America's Leader in Outdoor TV Creates One Stop Shop for High-Quality Outdoor Experiences Matching Consumers with Professional Outfitters Visit Outdoor... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 1:00 pm
Ellen DeGeneres, who made it her mission to snare actor George Clooney for her daytime television show, finally has him on board. No lure worked until Clooney jumped at the chance to... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 12:04 pm
AP - In rapper Biggie Smalls' old Brooklyn neighborhood, the building that once housed a coin laundry is now a plastic surgeon's office. A block away, a wine bar sells "artisanal" cheeses and meats.
AP - In rapper Biggie Smalls' old Brooklyn neighborhood, the building that once housed a coin laundry is now a plastic surgeon's office. A block away, a wine bar sells "artisanal" cheeses and meats.
___ ABC's "This Week" _ David Axelrod, senior adviser to President-elect Barack Obama. ___ CBS' "Face the Nation" _ Lawrence Summers, Obama's choice for director of the National... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 8:26 am
AFP - Chinese lawyers will sue auction giant Christie's over the sale of relics owned by the late Yves Saint Laurent which they say were stolen from a looted Beijing palace, according to state press.
NEW YORK (Reuters) - The producers of the Broadway play "Speed the Plow" filed a grievance with Actors' Equity against actor Jeremy Piven, who left the Broadway show in the middle of its... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 6:31 am
Clash of the Titans! Bailey (the inimitable Chandra Wilson) takes on McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) in the operating room and worlds collide in this sneak peek look at Wednesday's all-new...
The lovable scamps known as Darlton (Lost exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) just showed critics episode three of Lost season five and the time-travel kookiness was off the...
"That's what happens with lies," Winfrey said on an episode of "The Oprah Winfrey Show" that aired Friday. "They get bigger and bigger and bigger." Rosenblat, a 79-year-old resident of Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 5:33 am
The producers of "Lost" say the new season will emphasize time shifting along with Sawyer, the repentant con man played by Josh Holloway. "Lost" executive producer Carlton Cuse says... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 5:27 am
AP - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be meeting with publishers later this month to discuss three book projects, including a memoir of her service in the Bush administration.
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will be meeting with publishers later this month to discuss three book projects, including a memoir of her service in the Bush administration. Rice on Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 5:21 am
NEW YORK - Executives at two publishing houses say they plan to meet with Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice this month to discuss book projects, including a memoir of her service in the Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 5:09 am
Passion Pit is the "passion project" (pit) of Michael Angelakos, who originally created what would eventually become the Chunk of Change EP as a belated Valentine’s present for his girlfriend while enrolled in Emerson College. The last time I decided to create music for my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day it turned into the White Album, and the year before that, I wrote something that eventually turned into Moby Dick (we were going through a whaling phase).
The song we chose to kick off season 16 is "Sleepyhead," which has been getting more buzz than a beehive since Passion Pit was the toast of CMJ last fall. Sleepyhead is a perfect place to start with Passion Pit; I’d use the words “spastic” and “sublime” if I was qualified to talk about music, but I’ll also confess that I’m a sucker for anything containing synths and shrill vocals. It’s insanely catchy, plus they even got obscure yet highly respected band The Wilderness to direct the video for it, so take that, you mainstream d*cks!
Ahead, something related to porn... and a music video. Intriguing, you say? You bet it is.
If you think the name Passion Pit sounds like the title of a porno, you’d be right, because it is in fact the name of an old hardcore porn (we won't link but you shouldn’t have trouble finding a torrent if you don’t already own it). In an interview on Spinner, keyboardist Ayad Al Adhamy explained the actual meaning behind the name, “To make it clear, [Passion Pit] is not the porn film. It's just where kids would go and make out ... the drive in movie theater.” Glad that was cleared up, because this would be the catchiest porn I’ve ever listened to and I have several porns on my ipod in audio form and none are even close.
Make sure to check out the song “Better Things” on their Myspace -- it'll also drive you crazy.
You can purchase the Chunk of Change EP at multipleinternetplaces. Expect a full album from them sometime in the next few months.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Passion Pit in a town near you when they kick off their tour January 26th in Michigan.
Rosenblat, saying she's "very disappointed" in his now discredited story about meeting his future wife in a Nazi concentration camp. "That's what happens with lies," Winfrey said on an... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 4:19 am
Rebounding from a brief, beastly illness, Patrick Swayze is on the mend and ready to get back to work promoting his new series, The Beast, which debuted this week on...
PARK CITY, Utah (Reuters) - The 25th Sundance Film Festival opened on Thursday with founder Robert Redford sounding an optimistic note for cinematic art and an artful movie challenging... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 4:04 am
North Korea's prison system and the cult of personality surrounding the Stalinist nation's leader Kim Jong-Il are the subject of a documentary screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Director NC Heikin's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 3:35 am
North Korea's prison system and the cult of personality surrounding the Stalinist nation's leader Kim Jong-Il are the subject of a documentary screening at the Sundance Film Festival. Director NC Heikin's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 3:35 am
Reuters - Clear Channel Communications Inc, which operates radio stations and outdoor advertising space, plans to lay off about 7 percent of its U.S. staff, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 17 Jan 2009 | 2:56 am
Reuters - If there was ever a reason for gore film fans to fork over a few extra bucks, it's this remake of a 1981 Canadian horror picture that has pretty well lapsed into obscurity for all but cultists. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 17 Jan 2009 | 2:35 am
Variety reports that Mad Men creator Matthew Weiner, following months of tense negotiation, has finally signed a deal with Lionsgate to come back for at least a third and fourth season. Weiner had allegedly been seeking $10 million a year (which we guess he got?), along with a larger budget for the show, presumably to use on more CGI. So Don Draper and Co. will return this summer as planned, which is excellent news, even if it means we'll never see Bryan Batt's production of Les Miz.
Filmmaker Joe Berlinger, seen here on October 7, 2008, attends a celebration in New York. Environmental movies such as Berlinger's "Crude," are taking center stage at the 25th Sundance Film Festival. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 17 Jan 2009 | 12:33 am
Front Page: Suspended program covered 800 productions -- With a SAG strike becoming less likely, the Screen Actors Guild has announced it's pulled the plug on offering waivers to indie film producers that would allow production to continue if there's a work stoppage.
The producers of Speed-the-Plow, the David Mamet Broadway play that Piven exited last month amid a...
We were ready to cast "Just Dance" off as a crappy pop song the first ten times we heard it. Then, in a moment of clarity, we really listened to the words coming out of your mouth and realized this wasn't just pop music but poetry. The way you've described going out and getting so effed up you forget things as they happen is nothing short of art. And we suppose, in a way, your style mimics that. When we're drunk at 3 a.m. and feeling emboldened, we often believe we can be and do anything. So we understand your propensity toward Lady Gagasaurus, with those gold, rock-like accoutrements sprouting from your breast, or the glove with spikes on it we feel should be taken away from you before you hurt yourself. We understand your even stronger propensity to fearlessly strut around in leotards with your control-top panty hose showing. So persistent have you been with this style that, amazingly, you've made the notion of wearing leotards over panty hose seem dated.
