AP - James Bond is still in a foul mood over that whole dead girlfriend thing from "Casino Royale." But the man who plays him is as happy as can be. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 11 Nov 2008 | 12:43 pm
AP - The late comedian George Carlin famous for those "Seven Words You Can Never Say on TV" was honored Monday with the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor, the only award he saw as a legitimate comedy prize.
Michelle Williams' father, a prominent stock market trader, agreed Tuesday to return to the United States to face tax evasion charges. Larry Williams has been fighting extradition since... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsEnter | 11 Nov 2008 | 7:24 am
Who's putting the fun in dysfunctional? The Petrellis, that's who!
Something tells me Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Adrian (Adrian Pasdar) will be in need of some...
Britney's little boy is back with his family tonight.
The pop star was spotted carrying son Jayden James out of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center and into a waiting SUV...
EAST BRUNSWICK, N.J., Nov. 11 /PRNewswire/ -- Bluestar Silicones will feature its range of easy-to-use, life-like silicone RTV technology at the upcoming International... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsEnter | 11 Nov 2008 | 5:21 am
NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - It seems American moviegoers might be going with the large, rather than the jumbo, when it comes to popcorn and soda. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsEnter | 11 Nov 2008 | 5:15 am
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Fourteen films have been submitted to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences in hopes of securing one of the three nominations available in the... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNewsEnter | 11 Nov 2008 | 5:11 am
George Carlin may not have been around to accept the award in bodily form, but some of the big names who were inspired by his sharp brand of funny made sure he was there in spirit.
Jon...
The actor spewed an antigay slur last night when a paparazzo asked him about gossip reports linking him to Evan Rachel...
There's fan fiction and video tributes, so we know others sense the strong attraction between the Twilight series and Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the...
Can you believe Dancing With the Stars is down to the final five already?
The stakes doubled for Cody Linley, Lance Bass, Brooke Burke, Maurice Greene and Warren Sapp Monday, with each...
Front Page: Weinstein, Doumanian, Traxler to produce -- The Weinstein Co. has acquired worldwide film rights to the Pulitzer Prize and Tony-winning play "August: Osage County" and will produce a feature adaptation.
Front Page: Columbia taps Chris Murphy to write script -- Columbia Pictures is back in the dojo with a new version of the 1984 hit "The Karate Kid," which has been refashioned as a star vehicle for Jaden Smith.
Reuters - The little-known account of a trio of Jewish brothers who rose against the Nazis in occupied eastern Europe is given its due by Edward Zwick in the passionate if prosaically rendered "Defiance." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 11 Nov 2008 | 1:47 am
Reuters - Pop star Britney Spears' 2-year-old son, who was hospitalized over the weekend after he had a reaction to something he ate, has been released from a Mississippi medical facility, according to a report on Monday on celebrity website TMZ.com.
Reuters - Certain to generate controversy with its title alone, "Deadgirl" is an audacious, perverse shocker relying on standard-issue zombie-flick conventions to make some genuinely disturbing observations about the darker recesses of male bonding. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 11 Nov 2008 | 1:24 am
Not one, but two of the fan favorites pictured above will be doing the deed—and, yes, planting a seed!—very soon.
Will it be Sylar on Heroes?
Dwight (and Angela)...
Good news for all you who were "devastated" by Heidi Montag's "firing" last week on The Hills.
(Please imagine the biggest of all quotation marks ever around those...
The next piece of scrap metal WALL-E picks up could be Oscar gold.
The critically acclaimed Disney-Pixar collaboration was one of 14 movies submitted for consideration in the Best...
BOYS LIFE: David Beckham, taking his Brooklyn and Romeo to an L.A. Lakers game after spending the weekend at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego.
BOWLING PARTY: Julia Roberts,...
