In a major upset, the Nobel Committee announced this morning that it's awarded this year's peace prize to President Obama for "his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples." [AP, Reuters, NYT]
AP - Emmy and Tony-winning Actor David Hyde Pierce is returning to his upstate New York hometown to play a rebuilt organ in the church he attended while growing up.
AP - Emmy and Tony-winning Actor David Hyde Pierce is returning to his upstate New York hometown to play a rebuilt organ in the church he attended while growing up.
AP - Hollywood is finally getting to know A.R. Rahman, the short, humble and deeply religious man who took two Oscars home to southern India for his work on "Slumdog Millionaire."
Free innovative infertility prevention program comes to Los Angeles LOS ANGELES, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire/ -- Octomom ... Kate Gosselin ... the recent embryo mix-up case in Ohio... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 9 Oct 2009 | 4:00 am
MURRIETA, CA, Oct. 9 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Left Behind Games Inc. (OTC: LFBG), dba Inspired Media Entertainment, announces this is the last day to purchase LFBG stock to be on Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 9 Oct 2009 | 3:42 am
A person dressed as popular Japanese anime character Astro Boy is seen at an art gallery in Melbourne. When a feisty little robot named "Astro Boy" emerged from the Japanese comic world in the 1960s, children... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 9 Oct 2009 | 1:09 am
When a feisty little robot named "Astro Boy" emerged from the Japanese comic world in the 1960s, children across the globe were charmed by his charisma and inspired by his courage. The... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 9 Oct 2009 | 1:09 am
Reuters - Phones ring. Doors slam. Flowers arrive by the bushel. Monkeys, Russian wolfhounds, yogis, babies and movie stars come and go. Hearts are broken, careers are made, and productions are planned. It's just a typical afternoon at the Cavendishes' swank duplex apartment as this temperamental clan of actors balances personal affairs with chaotic stage lives. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 8 Oct 2009 | 11:48 pm
Reuters - Following in the footsteps of Bill Maher, Chris Rock enters the documentary waters with this exploration of a rather less-weighty subject than religion. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 8 Oct 2009 | 10:38 pm
Youths are seen waiting outside the Cinema Studio in Bucharest for the start of Romanian filmmaker Cristian Mungiu's "Tales from the Golden Age." Twenty years after the collapse of Nicolae Ceausescu's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 10:34 pm
It was a red carpet reception befitting a major head of state and Romania's official photographers were out in force as dictator Nicolae Ceausescu welcomed the visiting French president. Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 10:34 pm
Front Page: Radcliffe to head cast of 'Trying' tuner -- Daniel Radcliffe will head the cast of an upcoming New York reading of 1961 tuner "How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying," marking the first musical turn for the "Harry Potter" star.
Front Page: Moore, Neeson starrer to be released in 2010 -- Sony Pictures Worldwide Acquisitions Group has picked up U.S. rights to Atom Egoyan's "Chloe," starring Julianne Moore, Liam Neeson and Amanda Seyfried.
Now this is a major bummer. Despite the fact that NBC has six episodes of the second season of their gritty (and literally shitty!) cop-drama Southland in the can, the Hollywood Reporter is reporting that the show has been canceled. The second season premiere got delayed a few weeks back, and during that time, the suits at NBC determined that "the show's content [is] too dark and gritty for broadcast TV, especially for 9 p.m." Score another one for Jay Leno, folks! [HR]
So, back to talking about Lindsay: “She’s just a little girl and God gave her this gift. She’s just trying to create. She did great in Paris, don’t believe what you read. She’s genius at fashion.” Talking to an Access Hollywood reporter on camera, she continued her pleading: “It’s just evil. When I was 15, I wouldn’t go to school with a zit. Imagine walking through an airport and seeing that on the covers of magazines. Please, talk about me, but not my girls. They’re just gifted, and the press has been so hard on us for the past five years. They’re little girls — please keep their personal lives personal.” This reporter wouldn’t stop, either: What do you think of Michael Lohan exploiting your daughters? What’s up with Lindsay, etc. etc.? And, seeing Dina nearly tear up for a minute, we got it: This was a mother, after all. A woman trying to protect her baby cubs from the “evil” vulturelike press. And then the Access Hollywood cameras turned off, and Dina exhaled, gave said “evil” vulture reporter a big kiss on the cheek, said “Love ya!” and clicked away in her YSL heels.
Last April, New York published a special Arrivals issue, in which notable New Yorkers like Cindy Sherman, David Dinkins, Amy Sedaris, Keith Hernandez, and others reminisced about their first few days in the city. It was fun, which is why we're now expanding it into a book. That's where you come in.
We're looking for nonfiction, first-person stories from brand-new New Yorkers about their lives since arriving in New York City, some of which we will publish in the book. Exciting!
But wait! There are rules. You must have arrived in 2009. The story you write must be true (and it will be fact-checked by our research department). And it should be no more than 800 words.
We want to know the specifics of the life you have made here, why you came, what you hope to make of your New York life professionally/socially/romantically, what the city has felt like, and how it has or has not met your expectations.
If you think this sounds like something you'd want to participate in, send your essay to myfirstny@nymag.com by this Monday, October 12. We'll contact you if we're interested in using the piece.
Hey, ABC. You did good today!
Not only did the Alphabet net pick up some show called The Middle which we're just going to sort of gloss right over, but network reps also just...
The Wall Street Journal's Christian Binkley argues that the ubiquitous lingerie-inspired looks on the Paris runways this season are a somewhat desperate attempt at grabbing shoppers' attention. That's important in These Times. But she highlights a glaring problem with all the panty diaper shorts, super-short miniskirts, see-through clothes, and "pointy Mad Men bras":
These sorts of styles, shown by fashion houses including Christian Dior, Jean Paul Gaultier, Giambattista Valli, and Yves St. Laurent, garner attention. But they risk turning off many professional or mature women, who can only imagine how embarrassing it would be to wear such things.
Rihanna may not be embarrassed in the least to sit on a front row in a see-through dress, or walk around town in thigh-high boots and no pants, but she is a pop star. Though the runway collections were great for her kind this season, what is the sense in marketing clothes only people like her can get away with? Are not these professional or mature women the ones with the earning power?
But, with the exception of some designers, like Phoebe Philo, a majority of this industry might not be thinking about the professional woman. Reuters reports:
Shelly Musselman, co-proprietor of the Forty Five Ten boutique in Dallas, was not surprised by the seductive trend.
"Women want to look that way — and the husbands who pay for the clothes want them to look that way!" she told Reuters after the Alexander McQueen show.
