AFP - The shantytown home of a child star in the Oscar-winning film "Slumdog Millionaire" was torn down on Thursday as Mumbai authorities cleared an illegal slum, eyewitnesses said.
AP - Rivalries are inevitable in a family as big and talented as Francis Ford Coppola's, with so many siblings and cousins and uncles working in film and music.
"Wolverine." "Star Trek." "Angels & Demons." "Terminator: Salvation." The summer movies roll out, one weekend after another, like dreadnoughts leaving port to bombard a battle-scarred ocean.
City workers bulldozed the home of a "Slumdog Millionaire" child star Thursday as part of the demolition of dozens of shanties in a Mumbai slum. Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail was asleep... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 14 May 2009 | 11:04 am
AP - "Farrah's Story," an unvarnished look at Farrah Fawcett's struggle to overcome cancer with her dignity intact, was shown to a somber audience that included longtime companion Ryan O'Neal.
In an unchanged top three on European Top 100 Albums, "Sounds of the Universe" (Mute/EMI) starts a third week on top for Depeche Mode, ahead of Bob Dylan's "Together Through Life" (Columbia/Sony Music Entertainment). Lady Gaga's "Poker Face" (Interscope/Universal) racks up a 12th week atop European Hot 100 Singles.
This one hurt a little bit, didn't it? Lost's fifth-season finale, "The Incident," was one of the show's more morose and hopeless outings in some time. Many terrible things...
AP - Danny Gokey is dancing off "American Idol," leaving showy Adam Lambert and twangy Kris Allen to duke it out in the finale of the popular Fox singing competition next week.
Front Page: Actress to star in indie fantasy comedy -- Lindsay Lohan will topline indie fantasy comedy "The Other Side" alongside Woody Harrelson, Giovanni Ribisi, Dave Matthews and Alanis Morissette.
Front Page: Forest Whitaker, 50 Cent to star in redo -- Abel Ferrara is taking another walk on the wild side with a re-imagining of Robert Louis Stevenson's "The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde," which will be contemporized and titled "Jekyll and Hyde."
Front Page: Broadway landlord nabs surprise nod to top org -- The appointment of Broadway producer and theater owner Rocco Landesman as the next chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts will cause a shakeup not only in Washington but in Gotham as well.
French actress and president of the jury Isabelle Huppert arrives on stage for the opening ceremony of the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. Cannes lifted off Wednesday with 3D cartoon comedy "Up" as Brad Pitt... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 May 2009 | 1:39 am
Handout picture released by Chopard shows the Palme d'Or for the 62nd edition of the Cannes Film Festival. Cannes lifted off Wednesday with 3D cartoon comedy "Up" as Brad Pitt and Quentin Tarantino and... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 May 2009 | 1:39 am
Members of the jury Taiwanese actress Shu Qi and US actress Robin Wright Penn (R) arrive for the opening ceremony and the screening of 3D animated movie "Up" during the 62nd Cannes Film Festival. Cannes... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 May 2009 | 1:39 am
Donald Trump's decision to let Miss California USA Carrie Prejean keep her title convinced Shanna Moakler to quit as head of the pageant's California organization.
Attorneys for Rob Lowe and one of the former nannies he's been battling have filed court papers requesting that their respective lawsuits be...
Reuters - A federal court has barred top U.S. satellite television provider DirecTV Group from releasing ads that could give customers the impression that bankrupt Charter Communications Inc is liquidating or might stop offering cable TV service. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 14 May 2009 | 12:50 am
Three years ago, the film based on Dan Brown's novel "The Da Vinci Code" was the focus of protest and controversy. But actors associated with the new "Angels & Demons" say any complaints about the new film are overblown.
If there's anyone who's going to make a laughing matter out of motherhood, it's Wanda Sykes.
The outspoken comedian and New Adventures of Old Christine star recently welcomed...
Today around 5:45, on the Twitter feed belonging to The Moment (which is the blog for the Times' style magazine T), the following appeared: "everyone visit [redacted porn url] for 100% FREE webcam girls/guys doing anything you ask them in chat, I love it personally." Fun! Unfortunately, the tweet was soon deleted from their feed, and they posted the following: "Yes, we were hacked! What a lousy way to thank our half million followers. Sorry everybody!" Actually, no, we're sorry: It would've been pretty great if the Gray Lady were genuinely encouraging a late-afternoon delight.
60 Minutes is definitely airing the Anna Wintour piece they've been working on for the past six months this Sunday. And the news program just released the first footage of the editor in all of her glory, days away from the debut of the 12-minute segment. The 45-second snippet shows Wintour with her staff, and it's just a preview of what's to come. Given that we've spied correspondent Morley Safer and his production team following around Anna at the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund Awards in November, Fashion Week in New York, Milan, and Paris in February and March, and last week's Met gala, we can't wait to see the rest of the footage that made it in the piece. But, alas, we'll have to wait until this Sunday at 7 p.m.
Oscar-winning director Martin Scorsese, pictured in 2004, is to bring the life and times of Frank Sinatra to the big screen in the first ever feature film about the legendary entertainer, it was confirmed... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 13 May 2009 | 11:36 pm
The Circus is going international—and so are Britney Spears' sons!
Kevin Federline's longtime attorney tells E! News that K-Fed and his ex-wife will be extending their...
For our money, Ghostface’s 2006 single “Back Like That” is the perfect example of pandering to pop radio without sacrificing an ounce of your character: In between a pretty gully Ne-Yo chorus, Ghost turns a betrayed-hearts-lament into a violent, barely contained revenge fantasy, full of snapped-off fingers, broken jaws, and promises of bodily harm delivered by unspecified “girl cousins.” Which is why, as surprised as we were by “She’s a Killer,” featuring hook-supplier-of-the-moment Ron Browz — seriously, is there an imminent GFK album we don’t know about?! — we weren’t opposed to it on principle. This time, Ghost is describing how bad-ass some chick is in typical odd fashion: “She’ll murder you while eating your breakfast / You’ll die wanting to try just how good her sex is.” Unfortunately, it’d take a boatload of lines like that to make us forget Browz’s earache of a chorus. Then again, seeing as “Killer” pretty much sounds just like Browz’s hit “Pop Champagne,” which slowly but surely wormed its atonal way into our good graces, we’ll probably wake up three weeks from now, in a cold sweat, humming this thing to ourselves.
Don't let his antics fool you, Robin Williams is alive, well and ready to get his show back on the road.
"I have one new valve and a repaired valve," the 57-year-old funnyman...
State insurance superintendent Eric Dinallo, a Democrat, has his hands full trying to keep the state's financial system together. But lately he's had his eye on another goal, says a source close to him. He's strongly considering a run for state attorney general. Dinallo, a highly effective henchman to Eliot Spitzer while he was AG, was appointed to his current role by the former governor and kept on by Paterson. It was reported that he was near the front of the line to head the SEC if Obama won the election, but that didn't pan out. We left a message with Dinallo regarding his plans, and will let you know if and when he comments. In the meantime, we can all go back to the official story, which is that next year Andrew Cuomo is running for attorney general again, not for governor, and therefore Democrats need not apply.
There's an important correction now appended to Linda Hirshman's essay about Jezebel on Slate's Double X blog: "Correction, May 13, 2009: This article incorrectly stated that Emily Gould wrote about her relationships and sex life online every day for a year." It was 355 days. GOD.
Sad face. Oscar nominee Amy Ryan returns to The Office tomorrow night, but unfortunately, it seems that her return is the beginning of the end for Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and our beloved...
