This is what I can tell you hundreds of panicked fans who have emailed in this evening after hearing a fast-spreading rumor that Pushing Daisies has...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 7:10 am

Grey's Dissection: Major Hottie...Or Nottie?

He's a babe. And he, um, stabbed a Babe. And a Wilber. And a few other questionably adorable but fully innocent pigs. So what the bejeezus are we to think now of Grey's...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 6:35 am

The Night in Television: Who Was the Big Winner?

Alec Baldwin, Tina Fey, 30 Rock-Sucession

Tina Fey and 30 Rock returned tonight. If you are like most of the TV watching world, you probably were watching something else. (Though we totally expect to see a huge post-Palin bump...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 6:00 am

Jennifer Hudson "Still in Shock" at Chicago Hotel (E! Online)

E! Online - Jennifer Hudson has been holed up in a downtown Chicago hotel with loved ones and friends as she prepares to bury three family members.

Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 31 Oct 2008 | 5:49 am

Jennifer Hudson "Still in Shock" at Chicago Hotel

Jennifer Hudson has been holed up in a downtown Chicago hotel with loved ones and friends as she prepares to bury three family members. "She is still in shock," a source...

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 31 Oct 2008 | 3:00 am

Michael Kills Jackson 5 Reunion Rumor

Hmph, it seemed too kitschtastic to be true. Michael Jackson continued to dash dreams of pop-royalty rejuvenation by confirming Thursday that he will not be joining Jackie, Jermaine,...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 2:05 am

Parker, Grant to get romantic

Front Page: Marc Lawrence to direct Columbia comedy -- Sarah Jessica Parker and Hugh Grant are in negotiations to star in an untitled Marc Lawrence-helmed romantic comedy for Columbia Pictures.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 31 Oct 2008 | 2:00 am

Survivor Doubles Down

Surprises abounded on Thursday's episode of Survivor: Gabon, which featured a double elimination—one earned, one not—and twists galore as far as immunity, alliances, physical...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 1:10 am

Keanu Jury Watches Shutterbug Fly After Britney

The paparazzo suing Keanu Reeves gives new meaning to the term moving pictures. In court Thursday, Reeves' attorney played a video showing plaintiff Alison Silva scaling a razor-wire...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 12:30 am

Police: Hudson's Nephew Likely Died in SUV

Detectives looking to provide some answers for Jennifer Hudson and her grieving family said Thursday that it appears as if the actress' nephew was killed in the SUV where his body was found...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 12:08 am

Grey's Anatomy: Is Kevin McKidd Here to Stay?

There's a new badass in town, and his name is Major Owen Hunt, or as we like to call him around here, Major Hottie McHotPants. Kevin McKidd's Army surgeon character returns to Seattle...

Source: E! Online - Top Stories | 31 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

Michael In Studio, Won't Reunite With Jackson 5

Michael Jackson has issued a statement saying he will not participate in a Jackson 5 reunion in 2009. "My brothers and sisters have my full love and support, and weÂ¿ve certainly shared many great experiences, but at this time I have no plans to record or tour with them," he said.
Source: Billboard News - Daily | 31 Oct 2008 | 12:00 am

Majors meet with mediator

Front Page: No date set yet for the resumption of talks -- After a three-month vacation from negotiations, SAG and the congloms may be creeping back to the bargaining table under supervision of a federal mediator.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 11:43 pm

Sneak Peek at Charlotte Ronson’s JCPenney Line

Photo: nylonmag.com

You might actually want to go shopping at JCPenney for your spring wardrobe. Oh, we're serious. Images of Charlotte Ronson's diffusion line for the chain (called I [Heart] Ronson) are out, and it's actually pretty cute. Items retail for just $15 to $65, while Ronson's namesake contemporary line wholesales for $70 to $130. We're glad this diffusion line turned out so well. We're still dismayed by how inappropriate Kimora Lee Simmons's junior line for JCPenney was, but this batch of clothes more than makes up for it. Nylon has more photos of the new I [Heart] Ronson line.

FIRST LOOK: CHARLOTTE RONSON FOR JCPENNEY [Nylon]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:48 pm

November 5: Post-Election Plans of Prominent Politics Bloggers

Photo: istockphoto

The election is almost over, and if you think you'll be relieved, imagine the political bloggers who’ve spent the last eighteen months dissecting everything from Obama’s flag pin to Mitt Romney’s Battlefield Earth obsession. If anyone (other than the candidates) deserves a vacation, it’s these guys. We asked prominent political bloggers from Marc Ambinder to Mark Steyn for their plans in the weeks after the election. Not surprisingly, many of them will still be blogging.

Markos Moulitsas, Daily Kos
I'm beat, and will take it easy — by working "normal" eight-hour workdays. I may even start paying attention to my kids again. But while I may be able to scale back from sixteen-hour workdays, the election won't be the culmination of our efforts, just a waypoint. We have a big year ahead of us, and will likely scale back up in short order in support of the Obama agenda.

Ta-Nehisi Coates, TheAtlantic.com
Depends on if Barry wins. If he takes the crown, I'll talk to my son, pour me some Macallan, and then head to Paris Blues Bar to see how it's playing uptown. Next day, I'll search out the most important issue that I disagree with Obama on, and the war will begin anew. If he loses, I'm not moving to Canada — I'm moving to the South Side of Chicago. I fell in love with Barry's stomping ground while covering him.

