AP - Country singer Mindy McCready claims she broke off her relationship with Roger Clemens when the former baseball star wouldn't marry her, according to an interview to be broadcast Monday by the syndicated show "Inside Edition." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:59 pm
AP - Country singer Mindy McCready claims she broke off her relationship with Roger Clemens when the former baseball star wouldn't marry her, according to an interview to be broadcast Monday by the syndicated show "Inside Edition." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 18 Nov 2008 | 1:59 pm
AP - The son of an Arab monarch took the King of Pop to court Monday, charging that Michael Jackson took $7 million as an advance on an album and an autobiography that he never produced.
Reuters - Those Beverly Hills Chihuahuas might have run their course, but a Hollywood White Shepherd efficiently marks his territory in "Bolt," an animated adventure about a canine action hero who's inadvertently shipped from his studio to the East Coast.
AP - Leonard Bernstein was as much a teacher as a conductor and composer. Now, the post boomer generation Bernstein's musical grandchildren have taken the stage, and perhaps just in time for classical music.
Reuters - The ill-fated lovers of "Titanic" reunite in "Revolutionary Road," but this time Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet find their characters run aground in a disastrous mid-1950s marriage.
Actress Nicole Kidman, actor Hugh Jackman (left) and actor David Gulpilil (right) with co-star Brandon Walters Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:56 am
Aboriginal child star Brandon Walters (centre) stole the scene from film stars Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman Tuesday as he spoke about working on the country's biggest film, "Australia" Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 18 Nov 2008 | 7:56 am
Tonight's episode of Heroes was delicious, and not just because of Hiro's waffles. Claire and Angela Petrelli identified the key to the formula, star-crossed lovers Daphne and Matt grew...
Consider this a sign of the Apocalypse: Frontrunner Brooke Burke scored lower than Cody Linley on tonight's Dancing with the Stars. Scary, right? And yet we know the 11-year-old girls of the...
E! Online - Consider this a sign of the Apocalypse: Frontrunner Brooke Burke scored lower than Cody Linley on tonight's Dancing with the Stars. Scary, right? And yet we know the 11-year-old girls of the world have good cause to celebrate during recess tomorrow!
The holiday movie season is a chance to see old friends and make new ones. James Bond is back; so are Leonardo DiCaprio and Kate Winslet. And then there are the vampires of "Twilight," based on the best-selling series of books.
The makers of 3121 are none too happy with Prince's performance.
Revelations Perfume and Cosmetics Inc. has sued the artist and Universal Music Publishing Group for $100,000,...
It was go time Monday for Dancing With the Stars' final four, made up of the swift-footed celebrities graceful—and popular—enough to make it into the semifinals.
So did...
Judging by her weekend handiwork, Courtney Love seems nothing but energetic.
But the former Hole frontwoman retook to her blog Monday to refute reports that she is suicidal, although she...
Mindy McCready admits that she has "lived life recklessly" and made a lot of mistakes, not the least of which was entering into an affair with a married man when she was a...
Fine. You were right. There. I said it.
After spending weeks trying to resist the charms of HBO's cult series True Blood (and you vocal fans), I got sucked into a marathon and am...
Even the Southern California wildfires can't stop Twilight fans from trying to get a look at Robert Pattinson.
About 250 people have been camped out since yesterday in front of...
David Duchovny's lawyer answered the phone and it was London calling—with an apology.
Britain's Daily Mail on Monday printed a retraction and apologized for an Oct. 19...
(AP)
AP - The four-letter words are intact but just about everything else is amiss in the slack, unsatisfying Broadway revival of David Mamet's "American Buffalo."
Reebok launched its first-ever pop-up shop on Saturday, in a two-story, 3,000-square-foot art gallery on Bowery. In honor of next year's 20th anniversary of the Reebok Pump, the neon-splashed space is inspired by eighties New York style and stocked with vintage sneaker styles. The limited-edition designs were inspired by the men's Pump and women's Freestyle shoes, which a Reebok spokesperson called "eighties staples." Stocked with T-shirts printed with "169 Bowery," hoodies by Reebok and Rolland Berry, and waves of candy-colored footwear, the pop-up will introduce a different New York–themed item each week, from a "Bodega NYC" shoe printed with the image of an ATM machine to Coney Island–inspired men's Ventilator sneakers. Reebok also enlisted guest designers to collaborate on sneakers, like graphic artist John Maeda, Dean of the Rhode Island School of Design. Limited-edition footwear starts at $90. Click ahead to see exclusive images of the store.