You're toiling away in the publishing world when, as happens these days, the magazine you're working for folds. Now what? Former Men's Vogue editor-at-large Ned Martel decided to go on a road trip. But this wasn't a mere cross-country excursion; Martel was on a treasure hunt. He, along with his business partner Jay Carroll, drove around the desert southwest searching for vintage apparel, books, antiques, and anything that caught their fancy, including scorpion lollipops. The fruits of their ten-week trek are up for purchase at One Trip Pass, a pop-up shop at Billy Reid. The shop, which opens tomorrow and runs until May 26, is set up to evoke thrift stores, but also gives you a glimpse into the dusty roads off I-10. And lest you think the wares are the same as what you'll find in your neighborhood Goodwill, the goods here were highly curated. "We kept saying things need to speak to us on three levels: that it fit our High Desert theme; that it had been around since the seventies or early eighties; and that it showed a little wear and tear — any signs that its owner or owners really loved it," Martell says. Where else will you find such a mix of comic books, oversize belt buckles, worn-in cowboy boots, tees, and vintage movie posters? Prices vary between $20 and $300, with the majority of items well below $100. Here's a sneak preview.
Billy Reid, 54 Bond St., nr. Bowery; 212-598-9355.
If you've witnessed either of the big two televised "don't call it a comeback" performances by No Doubt (on American Idol and the Today Show), we wouldn't fault you for being slightly underwhelmed. After all, the band's been on hiatus for nearly five years now and, well, they don't have any new material to perform. Still, that's not stopping them from going out on the road this summer, where they're planning on performing 60+ shows to mostly sold-out crowds. While we have nothing against nostalgia (in fact, we're nostalgic for conversations we had yesterday), it's been pretty evident from watching Gwen Stefani's body language in these performances that her head and heart aren't quite in it yet.
That's not to place blame on Stefani, necessarily, for these ho-hum outings; all four band members seemed equally disinterested to us. It's more about the fact that in the five years since the band's wildly successful Rock Steady tour, Gwen seems to have moved on with her life. She's released two incredibly successful solo records, started a fashion line, cameoed in The Aviator, and had two children. Which raises the question: Why go back? It's not like anyone is demanding that she write any more songs about her relationship with bassist Tony Kamal.
In a Los Angeles Times article, the band admits that they spent the last few months involved in what the writer describes as "fruitless writing sessions." This certainly seems to indicate that inspirado is lacking all around for the band. But while the band is promising that this tour will help them get their creative juices flowing once again (and we hope they do, we really do!), we can't help but think that the driving force behind Gwen going back on the road with the band — in a separate bus, no less — is guilt.
What say you, Vulture Watchers? Are you excited that No Doubt is "back"? Would you rather just see Gwen continue to do her own thing? Or is she being a real trouper by going on tour in an effort to help pad her band members' bank accounts? You know where to leave your thoughts!
We were skeptical of Alexa Chung's appeal when it was announced she'd move from London to New York to host MTV's Total Request Live replacement show. But just why Brits are so mad for the style icon became clearer after reading today's profile of the former model in WWD. Rarely do we say this about famous people profiled in trade papers, but we feel like we can identify with Chung. First, because she's skeptical. Second, she has a dirty mouth. Third, it really seems like she doesn't try too hard when it comes to her outward appearance. She'll wear what she'd normally wear (she calls it her “I don’t give a s--t” style) while hosting, which will make the show worth watching even if you don't care about her guests. So — minus the TV hosting job — she's just like us! But let her tell you:
She knows hosting a TV show isn't rocket science.
“Presenting isn’t hard. You’re basically reading cards. I mean, how f---ing difficult is that?”
Yet, she can be insecure.
“The hard bit is getting over knowing that lots of people are watching you, and you, your personality, not your looks, not your talent for math or something, [is what] they’re judging ... I’d rather someone go ‘Ah, she’s really funny’ than ‘Ah, she’s really foxy.’”
She did not kowtow to MTV producers in her first meeting with them.
“I told them I’d have opinions about things.”
She foresees an excellent use of the online component that encourages viewers to comment via Facebook and Twitter.
“You can contact the show and tell us directly we are s--t.”
She understands kids these days.
“I think the mistake a lot of TV channels make is that they assume kids are dumb when they’re not. Middle-aged fat men [shouldn’t] tell young people [what] to watch when they have no idea.”
She and Kelly Bensimon might have nothing in common.
“I would never do [reality TV]. It’s 24-7 [of] making things up, making you refilm it. [With my show] it’s one hour of me, in control the whole time.”
Miley Cyrus' people apparently don't discriminate when it comes to how hard they'll fire back against someone who attacks their boss girl, no matter how kooky the...
The other day we got a sad e-mail from a college student — Karen, we'll call her — on the verge of graduating into a merciless job market. Journalism, advertising, finance, real estate, the auto industry, bottle-service schleppery — all of these potential havens of employment had disappeared before her very eyes. "What are the growth areas?" Karen asked us. "What would be a good field for me to get into?" Now, several days after we dispense our usual career advice ("You're asking me? I write crap on the Internet all day. Got a nice rack? Get out there and use it sister."), we see that in his "Thursday Styles" column this week, David Colman has put his finger on the pulse of a growing niche industry.
“I have guys coming in here saying, ‘I don’t want to look like a banker anymore,’ ” said Eric Goldstein, an owner of Jean Shop, a premium denim store in the meatpacking district. He is now dispensing advice on how to look like a “creative professional.”
Of course! During the boom, everyone and their mother was a stylist. So it makes perfect logical sense for the recession to give rise to the noncareer of unstyling. Go forth, young college graduates! If you get started now, you could become the Rachel Zoe of unstyle, get a reality show on Bravo, and make your unmark on the world. Or you could just get out there and use the rack, because after all, the clientele is the same.
• In case you hadn't noticed, people are reacting quite passionately to Donald Trump letting Miss California off the hook. We think Rosanne Barr summarized it best, calling the Donald a...
Figure-skating champion Oksana Baiul sported a wordy jacket which said, "Go, Girl," and "Luck on it"— with exclamation points and hearts added in between — to the opening of the 12 Instances: The Resurrection of the Polaroid exhibit at the Heist Gallery last night.
Do you think it's overkill or a kitschy statement?
British magazine i-D is cutting down from twelve issues a year to six starting in September. They plan to make up for the loss with additional content on their website. Sad. i-D was supposed to keep paper fashion spreads alive forever! And that arbitrary assignment of responsibility comes from a place of pure love. [Fashionologie]
AP - Paulina Porizkova got a pink slip from "America's Next Top Model." That's what the model-actress said Tuesday night on CBS' "The Late Late Show," dropping this bombshell to host Craig Ferguson: "Do you know why I'm in Los Angeles, besides seeing you? ... Because I'm looking for a job. Because I was fired by `America's Next Top Model' on my birthday."
In a decision that would almost certainly be criticized as unfair if this race weren't already locked up anyway, the Tony Awards Administration Committee has ruled that voters for next month's ceremony need only see one of the three actors (Trent Kowalik, Kiril Kulish, and David Álvarez) alternating the title role in Billy Elliot: The Musical to vote for the trio for lead actor in a musical (they probably would've won anyway). [NYT]
The Empire State Pride Agenda has produced a number of ads over the past year to combat myths and criticisms surrounding the debate over same-sex marriage. One recent ad featured religious leaders in Massachusetts testifying that their religious freedom had not been impinged by legalized gay nuptials in that state. Another featured the New York deputy secretary of Education explaining that Governor Paterson's bill would not affect what was taught in schools. But their newest soothing 30-second appeal (set to combat paranoia-inducing spots like the much-parodied NOM "Gathering Storm" ad that's been everywhere) has been pushed in three key upstate markets since this morning. Airing in Buffalo, Albany, and Syracuse, the ads will run on network and cable channels during peak hours. They feature "Barb & Don," a couple with two daughters — one straight and one gay. Both are in long-term relationships, but only one has been able to get legally married here in New York. ESPA says it will continue to run the spot as long as it has funding. What do you think of this ad? Would it convince you?