We don't doubt that the success of your brilliant single more than compensates for your astronomical wax bills. But the thing is, pants are your friend. Walking around outside in nothing more than bedazzled panties and sheer hose is great. But, like when you're so drunk that you're dancing on tables with strange men (or women) with your shirt inside-out and saying things like "half psychotic sick hypnotic," when you see the pictures the next day, it's not so great anymore. Since old habits die hard, we won't even ask you to wear them onstage (though from time to time it would be nice). Perhaps you could start slow and just wear them when you're walking around outside. Because we don't want your greatest cultural effect on this country or the U.K. to be that 13-year-olds think pants — or any kind of bottoms, for that matter — are optional.
Just dancing,
The Cut
The Cut will be off celebrating MLK day on Monday, so we'll see everyone back here Tuesday morning.
There's a reason Plan B is commonly called the "morning-after pill": You take it the morning after. In fact, the packaging very clearly states that one should not wait more than 72 hours between fornicating with that stranger and taking the pill, lest you end up with an unwanted, possibly alcohol-poisoned, child. So it's probably not a good idea to do what the Duane Reade on Essex and Delancey Streets suggests you do, and wait till tomorrow, especially since, actually, this sign has been up all week long. If you have an emergency this weekend — since, after all, it's much too cold to go out for condoms — our friend, the renowned contraceptive critic Moe Tkacik, suggests you try the Rite Aid at Grand and Clinton. This has been a Daily Intel Public Service Announcement.
• We told mall-cop lovers to save their money for Observe and Report, and fans of being hit in the groin with a pickax to spend theirs on My Bloody Valentine 3D.
Are you tired of getting your pop culture info from these unmoving words and images? Good news -- an all-new Best Week Ever With Paul F. Tompkins premieres tonight at 11! Tune in to VH1 tonight for all your necessary Idol updates, View beatdown recaps, and the only inauguration coverage anywhere on television!
Meanwhile, on the internet, besides making this face :( a lot during Sara's final week, here's some stuff we wrote:
Sara's list of the Top 50 Craziest Animal Paintings will delight, confuse, haunt, delight again, bewilder, inspire, and delight you. Then one final haunt for the ages when you get to #1.
Michelle's Golden Globes recap was nominated for an Emmy for Comprehensiveness. And for Best Reality Competition Program.
Our first 2009 inductee into the Awesome Local Commercial Hall of Fame: St. Louis liquor store chain Dirt Cheap.
Michelle crashed the America's Next Top Model Party and dared to brave the unthinkable -- getting a photo taken with Miss Jay.
(Playbill) Playbill - A Denver Center Theatre Company commissioned world premiere, Inana - Michele Lowe's play about an Iraqi museum curator, his wife and his work - begins Jan. 16 in the intimate Ricketson Theatre in Denver. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 16 Jan 2009 | 10:48 pm
Apparently the producers of Speed-the-Plow are feeling the same way about Jeremy Piven's appearance on Good Morning America yesterday as the National Fisheries Institute: They think his story is fishy (insert rimshot here). They have officially filed a grievance against the sashimi addict with Actor's Equity, the union that represents performers on Broadway. Fingers crossed that the arbitration case gets assigned to Judge Mathis! [TMZ]
Some might call a new baby a blessing. In that vein, Kimora Lee Simmons has blessed the world twice, first with darling Ming Lee and then with infinitely charming Aoki Lee. And now a third little treasure is on the way, her first with boyfriend Djimon Hounsou. Kimora's assistants must be thrilled with the news. In nine short months they'll have another adorable little fawn to take to the children's spa while Kimora meets with "green experts" who tell her private planes are bad for the environment. [Daily Intel]
• Federated Media, publisher of blogs like BoingBoing and TechCrunch, is laying off staffers. [Federated Media]
• O’Reilly Media, once-pioneering publisher of tech and web books, has laid off 30 staffers. [Press Democrat]
• Time Warner would consider selling layoff-prone Time Inc. publishing, but not anytime soon. [MarketWatch]
• The new Atlanta Journal-Constitution publisher, Doug Franklin, introduced himself to the staff with an announcement: Our paper is losing a million dollars every week. Hi. [Creative Loafing]
• Hearst Magazine International’s president, George Green, is stepping down after a long, successful tenure. Green kept Hearst’s international sales afloat, even recently. [NYP]
• Clear Channel Communications is looking to trim $400 million off its budget — perhaps by mass layoffs. [NYP]
• Esquire has begun advertising on its cover — for $250,000. That's so ... innovative. [NYT]
With Paul Blart: Mall Cop set to roll out onto more than 3,000 screens this weekend, we thought it was high time to take a look back at the mostly dormant mall-movie genre. As everyone who was alive during the Reagan years will attest, the only thing that ran more rampant than Hulkamania was consumerism. Consequently, people of all ages flocked to these suburban meccas in search of everything from wildly overpriced fashions to wildly overpriced cookies. Hollywood took note, and the mall became a central figure in films of the era, housing everything from horny teens to Rastafarian drug lords to serial killers. So won't you come along as Vulture takes a ride on the escalator of nostalgia and explores the best moments the genre had to offer? The first slice of Sbarro is on us.
Off to bake an authentic circa 1990 Oprah cake as a goodbye cake for Sara. Does anyone have about... mmm... 225 pounds of sugar I can borrow? Theeeeenk yeeeeew.
(via Cakewrecks) Source: Best Week Ever | 16 Jan 2009 | 10:25 pm
Front Page: Lionsgate TV pact includes feature component -- After months of negotiations, "Mad Men" creator and exec producer Matthew Weiner has cut a two-year deal with Lionsgate TV that will keep him at the helm of his Emmy-winning AMC drama.
The Incredible Hulk is looking terrible these days.
A self-reflexively cartoonish pop celebrity in Gorillaz, Damon Albarn has been busy writing Chinese operas and getting Blur back together. But he took over the airwaves at BBC's Radio 1 the other day to drop three new 'rillaz demos: the operatic "Electric Shock," the clubby "Stylo/Binge" (there's some confusion about the name), and "Broken," a meandering, off-kilter organ track that is the only one of the three with any vocals yet. Perhaps thinking that he's as immune to physical harm as his alter ego, 2D, Albarn will be finishing the third Gorillaz studio album in Syria, in the heart of the Middle East.
It's brutal out there. Eighteen degrees with a windchill of four? That's not okay, period. It's not like we want to bitch about this kind of thing, but our frozen hands and icy teardrops dictate otherwise. So, we scoured the internet for cheap ways to stay warm. And thank the heavens, cashmere gloves are only $23.90, as are the fingerless versions, at Nordstrom.com. Cashmere. They come in six colors (though some have sold out), and since they're so cheap, you may as well order six pairs. Because when iced-over snot drips down your puffer coat, and you only have a frozen finger to wipe with, it's time to say enough is enough. And that's not gross, it's just true.