• Closing Guantánamo: "President-elect Obama's advisers are quietly crafting a proposal to ship dozens, if not hundreds, of imprisoned terrorism suspects to the United States to face criminal trials, a plan that would make good on his promise to close the Guantanamo Bay prison but could require creation of a controversial new system of justice." [Time]
• Lifting Research Restrictions on Stem-Cell Research: Both transition-team head John Podesta and future chief of staff Rahm Emanuel have hinted in interviews that an executive order freeing up stem-cell research, one of Bush's major ideological stands, will be high on Obama's priority list. [WSJ, Fox News]
• Barring Drilling in Utah and Elsewhere Domestically: On Election Day, the Bush administration announced that it would open up 360,000 acres of land in Utah to oil and natural-gas drilling in December. Podesta has suggested that this is "a mistake." [ENS]
• Capping Greenhouse Gases: Bush and Congress ditched the Kyoto Protocol, but America might get another chance at a 190-nation climate-change summit in Copenhagen at the end of 2009. That's a very short time to write a nation's entirely new environmental policy, but Obama has talked a big game about his cap-and-trade program, and since the US (along with China) has the world's biggest carbon footprint, he'll be under pressure to put his money where his mouth was. [Reuters]
• Enlarging SCHIP: The Democrats in Congress have been itching to expand the State Children's Health Insurance Program. Their last efforts were vetoed by President Bush. Since Obama's universal-coverage goals dovetail with this effort, they'll likely push him on this right away. [NYT]
Nigo holding Air Max 90 BAPE sneakers. Photo: WireImage
Nigo founded A Bathing Ape fifteen years ago, and although he can count Kanye West, Pharrell, and Lil Wayne among his fans, he still has his fair share of haters. In particular, the biggest criticism is that his designs rip off Nike. And he's not having it. He told Complex: “I never read blogs. So, I don’t even hear the criticism about us doing Nike take-offs. I’d like to say that other brands doing Bape knockoffs shows that the brand is recognized and desired … But in reality, it’s really annoying to have to deal with it.” Come on, Nigo, isn't imitation the best form of flattery?
In a transparent bid to out-macho her Australia co-star, Hugh Jackman, Nicole Kidman has reportedly signed on to play the world's first post-operative transsexual. Along with Charlize Theron, Kidman will star in The Danish Girl, the true story of Danish artists Einar and Greta Wegener whose marriage was rocked in the thirties when Einar decided he no longer wanted his penis. We're not quite sure what to say about this that our photo-illustration hasn't said already, but this is certainly the most interested we've been in a Nicole Kidman movie in a pretty long time.
AP - "The Paris Enigma" (Harper/HarperCollins. 244 pages. $24.95), by Pablo De Santis, translated from Spanish by Mara Lethem: This is a whodunit that provokes thought as well as entertainment, on subjects from waterproof shoeshine cream to ancient Greek physics.
AP - "The Paris Enigma" (Harper/HarperCollins. 244 pages. $24.95), by Pablo De Santis, translated from Spanish by Mara Lethem: This is a whodunit that provokes thought as well as entertainment, on subjects from waterproof shoeshine cream to ancient Greek physics.
President Bush is leaving office, but liberals have just been sentenced to four more years of Keith Olbermann. According to the Times, MSNBC, in a melodramatic gesture that befits the Countdown host's personality, "tore up his February 2007 contract (reported to be worth up to $4 million a year) and wrote a new one," worth about $7.5 million a year. Then they chucked it into the glass with a smarmy "Good night and good luck." [TV Decoder/NYT]
You can't invest in stocks anymore. Real estate? Forget it. Right about now, your mattress is the only place you can stash your cash. What's a savvy investor to do? Sponsor a model, of course! Beauty Holding, a new Website full of ladies in need, lets you put your money to good use.
Here's how it works: You "invest" in a model, and, much like a company, you'll have stake in her earnings next year. According to Beauty Holding's Website, "It has never been more simple for any girl or boy to get noticed worldwide and grace the covers of the glossiest fashion mags!" We beg to differ on that. Thousands of new girls try to make it each year, and yet, how many faces do you recognize?
But wait, you simply must read the how-to on the site.
Buy one, two or hundreds of $takes (1 $take = 1 U.S. dollar) in order to help your chosen Model become a Golden Beauty. The Model will reach that status when all 10,000 of the $takes have been bought by her Sponsors. Before your chosen Model becomes a Golden Beauty, you will be able to sell your $takes at any moment. In addition, you will always retain the right to obtain refund.
To which we ask: Is this real? Alas, seems like it. Is anyone surprised that all the top sponsors are European men?
With her 2007 megahit "Umbrella," ultracool diva Rihanna shielded pop fans from the soggy mess that unhinged diva Britney Spears had become. Likewise, her newly leaked song, "Bitch I'm Special" — which appeared this weekend along with Spears's "Kill the Lights" — isn't her answer to "It's Britney, Bitch," but a calm and collected channeling of some jerk dude in it for the booty calls. It's a rough demo, but the heavy guitar and off-kilter hook make for a much grabbier track than her last leak, the Prince-sampling "Sexuality." Britney, naturally, ain't going down without a fight, and the ominous, measured "Kill the Lights" sorta brings it: "You don't like me," she squeaks, "I don't like you. It don't matter." But pop royalty or not, it isn't a good sign that it's Britney who now sounds like the ice queen.
