple of e-mails while you were talking, and the auction's already on. So what's it called, Philip?"

And my creator says, "I call it The Aristocrats!"

Gottfried: Woah, nice one! Okay, dinner's being served. Everyone tuck into your food — no bologna today! — and we'll be back after a break with Tom Wolfe, Carlos Mencia, and the ghost of Saul Bellow.

Philip Roth's 75th Birthday Tribute [Library of America]

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:45 pm

De-Throned Beauty Queen Sues 'Racist' Cali

Christina Silva claims she didn't get to keep the crown because she's Hispanic.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:41 pm

Liv Tyler May Be Leaving New York!

Will Liv Tyler follow in the footsteps of fellow celebrity baby mamas Maggie Gyllenhaal and Keri Russell and abandon Manhattan for Brooklyn? Hello! magazine seems to think so: This past weekend, the U.K. tabloid reported that West Village residents Liv, Royston Langdon, and their son, Milo, went and checked out a Brooklyn Heights townhouse, one that Brownstoner reported they have looked at several times before. But perhaps now they are feeling a yen for clean air and wide-open spaces. Perhaps they, as Maggie told us, feel like "New York City more and more doesn’t feel like somewhere you should live." Perhaps they are just moving to be trendy and don't care that this terrible process of celebrities moving to Brooklyn will probably eventually force innocent bloggers farther and farther into the outer boroughs and maybe even back to fucking Philadelphia. One thing is sure: They're probably not considering moving across the bridge just because of rising prices in Manhattan. The coveted townhouse, 140 Columbia Heights, has been reported to be the most expensive in the neighborhood.

Liv Tyler takes her boys house-hunting in New York's Brooklyn [Hello! via Brownstoner]

Earlier: Maggie Gyllenhaal Is Glad She Doesn't Live in 'New York' Anymore

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:30 pm

James Cameron Knows Exactly How to Improve ‘Atonement’

"Every time I watch a movie lately, from 300 to Atonement, I think how wonderful it would have been if shot in 3-D." —James Cameron [Variety]

"We both like naked guys. Naked guys crying hard is the key to great comedy." —director Nicholas Stoller on Jason Segel and Forgetting Sarah Marshall [Coming Soon]

"I was playing a game with the camera guys: Guess What's Inside Me. 'Yes, there is Cheez Whiz inside me. Toll House cookies? Yes. Salami? Yes.'" —Tina Fey [EW]

"Any pregnancy that the character has will be on the schedule that the character needs to have it be on. And apparently it's not that hard to remove the pregnancy digitally. You would not believe the technology — the CGI stuff has come down in price. We could make Dwight pregnant if we needed to with CGI. Or a pillow." — Greg Daniels, executive producer of The Office, on actress Angela Kinsey's pregnancy [Hollywood Insider]

"For me, [Big Boi's music] sounds like Shostakovich, Stravinsky a little…just today's Stravinsky." —Atlanta Ballet's Lauri Stallings on the company's collaboration with Antwan "Big Boi" Patton [CNN]

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 6:20 pm

Francisco de Goya's 'The second of May, 1808' before (bottom) and after restoration.

Two newly restored paintings by Francisco Goya, including 'The second of May, 1808' seen here before (bottom) and after, are the highlight of a new exhibition entitled "Goya in Times of War" that opens...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:54 pm

Muffie Potter Aston Had the Best Prom Date Ever

It is generally recognized that when it comes to awesome socialite names, Muffie Potter Aston wins the grand prize. And as far as glamour goes, Muffie's big blonde hair and big jewels set her high in the social firmament. But Muffie is not just a lady with a name — she's a lady with a sense of humor about herself. Which is why she told us this priceless gem about her childhood last night, while we were at the Christian Lacroix store party. We happened to have just asked her about her prom, because let's be honest, it must have been tragilarious. And it was!

I went to an all-girls school, so prom season for all of the girls was a very, very nerve-wracking experience — who was going to be asked, who wasn't going to be asked. If you got asked, what were you going to wear? Did you look fat? Did you look skinny? The whole nine yards. Was he cute? Was he not cute? I am SO glad I am not in high school anymore … I went to one prom with one guy named Bob Veith, and then, God, this is embarrassing. One of my dates' names to one of the proms was Muff Jones. You can only imagine with Muff and Muffie. I can't believe I even remember that.