Mark Steyn, The National Review
Two days after the election, I'm going on the National Review post-election Caribbean cruise with Mitt Romney, Fred Thompson, and the rest of the gang. Obviously, we're going to make Christopher Buckley walk the plank once we're in shark-infested waters.

For about 48 hours, traffic will drop. But, if it's an Obama-Pelosi-Acorn landslide, the sad reality is that, while it will be a devastating catastrophe for America leading to the total collapse of civilization, for us right-wing crazies, it'll be a commercial gold mine, just like the nineties. I'm torn between what's best for the world and what's best for my agent.

Matt Welch, Reason magazine
I'd like to report that I'll be decompressing with a vacay to Charles Keating's compound in the Bahamas, but we here at Reason are going from the frying pan of George W. Jackass to the fire of a unified left-bent government that will have just won a historic election by bashing capitalism like Tawny Kitaen bashes her menfolk. So that means railing against bailouts, the nationalization of banks, the 5 million green jobs coming out of Barack Obama's arse … and so on.

Ben Smith, Politico
I think the transition is going to be just as breakneck as the election, and that the real lull, if any, will come in June or July of next year. I've been doing this since Politico launched in January of 2007, and it's so metabolic at this point I'm not sure I can really unplug. Also, I'm very boring. I have vague aspirations of spiriting my two kids (3 and 5) off to some beach and crawling around with them for a week.

Rachel Sklar, The Huffington Post
First and foremost, I am going to take a nap. That will probably take place sometime around late afternoon on November 5 — IF there aren't recount issues. After that I can't think of anything more heavenly than a five-hour arm massage. Then I think I'll send a big group e-mail to friends and family I've neglected over the past year, apologizing profusely and strategically flipping the e-mail ball back into their court. Then I will nap again.

Jim Treacher, JimTreacher.com
If McCain wins, I'll get to make fun of the insane left-wing gibberish from the "Netroots" and the mainstream media (pardon the redundancy). And if Obama wins, I'll get to make fun of the insane left-wing gibberish from the White House. So it's a win-win.

Greg Sargent, Talking Points Memo
I like pretending I'm going on a cruise when it's all over. Whatever short post-election respite there is will quickly be overtaken by the Obama presidency, should he win. This election is just one chapter in a much bigger story — the creation of a true and enduring 21st-century American politics, domestic and international — and I'm looking forward to focusing the site on that.

Ken Layne, Wonkette
Barring any recount madness or a military coup or a wandering army of starving cannibals headed my way, it will finally be time to pack up the family and the dog and drive to Santa Barbara, where I've preemptively secured a beach house far from any possible action. I'm bringing many cases of wine, many boxes of books, and no computer. (That last part is a lie. I'm bringing the goddamned Macbook but hope to leave it turned off.)

Marc Ambinder, TheAtlantic.com
I'll still blog, but not as frequently, and about a wider range of subjects. I'll also have more time to think, read, and, importantly, think before I write. And … I guess … start preparing for the 2012 Romney-Huckabee-Paul-Palin Republican Wing of the Republican Party death fight.

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:39 pm

The Best of the Doggy Halloween Costumes

Photo: Katya323's Flickr

Autumn has many pleasures: foliage, pumpkin pie, trick or treating … and for a certain type of New Yorker, the chance to dress up your dog in the most ridiculously elaborate costume you can possibly conceive and parade him or her around in one of the city's many Halloween dog parades, or as dogs call them, the Public Humiliation Bonanzas. This year, because it has been a sincerely crappy autumn for so many, we trawled the Internet, picking and choosing the best photos of New York dogs in the best (and weirdest, and most hilarious, and most uncomfortable-looking) costumes we could find. Thank you so much to brilliant photographers Katya323, Alex Andrei , Lenny Karunungan, Victora Belanger, Sara Bogush, Andrew Sempere, Ranjit Bhatnagar and Jeana Costa! The winners — and we hesitate to call them winners, because any dog that wears makeup and/or a hat is a winner — are featured in a slideshow…

We might've like the Sopranos' ending a little more if we'd been able to hear Stern's fractured, frenetic cover before the series evaporated into nothingness. [Stereogum]

2. Lupe Fiasco, "Accept the Troubles"
On this newly unearthed demo, Lupe claims he's a "fast learner," which is pretty evident here because the track isn't very good and it wasn't recorded that long ago. [Pretty Much Amazing]

3. The Relationship, "Ugly Things"
On this track, Brian Bell (also of Weezer) insists that "somewhere there's a place where ugly things and broken things belong." This track doesn't blow us away, but it definitely doesn't belong there. [Pitchfork]

4. The Dream feat. Lil Jon, "Booty"
The Dream shows that he's definitely a single-issue voter on this new track, in which he says he just wants to "see the booty." [First Up!]