Goldman Sachs stock hit its lowest level in more than five years today, after analysts predicted that the company may post a fourth-quarter loss — which, if it happens, would be the company's first loss since going public ten years ago. Last week, Goldman, arguably the most powerful firm on Wall Street, laid off almost 3,300 people as part of its transition into a bank holding company; today it announced it had laid off six13 analysts. "Banks that thought they had cryptonite [sic] power all of a sudden come back to earth," Oppenheimer analyst and Queen Bear Meredith Whitney told Reuters. "That's costly and humbling and disruptive." [Bloomberg, Reuters]
Front Page: Company reports loss of $124 million -- Tribune Co. has posted a big third-quarter loss, fueled by declining revenues in a weak advertising market and the cost of mass layoffs at the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers.
The Financial Times ran an insightful profile on Ingrid Newkirk, president of PETA. Newkirk is famous for tossing a dead raccoon on Anna Wintour's plate at the Four Seasons, for telling Ben & Jerry's to use human breast milk in their ice cream, and for coming up with probably all the red-paint-throwing fur protests you've read about over the years. But this profile paints a vivid picture of the woman many in the fashion industry have come to hate. She loves animals (obviously), she was raised in India where her mother worked with lepers, and she's the head of the third largest animal-rights organization in the world. We thought we'd bring you the most amazing parts of the story to read for yourself.
On her decision to not have children:
Newkirk had married at 19, and by the age of 22 had had herself sterilised, a decision she says came from the conviction that the world was full of unwanted babies. At one point, she considered adopting, but she "just got too busy with the animals. I am interested in the underdog. I went to a boarding school where the nuns beat the five-year-olds. I cried for them, and I cry for the rabbits separated from their mothers."
On why PETA targets the fur industry in particular:
Fur is high-profile, she explains, and her exploits in fashion alert other sectors to her potential to "out" those whom she considers to be violating animal rights. "Businesses are terrified," she claims, unable to contain a certain glee. "They have no idea what I'm going to do next."
Newkirk's posthumous plans:
Her will states that her flesh should be barbecued, her skin used for leather, her liver sent to France for foie gras and her eyes skewered and delivered to the Environmental Protection Agency, so that she can watch over the American administration ad infinitum. "My point," she says "is that I am an animal."
Just how important are animals to Newkirk?
Peta recently put out a book, One Can Make a Difference. In it, Newkirk writes, "I live only for [animals], because if I didn't have them I would have killed myself a long time ago." Suicide averted, Newkirk still has to find a successor. I am looking for a "Mini-Me", she says.
Last week we saw evidence that things weren't going so well between columnist William Kristol and his employers at the New York Times. The paper seemed to reveal the name of one of Kristol's sources in the McCain camp, which seemed a little unorthodox, if not simply aggressive. This, of course, led critics of Kristol to speculate that Kristol was going to get fired, which is what they've all been dying to have happen since the moment he was brought onboard in the beginning of this year. Since that time, he's drawn fire for columns that seemed to simply parrot McCain campaign talking points — or, as has been the cast particularly in recent weeks, defend running mate Sarah Palin. While the McCain campaign denied that Kristol pal Randy Scheunemann was fired for leaking info to the columnist, it admitted that his BlackBerry had been confiscated.
Despite the fact that the paper's liberal-leaning opinion editors must loathe Kristol, and the fact that he has good reason to feel the same way about the paper's news desk, and the fact that, with no one to feed him McCain/Palin sound bites, he may just have to reinvent the column — there's no hard evidence that an exit is imminent. Except this tiny thing: Kristol has rewoken the Website of his Project for the New American Century.
Founded in 1997 by Kristol and former Reagan adviser Gary Schmitt, the PNAC also notably has Randy Scheunemann as a director. It's basically a gaggle of neocons who were obsessed with American hegemony and the invasion of Iraq and disbanded in 2006 because, well, you figure it out. It had strong allies in Paul Wolfowitz, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and Scooter Libby, all of whose influence is winking out (if it hasn't, notably, already). So why has this Website suddenly been resurrected? Well, we don't know. But it stands to reason that if the think tank resumes its work, it would be in an effort to bring back the influence of neoconservative policy at a time when the Democrats in control of Washington are struggling to conquer some nearly insurmountable economic and international obstacles. And everyone knows that William Kristol has thought Sarah Palin is the bright shining hope for the Republican Party ever since he stepped off a cruise ship in Juneau, Alaska, in 2007. So will his interests be aligned? Will the PNAC one day morph into the PAP — Pals of Palin 2012?