Andrew Wyeth, the most famous American painter that almost no one in the art world ever thought of or cared much about, died in his sleep, in his home near Philadelphia, at the age of 91. Known for his sketchy, dry, goldenrod-and-ochre-colored scenes of working farms, rundown sawmills, nature studies, working people, military garb, and rustic interiors — he was very good at depicting peeling paint and rotting wood — Wyeth, who was the son of the well-known illustrator N.C. Wyeth, is responsible for one of the most recognized and beloved American paintings of the early twentieth century, “Christina’s World.”
Painted in 1948, the work was a stroke of luck and delayed memory. One day, as Wyeth happened to look out his upstairs window, he saw his next-door neighbor — a young woman named Christina Olsen, whom he had been painting for some time — crawling across a field of wheat. Christiana had had polio as a child. Later, Wyeth made sketches of the Olsen house, added a field surrounding it, and, as an afterthought, inserted Christina in a pink dress in the foreground. Out of nowhere an American had created a one-painting version of conservative surrealism, a painting with what felt like American values, but that was riddled with mystery and something unknowable. In 1949, the Museum of Modern Art purchased the picture. Today, “Christina’s World” is a tourist destination, a picture people puzzle over and love.
Yet while Wyeth has been a mainstay of poster sales and coffee-table books, the art world has viewed him as little more than a glorified illustrator. Indeed, in over three decades in the art world, I have never heard one artist, art student, teacher, critic, collector, or curator mention his name. Wyeth has been a nonentity, except insofar as he’s known as “The guy who painted that yellow picture of that woman in the wheat field.”
In the eighties that almost changed, when Wyeth released what became known as the “Helga” paintings. All of a sudden he was being talked about everywhere. The images, many of them nudes, depicted a neighbor of Wyeth’s, Helga Testorf. Made over a period of around fifteen years, the pictures somehow became the subject of media scrutiny. For a moment the whole country turned into a small town, as people speculated about whether or not the married Wyeth had had an affair with his younger neighbor. The pictures themselves are standard watercolors, sketches, and paintings; mostly they have the look of the illustrations that were in the Joy of Sex book. The work is realist, with dashes of brushiness and wisps of flat shadow. In one of the books published to accompany the series, there are gnomic quotes from Wyeth next to some of the images. Next to one watercolor of the statuesque Helga standing in a doorway, Wyeth records, “… I became entranced with the light splashing all over her body.” One is tempted to think, “I bet you were,” when you notice the way he fetishizes her Viking-like braid resting on her pendulous breasts.
Although Wyeth came of age at the exact same time as the Abstract Expressionists, he was always a conservative, someone who seemed either unaware or uninterested in all things avant-garde. But while the art world looked the other way, Wyeth was hosted by Richard Nixon at the White House, and his Helga paintings were shown at the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. Still, Wyeth was considered so conservative that even the Metropolitan Museum of Art declined an offer to exhibit his work. (Interestingly, however, one of his sons, Jamie, made the avant-garde grade when he collaborated for a time with Andy Warhol.) In 2007, the current President Bush presented Wyeth with the National Medal of the Arts.
Regardless of how he has been viewed by the art world, Wyeth is not a lost cause, or merely conservative. He worked constantly, depicting the world with a certain coolness that feels modern, and he cast his scenes in a light that feels very photographic, and therefore timely. Someday Wyeth may enjoy his time in the art-world sun. In the meantime, we can see him as a very particular strain of American: As intellectually independent as he was stylistically conservative, a family man with a streak of cruelty, a son with something to prove, and possessing a nose-to-the-grindstone attitude of “I did it my way.”
Georgina or the Italian au pair? This week, questions abounded over who got Chucked first, a question fueling as much debate as the legality of Bart's will. Jack Bass's stock continued to rise among his nascent fan base, eager to vocalize their adulation for the new head of Bass Industries. Most noteworthy, perhaps, was the expression of frustration with the uneven plot development, causing many a fan to pull an Eric and let it be known when they're annoyed. So while we wait for next week's episode, let's review our favorite comments from this week after the jump.
Realer Than a Washed-up Rock Star Stuck With Bad Tattoos Long After His Career Has Faded: [Ed: we think those might actually be Matthew Settle's real tattoos.]
• Blair ends a conversation with Serena with "Ta!" Plus 5. —gg12345
• Plus 2 for the emergence of Blair's rack. Fantastic —ComfortablySmug (echoed by others) [Ed: Mmm. Smug, we know it's in your nature, but self-congratulation on official posts is frowned upon]
• Plus 2 at the awkward bromance between Nate and Dan. My straight friend tells me this is sadly realistic, including the 'almost-want-to-hug-you-but-can't-because-I-don't-want-to- show-too-much-affection' pose. —Groupie
• Plus 100 for the fact that Chuck was wearing Bart's tie to the will reading, you could tell that it was the same one in the picture of Bart when he was getting ready, because underneath all that malice, Chuck really only wants fatherly approval. —RGH
• When Chuck confronts Jack, we have a shot over Bart's desk and Plus 10 for letting us see a extra-cute pictures of little blond Chuck before italian au pair version!!! —italianaupair
• Plus 5 for the crushed up blue pills on Chuck's desk. Blowing Adderall, so high school. —Elainebenice
• Plus 5 because the opening song is called "the error of the mirror" and Blair and Chuck figure prominently. They are each the other's worst nightmare and worst reflection. —DisplacedNYer
• At Dylan's Candy Bar, Vanessa is flattered that those weird hobbit like girls know who she is. Plus 10 because, like all fake hipsters, Vanessa wants to be of the in-crowd. —DisplacedNYer
Faker Than a Friend Who'd Pick a New Girlfriend Over a Brunch Celebrating Your Recently Acquired Billions:
• Minus 10 for that awful denim button down Nate was wearing. It looks like Vanessa was stealing clothes from Rufus to give to her sad sad poor boyfriend. —trivialpursuits
• I struggle now to feel anything during these Chuck/Blair scenes because at this point we know there's going to be five more instances where one of them utters "I'M DONE" in Season 2 alone. —sakade
• Minus 5 because once the Mean Girls announced to the world that Lily and Rufus had a baby together, couldn't Jenny just have spilled all of THEIR secrets in retaliation? Remember how scared they were of Little J last episode?!?! —LobstersAreAGirlsBestFriend
• Minus 3 for Rufus and Lily not even asking to see a photo of their son. He's dead, so they're not even curious. Lily practically breathed a sigh of relief. —Tiger_Lily
• Minus 30 because Blair is too young to be playing the idiotic wall street wife but she is doing a damn good job of it when she falls for the "working late" line... HE'S IN HIGH SCHOOL. —lagitananueva
I was so humbled to hear all the well-wishes and death threats when I announced that I was leaving. This site has the best commenters anywhere on the internet (and I'm INCLUDING YouTube when I say that!). Though I won't be blogging here anymore, I will still be blogging and trying to be funny somewhere else, so when the pain gets to be too much, think about that.