The Reebok Flash pop-up, 169 Bowery, nr. Kenmare St.; Tue.–Wed. (11–7), Thu.–Sat. (10–7), Sun. (11–6). Through December 14.
The Guardian, in a source-less story, is reporting that Hillary Clinton will accept Barack Obama's offer for the position of Secretary of State. "Clinton plans to accept the job of secretary of state offered by Barack Obama, who is reaching out to former rivals to build a broad coalition administration, the Guardian has learned," the paper says. We're a little skeptical—why would a British paper get the scoop on this? But then, they are known for being a little quicker with the gossip over there. [Guardian]
Morgan Stanley CEO John Mack didn't think he'd spend his birthday this way, affixed to a screen watching shares of his bank drop to $11.22 apiece, and taking along with it a chunk of his savings. Of course, Lloyd chose today to give up his bonus, the insensitive dick, and now John will probably have to, too. Again. Everywhere he looked, it seemed, the world was falling apart around him — the Dow closed down 220 points, Bank of America was down 8.5 percent, BlackRock, Putnam, Fidelity … Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit had had perhaps the roughest day of all: He'd had to announce layoffs of over 50,000 people worldwide, and insiders told the New York Times that he was "struggling to retain control" of the giant. But Pandit, like him, would be fine, Mack reasoned; they had millions to fall back on, unlike most of the approximately 70,000 New York finance professionals Moody's is now predicting will be out of work by 2010. He'd make a wish for them on his birthday cake tonight, he decided. It was the least he could do.
It's holiday-window time! Don't roll your eyes. True, lots of department stores will go the predictable Santa Claus, fake snow, mistletoe, Christmas tree route, prompting tourists to block sidewalks to gawk as if these items were treasures unique to Manhattan. But not Barneys. They've traded holly wreaths for Afro wreaths to spread holiday cheer, hippie-style. Simon Doonan was inspired to do a sixties holiday-window theme this year after reading Tom Brokaw's book about the decade, Boom! Voices of the Sixties: Personal Reflections on the '60s and Today. The windows also pay homage to the peace sign's 50th anniversary, and showcase peace sign–inspired outfits by designers like Derek Lam, Proenza Schouler, Diane Von Furstenberg, Stella McCartney, and more. Brokaw lent his star power to the momentous window ribbon-cutting ceremony yesterday. See that and the new windows in the slideshow.
Recently, the hair-restoration company Bosley, which usually targets the George Costanzas and Rogaine-loving men of the world, announced the latest addition to their hair-plug repertoire: Eyebrow Transplantation. Let's add emphasis to express bewilderment: Eyebrow. Transplants. Yeah. And they're after you, ladies! Ever seen a woman with overplucked eyebrows and she looks like a hairless cat? Meet Bosley's prime target.
The process involves taking hair from where it's finest (the nape of the neck or the temples), and placing it in the brow to fill in bald spots and reshape brows. It takes three months for them to grow in "naturally." We're not registered medical professionals or anything, but this isn't on the top of our list for vanity procedures. Just the sound of it is unpleasant. But, on the other hand, is it sad that we empathize with these people? The Art of the Pluck is a difficult skill to master, after all. And although plucking is painful and can lead to the picture on the above left, it's also immediately gratifying. But the key is restraint, sisters, because you can't hide bad brows. So, please, keep them filled out.
The contemporary-art market took a sobering blow in last week's auctions, but the hundreds of people who turned out for Performa's Metal Ball on Saturday found the mood to be redolent less of 1929 Wall Street than of 1929 Wiemar, Germany. Inspired by the Metallic Festival of that year thrown by Bauhaus artist Oscar Schlemmer, the $1,000-per-plate dinner and dance party featured a scattering of performances throughout the evening, including a theremin recital accompanied by a video from artist Jesper Just, and a politically minded line dance called "The Prop 8 Two Step Backwards" that was led by the two-woman group robbinschilds. But the real draw was the crowd, an upbeat slice of the art world — from David Byrne and Cindy Sherman, who came from her opening at Metro Pictures, to Rufus Wainwright and Studio Museum in Harlem director Thelma Golden — who came gilded in metallic-colored clothing to support the fledgling performance-art organization.