Front Page: 'Bangkok,' 'Disaster' misfires cut into revenue -- Saddled with declining theatrical and TV revenues, Lionsgate posted a net loss in the second quarter of $48.1 million, only a bit narrower than its $58 million loss in the year-ago period.
FRAGRANCE
• On his way to conquering everything urban, Marc Ecko picks up fragrances, inking a deal with Parlux Fragrances to launch a men's and women's scent next year. [WWD]
SKIN
• Bergamot oil is a natural deodorizer, so spray it on your pits and get fresh. [BellaSugar]
• Instead of investing in Botox, Annelise Hagen, a New York yoga instructor, created an anti-aging yoga program for your face. Her book, The Yoga Face, promises a natural face-lift … and you'll still be able to emote. [LAT]
MAKEUP
• Sales of lipstick are up 40 percent, with the top 41 shades ranging from N.Y.C. New York Color Ultra Last LipWear in Brandy Sparkle for $1.99 to the Sisley Hydrating long-lasting lipstick in No. L17 for $55. [NYT]
• Makeup artist Fiona Stiles says this trick works: Spray your face with hairspray, and your makeup won't budge. Or, for chalky eyeliner, makeup artist Ashunta Sheriff dips a burnt match in water. Let's get resourceful already. [Spoiled Pretty]
Today brings round 6,589 of the Tenant-Landlord Battle Royale of the 21st Century, when real-estate mogul Alistair Economakis faces off in court once again against the hold-out tenants at his 47 East 3rd Street building. He's been trying to evacuate the rent-stabilized tenants for a few years now to convert the building into his own private mansion, which he's technically allowed to do. Except the tenants believe he really wants to take the building market-rate or condo, and they've raised a quarter-mil to fight him legally. Now he says he'll give tenants the profits if indeed he rents or sells after they leave. Will we all grow old and die before this ends? Possibly. [NYP]
Luigi Benedicenti's Figues (2008). Photo: Courtesy of Bernarducci Meisel Gallery
Luigi Benedicenti's photo-realist paintings are of delicious treats like cream-filled profiteroles, pears dripping in caramel, and the sunniest of sunny-side up breakfast eggs. The paintings themselves are delicious too, on view at Bernarducci Meisel Gallery through December 6.
Phil Donahue has rarely shied away from controversy. On his long-running syndicated talk show, he debated issues including abortion and the death penalty, and his MSNBC show was canceled in 2003, he maintained, because of his antiwar stand.
Unlike with past regime changes, there was no awkwardness between President-elect Barack Obama and President George W. Bush when they met at the White House this afternoon. How do we know? Because there was nothing between them, except a thin layer of cashmere and worsted wool. Dudes could not keep their hands off each other. Obama started the touching, according to the Journal. "Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Mr. Bush's back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room." Sexy. Later, as you can see by flicking through our lovely slideshow, the president returned the favor by attempting to grope the president-elect's behind. What can it all mean?
Tokyo shoppers scored first dibs on the Comme des Garçons for H&M collection when it launched in Japan on Saturday — 2,000 of them, at least. H&M documented the "madness" in a video, which shows the shoppers expressing euphoric glee rather than psycho craziness while lining up in an orderly and methodical manner, even after camping out for 40 hours or more (which is nothing like the pushy Americans we're sure to encounter when it launches in New York this Thursday at 10 a.m.). And although our Eastern friends nabbed the collection a whole week early, we can be thankful that American stores price the items a little cheaper. According to WWD, "The collection's tuxedo jacket for example, retails for 15,990 yen, or $162.85 at current exchange. The same item will retail for $99.00 in the U.S. and 79.90 euros ($101.66) in much of the Eurozone." We just love that thought — cheaper. That said, we kinda wish we saw designer Rei Kawakubo at the Tokyo launch party, where she was spotted meticulously folding shirts to last through the weekend. (Aw!) Shall we console ourselves by shopping? It's less than 72 hours away, so go line up … uh, soon. Check out the full video after the jump.
Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek at what your friends and neighbors are doing behind doors left slightly ajar. Today, the contemplative, not-getting-any college student, 20, female, financial district, straight.
DAY ONE 12:30 p.m.: At school. Contrary to popular belief, there aren’t many romantic options for female college students in New York. Or, I should say, for girls who don’t want to either (a) be in relationships with much older men, (b) have sex with guys who wear bronzer, or (c) hook up with the rare straight college males who are very aware of what a commodity they are. 1 p.m.: I’m walking down the hallway and a guy passes me in skintight, orangey-red pants. He’s on that point between gay and straight that makes him your quintessential New York college male. Despite the odds, I’m on the hunt for a laid-back relationship. I want a boyfriend to go to church with and have emotional intimacy with in this weirdly disconnected city … and also take the air conditioner out of my window. 9:30 p.m.: I think the guy at my corner deli has a crush on me. I’m not really interested, but it’s flattering. 10 p.m.: My friend comes over for dinner. She complains that she hasn’t “gotten any” since spring break when she “had sex with strangers.” I rack my brain for someone to set her up with, but can’t think of anyone.