Well, this may come as a shock to Shelly, but we certainly don't want to look like we walked out of the house having forgotten to put our clothes on. When we get dressed, we want to get dressed — with pants and shirts and all sorts of other opaque things — and not look as though we're heading to a secret after-hours side job. And we buy our own clothes.
Besides, isn't now a lousy time to market to husbands with supposedly deep pockets? Far more men than women are losing their jobs in this recession, anyway.
Fashion Wire Daily - John Galliano went west to Hollywood in a retro flash Spring 2010 collection of great individual pieces, where his romanticism and wit were very much to the fore.
Regina Kimbell, director of the 2006 black-hair documentary My Nappy Roots, is suing Chris Rock because she alleges that he copied several elements of the film in his new documentary Good Hair, premiering October 9 in theaters and October 12 on HBO. Both films address the history of black hair care; both visit India to see Indian women's hair harvested for weaves; and, most notably, both feature the glitzy "hair shows" in which manufacturers showcase their products and stylists showcase their sequined Broadway ambitions. (Compare the Good Hair and My Nappy Roots trailers. Personally, we doubt much will come of the suit.) One thing we do know: Rock and Kimbell could have avoided all this drama if one of them had based their doc on an insane Korean hairstylist–performance-artist instead. See his Criss Angel–meets-Spiderman-meets–Nick Arrojo performance after the jump.
To set up this 2006 performance, SwitchScissors offers the following prologue:
In the middle of walking in the woods, SWITCHSCISSORS is caught by spiderman. SWITCHSCISSORS escapes from spider web with the scissors that is given by SCISSORS' GOD from heaven. And then SWITCHSCISSORS rescues people from spider-web box and does hairshow for the thanks for SCISSORS' GOD.
Maggie the Cat is alive!
Elizabeth Taylor, who entered the hospital this week to get a "leaky valve" repaired, is doing great following the procedure, according to the two-time...
After a 47-year career in city government, Nick Scoppetta has announced that he'll step down as New York City's fire commissioner at the end of the year to take up teaching. [NYDN]
Sadly, the answer to the question we just posed is "probably not." However, you have to admit that seeing one of the contestants on Real World/Road Rules Challenge: The Ruins, which is one of MTV's programs that warns about the inherent dangers of reckless alcohol abuse reality-show competitions, suffer the after-effects of (what was presumed to be) an exploded breast implant makes one question if there's any value in the entire reality genre. We don't know who invented the term "boob tube" (and neither does Wikipedia), but whoever they are, they're surely rolling over in their grave right now. [Jezebel]
Of course Tim Geithner is close with certain Wall Street CEOs. He got to know them when he was president of the New York Fed, and during the crisis of the past year, he bonded with them. Well, not with everyone, of course — after that incident with Morgan Stanley's John Mack, Tim only speaks to him on a need-to basis, and if he has something to say to Ken Lewis he just sics Bernanke on him. But truth be told, some special relationships were forged back in September. Being there together every day, saving the world from what Paulson called the financial industry's "9/11" — it was like being in a foxhole, Tim imagines. Albeit a very cushy, comfortable foxhole with delivery from the Palm.
In fact, though he has never told anyone this, a couple of times, back in September, JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon cradled his head while he slept.
And so, of course, even though he's now the secretary of the Treasury, he keeps up with the guys by talking to them on the phone sometimes. Is that wrong? The AP has gotten hold of some of Geithner's phone records, which show that he speaks with the CEOs of Citigroup, JPMorgan, and Goldman Sachs "sometimes several times a day," and they're acting like it is.
There is nothing inherently wrong with senior Treasury Department officials speaking regularly with industry executives, or even with the secretary keeping tabs on the market's biggest players, even though critics say Geithner risks succumbing too much to these bankers' self-interested worldview.
You see that? While they're specifically saying there isn't something wrong, they're saying it with a tone. Definitely a tone. And plus, they singled out this one day in particular, which was perfectly innocent but looks a little embarrassing on paper.
After one hectic week in May in which the U.S. faced the looming bankruptcy of General Motors and the prospect that the government would take over the automaker, Geithner wrapped up his night with a series of phone calls.
First he called Lloyd Blankfein, the chairman and CEO at Goldman. Then he called Jamie Dimon, the boss at JPMorgan. Obama called next, and as soon as they hung up, Geithner was back on the phone with Dimon.
Of course, there is nothing inherently sinister about these facts. They weren't even talking about General Motors or the financial system at all. Lloyd just called to make a hilarious joke about Dijongate, and Obama had called right in the middle of his and Jamie's recap of Real Housewives. Wait. Does that sound better or worse?
For a track that kinda sounds like a practice-space jam session caught on tape (until the sweeping, furious finale, anyway), “The Whale Song” sure has an amazingly lavish video: As if a cow’s head rapidly rotting down to a skull that then explodes wasn’t enough, we see Isaac Brock hurtling through empty space, his bowels unraveling from his gut and splattering on the floor; a syringe-powered, prosthetic-like nightmare-spinner; and twigs on drums. If you don’t claw your burning eyes out immediately after watching it, give it another play and watch for the creep-show details you might have missed.
Jeremy Kost continues his tour of Paris Fashion Week, heading backstage to capture the fun moments that make shows so entertaining. At Valentino, Anna Selezneva does her best catwalk turn in pin-thin stiletto heels adorned with feathers. Practice, after all, makes perfect. Watch the video to glean some pointers for yourself.
Using only this interview and its own cunning, the Playlist has deduced that Danny Boyle's follow-up to Slumdog Millionaire will most likely be his previously reported on Ryan Gosling–starring film about Aron Ralston, the mountain climber who cut off part of his own arm in 2003 after it got stuck under a boulder. We hope Anil Kapoor plays the boulder. [Playlist]
The Times has a "this economy" story today about cutbacks at elite schools, specifically Harvard. Apparently, this whole entire time Harvard upperclassmen were receiving free bacon-and-egg breakfasts in their dorms every day, and now they're mad because this practice has been suspended, along with a lot of other perks, and now they have to rustle up their own meals just like the idiots at Florida State or wherever. Okay, blah blah blah, Harvard students pay a lot of money, so as consumers they have a point, probably, but the quotes are still funny!
"The loss of scrambled eggs, bacon and other cooked breakfast foods in the dorms of upperclassmen on weekdays seems to have stirred the most ire.
“Students generally feel that if you come to Harvard, for what you’re paying, you should probably have the right to a hot breakfast,” said Andrea Flores, a senior who is president of the Undergraduate Council. “They want to preserve the things that are at Harvard that you can’t get anywhere else.”
And HOW GLEE IS THIS?:
"Khoa Tran, president of Harvard Taekwondo, told The Harvard Crimson that his team would have to share practice space with the Crimson Dance Team — and he was not sure what to expect.