"It's a great party; the atmosphere is very relaxed," said Italian artist Francesco Vezzoli, who wore a pair of silver-lamé socks in the spirit of the event. Others approached the theme with greater gusto, like MoMA curator Klaus Biesenbach, who dyed his hair a bright copper, or dance artist Caitlin Kirby, who wore a full-body, silver-spandex suit. (A team of "wardrobe specialists" was on hand to make silver-Mylar turbans and other accoutrements for any non-shiny guests.) Enough people came to raise about $250,000. "You know, New Yorkers are real survivors," said Performa director, RoseLee Goldberg, who wore a stringy metallic-silver dress. "We tend to almost like it when things are tough, and then when it's too easy, it tends to slow." The economic crisis has made bringing the art world together important, according to Goldberg. "That's what this is about, creating community, creating a sense of possibility," she said. "When I came to New York in the seventies it was all about meeting people and talking to people and ideas. Without any nostalgia that's what I'm really trying to reinvigorate."
Writer Anthony Haden-Guest said the party, which struck him as something out of sixties London, was a reminder that the state of the top of the market has little trickle-down effect on working artists. "I tend to think that even if the world of expensive art gets incredibly bad for a while that it won't affect this kind of world," he said. "Most of these people don't care at all if Roman Abramovich paid $100 million for a painting." But while the stage shows played on and people alternately mobbed the bars and took to the dance floor, Dennis Oppenheim, one of the fathers of performance art, remembered when the medium had a more austere character. "Real performance art as it was initially, coming from the seventies, was not that entertaining," he said, sitting at a table to the side of the stage. "It was quite boring. If you look at the early tapes of Nauman and Acconci and so forth; they were very clinical, they were really done as an almost tutorial thing about theory, and it wasn't really made for an audience. But it morphed into what we're now looking at; it's quite different." We asked Oppenheim, who long ago changed over to making large-scale public architectural works, if he had worn any metallic accessory to the party. "No, I don't really take this stuff seriously," he said. "I don't know. I'm jaded, and I'm a cynic."
Christopher Lloyd picked through the charred remnants of his Montecito, California, home Monday morning, resigning himself to the fact it cannot be rebuilt.
AP - "Arctic Drift" (G.P. Putnam's Sons, 515 pages, $27.95), by Clive Cussler and Dirk Cussler: Everything you've heard about global warming is true, and it may already be too late to save humanity from mortal peril. The world is on a crash program to curtail its greenhouse gas emissions, driving gasoline prices through the roof. And Canada is about to declare war on the United States.
Richie Rich, whom we really can't see hiking through Bryce Canyon, has spoken out against the entire state of Utah following the Mormon Church's support of Proposition 8. "I wish we could blow up Utah," he said at Friday's Out 100 event. But since it's Richie, we suspect he's not serious. "I got married in a gingerbread house and Jenna Jameson was my bridesmaid," he said, confirming our notion. See more hate for Prop 8 from Cheyenne Wilson, Wilson Cruz, and Adele by viewing our Party Lines slideshow.
Twilight. Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and Goldman mouthpiece Lucas van Praag are alone in his office. They're looking at the computer, which is open to the New York Times Website, to a page that says Swiss bank UBS has "followed their lead" and sworn off bonuses for its top executives, and New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo is urging Citigroup to do the same.
Van Praag: "We really did it, didn't we?" Blankfein: [Nods] "Everyone wants to be us." Van Praag: "No, sir — [he casts his eyes downward demurely and Blankfein can't help but notice how long and lustrous his lashes are] "Everyone wants to be you." Blankfein: "That's true."
They look into each other's eyes, and a flicker of something passes between them.
Van Praag: [Nodding briskly] "Well, I'd best be going, sir. I hope you get everything you want for Christmas." Blankfein: [Throatily] "I think I already have."
But it wasn't all boobs and celebrities in Times Square. Something about TRL helped to fashion the identity of the New York landmark. "Just as New York was sort of reasserting itself as a tourist destination, MTV and TRL became kind of a mecca for any kids who are interested in pop culture and pop music," former V.J. John Dave Holmes said.
"When I first got there, there were signs from a few fans who were from one of the boroughs, like I'm from Brooklyn, I'm from Queens," original V.J. Carson Daly explained. "And then it was, I'm from Connecticut, I'm from Pennsylvania, and then it was I'm from California, I'm from Puerto Rico."