DAY TWO Noon: I contemplate masturbating this morning to put off my homework, but I feel too lazy to even bother. Maybe like a chameleon, my sex drive has adapted to its surroundings. 2:30 p.m.: Trying to put off my homework even more, I scan through my Facebook account, my BlackBerry, and my in-box trying to think if I am friends with any guys who I haven’t hooked up with already. Zilch. 7:30 p.m.: There is a girl in my class in a mini-miniskirt, a tight, black tank top, and black leather boots. The girls at my school dress like prostitutes. I think the guys like it, but I think they also think less of the girls because of it. The sexual vibrations on campus revolve around women pleasing men. Gen Y has such a diseased relationship with sex.
DAY THREE Noon: I walk by one of “those” Gossip Girl ads with Nate and Blair in the pool, conveniently positioned near three college dorms. I think a lot of college girls live vicariously through Blair’s vagina. 7:30 p.m.: One positive aspect of my college workload is that I don’t even know when I would fit dating into my schedule. Although I can’t speak for all college students: I purposely overschedule myself. I kind of like being so busy. 9 p.m.: I've come to terms with the fact that hooking up doesn't work for me — I need relationships and affection, not its consolation prize. Dating in an age group that wasn’t raised with these things also doesn’t work, though.
DAY FOUR 3 p.m.: Almost all of the kids at school from Long Island, New Jersey, and upstate New York (particularly Westchester) go home very frequently, often to get laid. I’m going up to Albany this weekend. There are a few people I hooked up with in high school who I could text this weekend. 8 p.m. I’m reading through Sex Diary archives and I feel like my diary pales in comparison. Literally nothing interesting can happen in Albany, besides walking my dog and watching TV. But it’s the truth.
DAY FIVE 11:30 a.m.: Brunch, friends. One girl just ended things with her boyfriend of three years. She even nixed his number from her cell phone; good for her. My other brunchmate doesn’t have any interest in getting a boyfriend or pursuing sex, which is a complete mystery to me. I wish I felt content on my own. 2 p.m.: I drive by the park where I lost my virginity and feel really mopey for a minute. I totally didn’t appreciate how gentle the guy was and how carefully he treated me, as opposed to the rough, borderline misogynistic sex in college.
DAY SIX 2:30 p.m.: En route back to the city; my iPod is out of batteries so I’m getting a lot of thinking done. I resent this idea that college students are getting laid all the time. I think the majority of students in this city are sexually frustrated and disappointed. I wonder if it’s easier to find boys in Brooklyn ... or Jersey City?
DAY SEVEN 11 a.m.: I’ve been hysterical all morning: angry and crying and really physically uncomfortable. 2 p.m.: Got period. That explains it. It’s like a surprise every time. God, I’m a walking female stereotype. 7:30 p.m.: I have no plans, so I take myself out on a date. I do my makeup and have solo dinner in midtown. No reason to miss a perfectly good night out ... and it certainly beats eating Cup-O-Noodles in the dorms.
TOTALS: Zero acts of intercourse, fellatio or cunnilingus; one aborted act of masturbation; two gab sessions about boys with girlfriends; one surprise arrival of red tide.
What does it mean to be a friend? Or, more specifically, what does it mean to be a friend of a serial killer? Well, for one thing, you simply don't ask him to snuff out your legal rivals. That's just rude.
But that doesn't stop Miguel from asking Dexter to off Ellen Wolf, the leftie-hippie lawyer who defended Chickie Hines. Miguel uses the classic "She gets murderers off so they can kill again" argument, which Dexter rightly rejects. Miguel, being a Prado, promptly blows his top — but the two make up by the episode's end. They even come perilously close to what Dexter describes as a "man-hug."
But this episode — titled "Easy As Pie" and one of the best in the series history, we'd reckon — is smartly about friendship, loyalty, bonding, and reconciliation. LaGuerta snuggles up to Wolf. Angel accepts the fact that Gianna only wants to be friends, and in doing so, prompts her to start making out with him. (You go, "Fatista"!) Deb sticks her neck out for Anton, the CI, who she's come perilously close to making out with all season until, finally, they start making out. Clearly, the message is this: Good friends get a lot of action.