While stars like Ciara and Ginnifer Goodwin are making their first forays into pantslessness and enjoying the inherent fame boost, Lady Gaga has found a completely different fashion statement to help keep her star on its upward trajectory: absurd hats. She wore an "Orbit" hat on Ellen yesterday. It consisted of circular wires suspended around her head that rotated as she moved. Like high-fashion headgear. Or a solar system without the planets. It's by milliner Nasir Mazhar, who also designed the reindeer hat Agyness Deyn wore in the fall 2008 House of Holland show. Gaga continues to fabulously outdo herself. We just hope she doesn't hurt herself one of these days.
Frequent readers of our blog will know that we're no fans of smoldering, soft-rocking American Idol heartthrob Kris Allen (in fact, we've been waiting to use our idea for the above photo illustration for nearly two months now). Even so, we'll readily admit that his solo acoustic performance of Kanye West's "Heartless" was the clear highlight of last night's episode, one otherwise marred by the standard banshee-like wailings of Adam Lambert and the usual Gokey-throated caterwauling. Too bad Kris will almost certainly be sent home tonight.
So what happened last night?
Danny Gokey
Danny hit the stage first with a version of Terence Trent D’Arby's "Dance Little Sister," ordered by Paula Abdul. In addition to all anticipated raspiness, vocals were borderline pitchy, though the judges were more offended by the bad dancing and worse sax solo. Lucky for Danny, though, Jesus himself, in a touching display of solidarity, beamed down from heaven to back him on his second song, "You Are So Beautiful," which Simon generously hailed as a "vocal master class."
Kris Allen
Randy and Kara attempted to facilitate next week's inevitable Adam-Danny screech-off finale by choosing One Republic's dull single, "Apologize," for doomed Kris. "Competent!" raved Simon, who, like everyone, figured Kris had earned himself a bus ticket back to obscurity. Nevertheless, Kris came back out and performed Kanye's "Heartless" with just his guitar, his voice, and way fewer silly facial expressions than usual. Sad that he had to pick this week, of all weeks, to win us over, since he will definitely go home tonight. "I had written you out, but that’s changed after that performance," said a cruel Simon (who surely must know what's going to happen tonight).
Adam Lambert
Simon informed us that he'd begged Bono personally for Adam's right to shriek all over U2's "One" on last night's show. This season's presumptive winner sang it better than Bono but worse than Mary J. Blige over an arrangement he and Simon had apparently worked out together. (Simon enjoyed it.) Next, Adam sang Aerosmith's "Cryin'," which, truthfully, wasn't bad.
So, barring some minor miracle, Kris will be sent home tonight and forgotten forever, paving the way for the most earache-inducing finale in Idol history. Here's an audio-only clip of "Heartless" to remember him by (until YouTube takes it down sometime in the next few minutes):
Someone has been posing as Agyness Deyn on Twitter. And apparently, whoever it was did a really bad job, according to Aggy's best friend, designer Henry Holland. Holland posted on his own twitter: "THIS IS FAKE PEOPLE!!! AGGY DOES KNOW HOW TO OPERATE A COMPUTER AND MOST CERTAINLY DOES NOT EAT BREAKFAST!" You can tell it was a heartfelt attempt to defend his bestie, but the all-caps, 106-character rant is just shy of calling her a meal-skipping technophile. [Grazia]
Last week, a tipster told us that Governor Paterson grew up being a giant fan of Get Smart (you know, the show with Don Adams that was later reinterpreted in cartoon form as Inspector Gadget, which was later reinterpreted as a movie with Anne Hathaway and Steve Carell?). His affinity for the show has continued through today: We hear that whenever Paterson wants to do something in secrecy (which is practically every day up in Albany), he refers to "the Cone of Silence." We e-mailed a Paterson rep about this last week, but he never got back to us. Guess the Cone applies to electronic communication as well.
Topshop owner Sir Philip Green is intent on having three Topshops in Manhattan. But first he just needs two more spaces of approximately 50,000 square feet. He's personally hunting for them in high-traffic places like Fifth Avenue, 34th Street, Lexington near Bloomingdale's, Times Square, the meatpacking district, and the Upper East and Upper West Sides, according to the Observer. Oh ... joy? The city might not share Sir Philip's longing for two more Topshops. The Observer notes:
[I]f Topshop really wants to take on H&M, might we suggest lowering the prices? More than $100 for a simple blue blazer? Really?
Our feelings about the Soho store are mixed, and that's possibly due to the hype going into it. How could anything live up to that level of anticipation? But also, some days the store has a fantastic selection of merchandise, while on other days they'll have a hodgepodge of things you never should have worn in middle school at prices that are more exorbitant than Abercrombie's. Such is the nature of fast fashion. What say you? Do you want more Topshops uptown? The thought of two more massive openings is already stressing us out.
Just doing our annual check-in on Marilyn Manson to make sure his persona is even more dated than it was a year ago. Everything looks to be in order here:
Manson's ensemble can best be described as:
A) Goth-Casual
B) Homemade Ring Wraith Costume
C) Evil Server At Medieval Times
D) Washed-Up Controversy Generator / Wizard
E) Other (Leave in Comments)
Marilyn and his straight face-keeping lady pic after the jump:
Rian Johnson's follow-up to his neo-noir debut Brick opens on May 29. The Brothers Bloom stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as con artists who set their eyes on a phenomenally kooky and wealthy mark, Rachel Weisz (who makes her break-dancing debut). We spoke to Johnson about the film--and why the phrase "too clever for your own good" just "drives me nuts."
People often say of you, “You’re too cute for your own good. You’re trying to be too clever.”
That’s my least favorite phrase. “Too clever for your own good.” It just, it drives me insane. And not even just when people say it about me. They say it about the Coen brothers or Wes Anderson or Terry Gilliam. It’s so dismissive and completely void of any true criticism. It drives me nuts. It means nothing. What is it actually saying?
Especially in your film, which says explicitly, “There’s no such thing as an unwritten life”—that every story is contrived.
I enjoy films that are more “realistic.” But every film, every story that you tell is a construction in the end. I don’t know if it’s the healthiest thing as a filmmaker or as an audience member to get a certain dogma in your head about what makes something valid or true. For me, it’s the stories that have gods coming down from the heavens, it’s the myths that are more interesting than a very really realistic story where nothing really happens, and it looks like what we’ve been trained to think real life is supposed to look like on the screen. I think stuff that elevates the style to the level of myth, when it does strike, strikes deeper and more profoundly and more true than anything else.
You grew up making movies, right?
My Dad loved movies. We bought a Super 8 camera from the mall, and we made an animated Claymation thing called The Moos Brothers, which was Blues Brothers but with cows. My friends and I were genuinely nerds in high school. I think the word “nerd” is abused these days. It’s become cool to become a nerd. Like, when you hear a hot girl say that she’s a real nerd. Look: Watching Lost does not make you a nerd. If you don’t have damage done to your psyche as a result of being a nerd, it doesn’t count. You don’t have the stigmata.
Brick was a small indie. When you cast The Brothers Bloom, did you look at those charts of the numerical value of different stars? Are they as awful as people say?
I’ve seen horrible, horrible pieces of paper that no actor must ever see that are absolutely dreadful. What’s terrifying is, you’ll look and some of your favorite actors, and the number next to their name is like, “You have got to be kidding me." It’s all about how much money their last couple movies made. That’s what determines your “value.” It’s horrifying. And it's so important.
You got so much criticism for the overt stylization of Brick from some quarters, but you didn’t shy away from it here.
It’s been comforting to see how similar the reaction is to both Bloom and Brick. People fall into it, or they have an allergic reaction to it. I just wanted to make a movie that was filled with the things that I love that bring me joy. I wanted that old Hollywood — that kind of snap-style, idiosyncratic humor. The real keystone was my family. When I hang out with my family, it’s kind of like a Marx Brothers–type thing where there’s a real element of chaos but everyone’s completely comfortable and at ease.
You seem to love playing with genre.
