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Now that it's legal to do so, Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi are making it official.
After Thursday's landmark ruling by the California Supreme Court striking down the...Shaking Up the Crowd at Cannes [NYT]
Finally, the Daily News throws some cold water on the book, noting "We leave it to you to decide whether all the [dick] snaps are authentic." Uh, Daily News? Anyone who can authenticate a huge collection of celebrity dongs just by looking at them probably takes home wayyy too much per hour to waste time working as your fact checker.
The CW's fall schedule, unveiled this week, suggests the network has few fresh ideas. It is debuting only three new shows, all designed to complement Gossip Girl, which executives hope will find a larger audience come fall. The new offerings are: 90210, an updated version of the 1990s hit prime-time soap about rich kids in California, Beverly Hills, 90210; Surviving the Filthy Rich, a drama about rich kids in Palm Beach; and the reality show Stylista.
Nothing is said about what happens to Gossip Girl if CW closes, but it's hard to imagine neither CBS nor Time Warner could find space for the series on some other network. If need be, alternative strategic plans could perhaps be generated at another Gossip Girl summit.
[WSJ]
In the fourth grade, at a public school in Queens, Kopelson's teacher went on strike. He turned in to her replacement as his own report a verbatim transcription of a 20-page encyclopedia entry on explorer Hernando Cortez. He got an "A." "'Nice work!' Mr X commented. But, of course, unless the man was being ironic, he probably hadn’t read it – lazy bastard."
Kopelson also criticizes the instructor he submitted plagiarized work to at Yale. She taught a "contemptible" music class. So instead of doing his own work, Kopelson submitted a paper his brother had written for a graduate school seminar. It was 50 pages long and included citations of work in French, German and Italian. Kopelson was only 18, hardly able to write such a thing. Still, he got an "A."
Kopelson used the same paper from his brother as a writing sample for the GRE graduate school test. He got into the English doctorate programs at Columbia and Brown.
At Brown, Kopelson has a "very old, very flatulent" professor who didn't seem to have revised his lectures in decades. Again, he found this instructor and his class "contemptible." So Kopelson submitted as his own essay an article called The Beast in the Closet. He got an "A."
Later, he sent this article to the woman who wrote it as a sample of his own writing. Somehow, he wasn't caught.
Now, giving lectures in Iowa to students he also has contempt for — they tend to be poor students, since the English department is one of the few without a minimum GPA requirement — Kopelson plagiarizes other authors for his in-class lectures.
Also, if I'm reading his essay correctly, it sounds like Kopelson is also implying that he plagiarized David Sedaris for Kopelson's book about the humor writer.
But, hey, at least we know the odds are pretty good the professor wrote his own confessional. Plagiarism isn't quite so hot yet that anyone else would claim to have done this much fibbing. But once Kopelson gets a big book deal out of his admission (like the Lonely Planet guy!), that's sure to change.
(Photo via University of Iowa)
We hear things didn't end well between Kate Hudson and Owen Wilson.
"Yeah, it was pretty hostile," says a source close to Owen. "Lots of shouting. Lots of...
Say what you will about the antics of attention-starved Bai Ling, and trust us, we say a lot, but the woman does know how to attract the attention of cameras in the vicinity.
So we have...
The impending battle of the Davids put a little spring in American Idol's flagging step last night. Fox's hit show—which, despite showing signs of deflation, still exhibits...
Just when Taylor Hicks seemed to be in danger of being a public-eye dropout, along comes the favorite landing spot of many an American Idol refugee.
Broadway.
Starting June 6,...The Republican media consultant Alex Castellanos has been called the father of the modern political attack ad — an appellation he might not offer up himself, though we suspect he’s kinda proud of it. Although Castellanos has served on the GOP media team in every general election since 1988, his most infamous spot ran in the 1990 North Carolina Senate race between Jesse Helms and Harvey Gantt, the former mayor of Charlotte, who also happened to be an African-American. The commercial was called “Hands,” and it showed a white guy sitting at a table, the camera trained on his mitts as he crumpled up a job-rejection notice. “You needed that job and you were the best qualified,” intoned the voice-over. “But they gave it to a minority because of a racial quota.” Ugly? Sure. But it won reelection for Helms.
In this year’s Republican race, Castellanos worked on Mitt Romney’s primary bid, but today he sits on what’s known as the McCain Ad Council, a group of A-list Republican admen serving as outside media advisers to the GOP standard-bearer. But don’t be surprised if, before this thing is over, he’s not called into more active service — for even among Democrats who deplore his tactics, he’s considered one of the sharpest guys in the business. On Thursday afternoon, Castellanos sat down in the Alexandria, Virginia, offices of his firm, National Media, to talk with New York’s John Heilemann over iChat about the shape of the general election to come.
J.H.: Let's start with a pair of headlines. First, I wake up this morning to President Bush
comparing Barack Obama to Neville Chamberlain because he, Obama, wants to open a dialogue with Iran. Is this the sound of the starting gun firing on the fall campaign?
A.C.: One of the starting guns. I think BHO fired the first gun the day of the West Virginia primary when he accused Republicans of "trickle-down prosperity." Powerful line. But yes, I think Republicans are trying to lay the foundation for the security argument: "Is a guy who just paid off his college loans a couple of years ago really ready to deal with a dangerous planet?"
J.H.: But it's a tougher line than that, right? Not just that he's too green, but that he's an appeaser, even a sympathizer, with the jihadists and the terrorists. Same deal as with McCain's hammering him for his “endorsement” by Hamas. Does this not only foreshadow a substantive thrust for the fall, but also a really harsh tone?
