AP - From the commentary on the TV blogs, you'd think last week's rushed "Life on Mars" series finale was downright heretical: A lot of people were irritated that Sam Tyler, the guy trying to figure out why he'd been cosmically booted from 2008 to 1973, was actually an astronaut in virtual-reality hibernation in 2035.
AP - From the commentary on the TV blogs, you'd think last week's rushed "Life on Mars" series finale was downright heretical: A lot of people were irritated that Sam Tyler, the guy trying to figure out why he'd been cosmically booted from 2008 to 1973, was actually an astronaut in virtual-reality hibernation in 2035.
Let the dance begin at "Law & Order: Special Victims Unit." In a time-honored TV mating dance (or could the choreography turn out to be more hostile?), Chris Meloni and Mariska Hargitay... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 10:11 am
Just because they named their new CD "Yes," does not mean that British electro-pop duo, the Pet Shop Boys, will agree to just about anything.
(Dear Abby) Dear Abby - DEAR ABBY: I have recently enjoyed the success of having my first book published. However, this achievement has begun to change my life in ways I hadn't expected. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 10 Apr 2009 | 6:16 am
AP - If you think a dementia patient can be cheerfully ditsy and if you can laugh at the sight of an angry, nearly blind woman plotting to use her wheelchair-bound roommate as a tool for escape from their nursing home, then Tina Howe's latest play, "Chasing Manet" is a pill you can easily swallow.
If you think a dementia patient can be cheerfully ditsy and if you can laugh at the sight of an angry, nearly blind woman plotting to use her wheelchair-bound roommate as a tool for escape... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 4:25 am
From Coach's cool meditative pose to Joe's hot, bug-infected leg, this was an episode of contrasts and clashes as the tribes merged and alliances were tested.
But even after the...
NEW YORK, April 9 /PRNewswire/ -- International pop superstar Beyonce will perform five evening's length concerts in Australia in September 2009 as part of her historic... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 1:58 am
LOS ANGELES - David Caruso's ex-girlfriend is seeking more than $1.2 million and a house she says the "CSI: Miami" star promised her. Liza Marquez sued Caruso in Los Angeles Superior... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 1:56 am
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Country star John Rich has sued a former "Nashville Star" contestant, saying the aspiring singer defamed him by claiming Rich hit him in the face. Rich filed the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 1:54 am
CHICAGO - The FBI and "The Oprah Winfrey Show" say Internet users should beware of an email scam that promises attendance at the popular talk show in exchange for the purchase of a plane... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 10 Apr 2009 | 1:53 am
If you're trying to sell out arenas, you want, perhaps even deeply desire, to be compared to the Jonas Brothers.
But if you're trying to sell out multiplexes,...
Mark your calendars.
E! News has learned exclusively that Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are set to tie the knot on Saturday, April 25, in an undisclosed location in Pasadena,...
Viewers beware: Oprah Winfrey may be generous, but she's not that generous.
Both the FBI and producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show today issued a warning over an email scam targeting...
Safe to say Woody Harrelson has no TLC for TMZ.
The actor has once again been caught on camera apparently getting physical with a pesky paparazzo for the gossip site, triggering a police...
For a dying girl, life at Izzie's sickbed is pretty exciting. She's got friends, yummy food and Mer modeling wedding dresses, and, oh yeah, that ongoing medical crisis. Poor...
Kevin Federline may smoke, but he definitely wasn't the culprit when ex-wife Britney Spears abruptly halted her concert last night in Vancouver.
How do we know...
Not to be “that guy” or anything, but despite The Hold Steady’s sterling recent critical record — well, we happen to like the earlier stuff better. We didn’t expect this week’s new album A Positive Rage to change that, seeing as it’s a live album and all, but the mid-tempo groove “40 Bucks,” one of Rage’s two unreleased studio tracks, is an unexpected recent peak. Its careful storytelling wouldn’t feel out of place on the classic Separation Sunday: The protagonist here, a misguided girl who “stayed out too late again” chasing her favorite bands, sounds a lot like a PG version of Sunday’s hero Holly. Craig Finn sketches her sad story in loving, careful details (“they made her on the night they met in a motel made of cigarettes”), stringing images and stuffing words together as sharply as ever.
How authentic that the new film The Mysteries of Pittsburgh was actually shot in Pittsburgh. So when we went to a screening for the movie this week, we asked Sienna Miller, who stars in the film, if she had picked up any new hobbies while in town. "I am now a golfer," she confessed. "Not a very good one, but I am keen on golf." Did she ever sink a hole in one? "No! Only in putt-putt." Looks like there's more work to be done. View our Party Lines slideshow for more Steel City memories.
Lindsay Lohan did it; no one liked it. Heroes' Hayden Panettiere tried, and no one cared. Now, Gossip Girl's Leighton Meester is going where other actresses should have feared to tread, but sadly didn't: A single from her upcoming album got leaked to Perez Hilton, and surprise, surprise, it reeks. History has proven that it's nearly impossible for young, up-and-coming actresses to add "singer" to their résumés, so we can't figure out why these kids keep aiming for cross-genre superstardom when they've barely got a foothold in their first career. Is getting to hang out with the dude who works the Pro Tools software really worth diluting your budding, buzz-worthy brand?
Singers turned actresses have a decent (or at least trophy-littered) track record: Barbra and Madonna — well, in Desperately Seeking Susan at least — earned accolades, and, more recently, Jennifer Hudson won an Oscar almost entirely because of her powerful voice. Beyoncé finally even got herself nominated for a Golden Globe by playing Etta James (though we're sure the wig and that brave mild weight-gain helped). Therein may lie the key: Great singers are often great, in part, because with every note they're playing a role, even if that role is just “girl who feels quite strongly that you should have put a ring on it.” With the right movie part, one that's close enough to their pop-star persona, the rest can fall into place. But flip the hyphenate the other way and it's hard to find as many happy endings — maybe because an ability to cry on cue when your TV boyfriend gets hooked on opiates and Thai hookers doesn’t translate to singing prowess, no matter what your high-school drama teacher told you.
Ergo, the output of most actress turned singer hyphenates winds up being kind of embarrassing, often in a way that’s harder to overcome than a sex tape or a boyfriend with an awkward fondness for fraud. Emmy Rossum hasn't done much since dropping her Enya-lite album, possibly because it was hard to take her seriously after seeing the music video where she ran through traffic in a prom dress. High School Musical's Vanessa Hudgens and Ashley Tisdale keep peddling bubblegum pop that's complicating their attempts to convince people they're also actresses who've outgrown Disney cheese. LiLo pumped out two albums, but can you name any of her songs besides the anti-paparazzi rant "Rumors"? They fizzled, and the thinner she spread herself, the more she spun out of control and sabotaged both careers. Hilary Duff and Mandy Moore flip-flop so often back and forth that now their relationships get more press than their careers. And yes, J. Lo sold a ton of albums once she became Jenny From the Block … but you’ll notice she hasn’t co-starred with Clooney since.