The heart of it is treating genre like a mousetrap. Audiences are like the mouse creeping into the hole, expecting the mousetrap. Can you bring audiences in with those expectations and then deliver something that you genuinely care about at the very end of it all? Can you take those expectations and maybe use that distrust in an interesting way? Can you make a con-man movie with a heart?
Actors love playing con men, obviously.
Yes, that’s pretty straightforward. What’s more interesting is how there’s a connection between the con man and everybody — not just in terms of larceny, but in terms of how storytelling is, how we all parse the world around us, how we construct our identity. Being a good storyteller is part and parcel to being a good human being, leading a good life.
And Brody's character feels that common thing: that he's watching his own life unfurl.
At some point, we all feel that we’re sitting behind a picture window looking out at everybody else leading a real life, while we're faking it. Well, we all are faking. It's just about faking it well. Brick was such a small movie, so when this got bigger, I felt like a real faker, like I was pretending to know what I was doing. It’s kind of strange how the process had a direct connection to the theme of the movie. Because once you start doing it on-set you realize, by faking it, I’m doing it. I wouldn’t want my surgeon to take that approach, or a bus driver, but in certain things it’s okay.
Looper is your next film, and it’s sci-fi?
It’s not like a I, Robot–type thing. It’s a very character-based film, and it’s very violent and very dark. It’s set in the near future, and things are very bad in an industrial town in Kansas. The worst crime you can commit 30 years from now is messing with time travel, so the only people who will mess with it are big criminal groups. It’s a weird mixture; it has elements of the first Terminator and Witness, bizarrely enough.
XX: 'This photo is a stereotype and trivializes what we are trying to say.' Jezebel: 'The one on the left reminds me of what I looked like when I had an eating disorder.'
Slate's Double X blog launched yesterday, and right off the bat, contributing writer Linda Hirschman fired across the bow with a screed against Nick Denton's rival lady-site Jezebel. The piece, titled "The Trouble With Jezebel: How Jezebel Is Hurting Women," opens with a description of an infamous, drunken appearance by two former Jezebel writers* on Lizz Winstead's "Thinking and Drinking" show, and goes on to lambaste said writers, their co-workers, and what Hirschman calls the "Jezebel life," which she sees as characterized by "high-risk" behavior — drinking, sex, oversharing — perpetuated and encouraged by a business model that rewards participants for being irresponsible. In particular, she takes two of the site's writers to task for sharing stories about being date-raped and not reporting it, stories they shared, she indicates, for attention-getting purposes as much as anything else. "It didn’t take the bloggers long to realize that one way to attract a lot of traffic was to offer up outrageous behavior to the clicking public," she notes.
Jezebel writer Megan Carpentier has already fired back with a rebuttal pointing out the strange misogyny in Hirschman's screed. It's a fine read if thinking about the politics of rape in the afternoon doesn't cause your vagina to ache in misery. But we're stuck on what a strange editorial decision it was for Double X to print this essay their first day out. It seems odd that they would want to come out of the gate with a piece that establishes them as shrill, uninformed pundits. Haven't they got enough to contend with, with that name and that logo? Then again, maybe they've discovered from their competitor that one way to attract a lot of traffic is to offer up outrageous behavior to the clicking public.
As far as we've been able to discern, IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond has yet to reply to Aziz Ansari's offer to conduct a televised debate on the merits of regular Imax screens versus those that Ansari dubs as "Bullshit IMAX." Instead, IMAX executives have been busy conducting an "investor's day conference" in which they're touting the growth potential of their business. Hilariously, one part of their future plans involves a patent the company holds for technology "to remove the first four rows of seats in an auditorium to bring a multiplex screen closer to an audience, and so dramatically improve the field of vision." Talk about a value-add! [HR]
Socialite/model Lydia Hearst is baring more skin this week. After news hit that she posed in the buff for Italian GQ, it was announced today that the 24-year-old filmed a sex scene with Jason Behr for her upcoming film The Last International Playboy, which opens June 12. [NY Post]
In a stark turnaround, President Obama is now trying to block the release of dozens of photos showing prisoner abuse in Iraq and Afghanistan, which was sought by the ACLU and ordered by a federal judge. Obama hadn't objected to releasing the photos until recently, but he concluded in the past week that, according to Robert Gibbs, doing so now "would only serve the purpose of inflaming the theaters of war, jeopardizing U.S. forces, and making our job more difficult in places like Iraq and Afghanistan." The ACLU is pissed, the Right is pleasantly surprised, and lots of people are just kind of confused. Why didn't Obama realize the implications of the photos right from the start?
• Andrew Sullivan calls it a "stunning reversal" and points out that "covering up war crimes, refusing to proscute [sic] them, promoting those associated with them, and suppressing evidence of them are themselves violations of Geneva and the UN Convention." [Atlantic]
• Michael Goldfarb says the "salutary effect" of releasing the photos "would have been to soothe the consciences of American liberals who suspect American troops to be war criminals and desperately want the pictures to prove it." President Obama "should be praised for resisting those elements even as his actions also serve his own self-interest." [Blog/Weekly Standard]
• Andy McCarthy calls keeping the photos secret "the patently obvious right thing." [Corner/National Review]
• Jennifer Rubin calls this "an overwhelmingly positive sign that the president is subject to persuasion and reason and that those defending the country by placing their own lives on the line carry more sway than ideological extremists in the Justice Department." But she still wonders why it took so long for him to come to the right conclusion. [Contentions/Commentary]
• Ed Morrissey thinks Obama realized that "the last thing [he] needed was a war with the Pentagon," which was "angered" by the original plan to release the photos. [Hot Air]
• Jason Zengerle wonders, "why did the Pentagon strike a deal with the ACLU for their release in the first place?" [Plank/New Republic]
• Adam Serwer believes that everyone already knows we abused prisoners and that the "public interest in seeing what was done in their name, in my view, trumps the government's right to obscure it's [sic] own wrongdoing." [Tapped/American Prospect]
• Marc Ambinder says he doesn't know why Obama has reversed course. Though the "White House says that President Obama concluded that the photographs' release could bring harm to United States troops," and Robert Gibbs claimed "the photographs will not enhance anyone's understanding of the specific cases," it's unclear "why these arguments suddenly occurred to Obama." [Atlantic]
• David Kurtz thinks the reversal is clearly "a sign of how long and hard they think the slog is ahead in Afghanistan — and how crucial the outcome there will be for the future success of this Administration." It's possible that the administration "must not have cherished the idea of having their new start in Afghanistan undermined by the release of pictures that would further inflame the Muslim world." Still, the decision is "a bad one." [TPM]
A friend recently brought up the subject of Twilight's Robert Pattinson to me. The subject? "Hot or Not". My friend voted hot. I voted "Nottish." The man is obviously gorgeous, with the kind of hair you want to run your groin fingers through, tall, lanky, strong face. But, to the casual fan, he lacks any sort of personality. He's like a national monument. I can appreciate his beauty, but let's face it, I don't want to eff the Washington Monument. (Actually...)
Today is Robert's 23rd Birthday. And in our efforts to keep the Blingee culture alive and well, we though "Why not dedicate this week's Blingee theme to the guy?", who pretty much sparkled throughout all of Twilight. And through researching this post, I have decided that R-Pattz is actually FOIN AS HALE. Changing his official name on this site to Robert "He Makes My Heart Go Pitter" Patterson.
So you know the deal: Use one of the photos after the cut, or find your own, upload them over at Blingee.com, make them beautiful, then post the link to your work here in this post, or send them to tips@bwe.tv. We'll post our favorites by the end of the week!
Also BIG UPS to our Spring 2009 interns, Erin Winterbottom (the Queen of the Blingees), and Dave Rothstadt (whose Newsies mash-up made headlines).
The photos ahead.