Most moving, though, is the end, literally, of the Dexter and Camilla story line. Dexter dispatches Camilla at her request, and not with a blade but with a slice of the world's best Key-lime pie. Thus we bid adieu to the great Margo Martindale, who deserves an Emmy for this performance for, at the very least, Most Disturbing Death-Rattle Hacking Cough.
The only blemish this week is the reemergence of Amado, who pops up like the Lucky Charms Elf to tell Deb that, because of Quinn, a cop is dead. Here's an idea, Amado: Stop being so damned (a) insulting and (b) cryptic, and maybe you'll have better luck getting people to share their Lucky Charms with you.
As for the identity of the friendly neighborhood Skinner? The latest guess comes courtesy of our estimable colleague Emily Nussbaum: It's Ciel Prado, Miguel's wife. Think about it: She's ruthless (a real-estate agent), hotheaded (she's a Prado), and prone to saying things such as this, about Dexter's supposed bad influence on her husband: "He'd be a problem I could actually fix." Sure, it would be a bit absurd if she and Dexter wound up in a knife fight, but after an episode this good, the show's earned itself a little leeway.
Karl Lagerfeld is sticking to his diet-obsessed ways. An assistant snitched to Page Six Magazine that the Kaiser wanted our favorite low-cal faux-butter spread while on set in Vermont:
"He requested seven loaves of Pennsylvania Wheat Bread and a tub of I Can't Believe It's Not Butter to be brought directly from New York to the set," the underling says. "My only job was bringing him the bread and the fake butter. Karl paid me $500 to do it, plus he paid off my $200 speeding ticket."
We have something in common with Karl: We're hooked on that buttery taste, too.
"Thou art having sex with someone's mom." Photo: Courtesy of the CW
"Schwartz and Savage say that Gossip Girl is not so much influenced by the young-adult novels by Cecily von Ziegesar on which it is based but — seriously — on the following works: the novels of Edith Wharton and Evelyn Waugh ... And Shakespeare. 'Our writers,' says Savage, 'are much more literate than we are. They really know their Shakespeare.'" Now you know. [NYP]
As much as we love Topshop, perhaps it's time to reconsider fast fashion. Israeli archaeologists dug up a 2,000-year-old gold, emerald, and pearl earring. The bauble dates back to the time of Jesus (yes, Jesus). "It must have belonged to someone of the elite in Jerusalem,'' said Doron Ben-Ami, director of excavation at the site. ''Such a precious item, it couldn't be one of just ordinary people.'' Figures. But if that's not an investment piece, what is? [NYT]
"I want to be involved in that nine-month process. It's like making a baby. You make love, and it's the full way to delivery. How can I be mentally pregnant with the film all the way?" —Jean-Claude Van Damme [NYT]
"All along, I had a real healthy disrespect for Hollywood." —Joel Hodgson on MST3K [NYT]
"I don't want to kill Peggy Bundy. I would just like her to step aside." —Katey Sagal [NYT]
"I was watching Late Night With Conan O'Brien, and I saw Zooey Deschanel singing, and I was like, what the hell — is that her or Katy Perry?" —Jared Followill of Kings of Leon [NYT]
"There is no limit. They never give you an instruction book with money. Everything else you get, you'll get a manual, a pamphlet. Money — we come up with ideas on how to get rid of it." —50 Cent [LAT]
"You know what? Every time I say anything about the ending, I just make things worse." —David Chase on the ending of The Sopranos [LAT]
When Chris March visited our New York offices recently, he didn’t want to spend too much time in the elevator with Dave Hill. Turns out he’s a little claustrophobic! While the former Project Runway contestant shared Dave’s enthusiasm for Heidi Klum, he was a little taken aback by Dave’s description of Seal. Watch the video and join in the mockery of Dave's fashion sense.
NPR's Southern California flagship station KCRW has announced that music director Nic Harcourt — who for the past ten years has served as the host of "Morning Becomes Eclectic," the station's heralded music program — is stepping down. He'll still work as a part-time D.J., hosting a three-hour show on Sunday mornings. The station is "in the process" of selecting a new music director — now's your big chance to apply and convince the world of Third Eye Blind's artistic merits!
Managing editors from at least three Time Inc. titles sent out memos today looking for editorial staff willing to take voluntary buyouts, as part of the company's massive "reorganization": People was looking for eighteen volunteers; Time, twenty; and Sports Illustrated, a whopping 40 bodies. Fortune and Money are also reportedly casting about for volunteers. [All Things D]
They can take our lives, but they'll never take our Prada! Photo: Shanna Ravindra
WWD has a monster of an article today about our dear friend The Economy; contrary to the usual treatment, however, this one's an in-depth exploration of how the financial crisis will affect our fancy European friends. As it turns out, they're not immune over there: Several fashion and luxury-goods houses should batten down the hatches for the next twelve to eighteen months. What to expect?