It's okay if you just blacked out. We did for a moment, when she said it. Not only is this universe so spectacular that a teenager named "Muff Jones" once existed, but he actually managed to find pretty, young Muffie Potter and ask her to the prom. Bless you, Muffie, and all of the Muffs out there in the world. You make life worth living. —Blythe Sheldon

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:45 pm

Gnarls Barkley Play That Song, Plus Several Others

The erratic weather on 16th Street continued last night; after Wednesday's Rihanna show brought a steady downpour of bombastic, pop-flavored R&B, Gnarls Barkley tore down the Highline Ballroom like a soulful, comedically attired tornado. Following a polite set from Santogold, Cee-Lo and Brian "Danger Mouse" Burton (plus backing band) took the stage in matching tuxedos, complete with ruffled shirts and bouffant hairstyles, for a fast-hitting show made up of new tracks like "Run" and "Going On" from their recent The Odd Couple, as well as old favorites from 2006's St. Elsewhere, most notably "that song that made me rich and famous — you know the one."

In between singing, grinding, and performing doo-wop-style dance moves, Cee-Lo found time to wax poetic, taunting the crowd with rhymes like, "Are you tired yet? You ready to quit? You tired yet? Or you want some more shit?" (The answer was unanimous — yes, we definitely wanted some more shit.) With hands in his pockets and a smirk on his face, he started into "The Boogie Monster," crooning "the only thing that could bring me back to life, New York, is some really good head."

At show's end, after calls for an encore became too deafening to ignore (regardless of what was happening backstage), the band returned, and Cee-Lo — sans pompadour and pared down to his blank tank top — shouted into the microphone, "I ain't scared of you muthafuckers" before launching into rousing renditions of "Blind Mary" and "Smiley Faces." —Lauren Salazar

Source: Vulture -- Entertainment, Music, Culture, Theater, Movies, Art -- New York Magazine Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:45 pm

Review: 'Street Kings' is all too by-the-book

In "Street Kings," Keanu Reeves' bad-boy cop Tom Ludlow may not play by the rules, but the film sure does. It's too bad, because the movie has a good pedigree, including writers of "Training Day" and "L.A. Confidential."

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:41 pm

FOX411: Katie Couric Turnaround Possible

Katie Couric's best days at CBS may still lie ahead. For one, the political conventions are designed to play to her strengths. There will be more than enough occasions to show off her best 'Today' show skills.
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:25 pm

Sick Bay for R2-D2

R2-D2's in the shop. Kenny Baker, the 3-foot, 8-inch actor who climbed inside the droid's circuitry for all six Star Wars movies, has been hospitalized with a chest infection, according...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:23 pm

Mills Wishes McCartney's '3 Girlfriends' Best of Luck

In her first interview since divorcing Paul McCartney, Heather Mills has admitted to pouring water on the head of the Beatle's divorce lawyer and wished his "three girlfriends" the best of luck.
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:21 pm

Vanilla Ice Released From Jail After Arrest

"Ice Ice Baby" rapper Vanilla Ice was released from jail Friday following his arrest on a charge of simple battery for allegedly pushing his wife.
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:15 pm

Madonna's Final Adoption Hearing Set

Madonna and child are one step closer to formalizing their bond. A Malawi court clerk has confirmed that the final ruling in her and Guy Ritchie's adoption proceedings of son David Banda will...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:11 pm

High Heels for Men Are All the Rage — Thanks Sarko!

A few weeks ago we told you man girdles (or, as we like to call them, "mirdles") were all the rage. One man even said they were part of "men's liberation." Since when were supertight, fat-flattening torture devices liberating, and since when did the modern man even NEED liberation to begin with?, we thought. Well, it looks like that mirdle-clad fellow was on to something: Today we learn that sales of men's heels are on the rise, at least across the pond. Not stilettos, mind you, but "day-to-day" styles in Britain are showing heels around two inches, and Dior last season offered daring dudes a two-and-a-half-inch heel. Now, some circles may consider anything with a two-and-a-half-inch heel to be a ballet flat, but for men, you might as well be asking them to walk on skyscrapers.

So what's up with the new "liberation?" French president Nicolas Sarkozy undoubtedly has a lot to do with it, since he wears major stackers to measure up to his new ex-supermodel wife. Today's London Times raises a simple question: If British men under the average male height of five-foot-eight can add a couple of inches with shoes, why shouldn't they take it?

The bestsellers are Jeffrey West's Decadent and Dandy collection, priced from £220 ($440). But do they really offer “improved posture, better trouser line and feelings of increased power and security”?

I have been wearing a pair in the office for a couple of days and, sadly, the answer is “sort of”.

Um, really? A man puts on heels and he gets "power and security"; when a women puts on heels, she gets "discomfort."

