AP - Fox became the first broadcast network to turn down a request by President Barack Obama for time, opting to show its drama "Lie to Me" on Wednesday instead of the president's prime-time news conference.
Reuters - Amanda Peet has joined the cast of the adventure movie "Gulliver's Travels" opposite Jack Black. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 28 Apr 2009 | 12:45 pm
Reuters - Amanda Peet has joined the cast of the adventure movie "Gulliver's Travels" opposite Jack Black. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 28 Apr 2009 | 12:45 pm
(AP) AP - "Lost" marks its 100th episode Wednesday, an achievement its producers consider as surreal as the TV drama's mind-bending plots. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 28 Apr 2009 | 11:12 am
Beach Culture Brand and Sports Illustrated 2009 Swimsuit Issue Cover Star Collaborate to Create this Summer's Must-Have Swimsuit LOS ANGELES, April 28... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 28 Apr 2009 | 11:00 am
PHILADELPHIA, April 28 /PRNewswire/ -- For years companies advertised on radio, television and in print. Why? These were the main ways of reaching potential customers who might Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 28 Apr 2009 | 11:00 am
AP - The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 28 Apr 2009 | 10:35 am
AP - The latest J.R.R. Tolkien project lasted six years, more than half as long as the author needed to complete his "Lord of the Rings" trilogy. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 28 Apr 2009 | 10:35 am
Snoop Dogg told jurors on Monday that he didn't hit a man suing him for millions of dollars with a brass-knuckle microphone during a melee at one of his 2005 concerts.
Unfortunately, only five performed tonight because late-preseason addition Melissa...
Comparing his hospital stay to Marlon Brando's experience in The Godfather and joking about having to take an ambulance to a hospital that's in walking distance from his office, Jay Leno...
Danko: "There are no rules, even gravity."
H.R.G: "It's all about spinning plates, living in the gray area. Twenty years of middle management, it becomes second...
Breathe easy, Sex and the City fans. Mr. Big is back.
At the Wonderful World premiere Monday during the Tribeca Film Festival, Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed to E! News that the...
Wednesday's all-star Mexico City premiere of X-Men Origins: Wolverine has been scrapped due to the region's deadly swine-flu outbreak,...
One hundred days, schmunhundred days.
Fox is opting out of airing a President Obama prime-time press conference timed to mark the leader's 100th day in office Wednesday, in favor of...
At the Serious Moonlight premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival Saturday, the star of...
Australian actor Hugh Jackman posing during the presentation of the movie "X-Men Origins: Wolverine" in Madrid on April 15, 2009. The Mexico City premiere of the blockbuster movie has been cancelled because... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 27 Apr 2009 | 11:49 pm
Oh wow. We totally forgot about JumpStart NYC, the new, government-funded program Bloomberg started to retrain laid-off Wall Streeters in new careers. The New Yorker's Lizzie Widdicombe ventured inside the halfway-house-style facility where these reprogramming seminars are held, and although it was not the futuristic torture chamber of our imagination, it was grim. This is, clearly, a place where dreams have gone to die, or at least to take a little vacation, with the help of some mood-altering drugs, Jell-O cups, and sharing circles.
"I wanted to be a dentist," one guy tells the group.
“When I left U.B.S., I started trying to build a T-shirt business, but there was a lack of demand,” said another.
“When I was moving to New York, a lot of people told me, ‘Go get a modelling portfolio! You have the presence,’” one woman, who was laid off from the risk-management department of Citigroup earlier this year, said. ‘I wonder what would have happened if I had done it.’”
Maybe Citigroup would have taken on less risk, is one answer. But we don't mean to belittle these poor people's problems. They could reinvent themselves and be productive members of society! For instance, this guy:
"Having spent several years following the foot soldiers of Wall Street, head-to-toe, I find myself at the focal point of self-reflection. Where am I? What am I doing? ... These are questions tattooed into my psyche."
He could have a future as a lyricist for the reunited Creed.
Relapse’s second single, “3 a.m.,” premiered late last week, but we needed the weekend to mull this one over. As expected, Eminem goes to a dark place here: It's all Klonopin, dead bodies, and Hanna Montana masturbation sessions. Which normally would be an okay thing — Em's morbid flights of fancy are usually his sharpest stuff. But ... well ... what the hell is up with his voice? It's hard to define, exactly, but it's thinner for sure; also, the way he's over-enunciating everything now, it sort of sounds like he never quite remembered to stop rapping like Triumph the Insult Comic Dog. This is not how he used to sound, right? We’re not crazy, are we?
As we reported earlier, Salma Hayek wed PPR chief François-Henri Pinault over the weekend in Venice. Thankfully, the paparazzi were all over it. A photo of Salma in her lovely Balenciaga dress has surfaced. The photo wires are also awash in images of the celebrities and fashion designers in attendance. They were plentiful, because when the boss gets married, you kind of have to show up. Especially when the wedding is serious and fancy enough to require guests to wear different outfits to the ceremony and reception. See what Charlize Theron, Anna Wintour, Stefano Pilati, Lily Cole, and more wore in the slideshow.
Snoop Dogg's latest rap: denial.
Taking the stand in his ongoing civil trial, the hip-hop star testified Monday that he did not hit plaintiff Richard Monroe Jr. with a brass knuckle...
Oh, snap! Real Housewives of New York City's Jill Zarin thinks fellow castmate Kelly Killoren Bensimon should turn on her Louboutins and take a hike!
"I don't...
Front Page: Commercials deal currently faces no opposition -- In a quiet contrast to the contentiousness over the SAG feature-primetime contract, about 150,000 SAG and AFTRA members will begin receiving ratification ballots for the commercials pact Friday.
After a few days of a heat wave, Edie Falco has hit already her limit. "It's funny how quickly it went from 'What a beautiful day' to 'It's so fucking hot in this city I can't stand it,'" she told us last night at the In the Loop screening. What an accurate foreshadowing of summer days ahead. For more hot and loopy tales, view our Party Lines slideshow.
If the name Anna Chlumsky sounds familiar, it's probably because you were among the millions who fell in love with her big green eyes.
18 years ago.
The actress...
As we discovered in an ill-fated Google search this morning, New York State — unlike Oklahoma — does not have an official rock song. But if we did have one, what should it be? Oklahoma's is the Flaming Lips' "Do You Realize??" which makes sense only because the Lips were formed in Oklahoma City (and because everyone there, someday, will die, we guess). So which track is worthy of the Empire State? Remember — it has to be relevant to upstaters, too.