A.C.: I think the point is not that he sympathizes with terrorists. No one would buy that. Rather, that weakness and inexperience and naïveté produce the same results in a dangerous world — old Neville proved that. I don't think America is eager for a campaign with a harsh tone. Democrats and Republicans can see that.
J.H.: We can explore that in a bit more depth in a minute, but first let me turn to the second headline: the Edwards endorsement of Obama. Does it matter? If so, how much and why? And is there any way you could see JE ending up on the ticket with BHO?
A.C.: Edwards on the ticket? Only if the Rezko thing gets complicated and BHO needs a lawyer. Just kidding. Edwards shows up to cheer the team to victory after the game is over. A profile in courage. I would think Edwards compromises BHO's authenticity, makes the ticket look more political, and his angry populism fights BHO's optimism. Wouldn't be my first choice. So I would highly recommend Edwards as VP for BHO.
J.H.: So who would be your choice — if you were a Democrat, that is? (Dare to dream!)
A.C.: Ted Strickland. Ohio. Right state. Says working man. Malleable enough to be shaped by the Obama vision. And passes the first test of a VP choice: does no harm.
J.H.: The obvious follow-up: Why not Hillary?
A.C.: The obvious answer: She is the anti-Obama. She sound-cancels his message, like a set of Bose headphones. He is the new, transpolitical Democratic Party, or trying to be. She is very much the old political Establishment. Plus, the rule is you don't let voters take their old girlfriend with you on your honeymoon. And there is that other thing — he might win this election. Four years can be a long time.
J.H.: Let's stick with Democrats for a minute, and with HRC in particular. Three questions: (1) Do you think she would be a stronger general-election candidate than Obama? (2) Would you be advising her to stay in right now if you were, God forbid, working for her? (3) What was her biggest mistake in this campaign?
A.C.: Whoa. Lots to talk about. Okay … (1) Stronger in a different sense, yes. She's got balls bigger than church bells. Also, beating the Clintons is not something Republicans have been able to brag about. She is more competitive on the electoral map in a traditional, "three yards and a cloud of dust" campaign; she puts Ohio, Pennsylvania, Michigan in play better than BHO does. However, in the 40,000-feet, high-altitude, soaring, "I have a vision of a better America" campaign, a nontraditional campaign, he is stronger. He's got a passing game. (2) Absolutely. Stay in. Why not wait till June 3 and see what happens? What's she got to lose? There is nothing else she wants. (3) Biggest mistake was [Clinton’s chief strategist] Mark Penn, author of the book Micro-Trends. He is a micro-thinker. In his book, he says there is no single America, just hundreds of little micro-slices. His strategy, if you can call it that, was to win a couple of slices, women and Hispanics — i.e., he had no big-picture strategy or message. Exit polls say Obama voters support him 80 percent because he is one thing: change. Hillary voters support her because she is change, experience, cares about people … all over the map. How you can run for president of a country you don't believe exists? If you look at the forest and only see the trees, you have a strategy problem.
J.H.: I can't resist following up on (1). I remember vividly drinking with you one night and listening to you talk about HRC’s balls — a memory that came back in a rush when steelworkers'-union president Paul Gipson said before Indiana–North Carolina that she had "testicular fortitude." You were arguing that night that HRC and BHO represented a strange inversion: She is the daddy bear, he is the momma bear. Do you think Obama needs to do more in the fall to show that he has cojones? And if so, what would you suggest?
A.C.: Perhaps we are getting a tad graphic for your kinder, gentler readers. A Clinton-versus-McCain race would be strength versus strength. An Obama-versus-McCain race would be change versus strength. Yes, BHO is going to need a few Sister Souljah moments. To demonstrate strength, he will need to stand up and speak truth to power, poke his finger in the Democratic Establishment's eye. Example: Marion Barry, D.C.'s former crack mayor, is now supporting vouchers for D.C. schoolchildren, in opposition to education unions and much of the Dem Party Establishment. Obama should join him. The Dem Establishment better start looking around to see which one of them he's going to throw under the bus as soon as the Denver convention is over and he takes the bus out of town.
J.H.: Our readers are anything but kinder, gentler (at least judging by the e-mail they send me), but we appreciate your concern. You mentioned the experience argument against BHO earlier. Do you think that's his greatest general-election vulnerability, even in a "year of change"? Or is it something else?
A.C.: Experience is an element of it. Perhaps a better word is risk. These are uncertain times. The law of the car keys: Before I give you my car keys, I not only want to know where you promise to take me, but can you deliver? Can I trust you to take me there? It is a big job. You have to be ready in a lot of ways. And there is one more thing. BHO says change begins from the bottom up. And he's brought that to politics. Good for him. "We are the change we have been waiting for." About that, he's exactly right. Now will he bring that same commitment to change the old, top-down, "we know what's best for you," industrial-age government in Washington? Can he shake loose of the old Dem Party power structure sufficiently? Does he want to? Is he too liberal to try? He hasn't yet. If he doesn't, he's not real change. He's just more of the same.
J.H.: Okay, a final Obama question before we turn to your party's guy. You've been involved in a few racially charged campaigns — the Helms-Gantt North Carolina Senate contest in 1990 comes to mind. Do you think Obama has put Jeremiah Wright behind him? Or do you think the reverend will be a salient issue in the fall — something that Republicans will capitalize on in the way that many hope or fear?
