Reuters - Google and the Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive online library on Friday in hopes of answering antitrust and copyright concerns in the United States and overseas.
Reuters - Google and the Authors Guild filed a new version of a deal to create a massive online library on Friday in hopes of answering antitrust and copyright concerns in the United States and overseas.
AP - Actor Denzel Washington was playing proud father as he cheered on his son Malcolm's first game with the University of Pennsylvania basketball team.
Authorities have announced charges against the owner of a beauty clinic that allegedly performed a botched buttock job on Mexican rock star Alejandra Guzman. The charges against... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 9:14 pm
Zsa Zsa Gabor's lawyer blames convicted swindler Bernard Madoff for a hefty tax bill owed by his client. According to documents obtained by The Associated Press on Friday, the Internal... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 8:38 pm
Court documents say the estate of Adam "DJ AM" Goldstein is suing several defendants for wrongful death. Goldstein sustained serious injuries in a plane crash in September 2008 in South... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 6:27 pm
EDMONTON - The Edmonton elephant at the centre of a tug of war between the city and animal rights activists will be getting a treatment program aimed at improving her breathing capacity,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 6:24 pm
Struggling movie studio Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Inc. is looking for a buyer. The home of the James Bond and Pink Panther franchises said Friday it has begun to explore strategic options... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 6:18 pm
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• Just in time for the cold wave, a list of bars with heated outdoor spaces. [GS] • Great Jones Cafe is the latest restaurant to sustain fire damage. [Eater] • A report from last night's preview of OBAO, Michael Huynh's latest spot. [SE] • Trader Joe's has signed a lease at Sixth Avenue and 22nd Street. [NYO] • Artichoke has the go-ahead to open a meatpacking district outpost. [CN] • Ten dirty restaurant tricks to make you queasy. [Slashfood] • Mayor Bloomberg says he's psyched about the food scene in Brooklyn. [NYP]
Brandi Glanville wants things done a certain way from here on out.
Saying she quit working at Eddie Cibrian's request back when they were dating, the stay-at-home mom is demanding...
Just as he has with so many other women, Robert Pattinson has become a full-fleged citizen of Stephenie Meyer's fantasy world.
The usually press-shy author who gave life to Bella,...
We all love Banana Republic’s timeless basics and stylish seasonal collections, and this Wednesday, the Soho flagship store reopened after a major revamp. All of the 18,000 square feet have been overhauled to make shopping easier and much more fun, with large sections devoted to special collections and accessories, and strings of lights casting a glow on the space. The circular front section of the store is dedicated to Monogram, the limited-edition collection, where we found several chic dresses, tops, and bombers. Toward the back of the store, next to the classic Heritage collection’s washed scarves and denim, is a large corner devoted to the company’s jewelry line. The sparkly rhinestone pieces and stacks of bangles are displayed on vintage books in a cozy boutique setting. Up the grand open concrete staircase, on the second floor, lays menswear, where areas of shoes, sunglasses, and tables of apparel overlook Broadway through large glass windows. We stopped by the beautiful, well-stocked new Banana Republic store on opening day to pick out our favorite items.
Cindy Crawford's nanny was apparently mixing it up with the wrong kind of guy.
Court documents show that Edis Kayalar, who's accused of trying to extort more than $100,000 from...
As a general rule, shows without Law & Order in the title don't need a ninth season. By the time a...
We hear from multiple sources that Budget Travel, the popular discount-vacation magazine, is shutting down, and that the announcement will be made to the press on Monday. Apparently, the offices of the title, which is owned by the Washington Post Company, are already emptying out. The company had a 33 percent drop in revenue for their magazine division in the most recent quarter, compared to the third quarter last year — but they attributed it publicly to losses in ad revenue at Newsweek. Budget Travel, which was founded by travel legend Arthur Frommer, is run by the Newsweek group. We have a call in to reps for the magazine for confirmation, and will update if we hear back. (Editor-in-chief Nina Willdorf replied to our inquiry only with: "Heading out of town. Can't talk. You can call me Monday.") If it's true, this is very sad — for readers, for employees, and for all of us — that people can't even afford to travel on a budget anymore.