I wanted to make a montage of all my favorite BWE.tv moments set to the song "This Used To Be My Playground," but alas, it didn't happen. So I hope you won't find this to be too self-indulgent (kind of how the title of this post isn't self-indulgent at all?): here is my list of things I WOULD have included, if I wasn't so damn lazy:
When reports first emerged of terrified children befouling their pants during test screenings of Spike Jonze's Where the Wild Things Are a while back, we'll admit we didn't quite understand what could've possibly been so scary. Now that we've seen photos of the film's monsters, however (they were leaked today via the website for Spike Jonze's skateboard company), we'll immediately be investing our entire life savings in rubber movie-seat covers. [/Film, Playlist]
Birds have been attacking human aircraft since long before yesterday's near-disaster with Flight 1549. The first "bird strikes," as they are called, were recorded just a few years after the original Wright Brothers flight, and the creatures have been menacing us ever since. Bird Strike Committee USA, a joint partnership between the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the Department of Defense, estimates that birds cause $600 million in damages in the country each year, and have caused 219 deaths internationally since 1991. When they're not striking, these would-be suicide bombers bide their time lurking around airports, since, as John Ostrom, chairman of the Bird Strike Committee, puts it: "They're wide-open attractive places free of predators and [are] a good food source." New York’s airports are particularly vulnerable to Canadian geese and seagulls — fat, hideous birds whose sudden flocking has felled many a plane. But what drives this behavior? Are they angry that humans have infiltrated their territory? Why do birds hate us?
Irene Schulz, president of the Bird Lovers Only Rescue Service, would like us to believe that birds are merely ignorant. "This is not the bird’s fault," she says, of their tendency to fly straight into engines in a way that looks as though they are doing it on purpose. "They don’t know our technology. They don’t understand there is a plane in the way and it’s not going to move for them. Unfortunately, they don’t teach that in geese school.”
Plus, she suggested, planes have an unfair advantage. “A plane flies faster than a bird, so it’s actually like a Pacman come to gobble," she says.
So it's our fault that their schools are ill-equipped, their technology is backward, and they don't have enough food where they come from? Please. We're not the ecosystem's parents. Irene also suggested the birds' deadly, highly organized flying style was a kind of cultural difference. The pack mentality, she said, is just "birds being birds."
Well, as we see it, birds are welcome to be "birds," so long as they don't infringe on humans' freedom to hurtle through space in a giant motorized tin can whenever we want to.
Fortunately, officials at New York's airports, run by the Port Authority, have taken a harder line than bleeding-heart Irene, and have responded to the bird threat proactively, with some unusual steps throughout the years. More than a decade ago, Kennedy International Airport maintained a cadre of trained falcons and hawks that were flown around the airports to scare off the geese and gulls, but this bird-on-bird action was only limitedly successful. JFK and LaGuardia next tried employing loud sonic booms to disrupt them, but like most New Yorkers, they learned to live with their nosy neighbors.
Other techniques that have been tried, according to Ostrom, include pyrotechnics, scarecrows, stuffed foxes and coyotes, propane cannons, dogs, radio-controlled remote cars, and banging on pots and pans. None have eradicated the problem. "It's impossible to turn an airport into a biological desert," says Ostrom. But that doesn't mean they can't keep trying. In fact, we were heartened to hear that recently, frustrated airport officials finally moved on to the only time-tested approach — guns. Up until today, the Port Authority has been a little nervous about how the public might react to news that they have rifle-toting marksmen who hunt birds. But yesterday's incident showed how much damage nature's terrorists can do — and now people are sure to be more, er, hawkish on the war on birds. God willing.
Take the poster for Four Christmases, unwrap the two leads, replace them with two much crappier actors, and overemphasize Sandra Bullock's once-desirable figure and voila! Totally different poster:
Not to go overboard with the Simpsons references this week (because that's impossible), but does the bizarre emphasis on Bullock's ass remind anyone of the Red Blazer Realty billboard? Really, every single one of you? Awesome! Source: Best Week Ever | 16 Jan 2009 | 9:40 pm
Two photographs of Madonna set to appear in a Christie's auction next month will probably sell for at least $10,000 each, according to estimates posted on the company's Web site.
Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson apparently doesn't want to be persona non grata over her candid Q&A in Us Weekly, so now she's looking to clear up her remarks about living with...
To really enjoy the following video of the best iPhone game ever created, make sure to blast the volume to its highest capacity, preferably around your 100+ cats.
While an iPhone has yet to make its way into my own household, because -- let's face it -- winding up your phone is more fun than any newfangled "touchscreen", this iPhone game where one stacks animated cats as high as they can go is making me rethink my old-fashioned ways. What better way to spend a night than snugglin' up to your man-shaped body pillow, listening to some Mandy Patinkin and stackin' cats? No better way indeed.
A while ago, The Wall Street Journal ran an article about how dressing too provocatively at a company cocktail party was a bad idea. While a woman showing a little décolletage at a non-work party is no big deal, the image of said woman in a slinky dress is likely to be forever ingrained in the minds of her male co-workers, who aren't used to seeing bare skin south of her collar bones. Yes, men should be more decorous, but since they're incapable, chicks may as well cover up and avoid being the hot topic in the break room for the next six weeks. It wouldn't kill them. But apparently a lot of women don't think that way. Grazia reports that a third of us dress provocatively in the workplace in hopes of advancing our careers. That seems high. We thought more women than that would understand that provocative clothing is more likely to turn them into the "I Can't Believe She Wore That to Work Girl" than the next VP. Because honestly, outside of American Apparel, how far can it get you?
The survey also reveals that 48 percent of women get competitive, style-wise, with their female colleagues. Women in the marketing and advertising industries are most competitive in this regard, followed by chicks in media and retail. We put in our time at Condé Nast, and we can absolutely understand that. But what about doing surveys like these on men? Women aren't the only ones who care about what their clothes look like.
We love watching Al Gore stand at a lectern as much as the next filmgoer, but the range of experiential documentaries at this year’s Sundance is getting us pretty excited. We don’t yet know whether there will be any breakout docs, as in years past (An Inconvenient Truth, Man on Wire), but we do know one thing: This year’s documentarians are bringing us images from places we’re not meant to see. Reporter follows New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof as he travels war-torn Congo. Burma VJ gives us first-person footage of the Burmese government’s brutal crackdown on protesters last year. The Cove infiltrates a top-secret dolphin-slaughtering facility (yes, dolphin-slaughtering facility). The September Issue goes behind the lines at Anna Wintour’s Vogue — a far cry from evidence of mass killings of intelligent mammals, but perhaps not that far. And we haven’t even mentioned the Josh Harris documentary yet. It’s enough to make the talking-head industry start thinking government bailout.
Apparently, the "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It)" singer dancer will perform the first song Barack and Michelle boogie to as First Couple. The exact tune she'll sing is under wraps, but which one from her repertoire could possibly be appropriate? (Okay, okay, maaayybe Bonnie & Clyde.) And what's going to happen to America when, next to Beyoncé's booty-shaking, everyone sees that Barack and Michelle are actually white? [AP]
Alexander McQueen is launching an apparel line for Puma, having designed sneakers for the brand since 2005. Set to launch this Tuesday in Milan, the boxing-inspired line features everything from T-shirts starting at $72 to jackets for $790. Wait, $790 for Puma? That's like saying one Puma x McQueen jacket is worth eight pairs of sneakers. Sounds about right. [WWD]
The Post's "soviet-style" building and the Times' giant jungle-gym.