“It will be an interesting mix because they will be playing dance music while we do our routines,” he told the newspaper. “We ourselves yell every time we kick ... and we kick a lot.”
Khoa Tran, if you and the dance team can manage to resolve your differences and come together to produce a wildly successful breakfast-saving fund-raising talent show, your movie deal is imminent.
When we ran into Elizabeth Berkeley at the New York Academy of Art's Take Home a Nude auction last night, we asked her if she'd had any teary moments during People magazine's recent Saved by the Bell cast reunion. "I didn't cry, because I've kept in touch with those people through the years," she told us. "But I wish we'd all been able to have lunch together that day or something. It was kind of 'Hi! Nice to see you,' and then suddenly we were posing." See more in our Party Lines slideshow.
Guy Trebay laments the recession's effect on the shows in the Times today. The industry is afraid of losing even more money, and the pressure is on designers to present pieces that will sell. “People are all hoping that what is being pushed at the shows is what will be pushed on the sales floor,” Gareth Pugh explained. That commercial pressure kept him from showing the wildly fantastic armored clothing his shows have become known for. However, what the runways lacked in risk-taking, showgoers more than made up for:
At the Bernhard Willhelm show last Friday, there was a woman with a chain running from her nose ring to her ear; a man in a skirt and a Prussian officer’s jacket; another man dressed in a sequined yellow sweatshirt (it was just past noon); a woman wearing Daisy Dukes, a pair of Converse All Stars and an immense Vermeer ruff. Throughout the week one kept spotting fashion followers wearing leggings made from issues of Le Monde lashed to their legs with packing tape, and guys in clogs soled with hardback books or two-by-fours. Whether they were making reference to homelessness or creative reuse or were just being Dada is anyone’s guess.
Shouldn't the models be the ones with bits of newspapers flapping off their thighs and books strapped to their feet?
Trebay continues:
The truth is that no one looks to the streets anymore for the future of fashion, and that is a bit sad. Even designers who seem to favor grit — like Christophe Decarnin, the Balmain designer, whose ’80s glitter rags exerted a lot of influence over the last few seasons — turn out to be posers, like tourists who visit S & M clubs for a few strokes with a velvet lash.
You cannot say that Mr. Decarnin’s shredded T-shirts and glitter militaria don’t look cool and sexy on models like Daria Werbowy, with her boyish body and foxy, hooded eyes. But if you happen to want to look as sexy as Ms. Werbowy in Balmain, you will have to be prepared to spend about $17,000 for a jacket, $10,000 for a pair of blue jeans and $2,500 for a T-shirt that looks like the salad bar at the end of a moth banquet.
Those two paragraphs give us chills because they are so spot-on. Might we add that it all comes back to what we've been suggesting would catch onfor months: leaves. With designers sending women down the runways in underwear, pop stars walking around in nipple pasties (along with Lohan's Ungaro models), and everyone and their catsgiving up pants, it's only a matter of time before we start leaving the house naked with a few strategically placed leaves, which, rather than costing $2,500, are free.
President Obama's graying hair has been covered since the very early days of his administration. But Paul Bedard of US News & World Report is now suggesting he's getting even grayer now that "successes haven't been as easy to grab," and he's had to deal with so much angst over the situation in Afghanistan and the battle over healthcare reform:
Everyone knows that with rare exceptions—like Ronald Reagan—the pressures and stress of the presidency turn hair gray over time. But in just four months, and pushed to the limit by the economy, a Supreme Court vacancy, the war in Afghanistan, and healthcare reform, President Obama started turning from Ebony cover boy to Grecian Formula model.
We were actually thinking President Obama was looking better these days and the gray hair was giving him an added measure of presidential gravitas. At no point, though, did the words "Ebony cover boy" ever come to mind.
• Nick Lachey broke his silence over Daisy's disappearance. "I think a lot of people forget that Daisy was my dog, too—for years." He's right; we were all so...
HAIR
• A clump of Elvis Presley's hair is going up for auction on October 18 in Chicago, and it's expected to sell for $12,000. The hair is from 1958, when the singer had to shave his sideburns for the Army. [Daily Beauty Reporter/Allure]
• The Miu Miu show featured a loose side braid, a similar look to what Alexander Wang sent out weeks ago (Wang had a side part, Miu Miu's was in the center). Perhaps it's because hairstylist Guido Palau was the hair leader working on both shows. [Beauty Counter/Style.com]
• Pilot Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger, Obama adviser David Axelrod, and Attorney General Eric Holder are among the nominees for the Robert Goulet Memorial Mustached American of the Year. You can vote for a winner online at the American Mustache Institute website. [HuffPo]
PLASTIC SURGERY
• Tina Fey: “You can point any kind of laser at my face, but I don’t think Botox is for me. I think it is bad. [People with Botox] look like their faces are full of candles — a shiny, shiny face. Festive. A holiday candle.” [Just Jared]
NAILS
• The Dell computer company partnered with nail-polish label OPI Products, Inc. to create a series of 26 laptops in OPI shades. Twenty colors will be from the standard collection, while six will be holiday hues. [Engadget]
MAKEUP
• Makeup artist Pat McGrath and hairstylist Julien d'Ys were the beauty-team leaders behind the theatrical John Galliano show, where each model was given a unique look. [WWD]
Today as we were checking our top celebrity Twitters, we were shocked when we loaded @mileycyrus and the microblogging service informed us, "Sorry, that page doesn't...
British-born actress Carey Mulligan is making her name with this week's London-set coming-of-age drama An Education, in which she plays a young schoolgirl romanced by an older Peter Sarsgaard — but she's a New York girl now. In town to shoot Oliver Stone's Wall Street 2 and to promote Education, she spoke with us at last night's premiere about her growing celebrity and her move to Manhattan.
In An Education, your character veers off on a path she wasn't planning on. Have you ever done anything like that?
Oh, I wish. This is what I keep saying about her: She's much more interesting than I am. So, uh, she does stuff that I just, no, I never did. And I wouldn’t have gotten in the car in the first place, so I’m busted in that respect.
The Times' T magazine just put you on the cover, and Anna Wintour has said she admires you — how does it feel to be the center of attention suddenly?
One of my best friends from school came out for the whole party thing and she got really drunk, and at like two in the morning she came over and she sat with me, and she was like, "This is soooo weird!" And I was like, "Yeah." [Laughs] And that’s pretty much it. It’s like, it’s so weird. But good, you know, it’s all positive stuff.
But it's big and sudden — suddenly, there you are on the cover of a magazine.
I know. I felt bad, because I was like, no one knows who I am. No one wants to read that.
You're making your third movie in America — you made Public Enemies, Brothers, and now Wall Street 2. Is there anything about the U.S. that you can't get used to?