Last night, the magnificent Daphne Guinness went to an event for Nars cosmetics wearing spring 2010 Alexander McQueen, complete with the infamous Alien shoes. Amazingly, she did not fall. But the most extreme of footwear is nothing new for the heiress, who recently also went out in the fall 2009 heel-less Nina Riccis. No, no shoe is too high for this fashion wonder. Her podiatrist must do a brisk business off her alone. Behold her heavenly, probably torturous footwear in the slideshow.
The First Lady spoke at a White House event addressing women's health care today wearing a yellow outfit from J.Crew. It's the same combination she wore last year on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno, except this time she added a wide belt. See the full look in the Michelle Obama Look Book.
Ordinary People:Socialite and heiress Daphne Guinness and transsexual superstar Amanda Lepore at last night's launch for NARS 15X15, a new book by makeup mogul François Nars.
In the Washington Post today, contributing Vulture Dan Kois takes a bold four-star stance on Roland Emmerich's mostly maligned apocalypse comedy 2012, single-handedly raising the film's Metascore at least a couple of points: "In an era in which Hollywood seems unable to execute even the most uncomplicated formulas, the ones that used to come easily, 2012 is, pardon the expression, a revelation. It gets everything right." [WP]
"To be honest, they are not my favorite," Anna Wintour says of harem pants in The Wall Street Journal. She's not the only one who won't be seen in them. M.C Hammer, né Stanley Burrell, who brought them back in the eighties to much fanfare, won't even talk about them.
Mr. Burrell declined to comment. His publicist said he's trying to redefine himself as a social-media expert, and, as such, is distancing himself from the pants.
However, despite Mr. Burrell and Anna's denouncement of the pants, they are catching on. Even though they're awkward and make most people look like they are hiding vegetables in their bottoms. They were all over the spring 2010 runways and are seen in increasing concentration on the streets of New York.
There are two kinds of harem-pant wearers. Serious Harem People, like Maggie Betts, who wore a $400 silk pair to a fancy family dinner:
"I feel like I look very chic in my harem pants," says Ms. Betts, 34 years old, of one of this fall's hottest fashion trends. "Anybody who makes fun of me doesn't know the truth and is a loser."
And Attention Whore Harem People, who get sick thrills out of looking absurd.
Jennifer Eddy, 33, says her friends find the look to be horrifying. Regardless, the Los Angeles-based film director's assistant can't wait to buy a pair. Ms. Eddy, who likes the fact that they are different from anything she already has in her closet, says her friends' insults "just put more fuel in my fire."
So if you are tired of these ridiculous pants, do not pay attention to people in them. Hold your head high and walk by these self-absorbed hooligans with a steely gaze fixed straight in front of you. Do not give them the satisfaction of gawking. Or, wear giant sunglasses, stare, and allow, without facial expression, those wonderfully entertaining judgmental thoughts to flow through your brain.
Larry King might be long in the tooth, but the lovable ol' crank still has what it takes to get an ex-beauty queen mad at him.
Which, in the case of Carrie Prejean, isn't...
Over at the Sheraton Towers in midtown today, assorted tourists and gawkers were checking out a preview of the auction of belongings the U.S. Marshals had seized from the estate of Bernard Madoff, which will be officially for sale at 10 a.m. tomorrow. The bulk of the things on offer is jewelry belonging to Ruth Madoff, and the Ponzi schemer's famed Rolex collection, which was laid out in well-lit cases alongside the various other trinkets Feds have seized in recent years, including a "grill" mouthpiece studded with rhinestones and tiny rose-gold crosses and a fourteen-karat, diamond-studded pendant reading "4 Life or Death." "How would you like that?" a stubby gentleman asked the woman with him, a tall, Louis Vuitton–toting blonde. They both laughed.