Venerated media columnist Howard Kurtz has thrown himself headlong into the biggest elite-newspaper squabble of the year thus far. (Okay, so we're only two weeks in. Still true.) In his column today, Kurtz tackles the disgusted report from the Times' Helene Cooper that a throng of what may have been Post reporters cheered Obama's arrival at their office. "There was no standing ovation," he writes. The paper's "grizzled journalistic veterans ... stood and, well, stared," save for the shriek of a lowly "clerical employee." But Kurtz steps it up a notch, too, throwing Cooper's sass back at her and then some. Referring to Cooper's description of the "soviet-style" Post building, Kurtz responds, "All right, it's no architectural prize, but at least we haven't had to mortgage our headquarters like a certain Manhattan-based newspaper." Snap! Someone has to stop this rivalry before it escalates into a back-alley brawl, or, considering the participants, a back-alley subtle-belittlement free-for-all.
SHOP GIRL: Kim Kardashian, filling up her tank before going shoe-shopping at Christian Louboutin in Beverly Hills.
JUST DANCE: Janet Jackson, dancing up a storm with her backup dancers...
At Deitch Projects, an effort is underway to promote the outsider artwork of Liz Renay, the late burlesque diva, gangster moll, and John Waters muse, who occupied her reflective moments by painting erotic kitsch. Amid voluptuous portraits of reclining nudes and full-figured storybook heroines in clingy period garb, this painting of Adam and Eve — with the original temptress depicted as a rouged blow-up doll — combines a porn aesthetic with a touching naïveté. On view through January 31.
Front Page: Hallmark, Lifetime, Sci Fi resuscitate genre -- The Sunday-night movie officially breathed its last in 2006, when CBS finally eliminated its weekly edition. Yet, the made-for-TV movie is gradually reconstituting itself -- albeit on cable for fewer dollars and on Saturdays.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon may not be poppin' out babies right now, but it's gonna happen.
"We're definitely into planning a family and stuff but when everything...
• Tom Hanks talks Prop 8 at the Big Love party: "The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a...
Sure to be one of the most talked-about documentaries at this year’s Sundance Film Festival, Louie Psihoyos’s The Cove is part heist movie, part environmental exposé. The cove in question is a secluded and naturally fortified lagoon in the small Japanese town of Taiji, where every year for six months thousands of dolphins are brutally slaughtered. The film is in part about the efforts of a group of activists to infiltrate the cove and to actually film what goes on there. Leading the charge is Richard O’Barry, a longtime activist who was responsible for training the dolphins on the sixties TV show Flipper. Indeed, The Cove is also the story of O’Barry’s journey, documenting how he came to be a self-described “abolitionist” for dolphins. He spoke to Vulture about his new film, watching TV with Flipper, and the increasingly elaborate disguises he has to wear when he goes to Taiji.
You know, when I was a kid, I always wanted to live in the Flipper house.
I used to live in that house! It was right in the Miami Seaquarium there. I have such wonderful halcyon memories of those days. There wasn’t even a fence around the Seaquarium. It was like magic. Until the wheels fell off.
You had captured the dolphins on Flipper, right?
I captured the five dolphins that collectively played the part of Flipper. I trained all of them, from the very beginning of the first show to the last show. I lived with all five of them in the Seaquarium. And on Friday nights, at 7:30, I would take the TV set, with a long extension cord, out to the end of the dock, so Flipper could watch Flipper on television. And that’s when I knew they were self-aware. I could tell when the dolphins recognized themselves and each other. Cathy, for example, would recognize the shots she was in, Suzy would recognize her shots, and so on. Dolphins are hard to read, because you have to look at body language. Almost all other animals you can read by looking at their faces. But dolphins have this built-in “smile” that makes it look like they’re always happy.
How did your ideas about captivity turn around?
Cathy died in my arms, of suicide. It was just before Earth Day, 1970. The next day, I found myself in a Bimini jail, trying to free a dolphin for the first time. I completely lost it.
How do you know it was suicide?
You have to understand, dolphins are not automatic air breathers like we are. Every breath for them is a conscious effort. She looked me right in the eye, took a breath, held it — and she didn’t take another one. She just sank to the bottom of the water. That had a profound effect on me.
The footage of the dolphin slaughter you filmed in The Cove is pretty staggering. Has anyone else seen it yet?
The world will see it Sunday, at Sundance. Even the Japanese don’t know about this. I went onto the street in Tokyo, and I showed the footage to a hundred people walking down the sidewalk, and none of them knew this was happening. That’s the only hope, to expose this to the world. It won’t be easy. The film will probably be banned in Japan. I’m hoping Jim Clark, who is our partner on this, can figure out a way to get it seen there. If he can invent Netscape, he can figure that out, as well. In the meantime, we also have our website, SaveJapanDolphins.org, where people can learn more about this issue.
But killing dolphins is actually legal in Japan.
Yes, but let’s not forget that the place in question here is a national park. They’re killing the wildlife in a national park. They don’t have jurisdiction there. They’re just a bunch of thugs. As for the broader issue of legality: One percent of the Japanese population eats whale meat, and a very small percentage of that one percent eats dolphin or even knows that people eat dolphin. That’s one of the reasons I’m opposed to a boycott of Japan. In the seventies and eighties, there was a big effort to stop whaling by taking out full-page ads in newspapers that said, “Save the Whales. Boycott Japan.” Japanese people are not guilty of this. They don’t know it’s happening. Japanese papers and networks do not cover this story.
So if nobody is eating dolphin meat, why is this slaughter happening?
I think it’s really about over-fishing. It’s a worldwide problem. Basically, they’re killing the competition, because each of those dolphins eats 25 to 30 pounds of fish. As for the dolphin meat, nobody really knows where it goes. They kill 23,000 dolphins a year: I have no idea where that meat goes. You can’t really even buy it in Taiji. I’m thinking it might be exported to places that have a protein shortage. We had this meat tested, and the mercury levels on it is through the roof. It’s contaminated.
Have you been back to Taiji since you shot this footage?
I go five or six times a year, during the killing season, which is six months. I’m constantly there. I’ll go anytime anybody will go with me — CNN, BBC, you name it. It’s gotten so dangerous now that I have to wear disguises when I first get there. The last time, I was wearing a long black wig, sunglasses, my Michael Jackson mask over my mouth, a dress, and lipstick. I had to dress as a woman because they’re looking for a man.
What will they do if they catch you?
The biggest danger is not so much the fishermen, although they are angry and some of the younger ones have said they would kill us if they could get away with it. But it’s really the yakuza, who are very connected to the whaling and fishing industries. In Japan, that’s how problems like me are solved, how people who cause trouble are often dealt with. Especially in a lot of these small towns, you don’t call the police, you call the yakuza.