A drop in revenues almost certainly, with the sector expected to contract in 2009. More seriously, however, industry experts believe there’s a risk of bankruptcy for some firms as heavy leverage cripples their operations.
Companies without debt, like Giorgio Armani SpA, Dolce & Gabbana Srl, and Hermès International should be fine — in fact, there's "significant opportunity" for these houses, should they want to invest during the downturn. But for houses where debt exceeds earnings, there could be trouble on the horizon.
Prada SpA, for starters, finished 2007 with $703 million in net debt. Execs are "convinced that [they] are among those in a better place," financial speaking, but the numbers are such that in September there was speculation that they might sell a minority stake to investors in Dubai (where investors are practically rolled off an assembly line). Escada AG, meanwhile, has cut its annual forecast twice this year and is warning that 2008 may close with bigger losses than 2007's $36.8 million. And IT Holding SpA — which owns Gianfranco Ferré and licenses Just Cavalli, Costume National C'N'C, and Galliano — is "in serious difficulty." They're carrying some $405 million in debt, and their parent company has an additional $178.3 million of debt of its own.
Of course, if and how these companies survive depends a lot on how they've financed everything. But just knowing gloom and doom are a possibility in the European luxury markets is a serious blow to our happy-go-lucky-aspirational-denial coping mechanisms.
The show's bad blender drink of family and fornication gets frothier and more toxic this week. “In a Lonely Place” finds Hank leaning woozily against the bar, trying in vain to refuse a round on the house.
Family
Hank makes needy Ashby promise to keep his paws off underage Mia, but it's obvious even before Hank walks in on them again that Ashby's not to be trusted. Hank tries to get out of his contract, but Charlie advises him that if he doesn't write Ashby's bio, he'll have to make the screenplay for that “punching 'n' fucking” novel that almost-sorta-stepdaughter Mia stole from him.
Hank does a little better with his real daughter, dutifully showing up for a parent-teacher conference. With a flask. A surprisingly hot Justine Bateman plays the teacher, meaning, of course, that she hooks up with Hank. And also meaning, of course, that she's a little troubled herself.
Just in case the show hasn't overplayed the family-fornication dichotomy, it turns out the teacher is Becca's boyfriend's mom. And she's having her period. When Hank walks naked into the kitchen, a startled young Damien looks down and asks, "Mr. Moody? You fucked my mom? Did you hurt her?"
Becca dumps Damien when he calls her dad a dick, but she finally accepts that, well, Hank is a dick, and inspires her to deliver unto Hank the show's moral: “If you keep cracking jokes and taking another drink and pretending life is one big party, you will miss everything.”
Charlie, meanwhile, continues playing daddy for Daisy. When he finds out her old manager wants them to buy out her contract — and that Marcy spent their secret stash on drugs — he gives him the keys to his sports car. We're going to trust that his interest in her career is mostly paternal, but we can't quite figure out Marcy's motive in insisting that Daisy join mama and papa bear in their bed, rather than letting Charlie make up the guest room. Either Marcy's trying to compensate for that coke problem, or Charlie is (and we could say this every episode) one very lucky man.
Fornication
See above. Also: Hank is slowly closing in on Ashby's one-who-got-away, Jamie Jones. We urge the writers to speed up this subplot, so the target audience can resume living vicariously through its good-natured bad boy, rather than feeling skeeved out every single second of the show.
Bowing to intense pressure from fans of 2003's Bulletproof Monk and decades-old episodes of American Gladiators, MGM will become the first major studio to post full-length movies and TV shows that nobody really wants to watch on YouTube. The initial lineup will include mostly old films like The Magnificent Seven, assuming they've not all been posted already by YouTube users without permission. [NYT]
Glam Paris strip cabaret, the Crazy Horse, is signing up celebrated French dancer and choreographer Philippe Decoufle, seen here in 2007, as its new artistic director. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 10 Nov 2008 | 6:10 pm
Last week, Tina Brown's Daily Beast Website revealed sketches from former Project Runway contestants showing how they'd dress Michelle Obama for the big inauguration. Turns out the design of Jay McCarroll, the first PR winner, was actually by musician Jay McCarrol whom the Daily Beast contacted by mistake. The musician said he was just "fucking around" and had his 20-year-old friend at Ryerson University complete the design, while he wrote the artist statement, which included "God Bless America Bitches." Upon hearing she got duped, Brown pulled the design from the site. Way to tackle that beast. [Smoking Gun via Jezebel]
When last we checked in on poor Baz Luhrmann, he was still frantically trying to edit his $130 million WWII epic Australia down into a concise 170 minutes to make the film's rapidly advancing release date ("It's a little like landing a jumbo jet on an aircraft carrier in a storm," he said last week). Now, according to reports, he's bowed to studio pressure to change the movie's ending. Warning: Spoilers ahead, obviously!