An average of 1.97 million viewers tune into Stylista on the CW each week. This is fewer viewers than the new 90210, which gets 3.1 million, and Gossip Girl, which gets 3.2 million. But it's far more than The Rachel Zoe Project, which only got 688,000 a week. We think The Rachel Zoe Project is more entertaining than Stylista, but, sadly, only one show can reap the benefits of airing right after America's Next Top Model. [WWD]
"I'm going to do what we need to do to keep the system strong but I'm not going to be looking to start up new things unless they're necessary, unless they make great sense," Mr. Paulson said. "I want to preserve the firepower, the flexibility we have now and those that come after us will have." [WSJ]
MAKEUP
• Pete Wentz won't wear eyeliner anymore. "It became too expected. I like the way my eyes look now. I felt I looked too injured and tired and like I’d been punched. Now I look awake." What is the world coming to? [StyleCrunch]
• Rachel Clark's latest editorial in Russian Vogue features nine makeup looks that include purple eye shadow, fire-y cheeks, and blue eyebrows. Now that's how you showcase makeup. [Supreme Model Management]
NAILS
• Solange Knowles thinks that the nail art she's been wearing for the past two years is worthy of art museums. [Off The Rack/People]
HAIR
• P. Diddy requires the ladies in his life to get Brazilian waxes, of which he's no stranger himself. "If men require women to go through the pain, we should return the favor." Thank you. [Jezebel]
SKIN
• Model Carol Alt is launching a skin-care line inspired by her raw-food diet. Starting next month, the four-item line will be sold on HSN. [WWD]
Real-estate investor, Observer owner, and Ivanka-converter Jared Kushner has some advice for people looking to buy real estate. "There's nothing too obnoxious that you can ask for right now," he told an audience at an Observer-sponsored panel last week. "Right now a lot of the real-estate brokers, for the first time in a long time, have to earn their commissions." So if you don't want to pay an extra $100 per square foot just because there is a built-in espresso machine (and Jared doesn't want to — he doesn't drink coffee) or drawers that close slowly by themselves, then you shouldn't have to. And if you want to work with your own contractor, these days you might just be able to.
But that's not why you should watch this embedded video. You should watch it to listen closely to Jared's slight-but-consistent New York accent. We'd never detected it before. It's like he's one of Woody Allen's weirdly handsome and well-to-do friends from his early movies. Or a judge on Law & Order named Maury!
We can't wait to hear what his kids talk like, when they combine with Ivanka Trump's preppy Serena van der Woodsen lisp ...
Lenny Kravitz's amazing penthouse at 30 Crosby Street, which Curbed aptly calls a "moody orgy palace," has been on the market for six years, first offered in 2002 at $17 mil, down to $13 mil by 2005, way up to $19.5 mil last spring after a redecoration, and now down again to $18.75 mil. This time around, though, marketers are wisely featuring an added perk: When you hook up your iPod to the amazing sound system and play "Fly Away" or "Dig In," you will be made love to by Kravitz's dreadlocked, neo-Hendrixian aura. And that feels even better than positioning yourself just so in a four-jet Jacuzzi. [Curbed]
Bogdan Rata’s foot-slash-hand (fand? hoot?) looks like something out of the trailer for J.J. Abrams’s Star Trek. Somebody got themselves trapped in a transporter and ended up looking slightly gnarly. The image is part of a group show of contemporary Romanian art at SLAG Gallery opening this Thursday, through February 7.
Scarlett Johansson, who we liked, then were annoyed by, but now like again due to our crush on her husband, talked to Allure about being pervy old Woody Allen's muse. "I'm just lucky to fit into the 'young woman' category in his movies. But make no mistake, I know that if it wasn't me, it would be someone else." [via Us]
The Slatkin family on October 20, largely devoid of bling.
Despite the current economic climate, rich people are still rich. However, they're starting to feel self-conscious about their wealth, according to the New York Times. In a time when everyone's cutting back, consuming conspicuously just doesn't feel right. So they're consuming non-conspicuously. Legend has it, according to Why We Buy author, Paco Underhill, someone purchased an Audi S4 high-performance sedan and asked to have the nameplate removed “so only the person who really knew what they were looking at would know what it is.” As for the fashion set, the Times reports:
Today, bejeweled fashionistas are pegged as tone-deaf Marie Antoinettes. “It’s not good taste in our business to walk into a party loaded with the biggest diamonds you can find,” said Bud Konheim, the chief executive of Nicole Miller. “You don’t brag about paying $10,000 for a dress for a party. The feeling now is, so what are you telling us? You’re either a sucker or showing off when people have lost jobs.”
The president of Swiss luxury-watch company Vacheron predicts the age of "bling bling" will make way for an era of subtle luxury, since people don't want to be flashy. Alexandra Lebenthal, contributing editor to New York Social Diary, tells the Times that socialites are embracing sales.