Il Divo — Italian director Paolo Sorrentino’s devastating film about Italy’s very corrupt prime minister Giulio Andreotti, who governed the country for much of its postwar history — is in theaters now. Having won a Jury Prize at Cannes, it’s the first of Sorrentino’s works to open theatrically in the U.S., but Sorrentino, 40, has been making some of the most stylistically exciting films of recent years. Indeed, we’ve pinned our hopes on the belief that he'll do nothing less than save world cinema. Why so sure? Here's why Paolo Sorrentino is the next great international auteur — with a little input from the man himself.
1. If Stanley Kubrick, Martin Scorsese, and Federico Fellini had a love child, Sorrentino would be it.
In Michael Powell and Emeric Pressburger’s 1947 classic A Matter of Life and Death, an emissary from a sepia-toned heaven arrives on Earth, takes a look at the verdant forest where he’s landed, and sighs, “One is starved for Technicolor up there.” It can feel that way sometimes on a film-festival circuit dominated by the aesthetics of austerity and limitation. Most art films now are made by the children of Ozu and Bresson (locked-down static shots of poker-faced actors) or the children of Cassavetes (videos of twentysomethings not talking about their lives). Many of those films are vital and occasionally even transcendent. But sometimes, movies need to move. Sorrentino’s cinema, with its rapturous camera moves, its bursts of music, and its almost naïve belief that the screen can still evoke bold emotions, is the antidote to the Cinema of Lack.
Talking to Sorrentino, we assumed his influences began with Italian aesthetes like Michelangelo Antonioni, Bernardo Bertolucci, and Federico Fellini — but the director told us not to forget the Americans: Martin Scorsese, Spike Lee, Stanley Kubrick, and the Coen Brothers. "I think that after more than 100 years of cinema, a lot of the stories have been told already," the filmmaker says. "Both as a viewer and as a filmmaker, I'm drawn to movies that explore new ways of telling stories, that use style to convey emotions and ideas to the audience." His films breathe and dance with exuberant American-style stylization, but they also plumb greater psychological depths. While our younger filmmakers are following the most ascetic European influences, Sorrentino is reinventing our pop roots — much as the British Invasion reinvented American music with lyrical complexity and wonder.
2. He makes politics beautiful. Il Divo is not a standard biopic by any measure. It hurtles through the events of the Prime Minister's final administration, with backroom wheelings and dealings shot like a Martin Scorsese gangster picture. It has a thrilling, breakneck rhythm all its own. Initially, this seems to come at a price: The standard critique of Il Divo is that, for all its stylistic accomplishment, it will only make total sense to Italian audiences. But this is ludicrous: Sorrentino has global ambitions and he tells us he never assumed anyone would know the facts of Andreotti's secretive life. "Only the viewers above fifty know anything about this period. Younger viewers, they have no idea."
Sorrentino wants us to be adrift. For all of Il Divo's "facts," it is a film about the moment. He wants us to find our own moral bearings in this dreamlike world of sleaze and corruption. So many filmmakers fall into the trap of recapping (checking off every highlight in a politician's career) without dramatizing. Compare Il Divo to Oliver Stone's paint-by-numbers, talking-point-riddled W.. W. is careful but anemic. Divo is jarring but thrilling. To put it another way, Nixon had Hunter S. Thompson. Andreotti has Sorrentino.
3. His movies are all about change.
Sorrentino has made four feature films to date, and the last three — The Consequences of Love, The Family Friend, and Il Divo — are all about how ossified characters, traditions, and routines are forced to change. Andreotti is a fixed political presence who has been prime minister for much of Italy's postwar history. But shot by Sorrentino (and played by the great Toni Servilio), he's something altogether more timeless and sinister: pale hands gathered limply at his torso, surrounded by statues in a shadowy, museum-like office. "When I met him, I found out he lived in this mysterious office, in the dark. He reminded me of Nosferatu," Sorrentino says. He surely must have seemed that way to a lot of Italians — the timeless, spectral presence who seemed eternally appointed to rule.
This Andreotti may be at the center of power, but he also shares a kinship with the mob bagman of The Consequences of Love and the pathetic, malformed loan shark of The Family Friend. In each film, Sorrentino is interested in the moment when the modern world comes crashing in on these men. He is the ideal director for our times because he thrives on the clash between the old and the new.
4. His films are all about debt.
His films couldn't be more timely. The Family Friend might just be the most disturbing and beautiful film we've ever seen about a loan shark. So we're just going to let our favorite scene from that film explain this one.
5. He's got a pair the size of Italy.
Most filmmakers take potshots from the safety of editing suites. Sure, we occasionally get confrontation, but it's usually of the Michael Moore "gotcha" variety. So it comes as a shock to us to learn that Sorrentino, after making Il Divo and before premiering it, actually screened it for the fearsome Giulio Andreotti. And it wasn't a let’s-make-the-old-man-watch-and-film-him-crap-his-pants-in-anger stunt, but rather a private screening: Needless to say, Andreotti wasn't pleased, but what particularly infuriated the normally reserved politico was something very specific: a fictional scene where he confesses to the camera. "He was very, very angry about that," Sorrentino tells us,dryly. "He threatened to leave the screening. It was uncommon to see this kind of reaction. But I felt it was a sign of respect to show him the film before we showed it to anyone else. After all, without him, there is no movie."
Front Page: Co. will get rid of Saturn, Hummer, Saab brands -- Hollywood may have foreshadowed the future of Pontiac in "Transformers" when one of the film's heroic robots, played by the carmaker's two-seater roadster, was violently ripped apart and tossed aside.
Herewith, the scene after a white van sped down Manhattan Avenue in Greenpoint, lost control of his vehicle, hit a young woman, then crashed into a black SUV, which was forced backwards on top of a station wagon in front of Rivera's Grocery at India and Huron Streets. The driver was, according to an eyewitness, "fleeing some undercover cops," who presumably have some new charges on him or her now.
Not one, not two, but three city news stories in the last several days have involved civilians with hand grenades. Potential death by grenade: yetanotherthing that living in New York now has in common with being in the middle of a Central African civil war.
Major fashion companies pulling out of their usual sponsorships of the world's most glamorous film festival include Fendi, Swarovski, and Louis Vuitton. L'Oréal has also called off its annual promotional event at the festival. The rich people who usually attend the festival are afraid of being seen in a place largely populated by people who are just as rich as they are, so expect the celebrity turnout to suffer. It's okay if they go — everyone knows just how rich they are even if they're sitting home. Just don't accessorize your bikini with five pounds of rare yellow diamonds while you're in the hot tub on the deck of a 200-foot yacht, and we won't judge any more harshly than in previous years. [Luxist]
Front Page: CEOs will continue to tighten deals -- FROM THE MOMENT Hollywood first invented itself, the battle lines were drawn: The stars vs. the suits. Most observers agree that the balance of power today resides more with the suits than at any time within memory.