Hey, at least he made it to the end, right? Apparently Fox executives were worried by test audiences' "disastrous reviews" of a rough cut of Australia, in which Hugh Jackman's character — hey, we weren't kidding about that spoiler alert! — died in the final minutes (were these the same Fox executives who previously tried to convince us that Jackman was "rough-hewn," like a "young Clint Eastwood"?). But after "intense discussions," Luhrmann's agreed to a more uplifting finale, probably because he just wants to be done with this thing already ("I wouldn't say we are within schedule, but it's possibly within reach," he told the Telegraph). Now, presumably, instead of being exploded during a Japanese air raid, Jackman's unnamed ranch-hand character will escape with a few light scratches and be invited to host the Tonys.
Austrlian actress Nicole Kidman, seen here in October 2008, is set to play the world's first transsexual in an independent film starring fellow best actress Oscar-winner Charlize Theron, it was reported... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 10 Nov 2008 | 5:28 pm
Chaos erupted for Britney Spears and her family when son Jayden reportedly suffered a suspected seizure yesterday afternoon, the U.K.s Daily Mail is reporting Source: FOXNews.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 3:20 pm
Front Page: Feature set for release in spring 2009 -- L.A.-based First Independent Pictures has picked up U.S. rights to Matt Aselton's comedy "Gigantic," starring Paul Dano and Zooey Deschanel. Pic will be released in the spring.
Evan Rachel Wood is defending her relationship and her recent breakupwith Marilyn Manson, People magazine is reporting. Source: FOXNews.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:32 pm
An Italian Red Cross ambulance transports star Miriam Makeba to hospital after her performance in Castelvolturno, near Naples, Italy. Makeba, the singer who became the musical symbol of the black struggle... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:24 pm
Miriam Makeba, the musical symbol of black South Africans' struggle against apartheid, has died at the age of 76 after collapsing at a concert in Italy. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:24 pm
French-Afghan writer and film director Atiq Rahimi (centre) poses outside the Drouant restaurant -- where the Goncourt' jury works -- in Paris after receiving France's top book prize, the Goncourt, for... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 10 Nov 2008 | 1:18 pm
Director Robert Rodriguez was not only captivated by screen siren Rose McGowan's beauty, but by her dirty mouth as well Source: FOXNews.com | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:46 pm
Reuters - It wasn't as monumental as the Who "Live at Leeds." The special-guest Dylan was Jakob, not Bob, and the Who frontman Roger Daltrey was nowhere to be found. Nonetheless, Townshend at the Troubadour on Friday was pretty damn special. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 10 Nov 2008 | 12:20 pm
Who's putting the fun in dysfunctional? The Petrellis, that's who!
Something tells me Peter (Milo Ventimiglia) and Adrian (Adrian Pasdar) will be in need of some...
Britney's little boy is back with his family tonight.
The pop star was spotted carrying son Jayden James out of Southwest Mississippi Regional Medical Center and into a waiting SUV...
George Carlin may not have been around to accept the award in bodily form, but some of the big names who were inspired by his sharp brand of funny made sure he was there in spirit.
Jon...
There's fan fiction and video tributes, so we know others sense the strong attraction between the Twilight series and Bonnie Tyler's 1983 hit "Total Eclipse of the...
Can you believe Dancing With the Stars is down to the final five already?
The stakes doubled for Cody Linley, Lance Bass, Brooke Burke, Maurice Greene and Warren Sapp Monday, with each...
Not one, but two of the fan favorites pictured above will be doing the deed—and, yes, planting a seed!—very soon.
Will it be Sylar on Heroes?
Dwight (and Angela)...
Good news for all you who were "devastated" by Heidi Montag's "firing" last week on The Hills.
(Please imagine the biggest of all quotation marks ever around those...
The next piece of scrap metal WALL-E picks up could be Oscar gold.
The critically acclaimed Disney-Pixar collaboration was one of 14 movies submitted for consideration in the Best...
BOYS LIFE: David Beckham, taking his Brooklyn and Romeo to an L.A. Lakers game after spending the weekend at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego.
BOWLING PARTY: Julia Roberts,...