Oh, no. Stuff I love. Like, I wish I could say "jackass" and make it sound as cool as an American. I say jackass as, like, [in her British accent] "jahkahs." It just doesn’t have the punch. So I've fallen in love with, like, lingo, you know. And New York. I was here for six months last year, and I didn’t want to leave then, and this time I don’t want to leave. So I don’t think I’m going home. I haven’t told anyone in London yet.
You’re going to relocate here, to the U.S.?
Yeah, I think so. New York.
For real, or you’re just wishing you could move here?
No, no, no, no. I think pretty much for real. I hope.
Is there anything about New York that you can’t get in the U.K.? Like central heating?
No. I just want stuff delivered. You don’t get that in London. I want stuff delivered to my door, and I want my laundry delivered. Like, I go and do my laundry, or I do it in my washing machine, and here it’s done. And food from anywhere into your apartment — that’s the best thing in the world, I think.
So if you've gotten so used to New York, have you become grouchy and impatient?
I'm getting there. I get itchy. I'm like, more queues? What queues? Um, lines, I mean. Lines. You don’t say queues here. See, that’s another thing. I have to change my language a little bit.
Whew—Bloody Eyeball lives!
Based on the reality-show ratio of camera time to elimination, Nicole's departure seemed certain in last night's America's Next Top Model....
For days, Kate Gosselin, at war with her estranged husband, has been excited about the peaceful prospect of making a chocolate birthday cake from scratch for her twins Mady and Cara, who celebrate their ninth birthday Thursday.
Today, United Arab Emirates Sheikh Hassan Ben Ali al-Naimi made a formal offer to buy Christian Lacroix "in partnership" with the designer himself. The proposal promises to take on the label's debt, save its jobs, and preserve the house's couture division. Administrators still have to approve the proposal, under which Lacroix would become a minority shareholder. Though Al-Naimi faces two rival bids, judicial administrator Regis Valliot said it was "likely" he would win, adding, "It fulfills perfectly all the necessary criteria." Financial terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but late last month al-Naimi's offer was said to be 70 million euros. Or about $103.4 million. Or about 34,582 pairs of new Balmain boots. We'd say Mr. al-Naimi is making the right investment.
Brace yourselves. The nation's airlines and airports are about to get even more dysfunctional. The downturn in the economy has forced airlines to slash their flight schedules and swap out larger planes with smaller ones, which means you can now look forward to longer delays and even more crowded flights this fall. The silver lining: Bathrooms on planes still exist for the time being, even though at least one airline has figured out that it can save a few bucks if it gets you to do your business before you get on board. [WSJ, NYDN]
Donald Trump with Marla Maples, the mother of one of his children, whom he once left stranded on a tarmac to make a point.
Ivanka Trump's The Trump Card: Playing to Win in Work and in Life, a quasi-self-help, quasi-business book in which the Donald's daughter shares some of the wisdom she has gleaned from her famous father, is due out next week. In case you can't wait that long, we've pulled what we think is a particularly enlightening anecdote from the book, in which Ivanka describes a time when her father spontaneously turned a real-life situation into a real-life lesson.
Once, when he was married to Marla Maples, we were waiting and waiting at the airport to take off on his private plane for Palm Beach. Marla was always late; it was a big point of contention between them. My father had just about given up on Marla making it to the plane by our scheduled takeoff time and we were getting ready to roll down the runway when I saw Marla's car pull up alongside. The door to the plane was already closed. The engines were racing. We were good to go. And there on the tarmac was Marla, all frantic and frazzled and running just a little behind. I tapped my father on the shoulder and told him to look out the window, but when he saw Marla all he did was throw up his hands. He didn't tell the pilot to stop, and we took off anyway. I said, "Come on Dad, she's just five minutes late." I knew he'd turn punctuality into an art form, but this seemed a bit excessive, even for him. He said, "No, Ivanka. You have to be on time."
Everyone learned a lesson from this, according to Ivanka. Marla learned to stop being late, and never missed the plane again. Ivanka became hyper-vigilant about being on time. And we learned that, hey, wow, the Donald really is a dick.
This is the story of my ch . . . ch . . . changes, which took me from insanity to clarity, from egocentricity to altruism, from alcoholism to activism. These changes have marked an evolution in what I want from this life.
If you believe what you read in the tabloids, then yes! If you don't, then no! Either way, here are the story details that the New York Post was kind enough to provide its readers with today. According to the report in today's fish wrap, Robert "Call Me Joe" Halderman spotted his live-in girlfriend, Stephanie Birkitt (a.k.a. Vicki, a.k.a. Dutch, a.k.a. Monty), "making out" with a certain gap-toothed (and very married) late-night icon near the bottom of his driveway sometime in August. If this story is true, not only does it directly conflict with Letterman's apologetic confession that all of his self-described "creepy" behavior stopped after the birth of his 5-year-old son, Harry, but it would also mean that Letterman has already been stepping out on his wife of just over six months, Regina Lasko.
Additionally, this story also lends some much-needed context to the timing of the sequence of events as we know them to have gone down: We always thought it strange that Halderman would've suddenly gotten so jealous over an affair that had supposedly ended years ago, but if he truly saw what the papers said he saw, his early-morning trip to Letterman's limo on September 9 makes a heck of a lot more sense. Regardless of the veracity of this account, the bottom line is that it doesn't justify Halderman (allegedly) resorting to extortion as a means of exacting revenge. But if it does come out in a court of law that these events went down (pun intended) as described, it would certainly prove to be some explosive (and likely very fiscally rewarding) evidence for Regina Lasko's team of lawyers to have. As they say, developing ...
Company of We, a Talent Scout–featured design team from months back, just released their latest look book for fall '09, and you're in for a campy delight. No, seriously, Christopher Crawford and Jayzel Samonte take us camping, with guns and animal skulls for props. Don't worry, it's not as sinister as it sounds — the models, including Austin Pierce (who appears in the latest Arena Homme) and Tim Bryan, bare skin and do their best blue steel. Funny, our excursions into the woods weren't quite like this. Since last we caught up with Crawford and Samonte, their fairly affordable and chic menswear line has expanded into Saks nationwide, Holt Renfrew in Canada, United Arrows in Japan, and Fred Segal. And it's also available on the Company of We website. Click ahead for a look at their fall collection.
This just in from the home office:
Stephanie Birkitt, the woman at the center of David Letterman's sex scandal, is not barred from the The Late Show set as TMZ and other media...
Not content to merely evangelize his skin-clearing magic to millions of NYC subway riders, the famous dermatologist Dr. Zizmor has begun airing a TV commercial that only further demonstrates his mastery of branding. It's very strange and hypnotizing, and reminded us of that interesting trivia fact about the unfortunate link between marijuana use and acne. [West Side Spirit via Awl]
Who knew Marge Simpson was such a sex kitten?
