Reuters - Britain's morris dancers, renowned for bells on knees, colored rags and flower-bedecked hats, are launching a recruitment drive to convince young people that their stick-slapping art form is not a thing of the past. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 6 Jan 2009 | 1:37 pm
Reuters - Time Warner Cable extended a deal to carry CBS Corp's television stations, CBS said on Tuesday, avoiding what could have been another heated industry dispute.
AP - Actor Rip Torn has pleaded not guilty to drunken driving charges in Connecticut, nearly two years after being fined and losing his license for similar charges in New York.
AP - Actor Rip Torn has pleaded not guilty to drunken driving charges in Connecticut, nearly two years after being fined and losing his license for similar charges in New York.
AP - Actor Rip Torn has pleaded not guilty to drunken driving charges in Connecticut, nearly two years after being fined and losing his license for similar charges in New York.
Will Leitch’s dispatches from recent visits to the Giants locker room will run every day this week leading up to Sunday’s game against the Philadelphia Eagles. Today: an encounter with Antonio Pierce.
Antonio Pierce is naked, and he just brushed past me on the way out of the shower. Even with such slight contact, he can easily knock people over. I actually needed a second to catch my breath. I then, of course, followed him to his locker, like everybody else.
Pierce plays with an anger fitting for a man who was considered too small to be an NFL linebacker. The Redskins signed him as an undrafted free agent out of college, and he immediately drew plaudits for his intensity, though didn’t get much playing time until starting linebacker Michael Barrow went out for the season with an injury. Pierce filled in and established himself as the type of guy who could lift a defense emotionally even more than physically. In a huddle, Pierce commands respect and, yes, fear, which is what the Giants needed when they signed him in 2005. He might not be the freak specimen that Lawrence Taylor was, but he’s just as scary to talk to.
Occasionally Pierce’s relative lack of size and speed are exposed — his inability to cover Brian Westbrook might have cost the Giants a game against the Eagles in December, an issue that will surely need to be addressed in this Sunday’s playoff game — but he’s commonly referred to as the “heart” of the Giants defense. This mostly means he’s the one no one wants to piss off, whether you’re a teammate, opponent, or meek media member trying to get out of his way.
Pierce has been about as mischievous off the field this last month as any player could possibly be and still be allowed to dress for games. He starred in both of the Giants “distraction” dramas in December. First, and most famously, he was with Plaxico Burress when the wide receiver shot himself in the leg at the Latin Quarter nightclub a week after Thanksgiving. Then he maintained his presence in the news section of the Post when video surfaced of him supposedly groping a dancer at a West Side strip club. The video was captured from a surveillance camera and would be unworthy of note if it weren’t allegedly Pierce in the video. (Surely, professional athletes have done far worse in strip clubs.) But it was Pierce. Thus, news.
Sometimes people think athletes, if they perform on the field, can get away with anything. Pierce lives his life as if to test this theory. It’s not that he is out robbing banks or pummeling adult-film stars. Far from it, in fact: He was named the United Way Man of the Year in 2007, he’s the team spokesperson for Giants Academy (which helps disadvantaged youth), and he has an apparently happy marriage and three children with his wife, Jocelyn Maldonado, who hosts Mets Weekly on SNY. But there can’t be very many people on planet Earth who are more determined than Pierce to make sure you understand that they do not care what you think of them.
He spent a week this summer as Howard Stern’s “communication intern,” answering questions about his sex life and, amusingly, screening callers. When he was asked about the strip-club video, the day before it showed up on the Post’s site, he defiantly bellowed, “I go where I want. I do what I want to do.”
In the locker room, being interviewed by the media, Pierce glares at everybody, waiting for a stray word he can grab and turn back onto them. In the days after the Plaxico incident, he would stand shirtless, huge, with a look that said, “I know what you want to ask. Just go ahead and try it, motherfucker.” Pierce loves to be the center of attention, but on his own terms. He aspires for a career as a broadcaster when he retires, but he’ll never be a Tiki Barber Maker of Omelets. He’ll be more of a Cris Carter in-your-face guy, the alpha male with lapel microphone.
After the Giants Pro Bowl players were announced, Pierce took questions about why he hadn’t been selected. (He probably deserved to be.) Rather than answer them, he parried them right back. “We’re 11–3, of course we’re gonna have some Pro Bowlers,” he growled. “Which of you reporters had us 11–3? You had the Cowboys winning the division, all of you. How about you? Did you have us 11–3?” He glowered at the reporter next to me, who shrugged out a tight smile and looked away. Another victory for Pierce.
Right after Pierce bowled me over on the way out of the shower, he set up at his locker and began to dress. Before media folk could mass into formation around him, Giants spokesperson Peter John-Baptiste informed reporters that Pierce would not be taking any questions that day. It made sense. It was the day after Plaxico’s suspension, while Pierce was under investigation from the NYPD involving the incident, and nothing he could say was going to do him much good. The reporters did the Charlie Brown Good Grief head-down walk away from the locker, destined to disappoint their editors. Pierce then turned around, wearing only jeans, and fixed his eyes on the ceiling, above everyone, defiant, daring anyone to try to ask him something, anything. I think he puffed out his chest a little. He didn’t need to. It was clear to everyone, just like on the field, who was in charge.
The surviving members of the Grateful Dead have dropped a sweet New Year's gift on fans -- they'll reunite for their first concert tour in five years. Some 40-odd years after the group rose out of San Francisco's Haight-Ashbury scene, there's even a popular Sirius Satellite Radio channel devoted solely to the jam band.
Rock & Roll Hall of Fame inductees Jackson Browne and Graham Nash combine musical forces to bring attention to the nation's biggest problem: the health of our people ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 6 Jan 2009 | 12:30 pm
AP - Want to hear Cameron Crowe's thoughts on winning an Oscar or see how king-sized movie posters are assembled? How about a sneak peek at some of the exclusive exhibitions held at the film academy's Beverly Hills headquarters? Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 6 Jan 2009 | 8:32 am
Lindsay Lohan has used her blog to do some important stuff, like support Obama and diss her dad. And now she's using it to deny that she and her frequent sparring partner, Samantha Ronson,...
Marley, the Dog from "Marley and Me", visits The Georgia Aquarium, an Atlanta landmark, in 2008 in Atlanta, Georgia. The tale of a married couple's life with a troublesome canine, "Marley & Me," took... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 6 Jan 2009 | 1:32 am
Forget pretty ponies or science homework, Kate Hudson reveals in the new Elle that something else was on her teenage mind.
"When I was a teenager, like, when I turned 16, I loved...
You can take the case out of court, but can you take the court out of the case?
Roman Polanski, who last month moved to have a decades-old charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor...
Oh, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, you sneaky devil. You always keep us guessing—even from beyond the grave!
Even though he is fully dead on Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural and Weeds, that...
Ballots for the Vulture critics' poll were collected in three ways. Many critics responded to our requests with lists of their worst movies of the year. Many other critics had already published such lists. Finally, for critics who did not respond telling us they did not want to participate, or were unreachable, we combed through their 2008 reviews to find their most memorable pan.
Every mention of a film earned that film one point, with a bonus point awarded if a critic named the film the absolute worst of the year.
1. Ballots received from individual critics
Richard Brody, The New Yorker Synecdoche, New York
Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times Australia
Changeling
Jumper
The Other Boleyn Girl
Then She Found Me
Carina Chocano, formerly of the Los Angeles Times
1. Speed Racer. Was any other movie of the year as likely to provoke grand mal seizures in viewers while simultaneously putting them to sleep? The Wachowski brothers tried to liven things up by detaching the talking heads from their respective necks and tossing them around the screen. The urge was shared.
2. The Spirit. Frank Miller has been hinting at the depths of his talent for some time now with his contributions to Sin City and 300. As the man entirely responsible for the string of exhausted noir clichés that is The Spirit, he shows that he's capable of making a terrible, nonsensical movie all on his own.
3. 88 Minutes. Al Pacino in a spray tan and bouffant tries to outlive a serial killer's promise to kill him in 88 minutes. Nobody roots for him.