A.C.: According to exit polls in West Virginia, when asked if Obama shared the views of Reverend Wright, 65 percent of Clinton voters said yes. That ball is in Obama's court. He has yet to define his own values and view of America. By the time we get to the general, you are going to see a much more Reagan-like "American Optimist" Obama, as we did in the beginning of this campaign. He'll be talking about faith, family, and wearing four flag lapel pins.
J.H.: Fair enough, but it kind of elides the question. To what extent do you think the GOP (and/or its allies among the independent-expenditure 527 committees) will thrust Wright into the middle of the campaign, regardless of how much Obama does to try and take the patriotism question off the table?
A.C.: Senator McCain has said he won’t. I believe him. And that's the right thing to do. That issue has already been more than sufficiently litigated by HRC and the news media in their noble efforts to educate the American public. What is there left to say? You would have to be hiding under a pretty big rock not to have heard about where BHO went to church for twenty years. He has said those are not his beliefs — but not sufficiently defined what his beliefs are. I'm sure he will. Will some 527s take a whack at it? I'm sure they will because they can raise money doing so. So they will raise the issue like HRC did. It will whip the news media up into a froth, but be irrelevant to the campaign.
J.H.: "Noble efforts" of the media — you are one funny dude!
A.C.: Take my candidate, please!
J.H.: Speaking of whom, let’s turn to McCain. If this is a "change election," as we are constantly told it is, how does your guy deal with that? How does McCain leverage his undeniable experience in an atmosphere where other virtues/selling points are valued far more highly?
A.C.: McCain benefits from his legacy as a maverick. He is change. These guys are running for president. The test this election is, are you going to change WASHINGTON? McCain is accurately perceived as a guy who has fought the Washington Establishment tooth and toenail. In the marketing world, we would call McCain a transformational brand. Obama has made a powerful case for change … in politics. But is he actually talking about changing Washington? Will the Dem Party let him do that? Do they want to? If he doesn't propose bringing real change to Washington, i.e., taking money out of that industrial-age place and governing bottom up, then BHO is just “trickle-down government,” more of the same.
J.H.: So you believe that Democrats won't be able to rebrand McCain as a Bush clone, as they plainly plan to do — and in which cause they have some evidence to work with?
A.C.: I worry they will be able to do that. BHO may have half a billion dollars to work with. Plus the undying love of a great portion of the Fourth Estate. He doesn't have to win that argument, he may only need to raise the noise level sufficiently so that McCain is on defense and can't get his message through. Then the Democrat's advantage on the generic ballot kicks in, America preferring Dems to Republicans in this election by a dozen points. Ouch. That could hurt.
J.H.: Glad you brought up the money …
A.C.: I'm a media guy. We think about that occasionally.
J.H.: Yeah, the implications of Obama having four or five times as much dough as McCain are pretty daunting for your guy. If the Dems decide to spend millions in states that McCain has to win — Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, etc. — forcing him to spend scarce resources just to hold them … hoo boy. That’s an ugly picture for the GOP.
A.C.: Yes, I think most Republicans have noticed that. Obama can spread out the field. It is an undeniable advantage. So it’s up to Republicans to compete. Nobody said this had to be fair.
J.H.: What does McCain do about the age issue?
A.C.: It is a real problem. I don't know how Obama is going to explain his youth and inexperience.
J.H.: Again with the comedy. If I got you good and drunk and asked whether there was any way an incumbent party could hold the White House in the face of right track/wrong track numbers that could be 10-90 by the time of the election, could you honestly say — in absence of calamity, act of God, etc. — that the answer was yes?
A.C.: I didn't say it was going to be easy. And if you had asked me a few months ago if McCain was going to be the Republican nominee, I would have said the same thing!
J.H.: Who should McCain pick as his VP — if he decides not to pick your former client Mitt Romney, that is?
A.C.: I believe John McCain disagrees with George Bush on many things but respects him greatly for this: He's stood alone when necessary and kept the country safe. McCain himself has stood alone, when it has counted, to do the same and ensure the right outcome in Iraq. I cannot imagine he would pick a VP who could not, in his eyes, pass that test of strength. My pick: John Thune [the Republican senator from South Dakota]. But who knows? That's the fun of the NFL draft!
J.H.: Care to give candid odds on McCain pulling this thing off?
A.C.: Advantage Obama, 60-40. But I've been in campaigns that have won with a lot worse odds than that.
Related: John McCain Knows There's a War On, But Does He Know Which One? [NYM]
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.
The Archaeological Institute of America knows Harrison Ford only plays a bullwhip-toting, intrepid scholar on the big screen, right?
Either way, because of what the movie star's role...
DMX is maintaining his innocence. He could stand to wind his watch, though.
During a brief hearing Thursday to which he arrived late, the actor-rapper pleaded not guilty to 11 counts...
Please mail me a list of Nick Cannon's exes.
—Tweety Honestly, wouldn't you rather share with the class? He was briefly engaged to Victoria's Secret model Selita Ebanks...
For those of you looking to cram your TiVo with dance competitions, this is some pretty great news!
TLC has tapped Joey Lawrence, fresh from either shore leave or the third season of...