The Madoff cache was the main attraction. The rest of the family's belongings were set up off to the side, in little vignettes, like displays in a Museum of Once-Happy Families. Art, sculptures, and assorted wooden furniture were grouped together in a homey way, while the more outdoorsy things — a boogie board with "Madoff" scrawled on it in Sharpie, a life preserver from one of the family yachts, golf tees, a couple of polo shirts embroidered with the BLMIS logo — were arranged jauntily together. And then there were the personal effects, which mostly belonged to Ruth: handbags, belts, a couple of pairs of boots, a row of fur coats in plastic bags. Looking at them felt strange, like rifling through someone's closet without their permission. Which, in a way, we were. "It looks like it's never been used," one of the women working the show marveled to a potential buyer of a Chanel handbag. "Can you imagine?" She shook her head. "I'm a very private person," she said. "Even if I did something really wrong, I wouldn't think it was right for people to go through all my things, judging me." At least they weren't selling off the contents of the Madoffs underwear drawer, we joked. Her eyes widened. "No, they are," she said. "We aren't selling it here, but they have all of it. They have everything."
Kate Moss gets down-to-earth in WWD today. She reveals that when she's in the country she makes her own jam! Of her mottos, she says, "There’s 'Nothing tastes as good as skinny feels.' That’s one of them. You try and remember, but it never works." [WWD]
Over the past week, I’ve noticed that my DVR has been strangely full to the point where I have to delete like three things just about every time I record anything. Last night, I vowed to unearth the root of this problem, and it only took me about four seconds to figure out what had happened:
I Season-Passed the Ken Burns “National Parks” PBS Documentary Series last month. In HD. And designated it “Save Until Manually Deleted.”
This was tying up roughly… 99.9999999999% of the total space on my DVR, and yet, as I stared at the episode descriptions, I could not in good conscience delete something that I not only was positive I’d love, but that also seemed so literate and valuable compared to the rest of the stuff I usually DVR (e.g., regular season NHL games, every HBO series regardless of how behind I am, and funny one-second things that happened during NFL broadcasts that I can’t bring myself to erase). I know I’ll never delete National Parks for this exact reason, but I also know that I’ll NEVER decide that it’s time to start watching this 1,000-hour commercial-free documentary about land. I’m resigned to having it on my DVR until the end of time.
This brings me to our question for the weekend:
What is your all-time worst DVR space taker-upper?
Movie you never felt like watching? Entire series you know you’ll like but never got around to starting? Memorable event that you just save on your DVR forever out of principle? Ken Burns’ National Parks documentary? And if you don’t have Tivo or a DVR, then…wow. Get one.
Have you heard that some whiny men are now asking/demanding that their wives-to-be give them a "man-gagement" ring before getting married? According to a poll conducted by Brides.com (which may or may not have been funded by the jewelry industry), 45 percent of women said they'd consider buying their fiancé an engagement band. Really? Well, at least they'll both have something to take to the pawn shop when they split up! [NYDN, ABC News]
It's not often you see Kate Lanphear in eveningwear, but last night the Elle staffer attended the 2009 Apollo Circle Benefit sponsored by Carolina Herrera in a floor-length ballgown and long black gloves.
A boatload of Bernie and Ruth Madoff's personal possessions go up for auction tomorrow. And the competition is expected to be fierce. According to the company handling the proceedings, 1,100 people have already registered to submit bids online. (Each had to hand over a $1,000 refundable deposit in order to participate.) And contrary to what you might have expected, Bernie's satin Mets jacket probably won't fetch the most money tomorrow.
Bernie's 1960 Hofstra college ring and his watch collection are reportedly attracting the most interest, and the highest pre-bid for a single item at the moment is for an 18-karat yellow gold vintage Rolex that's nicknamed the "Prisoner Watch." (It should sell for between $75,000 and $87,500.) It isn't named the "Prisoner Watch" because Madoff wore it in prison, by the way. (You don't get to wear gold Rolexes in prison, obviously.)
According to Bloomberg, the piece "gained its moniker because Rolex offered similar timepieces to prisoners of war in Germany during World War II, including those involved in 'The Great Escape.'" How's that for creepy?