The Fashion Institute of Technology's senior collections are being presented right now, and we're live from inside the auditorium to Twitter the 113 looks on the runway. So far we see dresses for men, six-inch stripper heels, cashmere coats, and children's clothes. Where else can you get that kind of variety? [Cutblog/Twitter]
Chief Maersk Alabama cook Richard Hicks has filed a suit for $75,000 against the shipping company Maersk Line Limited and Waterman Steamship Corp. for ignoring requests to beef up security on their ships and arm crews to better equip them in the event of a pirate attack. Hicks says the main goal of the suit is to make sure crews are better protected in the future. [HuffPo]
CLEARLY THE WORST PART: More bad news about this swine flu -- children, infected schools, I'm sorry to tell you... this may really hurt the Wolverine box office opening in Mexico. (Variety)
TWO BIG ONES: Salma Hayek and François-Henri Pinault shared a second wedding in Venice this weekend, and if that dude knows what's got for him (and watches Thursday night television), he won't be cheating on Salma anytime soon. (Dlisted)
GOLDEN AGE OF MUSIC: Clash Music compiled a list of the 50 Best Albums Of The Past 5 Years. VH1 made the same list, but the Nevermind re-release was somehow 7 of the Top 10. (Stereogum)
DADATOUILLE (Ed Note - Ouch): Congrats to Patton Oswalt and his wife, who welcomed their first baby girl. Here's hoping no Cornish game hens or gray drapes were involved. (People)
POLE-ANSKI: The entire history of Polish jokes can be historically traced back to every other country's extreme jealousy of Poland's amazing movie posters. That's a fact. (Well Medicated, via Gorillamask)
SELF-PROMOTION: I write a lot of subjects on BWE, but I'm really only qualified to talk about two things: The Simpsons and Pittsburgh Sports. I've started a blog about the latter - ElvisHasLeft.com
Gary Coleman has been telling anyonewho'll listen — including us! — that he’s embarrassed by his new movie Midgets vs. Mascots and that he only did it for money. “Yeah, I’ve got to pay my bills, and I took this job. But I didn’t think that the film was going to be as coarse and embarrassing to small people as I think it is,” he told us at a Tribeca Film Festival screening on Saturday. So why did he bother coming to New York to promote it? “Because they’re paying me.”
Coleman also claims the movie nearly cost him his relationship with his new wife: "We had just gotten married, and it was just hard on us," he said. "I mean, I was gone six weeks, and that was miserable, on this production. And she was miserable because I was always complaining about it."
But director Ron Carlson says this is typical Coleman: “Gary’s typically unhappy a lot, but oddly enough, at the same time, that’s what makes him happy,” he told us. “He loves to complain, so this was the perfect role for him. He plays himself in this movie and he complains and gripes and bitches and punches and kicks and screams all the way through it. It’s the Gary Coleman that we always wanted to see.” So everybody's happy!
"On Location Film Tours," a private company here in New York, has begun offering private tours of many of the real-life locations where Gossip Girl has filmed. On their website, they boast that they can take you to:
• The Palace Hotel!
• The Museum of the City of New York (used as Constance Billard and St. Jude's)
• The Cooper Hewitt Museum (The Upper East Side "mansion" where Bart and Lily married)
• Henri Bendel!
The tour costs $38, but as Curbed observed, "the looks on the faces of horrified Bendel's shoppers might be priceless." We suppose, also, it should be pointed out that all of these places can be visited by the masses easily and for free. (Hey, as long as they're staying uptown, it's fine with us.)
If you watched Friday's show, you saw Jerry O'Connell vow sweet revenge against PFT for breaking Brandon, one of his prized Precious Moments collectible figures. By the end of the show, Jerry realized that his own life is too sweet to spend every moment fixated on ruining Paul's. What you didn't see, though, was just how deep Jerry's obsession went. Here now is an exclusive look behind the feud:
Even if Madonna wills it, you cannot just up and move to the United States from Brazil, such is this imperfect legal system of ours. (Actually, we suppose that shouldn't come as a surprise, now that Madonna's not even special enough to adopt Malawian children.) So that leaves her in a bit of a pickle with Jesus Luz, who's had a hard time — but probably not hard at all compared to what most immigrants go through — getting the necessary documents to remain at Madonna's side. You know, legally. "Page Six" reports that Marc Jacobs wrote a letter of support for Jesus's work permit, saying he is "highly talented and a necessity to the label," according to a source. Madonna's rep told the Post that Madge isn't managing Jesus's career (she's got babies to adopt and horses to fall off of); his agents got him the Dolce & Gabbana campaign, and Madonna hasn't asked anyone to help him. We also heard rumors about Madonna trying to get fashion companies to give Jesus work so he could get a green card. But that was weeks ago. At this point in his career — having been at Madge's steady beck and call for months — Jesus sells himself. He's hot and foreign, gets photographed dining out with Madonna, and is awkward enough to be interesting. Madonna's not helping him anymore — he's helping Madonna.
Billionaires can be tough customers, and activist investor and billionaire Nelson Peltz and his wife Claudia are apparently some of the toughest, at least according to a harrowing anecdote published by Cityfile last week:
We hear Mrs. Peltz summoned a butler to the master bathroom after she discovered drops of urine on the toilet seat. She demanded the butler clean it up, which he did, although she then insisted that he clean the toilet seat again. And again. It was only after he'd cleaned the seat four times — "once more for luck," she said — that Mrs. Peltz, perhaps detecting some frustration on the butler's part, informed him that she didn't like his attitude and dismissed him. It was Easter Sunday.
After this appeared, some other former employees got in touch with the website to report various other abuses, and now the allegations against them are snowballing: Employees have apparently been yelled at for eating bagels destined for the trash! The couple's daughter is apparently a terror "for whom heaping abuse on the maids, nannies, and butlers has become something of a sport!" Oh, and now their former driver is suing them for wrongful termination, claiming that they fired him soon after he woke up from a coma. It's like being unkind to the help is coming back at them threefold, like in The Craft. Fascinating.
"I’m a big foodie. In my family life, all good things revolve around the dinner table. My mum’s cooking is great. We have big dinners, and big everything. There’s nothing like a really good chip, a really crunchy, good chip. And I love pasta. I make Bolognese with tons and tons of Parmesan cheese."
She added, "I also eat a hippo every single day. A literal hippo. I have a hippopotamus shipped in from Africa every morning, then eat it raw piece by piece, because I have such a large appetite and I love eating. MAN do I love to eat. I'm only telling you this because I love to eat so much and it's such a common thing to me, not because of all the rumors that I'm basically anorexic and I appear deathly thin in photo after photo. Emphasizing 'TONS AND TONS of Parmesan cheese' is a normal thing people do when describing food they like."