The odds are stacked against men's high heels [Times UK]

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:05 pm

George Soros: You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet

FINANCE
• Financier George Soros says that a "superbubble" is bursting, and that financial woes have just begun. [DealBook/NYT]
• Analysts say the economy has further to fall. [WSJ]
• Meanwhile, Goldman Sachs boss Lloyd Blankfein says hard times on the Street are nearing an end. Plus, Blankfein, who raked in a $70 million paycheck last year, won a proxy protest over whether shareholders should have a say in what the firm pays top executives. "It would create a cloud, a constraint, a limitation on decisions that have been at the heart of what a board has done," he said. [NYP]

MEDIA
• Amy Gross is leaving O-land. The editor-in-chief of O, The Oprah Magazine, has quit publishing altogether. [NYP]
• The Wall Street Journal's Website traffic numbers are way up. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]

LAW
• The $70 million civil lawsuit that Dan Rather slapped on CBS is going to continue on a limited basis. [NYO]
• Today you can have your chance to tell Us News and World Report why you think their law-school-ranking system stinks. [Above the Law]
• Since the State Legislature and the governor aren't listening to New York's top judge, she's suing them. [NYT]

REAL ESTATE
• East Villagers don't want to say good-bye to the Mets Foods grocery store on Second Avenue. [Runnin' Scared/VV]
• The first West Side rail yards deadline is missed. [NYO]
• Hedge-funder John Paulson has put his Southampton home on the block for $19.5 million, which is more than 50 percent higher than what he bought it for two years ago. [WSJ]

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 5:00 pm

Stars Out and About in the Blogosphere

When they're not club-hopping or photo-opping, Kanye, Paris and Marlee blog.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 4:59 pm

Chuck Norris on Teen Hit List

Fact: Chuck Norris doesn't cotton to juvenile delinquents. New Jersey's Finest have arrested a 16-year-old high school student for writing a hit list naming three of his fellow classmates,...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 11 Apr 2008 | 4:48 pm

All Aboard the Wishy-Washy Express

Yesterday, we wrote about McCain's surprisingly good general-election prospects against the Democrats, considering everything that's happening in the world. Since the DNC pores over everything we write with a fine-toothed comb, it has begun to step up its offensive on McCain, by doing that strategically irrational, Bond-villain type thing where it openly reveals exactly how it will bring down its opponent so he has ample opportunity to react. They plan to attack him on his wishy-washiest points! You know, it might work better if you didn't make it so obvious which weaknesses you'll try to exploit. Just saying.

• Sam Youngman looks at the Democratic plan of attack against McCain, based on swing-state polling: McCain is not the independent voice he appears to be, he's prone to changing his positions and holding wishy-washy stances on some issues, and he has himself claimed that he's ignorant of the economy. [Hill]

• Steve Huntley thinks Barack Obama's and his surrogates' attacks on McCain are becoming increasingly shrill and threaten to ruin Obama's promise of running a new kind of campaign. [Chicago Sun-Times]

• McCain's changing positions aren't hard to come by today: Jonathan Cohn explores McCain's drastic turnaround on the economic crisis in a speech yesterday, saying that if McCain were serious about the crisis, he would have solidified his position a long time ago. [Plank/New Republic]

• Stephen Spruiell concurs, calling McCain's new economic speech a "disappointment" and "Democrat-lite." Spruiell even agreed with Hillary Clinton when she criticized McCain's turnabout, writing, "What can I say? When she's right, she's right." [Corner/National Review]

• Michael Cooper calls McCain's new economic plan a "reversal" and a "departure" from last month's remarks and says McCain is "laboring to undo any damage" from the hits he took from Mitt Romney on the economy during the primaries. [NYT]

• Steve Benen has found another weak position: the G.I Bill. Though in his View appearance yesterday, McCain expressed his support for more educational benefits for veterans, McCain has yet to back a bill that would accomplish just that. [War Room/Salon]

• And that's not all. Michael Scherer looks at McCain's murky position on, of all things, torture. While McCain has been one of the foremost critics of the use of torture, he won't back a plan to restrict the CIA's interrogation tactics to those allowed in the army field manual. [Time]

• Jim McElhatton and Jerry Seper note that two of McCain's top advisers are current or former lobbyists for foreign governments, a contrast with his independent image and something McCain can expect to face scrutiny over. [Washington Times]

• But Maggie Carlson writes about one of McCain's consistent strengths: appealing to the hopeful side of Americans regarding Iraq, compared with the gloom and doom Democrats. [Bloomberg]

• Jake Tapper notes one thing the Democrats definitely won't attack McCain with: his eligibility to be president. Democratic senators are sponsoring a bill expressing their belief that McCain, though born on an American military base in the Panama Canal Zone, is a natural-born citizen of the United States. [Political Punch/ABC News] —Dan Amira

Earlier: Will McCain’s Foreign-Policy Cred Take Him to the White House?

For a complete and regularly updated guide to presidential candidates Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, and John McCain — from First Love to Most Embarrassing Gaffe — read the 2008 Electopedia.