The new Vincent Longo line.Photo: Courtesy of Vincent Longo
• Vincent Longo's summer collection is called Shimmer, Glimmer, and Shine and, like every other new makeup collection this season, it's all about bronze. This line includes a hydro stick, gloss, and liquid shadow and looks wearable. [Face Candy]
• If you curl your lashes with an eyelash curler before and after applying mascara, your eyelashes will fall out. So don’t do that. [BellaSugar]
FRAGRANCE
• Artists Yoon Lee created a limited-edition bottle for the DKNY Be Delicious scent. It’s $68 at Macy’s. [Teen Vogue]
• The signature fragrance from Agent Provocateur was so successful, the company is launching two follow-up body products with the same scent. These will also include Damiana, a natural aphrodisiac. No word on if they'll put out any new Internet movies featuring Kate Moss in her panties to promote them. [British Vogue]
Photo: WireImage
It's probably not surprising that Horn seems to loathe Deutsch after this moment. The title of her story is "Why Not Him?," and you almost suspect her implied answer is, "Because He's a Turd Goblin."
Here's our favorite part:
“You have a big personality,” I say to him at one point in our interview.
“So I’ve been told,” he rejoins.
“Well, that’s the good way of saying it,” I add.
“What’s the other way of saying it?” he asks, smiling.
“Hypothetically, maybe some might think of you as arrogant or egotistical,” I tell him.
Ouch. Deutsch is on the board of overseers for the School of Social Policy and Practice at Penn. He's actually an esteemed alum of the university, so it's surprising that they'd let a kind of harsh profile slip by editors. We've always kind of liked Donny — he's sort of funny for all his bluster, and he did catch Ann Coulter in one of her most blatantly despicable moments. If he wants to be mayor (or keep his show on the air), he's going to have to learn to spin better than this.
Why Not Him? [Pennsylvania Gazette]
Photo: Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
Photo: Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
Photo: Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
Photo: Courtesy of Pace/MacGill
N.E.R.D., "Everybody Nose"
The lead single from N.E.R.D.'s forthcoming Seeing Sounds — the follow-up to 2004's underrated, not-bad Fly or Die — already has a remix featuring Kanye and this Last Night's Party–inspired video starring Lindsay Lohan and a guy in a nose costume. Sadly, though, we can confidently tell you that this shouty non-chorus paired with a semi-obnoxious horn sample will probably not be the next "Crazy in Love." Purportedly a comment on club culture and illicit behavior in bathrooms (or something), the hookless "Everybody Nose" manages the impressive feat of being almost as annoying as a lavatory full of people high on cocaine (when you really have to go!). If this truly is the song of the summer, then put us on record as being excited for October.
Photo: Getty Images
The McCain Doctrines [NYTM]
Photo: Getty Images
Express Sues Wal-Mart Over Ad Campaign [WWD]
O'Faolain in 2003.Photo: Getty Images
A well-known opinion writer for the Irish Times, Nuala became an international celebrity in 1996 after the publication of her memoir Are You Somebody? — a trenchant depiction of Irish misogyny and her bleak, impoverished childhood as the child of an alcoholic mother and distant father — became a rallying call for second-wave feminists and social reform. It was followed by a novel, My Dream of You, a historical biography, and a follow-up memoir, Almost There, which she was working on when I met her six years ago in the lobby of Penguin, her American publisher. She was a busty, middle-aged woman with a brogue, waiting in sensible shoes. I was an editorial assistant, just out of college, fresh from a thesis on Irish literature, and naturally smitten — one of the legion of fans who responded to her uncompromising prose. One of my tasks was to forward fan mail to the authors we worked with. No one got more mail than Nuala.
Though Nuala’s own insecurity is a recurring character in her books, in person she was a woman who elbowed convention, and even sometimes nicety, aside in order to clear space for her formidable spirit. She could be needy, once calling from a writers’ retreat in New England to bemoan the cold and the dark. She could be difficult, eschew editorial suggestions, plead writer’s block. She was the only author I worked with who refused to have an agent, preferring to go it alone. But the brutal honesty her readers confronted and celebrated in her works was apparent in her daily interactions and underscored the frequency of her warmth and generosity. Strapped by the penury of an editorial assistant’s salary, I lived for a year in an apartment she owned in the West Village — a lovely, lofty place, all hardwood floors and diffuse sunlight — for which she charged me a mere pittance of the rent she could have gotten from anyone else. (Nuala had in recent years adopted New York as her home but spent most of her time at her boyfriend's house in Brooklyn.) She invited me to her private writing retreat, a cottage in County Clare. On my last day at Penguin, she fluttered into the office with breathy words of encouragement and a bottle of good Champagne.
Her health declined rapidly. She was diagnosed with cancer in late winter of this year. By this month, she could no longer concentrate enough to read a novel. She left New York and returned to Ireland, her approach to death as unsentimental as her approach to life, and with her characteristic grace. “My life burned inside me,” she wrote in the introduction to Are You Somebody? “Even such as it was, it was the only record of me, and it was my only creation, and something in me would not accept that it was insignificant.” —Alex Morris
We didn't catch Conan O'Brien last night because at the time it aired we were at a Nylon party with Blake Lively and Penn Badgley from Gossip Girl, craning our necks to see if we could catch them smooching. (We didn't.) But today we managed to find the above clip of their co-star Leighton Meester giving her debut performance on the show. Despite our deep abiding love for Leighton/Blair, we were not terribly impressed. She basically spends the entire segment giggling, which eventually even makes Conan nervous. It's like she's become the anti-Blair. This is not what she seems to be like in real life, so the poor girl must have been very nervous. You really have to watch it. For a while we were convinced it was actually Rachel Bilson onstage and someone at NBC had made a terrible mistake.