It's a lot of effort for very little reward, especially if it hurts people's attempts to take you seriously. In Meester's case, cutting what will likely be a tedious, overproduced album will make her look more like a generic starlet, rather than arguably the biggest talent on her entire television network. We understand not wanting to be pigeonholed as a CW actress, but with her lauded comedic skills and flair for drama — both straight up and "melo" — she ought to be hustling for meaty roles that will give her carte blanche down the road. Ditto Panettiere. Adding their electronic, nondescript wailings to the already-large pile of CDs full of electronic, nondescript actorly wailings is as pointless as Tiger Woods joining The Hills: He might pull it off without laughing, but why languish in mediocrity when you can be awesome at something else? So seek a ticket to the Grammys another way, ladies — and if you really want to sing, there's always the shower.
The diagnosis on Dr. Jan Adams' career: inoperable.
The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West's mother the day before she died in 2007 has given up his license to practice...
The jewelry gods have smiled upon us. For Tiffany & Co. is unloading diamonds at 50 to 70 percent off. And they’re not the only ones: Cartier, Judith Ripka, Di Modolo, Damiani, Gucci, Maurice Lacroix, and Coach are all marking down their jewelry and watches as well. We can guarantee a mob scene, because this kind of jewelry never goes on sale. Thank you, recession!
Carlton Hotel, 88 Madison Ave., nr. 28th St.; 5/7 (10–8); 5/8 (10–6), 5/9 (10–6); click here for more information
The L.A. Times and other media outlets are giving ads more prominent placement, and sometimes even disguising them as stories! More on the ongoing media meltdown in our daily wrap-up, which is lovingly sponsored, as always, by your mom.
• True/Slant, a new news website by a former AOL exec, has launched with an interesting ad platform: &ldquo[T]he site plans to offer advertisers their own entire pages where they can run blogs and try to attract a network of followers. These will have the same design and features of the journalists' pages, but will be labeled as ad content.” [WSJ via FishbowlNY/Mediabistro]
• For the first time in its history, the Columbia University School of Journalism will host a blogger as its graduation speaker: Talking Points Memo founder Joshua Micah Marshall will be leading the ceremony’s annual Henry Pringle lecture. [Mixed Media/Portfolio]
• The New York Times Company siege on the Boston Globe continues. Cutbacks "could include pay cuts of up to 20 percent, the elimination of seniority rules and lifetime job guarantees, and millions of dollars in cuts to retirement and healthcare plans.” Unsurprisingly, people are less than pleased. “We're willing to consider some concessions but not the draconian amount they put forth,” said Daniel Totten, the union’s president. [Boston.com, Mediabistro]
• The Associated Press doesn’t get mad — it gets even. The wire service plans to build its own online aggregator of local and national news to compete with Google. Participating news sources would share the site’s revenue. [Business Week]
Countess, real housewife and New York City dweller LuAnn de Lesseps is brimming with self-esteem. In fact, she's got so much of the stuff, she took a trip to the Brooklyn Boys and Girls Club...
Front Page: Robbins' 'Side Effects' is last pilot standing -- And then there was one. Showtime has winnowed its latest batch of prospective series to one pilot, drama "Possible Side Effects," written and helmed by Tim Robbins, though there's no word yet if the project has gotten a greenlight.
GOOD FOR THE 4:30 AUTOGYRO TO SIAM: The U.S. Postal Service is releasing a series of Simpsons postage stamps. They're always way ahead of the curve on these fads -- next month, they're rolling out the Green Acres stamps. (TV Squad)
TOUCHE: Kanye West responded to the South Park episode on his blog. Also, Kanye West continues to be a not real yet never unamusing human. (Kanye West Blog, via Dlisted)
WHERE'S COLIN FIRTH: Liam Neeson is set to star as Zeus in the upcoming Clash of the Titans remake opposite Ralph Fiennes. The film is already two British actors away from just turning into a Love Actually sequel. (Yahoo)
JAI HO-XTABLE: In retrospect, that last season of the Cosby Show with the Bollywood opening credits just doesn't get enough appreciation... (Urlesque)
Eric Wilson: "The job of Ms. Caplan and eight new style advisers hired for the New York store is similar to that of personal shoppers who cater to elite customers at stores like Neiman Marcus, except that their vocabulary is likely to include terms of more contemporary sociological interest, like acid-washing, butterfly sequins and platform wedges ... Requirements include an exuberant sense of personal style, the ability to size up customers and explain what styles would best fit their body types, a bubbly personality and, above all, an encyclopedic knowledge of what Nicole Richie, Peaches Geldof and Sarah Jessica Parker wore when last picking up coffee at Starbucks." [NYT]
You’re in the majority if you’ve never heard of Anvil, the Canadian metal band that influenced the likes of Metallica and Slayer in the early eighties; they’ve been toiling in obscurity for nearly 30 years. But it is their toil that makes them legendary: The band is the focus of the brand-new rock doc Anvil! The Story of Anvil, by director Sacha Gervasi, a metalhead who was obsessed with the band as a kid. Vulture spoke to front man Steve "Lips" Kudlow and Gervasi about never giving up.
Sacha, can you talk about what Anvil meant to you as a kid? Gervasi: One word: everything. Everything! I was a huge metalhead, I had every album, I knew every member of every band. And they were my favorite band. They had incredible showmanship — you know, Lips running around with a dildo. It was quite a mind-warping experience.
Lips, where does the drive to play faster than everybody else come from? Kudlow: It wasn’t a question of playing faster than everybody else. You have to understand that a riff is a riff. But what is the drummer doing? Robb is a very special drummer. When I write riffs, I write with drums in mind. One of the earliest songs where we got a great sound, it was called "Pussy Poison" ...
Gervasi: Thirty years later and I’m still laughing. What the fuck, seriously?! "Pussy Poison"?! What band has a fucking song called “Pussy Poison”?! And another one called "Hair Pie"! And another one called "Show Me Your Tits"! Sorry, I interrupted.
Kudlow: The thing you gotta understand is that the majority of our audience is all male. So a good laugh with the sexually oriented stuff goes hand in hand. But the idea of playing fast like that — you know, we heard Deep Purple, Black Sabbath, the early version of metal, but no one was using a double bass drum.
In the early eighties you were playing shows with popular bands. When did everything slow down for Anvil? Kudlow: When we played shows with Bon Jovi and Scorpions and all that stuff, those were only once-in-a-while things. It’s not like we were playing concert halls everywhere. Generally speaking, we’ve been playing clubs and small concerts for 30 years. So it really has never gone away.
When Sacha first approached you about doing the documentary, were you hesitant at all? Kudlow: Oh, I was ecstatic. I broke out crying. I was like, fuck, I just won the fucking lottery! You’d have to be pretty gone mentally to not realize — an incredible screenwriter from Hollywood wants to make a movie about you, what would anybody say? Oh my God!
Sacha, were you concerned that the documentary would be depressing? Gervasi: No, the whole point was to show it all. There’s a huge amount of humor, there’s a huge amount of sadness, a huge amount of desperation, a huge amount of inspiration. I just wanted to make a fan letter in a very honest way. You know, the world is really unfair. It’s Rocky, with Marshall Amplifiers. But there’s a happy ending, which is what’s happening after the film.