It has become fashionable, she said, for socialites to talk enthusiastically about sample sales, eBay bargains and postponements at the hair salon in the interests of thrift.
Harry Slatkin, founder of Slatkin & Co. home-fragrance company, detailed the harrowing state of his wife's 50th-birthday party. They were going to have it at the Four Seasons, but canceled it in favor of celebrating at home with "defrosted White Castle cheeseburgers served on silver trays." At least in the comfort of their own home, they can wear their diamonds and Rolexes without feeling like they're doing something wrong. Turning 50 is hard enough — no one wants to feel guilty about it, too.
Acting in solidarity with laid-off workers, Hollywood's pampered actors are quitting their well-paid gigs for less glamorous ones: Joaquin Phoenix quit acting for music, Clint Eastwood quit acting for directing, and, in a shocking development, Angelina Jolie announced that "I don't plan to keep acting very long." But this could be just the first wave of self-imposed layoffs. Who's next? Alec Baldwin, Pamela Anderson, and Mena Suvari, for starters. After the jump, we list 24 actors who may quit next.
Clint Eastwood: "[Gran Torino] will probably be my last. I'll be drummed out of it after this one. Every time you do a movie you think, 'Aw, that's enough of that.'"
Joaquin Phoenix: "This will be my last performance as an actor."
Freddie Prinze Jr.: 'I'm going to stop acting in the next few years because it's just too weird."'
Sean Connery: "The time has come because of my rather unfortunate last movie. The cost to me in terms of frustration and avoiding going to jail for murder cannot have continued."
Gwyneth Paltrow: "I hated acting... Acting and the whole circus around it.”
Lindsay Lohan: "I hate Hollywood and I don't want to work there."
Alec Baldwin: "I believe it is time for me to do something else. It's absolutely, unequivocally time for me to do something else... I can't do this anymore. It's all about compromising. I hate work. I fucking hate it in every way."
Kevin Spacey: "I don't care about my personal acting career any more. I'm done with it."
Nicolas Cage: "I’m tired of it. It has made me reclusive. That is an increasingly gnawing feeling in my body."
Hayden Christensen: "I don't find Hollywood interesting, so I'm thinking about studying architecture instead."
Audrey Tatou: "I know I'm not the best actress in the world and not the worst but I think that maybe I'd be happier doing something that doesn't leave me so exposed."
Hugh Grant:: "It's so long and boring and so difficult to get right."
Eddie Murphy: "Thirty years and I have close to 50 movies and it is like, 'Why am I in the movies? I've done that part now. I'll go back to the stage and do stand-up.'"
Mena Suvari: "I don't have a strong desire to be an actress my whole life--it's just not fulfilling enough for me... If I hadn't got into modeling, I probably would have studied psychology and might be working on a PHD right now."
Ricky Gervais: "I'm not going to make a career of it [acting], certainly not. I've never wanted to be an actor. I've never thought of myself as one."
Madonna: "I hate to admit it, but I've decided to give [acting] up."
Uma Thurman: "I am thinking about becoming a stay-at-home mom."
Tom Selleck: "A dog was killed — trampled to death — and it really disturbed me... I remember saying to my agent, 'If this is what it's like, I've got to find another line of work."
Vavelta is a new treatment for concealing scars and fine lines that involves injecting the skin with cells derived from foreskins donated by mothers of babies circumcised in U.S. hospitals. This "seems to rejuvenate and restructure ageing and damaged skin from the inside by repopulating the lower layers of the skin with millions of healthy young skin cells." One woman used it to treat acne scars on her face. Other trial subjects say it reverses aging. Unlike Botox, Vavelta is permanent. Yummy. [Daily Mail via Jezebel]
The focus of this year's Victoria's Secret Fashion show was "glamour, sophistication and the return to elegance," said chief costume designer, Todd Thomas. The annual glitter-and-flesh fest was filmed Saturday at the newly renovated Fontainebleau Hotel in Miami. Usher performed twice. Former Victoria's Secret Fashion Show performer Seal watched from the audience as his wife, Heidi Klum, walked the runway three times, flirted with Usher, stole Usher's fedora, and managed not to knock the other models down with a giant sequined bow strapped to her back. Adriana Lima modeled the $5 million, 1,500-karat bra and Alessandra Ambrosio strapped on some giant wings for a strut. She had a baby three months ago, but of course you'd never be able to tell since her body looks perfect. The show airs December 3 on CBS, but you can see the sophistication and elegance for yourself right now in the slideshow.