Sources confirm that the ambiguously aged, iconic cartoon TV mama will appear—naked!—on the November cover of Playboy...
Though the fashion crowd is weary from four weeks of shows, they had good reason to look forward to Giles Deacon's, which closed Paris Fashion Week and the spring 2010 season this afternoon. The show marked his Paris debut and was his first after winning fashion's highly coveted ANDAM prize, which includes €160,000. The show opened with goddess Daphne Guinness in a minidress with a tarantula nestled into her cleavage (a fake one — don't freak out). What woman doesn't want a spider between her boobs? Then out came models with bags shaped like dinosaurs, and dresses embroidered with more spiders. The collection was fun and whimsical, but this is Paris (PAH-ris, as Rachel Zoe says), and came off to Suzy Menkes as somewhat infantile. She writes, "it was difficult to see where the designer was taking this collection, especially after recent seasons focused on geometrics and sculpted carapaces."
She continues:
But how Mr. Deacon wanted an international audience in Paris to read this collection was as mysterious as why he made the glamorous style icon Daphne Guinness unrecognizable by letting down her elegantly coiffed hair.
Even so. Those dinosaur pocketbooks have Miley Cyrus's name all over them.
NBC's legal team has one more headache on its hands. On Tuesday afternoon, the company was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate? It seems NBC didn't secure the rights to use a handful of Font Bureau's trademarked typefaces. The same ones, we should add, that have been used as part of NBC's fall marketing campaign to tout shows like The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
In a trademark and copyright infringement lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court, Font Bureau argues that NBC only paid for a single license—which would only permit the company to install the typefaces on a single computer—and only paid to use a limited number of fonts. But NBC went ahead and copied the fonts to a bunch of other computers within the company, Font Bureau claims, and also started using several other fonts for which licenses were never obtained. (In case you're wondering, the typefaces in question include Bureau Grotesque, Interstate and Antenna.)
The Boston-based company is now asking for "no less than $2 million" in damages, since it argues NBC's unauthorized use has "caused injury to Font Bureau's relationships with present and prospective customers," will make it more difficult for Font Bureau to enter into licensing deals with other companies, and "will cause confusion, mistake and deception as to the source of Font Bureau's trademarks." Presumably NBC will seek to settle the suit rather than run the risk of turning up in court to hear that they've been barred from using the fonts until the case is settled (and then have to redo all their fall marketing materials).
We contacted a spokesperson at NBC for comment but have yet to hear back. In the meantime, you can look over the lawsuit—which was filed in Times New Roman, by the way—and exhibits below.
Cleese performing his one-man show earlier this month.
Funny-walking, parrot-returning comedy deity John Cleese is headed to New York for a Monty Python reunion on October 16, after the premiere of IFC’s hilarious warts-and-all documentary: Monty Python: Almost the Truth (The Lawyer’s Cut), airing on IFC October 18. Logan Hill spoke to him about the new Fawlty Towers Remastered DVD set, out (October 20), his recent ugly divorce, Monty Python’s even uglier breakup, and his apocalyptic new work in progress “Why There Is No Hope.”.
What age are you, Logan? 34.
Well, I have a rule not to date people less than half my age, but I guess it's okay to be interviewed by one.
Another difference between you and some of the other Pythons.
Entirely right! [Sixty-seven-year-old Terry Jones just fathered a child with his 26-year-old girlfriend.]
How are you holding up? Sounds like you’ve had a rough divorce. You've called your ex "the special love child of Bernie Madoff and Heather Mills."
I went through a very unpleasant divorce and discovered just how hopeless the American legal system is. There are a couple of occasions when I began to realize just how bad the damage was going to be. For me, most of the things people know me from —Fawlty Towers or A Fish Called Wanda — are things I’ve been able to write on spec because I had enough money to live. Now I have to pay one million dollars a year until I’m 76. So that means I have to organize my life around earning the first million dollars every year. And the normal sources of income for people like me are drying up. There aren’t as many film and TV parts — and you can do interesting documentaries but they don’t pay anything. So I’m doing one-man shows and other things ...
Like interviews like this, to sell some Fawlty Towers DVDs.
Yes, that’s a big help. I’d always hoped that, at this stage in my life, I could live on the royalties and do the things I really want to do.
It’s a large settlement.
Well, the absurd thing is, my wife brought no assets or income and we had no children. And yet she seems to have finished up with a lot more than half of the money. That’s the insanity.
Can you laugh about something like this?
You know, as they always say, it depends on whether you see life as a tragedy or a farce.
You’ve often made terrible things seem hilarious. Basil Fawlty was a jerk.
Well it’s like in W.C. Fields — he’s just about my favorite comedian, but if you actually met that character in real life, I don’t think you’d like him. Basil’s awful. He’s a terrible, shallow creature, completely obsessed with class. Ah, but he is funny. We laugh at Basil because, although he behaves appallingly to other people, a lot of the time it’s because of his fear that Sybil will get very angry. We also feel sorry for him. When people behave badly out of fear, it’s much funnier than if they were just behaving badly because that’s their default mode.
And we recognize our own worst impulses in him?
Oh, yes. I think that there’s an enormous number of people in England who, given enough stress, behave very much as Basil does. That marvelous book Emotional Intelligence by Daniel Goleman has this tremendous phrase: “Stress makes you stupid.” So the more stress you put on the protagonist in the farce, the stupider he gets. That’s one of the delights of it. They make worse and worse mistakes.
You’re speaking to me from a hotel right now. Are you a double celebrity among hoteliers?
Yes, most of the hoteliers I encounter are aware of Fawlty Towers, but it doesn’t stop them being terrible hoteliers. I mean, this place that we’re in at the moment, the Radisson … well, the accountants try to save a few pennies and meanwhile they absolutely ensure that somebody like me never comes back.
Why?
They’re greedy. Earning a reputation gets completely forgotten in the rush for quick short-term profit, which is the great sin of American business. I am often quite surprised at how poor the service is in even the most expensive chains, but I always exempt The Four Seasons, because I do think that’s a marvelous chain. But this Radisson, it’s a mess. The wastepaper baskets! There’s far too few wastepaper baskets, and when you do find them, they’re always hidden away. Like they are objects of shame. I have by me now a tiny little wastepaper basket which contains a billowing plastic bag that makes it almost impossible to get anything into the bin. But that’s so the maid doesn’t have to touch it. The hotel is run for the benefit of the staff rather than for the customer.
Like Fawlty Towers. Maybe you should open your own hotel.