5. Friendly Fires, "I'm Good, I'm Gone" (Lykke Li cover)
Friendly Fires add a trance-y dance beat to mellow out Lykke Li's single, but it's still "all good." [Gorilla vs. Bear]

Lux Q & A: Resurrection's Mark Haddawy and Katy Rodriguez [Luxist]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:10 pm

Classy Taste of Tuscany Comes to Red Hook

Photo: Brooklyn Eagle

If Julian Schnabel's schnelegant, "Pompeii Red" Palazzo Chupi can find a place in the West Village, why can't a Tuscan-inspired townhouse complex find a home in gritty, waterfront Red Hook? Gino Vitale, who owns the House of Pizza and Calzone, will take a one-story garage on King Street and turn it into five homes going for $750,000 to $1.3 million. "I was actually in Tuscany and driving through the countryside to Florence and I kept seeing these old carriage houses and thought they would be great in Red Hook," he said. Right, because the landscape is very similar. [Brooklyn Eagle]

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:05 pm

Ups, downs hit print biz

Front Page: Conde nast cuts staff by 5% -- The storm clouds grew darker for the print biz Thursday as Conde Nast disclosed it would cut 5% of its staff and trim the frequencies of Portfolio and Men's Vogue.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 10:01 pm

Will Halloween haunt box office?

Front Page: 'Zack and Miri,' 'Saw' face off against holiday -- "Zack and Miri Make a Porno" and holdovers "High School Musical 3" and "Saw V" all contend with a holiday that’s likely to distract their young-skewing auds.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:57 pm

What's so bad about 'Porno'?

Subtlety may not be in Kevin Smith's vocabulary, but a lot of off-color words are. They're sprinkled liberally throughout the writer-director's new movie, "Zack and Miri Make a Porno." Smith doesn't understand the fuss.

Source: CNN.com - Entertainment | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:40 pm

Do Ratings Matter for ‘30 Rock’ This Season?

Photo: Courtesy of NBC

As you've surely heard by now, 30 Rock returns to televisions tonight with the first episode of its third season (which everyone with a computer has probably already watched on Hulu). And while the show's historically low ratings have made it an easy punch line in SNL sketches and Emmy speeches, pretty much everyone hopes that this will be the year — thanks to an army of guest stars (including OPRAH!) and the world-changing excitement over Tina Fey's Sarah Palin impression — that 30 Rock finally becomes a hit, thus saving itself from cancellation. But will it? Well, let's just say we're pretty sure it won't get canceled.

On average, 30 Rock's second season drew about 5 million viewers per episode. Bad, yes, but not that much worse than the viewerships for NBC's new My Own Worst Enemy (5.2 million watchers for Monday's episode) or Ben Silverman's hilarious big-budget Knight RIder reboot (7 million viewers last Wednesday), which was inexplicably good enough for a full-season pickup order. Nobody seems to be watching TV this fall (CBS' The Mentalist is the only sorta hit of the new season), so why hasn't anything been axed?

Earlier this week, The Hollywood Reporter's James Hibberd speculated that the weak economy is making networks wary of the costs associated with marketing new series. Plus, if they cancel shows, they'll have to resell ad space they've already sold for those time slots (and with most companies expected to cut their advertising budgets, this might be kinda hard). Also, mid-season replacements are delayed this year anyway, thanks to the writers' strike. So, no matter what happens, networks are probably inclined just to sit on the shows they have for a while. Which means even if 30 Rock loses viewers this season (which it probably won't), it's not going anywhere. We bet when the show's fifth season wins the Emmy for Best Comedy Series in 2011, Tina Fey will still be able to joke about how nobody's watching it.

Bad economy leads to odd pickups [HR]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:24 pm

All-Important ‘Thriller’ Dancing Record Broken

Photo: Getty Images

Today Maddam Tussauds Wax Museum, in honor of the 25th anniversary of the Michael Jackson hit, "Thriller," attempted to break the world record of people dancing in unison to the song. The previous record was 63 people, and today 73 turned out. We know you had all been holding your breath about this. As you can see from the photo above, some people came in full zombie regalia, while others had clearly stopped by on their lunch break from nearby Times Square offices.

Now it's not as plucky as a couple of our favorite mass "Thriller" dances, but it's good to know that even in these dire times for New York, the city's residents have their priorities straight.

Surely you've seen this:

And who could forget this?

And wait a minute, there are definitely more than 73 people HERE:

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:10 pm

'August' producers team on 'Angel'

Front Page: Broadway revival to open next fall -- The trio of producers behind "August: Osage County" and "Speed-the-Plow" will produce a Broadway revival of "Look Homeward, Angel" next fall.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 9:00 pm

Beck Slays World’s Biggest Clown; Photographer Autumn De Wilde Is There

Autumn De Wilde's Beck, Los Angeles, CA (2002).
Photo: Courtesy of the artist

When Beck holds the weight of the world in his hands, it looks like this: glowing, red, and in the shape of an egg. This is by Autumn de Wilde, the daughter half responsible for the excellent father-daughter show of cultural gods and goddesses on view at Morrison Hotel’s Soho Loft until the year’s end.

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:45 pm

It’s a Schnowel!

We can't believe it's taken Julian Schnabel, who is as much an artist of selling out as he is an artist, this long to design something for Target. But thanks to the great Target equalizer, those who cannot afford a Schnabel can soon have a Schnowel, a beach towel featuring one of the Schnab's works. As you can see, the image they are using is one of his Navigation Drawings, not a portrait of Big Papa himself or the Chupi, or even Stella's boyfriend's penis. This disappoints us a little, but we're just going to remind ourselves that from now on, every time we towel off, we will be doing it with a little piece of Schnabel.