4. The Air I Breathe. A histrionic, Chinese-proverb-based allegory that assigns four emotions to four characters whose lives randomly intersect over a couple of days. As believable as it sounds.
5. The Happening. An airborne toxin blocks the human instinct for self-preservation, which immediately results in an epidemic of mass suicide. Why not just stop using seat belts?
6. Fool's Gold. Kate Hudson wisely dumps Matthew McConaughey in this third-rate Romancing the Stone knockoff, then spends the rest of the movie feeling irresistibly drawn to him. in this, she is on her own.
7. Blindness. Julianne Moore leads the blind after a blindness epidemic hits an unnamed city and the sightless are summarily quarantined. Live the airless, whinging claustrophobia.
8. What Happens in Vegas… Cameron Diaz and Ashton Kutcher as an uptight girl and a laid-back guy who meet, get drunk and get married in Vegas, then find themselves legally bound to stick it out. Knocked Up meets Judge Judy.
9. Good Luck Chuck. Every girl Dane Cook sleeps with ends up marrying the next guy she meets. There's something funny in that premise but, whatever it is, Good Luck Chuck steers clear of it.
10. The Love Guru. Mike Myers swaps the right to make fun of self-help gurus for a Deepak Chopra cameo. The catchphrase and scene of elephant love don't make up for the missed opportunity.
David Denby, The New Yorker
It has to be The Curious Case of Benjamin Button. Fincher and writer Eric Roth have taken a playful early story by F. Scott Fitzgerald and literalized and solemnized it to death. It's a work of extraordinary craftsmanship devoted to an idea that's dramatically inert. When Brad Pitt finally grows young enough to look like his actual age, he doesn't have any memories of the ardency or anxiety of youth but only relief that he's no longer a crotchety old man. Even as a young blade, he's an old fart. It just doesn't work. That people can find serious ideas about death and mortality in it suggests the power of weirdness to inspire fancy sentiment.
Bilge Ebiri, New York
1. 88 Minutes
One of the absolute worst of the decade, and an absolute waste of a cast. Australia
The Air I Breathe
Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed
Hounddog
Towelhead
David Edelstein, New York
Well, I missed The Love Guru, and I think my list should have an asterisk on that count. But, in 1–10 order: Funny Games (so not nice he made it twice) Australia
The Reader
Nothing But the Truth
Seven Pounds
W.
Mamma Mia!
88 Minutes
Delgo
Changeling
Mark Graham, Vulture
1. Funny Games
2. Revolutionary Road
3. Max Payne
4. The Love Guru
5. The Spirit
Logan Hill, New York The Boy in the Striped Pajamas
Stephen Holden, New York Times Australia
Good
Henry Poole Is Here
Mary
The Mummy: The Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
Eric Kohn, New York Press
1. The Spirit
2. Forgetting Sarah Marshall
3. Changeling
4. X-Files: I Want to Believe
5. Quantum of Solace
6. Mirrors
7. Adam Resurrected
8. Body of Lies
9. Step Brothers
10. The Happening
Dan Kois, Vulture/Washington Post Bedtime Stories
Blindness
Changeling
Four Christmases
The Spirit
Twilight
The Wackness
Kevin Lee, Shooting Down Pictures
When Dante penned Inferno, he neglected to describe the circle of Hell where one is forced to watch cherished elements from one's youth debauched into a Sundance-formula indie movie. As someone who loves the golden era of Gotham hip-hop circa '94, when Nas and Wu-Tang Clan were taking rap virtuosity to new heights, I found The Wackness an appalling attempt to evoke this enthusiasm. The Wackness reduces hip-hop to sonic wallpaper decorating a poor little rich kid's counter-culture posturing, punctuated with hindsight name-checking. ("Yo, what's that dope sound you pumping?" "His name is Notorious B.I.G. He's the next big thing, yo!") Add Ben Kingsley aping Harvey Keitel while pulling a phone-booth sex stunt with one half of the Olsen twigs, and you have a movie that more than lives up to its title.
Nathan Lee, New York Times
1. Rachel Getting Married
Insufferable bobo hysteria.
2. The Wrestler
Yes, Rourke is amazing. Too bad everything else is pretentious, derivative, cliché, and condescending.
3. Revolutionary Road
OMG, the American suburbs of the fifties were such a soul-crushing, conformist hell! Zzzzz…
4. Another Gay Sequel: Gays Gone Wild
Don’t let the generic title fool you: This is the worst gay sequel ever.
Dennis Lim, New York Times
It's tough to pick worst movies — especially now that I tend to just avoid movies I don't have to write about and suspect I won't like — but I guess I'll nominate Revolutionary Road, certainly the most irritating and fraudulent film I saw last year.
Karina Longworth, spout.com
I'm going to go with Changeling. You can excerpt from my "review" if you like.
Joe Morgenstern, The Wall Street Journal Seven Pounds is my slam dunk.
Wesley Morris, Boston Globe
In order of foulness: 88 Minutes
What Happens in Vegas
Speed Racer
In the Name of the King
Hottie and the Nottie
The Love Guru
The Happening
Prom Night
10,000 BC
Jumper
Matt Zoller Seitz, The House Next Door
1. Strange Wilderness. This inexplicably self-satisfied non-movie was half-assed even by stoner-comedy standards, and it transformed its versatile, self-deprecating star, Steve Zahn, into a snide boor.
2. Doomsday. This trashy sci-fi programmer has its defenders — such movies invariably do — but what's to defend? There isn't an image, character, situation, or gag that isn't pilfered from an earlier, better movie, and director Neil Marshall — whose previous film, The Descent, is a near-classic of modern horror — doesn't transform the borrowings into anything distinctive. The difference between this movie and its key inspirations — 28 Days Later, Escape From New York, and The Road Warrior — is the difference between raw meat and Hot Pockets.
3. Hancock. The year's most frustrating studio blockbuster, it contains the germs of three, maybe four idiosyncratic and moving fantasy epics, but lacks the cojones to develop any of them past the deal memo stage. The most vexing is the hero's Candyman-like backstory as a victim of racist violence; to bury that detail in a couple of tossed-off lines of dialogue is the most cowardly of the film's many copouts.
4. Badland. Much as I'm inclined to resist beating up on super-ambitious, no-budget labors of love, this turgid, 160-minute melodrama — about a PTSD-afflicted soldier who murders his wife and two of their children, then fantasizes going on the run with his surviving daughter and starting a new romance with a smokin' hot coffee-shop owner — merits a Billy Batts–in–Goodfellas–style stomping. Tone-deaf indulgences like this give American independent film a bad name.
Dana Stevens, Slate
1. The Love Guru
2. Drillbit Taylor
3. Seven Pounds
4. Jumper
5. Speed Racer
Michael Sragow, Baltimore Sun
Was 10,000 BC this year? If not, could we fit it in by going by the Hebraic or Eastern Orthodox calendars?
Then there was Punisher: War Zone. An excruciating blend of the incompetent and the would-be hip, but just think what reviews it would have gotten if it had co-starred Heath Ledger! Of course, although The Dark Knight had a modicum of craft and professional turns from Caine and Freeman and a scary (though overrated) performance by Ledger, my idea of film-critic hell this summer was watching it and Mamma Mia! virtually back to back.
And Seven Pounds, whose only virtue was the title that begged every wisecracker watching the trailer to produce the answer to "seven pounds of what?"
Sara Vilkomerson, New York Observer
1. Seven Pounds
2. The Women
3. Jumper
4. Speed Racer / The Happening / Postal (tie)
Pete Vonder Haar, Film Threat
1. Fool's Gold. McConaughey mugs his way through yet another leading role, playing Finn as Sahara's Dirk Pitt minus the SEAL training and a few million brain cells.
2. Vantage Point. The latest and dumbest in a long line of political thrillers.
3. Drillbit Taylor. As a bully movie, it falls far short of such genre classics as Three O'Clock High and The Karate Kid and barely rates mention alongside mediocre efforts like Lucas or … The Next Karate Kid.