I think it would be a tremendous thing to do, and I may produce some training films again, because most people are absolutely clueless, but I like projects that have ends to them. With TV or a movie, you work on something for two years or six months and at the end of it, you move on. I would not be good at something that required year after year of attention.
That’s a big point of the new documentary on Monty Python. The other Pythons were angry when you quit the show a year before everyone else.
Two things: One is I did not like the fact that we were repeating a lot of our material, even if other people didn’t notice; the others didn’t care. They were having a good time. I think if one was playing “I’m the pure artist,” I would win on that one. The other thing was that I was carrying the alcoholic [the late Graham Chapman]. That seems to get forgotten in all of these discussions. They were completely blind to an extraordinarily important point, which was: I was the guy who was having to work with the alcoholic. They never said, ‘We’ll share part of that burden with you. I’ll write with him one day a week.’ This is never mentioned. It was ‘Oh, John was rather difficult … ’
How bad was it?
Well, I never knew what he was up to, because alcoholics — I now know quite a lot of them — they are all, I’m afraid, basically liars. The words are almost synonymous. There were two types of days: days where I did 80 percent of the work and days when Graham did 5 percent of the work. He was basically lazy, but he had two great qualities: He was the most extraordinary sounding board and he was capable of coming in with very good off-the-wall ideas. But he was very lazy.
In the doc, Terry Gilliam bashes your respect for psychotherapy.
I think Gilliam was so frightened of what he’d discover if he ever explored his own conscience. He is completely unbalanced, as are many of the Pythons. He is notably unbalanced.
You were the first man to say “shit” on the BBC, and possibly the first man to say “fuck” at a funeral — Chapman’s. What do you make of the controversy over an actress saying “fucking” on Saturday Night Live recently?
I think the older you get the more you begin to realize what a madhouse we live in. People get upset about things that don’t matter at all and people don’t really get upset at all about things that matter a lot. You’ve got a rotten, rickety old legal system that anyone with money can manipulate — and nobody goes around saying this; they go around worrying that somebody said “fuck.” I mean, frankly, it’s pathetic and so completely half-witted that you give up any expectation of any kind of rational behavior of any kind, in any way, as you get older. It’s a madhouse. There are small pockets of sanity, but the rest of it is irretrievably second-rate at best. So when these things come along now, I just shrug.
On the Fawlty Towers commentary you say it’s harder to laugh now.
You laugh less at entertainment because you’ve seen most of the jokes before and you can guess where the new ones are going. It’s not like when you’re young and you discover Buster Keaton or the Marx Brothers or W.C. Fields or Eddie Izzard or Bill Hicks. What you begin to see is how funny life is. You turn Sean Hannity on and there is wall-to-wall insanity. They have absolutely no idea what clowns they are.
As you get older, are people getting stupider?
It can be depressing. But you have to let go of the idea that this can ever be a decent and rational place. I already have quite a lot of material for a new show I will call Why There Is No Hope. I’ve tried it out. A friend said it was fascinating afterwards because the more I destroyed people’s hope that this could ever be, in any way, a rational planet, the more they laughed.
Could you give me a preview?
Well, I’m a funny kind of professor at Cornell, and there is a psychology professor there called David Dunning who discovered that in order to know how good you are at something, it requires almost exactly the same skills and aptitude as it does to be good at that thing in the first place. In other words, if you’re a really good tennis player or mathematician then you know how to tell how good you are. But it also means if you’re absolutely no good at something then you lack exactly the skills to realize your idiocy. It explains why so many idiots out there have no idea that they’re idiots.
Do you run into this in comedy?
You find this particularly with scripts. I wrote a really good script for Disney, and the woman in charge wanted to make changes which were completely and utterly wrong. She had the confidence of the truly stupid. Then you look at the Republican Party: Here are people that are so out of touch with reality that it could be screamingly funny if it weren’t so dangerous.
As politics gets more childish, does satire get harder for you?
Yes. Take Sarah Palin — so many Republicans love her. I suddenly realized that in order to actually understand that someone is not very bright — or to be brutal, that they’re rather stupid — you really have to be more intelligent than them. Most Republicans aren’t smarter than Sarah Palin. It’s true.
If there is no hope, you must not trust Obama.
No, I have real hope for Obama, because I think without the slightest doubt he is operating from a considerably higher level of mental health than we’re used to in our politicians. I think that’s what frightens the shit out of Republicans. Because if you put very mad people in a room with very sane people the mad people start feeling madder, do you see what I mean? Whereas, if you put mad people in together — if you put the Gestapo in together — they’re all sort of reinforcing each other’s madness and everyone’s happy.
Singer and actress Barbra Streisand is pictured in September 2009 in New York City. Hundreds of personal items belonging to Streisand will go under the hammer in Beverly Hills this month as fans get a... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 2:08 pm
Because they're pretty sure there's some water underneath the surface, NASA is sending an old spacecraft crashing into the southern pole of the moon tomorrow morning. A small satellite will then search the plume of soil it kicks up for signs of ice, before it, too, crashes into the moon. "This is going to be pretty cool," says the mission's excited project manager, Dan Andrews, probably referring to smashing huge things into the moon under the guise of science. [AP via ABC News]
At last, the long, ugly Astor trial has come to an (ugly) end: A jury has found Anthony Marshall, 85, guilty of plundering the nearly $200 million fortune of his Alzheimer's-ridden mother, socialite Brooke Astor. Marshall was convicted on fourteen of the sixteen charges against him, including grand larceny, conspiracy, and fraud. His lawyer, Francis Morrissey, who allegedly aided the fraud, was also found guilty of conspiracy and forgery. Both men could be sentenced to at least 25 years in prison, but they'll have to wait a little longer to find out what their fate is. The judge set the sentencing for Dec. 8.
According to the Post, Marshall appeared stoic and somber when the verdict was read, while his wife, Charlene, trembled slightly and Morrissey nearly cried.
“What an end," a longtime friend of the Marshall's told the Times. "To be 85 and have this happen is dreadful. It's dreadful at any age.”
That was apparently all the sympathy there was for the pair in the courtroom. In his closing statements, an assistant district attorney read from the Book of Psalms: “Do not cast me away when I am old. Do not forsake me when my strength is gone.”
It's hard to make yourself look bad, as a politician, when you've already admitted to jetting off to Argentina to cheat on your wife, leaving the state you govern in disarray and probably misusing taxpayer money, leading to a state ethics investigation and calls from both parties for your resignation. But then, Mark Sanford is a special man. Watch as a police officer pulls over Sanford's driver for going 85 mph, then lets them go without a ticket because one of the least respected governors in the country was in the back of the car. We know governors probably speed all the time, heading to so-called emergencies that are actually catered lunches, but for an extra dose of hypocrisy: When basically the same thing happened to the lieutenant governor in 2006, Sanford's office issued a statement saying that he "believe[s] very strongly that preferential treatment should never be a factor when enforcing the law."