"Going Down and Out in Beverly Hills" drags out Hank's anticipation of Janie Jones for yet another episode, but offers up her cleaning lady for a temp job. Karen finds out about Mia and Ashby. Charlie plays cat and mouse with Daisy, while Marcy sobers up, or doesn't. And we discover that if we want to see an epic of personal redemption and forgiveness like we remembered Californication being, we might as well watch True Blood.
Fornication
Hank, fully clothed and accessorized with sunglasses, Scotch, and a cigarette, interviews a bikini-clad Janie Jones and her perfect ass. She thinks Ashby and his girl-who-got-away myth are full of shit. Recognizing that Hank is also full of shit, she pushes him into the pool, but not before explaining why she left Ashby: When she saw him helping a Sheryl Crow wannabe write a song, she realized that the exchange was more intimate than sex and that she was tired of sharing him.
Hank retires to the pool house to change out of those wet clothes and into something more comfortable — specifically, the outfit of a racist idiot. He clumsily chats up the maid in the most offensive Spanglish since that Adam Sandler vehicle. But, whaddaya know, it works. Their tryst is briefly interrupted by Janie's philandering, domineering husband, Ron, but that just provides knight-in-shining-armor Hank with an opportunity to save a damsel in distress: He warns Ron that he's committing sexual harassment and that if he fires the maid, he'll tell his wife all about it. But Janie doesn't mind sharing Ron with the maid, or sharing Hank with her; she tells him that if he wants to continue the interview, he'll just have to ask her out.
Meanwhile, Charlie has sent Marcy to her mother's desert retirement community to kick the coke habit. He also sets up a meeting with the president of Intense Entertainment, who tells them that if Daisy will sufficiently augment her breasts, there's a lucrative job waiting for her. When Charlie counsels that the great stars don't need boob jobs, Daisy is so touched by the compliment that she uses her vagina pretzel power to cure his premature ejaculation problem. Even more effective than Daisy's Jedi vadge trick: a phone call from Charlie's mother-in-law, informing him that Marcy never showed.
Family
Mia plays the worst Sheryl-wannabe ever, serenading Ashby with a monstrosity that should prove she didn't write that book she stole from Hank. Hank doesn't seem inordinately upset to find that Ashby has failed to go cold turkey on the girl, but when Karen and Becca spot Mia jumping into what could only be Ashby's limo, Karen dives into battle, marching right over to the Ashby mansion to give him a lecture on real estate and age-appropriate dating. It's an impressive showing, until she somehow tumbles down the stairs. Ashby patches her up — and kisses her to make it better. She storms off, but we can guess all too well what's going to happen here. If she can't quite quit the asshole that is Hank, Karen doesn't stand a chance against this master of assholery.
Still: Mission accomplished, for now. Karen has distracted Ashby from her almost stepdaughter, and she freaks Hank the fuck out when she tells him Ashby's a great kisser. He — like us — can only gape in horror. Again.
Speaking during celebrations to commemorate German Unity Day last month, Chancellor Angela Merkel stressed the importance of historical awareness. Young Germans in particular need to learn more about the country's communist past, Merkel said.
Though many in the fashion world look at Lauren "LC" Conrad as a fumbling celebrity designer, we have to give her some slack — the girl knows how to market herself. She went right to her biggest fans to make an impact, targeting sorority girls with a national college tour to promote her latest collection. And we didn't want to miss it. Last weekend marked the last stop, closing out at The Estate, a club in Boston, where she sent a supportive, and downright bubbly, bunch of 300 into a tizzy with her appearance. Noticeably bothered by the camera flashes, LC huddled behind the balcony while snapping some BlackBerry photos of the packed house, even though you could barely see the fifteen-foot runway among the sea of blonde hair and belted American Apparel dresses in the audience. Why wasn't Lauren backstage, we wondered? That's what fashion designers do! But, we guess she wanted to be with the people, her people. After the ten sorority models walked (who had to compete to get into the show), she popped out to say thank-you remarks, though she was quickly hushed by the high-pitched, valley-girl screams of her loyal minions. And loyal they are: "Wearing her clothing line tonight was really an honor," said Kimberly Landry, 20, of Northeastern University, who was one of the ten models. But is it worth it? "A cotton dress for $200 is overpriced, just because of the name that’s on it? Come on," a spectator named Andrea told us. "But, I mean, I would totally buy it, just because it’s a Lauren Conrad dress, I totally would." We've seen a glimpse of our future American women, people, and they're all dressing like Lauren Conrad. Totally. Scary.