4. Street Kings. If you make it through the first twenty minutes of this and still don't know who the bad guys will end up being and how everything will end, I can only offer my condolences, because obviously not all your dogs are barking.
5. 88 Minutes. One small step for bad filmmaking and one giant leap for the increasing insignificance of the former Michael Corleone.
6. What Happens in Vegas… During the screening, I tried to come up with as many synonyms for the word "excruciating" as I could. I gave up around ten.
7. You Don't Mess With the Zohan. There are laughs, but even Dorf on Golf had its moments.
8. Twilight. Stephanie Meyer's ponderous salute to teen abstinence and patriarchal supremacy marks the endgame for what has been a decades-long castration of the vampire genre.
9. Marley & Me. Enough to make one sympathize with that cougar from Where the Red Fern Grows.
10. Sex and the City. Otherwise sane women seemed perfectly willing to identify with someone whose biggest problem was whether or not to accept the gift of a million dollar penthouse from their boyfriend. Maybe society truly is doomed.
Armond White, New York Press
For me, the year's worst is a toss-up: The Dark Knight, Slumdog Millionaire and Wall-E. This trifecta celebrates the reign of pessimism, the ubiquity of television, and the end of culture.
Stephanie Zacharek, Salon
I'm torn between The Love Guru, which contains one genuinely funny joke (the use of Mariska Hargitay's name as a blessing) and then proceeds to run even that into the ground, and Seven Pounds, in which organ donor Will Smith auditions candidates to decide who should get his various body parts, based on who's been naughty and who's been nice. Two different kinds of bad.
Ty Burr, Boston Globe
1. Towelhead
2. The Happening
3. Baby Mama
4. Speed Racer
5. The Hottie and the Nottie
Tom Charity, CNN
1. Funny Games
2. The Spirit
3. The Mummy: Tomb of the Dragon Emperor
4. Eagle Eye
5. Australia
6. Fool's Gold
7. Seven Pounds
8. 88 Minutes
9. What Happens in Vegas...
10. The X-Files: I Want to Believe
Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle
1. Australia
2. RocknRolla
3. Untraceable
4. The Strangers
5. Mother of Tears
6. Pride and Glory
7. Get Smart
8. Drillbit Taylor
9. Vantage Point
10. Made of Honor
Rex Reed, New York Observer
1. Synecdoche, New York
2. Burn After Reading
3. Paranoid Park
4. Funny Games
5. August
6. Mamma Mia!
7. Sex and the City
8. Speed Racer
9. Choke
10. Four Christmases
11. My Blueberry Nights, Happy-Go-Lucky, The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Wackness, Pineapple Express, Australia, Ghost Town
Richard Roeper, Chicago Sun-Times
1. The Love Guru
2. What Happens in Vegas
3. The Women
4. 10,000 BC
5. 88 Minutes
6. Funny Games
7. Fly Me to the Moon
8. Over Her Dead Body
9. Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo Bay
10. You Don't Mess With the Zohan
Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times Tru Loved
"Q. How can you give a one-star rating to a movie you didn't sit through?
A. The rating only applies to the first eight minutes. After that, you're on your own."
Scott Foundas, L.A. Weekly Seven Pounds
"Dispiritingly obvious and phony from top to bottom."
J. Hoberman, The Village Voice Funny Games
"Professional obligations required that I endure it, but there's no reason why you should."
Richard Schickel, Time What Happens in Vegas…
"Worst-in-breed not only for this year, but very likely in living memory." The Women
"One of the worst movies I've ever seen."
Stagehand Richard Oeser cleans scenery used in the musical "Hairspray" in New York City in 2007. The curtain will descend on no less than 16 Broadway shows by the end of February as New York's theater... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 5 Jan 2009 | 11:57 pm
Dr. Who is a TV show on the BBC that's wildly popular in the U.K. Producers are looking for a new female sidekick to act along Matt Smith, who will play the Doctor in 2010 (the actor who plays that role changes periodically, as does the sidekick). The Telegraph reports that Lily Allen is a likely contender but also names Agyness Deyn as a "possible choice":
Producers are looking for someone who is famous outside the world of acting — replicating the success of former Doctor's assistant Billie Piper, who was better known as a teenage popstar and the wife of DJ Chris Evans when she landed the role but proved a hit with viewers.
"Someone terribly exciting like Billie Piper, who was at the beginning of her acting career but who had a profile for other reasons, would be great. We are looking for someone whose light can burn brightly."
If anyone's light can burn brightly, it's Aggy's. She's beentaking on small acting gigs for a short while, and we think she's ready for the big leap. Besides, she's not as big now as she was a year ago. And as Gossip Girltaught us once, no light shines as brightly as that of the repressed girl, who isn't really repressed at all.
All this month and next, debate will rage across the Internet about the best movies of 2008. Optimists will make a case for Happy-Go-Lucky; pessimists for The Dark Knight. America's embittered suburbanites, washed-up wrestlers, garbage-compacting robots, and old-man babies will all stump for the films that most reflect their life experience, arguing passionately into the night.
But what about the awful films of 2008? Who will remember them? The Shyamalanian disasters, the failed epics, the oeuvre of Al Pacino? Who will tell us which, of the 300-plus films shat out by Hollywood this year, was truly the most awful?
Vulture, that's who! We've undertaken the most comprehensive survey of crappy movies ever, contacting dozens of major critics and asking them for their least-favorite stinkers, turkeys, botches, catastrophes, and fiascoes. For those major critics who don't respond and who didn't publish their lists elsewhere, we've dug through their 2008 reviews for the most memorable pans.
We wound up with 57 ballots for 57 critics. Each mention of a film on a ballot earned that film one point, with a bonus point awarded each time a film was named the absolute worst of the year.
So what movies made it onto our ten-worst list? Sure, the list contains all of 2008's films starring Canadian comedians as mustached gurus, but it also contains some surprises. Which awards hopefuls made the bottom ten? Which Oscar-winning stars were derided by America's critics? Check out our exclusive slideshow to find out what's the worst movie of the year, and check out the complete Vulture Critics' Poll ballots to read America's leading critics cutting loose on the movies they hated so much.
Australian actor Heath Ledger, seen here in 2006. Batman blockbuster "The Dark Knight" was named among the nominees for the Producers Guild of America's annual awards show here Monday, regarded as a key... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 5 Jan 2009 | 11:38 pm
Front Page: Audiences reached 75% of capacity last year -- Broadway grossed $940,871,190 during the 2008 calendar year -- about on par with last year's $938 million, although that tally was hobbled by the 19-day stagehands' strike that in 2007 darkened the majority of Rialto shows during some of the Street's most profitable frames.
Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson reportedly welcomed in the New Year with a back alley fight show followed by a boxing match in their hotel hallway, so it only makes sense that a report (by way...
On the job, Patricia Arquette sees dead people. In real life, she sees divorce lawyers.
The Medium star has filed for divorce from her husband of two and a half years, Punisher hero...
A Condé Nast spokesperson has confirmed that Men's Vogue will not stop publishing, contrary to this morning's Internet rumors. "There is no change to our plans from what we said at the end of last year. We will put out two Men's Vogue in '09." (Packaged with Vogue, that is.) So yay! All is not doomed.
This shot, from an upcoming episode, appears to be shot at the Box, a super-trendy Manhattan location. Ahem.
Today a lucky former W assistant achieved a goal that your Daily Intel editors have been dying to reach for exactly one year and four months: She was filmed as an extra for an episode of Gossip Girl. Luckily for us, she provided an extremely detailed account so that we may live vicariously through her (and perhaps later jealously strangle her with a headband). The episode, which seems to involve the opera and a loud and sloppy kiss between Nate and Vanessa, required the young lady to wear a gown. Which, being a former assistant at W, she happened to have:
I soon received a call informing me that I was one of the chosen ones. A few days later, I packed up a purple strapless Oscar de la Renta dress, an empire-waisted Gucci gown, four pairs of heels and an armload of accessories and jumped on the ferry to Staten Island where the show was filming at the St. George Theatre, a grand old vaudeville venue which dates back to 1929. I arrived at the Gossip Girl set anticipating a flurry of fashionable glamazons. Twas not so. Many of the extras were dressed in what appeared to be five-year-old ABS and Bebe frocks.