She went on, "For dessert, I reconstruct the giant Ziggy Piggy ice cream sundae from Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure, then deep fry it in corn dog batter and gulp it down while lounging in a jacuzzi of butter and spraying Guinness from a keg into my mouth between each bite. I just enjoy food like any normal person, you know?" Source: Best Week Ever | 27 Apr 2009 | 9:10 pm
Beyonce Knowles attends the Cinema Society and MCM screening of "Obsessed" at the School of Visual Arts on April 23, 2009 in New York City. Movie-goers were hooked on Beyonce this weekend as the superstar... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 27 Apr 2009 | 9:04 pm
We thought that after the allegations of threats against puppies and the invocation of the image of a "urine-stained couch," the Brooke Astor trial couldn't get any uglier. Alas: Today, prosecutor Elizabeth Loewy opened her argument against Astor's son Anthony Marshall with a horrifying, and yet strangely compelling, allegation: Marshall "literary pulled Ms. Astor out of the arms of her nurse," said Loewy, the Post reports. Old-lady wrassling! That's a worse crime than kitten juggling. [NYP]
HAIR
• Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich on what hair products he uses: "I came of age in the Disco Era when the brush was like an extension of your arm. So you know, habits form early. But, you know, just comb my hair a lot." [HuffPo]
• Part of Britney Spears's weave came out during a stunt at her recent concert in Oakland, California. Is it better to have a hair malfunction than a wardrobe malfunction? [Spoiled Pretty]
SKIN
• Rihanna's tattoo artist Bang Bang misspelled the Sanskrit word he inked on her. But he said he copied it from a necklace "she got from somebody important to her," so he doesn't think she cares. [UPI]
MAKEUP
• Natalie Portman is too cool to endorse makeup. "I don't have a problem with making money, but I don't believe in doing something you don't believe in to make money, like a makeup campaign or something like that — the opportunities that young actors have all the time," she says. [E!]
In this week's issue of New York, David Amsden checks in with erstwhile party-anthem factory and current downtown nightclub impresario Andrew W.K. Sam Anderson reviews Alec Wilkinson’s new book-length essay, The Protest Singer, on Pete Seeger. Logan Hill interviews Jim Jarmusch on his new film The Limits of Control. Di Webster chats with Eric Bana about his directorial debut, Love the Beast. Dan Kois reviews all three parts of Broadway's six-and-a-half-hour The Norman Conquests. Emma Rosenblum interviews Cupid's Sarah Paulson and Bobby Cannavale and Wolverine's Ryan Reynolds.
A couple of weeks ago, I slapped together a highly unprofessional letter to Sir Donald Trump, ordering him to return the 2 hours of my life spent watching his reality show The Celebrity Apprentice back after what amounted to a bullsh*t elimination. That week, The Donald fired T-Boz Watkins and Khloe Kardashian for reasons having nothing to do with the 2 hour task at hand.
Still, I gave Trumpy another chance because -- let's face it -- I'm obsessed with Joan Rivers and would never dream of missing an episode. But last night was what expert's refer to as "Michelle's Final Straw". That's because, after sitting through an excruciatingly boring challenge involving a Right Guard ad in Sports Illustrated, once again America was GYPPED (sorry, gypsies, but even you know it's true) in the boardroom.
You see, Playboy Playmate Brandy and Poker Player/Himmler impersonator Annie were left on a team with Melissa Rivers, who has really proven herself to be useful throughout the season. But because Melissa wasn't in their clique, she was left out in the cold, forced to fend for herself in the hopes of not being eliminated at the end of the night. Brandy gave Annie all the responsibility; Annie screwed everything up; Melissa was along for the ride.
It was pretty clear to most everyone (in my family at least) that Brandy deserved the gold plated boot for being, simply put, mildly retarded. The only problem being... Donald Trump has almost definitely put his penis inside of her at some point in time. So, rather than it coming down to who made the biggest mistakes during the challenge, it ended up coming down to who could raise the most money during the finale.
Which leads me to ask: Why isn't this garbage show called "The Celebrity Fundraiser"?Because if all that mattered to Donald was how much money these people could raise for charity -- i.e. who has the richest, most generous friends -- we could have turned this into a one night Jerry Lewis telethon and called it a damn day. The celebrity that raises the most money in a two-hour span wins! Hours and hours of extremely hectic Sunday night schedule saved.
But no. Trump fired Melissa Rivers. And Melissa went out in SPECTACULAR fashion! God bless her. If you missed the fierceness of her departure, here it is:
The problem Trump now faces for being a two-faced a**hole? Looks like Joan, being a woman of all class, isn't showing up to next week's challenge. Which means we're now left with 4 of the more boring contestants on the entire show battling it out: Clint, Jesse (who sadly has no personality), Annie and Brandy.
In other words, Said My DVR To Donald Trump's Celebrity Apprentice... "You're Fired". Thanks for nothing, The Donald.
ps I cannot stand Jim Cramer's idiot face ever since his recent Daily Show takedown. Source: Best Week Ever | 27 Apr 2009 | 8:41 pm
Front Page: Pact changes landscape for talent dealmaking -- Leaders of WMA and Endeavor took a giant leap into showbiz's future on Monday, approving a merger that promises to change the landscape for the talent representation biz.
Isn't it amazing? Wall Street has gone from being dead broke one minute to making money hand-over-fist! After a 2008 that was, shall we say, a bit rough around the edges, the universe has apparently been remastered, and the first-quarter profits of the largest financial institutions have enabled them to put aside cash for bonuses on par with those of the halcyon days of 2007, when the world was already falling apart, but didn't yet know it, and making big money on Wall Street had not yet inflamed the masses.
How did they do it? As we all know, every winning trade must have a corresponding loser, so someone's pockets are being picked. Whose?
A clue was provided last week when banking analyst Brad Hintz criticized Morgan Stanley for not using sufficient leverage to exploit its "excellent flow trading results" in fixed income, a.k.a. bonds.
Apparently, Goldman Sachs made $6.56 billion trading bonds, while JPMorgan scored $4.9 billion.
We had no idea what "flow trading" was, but we sure liked how it sounded. So easy, so smooth. Maybe we could do it, if only we knew what it was. So we asked a friend who works at a hedge fund to explain. "Basically it means that the bond market was in such disarray, the big banks were able to rip off their customers without the customers knowing," he told us, via email.
Oh. He went on:
"For example, in a boring bond market, a bond might fluctuate over a full year between 98 and 102, let's say.
So, if I trade that bond ... the broker-dealer might make a market 99 to 99.25 and hope to work for a quarter point. (I pay 99.25, the guy who sold it to the dealer got 99 ... the dealer makes .25 (effectively half from me and half from the seller.)"
We took some time, we won't ever admit how long, to digest this, and soldiered on.
Now let's put the market into disarray ... and that bond (usually a boring thing) ... falls from 100 to 65 in two months.