In March, we posted an item about the notorious sad panda who lurks around Lower Manhattan, and asked you all why he was so glum. You had many suggestions ("Because he has to wok. He missed the Panda Express"), but we didn't receive word of another sighting of him until today, when commenter Legally_Bored sent in this picture with the following missive:
I was just having lunch in the park by the bull near the bowling green 4/5 station and had a sad panda sighting! I remember seeing it on Daily Intel back in march and thought you might to know that this time it was carrying a Daffy's bag and stool. For a minute it lifted up its panda head for an itch, which made me squeal in terror. Panda!
The bull is apparently where he hangs out. But this stool worries us. Has the Sad Panda upgraded to Suicide-by-Hanging Panda? If so, somebody get down there and start administering some hugs, stat!
After a run of the worst "My Life As a CoverGirl" segments in recent memory — courtesy of Cycle 11 winner McKey's tendency to read lines more woodenly than an inanimate object — we're pretty sure the only people more eager than we are for a new America's Next Top Model champion are the CoverGirl people themselves. Good thing the finale airs tonight: Either Allison, Aminat, or Teyona will take home the prize, assuming they can fumble through a fake ad for makeup and survive a Brazilian runway show without falling and breaking a facial bone. As usual, we gnawed off several fingernails trying to guess who's gonna be on top, but we've finally laid down the odds as to which of these three will come out of tonight with her very own Wikipedia page.
Teyona: 2 to 1.
Teyona's photos generally are excellent, and Tyra gushes about her bone structure. But when she had to look pretty on film during the first CoverGirl challenge, the judges were underwhelmed. Indeed, Teyona’s biggest stumbling block is that despite seeming perfectly nice and professional, she isn’t dynamic. We can’t recall a single thing she’s done other than narrowly beating Aminat in the recent go-see challenge. But hey, that's something, and she's come on strong as a judges' favorite in the latter stages; even last week's semi-incomprehensible disses of her picture seemed manufactured to throw people off her scent. Plus, her look is far enough removed from past champs McKey and Whitney that a victory here won’t feel like a retread — history shows Tyra prefers to avoid repetition when it comes to her winners — but she's not so editorial that she won’t make sense as a CoverGirl. In other words, she’s not lighting anyone’s world on fire, but she’ll do.
Aminat: 3 to 1.
Aminat has the opposite problem: She's very telegenic — she’s the only finalist who looks particularly remarkable while just lounging around or reading Tyra Mail — but the judges don’t seem to think she’s photogenic, considering that last week they basically said her face is hideous when the light hits it. (We imagine it's hard to succeed at modeling in the dark, although we smell a future ANTM challenge in there somewhere.) However, Tyra has imparted a lot of wisdom about how to overcome this terrible deformity by logging practice time in front of the mirror, and Tyra loves it when people take her advice, so if Aminat’s CoverGirl picture turns out well enough that Tyra can take credit for being a good teacher — and Aminat's occasionally marble-mouthed diction doesn’t tank the commercial shoot — she may well find herself in the finals showing off her far superior walk. It would be tight between her and Teyona, but while Aminat's sassier personality is charming, her weaker portfolio should land her in second.
Allison: 25 to 1.
Our proposed odds would be even longer if saucer-eyed Allison didn't take such disturbingly alluring photos — disturbing because she defaults to looking like a confused rabbit in a pet-shop cage, but alluring because against all odds, in front of the camera lens she usually turns that sentence into a compliment. And she gets props for making it this far despite spending every episode peering out from behind a bleached-blonde weave (courtesy of Tyra's cracked-out makeover team) that makes Vince Neil's coif enviable and stylish by comparison. But the girl can't walk. Like, at all. It's a major achievement every time she successfully transports herself up to Tyra at the end of each episode to claim her photograph. Between that and her well-documented lack of confidence, particularly when in the CoverGirl spotlight, it would be a miracle if Allison passes the commercial test convincingly enough for Tyra to risk letting her anywhere near a runway. And yet, we hope Allison sneaks into the final two, because forcing us to stress about whether she'll remember how her feet work would give the runway showdown a deliciously tense edge.
Listen, no one is going to deny that the Internet is a magical place, filled with all sorts of bizarre ephemera designed solely to make people giddy with delight. With that in mind, if you're the sort of person who has always wished that someone would mash up Bambi and Extras, well then, today is your lucky day. Why even bother asking why? Just click away! [YouTube via Buzzfeed]
Welcome to Cannes! Your Vulture editors are stuck in New York, but special correspondent Dennis Lim is on the ground on the French Riviera, and to raise the curtain on the festival's 62nd iteration — which opened today with a screening of Up — he sent us the following dispatch.
No matter the economic climate or the state of international art cinema or the concerns over global pandemics (only one face mask spotted at the Palais des Festivals so far), certain questions always come to the forefront as the Cannes Film Festival gets under way. Here are five of them, along with our best-guess answers.
1. Who’s poised for a comeback?
The standard line on this year’s slate is that it has the safe, clubby feel of a major-auteur class reunion. But while someone like Pedro Almodóvar, in competition yet again with the meta-movie Broken Embraces, may have reached the height of clockwork reliability, there are many more name directors who will be counting on a reversal of fortunes. Lars von Trier’s reputation has been on a downward slide since Dogville. The horror flick Antichrist is his first movie since being hospitalized for depression. Jane Campion hasn’t made a film since 2003’s In the Cut, and there’s quite a bit of anticipation surrounding her Keats biopic, Bright Star. (The last time she went to Cannes, The Piano won the Palme d’Or.) And don’t count out the oldest director here, 86-year-old Alain Resnais, who hasn’t had a film in competition in nearly three decades. The early word from some French critics suggests that his latest, Wild Grass, could well be the movie that embodies the premise of this year’s opener, Up: old geezer tries something new.
2. What’s the big picture?
The festival roundup is the film journalist’s bane, requiring a dogged search among dozens of movies for common themes, real and imagined. Based solely on the terse and somewhat cryptic catalog descriptions, expect much to be made of the abundance of killers, revenge plots, and repressed homosexuality.
3. Where will the next new wave come from?
Cannes is invariably ground zero for tomorrow’s world-cinema hot spot. Two years ago, 4 Months, 3 Weeks and 2 Days won the Palme d’Or, solidifying a Romanian film renaissance that began two years before that with The Death of Mr. Lazarescu. This year could well herald an international breakthrough for Filipino cinema. Brillante Mendoza, who provoked more than a few walkouts last year with Serbis, about a family-run porn theater, is back with the serial-killer film Kinatay, and there are two other movies from the Philippines in the official selection, one directed by and the other co-directed by a 25-year-old prodigy named Raya Martin.
4. Who’s getting booed (first)?
Vocal audience disapproval is not just expected here, it’s a storied tradition. This year’s festival poster (available here) is inspired by Michelangelo Antonioni’s L’avventura (1960), now considered a classic but heckled so viciously at its Cannes press screening that the director and his star, Monica Vitti, fled the theater. More recently, Sofia Coppola’s Marie Antoinette met with what Variety memorably described as “Gallic-accented boos” (bóo?). There’s no shortage this year of work by onetime enfant terribles: von Trier’s Antichrist; Thirst, a vampire movie by Park Chan-wook (Oldboy); and Enter the Void, the latest nihilist provocation from Gaspar Noé (Irreversible).
5. Who will take home the Palme d’Or?
This year’s jury, headed by French screen icon Isabelle Huppert, is the usual incongruous United Nations of red-carpet-ready actresses (Robin Wright Penn, Asia Argento, Shu Qi) and festival-approved auteurs (James Gray, Turkey’s Nuri Bilge Ceylan, Korea’s Lee Chang-dong). In the days to come, the most avid awards forecasters will theorize about screening times (the significance of an early or late slot), share allegedly leaked jury opinions, and endlessly parse preexisting relationships between jurors and the filmmakers in competition.