Insert sound of needle screeching off record. Slightly bitchy Bebe reference aside, hold on a second — the Gossip kids went to Staten Island? Oh no, no, no, Mees Blair. Eleanor Waldorf would never approve.
As if the Hot Topic clothing line and the world's general fanaticism weren't enough, there is apparently a fragrance for the Twilight movie. We don't know what it smells like, nor do we necessarily want to, but the packaging looks suspiciously similar to the packaging for Nina Ricci's fragrance. Might Nina Ricci take legal action? [Perez Hilton]
CAPITOL CRITTER: George W. Bush's cat India has died at the age of 18. Really? Just how much DEATH do we have to endure on this man's watch, am I right people????? [standing ovation from U.C. Berkeley audience] (Reuters).
WINNESOTA: Al Franken has won the Minnesota Senatorial race after a certified recount, declaring "I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota and that's...ok. That's ok! Anyone remember that? It was the Stuart Smalley character's catchphrase. Really, none of you? There was even a movie! Whatever. Anyway, I'm glad I won." (CNN)
HE JUST WANTS HIS KIDS BACK: Thomas Jane and Patricia Arquette have ended their two-year marriage. They're two people I've heard of. (Us Magazine)
VOTE OR DIE: Doritos is down to five finalists in their "Crash The Super Bowl" contest. Why am I telling you this? Because ex-BWE'er Pete Holmes and Matt McCarthy (the cable guy from those Verizon Fios commercials) submitted a commercial and it's really funny. (Crash The Super Bowl)
VOTE OR DIE II: The vote for Deadspin's Sports Human of the Year is down to the Final Two. Sadly, my write-in candidate, this commercial, didn't make it -- since when did commercials not count as humans? (Deadspin)
• If it blogs like a crazy blogger and looks like a crazy blogger, it's probably Courtney Love. No doubt, we would blog thousands of words of nonsense if we wore this to...
AP - Economic downturn? You'd hardly have felt it from the crowds packing every day into Lincoln Center for New York City Ballet's "Nutcracker," mainly parents with little girls in tow, dressed in their best Christmas finery.
DOCTOR: WELL, GO ON A WORLDWIDE TOUR WITH THOSE MAGICAL FUN BAGS AND SMASH SOME WATERMELONS, STAT!
Warning: nothing will prepare you for what you are about to see.
Busty Heart is her name, and apparently she has been makingthe rounds but I've never seen her before. (Note: She was on America's Got Talent. Now she's taking her talent global, and we should be proud.) Source: Best Week Ever | 5 Jan 2009 | 10:45 pm
In today’s media (bad) news, Condé Nast is facing some very ugly ad-sales tumbles, and the New York Times is running front-page ads for the first time. But Haute Living San Francisco has just been, inexplicably, unveiled. And as always, the media is the first to report on news of its own demise!
• There’s a more “austere” tone in today’s publishing houses, signs of an industry eschewing, as the Times puts it, “cultural swagger and pure Manhattan high life" for meetings held by webcam. Authors’ cash advances are also now under strict review. But Michael Korda, former editor-in-chief of Simon & Schuster, says New York saw many of the same changes in the seventies, and expense-account-covered lunches at the Four Seasons have proven resilient. [NYT]
• Speaking of dwindling glamour (and dwindling Glamour), Condé Nast’s ad sales, unsurprisingly, took major blows last year. While the average American magazine is down 15 percent in ad sales, Condé’s Wired is down a heinous 47 percent from a year ago; Vogue and not-so-Lucky, 44 percent; Portfolio, 35 percent; and Teen Vogue, 29 percent.
[NYT]
• Rumors are circulating that the ailing Condé company will cease publishing Men’s Vogue altogether, rather than the promised two issues a year. [Media Is Dying/Twitter]
• Related, those of you readers who subscribed to Mogue will be getting Portfolio for the rest of your paid time. Again, Condé Nast completely misunderstands the Men's Vogue market. [Cut]
• But fear not, superrich: Haute Living magazine has not only not folded, but is adding another city to its list of publishing locations, releasing Haute Living San Francisco! The publication will now be guiding wealthy San Francisco residents to all the “hautest” offerings in their city, as it does in Haute Living New York and Haute Living Florida.
[FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
• 8020 Media, on the other hand, an innovative company publishing user-generated, cult-favorite magazines like JPG and Everywhere, is shutting down and folding its titles. (Unless they find a last-minute buyer.) [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
• “In its latest concession to the worst revenue slide since the Depression, The New York Times has begun selling display advertising on its front page," reports the Times today, depressingly, in true meta-media fashion. Today’s paper, the first to run the front-page “commercial incursion into the most important news space," as the paper puts it, displayed a CBS ad below the fold. [NYT]
• The New York Times is banking on Obama to sell their newspapers. Watch out: Men's Vogue tried that tactic. [FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
• Phil Bennett has stepped down as managing editor of the Washington Post. He plans to work on a project “relating to the future of the news,” but he’s “pulling for [them].” Pull hard, Bennett. [Romenesko]
As we mentioned this morning, the January issues were thin. Like a cross between a regular magazine and an Us Weekly. Not pretty, but, as when Lindsay Lohan suddenly drops fifteen pounds, impossible not to obsess over. The New York Times reports that though the average ad-page decline across monthly magazines was about 17 percent, Vogue's and Lucky's ad pages were each down about 44 percent. Allure didn't fare much better with a 41 percent decline. Condé Nast was the hardest hit among big media companies, and the only one with more than one title (Vogue and Lucky) in the top ten list of worst ad-page declines for the month.
January issues are usually thin because advertisers have just made a big December holiday push. But this year things were more difficult since January issues close early and many advertisers hadn't settled on a budget by the deadline. Also, some magazines only run a very narrow range of ad categories. Vogue only runs fashion ads, and fashion advertisers are scaling back in These Economic Times. Condé Nast also doesn't bend with pricing, which doesn't help things.
So, yeah, maybe Condé Nast's overly rigid ad rules are hurting them now, but one expert says when the economy bounces back they'll be thanking themselves for not discounting prices now and then having the awkward issue of trying to raise them. But what if they have to close more titles at that expense? February's Lucky was ominously thinner than January's Lucky, for a total of about 100 actual words to read instead of, say, 300.
Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt's engagement to Ross McCall has fizzled into silence.
"They broke up over the holidays and have ended their engagement," a source close...
Front Page: WB, John Wells adapting British series -- HBO is teaming with Warner Bros. and writer-producer John Wells on a U.S. version of Blighty's iconic blue-collar TV drama "Shameless."
As a father himself with another child on the way, Tim Allen can sympathize with John Travolta and Kelly Preston.
Allen, who costarred in the hit biker comedy Wild Hogs with...
The people who go to community-board meetings are, yes, often cranky. So you can just guess their reactions to Bloomberg's proposal of shortening the city's ULURP process — in which the boards are given time to review and critique new projects — from 200 days to 60 days. Hizzoner says we need to speed the process in the sluggish economy. But folks suspect this may be a step toward getting rid of those pesky (but democratic!) community boards altogether. Save the cranks! [Carroll Gardens Courier]
Front Page: Served as president of Universal, Paramount -- Studio exec and producer Ned Tanen, who served as president of Universal and Paramount and produced three popular Brat Pack films in the 1980s, died Monday of natural causes in Santa Monica. He was 77.
We hear the opening party for New York City's very first sure-to-be-amazing Topshop will be March 26 at 9 p.m. In September the date was pushed back to March from October due to construction delays. It's unclear when the store will open to ravenous shoppers, but that weekend is a pretty good possibility. We hope all the escalators fit and the construction continues coming along swimmingly.