Conan the Barbarian Pervs on 'Gossip Girl' [BlackBook]
Photo: Getty Images
2. Weezer, "Heart Songs"
From Weezer's recently leaked, not-very-good new album, here's very possibly the worst song Rivers Cuomo's written since all the ones on Make Believe. [Idolator]
3. Alphabeat, "Digital Love" (Daft Punk cover)
The affable Danes cover DP's fifth-best song with an acoustic guitar and a tambourine (synthesizers are expensive). [Stereogum]
4. Wolf Parade, "Language City"
From their much-anticipated new album (which already leaked! It's awesome!), here's our favorite track. [MySpace via Stereogum]
5. Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, "Young Thugs"
This new song isn't bad, even if, fifteen years later, that fast rap-singing that these guys do doesn't really sound any less annoying. [Nah Right]
Brighton Beach: Brooklynites don't want Manattanites to know about a swank new Russian bana (bath) where they'll beat you with a bundle of birch leaves for $40. [Flatbush Pigeon via Curbed]
Clinton Hill: This is your big chance to be in a Talib Kweli video about abortion. You won't get paid, but you'll get free food. [Bed-Stuy Blog]
Long Island City: The owner of the graffiti-soaked 5 Pointz building wants taggers to paint all over it…until he sells it, that is. [Real Deal]
Lower Manhattan: Almost half-empty since 9/11, office building 100 Church Street is getting a face-lift, in part to help itself get over being recently jilted by Newsweek, which decided to move to Soho instead. [NYS]
Ridgewood: Is the Parks Department really dumping its debris in a palustrine marsh (that's a nontidal wetland, duh!) near the Ridgewood Reservoir? These pics suggest so. [Queens Crap]
Union Square: A fifty-foot-tall, 80-year-old Siberian elm was cut down this morning in Union Square Park to accommodate renovations. But you can plant a piece of the tree and keep it alive! [Fine Company]
Williamsburg: We wish that, instead of writing this item yesterday, we'd really been at the Frank Sinatra tribute on Graham Avenue, smoking ciggies and eating twelve-foot-long subs with the old grammas. [Newyorkshitty]
Fatima, Anya, and Whitney.Photo: WireImage
We know a lot of funny stuff doesn't make it to air. Care to fill us in with many funny anecdotes we missed?
Whitney: There was one point — I know it was around Christmas time — when Anya, Stacey, Ann, and I went to this hotel. And we didn't have any music in the house, and the hotel had all these Xmas CDs. We put in the CDs, and we were singing these carols and dancing around the house like crazy women. The cameramen weren't there, thank God. We let loose.
So what else happened that we didn't see?
Fatima: There's so many to choose from.
Whitney: I'm kind of scared to tell you.
Fatima: Me, Kat, and Lauren — one night went to the castle thing. We were trying to do push-ups, and we were so tipsy we were falling down.
What did you do in your downtime?
Whitney: We made up games!
Anya: We made up Couture Twister and Model-opoly! Katarzyna made it up.
Whitney: We would do the Twister and then someone would yell, "Couture!" and you'd have to, like, do a couture pose, and someone would say "commercial!" and you'd smile or do whatever. It was so funny. But we were really bored, so at the time it was a good idea. Hindsight, not so exciting. We made an entire Model-opoly game with cars and pieces.
We can only imagine how it was working with Miss J and Mr. Jay.
Fatima: Miss J is hilarious.
Anya: Miss J is such a good walker. I mean I know he, she, is—
Whitney: She.
She, right?
Whitney: Yes, it is she [Looks at Anya sideways.]
Okay, so it is she for sure.
Whitney: Yeah, just to clarify that.
Anya: Yeah, she is a fabulous walker.
You guys seem to get along well, is the drama on the show manufactured?
Whitney: It's not manufactured. You have fourteen girls all living in one house. It's just hard.
Fatima: You'll be in bed and freak like, Your leg's on my thigh!
Whitney, how does it feel to have made it further than any plus-size model in the past?
Whitney: It's incredible. Already I've received mail from people all over the world who are battling eating disorders and struggling and are proud of me for having a body. That's just such a great feeling, having people backing you. I wish I'd had that on the show because it was so hard. It's hard to be by yourself.
Fatima: Being on the show you are just so vulnerable, if you don't go there emotionally stable. Because they ask you so many questions and they draw everything out of you.
Whitney: And even if you have a friend, she's also your competitor.
Fatima: The competition brings out a different side of you.
You girls are in the tenth cycle. None of the nine previous winners have really broken out. How does that make you feel about your future after the show?
Anya: A lot of people just want to ride on ANTM and the title of it, but you really have to push yourself and the fashion designers and the fashion industry. You can't just be this "winner."
Whitney: Winning Top Model is just the beginning, that's what people don't realize. You can't just win and be, like, "stop." You have to keep going. Jaslene is a great example — she's working every day, and she's knocking down doors, and she's really trying and making it work. You really have to try or otherwise you'll be just be "that girl from cycle whatever." We all have such drive, that whoever wins, we'll be well.
—Tre Borden
Björn Copeland’s Soft Serve (2008)Courtesy of the artist and Jack Hanley Gallery.
Well, hello there!Photo: William Farrington / Polaris
Earlier: Kristen Is Back!