On any given day, I might get to pay 72 and the fellow selling might get 70 and the dealer makes two full points. The market isn't that transparent, and the dealers charge what they can get away with. In a disconnected market, fear and greed take over. The seller is more anxious to sell and the buyer is more anxious to buy, and dealers take advantage. In the previous example the dealer needed to trade eight times as much to make that. So, by being in the flow, the dealers make a fortune in a disconnected market."
Okay, we try not to be willfully naïve about how the world works, but this kinda makes us want to hurl. We understand that buying and selling in these volatile times entails extra risk, and traders ought to be properly rewarded for that— IF ONLY THESE RISKS WERE NOT BEING BACKSTOPPED BY THE U.S. TAXPAYER! (Sorry, we needed to bust out the all-caps). You know what they call this? Gouging. The market dislocation that Wall Street is now profiting from was caused by Wall Street, and should the renewed spirit of risk taking, heaven forbid, somehow backfire and result in more losses, you can easily guess who's going to get stuck with the tab.
Grazia previously made Chace Crawford look like something of a fool on video when he said he thought beige was a dark color. Ed Westwick didn't fare much better when they gave him a similar fashion quiz. Grazia asks who Mario Testino is. Ed replies, "A designer?" Grazia explains he's a photographer, noting that he once shot Chace (who is therefore the more special one). Grazia asks Ed if he knows what color the soles of shoes by Christian Louboutin are. "I had a pair but I left them in Jamaica." What? "Not girl's ones ... I don't know I left the resort and I left them there." What illicit rendezvous is he alluding to? We can deal with straight guys not knowing all of that, but here's where we wonder if Ed is living under a rock: He doesn't know who Jason Wu is. Wasn't it kind of hard to avoid that on Inauguration Day? Or are we bloggers so in touch that we're out of touch? Should we not expect the straight Chuck Basses of the world to know this? Are there any straight guys out there who can tell us?
Maybe what Ed really needed was a beauty quiz. "The purpose of shampoo is to (a) ..."
Once a week, Daily Intel looks behind doors left slightly ajar. This week, the Mother Just Looking for Some TLC: 31, female, Astoria, straight, married.
DAY ONE 6 a.m.: Startled awake by a banging noise from our 1-year-old son's room. Found him furiously spanking his monkey. His toy monkey, that is. Gave him a stern talking-to. Return to bed. Too beat for a morning quickie. 10 a.m.: Aah, Saturday. So nice to sleep late. But even rest doesn't stop me being all hot and bothered! Where's that husband of mine? Gone already. 2 p.m.: Good to know the key to your man's heart ... pork chops. Well tenderized. He was aglow with enjoyment long after he finished. 9 p.m.: Watched some TV. I enjoy keeping hubby company, even if I personally think I am much more well rounded. 10 p.m.: Tried to take matters into my own hands by putting on … Adult Swim. How was I supposed to know these were cartoons, not porn?
DAY TWO 9 a.m.: Woke up needing some TLC under my pajamas. Gave myself a generous rub-down. Masha likes that. 9:30 a.m.: Where's my husband when I could use a hand or two? He sneaked out early to his shop, I bet. Wouldn’t be the first time. What can I say, he really lurves his wood. You should look at our dinner table. Noon: Husband came back, showing off his work, as if I care. Not going to speak to him till he apologizes. Sex, ha! What sex? 5 p.m.: Joined the hubby for his reading session. I missed this so much the whole week. Just this sense of calm, completeness. We can be quiet together, lights dim, wearing tees and jeans, and still it feels as if we had gone to Per Se. 9 p.m.: Monday's coming — waking up bright and early tomorrow, so after some very good necking, have to put our libidos on hold for tonight.
DAY THREE 8 a.m.: Woke up all hot and bothered, AGAIN! Could use a cold shower or no telling what will come about! 9 a.m.: Broke down, and took some precious minutes to stroke myself before heading off to work. Noon: Eating lunch in the cafeteria of my publicity job, wondering about sex lives of historical figures. A strangely arousing topic. Did they have it more often than we? Would have to, just look at Lincoln's brood. And, um, Jefferson’s. 7:30 p.m.: Came home a bit late to catch my husband there already, practicing his lines for amateur theater. I am sure he will rock the premiere. Hectic schedule or no, I will be there front and center. He would have been for me.
DAY FOUR 8 a.m.: Hot and bothered? You guessed it. I consider the situation. Nope, can't go on like this, my husband is just going to have to clean my pipes in the very near future. He's really good with his hands too. 6 p.m.: Barely made it home before the rain started pouring in earnest … but I was already wet. Glad my husband was home already! Made dinner. He says it's better than his mother's. There IS something to that married life. Seriously, sex isn't its end-all be-all. But it's a helluva part. 8 p.m.: Decided to check in early tonight, for some much-needed together time. Didn't happen — cattus interruptus.
DAY FIVE 6:30 a.m.: Woke up to a cruel, cruel, early alarm clock. 7:30 a.m.: Riding the bus to work today — husband got the car. Rubbing against random people — or were they rubbing against me? What's their story? 10 a.m.: Coordinating over the phone with my husband about his grocery shopping trip. Big day today, relatives coming over for our son's birthday. 2 p.m.: On the way home. Listening to tunes, thinking about how rock stars get their rocks off. Lucky SOBs. But then, which one of them has a birthday boy as awesome as ours? No, hubby and I are the lucky ones! 4 p.m.: The whole mishpucha arrives and birthday boy is gifted up and down. Thank you, Uncle! Can you please do the laundry for me? 11 p.m.: Everybody finally leaves. Boy, are we beat! But not too beat to put off getting wet together by the kitchen sink. God, what a ton of dishes!
DAY SIX 8 a.m.: A cold shower later brought me back down to earth and ready to deal with the day ... if only temporarily. Noon: Ogled a co-worker by the vending machine, and had to resist fantasizing about how many licks it would take to get to the Tootsie Roll center of his Tootsie Pop. Man, that cold shower wears off fast. So did a talking-to from my Jenny Craig consultant. 4 p.m.: Hooray! Home early today. Can't wait for my husband to get home. I bet he’s just about ready to burst. 4:30 p.m.: Still waiting! Did some stroking to help calm me down. 5 p.m.: Finally, hubby walks in from the rain. Barely began, when cattus interruptus strikes again. 5:30 p.m.: Finally! He is such a great lover, no wonder I tolerate his amateur-actor thing. Well, that and his cooking, and his sense of humor, and his laughter, and his willingness to clean up after my kitty, and his way of getting our son to swallow an extra spoon of applesauce, and well … you get the point. 7 p.m.: Wouldn’t mind another go. But beggars can’t be choosers.