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:45 pm

Botox and Breast Augmentations Down; Eve Wears Barack on Her Nails

He's looking at your bad hair.
Photo: WireImage

PLASTIC SURGERY
• There is a 12 percent decline in Botox injections since this time last year, and boob jobs are down 60 percent. Fine by us. [NYT]

HAIR
• Curly-haired Isaac Mizrahi says that the most common style error is bad hair: "People have no excuse for bad hair … Women should be encouraged to spend a lot of money on their hair. You'd think I had a chain of hair salons, but I don't." [CNN]

NAILS
• Eve painted her nails in honor of Barack Obama, pasting on a sticker of the presidential hopeful on her thumb. A girl's gotta express herself. [BellaSugar]

• China Glaze's spring collection, Romantique, features all pearlized shades of pastels, divided into two sets of six for warm and cool tones. So far chrome is a commenter favorite, so the gray trend could carry over to spring. [All Lacquered Up]

FRAGRANCE
• Brooks Brothers introduces their new perfumes this weekend. The men's is described as "ever so slightly forward-edge if the edge in question is the front door of a co-op on Park and 76th," and the women's "unfortunately reiterates a pretty but rather bloodless modern American feminine." [Moment/NYT]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:42 pm

TiVO boxes

TiVO boxes. Online movie rental giant Netflix and TV-top digital recorder pioneer TiVo on Thursday announced an alliance to stream movies from the Internet to television sets in the United States.
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:31 pm

A Netflix return mailer is pictured in Miami, Florida

A Netflix return mailer is pictured in Miami, Florida. Online movie rental giant Netflix and TV-top digital recorder pioneer TiVo on Thursday announced an alliance to stream movies from the Internet to...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:31 pm

Wherein We Find the Reason You Might Be Depressed by the Phillies’ Championship

Photo: Getty Images

Much has been made about how the Phillies' win last night gave the sixth borough their first title since Dr. J’s Sixers won it all in 1983. Which got us to thinking, Wow, we have it good in New York. After all, we’ve won nine titles since then: three Giants Super Bowl victories, a Rangers Stanley Cup, four Yankees World Series wins, and another for the Mets. Here’s the thing, though: Philly only has one team per sport, so a victory for any one of them will likely please the whole city.

But New York has anywhere between six and eight teams, depending on whether you count New Jersey’s Devils (three recent Cups of their own) and Long Island’s Islanders. In fact, allegiances often break down in groups: Jets-Mets-Islanders fans, mostly in Queens and Long Island, and Yankees-Giants-Rangers fans, whose fandom has been passed down through generations since the Depression, give or take a few years. (We’ll assume that everybody likes and/or ignores the Knicks equally.) Obviously, these aren’t set in stone, but if you’re a hometown fan of the former three teams, the Phillies win brought up a depressing fact: It’s kind of been a while.

The last time one of your teams won a title was in 1986, back when Gooden and Strawberry were surefire Hall of Famers and "Sledgehammer" was in heavy rotation on MTV. There are no more titles to be won in 2008, so it’ll be (at least) 23 years since a Mets title and 26 since one for the Islanders. As for the Knicks and Jets, it may be time to come up with a handy “The Curse of…” shorthand to explain their continued failures. And fans of those teams have it worse, because at least Philadelphians were all in the same pessimistic, vulgarity-filled boat. Jets-Mets-Islanders fans have to deal with their obnoxious, more successful, crosstown counterparts. And now, they’ll have to deal with those high-riding Phillies fans, too.

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:20 pm

Woman Enjoys Porn on L Train, Offers Running Commentary

Passengers on the Manhattan-bound L train yesterday witnessed a woman "playing some serious, butt-humping porn and yelling at her iPod, giving some twisted commentary ... 'Oh, here we go, here we go, THERE YOU GO, GET IT, GET IT, OHHHHH DAMN, let's get a close-up, zoom in, wake up New York check this shit out!!!'" The woman "at one point offered to act it out, even starting to straddle the dude next to her." [FreeWilliamsburg]

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:05 pm

‘Mad Men’ Postmortem: What’s the Internet Saying About the Season Finale?

Photo: Courtesy of AMC

What are we doing with all that restless obsessive energy now that Mad Men is over? Talking about Mad Men, endlessly. Message boards are packed with chattering, from fairly baseless historical speculation — “Women didn’t act like that back then” — to gripes about the manipulative ambiguity of Peggy’s child subplot. We picked the best, including a few observations from Matthew Weiner himself.

• Did Don’s visit with Anna Draper remind you of Tony Soprano’s escape to Vegas? [The House Next Door]

• Isn’t Harry kind of a jerk now? (“It's amazing how much I've grown to hate Harry this year.”) And isn’t Peggy becoming a joyless career woman? (“She had to give up her innocence, and some of her compassion, and many of the other qualities that defined her when we met her back in the pilot.”) [Alan Sepinwall]

• If the women “ruled this season,” does Elisabeth Moss deserve the Emmy? Or January Jones? [EW]

• Speaking of which, was Betty trying to abort her kid with horseback riding and rough sex? [AMC Forums]

• Matthew Weiner says the affair helped Betty “put herself on equal footing” with Don. [Alan Sepinwall]

• And did the show play it “a little too safe with her consideration of an abortion”? [Television Without Pity]

• Either way, will Don freak out when he finds out about her affair? [Mad Men Talk/AMC]

• At least one mystery is solved: Peggy’s sister is not taking care of Peggy’s baby. She gave it up for adoption. [Chicago Tribune]

• Maureen Ryan rightly points out that this intentional ambiguity sucks — and it likely frustrated viewers who “would not wait 13 episodes to get an answer to that question.” [Chicago Tribune]

• But Weiner is unrepentant: “I mislead the audience all over the place, and that's the fun of the show. I give out little bits of information at a time and then play on that.” [Chicago Tribune]

• So, could Pete “somehow manipulate it so that he and Trudy can adopt Peggy's illegitimate baby”? [Bret H.]