The prolific Huppert, for instance, won the Best Actress prize here in 2001 for The Piano Teacher, directed by Michael Haneke, a perennial Cannes runner-up who could have an edge this year with his fascists-in-training period piece The White Ribbon. Huppert is also said either to have been fired from or to have pulled out of Quentin Tarantino’s Inglourious Basterds, the most heavily hyped competition title (the role ultimately went to Maggie Cheung). The rumor went unaddressed at this afternoon’s jury press conference. But a French journalist did wonder out loud whether anyone would dare oppose the famously uncompromising Huppert. None of the jurors spoke up, so Huppert, forcing a smile, coolly responded: "I'll go against myself if necessary."
This is a recap for The Top 3 contestants on American Idol Season 8, theme: Judges/Singers Picks. You can see the performances here.
Danny Gokey "Dance Little Sister": Sometimes, things don't need to be said. In the case of Gokey singing a Terrence Trent D'arby song I have never heard called "Dance Little Sister", what doesn't need to be said is that it could easily have been dedicated to Allison Iraheta (AI.RIP.: You were missed tonight.) So what does it sound like? Mmmmm imagine Michael McDonald getting his jugular cut while at his sister's Bas Mitzvah, and you'll start to get the idea. Gokey was schillin' like he's never schilled. I half expected him to open up his jacket to display solid gold watches for sale. Instead, he did one better: He had a SAXAMAPHONE SHOWDOWN with this guy:
He then chicken walked across the stage while Gallaghering Simon Cowell with his spittle. He really "kicked things off" with a size 7 Sketchers sneaker, didn't he? RATING 3/10Kris Allen "Apologize": Well, look at Kris Allen... playing piano! This is all very TI and Justin singing "Dead and Gone" at Lillith Fair for me, and I don't hate it. In the scheme of the Kris Allen oeuvre, I don't completely hate this. It's actually kind of OK. But JUST OK. It might also have something to do with the profile angle masking the trademarked jaw unhinge. Now, as far as Kara -- who chose the song -- telling Kris that at this stage he has to "swing it out of the park", allow us to respond to Kara by saying TAKE YOUR OWN ADVICE, WOMAN. It's the second to last episode and I still have no idea why you are there, who you are, whether or not you are talented and/or have a functioning hypothalamus. If I hear the words "make it your own" one more f**king time, I'm going to make a bullet my own by embedding it in between my eyeholes. Also did Paula say "bung note"? Lollllz. RATING 6/10Adam Lambert "One": Bo-no. It's finally happening: Lambert meets U2 on a bright blue stage that may have just collectively tested America for Glaucoma. The song begins promisingly enough -- Lambert using his sickly sweet voice that I want to pour all over my body awful waffle style. But then some drums came out to play, and Lambert began spinning out of control like a meth addict at a dreidling competition. (What? I have no idea.) Melody, shmelody, this man cut his balls off for this! And so he must sing. The camera spinning around his acid-washed button down in a drunkey haze as Lambert's tongue did that in and out dance we've grown so familiar to. On the bright side, his hair looked clean, and who are we kidding, we love the kid. And, let's face it, he's going to win so what the hell are we even talking about anymore. RATING 7/10Danny Gokey "You Are So Beautiful To Me": When I was little, I used to think this song was written to a tiny stool sample birthed by Joe Cocker, as the guy sounded so constipated that the only thing that could possibly be beautiful to him was a doody "plug". From the first 3 notes out of Gokey's mouth, we knew we wouldn't be able to make it the whole way through. Man, is he milking this dead wife thing or what? He may as well have had a casket lowering into the stage in front of him. Things picked up a bit halfway through -- something about turning a boy into a man? -- and let me tell you, if there's anything that's going to make me vote for the Gokes, it's picturing him losing his virginity*. *Everything about that last sentence is untrue. RATING 1/10 (I just can't anymore.)
If you missed the performance, please check out this version, which is slightly less disturbing:
Kris Allen "Heartless": How in the EFF did this show get the rights to this song? How is Kanye not all-caps blogging about this RIGHT NOW?!?!!!!1! "Heartless" happens to be a great song -- and this acoustic version is nice enough, but when Kris starting singing about how "you ain't gonna find nobody better than me", I couldn't help but think: "But they have. And their names are Adam, Danny and Allison" (went there.) It was a cute performance, certainly, but was a jay-eye-zee-zee-ing all over myself like Randy & Co.? Not reallllly. BETTER THAN KANYE? If Randy's body is found in the next couple of days strangled by a glo-necklace and wearing shutter shades, Ithinkwe'llallknowwhodidit. RATING 6/10Adam Lambert "Cryin'": Oh boy. My middle school anthem. And OhEmGee. This is amazing. This is what I've wanted from Lambert all season. I actually got choked up from how much I loved this. The guy goes from calmly sitting on a stool next to Ryan to BLASTING OFF TO MARS ON A GLITTER-FUELED ROCKETSHIP in less than a f**king minute. If there was only a way to get impregnated by music, I swear. RATING 10/10 (I HAD TO.)
And hear me now: If by some fluke Lambert does not end up in the finale, I will refuse to do a recap.
Better yet? This will be my recap:
"I know the Pope is opposed to the use of condoms. All I can say is, I am a spiritual man and I've been happily married for 21 years. I don't even know what a condom is anymore."—Tom Hanks on not being qualified to shoot a sex scene for Angels & Demons [Parade]
"I'd watch that dude do anything … I'd watch that dude have sex with my wife at this point. He's such a good actor."— Kevin Smith thinking unnatural thoughts about Chris Pine [E! Online]
"We tend to work in the nude. Sometimes that’s just awkward, and sometimes it’s freeing. We meet very early in the morning, sometimes as early as five o’clock in the morning — naked. And we have a very large catered meal. And then that usually kind of gets the ball rolling, and then we’ll probably take a nap [at] around eight in the morning. And then we work again from, like, four o’clock in the afternoon ‘til 5:30 p.m."—Michael Showalter on a day in the life of the comedy troupe the State [Heeb]
"You know, a lot of people have the wrong idea about what actually happened there. What actually happened was, there was a dinner scene and Melinda's character, Bobbie Barrett, had spilled something on her dress. And so what I am actually doing is cleaning off the spot that she had spilled. I don't know, maybe we played it differently. But that's what was happening. Honey, I was just cleaning off the spot."—Jon Hamm finally clarifying that now iconic, Tony Soprano-esque scene in which Don Draper shoves his hand up Bobbie Barrett's dress and threatens to ruin her husband [Kevin Pollack's Chat Show via USA Today]
"He’s a great force of darkness, I guess, but how much acting goes on behind a plastic head? I’m not sure about it. It seems like his costume does more work for him than mine does for me. I should get handicap points, I think."—Michael Emerson comparing his working conditions to Darth Vader's [AV Club]
"When I am dictator, compulsive homosexuality will remove the problem of children. Soon, I will be dictator. Until then, small children should not come to Coraline."—Stephin Merritt on his the future and the current terrifying off-Broadway play that he has scored [Village Voice]
Breaking with literally centuries of BWE.tv tradition, we will now be doing our evening "...OF THE DAY" link roundup in the mid-afternoon, and continue normal posting for the rest of the day. The reason for the change? So that on our daily BWE party invitations, we can say that this party goes from "9:30 til ??????". Enjoy!