What about people who say that, while the footage in The Cove is quite grisly, a regular slaughterhouse would also look pretty horrific to people if they could see it?
They’re absolutely correct. The one difference is that the dolphins are terrorized for days, as the fishermen intrude on their migration patterns and then chase them into the lagoon with loud noises. But yes, the slaughterhouse is an absolute horror show. It’s a separate issue, and some of us are working on that as well. But that doesn’t justify what they’re doing to the dolphins.
For six years now, Aoki Lee and Ming Lee Simmons have been minding their own business. They sometimes have to pose for pictures in magazines, model kids' clothes to the tune of dirty R&B, and appear every six months on runways scattered with denim and lamé at their mother's fashion shows. They even inadvertently outlived the dog their mother may have loved better than them, and survived their parents' much-publicized divorce. Because, let's be honest, they are well-tended children and they will never want for anything in the hip-hop world.
But this, this is the ultimate indignity. Aoki and Ming's mother is now pregnant with model-actor Djimon Hounsou's baby. Not only do they have to occasionally see their soon-to-be stepfather's prodigious junk on billboards, but they now will have to deal with its consequences for the rest of their lives. Little Aoki and Ming did not endure all of the humiliations (and velvet! and white gold!) of their childhood just to have the spotlight stolen from them. Something must be done about this! We suggest banishment of Djimon to an alternate desert universe where he is forced to roll around in a giant white hamster wheel with Antonio Sabato Jr. for all eternity. Not only is it a fitting punishment for this offense, but we truly believe it to be within those two little girls' power to make it happen.
MAKEUP
• Dolce & Gabbana on their new makeup collection (the campaign for which will star Scarlett Johansson): "We see makeup as another thing for women, like a dress. We worked on the makeup line like we work on a clothing collection — you can change makeup like you can change your clothes, depending on your mood." [WWD]
• Here are some new promo photos of M.A.C.'s Hello Kitty line. They were taken in November at an event to announce the line, which for some reason featured cracked-out-looking dolls. [Racked]
HAIR
• Celebrity hairstylist Ted Gibson wants to be a household name, so he signed a deal to distribute his line at Target. Surely the $23 products will make your hair look just like Debra Messing's. [WWD]
NAILS
• Uslu Airlines enlisted four D.J.'s to launch a club-inspired series of nail polishes. Ed Banger, Rollerboys, Headman, and Fetisch all created colors, which include lilac, neon yellow, baby blue, and silver gray. [Nylon]
SKIN
• Bliss Spa is launching Best of Skintentions in March, an all-in-one moisturizer with SPF 15, antioxidants, and vitamins A, C, and E that costs $35. It's our every "skintention" to get some. [WWD]
• If you're bored and your skin's flaking off, here's how you can make your own body scrub out of brown sugar. [Bella Sugar]
I sometimes wonder if all the "Wacky Newzz" features on websites simply give us more access to ridiculous news stories, or if the existence of these features actually inspires criminals to go out of their way to commit the most bizarre crimes possible.
Long story short, a dude was arrested for stealing a shark and an eel -- note the cryptic last line in this story and its Troy McClure-like fish-fetish implications:
30-year-old Long Island native Elbert Starks was arrested yesterday for allegedly shoplifting a live shark from Total Aquarium in Lynbrook. Police say the heist took place last month, when Starks—a sex offender on probation—grabbed a $350 nurse shark from a tank, put it into his jacket, and drove it to a new home in his apartment's aquarium. (The shark survived!) Starks is also accused of using a credit card stolen from another pet shop to buy a 2-foot-long green moray eel for $300, which he put in the tank with the shark. An employee tells the Post, "This guy obviously has a thing for fish."
Not to state the obvious here, but how the hell does someone successfully steal a live shark? Is this dude a Carmen Sandiego villain? Someone better go check and make sure he hasn't taken the Lincoln Memorial too.
Also - I normally don't like to copy-paste this much straight text from someone else's website, but I'm sorry, that story just kept getting better and better.
(Thanks, Gothamist) Source: Best Week Ever | 16 Jan 2009 | 8:00 pm
20th Century Fox and Warner Bros. studios have settled their legal wrangle that threatened upcoming superhero blockbuster "Watchmen" and the film is to be released in March as scheduled, a statement said... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 16 Jan 2009 | 7:55 pm
Scuttlebutt has it that Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit is on his way out. Why? Well, there was the $8.3 billion loss they announced this morning, and his sudden about-face-making decision to "realign" the company. But this morning's Journal indicates that it's also, perhaps, personal. As we all know, nothing is more suspicious to a New Yorker than good cheer, and Vikram, to his grave misfortune, is a little too happy for some people's tastes, including those of a certain "Wall Street veteran" who met with Pandit on November 25, around the time the government announced its multi-billion-dollar bailout of the banking giant.
"He had a spring in his step," he told the Journal. "You could not tell that he is a CEO that's under this kind of pressure."
Sinister.
Colleagues also noted that Pandit exhibited this same strange behavior in mid-December, when the company was devising its strategy for breaking off Smith Barney into a joint venture with Morgan Stanley:
Colleagues said Mr. Pandit remained in high spirits, pressing his lieutenants to remain focused on their work.
Who does he think he is? Mary Fucking Poppins? Doesn't he know that CEOs are supposed to be grim, scary, frightening cocks? In any case, Vikram seems to have sobered up, and even sounded a little defensive in this morning's conference call:
As you all know, the new management team has been here for a little over a year, working on your behalf. As you also know, we came into this with a lot of embedded challenges. We recognize what we needed to do and we started to act quickly. For much of the year, we have been dealing with dysfunctional markets, which deteriorated even further after Labor Day, but we kept working through all the dysfunctionalities.
Aw,Vikram. Don't let them change you! Who says you can't be a CEO and a fun-loving, open-hearted cuddle bear? And anyway, what are they going to do about it? There's no one left to replace you with!
Front Page: Hollywood hustles to cash in on Oscar noms -- The studios and their specialty arms are again gambling on Oscar nominations this year, but they're running into new obstacles.
In 2005, world famous director Steven Spielberg gave the world one of his best films, Munich, a heart-racing true story about a group of sizzling hot Israeli Mossad agents hired to hunt down and kill members of Black September, the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the death of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. The cast of Israelis included a surprisingly convincing Eric Bana, French actor and actual Jew Mathieu Kassovitz, and Geoffrey Rush. But one face that really seemed to stick out of the crowd was that of Daniel Craig. Yes, James Bond himself had been cast as a Jewish man! Jews around the world (including myself) rejoiced: We were finally being accepted as blonde, blue-eyed and buff, even though this particular breed of Jew is about as rare as a red-headed Indian. For those two and a half hours, the world was our goyster. (Ed. Note: I hate myself.)
Today, Hollywood's latest Holocaust tale, Defiance, is being released in theaters around the country. Defiance tells the true story of three Jewish brothers who escape from Nazi-occupied Poland to join a resistance group in a Belarussian forest, where they build a village to protect themselves. And who has been cast as the lead Jew? You guessed it:
Daniel Craig.