• Not if Pete kills himself with that rifle and isn’t around to see season three. [Show Tracker/LAT]

• Here are a few other predictions: “Don Will Cheat on Betty again.” “Betty will miscarry.” “Pete will not divorce Trudy.” [Television Without Pity]

• And John Hamm says the show won’t skip too far in the future: “I don't think we need to follow Don into the late '70s or '80s. His story will have been told by then.” [Mad Men/AMC]

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 8:03 pm

Alec Baldwin Has a Pretty Decent Sarah Palin Impression

Alec Baldwin stopped by Letterman last night to promote 30 Rock, but he spent most of the time talking about politics and his October 19 appearance on Saturday Night Live. That was the episode where he came face-to-face with Sarah Palin and called her "gorgeous." Last night, however, Baldwin slightly revised those statements: He described Palin as a "lovely woman" — nay, a "beautiful, beautiful woman" — but not "someone that I wanted her with her hand on the nuclear button at any point." But if that hand is sporting a sexy manicure, maybe that will make it a little less frightening? Eh, probably not.

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:50 pm

Random 13-Year-Old Girl Has Worn Favorite Pucci Jacket for ‘Years’

Peaches Geldof
Photo: WireImage

Meet Scarlett Lesley. "I travel extensively and I need a wardrobe that can take me anywhere," she told the Daily Mail. "Last year I was on the red carpet in LA for the premiere of George Clooney's film Leatherheads, I partied all summer in Ibiza, skied in St Moritz and swam in the Maldives." No, she's not an actress you should know about. She's a 13-year-old. A burgeoning Peaches Geldof! Recently she attended the opening party for a gallery wearing 200-pound Lulu Guinness shoes and carrying a Chanel handbag. In case you're not annoyed yet, read this:

'I first fell in love with designer things when I started playing dress up with Mummy's quilted Chanel bag,' says Scarlett. 'I just loved the feel and the look of it. I got my own Marc Jacobs bag (around £5,000) when I was 12 and my friends were like: "Oh my God! That is so fabulous!"

They all knew what it was, immediately. 'I love my designer bags and shoes with a passion — they are like my babies. My most expensive item of clothing is probably a £650 Pucci jacket from Harrods. But I have worn it for years!

I mix and match my really expensive designer items with High Street shops, such as Topshop and Urban Outfitters, to create a really eye-catching and individual look.'

Oh God. When we were 13, we probably shopped at Gap and swam in pools at summer camp. And instead of "fabulous," we used "cool." We really don't want to know what young Scarlett's dressing up as for Halloween.

Meet the designer obsessed teens who don't think twice about spending thousands (of their parent's money) on shoes and handbags [Daily Mail]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:45 pm

American Express Cuts 7,000 Jobs

New York–based lender American Express is cutting 7,000 jobs, after posting four straight quarterly profit declines and losing about half its market value this year. "Consumers are clearly retrenching given all the uncertainty out there about jobs," said one analyst. Yeah, using a credit card you have to pay back at the end of the month gets a lot less attractive when you don't know what will happen in a month. [Bloomberg]

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:31 pm

BBC exec resigns over Brand scandal

Front Page: Station controller Lesley Douglas steps down -- The mounting public anger over the phone prank played by celebrities Russell Brand and Jonathan Ross during Brand's BBC Radio 2 show claimed its first exec scalp on Thursday when station controller Lesley Douglas resigned.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:23 pm

‘Portfolio’ Down to Ten Issues a Year

In further Condé Nast belt-tightening, the December and January issues of the fledgling business magazine will be combined, as will the June and July issues, and the edit budget will be cut by 5 percent. The staff was just alerted in a meeting today. [Business Week]

Source: Daily Intel | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:22 pm

Sam Mendes

British director Sam Mendes, Oscar-winner for the 1999 hit "American Beauty," will plunge into the world of fantasy with an adaptation of the comic book "Preacher," the Hollywood media reported Thursday...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:17 pm

‘Splinter’ Director Toby Wilkins Goes Kidney Shopping

One of the more pleasant surprises of the Halloween-movie season is director Toby Wilkins’s Über-suspenseful killer-parasite flick Splinter, opening tomorrow. (See David Edelstein’s spot-on rave here.) In honor of its release, we’re running Wilkins’s creepily hilarious 2006 short Kidney Thieves, starring Ethan Embry (Can't Hardly Wait, Eagle Eye), Paget Brewster (Criminal Minds), and Paul F. Tompkins (Lewis Black’s Root of All Evil). It’s decidedly different in tone from Splinter, but both films display Wilkins’s flair for the macabre and his ability to milk both tension and humor from strange circumstances.