DAY SEVEN 7 a.m.: Telecommuting today! 7:45 a.m.: Husband is up early today, reciting lines. His big day is coming soon. 8:10 a.m.: Got a call. Have to go to work, anyway! 8:45 a.m.: Handed off my 1-year-old son to the grandparents, favorite toy monkey in tow. He continues spanking it — it's getting to be a cruel little habit. 8 p.m.: Fixed my husband some more of his favorite creamed corn and sausage. Tenderized some meat patties for burgers too. Look at me, who knew I would turn into such an exemplary wife? 10 p.m.: Finally have some real one-on-one time with my husband. No cattus interruptus this time — kittycat locked out of the bedroom tonight. We finally get to enjoy a wonderful and romantic time together.
TOTALS: Three acts of masturbation; one act of making out; two acts of intercourse; numerous acts of nonsexual culinary foreplay.
While The Proposal isn't quite being positioned as Sandra Bullock's big comeback film in the way Duplicity was for Julia Roberts, there's no doubt that it represents a pivotal point in her career. After all, she pretty much retreated from the film scene after marrying Jesse James back in 2005, and The Proposal marks the first rom-com she's appeared in since Two Weeks Notice back in 2002. We caught a trailer for the film over the weekend, one that stars Bullock as a hard-charging book editor who faces possible deportation unless she can score a green card by marrying her personal assistant (Ryan Reynolds). And while it looked like a pleasantly enjoyable romp, we will admit to being slightly taken aback by a scene from the trailer in which America's (Former) Sweetheart™ can be seen sporting what looks to be a hideous back tattoo.
It's not that we're against tattoos, necessarily. We don't have any, but it's not like we begrudge anyone who does. It's just that after we noticed this particular tat up on the big screen during a pratfall scene in which Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds bump into each other while neither one of them is wearing any clothes, it literally made us gasp out loud. After all, this is Sandra Bullock we're talking about! It's not quite as jarring as if we were to learn that Abigail Breslin got a tramp stamp in real life (don't do it, Little Miss Sunshine!), but we're interested to see how the filmmakers work the story of this tattoo in the movie. Because you just know that it's going to be a plot device of some sort, one that we're guessing will come to represent the period of her character's life in which she had actual zeal for life before becoming an intense and lifeless corporate zombie (or something).
What say you, VultureWatchers? Did it slightly freak you out, too? Or are we just being square? Here's the full trailer for the film, just in case you need to see the tat of which we are speaking in context:
Reuters - The Grateful Dead have a long and illustrious history at New York's Madison Square Garden, and its surviving members more than lived up to it Saturday night.
Last week, before she put on her Junya Watanabe cardigan to talk to children at the White House on take your kid to work day, MObama wore a fall 2007 Rodarte dress for her meeting with Queen Rania of Jordan. Michelle previously wore the taupe, pleated Rodarte to a dinner during the Democratic National Convention last summer. Rodarte and Junya in the same day — no wonder she shops her closet. See the full look in the Michelle Obama Look Book. [WWD]
That is some scoop, Us Weekly. Not only important, urgent breaking news, but also definitely not just something that any one of millions of Twitter users could have just read on their own.
As soon as you get any updates on Victoria Beckham's Gmail status message, DO NOT KEEP THAT SHIZ TO YOURSELF. Source: Best Week Ever | 27 Apr 2009 | 7:30 pm
General Electric has invented a disc that can hold 500 gigabytes of data — or 100 DVDs. "G.E.'s work promises to be a huge advantage in commercializing holographic storage technology," some smart guy tells the Times. We say: We cannot wait to see these for sale in Chinatown. On that note: Who's taking our preorder for AFI's top 100 comedies?
Mia
Two female clients cross Paul’s boundaries in last night’s high-tension episodes. Mia had two one-night stands last week. But it’s all about Paul: She wanted to shock him, and he plays along, insisting such promiscuity is dangerous. Or maybe this is about her ex: He’s leaving his wife for a young receptionist. Or about her father: She’s taking care of him and will never find a man like daddy. Wait, it’s Paul after all: Mia doesn’t have anyone to come home to, just these weekly sessions with Paul. She likes special bonds, whether secrets with married men, or barging into Paul’s apartment with breakfast.
April
April’s story is getting more grueling — and more compelling. She looks absolutely broken: Her autistic brother, Daniel, tried to kill himself. Again. That news canceled this perpetual caretaker's long-avoided chemo appointment ... but Paul suggests maybe she’s not fighting cancer because survival will mean a lifetime taking care of Daniel. She tries to cut the session short to, as always, help her brother — and faints. Paul makes her call her mother to get her to take care of her son; mom hangs up on her. Distraught, Paul realizes no one else is going to take care of April, so he takes her to chemo.
Unexpected fashion muse Beth Ditto on her size: "Girls in general have really nice things to say — especially big girls. It’s mostly men who aren’t as open. I think men fear me sometimes. I played in Greece last summer and, I swear, when I went into the crowd, people actually ran away from me. But things like that make me really happy. You make a decision: if you are going to participate in the music industry and put yourself out there, you have to know that it’s all full of shit ... It’s funny how something so normal and mundane that you see every day — your body — can be controversial. The shock value is intense. It’s like carrying an art piece around with you all the time." [BlackBook]
Maria Cornejo went to Washington, D.C., last week along with Michelle Obama's other favorite designers, Thakoon Panichgul, Narciso Rodriguez, and Jason Wu, to lobby for a bill that would copyright protect clothing designs. Maria, who is a goddess, wrote a blog post about her trip, to enlighten fashion people as to how lobbying works. She says the designers, along with the CFDA's Stephen Kolb, went from office to office talking to representatives on Capitol Hill. So it was kind of like Fashion Week, except instead of seeing fashion shows one after the other, they saw politicians. After their appointments, they were even treated to a cocktail party. Maria sums up her case for an anti-piracy bill:
When people start copying your designs, you are handing them the keys to your brain. It's bad for business, and for the industry as a whole. The only place where copying isn't illegal is in China and the United States. If someone copies my garment in France, I can sue them, but it's not discouraged here. If you are making a blatant copy, why not just give us the job? Give us the budget and we'll design something for you. I'm all for affordable fashion. My daughter shops at Target — she bought a Thakoon skirt there and I'm into H&M. Both stores do great collaborations.
Since we can't afford designer clothes, we've feared the effect an anti-piracy bill would have on the fast-fashion chains we frequent. But it would be amazing if the legislation encouraged fast-fashion chains to hire designers they rip off to work for them. We hope many more designers are as open to it as Maria, who sounds like she's itching for a diffusion line of her own.
Lobbying aside, Michelle Obama was nowhere to be seen on the Hill, though Maria heard she was wandering around wearing one of her jackets. Maria was impressed to see ostrich boots on some of the ladies. She also notes, "The women wear brightly colored suits so they'll get noticed in the Senate." It sure worked for Hillary.