This afternoon, the Producers Guild announced its nominees for Best Picture: The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire and … The Dark Knight. With the first four films widely seen as Academy Award–nod locks, Knight's inclusion should give a boost to Batfans who've seen their movie get shut out at other important pre-Oscar awards despite a crack grassroots campaign. Though PGA winners have gone on to win Best Picture statues an impressive twelve times in the awards' nineteen-year history, notes L.A. Times Oscarologist Tom O'Neil, they have only a 76 percent success rate at predicting Academy Award nominations in the top category, meaning that one of their picks is statistically likely to get screwed on February 2 (and we doubt it'll be Benjamin Button, Frost/Nixon, Milk, or Slumdog Millionaire).
If you didn't know it yet, we are gay for Andrew Ross Sorkin. We know that sounds complicated considering the fact that he's straight and married, Intel editor Chris is already gay, and Intel editor Jessica is a girl, but it's just the best way to say it. In fact, if you google "Andrew Ross Sorkin Gay," Daily Intel provides the fifth and sixth results. (Here's hoping that, after this post, we'll be number one.) Anyway, we were delighted to learn that our favorite Times business columnist and DealBook blogger will be getting his own TV mini-series! You're going to see him in living, moving, giggling color. The Adorkable Sorkin will host a new seven-part WNET.com series on Channel Thirteen and WLIW21 starting on Thursday. It'll be called It's the Economy, NY! (we don't really get it, either) and the first episode will feature interviews with Dick Parsons and Steve Forbes. It'll be like Charlie Rose, but with the economy and the sexy, and without all that smug eyebrow action.
Over on his Vanity Fair–hosted blog, James Wolcott is demanding that Diane Keaton's career (and we quote) "needs to be taken into protective custody until its owner comes to her senses and stops buggin'." Wondering what could possibly cause Wolcott to dip into his eighties hip-hop dictionary and scrawl such a scathing indictment? The straight-to-DVD film Smother, which aired on Lifetime over the weekend. We haven't seen it, but we are pretty curious what Wolcott was doing watching Lifetime. [VF]
Front Page: Studio cuts deal for station, Website -- The cable channel that sold for a bargain-basement price last month is suddenly the object of a tug-of-war between two prospective owners.
This photo of Jake Gyllenhaal with his arm around Reese Witherspoon but staring at a Laker girl represents which of the following?
A) A metaphor for the insatiable male libido (photo should be submitted to the MoMA immediately)
B) An upcoming Woody Allen movie (starring Scarlett Johansson in place of Reese Witherspoon)
C) The mathematical inverse of Gyllenhaal in Brokeback Mountain.
D) The biggest-budget Axe Body Spray commercial yet.
So far, the SEC hearing in front of the House Financial Services Committee on the Madoff matter has been fairly ho-hum. Star witness Harry Markopolos canceled his appearance, because he was sick or chained up somewhere by Monica Noel, and even Barney Frank seems off his game. But now things seem to be heating up. Long Island Representative Gary Ackerman just busted out with: "Whose job is it to protect the investors? Because I wanna tell them that they suck at it." Iced. He also called H. David Kotz, the SEC inspector general, "the Jacques Cousteau of the Keystone Cops," which is some old-person reference we don't understand but sounds nasty and like he spent all night thinking it up. "This is more than a nail in the coffin," he finished. "This is a stake in the heart of the American financial system." Go Team New York!
AP - "Why don't you come back, baby? Why don't you go away?" Elvis Costello sings in the duet "Go Away" with indie rock favorite Jenny Lewis on his recent CD, "Momofuku."
MAKEUP
• Supermodel Claudia Schiffer will launch her own range of beauty products next summer. Clearly if you use them, you'll look just like her. [Daily Mail]
• Simon Doonan interviewed Dame Edna about her new cosmetics line for M.A.C. You can spare a minute to giggle over makeup on a loathed Monday, can't you? [Racked]
HAIR
• Betty Beauty, Inc., a pubic-hair-dye company, is suing Smart Beauty US, Inc. for stealing their thong-shaped logo. Lawsuit, shmawsuit — who dyes their pubic hair? [NYP]
• Heather Graham wears her hair in a beach-y, wavy style in the winter, so don't hold yourselves back now. [Daily Beauty Reporter/Allure]
• Wigs were a "surprise bestseller" during the holiday shopping season at stores like Harrods and Selfridges. Deteriorated follicles from hair extensions are a likely cause. [Guardian]
With Beyoncé borrowing heavily from Lil Wayne's overly remixed “A Milli” for her latest single “Diva,” it only makes sense that her song would get the treatment sooner rather than later. Enter Ciara, who pays her respects to “that diva named B” before moving on to hype her own hood, sex appeal, and most important, her upcoming (and oft-delayed) third album, Fantasy Ride. The kittenish Ciara doesn’t top Beyoncé’s impressively tough performance, but she does a credible enough job to put herself back in the public eye for second, and we're psyched to see Beyoncé’s latest take on female empowerment go viral among music-biz women. Tip: If you want more details on Ciara's new single, just listen through the end of the track!
Something I've often said about daytime Judge shows is this: They're guilty of not having enough FLAIR. Which is why lately, I find myself hooked on daytime televisions newest addition to the world of Right and Wrong: Judge Karen. She wears a red robe! And she doesn't need a man to validate who she is!
These promos remind me of the fake trailers in Tropic Thunder. To the point that I'm not entirely convinced Judge Karen is actually Robert Downey Jr. in "character."
God protects babies and fools... and you're no baby" is my new catch-all-phrase. Seriously, I am obsessed with her - my 2009 Resolution is simply to see every episode of Judge Karen this year.
MUCH MORE FLAIR AFTER THE JUMP. Did we mention she has ~FLAIR~? Check out that red robe people!
With thanks to my Mother, who recommended this to me a few weeks ago. Source: Best Week Ever | 5 Jan 2009 | 8:51 pm
Front Page: Last-chance sales help box office -- Broadway saw a second frame of holiday bounty last week, with a mid-week New Year's helping to keep biz on par with the Christmas sesh.
Once a week, Daily Intel takes a peek behind doors left slightly ajar. This week: The Struggling British Actor on a Trip to Chicago, 37, male, Williamsburg, gay, single.
DAY ONE 8 a.m.: I woke right at the point in the dream where you don’t want to wake up. I was getting into a sauna, back in London for some reason. 8:03 a.m.: Ignored my morning hard-on, even though a wank always helps me get out of bed. 9 a.m. Thinking about how if I had stayed in London, would probably be living with my ex. He knew my acting dream wasn’t happening in New York. He practically told me to go. Maybe it was his way of getting rid of me. So anyway, here I am, in New York, single, unemployed, and thinking about him a lot. I miss the attention, but I don’t miss him. 10 a.m.: On subway to the Bronx for an audition, check out a cutie, trendy, confident, young. I prefer an older man. He smiles as he exits the carriage. I smile back. Who would want to date a 37-year-old unemployed actor? 4 p.m.: Audition was a waste of time. Subway. Spot a lovely Latino man, rugged, big hands. Nice. Maybe I just need a hug or a slap! Either one would do. 4:10 p.m.: British porn site. Wank. Feel better already. 6 p.m.: Audition in Long Island City. Isn’t quite the Off Broadway I had in mind. But an audition’s an audition. 10 p.m.: Dinner with friend. He had 500 packaged condoms on table (I didn't think sex was on the menu). But hey! He said they’re a long story, but did I want them? 11:35 p.m.: Roommate had boyfriend over, other roommate had girlfriend over, and I had glass of milk and went to bed. Too old to be sharing a flat. Feeling very lonesome tonight.
DAY TWO 5 a.m.: Woke with a numb hand, thought I had a stroke. Wasn't awake enough to use it to my advantage and knock one off. 9 a.m.: En route to Chicago. Can’t really afford to go, but it’s booked. 3 p.m.: Have meeting at theater. I was charming, the meeting felt worthwhile. Note to self: Always be charming, it gets results. 8 p.m.: Dinner at Sepia with buddies. My financial anxiety returns when I see the menu. Wonder if I’ll bump into Oprah. I have a salad. Waiter gay but so OTT, server hot but straight. The view is wonderful all the same. Friend pays for the meal, wish I had the pork. 10:30 p.m.: Hit Boystown with friends. Goodness, the men look like men in this town.