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:13 pm

Fug Girls: America Ferrera Ups the Ugliness on ‘Ugly Betty’

Two Americas, divided.
Photo: Courtesy of ABC; Getty Images

Not so long ago, America Ferrera and her scrappy, poncho-toting, brace-faced alter ego were the toast of broadcast TV. Ugly Betty blended soap and sass into a smart fashion-industry parody, and the refreshingly normal Ferrera gave the show surprising heart by seamlessly inhabiting the frumpy central role. But now, two seasons later, the antics of Betty Suarez feel both tired and tiring — and the lead actress herself is arguably the worst part of the show.

Granted, titular characters have it tough because the audience never gets a break from them. Call it Dawson's Creek Syndrome: Main character becomes overly omnipresent; writers have more fun creating quirkier secondary characters, giving them all the best lines; fans clamor for more of them and less of the insufferable lead actor with clawlike man-bangs and vast-prairie forehead; writers realize it's too late to rekindle viewer interest in the lead. It’s ironic to see DCS infecting Ugly Betty, considering James Van Der Beek's amusing guest-star turn last season, but maybe that’s how the disease spread. Because just as Pacey overshadowed Dawson and Jack and Karen ran roughshod over Will and Grace, so do the wickedly catty Marc, Amanda, and Wilhelmina outshine self-righteous Betty at every turn.

Indeed, after a promising, award-winning beginning, Betty seems to be losing her very Betty-ness — though never actually ugly, she's officially moved from Mildly Awkward Betty to Cute and Increasingly Svelte Betty Who Is No Longer Believably the Butt of Anyone's Office Jokes, Especially Since That Dress She’s Wearing Is DVF. This makes Ferrera’s recent shrieky, broad-strokes performances even more problematic. When you stop being able to relate to — or root for — Betty, she becomes kind of a shrill pain, and frankly, a raging buttinski. And when your lead actress has hinted to the press that she wants to lose the braces and has appeared in a series of increasingly flattering wigs despite the lack of a "Betty Discovers Frizz-Ease" B-plot, you start to wonder whether she's protecting Betty's essence anymore or just trying to escape from it.

Muddying the mix are frequent rumors that Ferrera is, to use our favorite Hollywood euphemism, difficult. Sources from the Traveling Pants sequel whispered that America resented being there because she (allegedly) felt Ugly Betty elevated her above it. During a Pants junket, she memorably delivered a snotty eye roll while co-star Blake Lively discussed Gossip Girl, followed by a Seventeen interview where Ferrera declared that Blake's show “conditions us to be mean,” despite the fact the she herself acts opposite popular comic-relief characters who are essentially Mean Girls themselves. (Plus, it’s at best hypocritical to go behind a friend’s back and accuse her of turning other women into unsupportive backstabbers.) And now rumors persist that guest star Lindsay Lohan's arc on Betty was truncated because Ferrera didn't like her; while those have been denied, we tend to suspect that where there's smoke, there's usually at least a tiny fire, especially when we’ve already seen Ferrera act publicly dismissive of a co-worker.

Obviously, we know TV isn’t real — except for A Shot at Love With Tila Tequila, of course — so God knows we don’t expect Ferrera to run into the Coffee Bean on weekends wearing a poncho, performing random acts of kindness. However, much like Tom Cruise’s crazy fits of passion over Katie Holmes ruined both Top Gun and Dawson’s Creek, it’s hard to lose yourself in a fictional world when the back of your mind is chock-full of unflattering real-life stories about the people inhabiting it. Perhaps if Ferrera’s performance were subtler or stronger — let’s start with 65 percent less whining — we’d be able to lose ourselves in it again. But we can't. And it’s starting to make Ugly Betty just plain ugly.

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:08 pm

Pedestrians walks past the doors of the BBC's Bush House in London

Pedestrians walks past the doors of the BBC's Bush House in London, 2004. The head of one of the BBC's adult-oriented music radio channel resigned Thursday in a row over offensive comments aired by two...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:00 pm

Russell Brand

Television entertainer Russell Brand performs at the Live Earth Concert at Wembley stadium London, 2007. The head of one of the BBC's adult-oriented music radio channel resigned Thursday in a row over...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 7:00 pm

Josh Schwartz to Make Music Popular Again

Photo: Getty Images

Remember the Bait Shop, the always roomy, never-too-loud-for-conversation indie-rock club on The O.C.? Josh Schwartz does; he'll more or less be bringing it back on Rockville, CA, a Web-only show premiering on the WB.com next year that'll feature story lines woven around one band's performance (from the likes of Lykke Li, Eagles of Death Metal, and, oh yes, Phantom Planet) each week. Does this mean Adam Brody's getting some work? [Pitchfork]

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 6:57 pm

Matthew Weiner Isn’t Doing This for the Emmys

Photo: Getty Images

"On some level, the biggest compliment I get is when people tell me, 'I couldn't go to sleep,' or, 'I did and I had a dream about the show.' With 'The Jet Set,' a lot of people told me they had sex after they saw it. And I love that too. That's my goal. Cry at the end of the episode, then go have sex." —Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner [Chicago Tribune]