"I did LSD once, only once ... It was a very bad trip — I freaked out and called my parents and tried to explain to my dad what I was feeling, but all he said was, 'I understand what you're going through. When I was a teenager I smoked a Pall Mall cigarette and I got sick for two days.' I'm like, 'Dad, no, this is worse. You don't understand.' But they had never had any experience of the drug culture, because they were working so hard all through the 1960s." —Ben Stiller on not being a hard-core druggie [Female First]
"I started to realize 'Dickensian' was a shorthand for 'I don't really actually care about the underlying economic dynamic that is creating this nightmare. I don't want to examine that. I just want some sweet stories about some kids who are poor and are being hurt. I could win a prize in that. Be Dickensian. And I thought it was sort of an affront to Dickens almost. I mean, if Dickens heard it, I think he would have gotten mad." —David Simon channeling Charles Dickens's reactions to the state of today's journalism [PBS]
"I've got no musical abilities whatsoever. I sing if I'm listening to music. I sing along with it — I can hit the note if I've just heard it. My husband is very musical. He just hates to hear me sing — he shuts me up!" —Helen Mirren on her terrible singing voice [Contact Music]
“The craziest thing was journalists were asking me about it when they hadn’t even listened to it. If you had heard it, it was obviously a hoax! More than anything, it’s amazing that someone can do something so obviously funny, and have the whole world take it the wrong way.” —Beyoncé is still telling journalists how baffled she is by journalists' interest in that whole singing-hoax incident [NYDN via Contact Music]
"It's kind of a sexy gastronomic song. I always loved the term 'Amuse Bouche.' It was always envisioned as like a lost Prince song. I can imagine Prince doing a song called 'Amuse Bouche' that was all about eating and sex." —Casey Spooner on all that was going on in his head when he titled a song "Amuse Bouche" [Suicide Girls]
"Well I'm not quite sure what you're supposed to call it. I've been resisting calling it a collection of short stories because sometimes novelists do publish collections of short stories, and they're basically a rag bag of stories they've had sitting around for the last 30 years. Whereas this book I actually sat down and wrote from start to finish." —Kazuo Ishiguro on his new book, something like a collection of short stories [Guardian UK]
Bea Arthur, the actress best known for her roles as television's "Maude" and the sardonic Dorothy on "The Golden Girls," has died of cancer, a family spokesman said Saturday.
Ghanaian-born, east London-based "grime" artist Tinchy Stryder scored his first U.K. No. 1 single yesterday, debuting at the top with the aptly-titled "Number 1" (4th & Broadway/Universal Island), featuring London hip-hop act N-Dubz. Lady Gaga's "The Fame" (Interscope/Universal) tops the album chart for a fourth week.
After viewing this Heineken ad featuring the Biz Markie song "Just A Friend" about 75 times during the NFL Draft this weekend, I started getting pissed off. Not because the commercial itself is bad, or that I have anything against the anti-drunk driving message, but I just wonder why showing a bunch of obviously hammered young people shouting along to a song in the back of a cab is perfectly ok to air on national television in the afternoon, whereas the ONLY MENTION of marijuana in any commercial context is to inform you that it will kill you (or make you melt into a couch, or turn your dog against you, etc.)
It's awesome that a company can be mature enough to basically say "look, we all get hammered, it's fine, just don't drive home," but we can't apply one percent of the rationality behind this commercial towards marijuana usage?
Could you imagine if McDonald's aired a commercial where four obviously high dudes were sitting on a couch, red-eyed and laughing, then finally gathered the courage to walk up the street to McDonald's to order eight 20-piece McNuggets while laughing at the Madagascar 2 Happy Meal standee? Not only would the commercial never be allowed to air, but if any element of a mainstream commercial implied being high in the slightest positive or even tongue-in-cheek light, the ad would inspire protests, get pulled from the air immediately, and the company would have to issue a public apology and donate money to an anti-drug organization in the name of a little girl who got hit by a stray bullet during a busted crack deal in Little Rock in 1998.
I honestly don't even smoke pot, I just get pissed off that in 2009, we still haven't been able to overcome this childish double standard -- Look! They're drinking alcohol but managing to have fun and act responsibly! POT WILL MAKE YOUR BABY SISTER JUMP INTO A SWIMMING POOL AND F***ING DIE IMMEDIATELY!!! Source: Best Week Ever | 27 Apr 2009 | 6:15 pm
Fashion Wire Daily - They love a double act in Australia, where the sister and brother combo of Camilla & Marc kicked off Sydney Fashion Week Monday, April 27, with a stylish romp that was a clever mix of commercial and cool.
This weekend, tragedy befell a nation, as news broke on Saturday that legendary actress and comedian of stage and screen Bea Arthur had passed away at 86. When, years from now, my children will ask "Mom, where were you when Bea passed?", I'll tell them of the beautiful spring day, the white wine in Central Park, the picnicking and laughing and, then, the phone call. And the text messages. Indeed, it seemed every gay friend of mine had sent out a phone blast alerting the world that Bea was gone. And, with her goes a comedy legend, beloved by all, a worldly talent who had remained in the spotlight for over 50 years.
So to celebrate one of my many comedic inspirations in life, BeaWE.tv (for today) has compiled our Top 10 Favorite Bea Arthur Moments. (And yes, this list is slightly different from our last Bea Arthur Top 10 list, posted here last year to celebrate her birthday.) If you can guess #1, you probably spend way too much time on the blog. Today, my Golden Girls necklace is a little lonelier.
10. Rock Hudson and Bea sing "Sniff Swig Puff!". Easily the catchiest and most upbeat song about drug addicts ever sung. Two old alkies just ramblin' on about weed and pills and poppers and cocaine. The lyrics are simply genius, and also probably written by someone addicted to "horse."
9. The Sex and the City Parody. Would it be wrong to say that Bea makes a prettier Carrie Bradshaw than Sarah Jessica Parker? Consdering we're still in mourning, no, it isn't wrong. Also, Mona from Who's The Boss, Sally Struthers and Mrs. Garrett? Tell me this clip won an Emmy, because seriously, this is to pop culture lovers what unicorn shlongs are to gay wizards.
8. Bea Sings The Man in the Moon. Did somebody say gay wizards? This clip of Bea sporting the original costume from the animated motion picture Fantasia sure did!
7. Sophia and Dorothy sing "I Got You Babe". Classic Golden Girls moment, featuring two lost angels. Let's hope there are cheesy costume shops in Heaven.
6. The Star Wars Holiday Special. Not only a comically dated puppet video, but also a reminder to donate some money to your local video restoring non-profit, because it took me about a minute to realize this wasn't some sort of underground child pornography.