Courtesy of joshreads.com
At least I’m still cooler than Sally [Comics Curmudgeon]
Earlier: What to Expect From the Upcoming Vampire Weekend Backlash
Photo: Getty Images
That's what everyone seemed to think, including Obama himself, who hit back on what he called a "political attack." "George Bush knows that I have never supported engagement with terrorists," he said in a statement, "and the president's extraordinary politicization of foreign policy and the politics of fear do nothing to secure the American people or our stalwart ally Israel." Obama's supporters rallied behind him. Nancy Pelosi said the comments were “beneath the dignity of the office.” “This is bullshit!” said Senator Biden.
But wait a second. Bush didn't actually mention Obama by name, did he? White House press secretary Dana Perino says no. "I understand when you're running for office you sometimes think the world revolves around you," she explained to the Israeli press. "That is not always true. And it is not true in this case.'" Awkward! And clever.
Photo: Courtesy of Abrams Image
Or not. It's the No. 166,530 most popular book on Amazon overall — apparently funny books about the Internet aren't a top-selling genre. Why? Because that's what the Internet is for. From a description of the book:
Full of anecdotes (true and semi-true), tips (useful and useless), and other insights, including chapters on the ethics and etiquette of using the Book, what your profile really says about you, and a Facebook dictionary (which defines for the uninitiated terms like "frenemy" and "fauxmance"), THE FACEBOOK BOOK will appeal to everyone who's tapped into Web 2.0 culture and counterculture from undergrads, to career-immersed 30-somethings who like to keep in touch with old friends, to high schoolers, and savvy parents.
Harvard Jokers Sell The Facebook Book to Harry N. Abrams [NYO]
Full Disclosure: Daily Intel editor Chris thinks he may have run cross-country with one or the book's authors at boarding school, back when a "facebook" was actually a book they gave out with everyone's face in it. He'll have to wait until he goes home to look at it and check, because the damn thing isn't on the Internet.
Update: It turns out Chris did go to high school with Evan Lushing, one of the authors. How do we know? Less than three hours after this post went up, Lushing sent over a Facebook message and friend request. See? No need for real books at all!
Takashi Murakami, My Lonesome CowboyCourtesy of Sotheby's
Another contented observer of the auction, albeit from the astral plane, was Robert Rauschenberg. Two days after the artist's death at 82, his painting Overdrive did, as speculated, set a record, bringing in $14.6 million. (All Sotheby's figures include their commission, which is about 10 percent atop the winning bid.) The big winner of the night, however, was Francis Bacon, whose triptych set a new record for the artist when it went to a phone bidder for a staggering $86.3 million. ("Be brave," auctioneer Tobias Meyer had exhorted the buyers calling in, presumably from oversees. "Look at the Euros.")
There were some surprises at the sale, however. Most notably, a massive Rothko failed to draw a single bidder. (Sotheby's, which devoted a full eight pages to the work in the night's catalogue, had forecast it would earn more than $35 million.) "We've seen an inevitable moving towards bigger and bigger," Nick Lawrence, the Freight + Volume gallerist, said. "When will it get to where the center cannot hold?" But on a night that drew out many of the major players, it appeared that the center was holding just fine for the time being. "At first I wondered whether the famous irrational exuberance might be at work," said writer Anthony Haden-Guest, who is working on a book about the history of the thrumming market. "But no, it started real strong, though it molted a bit towards the end. I think it's certainly remarkable." —Andrew Goldstein
Ta-da!Photo: Courtesy of CW
Heather: Score one for the sentimental favorite. Do you think Whitney actually earned it, or was it just Tyra's time to make history?
Jessica: It is hard to separate the two. Not to take anything away from Whitney, who IS lovely — but if she and Anya had been the same size, Anya's stronger overall portfolio might have won out. I don't think Whitney only won because she's larger, but this time I think it helped.
Heather: I think if she were talentless, she'd have gone long ago. For all their weirdness, the judges are pretty good about putting decent models into the finale. Even Naima had pretty-enough pictures that we initially thought her win made sense. Of course, we ate those thoughts later like a rack of ribs.
Jessica: Oh, sure. But you can’t deny that the time was nigh for this show to crown a plus-size winner.
Heather: It definitely helped. It had to — size is Tyra's pet issue. Hence the fat suit.
Jessica: And it's not like there aren't millions and millions of women who can relate to being a little "juicier" than your average model. I'm sure CoverGirl is very aware of that.
Heather: The first part of the episode had NO tension in it, though. At that first judging Tyra didn’t even TRY. The girls walked in and she goes, "Hi. Okay, Whitney, you're first." Like, "Hurry up, bitches, my burger's getting cold."
Jessica: I know. I had a moment where I thought, "She has so already made up her mind."
Heather: Luckily the rest was full of our favorite chestnuts: Tyra ragging on actresses, Tyra demonstrating the subtle differences between looking at the camera and LOOKING at the camera, Tyra talking about eating…
Jessica: I especially enjoyed the moment when Miss J was like, "OF COURSE WHITNEY HAS ISSUES! SHE SO FAT!" And Tyra had to step in and be like, "She is only MODEL FAT. Not REALLY fat."
Heather: Now that's a PSA in the making.
Jessica: I do think I've learned a valuable lesson. I'm not sure what it is, but I know it's valuable.
Heather: Maybe it has to do with that squinty thing Tyra demonstrated. Or Paulina Porizkova telling Anya her photo made her look like she's stupid.
Jessica: I just love Paulina. She is as amusing as Janice but not as drunk. That WAS a surprisingly bad picture, but they all looked fantastic in the commercial.