A few weeks into the fall TV season, and already one show is down for the count. But let's look on the bright side. "The Beautiful Life" got at least two episodes in before the CW gave it the ax, spared from that TV-land rarity: the single episode show.
We've said it before and we'll say it again: Mess with Jamie Dimon and you do so at your own risk. Last fall, during the bleakest moments of the financial crisis, the JPMorgan CEO began receiving threatening letters from a man who was angry about losing money a chunk of money following JPMorgan's acquisition of Washington Mutual. The anonymous letter-writer didn't just threaten to kill Dimon and promise to "McVeigh" the bank's New York office building. He also included a bit of white powder in one of the envelopes, which set off an anthrax scare at JPMorgan HQ. Duff McDonald recounts the episode in his new book on Dimon, Last Man Standing: The Ascent of Jamie Dimon and JPMorgan Chase:
Dimon later received a letter containing white powder and a note that read, "Steal tens of thousands of people's money and not expect reprercussions [sic]. It’s payback time. What you just breathed in will kill you within 10 days. Thank xxx and the FDIC for your demise." More than 50 copies of the letter had been sent to multiple Chase bank branches, the FDIC, and the OTS. Dimon's letter also contained a reference to the "McVeighing of your corporate headquarters within six months." All were postmarked Amarillo, Texas.
The FBI didn't have much luck tracking down the person who sent the letters. So, naturally, Dimon took matters into his own hands. He turned to the bank's security team, which apparently includes a bunch of former Secret Service agents and CIA operatives, and they located the man. The bank then turned over the information to federal authorities and the suspect—a man named Richard Leon Goyette who also went by the alias Michael Jurek—was arrested. Four months later he was convicted and sentenced to 46 months in prison.
And the verdict is in: Brooke Astor's son, Anthony Marshall, was found guilty of more than a dozen charges moment ago, including grand larceny, which carries a mandatory prison sentence. Francis Morrissey Jr., Astor's estate lawyer, was convicted of forgery charges. [NYT]
In yet another blow to the already ailing soap opera world, Eric Braeden, the venerable star of CBS' "The Young and the Restless," has exited the top-rated daytime drama after a nasty negotiation with Sony.
Micro-pigs — miniature pet piggies that are sweeping Britain like Susan Boyle brandishing Potter's broomstick — are in the midst of their stateside media blitz, garnering lustful coos from the Today show crowd and generally making everyone melt like swine butter. Their breeder actually isn't selling to buyers in the U.S., but that doesn't mean a sham marriage to some clueless Brit is out of the question just to take one of these wee little piggies all the way home.
For all of Daily Intel's much-documented suspicion of the animal kingdom, your editors are not immune to instances of extreme adorableness (see: PUPPIES!!!!!!), especially when it's delivered in tiny, precious packages. And these pigs are fucking cute. Not only are they sweet and delightful and Rupert Grint has one, but they also possess the best qualities in a pet: They're very intelligent, quite clean, can be trained to use the litter box, and according to one breeder, just love to be loved. If Craigslist gave it to us this good, maybe we wouldn't even need pets.
But wait. There are some problems here. These little guys are the result of irresistible cross-breeding of FOUR different breeds of pigs. That's some heavy pig engineering (suddenly Puggles and Labradoodles seem so ... simple), and micro-pigs haven't been on the scene for very long — who knows what sort of horrible micro-defects and micro-diseases they might develop later on! One minute the micro-piggy is in your pocket; the next, your pants are soaking wet because the thing is uncontrollably foaming at the mouth. Or you think you've just been innocently watching television with little Barnaby in your lap, but an hour later he's devoured your gallbladder. God only knows.
On the Today Show this morning, trainer Lisa Howell demonstrated that her dog Willow can READ. Granted, the dog can only read the phrases “sit up,” “wave,” and “bang,” but what other words does she really need? That’s basically a rudimentary dissertation on the Kennedy assassination right there. The best trick my dog can do is eat garbage.
Senators Max Baucus and Blanche Lincoln look frightened. Maybe because they are about to kiss in front of everybody.
Yesterday saw the anticipated release of the Congressional Budget Office's analysis of the Senate Finance Committee's health-care bill. In other words, how much is this thing going to cost us? And according to the CBO, which is highly respected among both parties (except when their conclusions aren't convenient!), figures that the bill will cost $829 billion over ten years but overall cut the federal deficit by $81 billion. Sounds great! Oh, except that those numbers are actually very preliminary, and, for most people, the bill might not really do anything.
• You know how we kept being told that this health-care-reform thing was supposed to meaningfully impact the lives of people who already have health insurance? Ezra Klein doesn't think it will. "Unless you're uninsured, or on the individual market, this bill is not expected to affect you," he writes. "Remember this next time you hear some congressman talk about how this bill will revolutionize the American health-care system, either for better or for worse." [Ezra Klein/WP]
• In fact, the bill will still only cover "94 percent of legal non-elderly residents and 91 percent of all non-elderly residents" by 2019 (after which things inevitably get hazy, so the CBO isn't even going to try). That's not as good as the House bill, Jonathan Cohn points out. [Treatment/New Republic]
• Nevertheless, the fact that it cuts the deficit over time produced a "collective exhale of Democrats," according to Marc Ambinder. Now "no Democrat — or Republican — can argue that, based on the shared reverence for the CBO source, health care will add to the deficit ... even though, as the CBO admits, a projection is just a projection." [Atlantic]
• Is it ever! The CBO's cost analysis is based only on the bill's layman language, Chris Frates writes, and won't be official until it's translated into "legislative language," which Democrats resisted because it would have taken longer. [Live Pulse/Politico]
• Plus, as Republicans note, this bill still has to be merged with another bill, to create a new one "written secretly by Democratic leaders," report Robert Pear and David Herszenhorn. [NYT]
• It may turn out that the states have a ton of autonomy in actually implementing (or not!) the health-care-reform bill themselves, writes Kate Pickert. Meaning that "politicians could find themselves blamed for health-care reform that doesn't deliver, with less tools than they might have had to fix it." [Time]
• As part of a potential compromise, one of the things states might be able to opt out of is the public option, writes Sam Stein. [HuffPo]
• Which is a plan that, Steve Benen thinks, "should satisfy the concerns of Ben Nelson & Co.," otherwise known as moderate Democrats. [Political Animal/Washington Monthly]
• But, Timothy Noah writes, that's not the only compromise that could result in something that looks and acts like a public option. [Slate]
• The House, for its part, may not have to compromise at all, as it has enough votes for a "robust public option," reports Mike Soraghan. [Hill]
• Oh, and Bob Dole, despite some reservations, thinks Republicans should vote for it. [Kansas City Star]
While the likes of Demi Moore, Hilary Swank and Natalie Portman have made it acceptable to shave your head for arts sake, it seems Malin Akerman has brought the trend to the face. The rising starlet just wrapped "HappyThankYouMorePlease" Source: FOXNews.com | 8 Oct 2009 | 11:26 am
Mike Britt has the scoop on Tom DeLay’s exit from Dancing With the Stars, Brad Pitt’s secret meeting with Jennifer Aniston, and the devastating news that swine flu has spread all the way to the Backstreet Boys (is no one safe?!). Check it out in this new episode of Best Day Ever:
This might be one of the most important weeks in fake television sitcom romances. For it is in this very special week that we are smashing the champagne bottles over the bow of Jim and Pam’s marriage, blessing their future and pushing them off far out into the sea so that we no longer have to think about just how happy they are with each other. And while the wake of their cruise causes our heart dinghy’s to bob up and down on the waves of our patheticness, a brand new couple featuring our favorite theme — unrequited love — springs forth and rescues us off of the shores of gratitude. And that couple is “bush baby” Emma and “grows better looking with each episode” Mr. Schuester.