When Jon Gosselin touched down at LAX yesterday, we were sure he was about to launch another media-whoring trip here in Hollywood and braced ourselves for the obligatory photo ops of him...
The buzz for a while now, since it was announced that Diane Sawyer was going to take over World News Tonight in January, has been that ABC was considering George Stephanopolous to replace her at Good Morning America. Stephanopoulos hosts the weekend political show This Week and subs in occasionally on GMA. Rebecca Dana over at the Daily Beast reports that not only is the scuttlebutt true, but ABC News president David Westin has all but offered the former Clinton press secretary the job. “It’s George’s now to lose," a source told Dana. If Stephanopoulos takes the job, of course, several other questions arise.
Chris Cuomo, the current GMA news anchor and de facto co-host with Diane, has been vying for the job, too. If Stephanopoulos gets it, the lead team of four will consist of three men and one woman — Robin Roberts — in an hour that is heavily skewed toward a female audience. Also, there's the question of The Week, which, a source told Dana, Stephanopoulos is gunning to keep for himself. Apparently Nightline co-anchor Terry Moran and Daily Intel fave Jake Tapper are next in line for the Sunday slot if he leaves.
Whatever happens, it will take a series of strong moves on behalf of the GMA team to keep the show in competition with NBC's Today show. Since Gibson left, the ratings have dipped, and when Sawyer goes, they're expected to dip even further.
For her latest series of photographs, Evidence, the Manhattan-based Angela Strassheim went a little Dexter on us. First, Strassheim fastidiously mapped out locations across the country where violent crimes had occurred and convinced the current tenants of the houses — most of them unaware of their homes’ pasts — to let her spray their domestic spaces with Blue Star, the chemical that Michael C. Hall, as Dexter, is always spraying all over the place to turn up blood stains long after they have been cleaned away. (She learned the technique while working at the Miami Forensic Imaging Bureau.) She then focused her lens and set her exposure time for up to ten minutes. The resulting images are noir-ish but also warm, shots of bedrooms and hallways streaked with luminescent hand smears, sprinkles, and splotches. The following works will be on view at Marvelli Gallery starting November 19.
HAIR
• Garnier Nutritioniste signed Bridget Moynahan as the latest spokesperson for the brand. She joins fellow representatives Sarah Jessica Parker and Alana de la Garza. [Sassybella]
• Former Balenciaga face Jennifer Connelly dyed her hair blonde for her new role in What's Wrong With Virginia. [Just Jared]
MAKEUP
• John Galliano on Karlie Kloss's beauty: "She’s one of those girls, like a Naomi, like a Linda, like a Shalom. When I met her for the first time, I just went quiet.” Galliano is using Kloss for the spring 2010 Christian Dior campaign. [WWD]
FRAGRANCE
• Gwen Stefani plans to launch a new series of Harajuku Lovers fragrances for spring. It will be called the Sunshine Cuties collection and feature summer-inspired scents (think citrus and floral), while the dolls on the packaging will wear tankinis and bikinis. [Now Smell This]
SKIN
• The skin-lightening industry in India usually targets women. But more products are coming out that are specifically for men, and the marketing gives off the message that white makes you attractive to women, successful at work, and overall hot, while dark skin does not. [NPR]
After watching this trailer for the new Adam Sandler, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider and David Spade movie Grown Ups, I am strangely getting pretty psyched to see Old Dogs:
Wow. I feel like I’m missing something here. Is this a pitch perfect mockery of everything bad about Hollywood comedies? I know every one one of these actors has been in a terrible movie or two before, but there’s no way they’d join forces and make movie with a hacky title like Grown Ups, right?
Between the Disney narration to that shot of “the guys” laughing and drinking wine in a cemetary to Kevin James hitting that tree, someone at some point HAD to have said something along the lines of, “We’ll show those jerks on the internet how you make a fake cheesy movie trailer!” These guys are professional comedians. They don’t actually expect us to believe this movie would be a good way to spend two hours and $13… right?