5. Bea Arthur and a Seal. The woman could even upstage a F**KING SEAL. SHE IS NO JOKE AMERICA/WORLD.
4. Johnny Carson Interviews a Legend. This clip might be a little long for some of you, but watching Bea and Johnny Carson interact shed new light on Bea as a lady. Also, if anyone in her family cares to donate that luscious floor length sleeveless caftan she's sporting to a good cause (me), I promise to take good care of it (wear it morning, noon, and night.)
3. Magical Canadian TV Commercial. The special effects used in this ad -- 20 years old, mind you -- are BREATHTAKING!! Bea flies through the sky like Superwoman in the name of Canadian bargains. This is special, and chances are you've never seen it.
2. Bea Arthur Kills at the Pam Anderson Roast. Possibly one of the funniest things ever recorded by modern man, as Bea reads passages from Pam's book to the luckiest audience in the universe, who can now say they heard Bea Arthur utter the word "erection". (If you're in a rush, fast forward to 4:44... language NSFW)
1. "It's Made of Horse Urine."Our favorite thing Bea Arthur has ever done ever ever ever. It's an ad for Premarin, and if you don't know what it's made of... just click play.
Reuters - Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" has been subjected to many indignities, from high school pageants to tired Hollywood remakes. But "Ghosts of Girlfriends Past" makes you wish you do believe in ghosts so the old man can come back and sue somebody over the lamest and easily the worst revisionist take on his classic story.
I saw the poster for Ghosts of Girlfriends Past in a subway this weekend and still haven't been able to shake the image of Matthew McConaughey's face:
This side-by-side with Spencer Pratt should technically obligate McConaughey to retroactively forfeit his '05 Sexiest Man Alive title (or at least cause the firing of whoever airbrushed his face on the Ghosts poster):
In the midst of the credit crisis and the federal government's massive bailout plan, the works of Ayn Rand, a proponent of a libertarian, free-market philosophy she called Objectivism, are getting new attention.
Front Page: Lonner not part of new agency -- The vote that will likely turn WMA and Endeavor into WME won't be held until midday, but the fallout is already starting.
"Where are his glyasses? Thomas J can't see without his gleeesses!"
Above, My Girl star Anna Chlumsy works the red carpet at the Tribeca Film Festival. And it looks like Vada Sultenfuss has come a long way from her "Ode to Ice Cream" days (the poem that will one day be read aloud at my wedding.)
Ahead, another pic of Anna looking more like her younger self:
Aw, she's still adorable. PS hilarious fact via IMDB: Her great-grandfather owned a trained bear that appeared in Three Stooges movies. Source: Best Week Ever | 27 Apr 2009 | 4:17 pm
Front Page: Pact to cover up to five movies a year -- Ryan Kavanaugh's Relativity Media has reached a multiyear output deal with Lionsgate covering up to five movies a year.
Front Page: 'Housewives' a ratings winner -- ABC won the first Sunday of the May primetime sweeps in adults 18-49, according to preliminary nationals from Nielsen, with “Desperate Housewives” the clear standout performer.
Passion Pit's Ayad Al Adhamy knows that the speed with which his Boston-based electro-pop group has ascended from MySpace anonymity to buzz-bin ubiquity tends to make for prime backlash fodder. But the keyboardist insists that he and his bandmates aren't especially worried, thanks to one simple fact: They're not pretty boys.
Front Page: Musical nabs 15 nominations -- Musical "9 to 5" racked up 15 noms for the 54th annual Drama Desk Awards, the most of any Broadway or Off Broadway production ever nominated by the legit org.
'Sports Illustrated' supermodel-turned-entrepreneur-turned-author Kathy Ireland has gone against the grain of the glitterati and spoken out against abortion. Source: FOXNews.com | 27 Apr 2009 | 1:57 pm
Creed has announced all four of the original band members - Scott Stapp, Mark Tremonti, Scott Phillips and Brian Marshall - will reunite for a summer tour and new album.
While attending the first Louisiana Heritage Fair in Congo Square 40 years ago, legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson and influential jazz artist Duke Ellington spontaneously led a brass band and crowd of second-line revelers on a parade through the festival grounds.
Comparing his hospital stay to Marlon Brando's experience in The Godfather and joking about having to take an ambulance to a hospital that's in walking distance from his office, Jay Leno...
Danko: "There are no rules, even gravity."
H.R.G: "It's all about spinning plates, living in the gray area. Twenty years of middle management, it becomes second...
Breathe easy, Sex and the City fans. Mr. Big is back.
At the Wonderful World premiere Monday during the Tribeca Film Festival, Sarah Jessica Parker confirmed to E! News that the...
One hundred days, schmunhundred days.
Fox is opting out of airing a President Obama prime-time press conference timed to mark the leader's 100th day in office Wednesday, in favor of...
Snoop Dogg's latest rap: denial.
Taking the stand in his ongoing civil trial, the hip-hop star testified Monday that he did not hit plaintiff Richard Monroe Jr. with a brass knuckle...
Oh, snap! Real Housewives of New York City's Jill Zarin thinks fellow castmate Kelly Killoren Bensimon should turn on her Louboutins and take a hike!
"I don't...
If the name Anna Chlumsky sounds familiar, it's probably because you were among the millions who fell in love with her big green eyes.
18 years ago.
The actress...
In a recent Marie Claire Australia interview, Keira Knightley spoke out about her 
A couple of weeks ago, I slapped together a highly unprofessional letter to Sir Donald Trump, 
But because Melissa wasn't in their clique, she was left out in the cold, forced to fend for herself in the hopes of not being eliminated at the end of the night. Brandy gave Annie all the responsibility; Annie screwed everything up; Melissa was along for the ride.
It was pretty clear to most everyone (in my family at least) that Brandy deserved the gold plated boot for being, simply put, mildly retarded. The only problem being... Donald Trump has almost definitely put his penis inside of her at some point in time. So, rather than it coming down to who made the biggest mistakes during the challenge, it ended up coming down to who could raise the most money during the finale.
Which leads me to ask: Why isn't this garbage show called "The Celebrity Fundraiser"?
This weekend, tragedy befell a nation, as news broke on Saturday that legendary actress and comedian of stage and screen Bea Arthur had passed away at 86. When, years from now, my children will ask "Mom, where were you when Bea passed?", I'll tell them of the beautiful spring day, the white wine in Central Park, the picnicking and laughing and, then, the phone call. And the text messages. Indeed, it seemed every gay friend of mine had sent out a phone blast alerting the world that Bea was gone. And, with her goes a comedy legend, beloved by all, a worldly talent who had remained in the spotlight for over 50 years.
So to celebrate one of my many comedic inspirations in life, BeaWE.tv (for today) has compiled our Top 10 Favorite Bea Arthur Moments. (And yes, this list is slightly different from our last