Heather: Anya kinda blew the runway, though.
Jessica: I wonder if the dress hampered her. I know Miss J says there are ways around that, but we've seen lots of girls tragically hobble around in tight skirts at Fashion Week.
Heather: Whitney's dress almost tripped her every time she took a step, yet she kept it together. Anya let it beat her.
Jessica: True. But I agree with Paulina that Whitney was a bit too hammy out there. She needs to turn it down, and Anya needs to turn it up.
Heather: It's so accidentally tasteless of them to keep referring to the plus-size girl as a ham. I know they didn't mean an actual hock of ham, but still.
Jessica: Runway snafus aside, I think Anya could actually … you know, model.
Heather: Gasp!
Jessica: She was unlucky to be in a cycle with a viable plus-size girl at a point in time where you KNOW Tyra is chomping at the bit to make history.
Heather: Whitney deserves credit for being the first Woman of a Certain Size to go on the show and not have a breakdown, too. Usually the plus-size girls get booted for being untoned or suddenly not big enough.
Jessica: I'm happy for her, and I think this will be good for Fatima and Anya as well — frankly, they might be better served, career-wise, by NOT having the America's Next Top Model win hanging over them.
Heather: Oh, and by the way, Tyra should tip her new weaveologist — her curly hair in that first judging is exactly what mine looks like in all my cinematic daydreams, in which I wear fabulous outfits and break people's hearts.
Jessica: That is truly the highest compliment a girl can pay.
Heather: That hair is MY life as a CoverGirl. As opposed to my current life as a Hot Mess.
Jessica: Tyra looked kinda great this season.
Heather: Except when she was singing or using awful accents. This was totally the season of Tyra forgetting that the reason her album tanked is that nobody wants to hear her sing.
Jessica: How dare you say such things about "Shake Ya Body"?
Heather: I'm not pretending it's not on my iPod.
Jessica: I am listening to it right now.
Heather: Whenever Tyra would sing the judges' intros, or the critiques, or any one of a million other things she trilled every episode this cycle, I would think, "This is it. This time she really has lost her mind."
Jessica: I do think this was the season where Tyra fully gave in to her secret wackadoo side.
Heather: I both love it and fear it.
Jessica: I can’t wait to see what she unleashes in the next one.
Related: Our Chat With ‘Top Model’ Finalists Anya, Whitney, and Fatima
Fug Girls Handicap the Winner of ‘America's Next Top Model’
For more of the Fug Girls' awesomeness, check out their entire archive.
Photo illustration: Getty Images, Courtesy of New Line
1. As Ian Holm is probably too old to play Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, have you considered casting Ryan Gosling? He's not too fat to play a hobbit!
2. Can you explain how the second movie won't just be a bunch of Silmarillion-inspired filler crap?
3. Why, precisely, has Peter Dinklage never been cast in a Lord of the Rings movie?
4. Is Andy Serkis already at the Wellington Zoo studying iguanas so he can play Smaug the Dragon?
5. Surely, Guillermo, the Tolkien universe is big enough to include a Hellboy cameo, right?
The Hobbit: An Unexpected Party [Weta Holics]
Another piece of the Nina Garcia–Elle–Project Runway puzzle has fallen into place. Hooray! We hope at this point you all care about this almost as much as we do: Fashion Week Daily reported today Garcia will stay on as a contributing editor at Elle until she takes up her new gig as fashion director of Marie Claire, and she'll stay on as a judge on Project Runway for season five. Elle editor-in-chief Robbie Myers officially announced today Garcia will stay on through September 1 (her Marie Claire gig starts September 2). The next season of Project starts airing in July, if you can believe it, and this gives us one more reason to get excited. Now if Michael Kors could just nail down his spot on that judging panel, we could concentrate all our pending Project worry on season six on Lifetime. It hurts to type that every time.
Project Runway Status Confirmed [Fashion Week Daily]
MEDIA
• Will the invasion of the Brits continue? London Daily Telegraph editor Will Lewis seems like the perfect guy for the Wall Street Journal managing-editor position. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• Star Manhattan media-ites headed to Seattle for Bill Gate's CEO Summit, where Warren Buffett, Jack Welch, and other A-list businessmen are camping out. [Seattle Times]
• CBS buys CNET Networks for $1.8 billion in cash even though last year chief Les Moonves said he wasn't interested in expensive Web acquisitions. [DealBook/NYT]
FINANCE
• Is it true that Citigroup doesn't allow visitors to bring fruit in the building? Even the TSA allows you to bring oranges on planes! [DealBreaker]
• Speaking of Citigroup, the firm is really into big ideas these days. They have not one but two innovation chiefs. [NYT]
• Blackstone posted a $93.6 million loss in its first quarter. [DealBook/NYT]
REAL ESTATE
• The Mister Softee and Good Humor trucks got into an Upper West Side turf war over the prime Columbus Avenue and 83rd Street real estate. [NYT]
• The Municipal Art Society thinks that the Renzo Piano and Frank Gehry buildings are the city's best new structures. [Real Deal]
• Governor Paterson squares off against Mayor Bloomberg for the first time over the Moynihan Station project, saying the Port Authority should be in charge. [NYP]
LAW
• The lawyer who included the clause about JPMorgan being responsible for Bear's losses regardless of whether the deal goes through is no longer with the bank. Coincidence? [DealBreaker]
• As the first year of law school wraps up, students have to decide if they are going to return for a second year. But dropping out doesn't mean you won't be successful anyway. [Now's A Good Time As Any]
• Wolfgang Puck is throwing the book at Wolfgang of Wolfgang's Steakhouse. [Above the Law]
Photo: iStockphoto
A writer from the Journal put on some brain-chemical monitors and went shopping at T.J. Maxx and Intermix to test this whole thing out. Her happy chemicals spiked when she looked at a handbag that reminded her of a Marc Jacobs one she once wanted. They also soared when she looked at brightly colored clothes and turned onto a new aisle full of clothes she wanted to explore. But fishing through crowded racks of clothes killed her spike, and nothing happened when she tried on items she was seriously thinking about buying. Which explains Donna's weird $400 magnifying-glass purchase and subsequent return just hours later.