To Chris Rock’s credit, he looks pretty embarrassed to be involved at all. Also, I’m guessing they passed on these titles:
Adults
Older People
Middle Aged Family Men
Growin’ Old
Mature Human Beings
The Untitled Adam Sandler Project He’s Contractually Obligated To Make But Not Contractually Obligated To Put An Ounce Of Original Thought In To
In promotion of the movie version of The Road, Cormac McCarthy emerges from hiding today to give a delightful interview to The Wall Street Journal in which he reveals the plot of his next book ("It has to do with a brother and sister. When the book opens she's already committed suicide, and it's about how he deals with it"), explains his aversion to short stories ("Anything that doesn't take years of your life and drive you to suicide hardly seems worth doing"), and crushes his 11-year-old son's dreams of becoming an artist ("John draws all the time, but I have to say he's not very good"). Highly recommended! [WSJ]
Eh, not super-naked here, but it beats Us Weekly covers about “Eva’s steamy affair with name you only know from previous Us Weekly covers!” Nice to see Jessica Alba appears to be accepting the same inevitable naked fate.
Also, apologies for the strangely hetero-male posts the past couple days; I’m sure Michelle will be back to dude it up soon enough.
More pics of Eva’s topless jeans somethingerother:
Just because the Glee cast was ousted from the NBC Thanksgiving Day Parade lineup doesn't mean our favorite high school singing club is holding a grudge.
Glee's main man on...
Though Meredith has been holed up for the past few weeks owing to her liver surgery (i.e., Ellen Pompeo's maternity leave), we realize we haven't missed her all that much — and neither, apparently, has anyone else. Nevertheless, she's back this week, hanging out in the Seattle Grace-Mercy West hallway, pontificating on the "past coming back to bite her in the ass." Appropriately enough, Izzy walks in, as if it were totally normal to abandon your husband, friends, cancer treatments, and unpaid hospital bills without explanation, then suddenly pop back into existence with your dementia-ridden high-school science teacher (Joel Grey!) in tow. She kidnapped him from his nursing home early that morning to bring him into the hospital for treatment, and he still thinks she's the knocked-up 15-year-old from his biology class.
Meredith convinces Izzy to at least stay in the hospital for longer than four minutes, she runs into Alex, he turns away, and she doesn't say anything. Very mature. Meanwhile, cute Dr. Avery asks Cristina about their drunken kiss at Arizona's disaster of a surprise party, and she denies that it happened ("What kiss? There was no kiss") and asserts that what didn't happen will never happen again.
Dr. Hunt, on the other hand, tells Cristina he got her a present: It's former army doctor and "cardio goddess" Teddy Altman, otherwise known as Lipstick Jungle's Kim Raver, who looks about as much like a serious surgeon as Katherine Heigl does. Yang greets her with a friendly, "I've never heard of you," while Altman teases Hunt flirtatiously, slapping him and telling him he's put on weight. It starts to rain, and Altman, who's been stuck in Bahgdad, frolics into it; we almost expect her to throw on some tap shoes and do a Gene Kelly routine. Yang, seething, calls her "Desert Storm Barbie."
Back inside the hospital, the chief's wife, Adele, arrives in a tizzy because the chief hasn't been coming home at night, and she's convinced he's having an affair with Dr. Bailey. Callie explains that Bailey and the Chief are merely "work husband and work wife," whereas her "work husband" is McSteamy, which doesn’t really help Bailey's defense since Callie and McSteamy used to sleep together. But to calm Adele's nerves (and find out where the Chief's been at night), Bailey decides to talk to him, which he mistakes as her hitting on him. (See the video below!) No, he hasn't been having an affair (though that would spice up the show's recently lackluster plot lines), but he's been stressed and distracted and drinking, so much so that he accidentally clipped a patient's "common bile duct" during surgery, which resulted in the poor guy turning canary yellow and looking like a hospitalized Oompa-Loompa. He decides to take a break from surgeries and puts Bailey in charge.