DAY THREE 11 a.m.: Go to the Field Museum of Natural History. Older couple totally making out. I wonder if they just recently met? Is somebody having an affair? Whatever it is, it’s hot, it’s fresh, and I’m optimistic for my future. I can’t stop staring at them. I say go for it, just not in front of the video installation of the tsunami. I follow them through the rest of the exhibit. 2 p.m.: Starbucks. Need caffeine after all that walking like a senior and trying to stay awake in those warm, darkened rooms watching snogging sessions. 7 p.m.: I hit the gym; this cute guy and I are the only ones in there. I pretend not to know how to program the ultramodern treadmill and politely ask for some assistance from the cute guy. 7:02 p.m.: Cute boy's equally cute girlfriend arrives, with her mom. I tell cute girl's very helpful mom I got it. I concentrate on my breathing. Midnight: Night out. Roscoe’s won’t let us in. They “didn't like our attitude.” Translation: The door guy couldn't read the DOB on a non-U.S. government I.D. Hit Minibar. Lose one of our buddies somewhere. 2:30 a.m.: Find the Steamworks bathhouse. I need to shag. Let the gayness begin. 5:30 a.m.: Had some older, some younger, some Asian, some black, some Irish and some just what I needed man action. Feeling much better.
DAY FOUR 6 a.m.: Missing buddy shows up at hotel. We crash, but have to be out by eleven. 1 p.m.: Were back in Boystown for brunch. 2 p.m.: Go dildo shopping, 20 percent off. What is this, discount Sunday? Friend is looking for large latex dildo to satisfy his new insatiable bi-bottom friend. 3 p.m.: No purchases made despite the discount. Buddies buy shoes instead, with even more discount (not in the same store, mind you). 5 p.m.: We enter the Chicago Museum of Contemporary Art. We're all too hung-over to appreciate it. We power-walk our way around it. 8 p.m.: Back at Big Bowl, food good, Sunday staff really cute and friendly. I heart Chicago.
DAY FIVE Noon: Back at O'Hare. Sorry to be leaving Chicago. Hear an English accent as a silver-haired British Airways pilot passes by with a stewardess. I like a man in uniform; I like that man in that uniform. I want to be on his flight, I want to go back to London. 5 p.m.: Back. Beer with roommate in Williamsburg. Get text from guy I met a couple of weeks ago at the Townhouse. Fired, wants to meet up for coffee. Welcome to the recession, my friend, you are not alone. 9:30 p.m.: Go to Finnish friend’s house. Yep, he’s still crazy. Thank God, I need some constants in my life right now. 11 p.m.: We play board games. Fun when slightly stoned. Midnight: Leave with another guest; we split the minute we get to Lorimer. Really not bothered.
DAY SIX 10 a.m.: Job searching … Wash cooker … Clean bathroom … look at porn … job searching. 2:30 p.m.: Decide to go for a run. 4:35 p.m.: Get seriously cruised in the street on the way to meet Fired Bloke. I so needed that. 5 p.m.: In Tearoom in Chelsea Market. Some strange guy says “Hi.” I say “Hi,” and try to get past him. Strange guy says, “You don’t remember me?” “Excuse me?” I say. 5:30 p.m.: Apparently I met Fired Bloke in Barracuda the same night I hooked up at the Townhouse. Fired Bloke is not who I think he is, namely the guy I slept with from the Townhouse. But Fired Bloke is way cuter and a completely different color than the Townhouse hookup. 6:30 p.m.: Have dinner with new, forgiving, cute friend Fired Bloke. Wonder if we’ll have sex. 6:45 p.m.: Fired Bloke has to meet friends, wants me to join them. I have my Plan B friends to meet. I lined them up in case my Plan A meeting with Fired Bloke didn’t work out. We hug, kiss, and split for now. 11:30 p.m.: End up in Cubbie Hole. Encourage straight friend to snog hot Brazilian girl. She does and it is hot. 11:45 p.m.: Text Fired Bloke drunk. I’m English, it’s what we do.
DAY SEVEN 8:30 a.m.: Wake up with a tongue in my mouth, it’s my straight girlfriend’s pug. A little animal action isn’t a bad thing, but never with a pug. 9:45 a.m.: Go to bed for a couple of hours. Wake to think of Fired Bloke and have a wank. 4 p.m: After a couple of hours assisting a photographer in the hood, I have a look around. This guy loves dildos. You’d never think to look at him. He’s suddenly becomes much more interesting. Think I should buy a dildo. 7 p.m.: The 500 condoms are still on friend’s table. He asks me again if I want any of them. I tell him it fucks with my Law of Averages: The more condoms I have, the less sex I’ll end up getting. 7:05 p.m.: My friend finally tells me he bought condoms when he and his ex-partner ran a sex club in their basement in Baltimore. I pour us both another drink and listen as he tells me about their plan to open one in Williamsburg. 7:30 p.m.: Ex-boyfriend calls, first time we’ve talked since I left London. Tell him I’ve just gotten offered a job in a sex club and am living the dream.
Totals: Three acts of wanking; four acts of fellatio at Steamworks; four acts of intercourse at Steamworks; two acts of viewing Internet porn; two acts of being cruised; one phone call with ex from London.
Start your engines, ladies, because ex–Vogue intern Sean Avery is back on the market. "Page Six" reports that he's split from Calvin Klein's ex-wife Kelly Klein, whom he dated for several months. News of the breakup came at the New Year's Eve party Sean attended at Bungalow 8, which he went to with his brother. Okay, seriously, he could have taken us or one of you — someone, anyone who appreciates him for him. He's perfect boyfriend material. After all, his résumé's clearly impressive enough to land him a gig at Vogue, rubbing elbows with Anna Wintour and André Leon Talley. He's an encyclopedia of fashion knowledge, men's and women's. He can probably pick up a girl with a line like, "Your dress is Alexander Wang, isn't it? I hear there's a sale at Opening Ceremony. Maybe we can go together?" Since he was let go from the Dallas Stars last month, he has lots of time to devote to a special lady. Also, New Line Cinema's making a movie inspired by him. How many guys can you say all that about? He's unemployed, so he's bound to be a fixture at Fashion Week next month. If you were dating him, you could go with him. True, he said some nasty things about his other ex-girlfriend, Elisha Cuthbert, but all the other stuff pretty much cancels that out. This is New York — one can't be too picky.
Sharon Osbourne, the height of charm and class, hosted this season of Charm School on Vh1, which featured rejected bad girls from Rock Of Love. Now, I'm not sure if you watched it at all (I only did occasionally, for some reason it was always on whenever I flew JetBlue in the past month, and that's what I would end up watching), but the reunion had an amazing fight break out between Sharon and lover of retarded dogs, Megan. She was wasted, wearing a bikini. Mrs Osbourne tells Megan that she thinks she shouldn't be allowed to breed, and then Megan comes back with some bleeped out comment about Ozzy...right at the 1:15 mark, and then this starts to get amazing:
At the end in the chaos, you hear Sharon say "You can say whatever about me, I don't give a sh*t, but NOT my family." Boom. Source: Best Week Ever | 5 Jan 2009 | 8:30 pm
In yesterday's special Times Academy Awards section, the paper's movie critics ostensibly make an Oscar case for some of their favorite films and performances, with A.O. Scott praising Milk's elegant history lessons and Manohla Dargis continuing to beat the drum for Charlie Kaufman's otherwise maligned Synecdoche, New York. But mostly, though, the Times just tries to score with Anne Hathaway.
First, the section featured a half-page appreciation of Hathaway's rehearsal-dinner toast scene in Rachel Getting Married in which silver-tongued cinephile Stephen Holden tries flattery: "Her gaze wide-eyed with panic, her attitude cheerfully sardonic, Anne Hathaway, playing Kym Buchman … gives a brave performance that doesn't ask to be liked; only to be believed … an indelible, if sometimes repellent portrait of a recovering addict who makes people squirm."