WILLED INTO EXISTENCE: Barack Obama exists. Star Trek just came out. It will surprise you greatly to learn that the internet is full of 'Barack Obama Photoshopped into Star Trek' pics. (Urlesque)
NAUGHTO-EROTIC: Craigslist is dropping its controversial "Erotic Services" section. No word on what will happen to "Erotic Apartments," "Erotic Furniture," or "Erotic Sex Meetups." (Consumerist)
JON TOGETHER: 75% of People readers think that Jon and Kate should stay together. Guess the kids learned how to vote in internet polls. (People)
BREAKING NEWS: This local news affiliate really pulls a hard-hitting piece of journalism about how Domino's bread bowls are made and how delicious they are. Tune in tomorrow for their exclusive report on zooming into GE appliance logos. (Videogum)
WINNING STREAK: The Mets' new stadium gets its inaugural first streaker. He's about to get totally naked then chokes at the last minute. (With Leather)
This undated photo shows US rock and roll legend Elvis Presley. Elvis Presley Enterprises announced on Wednesday it was releasing a free iPhone application which will allow fans to view newly released... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 13 May 2009 | 7:44 pm
As if lines like "Elvis white trash / Elvis the Memphis flash / Elvis didn’t smoke hash and woulda been a sissy without Johnny Cash" weren't bad enough, Bono's fourteen-year-old poem "American David" — which was written in honor of Elvis Presley and heard for the first time on the BBC this morning — also contains the N-word, for some reason. [Times UK]
Being a captain on Deadliest Catch is stressful! When you're out battling the ravaging and unpredictable sea for months at a time in your rickety boat things can get a little salty. Worse than shark bite or a little rain over the Flemish Cap, there's the danger that…you might miss seeing the walrus herd! And if you miss the walrus herd, you can't be held responsible for what you'll say to your brother…
I searched "J.J. Abrams" on IMDB today and couldn't help but notice that despite his three hit tv series and multiple critical and commercial blockbuster movies he's produced, that this is the credit IMDB still uses to label him:
Yep - J.J. Abrams wrote the screenplay to Armageddon, and no matter how many awesome and successful projects he's done since then, IMDB will never let him live it down.
It's almost as if IMDB is holding a grudge against him, as if to say "I don't care how many people watch Lost or how much Star Trek made at the box office -- to me, you'll always be that a-hole who gave us space dementia. DON'T THINK WE FORGOT -- we're god damned IMDB."
If IMDB really wanted to insult the dude, they might as well have just gone with this:
Fashion Wire Daily - She may not be a real person, but 50 years later she's still a fashion maverick: Barbie. She was just one of the honorees at the American Apparel and Footwear Association's 31st annual American Image awards, held in New York on Tuesday, May 12.
Fashion Wire Daily - She may not be a real person, but 50 years later she's still a fashion maverick: Barbie. She was just one of the honorees at the American Apparel and Footwear Association's 31st annual American Image awards, held in New York on Tuesday, May 12.
Front Page: Festgoers have fun despite fiscal funk, flu -- Cannes is off to a high-flying start with "Up" despite rumors about attendance and swine flu.
British actress Rachel Weisz, seen here on May 07, 2009, and Australian heartthrob Hugh Jackman are to star in a long-awaited Western directed by actress Madeleine Stowe, it was reported Wednesday. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 13 May 2009 | 5:59 pm
The Lost Season 5 finale "The Fork In The Outlet" airs tonight, giving us that rare opportunity that's only occurred four other times before in our lives: Now's our chance to attempt to predict the ridiculous cryptic twist at the end of this week's episode designed to confuse the hell out of us all summer long, preventing us from grilling or going jetskiing because we'll still be so paralyzed by surprise and bewilderment.
I'll leave my predictions below (spoilers, obviously) -- feel free to do the same in the comments, the more ridiculous, the better (and more likely to be correct):
- Locke's declaration that he's going to "kill" Jacob refers to the fact that there is actually no Jacob and the will of the island is independent of anything Ben and Richard can interpret; they've just been stringing the Others along using the idea of Jacob to control them. 75% chance of Locke/Ben/Richard violence.
- Rose and Bernard will return to chicken-fight Radzinsky and Phil.
- Richard will think he sees Jack & Co. die when the bomb/electromagnetic energy explodes, but they'll really be flung back into a time warp (Hurley will make a Rocky Horror joke directly to camera).
- Caesar is Superjacob, Jacob's boss.
- The episode will end with the Oceanics back on the island in 2004, in the same situation as Season One, but with their existing knowledge and with a newly uncertain outcome.
- The episode will begin with some 70s pop song playing with a title that loosely corresponds to something explained later in the episode (I'm thinking "Shake Your Groove Thing")
- We have to learn what brought suddenly-terrified Hurley back to the island, right? I'm thinking he gets a call from Damon Lindelof demanding that he go along with the other Oceanics so he can make sure to say "Time travel -- cuuhhhrazzyyyy!!!" every couple minutes. (Seriously though, a Hurley-centric finale would be awesome)
- Ben has to have something badass up his sleeve, right? He's been largely neutered for the past half-season, managing to shoot Caesar and failing to shoot Penny and otherwise doing very little overt evil. Maybe he'll just DDT Aaron mid-episode just to get out the pent-up shady.
- Locke and Sun will f**k. And it'll be hardcore and ABC will show it all. Didn't see THAT comin', did ya? Source: Best Week Ever | 13 May 2009 | 5:44 pm
Because Wolverina Streisand is gonna claw that bish's eyes out, for real.
Actually, it's Kate Gosselin's part-time bodyguard, full time Alaskan Huskie, Steve Neild, who is being accused of sleeping with the mother of 8 and reality show biznoiche. And can you blamer her? Husband Jon -- who has clearly hated her from the first date and can you blame him? -- is being accused of sleeping with some 23-year-old sloot.
If you ask us, Steve is an UPGRADE from Jon. We'll gladly swap him out with Gandalf the Grey in our 100 Hottest Silver Foxes list. Source: Best Week Ever | 13 May 2009 | 5:41 pm
This handout photo from the University of Tuebingen(UT) shows side and front views of the Venus of Hohle Fels, a tiny sculpture that was found in a cave in German town of Hohle Fels. It's the figure of... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 13 May 2009 | 5:26 pm
Front Page: Fast food giant to push 'Museum,' 'Ice Age' -- Twentieth Century Fox has landed McDonald’s as a major promotional partner, with the fast-food giant planning to push a number of films on the studio’s slate through 2010.
Attention All BWE Fans-- We are having what is affectionately known as a TWEET UP!
Yep, you read that right. BWE panelists and show producers (they're letting us out to face the public) will be there drinking and Twittering-- or, more likely, be standing around watching American Idol finale which will be shown on the TVs there. So, please join us on May 19th, next Tuesday, in New York City for an event that surely will not soon be remembered!
Where: Professor Thom's, 219 2nd Ave (at 13th Street), East Village, NYC.
When: Tuesday May 19th, 7-10 pm.
How Much: FREE and there will be lots of drink specials and Best Week Ever swag.
RSVP: Not necessary! Just take your Twitter fingers and show up. Must be 21 or older to attend.
Who Is Definitely Attending: Paul F. Tompkins (@pftompkins), Doug Benson (@dougbenson), Chuck Nice (@nicechucknice)...and some fancy surprise guests!
Follow @bwetv on Twitter for more info, and check out the fancy color invitation after the jump.
The Cannes Film Festival possesses a unique continental glamour of its own that has attracted the great and the good of film for decades. The sun-drenched beach setting is a perfect opportunity for stars to exhibit their style, be it on the sand or on the red carpet.
Please use this handy viewer's guide while watching the following clip of Debarge making a very special appearance on Punky Brewster -- easily the best 8 minutes of footage the 1980s ever produced:
0:12: Brandon the Goldy Retriever helps Punky set up a pretty good one liner.
0:29: What the hell is going on here?
0:41: Seriously... my lady parts are shrugging their vag shoulders. What are these things?
0:53: I CANNOT BREATHEETHTHETHEHTEHWKWEKJSLDKFSJLDKFJSDFSA.
1:46: "And we can't have that." -- Julliard grad perhaps?
1:53: OK, I get it! This is an In Living Color parody.
2:24: The best high five in recorded television history.
2:49: "She'll be alright... She's a nuss."
(Guide continues below.)
3:25: I can't follow this anymore because my brains just leaked out of my eyeballs like head gravy and I'm dead now. Is this some sort of old-fashioned auto-tune or did the Punky Brewster set actually have an old Victrola handy to create these sounds?