Source: Daily Intelligencer - New York Magazine | 11 Apr 2008 | 4:30 pm

Report: Howard Stern Sidekick Quits Show

The hard-partying assistant of Howard Stern has quit the shock jock's Sirius Satellite radio show after a melee in the studio, Page Six reports.
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 4:24 pm

Craig Out-Quips Conan for the First Time

Late-night newbie Craig Ferguson had more viewers than Conan O'Brien last week.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 4:14 pm

'Too Many Stars' with something to say

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 3:49 pm

The main auditorium in the new opera house in Oslo

The main auditorium in the new opera house in Oslo. The opera house, a futuristic structure set to become an architectural landmark for the city, will be officially inaugurated on April 12 in the presence...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 11 Apr 2008 | 3:48 pm

Nude Carla Bruni Photo Fetches $91K at Auction

Remember the nude Carla Bruni photo going up for auction at Christie's? Well, it went up yesterday and fetched a staggering $91,000. In a protracted bidding battle waged via phone and Internet, a New York buyer for a Chinese art collector won the 1993 photo for, oh, 22 times what the Christie's people thought it would fetch. (Again: What recession?) He even outbid a German magazine editor who planned to give the photo to French president Sarkozy. Because wives just love when their husband's friends come to dinner parties with blown-up versions of their nude pictures of yore. Fruit platters are so passé.

We're bewildered at the price tag ourselves because, well, wasn't everyone so in love with Bruni last week because of her clothes? Also, models regularly appear topless in fashion magazines, especially in European issues, so model boobs — even if they are Carla's — these days are just kind of "meh." One art dealer told the Daily News, "I don't think it's particularly striking." Another noted, "'All it takes is two people who really want it to push up the bid." Yeah. Here's to fruit platters. And clothes. Particular those from Dior.

Nude photo of French first lady sells in New York for $91,000 [NYDN]
THE COST OF CARLA [British Vogue]

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 3:15 pm

Reality Check: 'Idol' Gives Back ... and Takes Away

Reality Check: 'Idol Gives Back' raises over $60M, but loses its best contender
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 3:07 pm

Ferguson beats Conan in ratings for 1st time

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 2:41 pm

H&M's Marimekko Drops Today; Topshop Sets Opening Date

• Marimekko's H&M line goes on sale today. Long, printed, oh-so-summery dresses, here we come. [Racked]

• Topshop has set October 10 as the opening date for its New York flagship in Soho. And the countdown begins. [Fashion Week Daily]

• In raids on four Long Island locations yesterday, police confiscated more than $750,000 in counterfeit merchandise bearing fake labels of Nike, Burberry, Ed Hardy, the North Face, and Baby Phat. Fake Baby Phat? Is there anything they won't counterfeit these days? [WWD]

• "So crazy it just might work" trend alert: wedding veils! Milliner Misa Harada collaborated with Yohji Yamamoto for her spring/summer 2008 wedding-veil-inspired collection. She calls them "totally wearable and never occasionwear." You know we wouldn't totally put it past the hipsters. [British Vogue]

• It appears Donald Trump will let his daughter Ivanka trademark her name for jewelry, watches, and knickknacks — but not real-estate ventures. The Donald objected to her recent application to do so by asking for a 90-day extension to "oppose for good cause." That's the warm, loving Donald we know. [WP]

• Versace's net profits fell last year, but its sales went up. How? They spend a lot of money on some "unspecified" stuff. [WWD]

• The girls who showed up to Nikki Beach to audition for the new Paris Hilton reality show I Want to Be Paris Hilton looked like "versions of Donatella Versace. They all had bleached blond hair, too-dark tans and were wearing tight, shiny dresses." Hey there, let's not group Donatella and Paris in the same subspecies. [NYP]

• Cosmopolitan will spell out its title in the sand with 1,200 models in bikinis in Miami for its August issue. Oh goody. If only we could be there. We're sure hundreds of ogling dudes will keep an eye on the scene for us. [NYP]

Source: The Cut - New York Magazine's Fashion Blog | 11 Apr 2008 | 2:30 pm

Pop Tarts: Exclusive: PETA Sends Beyonce a Wedding Present

It’s no secret that Beyonce has been donning designer furs for several years, and she even used fur in her fashion line House of Dereon. However, it seems as though the hip-hoppin' hottie has had a change of heart.
Source: FOXNews.com | 11 Apr 2008 | 2:29 pm

No Aussie 'Idol': Michael Johns Voted Off

"American Idol's" Aussie contestant got booted Thursday night.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 2:07 pm

Neil Patrick Harris: Say No to Britney!

The "How I Met Your Mother" star doesn't want Spears back on the show.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 2:01 pm

Never-before-seen Elvis photos revealed

Read full story for latest details.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 1:52 pm

The Secrets Behind Stars' Secret Weddings

Jay-Z and Beyonce pulled off a feat few other star couples have managed.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 12:21 pm

Hollywood Moms Glow With Hot Fashions

How pregnant celebrities make maternity fashionable.
Source: ABC News: Entertainment | 11 Apr 2008 | 11:43 am