Next, all three critics, Dargis, Holden, and Scott, name Hathaway as their top choice for a Best Actress nomination. Scott subtly attempts to show the actress his sense of humor by selecting Tropic Thunder's Tom Cruise for Best Supporting Actor, while Dargis implies that Hathaway's performance in Rachel Getting Married completely overshadowed those of her co-stars (Monohla uses four of her Supporting Actress picks on Synecdoche stars over Rachel's equally deserving Debra Winger and Rosemarie DeWitt).
Only the Times' venerable Carpetbagger David Carr is able to actually land a date with Hathaway, which begins well enough ("When Anne Hathaway shows up for an interview at a coffee shop on Melrose, her smile precedes her"), but then he nearly screws up everything by asking too many questions about her ex ("Her onetime live-in boyfriend, Raffaello Follieri, was arrested and convicted on fraud and money-laundering charges in the last year, and her personal journal, along with jewelry he had given her, became part of the case. She won't talk directly about it today") — but all isn't lost! "The movie was so beautiful, so perfect, I thought I would ruin it, so I left," she says of the time she first saw Brokeback Mountain at the Venice Film Festival. "'I came back just in time to see a scene where my breasts were on screen, so that was special,' she said with a smile."
Call her back, Bagger! Ask for a follow-up interview!
William Rapetti, whose firm, Rapetti Rigging Services, owned the crane that collapsed and killed seven people last St. Patrick's day, was indicted on seven counts of criminally negligent homicide and manslaughter today, for violating city, federal, and industry rules. [NYP]
Longtime character actor Pat Hingle, a veteran of early television dramas, Westerns and four "Batman" films, has died at age 84, his family announced Sunday.
Last week, the news broke that cute actress / indie rock darling Zooey Deschanel got engaged to fellow indie rocker Ben Gibbard. Commence She & Him / Death Cab For Cutie puns! Now I know your heart is absolutely breaking because this means you'll never have Zooey (or Ben, if you're into that sort of thing, i.e. wang), but come on. You have to admit. This is pretty adorable news. (And let's be honest. The reason we will never have Zooey or Ben has nothing to do with whether or not they're spoken for.) I mean, what could possibly be more twee than these two getting married? Nothing. But here are a few things that come close:
Dollhouse Wii Fit
This Video Of A Dog And Elephant That Are BFFs (via Buzzfeed)
Johnny Cash Onesie
The Boy Least Likely To Album Artwork
Amelie Jr.
This Tiny Piece Of Food Sculpture
(From Edith Zimmerman's blog, which is a twee wonderland.)
For the current snow season, Burton launched a limited-edition series of snowboards called "Love" that show bare-backside images from seventies Playboy magazines. And ever since they debuted in the fall with the tagline "I'm on the market for someone who's looking to score serious action, no matter where they like to stick it," groups like the Girl Scouts Council and the Burlington City Council in Vermont are trying to censor them on the slopes, even protesting outside the Burton headquarters in Burlington in October. Protesters tell Boston.com that it's the idea of a man standing on top of a naked woman that really sets them off, as well as the proximity to children (Stowe Mountain Resort and Killington Resort both banned employees from riding the boards). However, it seems like a choose-your-battles type of moment for the notoriously liberal state of Vermont. Because in reality, we really don't foresee snowboarding dudes caring about the sociological significance of their board's butt crack anytime soon.
As a parent, you wake up in the morning thinking about what you should fix for your kids for breakfast. What time do they need to get to ballet or soccer practice? Who should pick them up from school? Then, they're your last thoughts as you go to bed.
"First, I'll cut through that barbed wire with my teeth..."
Oh Gooooooooood. Is it just us, or is today going by excruciatingly slowly? Normally we feel like time goes too fast, since with every second that passes we get closer to the senior center (or at least the Thai plastic-surgery clinic). But today is just agony. Not just because it's the first "real" day back at work but because tonight, at last, the long dry spell between episodes of Gossip Girl comes to an end.
To recap: The last episode was a rich, moving, lyrical vignette that explored the meanings of life and death and family and love and friendship and fantastic fucking hair that ended in a question, the answer to which we could only speculate on.
As if we could be any more excited about tonight's episode, there's more stunning news.
TV nymph Michael Ausiello reports that cunning temptress Georgina Sparks has escaped the School for Heinous Coke-Faced Bitches in Dubuque, Iowa, or whatever, either through strangling each and every one of the massive lesbian pit bulls guarding the entrance and blowing a sequence of truck drivers in exchange for a ride home or, you know, convincingly faking adherence to the Twelve Steps. We're not sure which one. In any case, she'll resurface "toward the end of the season," Ausiello says. Serena and Dan, guard thy tender love!
The logo of South Korea's LG Electronics is seen on a mobile phone shop in Seoul. LG announced plans on Monday to market a broadband-enabled high-definition TV in the latest bid to build a bridge between... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 5 Jan 2009 | 7:41 pm
Anna Maria Pizza in Williamsburg is where the fun kids go after drinking, dancing, and extreme posing. From Craigslist's "Missed Connections": "We were at anna maria's pizzeria when your douchey male friend littered my pizza slices with garlic powder. i think he was wasted. you made a comment about making out and i thanked you. if the offer still stands-wanna make out?" Awww ... sweet. But then the guy got an answer: "Sorry, i make out with that douchey male. if it's any consolation, he feels really bad about it. we were both wasted and coming off a bowling high, apologies." [Gowanus Lounge]
Please watch this clip from NBC's Saturday NFL broadcast -- at the -0:30 mark, following a lengthy Super Bowl / Monsters vs. Aliens / SoBe Lizards cross-promotional clusterf*ck, a noise randomly comes over the broadcast that really, really sounds like a man having an orgasm:
Could this sound be...
A) Bob Costas making a joke noise to indicate "whew, you guys got through that long promo" that just happens to sound like a male orgasm?
B)Sunday Night Football proprietor Dick Ebersol witnessing his seven-man-broadcast team emerging as an elite, company-line-towing, cross-promotional juggernaut and grabbing a mic in the studio before literally having an orgasm?
Wait, no need for any more choices, it's gotta be B. Though feel free to leave other orgasmic conspiracy theories in the comments (could we have another Tim Russert Farting on our hands?) Source: Best Week Ever | 5 Jan 2009 | 7:20 pm
If we were to tell you that out there in the universe exists a man known to the British population at large as Mr. Motivator, what would you expect him to look like?
Would he hold a stopwatch?
Perhaps a small flag that says "Go Team!"?
Would he dress in slacks and wingtip shoes?
Or perhaps wear a graduation cap and gown?
Would he look like the spitting image of Meshach Taylor?
Think Long. Think Hard. And then click to find out.
LADIES AND GENTLEMAN... MR. MOTIVATOR.
MR. MOTIVATOR
MR. MOTIVATOR?
MR. MOTIVATOR.
Please create a cabinet position for him now. Our nation needs him. Source: Best Week Ever | 5 Jan 2009 | 7:18 pm
Artist Megan Cedro's childhood doodling has developed into a rather attractive, if a tad malnourished, alter ego. Her drawings of stretched, stringy, solemn young ladies remind us of that scene in Ghost World where Enid, while in art class, scowls at the teacher's pet who is presenting a tampon in a teacup while Enid is busy creating a whole comic world. Cedro seems to have spent her art education taking inspiration from Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon to fashion the kind of women Dan Clowes would like to listen to records with. Her mademoiselles are on view at About Glamour Gallery through January 25.
AP - "How to Live: A Search for Wisdom From Old People (While They Are Still on This Earth)" (Twelve, 262 pages, $23.99), by Henry Alford: Actor and writer Henry Alford had a simple yet captivating idea: People must learn something in seven or more decades on Earth, and the younger set could probably benefit from what their elders have learned.