What was the process of getting the testimonials from the likes of Slash and Lars Ulrich? Gervasi: I called one person, and they all called me. They couldn’t believe that someone was making an Anvil movie. They were all so excited, especially Lars Ulrich — he came into the studio, it was supposed to be a five-minute quickie, he was in there for a half an hour talking about the influence they had on Metallica and in general.
What does the future hold for Anvil? Gervasi: Anvil the Show, Anvil Off Broadway Live. We’re going for it. We’re not fucking around. Anvil on Ice, I wanna try it right now. I’ve got an idea. With Anvil, anything is possible. Anvil on Ice: Hair Pie.
In anticipation of HBO's new film adaptation of the lives of Big and Little Edie Beale — immortalized in the 1975 Maysles documentary Grey Gardens — the woman who owns the infamous Hamptons mansion chatted with W magazine about living inside a legend. Author Sally Quinn, who is married to former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, had read about the Beales and their dilapidated house in a 1972 Gail Sheehy article in New York. In 1979, when she was looking for a new house on the East End, a real-estate agent mentioned it to her, because Little Edie, then 61, hoped to sell it. When they arrived, the broker, who was desperate to sell the house, wouldn't go inside with her. Even after renovations in 1972 (paid for by Jackie Kennedy and her sister Lee Radziwill), the place was a wreck.
Explains Quinn:
You had to have flea collars on for one thing. There were 30 cats in there and the stench was beyond belief. And Little Edie opened the door — her mother had died two years earlier — and apparently everyone had made offers because she was asking $220,000 for the house.
Little Edie was asking for $220,000, which was even then a startlingly low price for a fourteen-room Hamptons mansion. But Edie had turned away bidders because everyone else wanted to tear the place down.
So I walked in and I said, "This is the most beautiful house I've ever seen." You can't believe what shambles it was in. And she said, "It's yours." Up to then, she'd refused to sell it to anybody else. But she said, "I know that this house belongs to you. You're the person who should have this house." And then she did this little pirouette in the hall and said, "You see? All it needs is a coat of paint!" So I bought it on the spot.
The Bradlees renovated it to a close approximation of its old layout and splendor. For more on what it was like at the time, definitely read the W piece. According to Quinn, true to legend, when it rains the place still smells like cat pee from 30 years of being overrun with the Beales' cats (and no litter boxes!). "About ten years ago, we got up there the first of August and it had been raining for 10 days. We walked in the house and Ben, who can't smell anything cause he's got sinus problems, said, 'Oh my god.'" Quinn explained. "He's allergic to cats and his eyes started to water. He could smell the cat pee."
Isabel Marant's effortlessly chic (and oh-so-Parisian) clothes have struck a nerve with stylish girls everywhere, us included. Here, five reasons why we can't get enough of the French designer's fall collection.
1. Her skintight thigh-high boots were sexy and so on trend.
2. Her aesthetic is rock-and-roll enough to be edgy, yet feminine enough to fit with current trends.
3. The ultimate cool girl, Emmanuelle Alt, French Vogue's fashion director, styled Marant's last show.
4. Her chain-link bags add the right amount of flash to outfits.
5. Her prices! Dresses are under $600, tops under $300 — nothing that will break the bank. Who doesn't love that?
At first, Wells Fargo's positive pre-announcement of first-quarter earnings was greeted with surprise and pleasure. The San Francisco–based bank's stock jumped as much as 34 percent in intraday trading, igniting a marketwide rally. But as the day went on and the surprise wore off, some started to feel skeptical, and even suspicious.
Below, a smattering of opinions.
8:39 a.m. The Street.com's Doug Kass took a long position in Berkshire Hathaway (which holds loads of Wells Fargo stock) based on Wells Fargo's performance this morning. "I expect the world's stock markets to advance smartly from current levels (and for financial stocks like Wells Fargo to lead the way), the value of the company's investment portfolio and its intrinsic value will likely be much higher by midyear." [Street]
10:12ish Commenters on the Times DealBook were immediately dubious. "I don’t buy into these numbers: no way." said one. "In the Old West (if we believe the movie version) the masked men robbed from Wells Fargo stage coaches, but I think today the masked men are running Wells Fargo," said another. [DealBook/NYT]
3:18 p.m. The Journal puts up a story headlined "Is All Really Well For Wells?" which observes that although Wells sure "served up a sucker punch to short-sellers" today, their estimate didn't necessarily include the impact of charges relating to December's Wachovia takeover. ("We have put a lot of their losses behind us," chief financial officer Howard Atkins said in an interview.) "Fox-Pitt Kelton analyst Andrew Marquardt was estimating earnings before merger expenses of 45 cents per share. On that basis, Wells still outperformed — just not as dramatically." [WSJ]
4 p.m. Our Friend, the Vulture Investor, pipes up: "They are not taking big enough loss provisions on their loans thereby hoping the economy will bail them out.... Their 2nd lien portfolio alone should be written down at least 30 billion, not to mention their other 700 billion of loans they currently have at par. The thing is people just want to believe things are getting better and if the banks say things are better then they must be better. We have a couple of sayings here, 'Management lies all the time,' and 'Never underestimate the stupidity of the market.'"
Sure, we took some delight earlier today in pointing out some of the challenges that Vulture hero Ben Silverman has had to endure since taking the reins as NBC's co-chairman of entertainment back in May 2007. But as Ben Silverman himself told the Los Angeles Times today, he's not a programming honcho, he's "a creative business executive" ("It's a much different skill set [than programming]," he explained). Who then, pray tell, is going to be responsible for the future success of the network? Well, it's certainly not Katherine "the Black Widow" Pope, whom Silverman dusted in a management shake-up back in November. Rather, it's longtime Jeff Zucker lieutenant Angela Bromstad, who rejoined the network in January as the chief programmer of dramas and comedies.
Unlike her totally awesome boss, Bromstad professes that she's not the least bit interested in becoming a media superstar. As she told the LAT, "I have always tried to fly a bit below the radar. I am a bit superstitious about it. The higher your profile the more of a target you sometimes become." (We'll temporarily forgive the hypocrisy of her giving a statement like that to the biggest newspaper in the state of California.) Which makes a lot of sense, considering her bumpy past with the network, which includes an incident two years ago where she quit her job as the president of NBC's television production studio when she was passed over for a promotion. However, now that the first fruits of her labor are debuting tonight (Parks & Recreation and Southland), it appears that she's more than willing to step up to the plate and put herself in a position to reap the benefits if these shows succeed.
Most important, though, Bromstad will be able to help Ben Silverman focus on whatever it is he supposedly does best (which clearly isn't programming). As he puts it, "Her job is running scripted programming and my job is a thousand different things. She's awesome."