Which leads us to this post. Dear Hollywood: You're not fooling anyone. Here are 20 other actors who are far, far more Jewish/Jewish-looking than Daniel Craig. Casting directors, please refer to this list next time you need to find someone to play a -Stein, -Burg or -Baum.
20. Michael Clarke Duncan
Lindsay Lohan might not have technically split with Samantha Ronson, but the lovers' tiff almost led to Lohan technically violating probation in her DUI case.
While the...
Cheery and playful in the wake of yesterday's uplifting plane crash, Governor Paterson joined "Boomer & Carton" on WFAN this morning to talk Good Samaritans, Yankee Stadium, and, most importantly, Senate appointments. Turns out he's pretty much made up his mind, but he's decided to keep the suspense going a bit longer anyway. "I would probably have done it this weekend, but I just kind of decided I didn't want to trample on Senator Clinton's ability to come back and say farewell to her constituents nor [on] the inauguration," he said. But, he continued, he'll make his decision "right after the inauguration." As for who he'll pick, Paterson implied he could go with someone who's not part of a dynastic political family. "I gotta tell you, there are some great candidates who have distinguished themselves, but they're not that well known. And my job is not to pick the person who is popular today. It's the person who is going to be popular in 2010, when they run for reelection," he said, quickly changing the subject by offering up a Senate-appointment trivia question to the show's hosts. Sly move, Cuddle Guv, but your day of reckoning is fast approaching.
Reverend Run's daughters have a new reality show on MTV that comes on right after The City. We've never watched it, but we understand it has something to do with their lives in L.A. as they set up their clothing line, Pastry. The designer of Johnny Cupcakes, a homegrown T-shirt brand focused on "cupcakes and anything associated with it," alleges that Pastry is knocking off his designs. He's working with his trademark attorney and so far has gotten an unspecified major mall chain not to order any Pastry products, though it's unclear what legal action has been taken against Pastry itself. If MTV put this in the show, we might tune in for the family living-room lesson on trademark infringement and marvel at how normal and down-to-earth they are.
Thursday TV's Big Wrench in the Works: President George W. Bush. Yes, the farewell address is a tradition for the outgoing commander in chief, but wasn't it President Dwight Eisenhower who...
Front Page: London theater scene booming -- You could call it the Tale of Two Cities. With just 20 shows now running on Broadway following a slew of January closings, you don't need to have majored in economics to see that the global recession has caused an understandable loss of nerve among New York producers. Their London counterparts, meanwhile, appear to be toughing it out.
This morning after our post on Jeff Kolodjay, the Face of Flight 1549, went up, we heard from a flack from Original Penguin, saying we'd misidentified the hat he was wearing: "Jeff is wearing an 'Original Penguin' hat," she said. "This is the Manchester 6Panel Ivy. Similar styles can be found on OPG's website." Furthermore: "I am currently trying to get more hats on him ... Any help would be greatly appreciated." Well, why not. As a first endorsement deal for Jeff, this couldn't be more perfect. Penguins? As in, the creatures that stand on the ice in frigid waters? We're beginning to think this young man's stardom was preordained.
Fashion Wire Daily - There was a nice blast of rocker optimism at shows in Rio de Janeiro Thursday afternoon, when three newish brands gave tropical twists to popular global phenomena, in smartly executed shows.
Fashion Wire Daily - The frigid weather in New York City on Thursday night didn't stop the show from going on; but it did shift the "Inkheart" red carpet inside the AMC Loews Lincoln Square so that the film's assembled stars didn't freeze to death.
There's no way we'll find out what Michelle Obama's wearing to the inaugural balls until Tuesday night. But! At least we know secretary of State designate Hillary Clinton will wear an Oscar de la Renta creation. The designer revealed to Barbara Walters on Sirius Radio that Clinton will wear a pink-and-gray dress with embroidery (we're betting it's custom — drool). De la Renta is one of Clinton's favorite designers, and though he's dressed her on many occasions, he said they still bicker about her showing more skin:
“You know, Hillary, in a sense, is sort of very prudish about the type of clothes she likes to wear and you know from the waist up she really looks great. She feels very uncomfortable about wearing revealing kind[s] of clothes, and so we are always fighting about the neckline. I do remember one time, we were at a party at the Metropolitan Museum and she was wearing, for the first time, something very, very open and then all of sudden she arrived with a big, huge shawl over her shoulder. And I kept pulling the shawl down, and [she] kept pulling it up because she felt uncomfortable about showing her shoulders.”
Oh, Hill. Oscar is a friend to women. Trust in him as you've trusted in your variously hued pantsuits. Do not, however, trust in headbands that look like blonde hair.
Karma caught up with former Culture Club singer Boy George on Friday when a court sentenced the star to 15 months for falsely imprisoning a male escort, a court spokeswoman said.
AP - "In the Shadow of the Master" (William Morrow, 416 pages, $24.95), edited by Michael Connelly: The beating of the telltale heart still echoes beneath the floorboards. The cask of amontillado still eludes the wretched Fortunato. The raven still croaks, "Nevermore." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 16 Jan 2009 | 6:06 pm
If you thought the premise of Good Luck Chuck was improbable and worthless, you're right! As for My Best Friend's Girl, it's also pretty absurd -- Dane Cook appears strangely convincing as a total douche, Jason Biggs is meeker than ever, and Kate Hudson does what she does best: appear in her underwear. It also appears the producers have taken the Entourage approach of "this isn't very funny anymore -- let's toss in some boobs." I'm not complaining. Or renting this movie, now that I've seen all 60 seconds:
Here's a video of Chris Brown at a concert, where he has an obvious boner while performing. First off, he's wearing shiny pants that really accentuate the boner. Secondly, he repeatedly tries to shove it down. Then, when you combine this incident with his clear j*zz-in-the-pants incident with Rihanna last week, I'm beginning to wonder if Chris is in way over his head with this stardom stuff. He's just a country boy from Tappahannock, maybe he's not ready for thousands of screaming (and most likely topless) fans!
In Berlin, a poster with Britney Spears, Leona Lewis, and Christina Aguilera's faces on it was defaced to look like a Photoshop window. Whatever the artist's intention, it reminds us that every image we see is digitally altered and there is no "perfect" in real life. Meanwhile, over in this country, all we can do is color in teeth and draw little trails of dots near people's nostrils. [Jezebel]
Front Page: Columbia wins auction for Asimov's sci-fi trilogy -- Columbia won an auction late Thursday for screen rights to "Foundation," Isaac Asimov's ground breaking science fiction trilogy. The film will be developed as a directing vehicle for Roland Emmerich.
Front Page: Electronics retailer closing its 567 U.S. stores -- Bankrupt Circuit City Stores Inc., unable to work out a sale of the company, said Friday it will go out of business -- closing its 567 U.S. stores and cutting 30,000 jobs.
Front Page: Network wants to bring back situation laffers -- ABC is looking to reclaim its once-hot comedy brand. Having struggled with half hours in recent years, the Alphabet is looking at ways to bring back situation comedies in the vein of past hits like "Roseanne" and "Home Improvement."