In a lengthy profile of Kevin Federline's new girlfriend apparent Victoria Prince, People reports the, uh, rapper is working on a line of kids' clothes called Otzi. We don't know why or how or when or what "Otzi" means to Kevin. We just know that it is. You're welcome, music industry. [People]
"I would like to send Kristen Wiig a shiny new captain's hat because she's taking over the captain's position. It would be really stiff and high and when you tipped it over, birds would fly out of it, like squawking pigeons, and then you could bite into it, and it would be marzipan." —Amy Poehler bequeaths her unofficial title of SNL captain to Kristen Wiig [NYT]
"My reaction was, 'Are you kidding me? That's your marketing plan? Me sitting around and acting like a rock star?'" —Andrew Bird on a label's advice to stop riding his bike around town [NYT]
"For me, French is so rich and so sacred that learning it is like learning a foreign language. It's a victory. After learning French it would be bizarre to learn another language." —Fabrice Luchini on singing in English without learning the language [NYT]
"To be obsessed with Jewish image is a classic Jewish thing. It used to be when you had tough-looking Jewish actors they played Italians, like James Caan and Henry Winkler. Now you have tough-looking goyim [like Eric Bana] playing Jews, and that's progress." —Rich Cohen, author of Tough Jews [LAT]
"I've had so much plastic surgery, when I die they will donate my body to Tupperware." —Joan Rivers should donate this joke to someone who hasn't heard her use it before [NYT]
"Imitating her is like a love letter to her. I saw her at a restaurant and thought, 'Wow, she's sexy for a political analyst.'" —Michaela Watkins on impersonating Arianna Huffington [NYT]
"I'm not a funny man. That's not who I am." —Daniel Craig on moving from James Bond to a film about Nazis [MTV]
"Brian [Grazer] made a comment that I was the only man who had made love to over a thousand women and they all still liked him. And I do take some pride, in fact, that I remain friends with the majority of former wives and girlfriends. I am a romantic." —Hugh Hefner [LAT]
You can no longer purchase Marc Jacobs Collection pieces at his West Village stores. The merchandise in Marc Jacobs's downtown universe did a big do-si-do this weekend to accommodate these penny-pinching times. The Bank Street collection store was turned into a Marc Jacob's men's store, while the kids' store across the street will become a men's-accessories store. The kids' store will take up residence at the old Marc Jacob's men's store on Bleecker Street. Meanwhile, the collection pieces are all getting stuffed into the original collection store on Mercer Street in Soho. The Fashion Informer reports that a sales rep cited "not enough foot traffic" at the Bank Street collection store as the reason for the shuffling. If Marc Jacobs isn't safe in the recession, who is? But at least he hung on to his prime West Village real estate rather than shutting stores entirely. He has to live up to his title as the 63rd most powerful person in New York City real estate, after all.
In early December, Rolling Stone traveled to London to
visit U2 in the studio as Bono and Co. worked on the upcoming
No Line on the Horizon. For the full story, see the new
issue, which hits newsstands Wednesday, January 7th. Here's a first
report on 10 of the album's tracks:
"Get On Your Boots"
The likely first single, this blazing, fuzzed-out rocker picks up
where "Vertigo" left off. "It started just with me playing and
Larry drumming," the Edge recalls. "And we took it from...
Although David E. Kelley continues to churn out television shows at a rate that makes even Dick Wolf envious, it's been quite some time since one of his series captured the Zeitgeist the way he did in the late nineties. But now, after a career which has seen him create shows for every network but NBC, the impeccably eyebrowed Ben Silverman has managed to convince the prolific Kelley that the Peacock Network is the home for him to recapture his former glories. And while Kelley's new lawyer-themed dramedy, Legally Mad, isn't set to debut until next fall, the series is already making waves with the news that the virtually unknown British actress Charity Wakefield has been cast in the lead role. You might remember the last time Kelley went with a virtual unknown lead in a quirky show about lawyers. So, the question is this: What are Charity Wakefield's chances of becoming the next Ally McBeal?
Well, on the glass-half-full side of things, Wakefield will have the good fortune of working with Kelley, who is well regarded for his ability to pen strong female characters. And although we haven't seen her work as Marianne Dashwood in the most recent BBC adaptation of Sense and Sensibility in anything other than a few YouTube fan clips, she does seem to radiate a sense of charm and familiarity in the way that reminds us more than a little of Drew Barrymore. Then again, to her detriment, the show is launching on NBC, which means there's a very good chance the show could be framed between two hours of Ann Curry and two hours of Donald Trump. Hmmm, you think there's any chance she does a killer Sarah Palin impression?
Though Sir David Frost doesn't see his 1977 interviews with former President Richard Nixon as "an intellectual 'Rocky' " -- in the words of "Frost/Nixon" playwright and screenwriter Peter Morgan -- he does agree that the sessions had their "adversarial" moments. The former president himself was an "enigma," says Frost.
Ugly Betty star Rebecca Romijn gave birth to twin girls, Howard Stern announced on his radio show Monday morning. Source: FOXNews.com | 5 Jan 2009 | 4:31 pm
Front Page: Winners will be announced on Jan. 24 -- The Producers Guild of America has tapped "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button," "The Dark Knight," "Frost/Nixon," "Milk" and "Slumdog Millionaire" as nominees for its top feature award.
As Alexandra Burke's "Hallelujah" (Syco Music/Sony BMG) started a third week as the U.K.'s No. 1 single yesterday (Jan. 4) and Take That's "The Circus" (Polydor) a fifth atop the album chart, top newcomer status went to much-feted electronica star Lady GaGa.
Radiohead has drafted legendary German electronica act Kraftwerk to support its spring tour of Latin America, which begins March 15-16 in Mexico City. Kraftwerk will also play headlining shows April 25-26 in Wolfsburg, Germany.
Dan Clark loved the power steroids gave him -- until the "American Gladiators" star discovered the muscle-enhancing drugs made him grow man-boobs, shrank his privates and turned sex into a painful experience. Source: FOXNews.com | 5 Jan 2009 | 2:07 pm
The sex-mad hypochondriac, who's in Thailand recovering from 'mercury poisoning' after eating too much sushi, apparently can't get enough of female Mansion NYC employees, either Source: FOXNews.com | 5 Jan 2009 | 1:14 pm
Lindsay Lohan has used her blog to do some important stuff, like support Obama and diss her dad. And now she's using it to deny that she and her frequent sparring partner, Samantha Ronson,...
Forget pretty ponies or science homework, Kate Hudson reveals in the new Elle that something else was on her teenage mind.
"When I was a teenager, like, when I turned 16, I loved...
You can take the case out of court, but can you take the court out of the case?
Roman Polanski, who last month moved to have a decades-old charge of unlawful intercourse with a minor...
Oh, Jeffrey Dean Morgan, you sneaky devil. You always keep us guessing—even from beyond the grave!
Even though he is fully dead on Grey's Anatomy, Supernatural and Weeds, that...
Lindsay Lohan and Samantha Ronson reportedly welcomed in the New Year with a back alley fight show followed by a boxing match in their hotel hallway, so it only makes sense that a report (by way...
On the job, Patricia Arquette sees dead people. In real life, she sees divorce lawyers.
The Medium star has filed for divorce from her husband of two and a half years, Punisher hero...
• If it blogs like a crazy blogger and looks like a crazy blogger, it's probably Courtney Love. No doubt, we would blog thousands of words of nonsense if we wore this to...
Ghost Whisperer Jennifer Love Hewitt's engagement to Ross McCall has fizzled into silence.
"They broke up over the holidays and have ended their engagement," a source close...
As a father himself with another child on the way, Tim Allen can sympathize with John Travolta and Kelly Preston.
Allen, who costarred in the hit biker comedy Wild Hogs with...
Last week,
If we were to tell you that out there in the universe exists a man known to the British population at large as Mr. Motivator, what would you expect him to look like?
Would he hold a stopwatch?
Perhaps a small flag that says "Go Team!"?
Would he dress in slacks and wingtip shoes?
Or perhaps wear a graduation cap and gown?
Would he look like the spitting image of Meshach Taylor?
Think Long. Think Hard. And then click to find out.
1. Washington Post: 