• American Idol contestant Adam Lambert's hair is incredibly versatile. It goes from Christian Siriano spikes to a retro Elvis slick back to a shaggy Jonas Brothers mop quite smoothly. Props? [Beauty Department/Glamour]
• More people are getting haircuts at beauty schools, like the Aveda Institute or Empire Beauty School, because their prices are cheaper than salon prices. At Aveda, cuts are $20 and facials start at $45. [NYT]
MAKEUP
• In other recession beauty news, a recent study shows drugstore sales for cosmetics "increased by nearly 5.5 million over the same period last year." [NYT]
• Peaches Geldof showed up to a Uniqlo event last night wearing white foundation with red blush that made her look like a clown. Isn't that a little, oh, redundant? [Jezebel]
SKIN
• A new product called UV Sun Sense is a wristband that tells you when to reapply sunscreen. Sounds nifty, but if you wear this, you will have a dorky tan line. [Beauty Blogger/Teen Vogue]
As you’re surely aware by now, thanks to all the rhythmically chanting mobs in the streets, America is knee-deep in National Poetry Month — that enlightened period during which everyone drops everything to honor the art in every way they know how: by carrying poems in their pockets, writing Walt Whitman’s “I sing the body electric” on their naked abdomens, reveling in the hypnotic rhythms of international poetry slams, and showering contemporary poets with the cash and attention they’d normally blow on high-end electronics. Here we compare two contemporary poets who made news last month by becoming the first-ever joint winners of a National Book Critics Circle award: the thick-mustachioed activist Juan Felipe Herrera (for Half the World in Light: New and Selected Poems) and the grumpy contrarian August Kleinzahler (for Sleeping It Off in Rapid City: Poems, New and Selected).
Didn’t show up; in a short written statement read by his publisher, thanked the NBCC and his mentors.
Book Titles That Sound Most Like Adult Swim Cartoons
Cinnamon Girl: Letters Found Inside a Cereal Box; Giraffe on Fire; Border-Crosser With a Lamborghini Dream
Red Sauce, Whiskey and Snow
Political Activism
Civil-rights marches, traveling theater for migrant workers, prison poetry workshops.
Once suggested that the U.S. government break terrorists by forcing them to listen to Garrison Keillor reading poetry.
Writing Process
“I do five things at the same time and I write fast. I actually have to slow myself down to get things done. The art of flying is the art of writing.”
“I can’t really see the glamour of it: a bit of desultory typing and a great deal of staring out the window.”
Poetry’s Larger Purpose
“Own your experience, it is your source of inspiration and healing. Expand your conversation with the experience of your communities and world, put yourself in the shoes of everyone else around you and far from you and you will walk with many friends and families and create a bigger and better world.”
“Good or bad, art's exclusive function is to entertain, not to improve or nourish or console, simply entertain. And in this, Moby Dick or Bach's 'Well-Tempered Clavier' are not different than the movie Cat in the Hat or Britney Spears wiggling her behind on stage; the former being more complexly entertaining and satisfying, but only for those who can appreciate the difference, and they are the minority.”
On the Teaching of Creative Writing
“Mentoring is [the] most important aspect for me. Teaching and learning at the same time, expanding our thinking, and our action, our sense of community and self.”
“What little of real originality is out there is drowning in the waste products spewing from graduate writing programs like the hog farm waste that recently overflowed its holding tanks in the wake of Hurricane Isabel, fouling the Carolina countryside and poisoning everything in its path.”
Photos: University of Arizona Press (Herrera), David Liittschwager (Kleinzahler)
During a recent concert in Vancouver, Britney abruptly stopped left the stage for more than thirty minutes because of pot smoke in the air, making sure to drop an impromptu "don't smoke weed - rock out with your c*cks out" PSA to the crowd while departing.
I can't decide if this is typical concert diva-ish behavior, a self-conscious attempt to receive positive publicity from the anti-drug camp, or if it's just regular ol' Britney zaniness. I'm guessing a sampler platter of all three:
Oft-topless Wolverine-portraying Oscar savior Hugh Jackman has been forced to admit to using a ghost Twitterer after one of his recent tweets botched the name of Australia's Opera House (calling it the "Opera Center"). He claims the error was the fault of "someone American in my office," to whom he allegedly dictated the tweet over the phone. We guess it's our turn to be heartbroken. [Telegraph UK]
The other night, just before she went to bed (only to be rudely awakened shortly after at 3 a.m.), Hillary Clinton spent the evening frantically voting for Adam Lambert on America Idol.* (What? That "Mad World" really spoke to her.) As she hit send on her eighteenth text message, she realized something: People will do anything — especially if it is something small and inexpensive like an SMS — for that show. If she was voting eighteen times, surely there were some orangutans out there who were voting twice that. And then she had an idea: That's how she would settle her campaign debt! All this time she'd been looking for the perfect way to lure all those fickle supporters who vote with their heartstrings — the ones who surged to her defense when she cried, and who voted for Scott on AI because he's blind but not, you know, particularly blind-looking. She could raffle off American Idol tickets!!
The next day, she instructed James Carville to call all the liberals in Hollywood and scare up some Idol tickets. Then the two of them thought of a couple of other prizes so tedious-seeming that no one would actually ever want them, and tossed them in so it wouldn't seem like they were blatantly just using Fox to raise money. Then he sent out an e-mail to her entire database:
I knew it was going to take an extraordinary effort to help pay off Hillary Clinton's campaign debt. But now, I think we can do it and have some fun at the same time! I won't spend a lot of time trying to convince you to help Hillary. I know what she means to you, and I'm sure you know how important it is for her to have her campaign pay off all its obligations. So let's get to the fun part — enter today to win one of three truly once in a lifetime opportunities and you will also be doing something great to help finish off Hillary's debt. With a contribution today, one of these exclusive prizes could be yours:
• Spend a day with President Clinton. Head to New York City to attend several interesting events with President Clinton followed by your own special New York City weekend.
• Attend the American Idol season finale. You and a guest will watch live as the American Idol judges make their final comments and decisions on this year's most anticipated season finale!
• Want to talk politics with me? How about a spending a weekend in DC. You will have lunch with me and my great friend Paul Begala. We will talk about politics, you will get to tour all the amazing sites DC has to offer and who knows what else could happen!
Make a $5 contribution today, and you could be on your way to one of these once in a lifetime opportunities!
...
These amazing prizes are only being offered online and are available only for a limited time — so please don't delay in acting today.
Hillary and James went back and forth a little bit over how many times to say "available only for a limited time" and "once in a lifetime opportunities," but then Hillary thought back to those orangutans pushing buttons, and figured if it worked for infomercials, it might as well work for her. The e-mails went out today.
In this holy week of Passover and Easter, the heavens have blessed us with two manty stories in as many days. Yesterday we learned that pink men's briefs were enjoying increased sales. Today, WWD treats us to a lengthy article on the latest in popular men's fashion statements: eye-catching underwear waistbands that peek out from low-slung pants.
The waistband — originally tasked with the humble job of keeping the garment on the hips — now functions as part billboard and part design lab, where underwear companies experiment with color and pattern, new printing techniques, larger widths and oversize logos.