Retailers commission studies on stuff like this so they can create stores that'll make you super happy so you super spend. The obvious thing to do now would be to warn you not to shop after breakups and bad days. But you know what? Where's the fun in that? We're going to peer-pressure you to shop more. Because we like that shopping high and we trust ourselves (and you!) not to abuse it like we have other things in the past (kidding!). And if we overspend, so what? Everyone's gotta have a vice. And that's why they invented returns.
The Neuroscience of Retailing [WSJ]
Photo: Getty Images
"It's flattering that anybody still cares about these characters. But it's like an amoeba — ever-growing and out of control." —Sarah Jessica Parker doesn't really know what an amoeba is [EW]
"I'm really happy we get to be the swan song of New Line. They understand sweeping epics. Look at Lord of the Rings. This is like Lord of the Engagement Rings." —Michael Patrick King on the Sex and the City movie [LAT]
"If somebody comes up to me, it's because they're moved by something I'm moved by. I've never taken a job I didn't love. And, yes, I am including Waterworld. I didn't love it at the end, but what a good idea." —Joss Whedon [LAT]
"You know, I think about that a lot, seeing as how television is the new radio for a lot of bands. But we've been really lucky with the products we've been asked be a part of. Victoria's Secret! I mean, who doesn't love lingerie?" —Bitter:Sweet's Shana Halligan on selling out [BlackBook]
Photo: Jed Egan
Even without his binoculars, Mark Wahlberg could see the twist ending coming from miles away.Courtesy of 20th Century Fox
Aaahh! It's trees!Photo: iStockphoto
It's plants that are responsible. They've decided to wipe out humanity and release the neurotoxin as their natural weapon... What Shyamalan quickly finds, though, is that it's very, very hard to menacingly cut to an evil-looking tree. That doesn't stop him from trying, though, and he inexplicably adds wind as a way of livening up the scenes. When the leaves of a tree start to blow, evil's afoot. It's really, really hard not to laugh at and there's even a real groaner of a gag-scene wherein Wahlberg timidly apologizes to a houseplant only to find that it's made of rubber. Really.
Will these be cinema's scariest saplings since the ones in The Wizard of Oz? And why isn't The Happening's tagline something about its bite being worse than its bark? Truly, we are stumped.
An Early Review of M. Night Shyamalan's THE HAPPENING [Collider]
Diane Von FurstenbergPhoto: Getty Images
• Liz Claiborne and Diane Von Furstenberg will be added to Seventh Avenue's Fashion Walk of Fame. We wonder if any parties like P. Diddy's Hollywood Walk of Fame fête are in the works. [WWD]
• Nike's CEO thinks Olympics boycott efforts in China won't impact the event too much. It would suck for them if it did since Nike is dressing a majority of China's teams. [WWD]
• Macy's lost $59 million in its first quarter. Its women's merchandise just ain't selling like it used to. [WWD]
• Puma is entering a yacht in a ten-month sail-around-the-world contest. They hope this will help them sell more performance sailing gear and nautical-inspired lifestyle apparel. That reminds us! We simply must finalize our summer yachting wardrobe. [WWD]
• Conservative, retro swimwear is back! (Think boy-cut shorts and one-pieces.) Why? Women are finally over showing off the goods. [NYT]
• Simon Doonan on the scene at Barneys when Rogan's Target line went on sale there last week: "It’s day of the locusts, darling." So it did well, then. [NYT]
• Phillip Bloch was ejected from Tuesday night's Kanye West concert at Madison Square Garden. It sounds like security thought he was smoking pot, but he says he didn't have so much as a match in his pocket. [NYP]
• Reem Acra stays in shape by allowing herself bread at dinner and dessert just twice a week and taking Latin ballroom dance lessons. You can even watch her dance on video. [WSJ]
• Victoria Beckham on herself: "When I see pictures I do sometimes think 'You miserable cow!' But I think it's just the way my face falls. If people like the way I look then great, and if they don't then fine." And on TomKat: "Do you know, we go to lots of different things together and they're great and really normal. And people don't want to hear that. People want to hear that people are weird." [British Vogue]
• Cynthia Nixon would love to marry her girlfriend. [British Vogue]
Pure. Genius.Photo: Getty Images
The swimmers are expected to jump into the pool and do a ballet performance that will reach its finale when they will line up to spell out Chanel. It's an appropriate nod to the Raleigh, which played host to several Esther Williams films. "As a child, I loved Esther Williams movies," Lagerfeld said. "I am actually staying here in a suite called the Esther Williams Suite."
See, folks — he was a child once! Now we shall return to hating this day, if only because we couldn't squeeze pool time at the Raleigh into our schedules. Damn.
Karl at the Beach: Chanel Cruises Into Miami [WWD]
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