"People started calling me a hipster and it's like, I'm so not. I'm not. I'm really a sincere person. Well, I'm not hip and I don't want to be hip and I don't know how to be hip. I'm way too old to give a shit about that." —Charlie Kaufman [Vice via Playlist]

"I knew the kind of game they're playing. I saw what happened when rappers said something. So some of us are, like, 'Flavor, go put on a suit. This is real right now.'" —Ice T on keeping quiet on the election [VV]

"It's just like [Michael] Jordan and [John] Starks … and the world loves it. We were happy to be a part of it. And we're still striving to be better." —Nick Carter on the competition between the Backstreet Boys and 'N Sync [MTV]

"I'm glad they cut that scene. This guy knows exactly what he's doing." —Tobin Bell on a deleted scene from Saw III where Jigsaw shows regret [A.V. Club]

"You put Biggie Smalls on, and my shirt is coming off." —Tracy Morgan on getting banned from several Hollywood nightclubs [NYT]

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 6:30 pm

The Beatles in an undated photo

The Beatles in an undated photo. Surviving members of The Beatles announced on Thursday that their songs will take on new lives in a videogame that lets people pretend to be the world-changing 1960s British...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 6:20 pm

Indians Scoop Up Luxury Goods in New Delhi

Photo: Shanna Ravindra

Hermès just opened a new flagship in New Delhi, and they're not having trouble selling $6,400 saddles with matching gear. The luxury sector is thriving there despite the economic downturn. Cartier, Christian Dior, Louis Vuitton, Armani, Dolce & Gabbana, and Versace all have outposts in New Delhi. The number of Indians with more than $1 million in assets has grown 22 percent since last year. They're prospering because wealth in New Delhi depends on India's domestic economy rather than the stock market. And the more other people can't afford stuff, the more the people in India want to flaunt their stuff. [Time]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 6:05 pm

Jazzman McCoy Tyner Recalls Times With Coltrane, Hits the Keys

Photo: WireImage

McCoy Tyner was once a bit of a stalker. Or so we learned at the opening discussion of the Duke Jazz Talks Series at Bruno Walter Auditorium last night, where the jazz icon recalled youthful nights spent jamming in his mother's West Philly beauty shop and afternoons spent chasing neighborhood jazz legend Bud Powell: "Bud would walk up and down the streets of our neighborhood and we'd follow him," the 70-year-old pianist said with a laugh. By age 18, Tyner was touring coast to coast in John Coltrane's station wagon with "big brothers" Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison in tow. "I didn't have time to be intimidated," Tyner said of his formative years in the John Coltrane Quartet. "I was in school." He remembered Coltrane as a generous band leader whose unrelenting work ethic engendered experimentation. "I don't think he was a perfectionist," Tyner said, "I think he was searching for something. He was looking for new ways to express himself."

Tyner's storied innovations alongside Coltrane ate up much of the talk, and the pianist often demurred about his own creative process, citing his personal mantras "Give it a shot" and "See what happens." After some audience Q&A, he did just that, taking a dozen labored steps across stage to the piano. As soon as he settled into his seat, Tyner slammed down hard on the keys, summoning the vintage thunder that made him a legend, his left heel clack-clack-clacking toward some infinite future.

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 5:44 pm

Will ‘Mogue’ Cut Back to Two Issues Per Year? Or Fold Altogether? (UPDATED)

Condé Nast publications will have to cut staffs and budgets each by 5 percent within weeks, the New York Observer reports. No titles are exempt, which means even Vogue will have to downsize. Horrors! Maybe Anna and her posse can stay at the Holiday Inn for Fashion Weeks in Europe? A scary thought, but Men's Vogue's situation is even more perilous. The Observer reports the Condé Nast bigwigs don't know what to do with Mogue, but folding the title is a possibility. Indeed Perez Hilton is reporting the title has already folded. But the Observer reports this could also happen:

One Condé Nast source said that it's likely that the magazine will scale back from publishing 10 issues a year to running only twice a year and it will give up its entire ad sales staff, with Vogue business staff handling the work.

"It'll be a small, small, small version of what it is," said a 4 Times Square source. "And the small version will exist for nothing more than for Anna [Wintour] to save face."

Anna is the editorial director of Mogue, which has been light on ad pages lately. Also, as we previously noted, most of the ads are for watches. We thought that was a good thing since we enjoyed ogling the sexy men in those watch ads so much. But according to a source at Condé Nast, having all your eggs in one ad basket is dangerous and not sustainable. Yeah, we would have liked to see more, oh, underwear ads.

We're awaiting confirmation from Condé Nast on the fate of the title.

Update: Condé Nast just announced Men's Vogue will in fact publish two issues a year, one in the spring and one in the fall. The title will be folded into Vogue and Jay Fielden will stay on as editor.

Empty Nast Syndrome: Condé Nast Cutting Five Percent of All Magazine Staffs; Future of Men's Vogue In Doubt [NYO]
Another One Bites The Dust! [Perez Hilton]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 5:16 pm

What Will Amy Poehler’s Departure From ‘SNL’ Mean For Kristen Wiig’s Workload?

Photo: Getty Images

If you caught the most recent episode of SNL, you'll know that Amy Poehler popped one out on Saturday and will selfishly leave the show to care for her newborn child (and eventually star in some Office non-spinoff). Does this mean the show will be a million times less funny? Yes, and we've accepted that. And today we learn that Lorne Michaels has wisely decided not to rush to replace Poehler on "Weekend Update" — he tells the Post that Seth Meyers will anchor alone for the "foreseeable future." Well played, Lorne. But now we're slightly concerned about another aspect of the show, namely Kristen Wiig's workload.