“They used to be pretty basic, but now they are like sneakers: their fun colors and patterns say something about the guy that is wearing them,” said Michael Kleinmann, president of underwear e-tailer Freshpair.com. 2xist's spring waistbands come in ombré and tropical colors. The brand's fall underpants come with color-blocked waistbands in metallic and autumnal hues. Calvin Klein's new waistbands come in multicolored stripes, neon, patterns, and texture. We are all for straight, American men embracing trends like neon, metallic, and ombré, and if they have to start with innerwear, so be it. So be warned, ladies: if you bring a guy home in the coming weeks and discover he's wearing neon-pink-and-white-ombré underpants with raised metallic-silver lettering, acid did not necessarily fall into your drink when you weren't looking. You may have just picked a very fashionable fellow.
Well, we might've expected something like this would happen. As Joss Whedon's Dollhouse continues to improve with every episode, we've just learned that the show's thirteenth episode — its first-season, and apparently series, finale — will not air on Fox, as planned, but will instead be available only on DVD, according to the Twitter feed of Whedon favorite Felicia Day, who purportedly has a role in said episode:
Man, day getting worse and worse. Found out my Dollhouse ep, #13 isn't gonna air. Only on DVD. Such a great part too. Thx Fox. :(
Thx all, to clarify seems like they'll air #12 as the finale and not air my ep #13 at all? So weird :( Ask @foxbroadcasting I guess?
Okay. So maybe I can help clarify this somewhat. Because we scrapped the original pilot -- and in fact cannibalized some of its parts for other eps -- we really ended up with 12 episodes. But the studio makes DVD and other deals based on the original 13 number. So we created a standalone kind of coda episode. Which is the mythical new episode 13. The network had already paid for 13 episodes, and this included the one they agreed to let us scrap for parts. It does not include the one we made to bring the number back up to 13 for the studio side and its obligations. We always knew it would be for the DVD for sure, but we also think Fox should air it because it’s awesome.
Fed chairman Ben Bernanke is not your ordinary Washington bureaucrat. He's a professor, one who, we have always suspected, would be far more at home sitting cross-legged on the quad at Princeton, eating a sprout sandwich and discussing ideas as the late-afternoon sun dapples his shiny pate, than wearily explaining basic concepts to Congress. The Washington Post today confirms that this is indeed his personality, and that he is revolutionizing the Fed with his hippie tactics. For instance, he is into dialoguing with his staffers, and after meetings will jot down notes and say them back, just to be sure he was picking up what they were laying down.
"Here's what I think I heard," he'll say, before running through the range of views. He sometimes articulates the views of dissenters more persuasively than they did. "Did I get it right?" he says.
Relationship coaches everywhere, we suspect, are tearing with pride. Also Bernanke does not schedule his meetings as rigidly as his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, did. With "Uncle Ben," as we imagine staffers call him, you can say what you are feeling.
"More than a few times over the past year, senior Fed staff members have logged into their e-mail accounts to find an unusual message. Subject: Blue Sky. Sender: Ben S. Bernanke. The point of the e-mails has been to encourage them to think of creative ways that the Fed can guard the economy from the downdraft of a financial collapse. This is an institution that not long ago could spend the better part of a two-day policymaking meeting deciding whether its target for short-term interest rates should be 5.25 percent or 5 percent. But in this crisis, rate cuts, the most common tool for helping the economy, have lacked their usual punch ... That's why Bernanke's Fed has been trying to dream up ideas out of the clear blue sky."
Sweet. If things get really bad, we expect he'll start sending out e-mails to staff that say, "I have these mushrooms. They'll open your mind."
From Foot Fist Way to Eastbound & Down, Jody Hill loves deluded dudes in everyday situations. In his new film, Observe and Report, which opens tomorrow, Seth Rogen plays a megalomaniac, manic-depressive security guard named Ronnie who tries to defend a cosmetics-counter girl (Anna Faris, whom we interviewed here) against a terrorist-flasher. Vulture spoke to the director about whether or not he ever dated a makeup-counter girl and how Ronnie relates to George W. Bush.
Anna Faris told us you based her insane makeup-counter girl on an ex of yours.
Man! She's been telling people that. No! Nuh-uh. I never dated a makeup-counter girl. Anna's like this nice sweet thing in real life, but then on the set she was like, super dirty, you know.
You've said the film was influenced by Scorsese's The King of Comedy.
On the set, and beforehand, we were constantly talking about The King of Comedy, and, in fact, Taxi Driver, Straw Dogs, Shampoo. The end was heavily inspired by the way King of Comedy and Taxi Driver end, where it's kind of a victory but it makes you wonder: Is it a dream? Is it really a victory? Is it just kind of weird? Like the whole thing is based in realism — and then you twist it at the end and it makes people feel weird.
Are you mocking Bush-era heroes with this one?
We wanted to tell a good story, but the themes that run through it hopefully just represent some type of bigger picture. It's certainly not a political film by any means, but I don't think it's a disposable comedy, either, where there's no greater subtext.
A film like King of Comedy was really responding to its time — the rise of celebrity.
Sure — and Taxi Driver is influenced by that postwar fallout. This is definitely influenced by its time.
Ronnie's like one of those Reaganite kids who grew up watching Red Dawn, waiting for his chance to defend the shopping mall against the Communists.
I definitely feel like Ronnie watched those movies and took them to heart. And we play with movie clichés, like sorta pseudo–Cameron Crowe, but twisted. I hope people feel themselves caught up in a Cameron Crowe moment, but the visuals are so fucked-up that it kind of produces a really uncomfortable feeling. Like, people applaud and then they stop: "Wait, what the fuck am I applauding? He just murdered somebody."
It's weird when he clobbers the Middle Eastern guy on the mall for no reason ...
People love that. And it's not like he has a reason. People really like that. I don't know if I understand it, but maybe that speaks to like, your earlier question about the time.
From Foot Fist Way to Eastbound & Down, you seem to love making people uncomfortable.
I have to get my arm twisted a little bit because there are jokes, what I consider broad-comedy jokes and physical gags. I hate slipping [on] banana peels or winking at the camera. You know, a fart sound will always get a laugh, but you can't just make a movie full of fart sounds, you know?
Lauren Santo Domingo, Stella McCartney, and Heidi Klum.
The fall runways were so inundated with thigh-high boots that we became thoroughly convinced pants are losing popularity. (Well, it's a possibility.) And, as it turns out, people aren't even waiting until fall to bust out their replacements for leggings and slacks. Lauren Santo Domingo wore her custom black leather pair to the party for Brian Atwood's Role Play Rene book launch on March 19, while Stella McCartney rocked a textured variation from her fall collection to the Forces for Nature benefit on March 30. Then last week, Heidi Klum was snapped rolling around the streets of Los Angeles in the Alexander McQueen thigh-highs for a German Vogue photo shoot. We're starting to love the logic here — stop wasting time with leggings and shoes and just combine them instead. It's a form of saving, if you will. And people need to cut corners wherever they can.
A woman in Colorado had her vanity license plate revoked by the state because of a certain linguistic gray area -- see if you can spot the problem (it's like a sexual magic eye!)
Apparently, she 'intended' for the plate to read "I love tofu," because she's a vegetarian, but because we're all English speaking human beings, we might interpret that saying as a slightly different (though equally heartfelt) message.