U2 has unveiled the track list for its new album, "No Line on the Horizon," due March 3 from Interscope. The 11-song set is led by the single "Get on Your Boots," which premieres Monday (Jan. 19) on Dublin's 2FM. It will be released digitally Feb. 15 and physically the following day.
Thurston Moore promises "heavy ass weirdo hooks" aplenty on Sonic Youth's as-yet-untitled Matador debut, due this summer. "We're super inspired to make a fresh start," says Moore. "We're glad to be dealing with a label that loves songs."
Synth-pop veterans the Pet Shop Boys will release a new album, "Yes," March 23 internationally through Parlophone/EMI. A North American release has yet to be announced.
Reuters - Designers will show off their menswear creations for next winter starting Saturday in a shortened Milan fashion week with expectations of another downturn in Italian sales casting gloom on the glitter. Source: Yahoo! News: Fashion News | 16 Jan 2009 | 4:02 pm
Front Page: CBS scores largest aud since September 2007 -- "CSI" generated its largest aud since September 2007 with Thursday's episode marking the farewell of William Petersen's Gil Grissom.
The assets of Death Row Records, said to include master recordings of Tupac Shakur, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, were auctioned yesterday (Jan. 15) for $18 million to Canadian development company WIDEawake Entertainment Group.
Andrew Wyeth, the American artist who portrayed the hidden melancholy of the people and landscapes of Pennsylvania's Brandywine Valley and coastal Maine in works such as "Christina's World," died early Friday. He was 91.
Former Culture Club frontman Boy George was sentenced today (Jan. 16) to 15 months in jail after being found guilty last month of falsely imprisoning Norwegian male escort Audun Carlsen, whom he met over the Internet.
Front Page: Board member apologizes for singling out actors -- Screen Actors Guild board member Frances Fisher has disavowed a suggested boycott of eight actors who are up for SAG awards.
Art meant to represent Germany as part of a controversial exhibit at an EU building. Duration: 00:55 Slovakia said Friday it had "acknowledged" a Czech apology for artwork that depicted the country as... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 16 Jan 2009 | 2:51 pm
Art depicting Bulgaria as a squat toilet is among controversial pieces for an EU exhibit. Slovakia said Friday it had "acknowledged" a Czech apology for artwork that depicted the country as a Hungarian... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 16 Jan 2009 | 2:51 pm
The question of Jewish resistance to the Nazis -- or the lack of it -- has loomed large ever since the true extent of the horrors of the Holocaust became impossible to ignore.
There's no debate about Barack Obama's ability to draw famous and talented Americans to his inauguration. Dozens of major celebrities will perform on several nationally televised shows, as well as 10 inaugural balls the evening after Obama is sworn in as the 44th U.S. president.
Clash of the Titans! Bailey (the inimitable Chandra Wilson) takes on McDreamy (Patrick Dempsey) in the operating room and worlds collide in this sneak peek look at Wednesday's all-new...
The lovable scamps known as Darlton (Lost exec producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse) just showed critics episode three of Lost season five and the time-travel kookiness was off the...
Passion Pit is the "passion project" (pit) of Michael Angelakos, who originally created what would eventually become the Chunk of Change EP as a belated Valentine’s present for his girlfriend while enrolled in Emerson College. The last time I decided to create music for my girlfriend for Valentine’s Day it turned into the White Album, and the year before that, I wrote something that eventually turned into Moby Dick (we were going through a whaling phase).
The song we chose to kick off season 16 is "Sleepyhead," which has been getting more buzz than a beehive since Passion Pit was the toast of CMJ last fall. Sleepyhead is a perfect place to start with Passion Pit; I’d use the words “spastic” and “sublime” if I was qualified to talk about music, but I’ll also confess that I’m a sucker for anything containing synths and shrill vocals. It’s insanely catchy, plus they even got obscure yet highly respected band The Wilderness to direct the video for it, so take that, you mainstream d*cks!
Ahead, something related to porn... and a music video. Intriguing, you say? You bet it is.
If you think the name Passion Pit sounds like the title of a porno, you’d be right, because it is in fact the name of an old hardcore porn (we won't link but you shouldn’t have trouble finding a torrent if you don’t already own it). In an interview on Spinner, keyboardist Ayad Al Adhamy explained the actual meaning behind the name, “To make it clear, [Passion Pit] is not the porn film. It's just where kids would go and make out ... the drive in movie theater.” Glad that was cleared up, because this would be the catchiest porn I’ve ever listened to and I have several porns on my ipod in audio form and none are even close.
Make sure to check out the song “Better Things” on their Myspace -- it'll also drive you crazy.
You can purchase the Chunk of Change EP at multiple internet places. Expect a full album from them sometime in the next few months.
Be sure to keep an eye out for Passion Pit in a town near you when they kick off their tour January 26th in Michigan.
Rebounding from a brief, beastly illness, Patrick Swayze is on the mend and ready to get back to work promoting his new series, The Beast, which debuted this week on...
Girl Next Door Kendra Wilkinson apparently doesn't want to be persona non grata over her candid Q&A in Us Weekly, so now she's looking to clear up her remarks about living with...
SHOP GIRL: Kim Kardashian, filling up her tank before going shoe-shopping at Christian Louboutin in Beverly Hills.
JUST DANCE: Janet Jackson, dancing up a storm with her backup dancers...
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon may not be poppin' out babies right now, but it's gonna happen.
"We're definitely into planning a family and stuff but when everything...
• Tom Hanks talks Prop 8 at the Big Love party: "The truth is this takes place in Utah, the truth is these people are some bizarre offshoot of the Mormon Church, and the truth is a...
I sometimes wonder if all the "Wacky Newzz" features on websites simply give us more access to ridiculous news stories, or if the existence of these features actually inspires criminals to go out of their way to commit the most bizarre crimes possible.
Long story short, a dude was arrested for stealing a shark and an eel -- note the cryptic last line in 
In 2005, world famous director Steven Spielberg gave the world one of his best films, Munich, a heart-racing true story about a group of sizzling hot Israeli Mossad agents hired to hunt down and kill members of Black September, the Palestinian terrorist group responsible for the death of 11 Israeli Olympic athletes. The cast of Israelis included a surprisingly convincing Eric Bana, French actor and actual Jew Mathieu Kassovitz, and Geoffrey Rush. But one face that really seemed to stick out of the crowd was that of Daniel Craig. Yes, James Bond himself had been cast as a Jewish man! Jews around the world (including myself) rejoiced: We were finally being accepted as blonde, blue-eyed and buff, even though this particular breed of Jew is about as rare as a red-headed Indian. For those two and a half hours, the world was our goyster. (Ed. Note: I hate myself.)
Today, Hollywood's latest Holocaust tale, 
Lindsay Lohan might not have technically split with Samantha Ronson, but the lovers' tiff almost led to Lohan technically violating probation in her DUI case.
While the...
Thursday TV's Big Wrench in the Works: President George W. Bush. Yes, the farewell address is a tradition for the outgoing commander in chief, but wasn't it President Dwight Eisenhower who...