Back to Izzy's old science teacher: He’s got something called NPH, which, as much as we'd like to believe it's a shout-out to Neil Patrick Harris, is actually a condition requiring surgery that the teacher can't afford. But Izzy pulls out the old "I gave you $8 million for a new clinic" card and convinces the chief to allow the pro bono surgery, which Derek graciously performs, saving the day once again. The teacher emerges good as new, thanks Izzy, and tell her she was "always his best student." Which doesn't say much about the caliber of his students. Derek and Meredith also have a gratuitous kiss in their scrubs, which serves no other purpose than to remind us why we started watching the show in the first place. (Remember those great season-one hospital-room make-out scenes? Let's bring those back!)
Dr. Altman finally wins Yang's approval by letting her hold and fix the heart of a young boy with cardiac asthma. But then Altman basically tells Hunt that she's always had a thing for him, and she was surprised he didn't call her when he left his wife. She even made up a whole little story about their life together, confessing in a throaty voice, "It was a good story. It was all tortured and Bridges of Madison County." Not surprisingly, she’s less than thrilled to find she was actually brought to Seattle as a gift for his new girlfriend.
Izzy finally talks to Alex, but only to tell him she thinks he got her fired and can never forgive him. But, understandably, he can never forgive her either, which is convenient, since Katherine Heigl's also heading out on maternity leave. And speaking of having babies — next week, McSteamy finds out he has a teenage daughter! And she visits him! We can't wait for him to test out his non-existent parenting skills.
More Recaps: Amanda Krill at Cinema Blend vents about Izzy's ridiculous behavior and gives Alex props for not forgiving her. Jennifer Armstrong at EW.com agrees that though Izzy's hair and cardigan sweater were a nice addition to the show, her overall presence was unwelcome.
Karl Lagerfeld, who is 76 years old: "The world can count on me for a long time. Retirement is not one of the topics with which I deal. Why should I? I still have so many projects that I sometimes don't know where to begin. Chanel will still need some clothes when I'm 89." [Handbag.com]
Stephanie Pratt might not be the brightest bulb, but she could be pulling out a novel defense in her drunken-driving case:
Don't blame the booze, blame the...
It's been a whirlwind week of press junkets and wardrobe changes for the Twilight trinity. But unlike Rob and Taylor, who can simply throw on a clean pair of jeans in each new city (scratch...
As we pointed out in our exhaustive recap on Tuesday, Gossip Girl followed its usual patterns this week — Jenny was a bitch, Blair plotted to take someone down, Serena was a slut, etc. Once again, you all applauded this week's nineties cultural reference (we are all forever indebted to you, Cher Horowitz), and agreed that the rightful queen is obviously Eric. Most of you weren't thrilled about the threesome's combo of unsexy characters and unsexy scenes, but don't worry, commenters — next week there are threesome flashbacks AND Lady Gaga! Here's hoping Serena doesn't take a cue from her nipple pasties. Anyway, on to your best comments, brought to you this week by excellently named commenter dorota4life.