That being said, as long as people are allowed to hang signs like this in Canada, I have no problem letting these f***ers slide.
(via Buzzfeed) Source: Best Week Ever | 9 Apr 2009 | 8:15 pm
Boys, from left: Sebastian, PC. Girls, from left: Camille, Jessica, Kelli, Taylor.
We've been waiting for Bravo's reality show NYC Prep with a mixture of excitement and trepidation. On the one hand, we can't wait to see what the network comes up with, because even if it's fake, juvenile, and/or revolting, it will probably be insanely watchable. On the other, how do we write about it? Even though it is plainly a Gossip Girl ripoff (way to drop the ball on that, CW), these are ostensibly real children, and therefore we can't shred them to pieces the way we do Dan, Serena, Vanessa, and Jenny. Well, we can, but we run the risk of actually running into these people at some point — or worse, their parents. But it's going to be tempting, because instead of writing about fictional surrogates of the people who tortured us in high school, we'd be writing about very real versions.
But our enthusiasm turned sour when we read the cast bios today on the Bravo website. Turns out NYC Prep doesn't just rip off the spirit and setting of Gossip Girl: it rips off the characters, too!
Witness:
Sebastian: "Sebastian is known among his circle of friends as the guy who constantly hooks up with the hottest girls — either in the City or at his place in the Hamptons. As a native French speaker, girls swoon at his surfer good looks and impeccable accent. Sebastian regularly hits up the town with wingman and best bud Gabe. Sebastian's hobbies, aside from girls, are soccer, tennis and debate tournaments." Okay, take out the "surfer" and "debate team" bit, and you've got Chuck Bass.
Taylor: "Taylor is a 15-year-old sophomore who bounces between her public school entourage and the fast-paced, wealthy Upper East Siders whose parties she has no qualms crashing. She openly jokes about her hopes to score a rich husband someday." This part of Taylor is the Jenny Humphrey part. And this part, "Taylor has an active interest in politics and has been known to frequent a student demonstration or two in Union Square," is pure Vanessa Abrams.
Camille: "She's constantly on the lookout for a boyfriend, but no one seems to meet her impossibly high standards, despite the bevy of suitors knocking on her door. Camille thrives on high school drama and can often be found playing peacemaker, brokering a classic junior vs. sophomore high school feud, or saving a naïve freshman from social suicide." This makes her sound like Serena van der Woodsen, but then again, there's also a part that says she is "always armed with acid-tongued opinions and witty retorts."
Jessica: "Jessica always gets what she wants — in the case of her final year of high school, this means she's anxious to get accepted by FIT, a top-tier college program to pursue her passion for all things fashion. To bolster her college application, she interviews for cutthroat fashion internships with top designers in New York. Always a leader among her friends, Jessie likes to throw parties for fun, as well as for good causes." Man, we pity the girl that has to fit into Blair Waldorf's headbands.
America's Next Top Model casting agents will return to New York this Saturday, April 11, to cast for season thirteen, which is ironically turning out to be the unluckiest season of ANTM yet. Last month's New York casting got screwed up after a stampede sent several model hopefuls to the hospital. This time around, camping out overnight and lining up before 6 a.m. is not allowed. The CW has yet to announce a location for Saturday's call, but will do so on their website by tomorrow. So if you're between the ages of 18 and 27, are five foot seven and under, think you have what it takes, and are very, very brave, our prayers are with you. [CWTV]
The Lost Tribes of New York aren't really lost. They're all around us! Urban anthropologists Carolyn and Andy London captured some of their voices in this wonderful, New York City–meets–Sesame Street short documentary. You should watch it. It will make you happy.
Paul F. Tompkins has another behind the scenes look from the new season of Best Week Ever. This time, while Paul is sitting in the makeup chair before a shoot, something goes horribly wrong.
Yankees fans are on the ledge right now after another of their starters was tagged by the Orioles last night, and Mets fans are jubilant after their newly awesome bullpen (barely) closed out another win against the Reds. But though it’s still too early to draw any conclusions about what we’ve seen on the field, it’s not too soon to look ahead to how the fortunes of both teams will be impacted by a phenomenon known as the Verducci Effect. Named for Sports Illustrated writer Tom Verducci, who first discovered the trend, the Verducci Effect states that a pitcher under 25 shouldn’t increase his workload from one year to the next by more than 30 innings lest he risk injury.
How accurate is the Verducci Effect (or the Year-After Effect, as he calls it)? Of the 24 pitchers he red-flagged over the last three years, 16 were injured in the following season. Only one stayed healthy and lowered his ERA. And among those flagged last year was the super-disappointing Ian Kennedy, though when factoring in his winter-league innings, he barely crossed the 30-inning threshold. So what does this mean for the 2009 Mets and Yankees?
Two Mets are on Verducci’s list of players who threw too much last year: Mike Pelfrey, and Jon Niese, who is starting the year in AAA. This would be especially problematic since, should Pelfrey go down with an injury, Niese would be a candidate to replace him, potentially setting off a tragic chain of injuries ending in the equally tragic sight of Freddy Garcia taking the mound in a Mets uniform. For the Yankees, Joba Chamberlain’s injury last year meant instead of increasing his innings from 112.1 in 2007, he actually threw fewer innings (100.1) in 2008. So even though he’ll be starting this year, he’ll need to be skipped on occasion or pulled early from games to avoid throwing too many innings. (Think of it like a new version of 2007’s Joba Rules, but based on actual statistical evidence this time.)
There’s good news too, though — at least if you consider potentially devastating injuries to the local teams’ rivals good news. The two names on top of Verducci’s list this year are Boston’s Jon Lester and Philadelphia’s Cole Hamels. Hamels already missed Opening Day (albeit with an injury that doesn’t appear to be too serious), and though Boston’s pitching coach tells Verducci he doesn’t think Lester will be impacted, that’s what he would say, isn’t it?
American Apparel and Woody Allen are still in a legal battle over the billboards American Apparel erected in New York and L.A. two years ago featuring images of Allen dressed as a bearded rabbi from 1977 film Annie Hall. American Apparel didn't ask Allen if they could use the image, so Allen sued American Apparel back in April of 2008, demanding at least $10 million for his endorsement, making for one of the Jewiest lawsuits of all time. But American Apparel owner Dov Charney's lawyers say Allen's endorsement isn't worth nearly that much because, well, he's a perv. "We believe that Mr. Allen's popularity has decreased significantly, especially in light of the scandals he's been associated with," one of Charney's lawyers said.
The Post reports:
"The term 'sex scandal' shall mean ... your relationship with [ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow's adopted daughter] Soon-Yi Previn including the discovery and public reports thereof, the nude pictures you took of Soon-Yi Previn, and your marriage to Soon-Yi Previn," Charney's lawyers wrote.
Allen's lawyers argue that their client is one of five or ten "iconic" figures in American cinema, along with Clint Eastwood and Frank Sinatra, and that he would charge $10 million to appear in an ad if he did things like appear in ads. And then American Apparel was all, "But no one would ever ask Allen to appear in an ad. Because he's a perv." (Not in those words, but you know.) Now, Dov Charney has faced numerous sexual-harassment lawsuits, reportedly masturbated in front of a reporter, blah blah old news. So, uh, thanks for making Passover interesting this year, guys!