''Beware the passion project. It's so predictable: 'Now that I have a hit, I can tell that story about the transsexual horse whisperer!''' —Robert Downey Jr. [EW]
"There's a place for it. I think people will enjoy it if you're actually in love or going through something." —50 Cent on Kanye West's upcoming album, 808s & Heartache [MTV]
"The life of an actor can be very enviable. If the phone rings and somebody says, 'I see you as the leader of a group of aliens with enormous heads,' I think that's fantastic." —Wallace Shawn on playing aliens and Upper East Side lawyers [NYT]
"Who cares about fame and fortune? I'm going to be a plush animal." —Mark Walton, voice of Rhino in the upcoming Bolt [NYT]
"People come from three states away and walk up to you trembling. I feel that I am at a disadvantage here because I can't provide this mystical thing that they came for in the two seconds we have." —Robert Pattinson needs at least ten minutes with every Twilight fan [NYT]
"You could eat sushi off my bookshelf. My cleaning regime is like a battleground. I'm Genghis Khan and my cleaning products are my Mongolian army and I take no prisoners." —Ryan Adams [Guardian]
AP - When Virginia Woolf's groundbreaking novel "The Waves" was published in 1931, she said she was "writing to a rhythm and not to a plot," and referred to the book as a "playpoem." How fitting, then, for the fanciful, often playful air created by British director Katie Mitchell's multimedia theatrical adaptation of the work, titled "Waves."
Amanda Harlech's daughter, Tallulah, plays a Chanel model in the short film directed by Karl Lagerfeld that will open Chanel's pre-fall show. "Karl has a very specific way he wants you to walk and look and turn,” she says. “Karl is hilarious. As serious and scary as he looks, he tells the best jokes.” Indeed? We are so jealous. [WWD]
Reaction to Jimmy Fallon's imminent takeover of Late Night has wavered somewhere in between polite indifference and train wreck–anticipating bloodlust, but things are looking up: the Roots may be moving in with Fallon as the show's house band! A clip of ?uestlove apparently breaking the news has been pulled from YouTube, as has an item on the Roots-affiliated Okayplayer site (cached here), but a review of the Chicago show confirms it, and the Sound of Young America blog has ?uestlove's original blog post on the subject, in which he talks about the band cutting back on touring and how, after only two visits to NBC, he's "already on first name basis with the snl cats." (So does this all mean front man Black Thought will be missing in action, like when the Roots backed Jay-Z on MTV Unplugged?) And now we just await official confirmation that ?uestlove will indeed have a chance to become the greatest late-night second banana since Andy Richter.
La Scala opera chief Stephane Lissner, seen here in May 2008, said Monday he would remain at the prestigious Milan institution until at least 2013, quashing press speculation that he was set to leave for... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Nov 2008 | 5:45 pm
Following the debut of the new, better-than-expected trailer for Tom Cruise's upcoming eye patched–Nazi adventure Valkyrie three weeks ago, MGM is in the midst of an ambitious and optimistic marketing campaign to clear up any misconceptions people might have about the movie: "Let's face it, there was a time when the movie wasn't on track; it is now," an anonymous tipster tells today's Times, as studio insiders claim they're "successfully repositioning the film as a character-driven suspense thriller" instead of the "hilarious madcap Nazi comedy" that we always had it pegged for.
And how are they accomplishing this? By aggressively downplaying the involvement of Tom Cruise, of course! Billboards for the movie surround "a barely recognizable figure of Mr. Cruise" with five other actors, and feature the ensemble-highlighting tagline, "The conspiracy begins this December." New online promotions for the movie have put greater emphasis on its director, Brian Singer. Also, that new trailer — in which a certain lead actor does appear, despite the finest efforts of its editors, we're sure — makes extensive use of newly shot battle-scene footage of Cruise without his hilarious eye patch. And with Valkyrie's release still more than a month away, MGM should have just enough time to change the film's title and digitally replace all its Nazis with wisecracking Chihuahuas.
We've seen many sides of Dexter over the years: Lover, killer, blood spatter–analyzer, waffle lore–inventor. But this week we see a side of Dexter we haven't seen before: teacher. Also: moron.
Don’t get us wrong. We're generally big fans of the Dexter-Miguel storyline. (Emmys for everyone!) We are, however — much like Dexter's spectral, omnipresent father — a little surprised at how quickly and completely Dexter's taken Miguel on as his pupil. During the scene in which Dexter preps Miguel to kill Fleeter, the bookie enforcer, we kept waiting for Dexter to add, "Oh, by the way, there's one more thing you need to know before we do this: I'M A PSYCHOPATH. I LACK HUMAN EMPATHY AND THE ABILITY TO FEEL REMORSE."