3:26 - 4:52: Despite my college education, I don't understand what I'm looking at. Except for 4:36, which is inspired.
4:53: Oh f**k me, there is MORE!
5:35: Wait, is Sanjaya Malakar actually like 48 years old?
6:20: THE WHITEST THING EVER CAUGHT ON CAMERA.
7:33: The highlight of the DeBarge Career.
7:59: Get the paddles out, because I'm dead now.
Please, I beg you to leave whatever thoughts you can possibly form in the comments. Source: Best Week Ever | 13 May 2009 | 4:12 pm
Most stars won't tell if they've had work done, but others aren't shy about showing off their "enhancements" Source: FOXNews.com | 13 May 2009 | 4:04 pm
The Apollo Theater will celebrate its 75th anniversary with a benefit tribute concert and an awards ceremony, among other festivities, on Monday, June 8h beginning at 6:30 p.m., to be held at the historic venue.
As Bruce Springsteen calls out surprise after surprise on his current concert tour, the members of the E Street Band are having the time of their lives, according to guitarist Nils Lofgren.
Reuters - Given the inherent three-dimensional quality evident in Pixar's cutting-edge output, the fact that the studio's 10th animated film is the first to be presented in digital 3-D wouldn't seem to be particularly groundbreaking in and of itself. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 13 May 2009 | 11:51 am
Jay-Z will headline a series of intimate performances beginning July 3rd at the Pearl in the Palms Casino in Las Vegas, the former's representative has confirmed to Billboard.com.
This one hurt a little bit, didn't it? Lost's fifth-season finale, "The Incident," was one of the show's more morose and hopeless outings in some time. Many terrible things...
If there's anyone who's going to make a laughing matter out of motherhood, it's Wanda Sykes.
The outspoken comedian and New Adventures of Old Christine star recently welcomed...
The Circus is going international—and so are Britney Spears' sons!
Kevin Federline's longtime attorney tells E! News that K-Fed and his ex-wife will be extending their...
Don't let his antics fool you, Robin Williams is alive, well and ready to get his show back on the road.
"I have one new valve and a repaired valve," the 57-year-old funnyman...
Sad face. Oscar nominee Amy Ryan returns to The Office tomorrow night, but unfortunately, it seems that her return is the beginning of the end for Michael Scott (Steve Carell) and our beloved...
Miley Cyrus' people apparently don't discriminate when it comes to how hard they'll fire back against someone who attacks their boss girl, no matter how kooky the...
• In case you hadn't noticed, people are reacting quite passionately to Donald Trump letting Miss California off the hook. We think Rosanne Barr summarized it best, calling the Donald a...
Adam Lambert "One": Bo-no. It's finally happening: Lambert meets U2 on a bright blue stage that may have just collectively tested America for Glaucoma. The song begins promisingly enough -- Lambert using his sickly sweet voice that I want to pour all over my body awful waffle style. But then some drums came out to play, and Lambert began spinning out of control like a meth addict at a dreidling competition. (What? I have no idea.) Melody, shmelody, this man cut his balls off for this! And so he must sing. The camera spinning around his acid-washed button down in a drunkey haze as Lambert's tongue did that in and out dance we've grown so familiar to. On the bright side, his hair looked clean, and who are we kidding, we love the kid. And, let's face it, he's going to win so what the hell are we even talking about anymore. RATING 7/10
Danny Gokey "You Are So Beautiful To Me": When I was little, I used to think this song was written to a tiny stool sample birthed by Joe Cocker, as the guy sounded so constipated that the only thing that could possibly be beautiful to him was a doody "plug". From the first 3 notes out of Gokey's mouth, we knew we wouldn't be able to make it the whole way through. Man, is he milking this dead wife thing or what? He may as well have had a casket lowering into the stage in front of him. Things picked up a bit halfway through -- something about turning a boy into a man? -- and let me tell you, if there's anything that's going to make me vote for the Gokes, it's picturing him losing his virginity*. *Everything about that last sentence is untrue. RATING 1/10 (I just can't anymore.)
If you missed the performance, please check out this version, which is slightly less disturbing:
song -- and this acoustic version is nice enough, but when Kris starting singing about how "you ain't gonna find nobody better than me", I couldn't help but think: "But they have. And their names are Adam, Danny and Allison" (went there.) It was a cute performance, certainly, but was a jay-eye-zee-zee-ing all over myself like Randy & Co.? Not reallllly. BETTER THAN KANYE? If Randy's body is found in the next couple of days strangled by a glo-necklace and wearing shutter shades, Ithinkwe'llallknowwhodidit. RATING 6/10
Adam Lambert "Cryin'": Oh boy. My middle school anthem. And OhEmGee. This is amazing. This is what I've wanted from Lambert all season. I actually got choked up from how much I loved this. The guy goes from calmly sitting on a stool next to Ryan to BLASTING OFF TO MARS ON A GLITTER-FUELED ROCKETSHIP in less than a f**king minute. If there was only a way to get impregnated by music, I swear. RATING 10/10 (I HAD TO.)
And hear me now: If by some fluke Lambert does not end up in the finale, I will refuse to do a recap.
Better yet? This will be my recap:
The Lost Season 5 finale "The Fork In The Outlet" airs tonight, giving us that rare opportunity that's only occurred four other times before in our lives: Now's our chance to attempt to predict the ridiculous cryptic twist at the end of this week's episode designed to confuse the hell out of us all summer long, preventing us from grilling or going jetskiing because we'll still be so paralyzed by surprise and bewilderment.
I'll leave my predictions below (spoilers, obviously) -- feel free to do the same in the comments, the more ridiculous, the better (and more likely to be correct):
- Locke's declaration that he's going to "kill" Jacob refers to the fact that there is actually no Jacob and the will of the island is independent of anything Ben and Richard can interpret; they've just been stringing the Others along using the idea of Jacob to control them. 75% chance of Locke/Ben/Richard violence.
- Rose and Bernard will return to chicken-fight Radzinsky and Phil.
- Richard will think he sees Jack & Co. die when the bomb/electromagnetic energy explodes, but they'll really be flung back into a time warp (Hurley will make a Rocky Horror joke directly to camera).
- Caesar is Superjacob, Jacob's boss.
Attention All BWE Fans-- We are having what is affectionately known as a TWEET UP!
Yep, you read that right. BWE panelists and show producers (they're letting us out to face the public) will be there drinking and Twittering-- or, more likely, be standing around watching American Idol finale which will be shown on the TVs there. So, please join us on May 19th, next Tuesday, in New York City for an event that surely will not soon be remembered!
Where: Professor Thom's, 219 2nd Ave (at 13th Street), East Village, NYC.
When: Tuesday May 19th, 7-10 pm.
How Much: FREE and there will be lots of drink specials and Best Week Ever swag.
RSVP: Not necessary! Just take your Twitter fingers and show up. Must be 21 or older to attend.
Who Is Definitely Attending: Paul F. Tompkins (@pftompkins), Doug Benson (@dougbenson), Chuck Nice (@nicechucknice)...and some fancy surprise guests!
Follow @bwetv on Twitter for more info, and check out the fancy color invitation after the jump.
Please use this handy viewer's guide while watching the following clip of Debarge making a very special appearance on Punky Brewster -- easily the best 8 minutes of footage the 1980s ever produced:
0:12: Brandon the Goldy Retriever helps Punky set up a pretty good one liner.
0:29: What the hell is going on here?
0:41: Seriously... my lady parts are shrugging their vag shoulders. What are these things?
0:53: I CANNOT BREATHEETHTHETHEHTEHWKWEKJSLDKFSJLDKFJSDFSA.
1:46: "And we can't have that." -- Julliard grad perhaps?
1:53: OK, I get it! This is an In Living Color parody.
2:24: The best high five in recorded television history.
2:49: "She'll be alright... She's a nuss."
(Guide continues below.)