Perhaps the most memorable TV ad of the presidential campaign was Hillary Clinton's original "3 a.m." spot, which raised concerns about Barack Obama's experience and readiness as commander in chief. The ad became iconic enough to spawn countless spoofs and, ironically, cement 3 a.m. as the time for unexpected emergencies. But little more than two months into Obama's presidency, it turns out the prediction was absolutely spot-on. Hopefully you've heard about this throwback pirate drama by now. Well, guess when Obama got the call alerting him to the surprise crisis? (If you're thinking anything besides 3 a.m. at this point, for shame.) Now that Hillary's clairvoyant powers have been revealed, we can only hope she uses them for the good of mankind, and not to bet on future sporting events, as we would surely do, à la Michael J. Fox in Back to the Future: Part II.
Our source for all things "prostitute-punched-in-the-face" related, The Smoking Gun, has just released brand new photos of ShamWow and Slapchop salesman Vince Shlomi following the recent allegations that he punched a whore in the face after she bit into his tongue. And in a true case of "if you think this is bad, picture the other girl", photos of the prostitute post-face-beating are, indeed, brutal. The girl got messed up.
Then, we stared deeper and longer at the photos of Vince, slack-jawed and hand-cuffed to his hospital bed, and an idea started to dawn on us: Is Vince Shlomi actually a robot sent back from the future to sell our idiot people useless products on television?
The above, totally un-shopped photo seems to say yes. Source: Best Week Ever | 9 Apr 2009 | 7:00 pm
Mike Judge releases new projects with a Terrence Malick level of frequency, but I've really enjoyed just about everything he's ever done; I never approached peoples' worship level with Office Space but it's still a really good movie, King of the Hill has always been underrated, Beavis and Butthead owned my life for about three years, and I absolutely loved Idiocracy (though it divided my friends 50-50 and much argumentative blood was shed).
Judge's new movie Extract stars Jason Bateman, Kristen Wiig, Ben Affleck, J.K. Simmons, and Mila Kunis, so he's already well on his way towards going five-for-five:
Designer Samantha Pleet is, for unknown reasons, working on a TV show. Samantha tells Refinery 29's Pipeline blog that the show is "part Muppet show meets TV party meets Wayne's World." So it's Sesame Street for hipsters? P: plaid, N: New Yorker — that kind of thing? It's unclear where the show will air, but based on the description and top-secret behind-the-scenes exclusive images obtained by Refinery 29, we're guessing public access. Or the Internet. Like Hisforhipster.com. Or mysockpuppetreadstheeconomistandyoudont.net.
The following is a recap of Lost Season 5 Episode 12 entitled “Dead Is Dead”, originally airing April 8, 2009. If you continue reading without having seen the episode, the Smoke Monster will judge that things have been spoiled for you, but you'd already know that.BENINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAYBen: I came back to the island to be judged, John.
Locke: By whom?
Ben: We don't have a word for it. But I believe you call it...a jury of twelve polar bears in old timey powdered wigs.
Locke: Wait, really?
Ben: No, Locke, I meant the smoke monster. Derrrr.
Locke: Ben, I'm the last one on the show who hasn't beaten the sh*t out of you - don't push it.
Ben finally reveals at least one of his purposes for returning to the island: confronting the smoke monster to receive judgment for breaking the island's "rules," specifically for letting Alex die to save himself, as well as violating the island's no-tolerance sexual harassment policy during Juliet's first month. Ben and Locke descend underneath the never-before-seen 'temple' where the smoke monster originates, and after Locke allows Ben to fall through the ground (in the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an "I," stupid), Ben prepares to accept his smokey fate.
Doc Jensen writes, "I thought he was cruisin' for a Mr. Eko bruisin'... but then The Monster dissipated and curled back into the bowels of The Island," but I couldn't have foreseen any other possible result to the encounter. When the monster has turned on people in the past, it's really turned on people -- it smashed Eko to pieces, tore apart the French scientists, and we know that Ben wasn't gonna randomly die last night, so of course the monster let him go. It wasn't just gonna punch him a few times and leave him on the ground and be like "The price is wrong, bitch!" (the monster just caught Happy Gilmore on island TNT like a week ago) and Ben would mutter under his breath "update your references, bitch" and the monster would be like "you talkin' to me?" and Ben would sigh and say "no, no, I apologize."
Also, leading up to the judgment, Locke uttered a never-before-spoken sentence in the history of television:
"If everything you've done was in the best interest of the island, the monster should understand."
There was that one Lucy Show where she was trying to do charity work for an island monster, but I don't think they said this sentence in the same order.
DAMMIT - I JUST BOUGHT AN AUTHENTIC CAESAR JERSEYCeasar, I know it's too late for you now, but a quick lesson: If you deliberately show anything to Ben, he will end up stealing it. You could be like "Hey Ben, check out this expired yogurt" then after the next commercial break you'd go to throw the yogurt away and Ben would be like "not so fast - I possess the yogurt now!" and you'd be like, "you're just indiscriminately shady, aren't you? You don't even have a reason for half this sh*t." Then he'd throw the yogurt at you and ruin your one pair of pants you have on the island.
Also, I'm glad ABC.com has a sense of humor. Their sponsor for the ABC.com embeddable player? Cesar dog food (seriously):
HAA HAA - BEN LOVES BABIESA brief Others backstory swung the "who's a bigger A-hole" pendulum back towards Charles Widmore, as we witnessed Ben with hair refusing to comply with Widmore's orders to kill baby Alex and her deranged, defenseless mother. Widmore is ultimately overthrown as Others leader, and when Ben declared that he'd be a better leader because he'd "sacrifice anything for the island," Widmore shot back, "If you're wrong, and the island does want [Alex] dead, you'll be standing where I am," followed by the confusing insult, "I'll be seeing you, boy" (um, snap?) Perhaps the island did want Alex dead from the getgo, and Ben had violated Jacob's decree from the getgo, not when he refused to come out of the house and let Alex get shot?
Ben also second-guessed himself while about to shoot Penelope, after seeing baby Charlie and remembering his earlier mercy towards Alex (and the mercy the Others initially showed him as a child). Before Ben can pull the trigger, he is tackled by a thought-to-be-shot Desmond (my friend remarked, "good thing I bought that bulletproof lettuce!") and, of course, beaten to a bloody pulp. I feel like a canned audience-applause should play whenever Ben gets bloodied, because it's basically his catchphrase at this point, like whenever Urkel said "did I do that?" or Al Bundy walked onscreen.
LOSTDS AND ENDS
- The Pixies perform the theme song to last night's "Dead Is Dead" episode:
- Creepiest moment of the episode? Ben asking the new islanders if they needed help with anything. I would've immediately said "no thanks" too.
- Most self-aware line of the episode, Locke on his resurrection: "I don't know how, but I'm sure there's a very good reason for it. So just keep watching the season and trust the producers, everyone. Cool? Cool."