Now, we do have a bone to pic with Glee — last night’s episode, while entertaining for the most avid fan, was certainly not one of their best. The musical performances, which we’ll get to, were only OK (and drug induced), and save for Sue Sylvester, who can do no wrong, there really weren’t any terribly memorable scenes. So imagine how stupid we look, having made everyone in our social circles and even our own parents watch, when this “Vitamin D” plot was only average compared to other amazing episodes.
Some things to note:
A few days ago, we brought you a clip of the boy’s mash-up performance, worried that our dear Finn was having an epileptic seizure. Turns out: He was just high. Funny watching something out of context and realizing the trick was really played ON YOU.
Speaking of Finn, how much more likable was he when he was “high”? Sure, we know his whole shtick is being the slow, kind of dumb, introverted jock (jockward, remember?), but Finn on decongestants was a breath of fresh air, so to speak. The energy! The life! Even his chemistry with Rachel was more dramatic. Which leads us to ask: Finn, can you please take over-the-counter drugs each episode? You were an absolute high delight.
We are still obsessed with the amazing Asian “football playing” dancer with corn starch legs.
Intervention fans, this one’s for you. So the ladies are all high and whatnot… and what song do they sing?
“Walkin’ On Sunshine”, that’s what.
That look between Mr. Schue and Emma at the end? Ohhhh myyyy godddd. That’s lady loin porn right thurr. I always felt like their chemistry was manufactured until last night. Of course, next to Schuester’s wife, I would see him having chemistry with a cocker spaniel.
Schuester’s wife needs to GTFO.
Sue Sylvester as co-chair of the Glee Club? Yes, please, and thank you.
This year's festival of the Atlantic Andalusias, held in the Moroccan port of Essaouira, will focus on a Moroccan Jewish musical tradition known as Matrouz, Andre Azoulay, festival chairman and an advisor... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 10:14 am
The fishing port of Essaouira, Morocco. This year's festival of the Atlantic Andalusias, to be held in Essaouira, will focus on a Moroccan Jewish musical tradition known as Matrouz. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 10:14 am
Motherhood definitely seems to agree with Jennifer Hudson, who gave birth to her first child, David -- named after her fiancé, David Otunga -- on August 10. She talked with PEOPLE about her new boy.
Caring for a car has you a befuddled. The honeymoon's over, and bureaucratic tasks are beating out bliss. You're meeting with a prospective babysitter or housekeeper, a stranger you'll entrust with much of your life.
"Saturday Night Live" was formed in the crucible of the mid-1970s, when Watergate brought respect for politicians to all-time lows, the counterculture was taking over comedy, and many television viewers were seeking out something fresh and bold.
Reuters - If you've got it, flaunt it and sell it: that was the message at Paris fashion week as collections teemed with lacy stockings, bra straps and exposed knickers.
AP - Harrison Ford is getting old. Bruce Willis looks tired. Arnold Schwarzenegger has a state to run. And Hollywood doesn't make action heroes like it used to.
US pop icon Michael Jackson. An Australian TV station apologised for a sketch in which actors daubed in black face paint parodied the Jackson Five musical phenomenon in a stunt that sparked outrage. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 8 Oct 2009 | 3:08 am
Who was the night's big winner?
Michael Kors, of course.
Regardless of which Project Runway designer went home and which one stayed—and we aren't...
Hey, ABC. You did good today!
Not only did the Alphabet net pick up some show called The Middle which we're just going to sort of gloss right over, but network reps also just...
Maggie the Cat is alive!
Elizabeth Taylor, who entered the hospital this week to get a "leaky valve" repaired, is doing great following the procedure, according to the two-time...
• Nick Lachey broke his silence over Daisy's disappearance. "I think a lot of people forget that Daisy was my dog, too—for years." He's right; we were all so...
Today as we were checking our top celebrity Twitters, we were shocked when we loaded @mileycyrus and the microblogging service informed us, "Sorry, that page doesn't...
Whew—Bloody Eyeball lives!
Based on the reality-show ratio of camera time to elimination, Nicole's departure seemed certain in last night's America's Next Top Model....
This just in from the home office:
Stephanie Birkitt, the woman at the center of David Letterman's sex scandal, is not barred from the The Late Show set as TMZ and other media...
Who knew Marge Simpson was such a sex kitten?
Sources confirm that the ambiguously aged, iconic cartoon TV mama will appear—naked!—on the November cover of Playboy...
NBC's legal team has one more headache on its hands. On Tuesday afternoon, the company was served with a lawsuit by the Font Bureau, one of the country's leading typographic design firms and the company responsible for crafting typefaces for the likes of Apple, Microsoft, and the New York Times Co. What would prompt a company that designs fonts to wage a legal assault on the media conglomerate? It seems NBC didn't secure the rights to use a handful of Font Bureau's trademarked typefaces. The same ones, we should add, that have been used as part of NBC's fall marketing campaign to tout shows like The Jay Leno Show, Saturday Night Live and Late Night with Jimmy Fallon.
We've 
Now, we do have a bone to pic with Glee — last night’s episode, while entertaining for the most avid fan, was certainly not one of their best. The musical performances, which we’ll get to, were only OK (and drug induced), and save for Sue Sylvester, who can do no wrong, there really weren’t any terribly memorable scenes. So imagine how stupid we look, having made everyone in our social circles and even our own parents watch, when this “Vitamin D” plot was only average compared to other amazing episodes.