Because Miguel, for all his stories of kicking his abusive father down the stairs and subsequently feeling "the darkness," isn't a psychopath — or, worse, he is one, in which case you probably don't want to be teaching him how to be a better killer. This is all addressed, of course, in the episode's many allusions to the butterfly effect — not to mention the final moment, when the newly empowered Miguel pays a visit to his old nemesis-slash-non-deserving-murderee, Ellen Wolf.
(One side note on Fleeter: So this guy pays off his debts to bookies by killing other people who haven't paid off their debts to bookies? Does this seem like an economically efficient way to run a bookie operation?)
It makes some sense that Dexter, as a psycho, wouldn't necessarily recognize other psychos (though he's shown this ability explicitly in the past). Or maybe he doesn't realize the obvious danger in tutoring Miguel on proper bladework (even though Miguel does nothing but deride Dexter's "code"). Either way, this seems like catastrophically bad judgment. We really hope the rest of the season doesn't play out like this: Miguel kills Ellen, Dexter sees the errors of his ways, he kills Miguel to clean up his mistake, and Spectral Father tut-tuts knowingly in the background. But that, unfortunately, seems to be where this is headed.
As for everyone else, it's mixed news all around. Angel thinks he's ruined things with Barbara, but she simply finds him endearingly dopey. LaGuerta seems to be developing Sapphic-love urges toward Wolf (a turn of events totally foreseen by our estimable colleague Emilly Nussbaum), but now Wolf looks to be not long for this world. And Deb figures Anton has dumped her, but, actually, he's probably just dead.
Speaking of Deb and how much we love her: She gets both the best line of the night — "Wedding rings and nuclear fission are, like, my secret specialties" — and the worst. "Trimmed trees! The Skinner's been here!" Or the gardener.
Reuters - Beyonce devoted half of the tracks on this double-disc set to her feisty alter ego Sasha Fierce (think "Single Ladies"). But, it's the classic, more timeless R&B songs on the "I Am" portion of the album that seem like a much-welcomed stretch for the singer. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 17 Nov 2008 | 2:43 pm
E! Online - Victoria's Secret brought the sexy to South Beach Saturday at their annual fashion show, featuring Angels' Heidi Klum, Alessandria Ambrosia, Miranda Kerr, Karolina Kurkova and more supermodels strutting their stuff.
Blind Afro-blues stars Amadou and Mariam, seen here in August 2008, released a new album, "Welcome to Mali", featuring a track produced by Damon Albarn of Blur and the Gorillaz. Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Nov 2008 | 12:56 pm
Paul McCartney performs at the 400th anniversary celebration on the Abraham Plains in Quebec City, Canada. McCartney said that an "off piste" 14-minute experimental Beatles track which many fans did not... Source: Infocious RSS raw feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Nov 2008 | 12:22 pm
Tonight's episode of Heroes was delicious, and not just because of Hiro's waffles. Claire and Angela Petrelli identified the key to the formula, star-crossed lovers Daphne and Matt grew...
Consider this a sign of the Apocalypse: Frontrunner Brooke Burke scored lower than Cody Linley on tonight's Dancing with the Stars. Scary, right? And yet we know the 11-year-old girls of the...
The makers of 3121 are none too happy with Prince's performance.
Revelations Perfume and Cosmetics Inc. has sued the artist and Universal Music Publishing Group for $100,000,...
It was go time Monday for Dancing With the Stars' final four, made up of the swift-footed celebrities graceful—and popular—enough to make it into the semifinals.
So did...
Judging by her weekend handiwork, Courtney Love seems nothing but energetic.
But the former Hole frontwoman retook to her blog Monday to refute reports that she is suicidal, although she...
Mindy McCready admits that she has "lived life recklessly" and made a lot of mistakes, not the least of which was entering into an affair with a married man when she was a...
Fine. You were right. There. I said it.
After spending weeks trying to resist the charms of HBO's cult series True Blood (and you vocal fans), I got sucked into a marathon and am...
Even the Southern California wildfires can't stop Twilight fans from trying to get a look at Robert Pattinson.
About 250 people have been camped out since yesterday in front of...
David Duchovny's lawyer answered the phone and it was London calling—with an apology.
Britain's Daily Mail on Monday printed a retraction and apologized for an Oct. 19...