According to Michaels, "one or two" new female cast members will eventually be hired, but right now Wiig and barely used newcomer Casey Wilson are the only ones. We already know Lorne's not shy about asking Wiig to carry a sketch or ten, but, with Poehler gone, will she be forced to do more? Is that even possible? She'll die from exhaustion! Will she play all the parts on this weekend's Ben Affleck–hosted episode? It's either that or a whole lot of Andy Samberg in drag.

'SNL' OVERHAUL [NYP]

Source: Vulture | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:58 pm

‘Teen Vogue’ to Open Pop-up Shop in New Jersey

Photo: nytimes.com

Teen Vogue is beefing up ad pages by opening a pop-up shop at a mall in Short Hills, New Jersey. But merchandise won't be for sale. Instead girls can stop by to relax, try on clothes, play with makeup, charge cell phones and iPods, and drink smoothies. Some Teen Vogue advertisers featuring wares in the space were asked to buy an extra ad page or two to participate. The magazine plans to open more pop-ups around prom season and in August for back-to-school. [NYT]

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:43 pm

Q&A: Liam Gallagher on Discovering the Beatles and the Death of the Rock Star

"Why would you want everyone to like you?"

With their new album Dig Out Your Soul out and an international tour underway, Rolling Stone caught up with Oasis frontman Liam Gallagher to chat about the first record that blew his mind, how he measures success and God's musical prowess.

I was listening to Dig Out Your Soul on My Space and reading through the comments. Did you check out any of those?
No, I don't do any of that nonsense, MySpace rubbish. I don't listen to comments. I just make the record and hope people like it; if they...

Source: Rolling Stone: Features | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:28 pm

Fox's World Series hits ratings high

Front Page: Obama infomercial draws 33.5 million viewers -- Fox's broadcast of the conclusion of Game 5 of the World Series garnered the net's highest number by far for the 2008 Fall Classic.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:27 pm

Still Truckin': The Dead Reunite in Pennsylvania

Their tensions behind them, the Dead play their first show in four years

The first call came into Penn State's Bryce Jordan Center in mid- summer: A concert promoter asked venue officials to hold some dates at the school's indoor arena in the fall. The promoter wouldn't identify the band — and didn't until he called back to ask if October 13th would be available for a Barack Obama benefit with Bob Weir, Phil Lesh, Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann. "We went, 'Wow,' " says Bernie Punt, director of sales at the venue. "We knew right then this was going to be...

Source: Rolling Stone: Features | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:16 pm

Visitors crowd at the Playstation booth during the Information Technology show in Singapore

Visitors crowd at the Playstation booth during the Information Technology show in Singapore in March 2008. Sony's decision to delay one of the most anticipated games in the history of PlayStation, LittleBigPlanet,...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:13 pm

Boxes of Wii Nintendo consoles are seen in a shop

Japanese games editor Capcom modified the soundtrack to adventure game Zack & Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure ahead of its 2008 release for Nintendo's Wii. This followed a complaint from the US...
Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:13 pm

It’s Time to Start Wearing a Watch Again

Clockwise from bottom left, Tokidoki, & Design, S+arck With Fossil, Michael Kors, ESQ Swiss, and Nixon.

Remember when you didn't always have a cell phone and looked at a watch for the time? Prehistoric, we know. But you can't let a cell phone steal your time-telling flavor. Especially when watches are the new "It" item and therefore more stylish than ever before. Our latest Shop-A-Matic features 125 watches, in analog and digital styles. With 57 of those under $200, you'll surely find one that fits your budget. And for the dreamers, there's also a $26,500 Chanel watch. Just something to aspire to. Check out our top six picks after the jump.

Turntable Watch by Tokidoki
Price: $175
Why we like it: The vinyl rotates as each second ticks by, instead of a traditional second hand. You read the time on the left side, and it resembles an old-fashioned radio dial.

Icon Watch by & Design
Price: $75
Why we like it: We love the old-school pixelated design. Plus it's unisex.

O-Ring by S+arck With Fossil
Price: $125
Why we like it: Digital meets analog in this modern Philippe Stark timepiece. The number indicates the hour, and each dark segment represents a minute.

Turquoise Bangle Watch by Michael Kors
Price: $350
Why we like it: The bright turquoise and subtle rhinestones make this watch as pretty as any bangle.

Harrison Watch by ESQ Swiss
Price: $295
Why we like it: Classic bracelet style, this ESQ Swiss watch is a perfect gift because it matches any suit.

The Rotolog by Nixon
Price: $225
Why we like it: The faux-wood makes this sporty, casual watch more polished.

Shop-A-Matic Watches

Source: The Cut | 30 Oct 2008 | 4:06 pm

Netflix, TiVo link

Front Page: DVRs will offer streaming service -- Home entertainment trendsetters Netflix Inc. and TiVo Inc. are finally joining forces to deliver more movies and old TV episodes to their mutual subscribers, consummating a relationship that was supposed to come together four years ago.

Source: Variety.com - Front Page | 30 Oct 2008 | 3:59 pm

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