- Hair-Ben side by side with an awful-wigged Paul Rubens from the short-lived You Don't Know Jack game show:
- What does the Smoke Monster/Alex's decree leave Locke? She mentioned that Ben was already planning to re-kill Locke (which we semi-inferred from Ben's initial surprise at Locke's resurrection) but he must instead go along with everything that Locke says. Are we to assume that Locke has indeed ascended to his position as the island's destined leader? Surely Ben won't end up going along with everything he says, because that would basically get rid of half the conflict on the show? Or will the remaining episodes come down to an ultimate Ben/Widmore showdown, with Locke finally on Ben's side? Guess we'll have to watch the rest of this really weird "actually answering questions" show that I believe used to be called Lost.
Episode thoughts, theories, observations, predictions, favorite parts, least favorite parts, flowers for Caesar -- leave 'em all in the comments. Source: Best Week Ever | 9 Apr 2009 | 5:45 pm
Front Page: Fox reality series nabs 22.4 million viewers -- Fox's "American Idol" towered over the competition on a rather lackluster Wednesday, with overall television usage dipping due to the start of Passover and other holiday or spring-break activities.
A car passes by a movie theater in downtown Phnom Penh in 2004. Cambodia's first-ever movie featuring a taboo lesbian love story has been a surprising hit during its first week in theatres, the film's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 9 Apr 2009 | 4:07 pm
A couple of years ago, Hollywood legend Kirk Douglas declared that it was time to undertake "an audit of my life." Now, at the age of 92, he's going public with the results.
Producers Carlton Cuse and Damon Lindelof reveal the show's biggest
secret
No other show on television delivers
mystery in quite the same way as Lost, the ABC serial
drama about people trying to escape an island that their fates seem
bound to. For five seasons now (with a final one to come in 2010),
the show has taken a straightforward dilemma — survivors of a
plane crash in the South Pacific strive for rescue, while coping
with one another, with furtive enemies and with their own hidden
pasts — and infused it with uncommon themes of destiny and
redemption...
I checked out today's New York Post expecting to see their requisite "Yankees lose" headline (I had my money on "O's and 2" or "Sucks, My Wang") but hooooooooleeeeeeyyyy sh*t, I was not ready for their cover story about the U.S. reclaiming a stolen freighter ship from Somali pirates:
A half/pun, half/Simpsons-referencing headline, complete with an actual photo of the Pirates running away (what a scoop!), proving yet again why the Post is the #1 news source in the universe. Source: Best Week Ever | 9 Apr 2009 | 3:30 pm
Liam Gallagher (C) from Oasis performs in the western German city of Duesseldorf on February 28, 2009. Oasis and Prodigy, along with Vampire Weekend, MGMT and Faith No More from the US, are lined up for... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 9 Apr 2009 | 9:56 am
From Coach's cool meditative pose to Joe's hot, bug-infected leg, this was an episode of contrasts and clashes as the tribes merged and alliances were tested.
But even after the...
If you're trying to sell out arenas, you want, perhaps even deeply desire, to be compared to the Jonas Brothers.
But if you're trying to sell out multiplexes,...
Mark your calendars.
E! News has learned exclusively that Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are set to tie the knot on Saturday, April 25, in an undisclosed location in Pasadena,...
Viewers beware: Oprah Winfrey may be generous, but she's not that generous.
Both the FBI and producers of the Oprah Winfrey Show today issued a warning over an email scam targeting...
Safe to say Woody Harrelson has no TLC for TMZ.
The actor has once again been caught on camera apparently getting physical with a pesky paparazzo for the gossip site, triggering a police...
For a dying girl, life at Izzie's sickbed is pretty exciting. She's got friends, yummy food and Mer modeling wedding dresses, and, oh yeah, that ongoing medical crisis. Poor...
Kevin Federline may smoke, but he definitely wasn't the culprit when ex-wife Britney Spears abruptly halted her concert last night in Vancouver.
How do we know...
The diagnosis on Dr. Jan Adams' career: inoperable.
The plastic surgeon who operated on Kanye West's mother the day before she died in 2007 has given up his license to practice...
Countess, real housewife and New York City dweller LuAnn de Lesseps is brimming with self-esteem. In fact, she's got so much of the stuff, she took a trip to the Brooklyn Boys and Girls Club...
BENINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY
Ben: I came back to the island to be judged, John.
Locke: By whom?
Ben: We don't have a word for it. But I believe you call it...a jury of twelve polar bears in old timey powdered wigs.
Locke: Wait, really?
Ben: No, Locke, I meant the smoke monster. Derrrr.
Locke: Ben, I'm the last one on the show who hasn't beaten the sh*t out of you - don't push it.
Ben finally reveals at least one of his purposes for returning to the island: confronting the smoke monster to receive judgment for breaking the island's "rules," specifically for letting Alex die to save himself, as well as violating the island's no-tolerance sexual harassment policy during Juliet's first month. Ben and Locke descend underneath the never-before-seen 'temple' where the smoke monster originates, and after Locke allows Ben to fall through the ground (in the Latin alphabet, "Jehovah" begins with an "I," stupid), Ben prepares to accept his smokey fate.
Ceasar, I know it's too late for you now, but a quick lesson: If you deliberately show anything to Ben, he will end up stealing it. You could be like "Hey Ben, check out this expired yogurt" then after the next commercial break you'd go to throw the yogurt away and Ben would be like "not so fast - I possess the yogurt now!" and you'd be like, "you're just indiscriminately shady, aren't you? You don't even have a reason for half this sh*t." Then he'd throw the yogurt at you and ruin your one pair of pants you have on the island.
Also, I'm glad ABC.com has a sense of humor. Their sponsor for the ABC.com embeddable player? Cesar dog food (seriously):
A brief Others backstory swung the "who's a bigger A-hole" pendulum back towards Charles Widmore, as we witnessed Ben with hair refusing to comply with Widmore's orders to kill baby Alex and her deranged, defenseless mother. Widmore is ultimately overthrown as Others leader, and when Ben declared that he'd be a better leader because he'd "sacrifice anything for the island," Widmore shot back, "If you're wrong, and the island does want [Alex] dead, you'll be standing where I am," followed by the confusing insult, "I'll be seeing you, boy" (um, snap?) Perhaps the island did want Alex dead from the getgo, and Ben had violated Jacob's decree from the getgo, not when he refused to come out of the house and let Alex get shot?
Ben also second-guessed himself while about to shoot Penelope, after seeing baby Charlie and remembering his earlier mercy towards Alex (and the mercy the Others initially showed him as a child). Before Ben can pull the trigger, he is tackled by a thought-to-be-shot Desmond (my friend remarked, "good thing I bought that bulletproof lettuce!") and, of course, beaten to a bloody pulp. I feel like a canned audience-applause should play whenever Ben gets bloodied, because it's basically his catchphrase at this point, like whenever Urkel said "did I do that?" or Al Bundy walked onscreen.
LOSTDS AND ENDS
- The Pixies perform the theme song to last night's "Dead Is Dead" episode:
