AP - A 53-year-old Georgia man accused of trying to stalk teen pop star Miley Cyrus is expected in court just two days after a grand jury refused to indict him.
AP - A 53-year-old Georgia man accused of trying to stalk teen pop star Miley Cyrus is expected in court just two days after a grand jury refused to indict him.
AP - A 53-year-old Georgia man accused of trying to stalk teen pop star Miley Cyrus is expected in court just two days after a grand jury refused to indict him.
AP - A 53-year-old Georgia man accused of trying to stalk teen pop star Miley Cyrus is expected in court just two days after a grand jury refused to indict him.
AP - A judge is set to rule Friday on whether to admit into evidence a 45-minute video that purportedly shows Anna Nicole Smith under the influence of drugs provided by her lawyer-boyfriend.
A 53-year-old Georgia man accused of trying to stalk teen pop star Miley Cyrus is expected in court just two days after a grand jury refused to indict him. Mark McLeod (MIK-lowd) is... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 30 Oct 2009 | 4:02 am
We weren't able to find out what Eliot Spitzer is dressing up as for Halloween, but Ashley Dupre came through in a big way when she posted pics of one ofthree looks she'll be rocking this weekend to her Twitter account. (She'll be a sailor on Friday night, a cat for brunch on Saturday, and a vampire on Saturday night.) Ashley would like you to know she isn't wearing any make-up in these photos, and that it took her an hour to get the contact lenses in. But her efforts paid off nicely, didn't they? Two bigger pics of New York's most famous ex-call girl turned recording artist looking her freakiest are below.
A judge is set to rule Friday on whether to admit into evidence a 45-minute video that purportedly shows Anna Nicole Smith under the influence of drugs provided by her lawyer-boyfriend. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 30 Oct 2009 | 3:49 am
CINCINNATI, Oct. 30 /PRNewswire/ -- What do country music singer href="http://www.jonaleewhite.com/">Jonalee White , pop icon Madonna, writer Stephen King and former... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 30 Oct 2009 | 3:35 am
Men in Black Track Suits: Columbia Pictures is sticking with what it knows and bringing back Men in Black. Etan Cohen, who wrote Tropic Thunder, will write the script. There are no deals yet to bring Will Smith and Tommy Lee Jones back but Variety doesn't think Columbia would hire a writer if they weren't involved. Of course, Will Smith is now 41 years old so they might need a younger agent to run down a cephlapoid on foot. [Variety]
He's Watching You:Jason Starr's crime novel The Follower will get the TV treatment by Bret Easton Ellis. HBO has signed up the novelist and screenwriter to pen the script for the drama about the dating lives of a group of twentysomething New Yorkers as seen through the eyes of a stalker. Finally, someone figured out how to make the 21st century version of Friends. [Variety]
Golden Rule: Fox Searchlight has snatched up the screenplay for Rule #1, a movie about a New Yorker who makes friends with a young Puerto Rican girl with ADD. Reese Witherspoon is attached to star, produce and, for once, look tall. [THR]
Number One Dad: Fox has ordered a sixth season of the animated sitcom American Dad. This pick-up ensures that Seth MacFarlane will continue to own Sunday night on Fox. Which also means Fox will continue to sell ad space to Axe body spray on Sunday nights. [Variety]
Or maybe Rajaratnam's insider-trading could have been stopped nine years ago. In 2000 an Intel employee passed information to Galleon and was prosecuted for it. But the feds chose not to go after Galleon, instead allowing Rajaratnam to continue breaking the law inside of his bubble of rap videos and spandex.
Reuters - Brendan Gleeson is teaming with "Ned Kelly" screenwriter John Michael McDonagh to star in McDonagh's "The Guard," an Irish-set comedy thriller also featuring Don Cheadle, Mark Strong and Liam Cunningham. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 29 Oct 2009 | 11:18 pm
Subtle Sexuality is a hot new girl group made up of "the beautiful and mysterious" Kelly Kapoor and "the pretty" Erin Hannon, two employees of a paper company in Pennsylvania. Influenced by "Rihanna, Katy Perry, J.Hud, and all the Kardashians," Subtle Sexuality's first video is the auto-tune heavy dance jam "Male Prime Donna," featuring guest appearances by 'Nard Dog and Mr. Understood. This is what "Poker Face" would sound like if Lady Gaga was from Scranton.
Reuters - Sam Taylor-Wood's "Nowhere Boy" is a passable look at the early life of John Lennon when he was estranged from his mother and raised by his aunt. Fans hoping to discover more about the source of the prickly Beatle's creativity will not find it here. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 29 Oct 2009 | 10:51 pm
Reuters - Watching Alice Cooper onstage is like taking in a familiar movie. You know what's coming, but it's no less entertaining. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 29 Oct 2009 | 10:47 pm
• Lost: Press play above to see the first teaser trailer for the final season of Lost. There's no new footage, but we got goosebumps just the same. (In other Lost news, 24 producer Jon...
Because it's hard to let a piece a Lost news pass us by, here's the first promo for the sixth and final season. It ran tonight during FlashForward, and frankly, it's pretty lame. Not only does it contain no new footage, but it's just 15 seconds long and really tells you nothing. Why would ABC do this to us? Don't they know the state we're in? Still, it's good to be reminded that we're only a few months away from new Lost. 2010 cannot come soon enough.
Reuters - A theatrical pot of gold awaits anyone who enters the St. James Theater, where the magical revival of "Finian's Rainbow" has opened. The classic musical, receiving its first Broadway revival in nearly half a century, has the kind of score, written by Burton Lane (music) and Yip Harburg (lyrics), that can still make any theatergoer swoon. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 29 Oct 2009 | 9:58 pm
(Reuters) Reuters - Troy Duffy, director of the Quentin Tarantino-tinted "Boondock Saints" -- and the rise-and-fall subject of the arguably more entertaining 2003 documentary "Overnight" -- returns to the scene of his 1999 debut with "The Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 29 Oct 2009 | 9:27 pm
Reuters - The relentlessly (and overbearingly) quirky imagination of filmmaker Jared Hess yields diminishing returns in his third feature. While "Napoleon Dynamite" was carried by Jon Heder's offbeat charm and "Nacho Libre" by Jack Black's manic energy, "Gentlemen Broncos" has little to offer besides unrelenting strangeness. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 29 Oct 2009 | 9:26 pm
Ride the hell out of some cabs on Friday and Saturday, because starting Sunday you'll have to pay a 50-cent surcharge on top of the $2.50 base fare. At least the money is going toward a worthy cause — bailing out the MTA. [NY1]
LOS ANGELES - Michael Jackson's collaborators on "Thriller" say they are due more than $2.3 million from the singer's estate. George Folsey Jr., the producer of the iconic 14-minute... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 8:30 pm
At around 10:30 in the morning on October 6 a bullet hit Lou Dobbs's house in rural New Jersey, police said today. Dobbs's wife and his driver were outside when a bullet struck the house near the roof and fell to the ground. Dobbs mentioned the incident on his show Monday, saying the shot followed a series of threatening phone calls. Luckily, the CNN anchor has a way to make sure his house remains free of illegal bullets — build a fence around it.
Crisis averted. After we fans got our first glimpse at True Blood season three earlier this week, there was widespread concern that werewolf Alcide Herveaux, a major fan fave character from the...
Dennis Hopper has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and is canceling all travel plans to focus on treatment. Manager Sam Maydew says the 73-year-old actor and artist is being treated... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 8:11 pm
Michael Jackson's collaborators on "Thriller" say they are due more than $2.3 million from the singer's estate. George Folsey Jr., the producer of the iconic 14-minute "Thriller" video,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 8:05 pm
This easy rider has a tough ride ahead.
Dennis Hopper is battling prostate cancer, according to the actor's manager, and will be cancelling all upcoming travel plans to focus on...
Front Page: Author to adapt Starr's novel for series -- HBO and Lionsgate TV have set Bret Easton Ellis to pen a series adaptation of "The Follower," the stalker tale by crime novelist Jason Starr.
A Michael Jackson impersonator poses at the UK premier of Michael Jackson's "This Is It" at the Odeon in London's Leicester Square. Michael Jackson delivered a posthumous thriller Tuesday as fans flocked... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 7:58 pm
Fans await the start of the world premiere of the Michael Jackson's "This is It" at the Nokia Theatre in Los Angeles. Michael Jackson delivered a posthumous thriller Tuesday as fans flocked to worldwide... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 7:58 pm
Fans pose with a poster prior to the Australian premiere of Michael Jackson's "This Is It". Michael Jackson has delivered a posthumous thriller as fans flocked to worldwide premieres of a documentary film... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 7:58 pm
Blogger Billy Corgan has taken to his website to give you his opinion on the swine flu vaccine. Summary: He doesn't like it. Not only is Corgan skeptical of the origins of the flu, which he thinks was cooked up in a lab, but he questions President Obama's motivation for declaring it a national emergency.
"Our American President Obama has declared a national emergency about this virus, which he in his own words said was, at this point, a preventative measure. So, why declare an emergency if there isn’t one? ... I am more focused on the vibration that has us all so fearful: both for how the fear affects our thinking, and how, in our fear, we attract the worst, and, in conjunction with that, how those fears are used by others without integrity to try to create a power against Us to promote discomfort and dis-ease."
Does Corgan think the vaccination is some kind of brain control serum that will be used by Obama for evil? Sounds like it. But it's not like this would be his most outlandish conspiracy theory. The man blamed Eddie Vedder for the collapse of the Cubs after all! This rat could use some time out of the cage.
Is Michael Jackson's This Is It only in theaters for two weeks to get fans into a frenzy or to have the DVD out on time for the holiday season?
—James L., via...
A U.S. District Court judge dismissed the latest lawsuit from lawyer/dentist/crusader Orly Taitz, dealing yet another blow to her quixotic quest to force President Obama to prove his citizenship. Taitz had asked the court to remove Obama from office if he couldn't provide documentation of his birth in the U.S. (fake birth certificates don't count!). Judge David Carter said she was basically asking the court to violate the Constitution. And then he defended himself against the accusations he knows are coming.
"Plaintiffs have attacked the judiciary, including every prior court that has dismissed their claim, as unpatriotic and even treasonous for refusing to grant their requests and for adhering to the terms of the Constitution which set forth its jurisdiction," Carter wrote. "Respecting the constitutional role and jurisdiction of this Court is not unpatriotic."
Twilight will return to theaters for one day only on November 19th, the day before The Twilight Saga: New Moon comes out. And even though it's already on DVD and everyone who's going to see it has seen it, the girls are sure to go gaga for this. Because Twilight doesn't just have fans, it has people who want Robert Pattinson on the inside of their underwear. [THR]
• The hotel bar is experiencing a resurgence, as you've probably noticed. [VF] • Indochine is celebrating its 25th anniversary with a new book. [GoaG] • Does Danny Meyer have a new restaurant in store for the church on 21st Street and Park Avenue South? That's the rumor anyway. [Eater] • A Q&A with Locanda Verde's Andrew Carmellini. [Blackbook] • The annual Chocolate Show goes down this weekend. [ChocolateShow] • A few suggestions on where to carbo-load if you're planning to run the marathon this Sunday. Or where to just pig out if you're not. [SE]
Michael Jackson's This Is It wasn't the only big hit for MJ's estate this week.
John Landis, who directed the King of Pop's Thriller video, producer George Folsey Jr. and...
You could die high and go to Halloween heaven and it wouldn’t equal the Lights video for “Fire Night”: In the clip, directed by Lauryn Siegel, singer-guitarist Sophia Knapp and singer-drummer Linnea Vedder get ritualistic with white boots, gold-lame hoods, and plenty of makeup, candles, and flying glitter. The music — boho-disco dosed with guitar sludge and overlaid with bright harmonies — might even be more decadent. A real treat.
Despite Alexander Wang's athletically inspired spring 2010 collection — complete with letter jackets, football shoulders, and baseball mitts — he is not much of a sports man. Today at his trunk show at Barneys, Wang he told us he has never played on a sports team. Might he be rooting for the Yankees? "To be honest, I didn't even know they were in the World Series," he confessed. Not that it matters when you're 25 years old, won the CFDA/Vogue Fashion award after dropping out of Parsons, and have women around the world salivating over your clothes. "After coming off of a season that felt very structured and graphic, I wanted something that had a little bit more of a nostalgic feeling," he explained of the spring show. So he jumped into studying the fashion of football, with more of an eye for twenties headgear than Tom Brady. "I thought, 'Oh I don't know that much about the history of American football. How did it come about? What did they used to wear as helmets?' The idea of leather heads — it brings you back into a different era, and looking at magazines or books you'd never look at."
Wang's fall collection also had a flavor of athleticism, by way of biker shorts. Though the $395 price tag on those have received a fair share of flack, Wang defended the pricing: "People look at that and go 'Oh, those are biker shorts.' But the yarn we use is from Italy, the technique is digital weaving, there's a lot that goes into product development that the consumer doesn't necessarily always understand. And for the people that do understand it, they do get into it, they buy it, and those are the people I'm speaking to. And there will always be people that don't understand what you're doing, but I'm not here to satisfy everyone."
Rather, Wang's target customers are those who sidestep obvious trends. "It's always interesting to see people wearing things out of context. Whether it's gym clothes, or whatever. It's very easy to see someone put on a $5,000 evening gown and look beautiful — that's a given. It's expensive fabric, there's beading, there's embroidery, and whatever. But if someone can put on a white T-shirt and look amazing, it's much harder. And when they make it work and they make it look amazing, that's when you know you have someone with a great sense of personal style."
Wang was unsure of what he would dress as for Halloween, but knew where he wanted to be. "I'll probably end up at some random rave in Brooklyn," he said. "I want to get as far away from the city as I can."
• Time Inc. is expected to announce plans to slash $100 million in costs next week; naturally, lots of layoffs will be involved in making that happen. [NYT] • The Wall Street Journal is closing its Boston bureau. Also in Beantown: The Boston Globe's publisher has announced he's stepping down. [BW, NYT] • The war between the White House and Fox News is over. For now. [DF] • Esquire's latest bid for relevance: Its December issue will be tricked out with "an emerging technology called augmented reality." Sounds hot. [WSJ] • Lou Dobbs says someone fired a shot at his New Jersey home/horse farm. He's yet to blame the population of Mexico. But just give it time. [CNN]
• More than half the people surveyed in a recent poll said they would not pay for newspaper or magazine content online. [E&P] • Canada's right-leaning National Post may close down on Friday. [NYT] • More Forbes carnage: The editor of ForbesLife has been laid off. [NYP] • NBC has canceled the medical drama Trauma. [LAT] • Jessica Biel has signed on to star in F***ing Engaged, "a raunchy comedy about a couple who make a pact to have sex every day." [THR] • Did you see that commercial for DirectTV featuring David Spade and a back-from-the-dead Chris Farley? Yea, well, Spade is sorry if you thought the whole thing was in poor taste. [Wrap]
Nobody ever talks about how Tripp Johnston has already gone full-frontal.
Because it's nearing the end of the day, and because it's just too embarrassing to write two posts in one day about the nudity of guys we fetishize, allow us to just collapse this into one post. Levi Johnston's awesome manager, Tank Jones, told TMZ earlier today that his buddy was, indeed, going to pose fully frontally nude for Playgirl.com. "Everything's gonna hang out," he said. "We're talking full Johnson." The shoot will be scheduled on November 16, the same day Sarah Palin is set to appear on Oprah.
In other nude, oddly-too-young-father news, OMG blog unearthed some saucy pictures of Matthew Settle, a.k.a. Rufus from Gossip Girl. We won't post them here, but let's just say the view is just as Vanessa always imagined it would be.
Before the recession, high-end denim was one of the fastest-growing markets. However, now that everyone's broke and afraid to spend money, prices have been forced down from about $300 for the best, most stylish stuff to around $200 for ultratrendy whiskered pants. Designers used to be able to charge what customers thought a garment was worth, even if it wasn't really worth said price. But the Times notes that jeans were among the first items customers realized designers were using to take advantage of them: "[I]t just felt more obvious that some kind of game was being played; the basic elements, after all, had not changed substantially in decades: five pockets, cotton, some rivets." And if you don't want to spend $200, you can get great jeans at Uniqlo for $40. [NYT]
How many valet parking attendants did it take to handle the (second) wedding party for Ivanka Trump and Jared Kushner at the Puck Building last night? Quite a few, clearly. What, no one has chauffeurs anymore? [Curbed]
We'll come clean with you, we haven't been active South Park viewers for the last few years. That's not to say Trey Parker and Matt Stone's work is anything less than whip-smart these days, it's just that we rarely venture south of the HD channels Time Warner graces us with. Anyway, similar to the Kanye West "Gay Fish" moment from earlier this spring, we would be hard-pressed to relay exactly how the following clip of Cartman singing along to a Guitar Hero version of "Poker Face" affects the narrative drive of the thirteenth season of the show. However, we can say with some authority that we prefer this version of the song to the YouTube smash from earlier this spring that shows a prepubescent girl singing "If it isn't rough, it isn't fun." Kudos, Cartman, we're sure even the noted Gaga interpreter Jude Law would approve of this rendition.
Aaron Carter didn't exactly get spanked by Karina Smirnoff because he's lacking in the Twilight appreciation department, but she did give him a good talkin'.
Earlier this...
Last night, Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher attended GQ's Gentlemen's Ball in New York. And they appear to have coordinated their ensembles. Demi highlighted her sternum with black-and-white bows, while Ashton highlighted his ankles with bunchy pants.
Are Slumdog Millionaire's youngest stars too cool for school?
The benefactors who set up a trust fund for youngsters Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina Ali to better their lives...
Front Page: 'Max' without Mel? New 'Fury' in Oz -- Charlize Theron is revving up for "Mad Max: Fury Road," with producer-director George Miller set to start filming next August in Australia.
James Coviello's vintage-inspired line now has its own vintage-inspired store. The designer, who worked extensively with Anna Sui on her accessories and first launched his eponymous label in 2000, opens his first stand-alone retail location at 70 Orchard Street on the Lower East Side this week. Not only will it stock his regular season's clothes, but also Coviello's limited-edition pieces, which will be exclusive to the store. He's even going so far as to fill special orders and custom designs — no reason why not, since his studio is located right behind the boutique. Inside the sliver-of-a-space store, tables are filled with vintage painted floral vases, and antique bell jars hold taxidermied birds inside, while walls are decked in floral green paper and stripe patterns from the forties. An open armoire housing trinkets, book, stationery, soaps, candles, and jewelry by some of the designer's favorite purveyors completes the cozy scene.
James Coviello, 70 Orchard St., nr. Grand St. (212-695-8082); daily (noon–8).
Earlier this week, Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. compared print media to the Titanic. "Even if the Titanic came in safely to New York Harbor, it was still doomed," he told us. "Twelve years earlier, two brothers invented the airplane." Last night at a lecture at the Columbia School of Journalism, Newsweek editor Jon Meacham warned students against such simple analogies. "Is this the telegraph to the telephone?" he asked. "Is this the telephone to the Internet? Is this the horse and buggy to, you know — you get lost in analogy land. It is certainly a transformation. But for one thing, [print] won't go away."
Later, we asked him to clarify. "We might be living in a world very soon where there is electronic paper, and that, yes, Newsweek is beamed to you and you look at the page and you push it and it comes and goes," Meacham said. "The idea that we would be so comfortable with iPods, etc., even five years ago, ten years ago, was fanciful. I think if we've learned anything in the information revolution starting in the late eighties going forward, it's that nothing should ever be dismissed as fanciful. The Jetsons were right."
But Meacham says that we might not quite be at the era of digital readers that print fatalists believe us to be. "Forgive my possibly overly facile analogy here, but when we are looking at the digital delivery of the printed word, we are kind of where the Sony Cassette Walkman was," he said. "There will be, I think, an interim step that will be a CD Walkman. And then it seems to me there's going to be an iPod."
In the fall of 2007, journalist Nona Willis Aronowitz and photographer Emma Bee Bernstein, friends from their New York City childhoods, packed a Chevy Cavalier and took off on a cross-country road trip. The mission was to take the temperature of twentysomething women around the country, specifically, to learn about their relationship to feminism and the word “feminist.” They butted heads with strangers, had some wild times in bars, and met many of their feminist idols, including the original riot grrl, Kathleen Hanna, who will read tonight at KGB in celebration of the publication of Girldrive: Crisscrossing America, Redefining Feminism. Willis Aronowitz spoke with Vulture about her Thelma & Louise–like adventure, and the book it inspired.
Is there a difference between feminism in New York and in the rest of the country?
Yes, very much so. New York feminism is awesome but the actual label doesn’t seem as important as it does in places where it’s conservative or economically struggling. In those places, it seems like a much stronger word in context to women who bump up against anti-feminist attitudes a lot.
Don’t you meet opposition in NYC?
Oh, of course. But it’s not the same as people screaming “baby killer” at you when you go to an abortion clinic elsewhere. In New York, people are more hesitant to be sexist in public. Except of course if you’re walking down the street, in which case, anything goes. I think in New York I’ve experienced the most catcalling I’ve ever experienced in my life.
Did the discussions ever get heated with any of the girls you talked to?
Well, it was harder to actually get into real debates with most conservative women we talked to, because it was kind of like, where do we even start? In the same way, we felt a lot more comfortable taking to task, for instance, this woman Lynn in New Orleans who is in the sex industry. She worked in a strip club and also worked in a sex-toy shop. We totally had a serious debate about sexuality and how it should play into feminism. I actually almost lost my interviewer cool.
You grew up with a visible feminist mom, Ellen Willis. How much of your feminism came from your mom and how much comes from your own life?
It comes from my mom, but not even because of her writing. She always let me know I could do whatever I wanted, and it was fine to take on some feminine or sexy qualities as long as I was self-aware.
The female road trip has a long history in the movies.
We always kind of played on Thelma & Louise, like, “ha-ha, who’s Thelma, who’s Louise?” And we were Thelma and Louise for Halloween. But we kind of wanted to revise this whole tragic-female thing going on. Never once did we get ourselves in a shitty situation in which we felt vulnerable as females.
Your trip wasn’t entirely without tragedy. You write in the book about your mom passing away. And I heard about Emma’s suicide not long after you returned to Chicago from the road trip. Can you talk about that at all?
It’s strange. In a way, the publication of Girldrive is bookended by two deaths, and two deaths of feminists. Emma and I decided to do this road trip over brunch, at which she and I met for the first time since my mom died. As for Emma, she had been suffering from serious depression for a long time. In some ways, she had always both reveled in and fought against the idea of the “tragic female” and I think feminism had saved her life many times in the past. But no “-ism” can save someone from major depression.
• Extra was kind enough to put together a free personal ad for Jessica Simpson. This is what she's looking for: "I definitely love a spiritual man...I can bore out pretty easily, so...
Tamara Mellon is rarely seen looking anything but cool, taut, and glamorous. But apparently beneath the surface of her Jimmy Choo empire — which is preparing to roll out a much-buzzed-about H&M line — lies turmoil. And that is: Homegirl has a lot of drama with her mom. Mellon is going to court next month in the Channel Islands (random) to testify in the $9.5 million lawsuit she filed against her mother, Ann Yeardye, WWD explains in an article hilariously titled "Mummy Dearest." Mellon accuses Yeardye of breach of contract in the sale of Jimmy Choo to Lion Capital in 2004. Apparently when the deal was made, mother and daughter made a partly verbal, partly written agreement about who would get what money. Mellon was supposed to get only stock and Yeardye was supposed to get only cash. But Yeardye allegedly made off with some of Mellon's stock and refused to return it when the error was discovered. The stock was worth $6.3 million. So, you know. Maybe you fight with your mom about showing too much cleavage at Rosh Hashanah dinner or boys you date or your Slutoween costume. But Tamara and her mom fight over $6.3 million. So sophisticated of them.
Front Page: Japanese vidgame giant's profits fall 52% -- Nintendo's bottom line has taken a beating from plunging sales and the recent price cut on its popular Wii console.
One of the amazing things about Ivanka Trump is that she manages to do so much stuff — you know, like "working" and "memoir-writing" and "being a Woman." People are really impressed by it, especially since this is a girl who has pulled herself up from nothing by her bootstraps. A couple of weeks ago, we heard a lady on the television ask Ivanka how she managed to function as a businessladysexsymbol. "How do you maintain a balance between a sense of self, some sense of femininity, while also being assertive enough, without being too aggressive?" she said. We didn't hear her exact answer because we were just like: Whoa, that sounds exhausting. And now, we have been informed via e-mail that in the aftermath of her wedding and her honeymoon in Africa, Ivanka has taken on yet another job.
"Now that Ivanka’s whirlwind wedding is over, she is helping future brides plan their big day by hosting an upscale, intimate bridal event at her flagship Madison Avenue store. The event, taking place on Thursday, November 12 from 5-7 PM, will be an intimate gathering for brides-to-be and will showcase New York’s “hidden gems” in bridal beauty, fashion and accessories. The purpose of the event is help brides-to-be sort through the clutter of options and provide an exclusive preview of the upcoming 2010 wedding season."
Wow. To do everything she does and selflessly help others like that? That is truly amazing.
Congrats! The website Total Beauty has concluded that New York is America's "vainest" city. The proof? Residents here spend more on hair coloring, skin care, makeup and hair growth products than those in every other city in America. But we save on food, so it all works out! [Total Beauty via NYM]
Comedian Nick Kroll is one of those hyperactive UCB grads who pops up everywhere from Funny or Die shorts to Reno 911, but he truly won Vulture’s heart when he played Nick, a Neanderthal trying to make his way through a modern world in ABC's tragically short-lived 2007 sitcom Cavemen. Next up for him is The League, an FX comedy premiering tonight, about guy friends in suburban Chicago with a highly competitive fantasy-football league. Kroll spoke to Vulture about improvising, what you can't say on TV, and peppermint tea.
I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but there was a lot of love for Cavemen at the nymag.com office.
You guys were better to us than anywhere else! I don’t know if I ever thanked you. The whole thing was an amazing learning experience from start to finish. I learned how to act on that show, how to deal with criticism, and met some really good friends. And I still very much stand behind the work we did. But I can’t say that I’m not upset that I don't have to swab on a ton of makeup every morning.
The League is described as semi-improvised. Is it the Curb Your Enthusiasm format, with just the outlines?
It’s the same exact format. Often they give us lines they want us to say, but it leaves a lot of room. Setups don’t take as long, it doesn’t take as long to turn things around, and there are always three cameras going on, so that things organically can happen. These are all good questions by the way. You should be very pleased with yourself.
Thank you. Since it’s FX, are you allowed more leeway with what you can and can’t say?
I think we’re allowed to say "shit," I think we’re not allowed to say "fuck" directly to camera. I think occasionally you can’t say "retard" or something like that. Oh, well. I’m never like, I can’t believe we can’t say that! I’m almost always like, I can’t believe we can say that! But it’s not always the words, it’s the content that’s edgy. But it’s also me talking to a baby, saying I’m gonna go balls deep in my friends.
What’s your own sports background?
I’ve always watched games. Originally, I played soccer, basketball, and baseball. And then I slowly discovered women and narcotics, and eventually just became a soccer player, 'cause soccer players got to have long hair and I thought that was cool. And now in L.A., I hike. I’m striving to become a cliché.
How’d you end up getting the part?
[Creators] Jeff and Jackie Schaffer — he was formerly the showrunner on Curb — they really did their homework to figure out which young improv actors would elevate the material. And I sat down with them, and I don’t remember when it was, but I do remember I was drinking a peppermint tea and I thought I was gonna get a free breakfast, but I didn’t.
Were there any concerns that a show about fantasy football would be restricted to a niche audience?
Everyone’s striving to find a show where guys talk like guys. But it’s always guys who talk like guys … in a space station! Or guys who talk like guys … in a Nascar pit! Or guys who talk like guys ’cause they’re in a fantasy-football league together. Basically fantasy football is a way for men to insult one another’s masculinity over the Internet, and we have continued that tradition.
Your father, Jules Kroll, a pioneer in “corporate intelligence” who has chased down dictators, was just profiled in The New Yorker. Was it weird doing comedy coming from a background like that?
I think my dad looks at what I do as entrepreneurial, and so I think he gets a kick out of seeing me build a business and build products and be my own sort of boss. And so it’s obviously very different from what my dad does. I don’t think world leaders are terribly frightened of me. But I think the sort of entrepreneurial spirit of taking chances and creating your own opportunities is something that I learned from him. And more important, what I respect most about my dad is the way he treats people, so no matter how successful he became, he still knew everyone’s names, he knew every one of my friend’s names, he treats everyone with respect. And I have taken that lesson from him. Was that the kind of schmaltz you were looking for?
Three of 34 looks from Celine's resort collection.
Phoebe Philo's outstanding debut collection for Celine hits stores on November 17. Chic and beautifully constructed, these pieces are also totally wearable. Here are five reasons we love her clothes:
1. This resort collection thankfully isn't for the beach. It's buy now, wear now. What a concept!
2. Get in on the khaki military trend early.
3. These aren't flash-in-the-pan items. The pieces are meant to last in your wardrobe.
4. Good old separates finally return as mix-and-match — which is how we really dress.
5. Even the dresses are "normal," and not silly evening gowns.
$350 to $5,000 at Barneys New York, 660 Madison Ave., at 61st St. (212-826-8900); M–F (10–8), S (10–7), Su (11–6).
Hedge fund mogul Raj Rajaratnam managed to post $100 million in bail, but his lawyer asked a judge today to reduce it to $25 million as well as given Rajaratnam permission to "travel freely in the contiguous 48 states." How else is he going to enjoy his country house in Connecticut and condo in Florida while he's still a free man? [NYT, WSJ]
Is the Alan Colmes show going on the road? The host of the eponymous radio show and former liberal half of Fox News’s Hannity & Colmes is selling his two-bedroom, two-bath triplex penthouse. It’s fairly swanky, with fourteen-foot ceilings, a solarium, and a private terrace. Streeteasy.com records show the apartment, located in the famed Silk Building (where Britney Spears once lived), first hit the market in March with a $1.995 million price tag, three months after his tenure with Hannity ended. But it was pulled in early September, only to come back weeks later with a $45,000 discount. It's now been reduced further, to $1.895 million. Corcoran’s Margaret Heffernan, who reps the listing, had no comment.
SKIN
• TotalBeauty.com named New York City the vainest city in the country because New Yorkers spend $21 million on hair coloring, $32.5 million on skin care, and $5.5 million on makeup. New York also has the second-highest number of hair-restoration surgeons. Los Angeles came in fifth. [Total Beauty]
FRAGRANCE
• Reese Witherspoon is running around New York this week promoting her new fragrance, In Bloom for Avon. She says the scent captures her feelings right now, "strong and independent, and so happy, so full of life." Why do we get the feeling another celebrity (or five) has said the same thing about their new scents? [Just Jared]
PLASTIC SURGERY
• Plastic surgeons are increasingly marketing "redo" face-lifts and nose jobs to people who want to fix past botched cosmetic surgeries. [NYT]
HAIR
• Katy Perry wore her hair in poufy tight curls with bows to film an MTV commercial, a look that seems inspired by the Afro wigs spotted on the Louis Vuitton spring 2010 runway. [Beauty Counter/Style.com]
MAKEUP
• Six real women tried on trendy black lipstick and had very different reactions. One said she felt tough enough to cut in line, another said she looked too Twilight-inspired, and another said she actually loved the look. [BellaSugar]
• M.A.C. Cosmetics filmed how-to videos for Halloween that teach you how to paint your face like a zebra, comic book, skeleton, or deck of cards. [Makeup Minute/Splendicity]
If Goldman Sachs wants to redeem its reputation, it would have to donate "at least $1 billion" to charity, says billionaire Pete Peterson. "'Only a donation that size would 'have much resonance in the public,' Peterson, the 83-year-old co-founder of Blackstone Group LP, the world's largest private-equity company, said in an interview in New York yesterday." Fair enough. But we're thinking Peterson might need to rename a concert hall or build a new hospital if he expects us to not immediately think of his fame-obsessed grandson every time we hear the name "Peterson." [Bloomberg]
Actress Patricia Clarkson (L) and actor Alexander Siddig arrive to attend the screening of the film 'Amelia' at the Museum of Islamic Art during the opening night of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pm
Egyptian veteran comedian Adel Imam arrives to attend the screening of the film 'Amelia' at the Museum of Islamic Art during the opening night of the Doha Tribeca Film Festival in the Qatari capital. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 2:38 pm
I never thought I’d find a replacement for my pair of “World’s Largest Natural Gas Supplier” novelty underwear (hehehe… natural gas supplier… it’s really my farts, is what it is!)
But now you can get R-Pats closer to your discovery zone than ever before with these new Robert Pattinson briefs!
I kept trying to write a wrap-up-the-post one liner-y joke after these pictures but kept deleting them, because there’s not much you can say to add humor to a pair of underwear with Robert Pattinson’s face on it.
I’m not saying the vampire craze is gonna die out anytime soon, but this thing HAS to be the absolute peak of it, right? And if it’s not, then God help us all…
Hillary Clinton won't be dressing up for Halloween. (But don't let that stop you from dressing up as Hillary, if you'd like.) When we called Secretary Clinton's press office in Washington, DC, and explained our request, the incredulous woman at the other end of the line said she'd have to get back to us. We later got a call from a press representative from the State Department. "Unfortunately, she's not going to be here to celebrate Halloween," he said. "She's traveling overseas in Asia and won't be back until the first week of November." So will she be dressing up overseas? "Um, I couldn't say," he replied. (MF)
When news broke on Tuesday that the ring of cat burglars behind a succession of celebrity home robberies wasn’t composed of hardened criminals but, allegedly, four teenagers, we assume everyone had the same reaction we did: Is this for real? Plenty of sensational stories come out of Hollywood, but it's rare that the people who star in movies and TV shows find themselves actually living lead roles in a true-crime story that sounds like it was written for them. Our brains hurt just trying to follow that logic through the looking glass; suddenly, we're smack in the middle of an era where not only is truth stranger than fiction, but the two are so closely interwoven that we half expect to wake up tomorrow and find out that Chuck Bass is real and dating Tinsley Mortimer.
Consider it: Lauren Conrad is executive-producing a movie based on the quasi-fictional book she wrote about her actual experiences on a mostly made-up TV show. We've spent a week or two tracking the exploits of a kid whose seemingly real runaway-balloon tragedy turned out to be a fake crisis but a real ploy for a TV show based on the fakery. The supposedly true shenanigans of the teen cat burglars already reads like a synopsis for a far-fetched screenplay: A gaggle of girls is accused of masterminding a nearly yearlong crime spree — which investigators suspect has yielded millions of dollars in stolen goods — in which the girls allegedly used their addiction to magazines and gossip blogs to case the various celebrity joints via photographs. It’s like Sugar and Spice meets Ocean’s Eleven, with a dash of The Babysitters Club's entrepreneurial spirit and a soupçon of Robin Hood. Except that it actually happened. To the likes of Megan Fox and Lindsay Lohan, among others. Which is where the suspicion of fiction comes in: For a long time, rumors flew that LiLo faked these break-ins for attention, or had been burgled by drug dealers to whom she was in debt. Bizarrely, all of those fabrications seemed every bit as plausible as the Tale of the Trellis-Climbing Teens that's currently making the rounds.
In fact, as juicy as the inevitable movie based on the Hollywood Burglar Bunch is bound to be, it seems that unless they add a dying sibling whose brain fog can only be cured by eating the second hand of a purloined Cartier watch, a dramatized silver-screen send-up wouldn't hold a candle to the way it has unfolded in actual fact. Especially when said facts include the collusion of a guy who calls himself "Johnny Dangerous" (we know, we didn't think people pulled stuff like that in real life, either). It's too perfect: Every merry band of criminals needs a Jean Valjean — someone doing the wrong thing for the right reasons — and conveniently, here we have the one teen thief whose family reportedly was so hard up for cash, the parents pinned their hopes on getting her into a percolating reality show about aspiring actresses, all while she allegedly stole from established ones (and landed a different kind of reality show: Prison Blues, 90210). Of course, any treatment for this story would probably correct the most dramatically amusing and surprising fact of all: The girls didn't rob anyone with actual taste. Okay, victim Rachel Bilson's wardrobe is plenty covetable, but no notes-giving studio exec is going to believe four teens would risk their freedom for Audrina Patridge's ripped jeans, a pair of Lindsay's knee-padded leggings, or anything belonging to Paris Hilton, except maybe some hand sanitizer. What did they think Brian Austin Green would have lying around — several copies of his rap CD and a David Silver action figure? It's more plausible that he'd hand over the keys and beg them to finally take that stuff off his hands. When the adaptation of all this incredible malarkey starts making the rounds, TMZ should probably get a story credit.
Obviously, we don’t advocate thievery. Don't break the law, kids: Stay in school, don't do drugs, don't be stalkers, etc. But considering the world's ravenous appetite for a good old-fashioned semi-true tale of probably real events that sound too crazy to be legit, we just hope these accused cat burglars have good lawyers — both for any criminal charges, and to sell their life rights. And then maybe when they get out of prison, they can write a tell-all book about what it was like to be incarcerated for their misguided teen crimes, someone will make a TV series out of it, they’ll get rich, then some enterprising hooligans can steal their silverware, and the cycle can start all over again.
Tonight, at 9 PM ET, I’ll be making my “News Expert” debut on The Joy Behar Show, which you can see on HLN. The producer told me the taping is kind of like a “Wacky Dinner Party with Joy”, i.e. My Life Long Dream Come True. I’ll also be on with Andy Borowitz, the creator of The Fresh Prince of Bel Air, who will no doubt tell me all the details about the upcoming show’s movie. (Hopefully, Carlton will finally agree to be in it.) See youuuu xoxo.
Ellen von Unwerth on her favorite photo: "I took this maybe three years ago, on a fashion shoot for Italian Vogue. We developed a romantic story to go with it: a woman comes back to the place where she grew up, and finds it all dusty and falling apart. We shot it in a chateau in Paris. The girl was a model, and it was the only time I worked with her. After this, she disappeared. She was from eastern Europe, Romania maybe, and even the agency couldn't find her again. So she's like a ghost. The picture certainly has a ghostly feeling." [Guardian UK]
Did someone really think it would be a good idea to have Katie Couric dress up in various ball gowns for the socialite rag Avenue? Apparently so!
Looking sexy is not my goal when I'm at work. In fact, I find it disconcerting when anchors on cable look like they're going clubbing or just won a VMA award. I have nothing against them, but it's kind of an over-sexualization that I find a little weird. I don't know if their male bosses are pushing it, but there's a fine line between attractive and tarty, and sometimes I look up and and think, "She's wearing a cocktail dress. Why is she doing that?"
Ironically, "Why is she doing that?" is exactly the same question we had, too, as we looked at the photos of bejeweled anchor and read the accompanying interview conducted by renowned journalist Mariska Hargitay. [Avenue]
Kate Moss's Christmas collection for Topshop went on sale this morning. The silk Oriental Kimono has sold out. But you can still get a completely see-through Vintage Rose Teddy (100 percent viscose!) for $100. [Official site]
Here’s a couple we can truly get behind: Country superstar Taylor Swift and equally squinty eyed New Moon star Taylor Lautner (more like Tautner with that underaged body of his, right ladies? Officer, JK.)
But what we can’t help but notice is that these two look… how do we say?… EX-F**KING-ACTLY ALIKE. It’s crazy. Taylor Swift is just Taylor Lautner plus Real Housewives weave, skin bleaching and color contacts. They’re resemblance is so uncanny that it only took us MERE MINUTES to make this following Teen Wolf like GIF of their resemblance:
So if the theory that we tend to date people we look like holds any water, we’d like to wish these two a long, happy, super-accurately visioned life together.
This is a Recap of Top Chef Season 6, Episode 10, “Meat Natalie,” originally airing October 28th, 2009. If you read on, spoilers will be spoiled faster than Robin spoils the show’s watchability when she’s in a camera shot.
– For the second straight week, “Let’s go to the M Resort” wasn’t spoken by anyone, it was just random audio dropped in over footage of the chefs leaving the house. Clearly, the show agreed to mention the M Resort by name in every episode, realized that there was no not-awkward way to do this, and just have a cameraman mutter “let’s go to the M Resort” in a Bryan imitation voice over footage where you can’t see anyone’s mouth.
– For the Quickfire, chefs were given a classic tv show and had to put their spin on the traditional tv dinner. The chefs then talk about how they grew up on tv dinners (what a HUGE advantage!) and how unfamiliar they are with the shows (”oh man I’ve never seen Gilligan’s Island — how am I gonna cook an island-themed meal if I don’t know what The Professor did in Episode 2F09, ‘Hula Parrot’??”)
– Also, “Spin on the traditional tv dinner” meant “Cooking three things and putting them in compartments.” Really made me want to subscribe to TV Guide Magazine.
– I literally do not know how Michael Isabella could have lived his life without seeing an episode of frickin’ Seinfeld. Whenever he’s near a television, does he just close his eyes and ears, ball up, and roll away screaming?
– I was disappointed that none of the shows were completely terrible theme choices, aside from Seinfeld and maybe The Flintstones. I really wanted one dude to be like, “Pepper Dennis?? Oh sh*t. Guess I’ll make something with pepper.”
After the jump, Eliminator, the ZZ Top album:
– Wow, how’d Top Chef manage to book a challenge in Craft Steak? Must know someone.
– Jen, calm down. You’re good at cooking. Eli, Robin, and Michael I. are not good at cooking. Just cook normally and you will cook better than them. Losing Top Chef 12 weeks in isn’t as embarrassing as spilling veggie sauce on Natalie Portman’s entourage.
– Could they have possibly set up the “no meat” twist any more obviously? It was already obvious from the preview clip last week of Natalie Portman saying “I have one request” and everyone being shocked, then the episode was called “Meat Natalie,” then the chefs spent 10 hours talking about the meat they would definitely be cooking, then they were let into the meat locker before even being given the challenge, and then BOOM! You can not in fact cook meat oh snap! That was such an unexpected twist, M. Night Shyamalan should’ve been the guest (he only eats meals that are twists).
– Michael Isabella has 60 G-D dishes on his restaurant menu? Is he the chef at a 24-hour diner? Though I guess that would explain a lot…
– Michael also came through with the inspirational quote of the night: “Gold medals are lost in the last six minutes of competition when people change their mind.” So true! The 200m is always lost when a runner decides with only 6 minutes to go in the 20 second race that he’s gonna run the other direction.
– Padma elicited some giggles when she described the garlic as being like “A little prick on the tip of my tongue.” I wish there was some way to see everyone at the table simultaneously thinking “Don’t make a Salman Rushdie joke, don’t make a Salman Rushdie joke…”
– Regardless, Kevin – the meatiest meater that ever meated — wins the Quickfire then the Elimination Challenge and manages to hold back the tears when he receives a suite of GE appliances with which to cook his own Schwann’s frozen dinner. Talk about the high life — the dude’s practically living in a rap video at this point.
– Not that it’s been particularly difficult this season, but I called Michael’s departure less than halfway through the episode for my seventh straight correct elimination prediction, yelling it out loud in a room of no other people. Can I somehow make money off this pointless talent? Other than the $20 a week I’m making now, I mean?
– Robin stays on the show another week after giving this frantic, rambly explanation of her dish:
– The show hasn’t done anything Vegasy in a while. What happened to, like, forcing the chefs to cook playing cards with slot machines?
Updated Power Rankings
1) Kevin – I feel like he’s gonna emerge from the brothers scuffle to take this thing; he’s too good of a chef, too likable, and too memorable to lose to Robot A or Robot A.1.
2) Michael V – I really get the sense that the show’s setting him up to be the Stefan A-Hole runner-up (they tried the same thing with Richard the season before but he was too nice). Michael’s comment about “I could’ve made Kevin’s dish in 20 minutes” is the stuff of future comeuppance-getters.
3) Bryan V – He’s, whatever.
4) Jen – She received one of the most damning evaluations ever from Tom, who explained “We’ve seen chefs this late in the competition get tired and psychologically they start falling apart.” I’m not sure when Top Chef became Full Metal Jacket, but after seeing Jen’s nerves these past two weeks, she seems more likely to shoot Tom from a toilet than to win this thing.
Next To Go) Robin, Eli. Doy.
Next Week On Top Chef:Toby Young believes that a chef has taken a Vegas gamble and lost, just like Tom Cruise in the movie Rain Main (is probably what he says after that).
Episode thoughts? Reactions? Favorite/Least Favorite parts? Robin stuff? Finals predictions? TV Shows you would have liked to have seen in the Quickfire? Leave it all in the comments.
AP - Like most drivers, I don't think much about how my car gets me from point A to point B. The idea of fiddling with my Nissan Sentra's engine, brakes or suspension is as appealing as being stuck in traffic. About the only thing I can do to my car is fill it with gas.
To gear up for tonight’s Office episode, here’s the advanced release of the new Subtle Sexuality (feat. ‘Nard Dog) music video, “Male Prima Donna”.
As funny as the pitch-correctedness and ridiculous rhymes in this Kelly / Erin / Andy / Ryan video are, it’s baaaaaaarely an exaggeration of an actual radio-ready pop song. I’m still humming it to myself (…my rhymes bite like piranhas….)
Being Hungarian has its advantages. We cook good meats there.* That’s it. That’s the only advantage. Otherwise, we’re pretty screwed. Our homeland ranks in the top 3 European nations for alcoholism, depression and suicide. Many people blame these statistics on the fact that Hungary is a landlocked nation, where the natives speak one of the most difficult languages in the world. I used to be one of those people.
Until today. Because it seems the real reason for all those drunken self-offings might be this: The Hungarian Ventriloquists Chorus.
Any country that would allow these people on television is truly evil… with genius. Now where’s the f*cking prune brandy at?
*Wait!! We also invented the Rubik’s Cube! Mmmyay.
Sure, Kate Gosselin made it clear on Ellen yesterday she is still in denial about how much the TLC show ruined her life. At least she knew when she was with child, unlike the lady on last night’s I Didn’t Know I Was Pregnant. Host Natasha Leggero saddles up to bring you those moments and more on a new episode of Best Day Ever:
Reverend Martin Weskott poses for a photo in his office in the northern German city of Katlenburg in 2008. Some 50,000 books are crammed in the barn where parishioners and treasure-hunters are welcome... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am
Reverend Martin Weskott poses for a photo in his office in the northern German city of Katlenburg in 2008. For nearly 20 years, Weskott has been saving books printed in the former East Germany from the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am
A display of books by Marie NDiaye at a bookstore in Caen. This year's hot tip to take home the Goncourt is French-Senegalese writer Marie NDiaye for a three-part stream of consciousness tale weaving the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 10:11 am
What do you do when you’re a reality show abortion with 8 peanut sized babies, brand new lips and a slew of paparazzi outside? Put them in little devil costumes and just laugh. Laugh and laugh and laugh and laugh. It’s huhluhluhlarious!!
Wait, only, hol’ up. Babies, why you cryin?? It’s a joke, cammannnnn. Don’t be like that babies! Here, have some candy.
In other news, Octomom’s neighbors? Super psyched about life. The only way we could even forgive this woman for trick or treating is if she rang each doorbell 9 times.
We’ve always had a soft spot for Patrick Dempsey, mainly because he was the star of Loverboy, a movie about a pizza delivery boy that slept with his customers which basically amounted to the first pornographic film mine pre-teen eyes had ever witnessed. Then Dempsey went through puberty (somewhere in his late 20s), started graying, got the lead in a hit tv medical drama, and became known to most by his catchy new nickname: McDreamy.
But Dempsey clearly had had enough. Sick of being known only for his looks and not for his ever giving river of talent, McDreemz decided to shock the world this week on Good Morning America. Armed with three bowling pins, we meet McJuggly, Dempsey’s juggling alter ego. In the course of 20 or so seconds, McJuggz raised about $20,000 for charity. Fast forward to 4:30 to see his party trick in action.
The above video really brought out that latent Dempsey love that’s been toiling away since the Loverboy days. But not like the below video of McJuggly… WHICH IS AMAZING IN EVERY WAY.
If you’re gonna virally promote a video, Spike Jonze, you might as well give the people what they want, and that means slapping Kanye West really hard across the face.
I’d make a “Greatest slapper of ALL TIME” joke, but I’m even tired of using that meme ironically. Which only adds to the catharsis…
Reuters - Looks like the world has missed one helluva concert. Whatever cynicism one might harbor about the Hail Mary piece of cinema "This Is It" -- which can be called the first concert rehearsal movie ever -- what this strange yet strangely beguiling film does is capture one of pop culture's great entertainers in the feverish grips of pure creativity.
Oscar winning actor and political activist Sean Penn during visit to Cuba, October 26. Penn may film a movie in Venezuela, according to the country's firebrand President Hugo Chavez. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 29 Oct 2009 | 4:34 am
• Lost: Press play above to see the first teaser trailer for the final season of Lost. There's no new footage, but we got goosebumps just the same. (In other Lost news, 24 producer Jon...
Crisis averted. After we fans got our first glimpse at True Blood season three earlier this week, there was widespread concern that werewolf Alcide Herveaux, a major fan fave character from the...
This easy rider has a tough ride ahead.
Dennis Hopper is battling prostate cancer, according to the actor's manager, and will be cancelling all upcoming travel plans to focus on...
Is Michael Jackson's This Is It only in theaters for two weeks to get fans into a frenzy or to have the DVD out on time for the holiday season?
—James L., via...
Michael Jackson's This Is It wasn't the only big hit for MJ's estate this week.
John Landis, who directed the King of Pop's Thriller video, producer George Folsey Jr. and...
Aaron Carter didn't exactly get spanked by Karina Smirnoff because he's lacking in the Twilight appreciation department, but she did give him a good talkin'.
Earlier this...
Are Slumdog Millionaire's youngest stars too cool for school?
The benefactors who set up a trust fund for youngsters Azharuddin Mohammed Ismail and Rubina Ali to better their lives...
• Extra was kind enough to put together a free personal ad for Jessica Simpson. This is what she's looking for: "I definitely love a spiritual man...I can bore out pretty easily, so...
Hillary Clinton won't be dressing up for Halloween. (But don't let that stop you from 
– For the second straight week, “Let’s go to the M Resort” wasn’t spoken by anyone, it was just random audio dropped in over footage of the chefs leaving the house. Clearly, the show agreed to mention the M Resort by name in every episode, realized that there was no not-awkward way to do this, and just have a cameraman mutter “let’s go to the M Resort” in a Bryan imitation voice over footage where you can’t see anyone’s mouth.
– Also, “Spin on the traditional tv dinner” meant “Cooking three things and putting them in compartments.” Really made me want to subscribe to TV Guide Magazine.
– Wow, how’d Top Chef manage to book a challenge in Craft Steak? Must know someone.
– Padma elicited some giggles when she described the garlic as being like “A little prick on the tip of my tongue.” I wish there was some way to see everyone at the table simultaneously thinking “Don’t make a Salman Rushdie joke, don’t make a Salman Rushdie joke…”
Updated Power Rankings