Realer Than the Parents Television Council Getting All Worked Up Over Nothing
• Plus 10 because threesomes always happen between people who you would prefer weren't involved. —C_MCCANN
• Blair pairing up with Eric was like is like a gift from the writing gods sent directly to this forum. Plus 3. If only Dorota had been involved. —NEW_BLAIR
• Has anyone else remembered that Vanessa and Olivia are ROOMMATES?! Will their dorm become a hotbed of painful awkwardness--or a lingering lesbian lovefest? Plus 10, for the suspense... —MEEZBLAIR
• Plus 1 because Tripp’s hair is getting progressively more swoop-ish and strange as his moral fiber crumbles. I predict that after his inevitable bedroom romp with Serena, Tripp wakes up rocking the Blagojevich helmet.—HOOKEDONBASS
• Plus 2 for when the Endless Nights (Knights?) fanboys skulked away defeated and one of them sarcastically muttered at Dan "NICE V-NECK." ...Because I said the same thing literally 10 seconds before that. —COBAININACOMA
• Plus 5 for Graham Collins being a new and improved Nate Archibald simply for the fact that he doesn't open his mouth once the entire episode. —CUNDELA
• Plus 3 for there being a beer funnel at Dan's party, and for his awkward, dorky dance that was FABULOUS. Oh Humphrey, we hardly knew ye. —SUENUE
• Plus 10 for Tripp to Serena "For some reason I trust you." Tripp trusts her for two reasons, 1) He's knows she's not smart enough to get anything past him and 2) Her boobs. —SOURCHERRY9
• Plus 2 for the Parent's Council who helped to advertise the show so successfully this last week. Too bad they didn't bother to watch how absolutely non-scandalous it was AND that there will no doubt be lessons learned. —KRISSNW704
• Plus 10 for Jenny dissing the headband. But minus 10 for making me that upset over a headband. —REMYLANE
• I might point out that now, not only has the unlikely Vanessa become the only girl to hook up with all three main guys, she is also, to the best of my knowledge, the only one to hook up with siblings - remember Scott? Plus 5, somehow. —PURPLEANDGREEN
• Blair and Serena in the elevator. Plus 50. 10 for it being consistent with the canon, 10 for Bass' orchestration of it and 30 for the show FINALLY acknowledging the subtext between B & S for what it really is. —THE_DEACON
• Plus 3 for Serena's line "all your dads love you" because Blair does have 3 fathers who love her (now please return Cyrus to the show!!) —BLAIRGRACE
• Plus 10 points for the guy working for Congressman Vanderbilt who always comes in during flirtatious moments between Serena and Tripp, because he totally knows what's going to happen, and doesn't want to get involved. —KILLERFAB
• Was I the only one who thought that threesome was a Zoolander throwback? Their faces alone reminded me of the shots of Derek, Hansel, and Matilda after drinking their tea and considering their orgy. Plus only 2 because there was no mountain sherpa thrown into the threesome. —MAGSTERS
Faker Than Eric and Jonathan Making and Understanding Star Wars References
• Why was Nate at Cotillion? Did he even offer an explanation? "Yep, just wanted to get dressed up in this white tux, use twelve bottles of gel and stare at underage girls that I have no real ties to get their names called. No big deal." Minus 20, because the writers need to stop awkwardly cramming characters into scenes they have no obvious reason for being in. —KDOW3
• Since when have Blair and Chuck been 'Summer and Seth'? Stop calling him Bass. His name is Chuck. Minus 1. —JTSTE1
• Minus 10 for the fact that Olivia is getting hammered at that party and possibly doing a keg stand. No actor in their right mind (okay, maybe LiLo if she went to/could get into college) would get caught doing something like that. These days, there would be 100 cell-phone cam shots all over PerezHilton and TMZ the next day... —JLB20
• Jenny has terrible posture, it's the first thing Lily would have fixed for Cotillion. Minus 3. —QTIPKIWIS
• Minus 5 because one of the debutantes' middle names is Cornelia - the same as Blair's. Did the writers think we forgot S1E10, and just throw it in to recycle it as a generic old money Waspy name? —BLAIR215
• Minus 10 for the way Olivia exclaimed "Don't do any mind altering substances without me!" Spoken like a true Disney dweeb. No wonder these 3 don't have any other friends... —NURSELUVBASS
• Minus 2 for Jenny doing her own hair and makeup, unless what we saw was Jenny tarting up after Lily's makeup artist left —BREEBUCKLEY
• Minus 5 for no Dorota...again. —BASSWITHSASS
• Minus 1,000,0000 for the "joe wilson has got nothing on blair waldorf" line...there is no way Serena has any idea who the South Carolina congressman is. Awful name drop. —THEOLEBILLYBAROO
• Why does Olivia still have a normal phone? she would definitely have a blackberry...or some sort of smartphone at least. Minus 2. —DOLLASIGNTEF
• Minus 10 for Jenny being introduced late. What the hell is this? Make your own cotillion? No, this does NOT happen. There are introductions, there's a nice waltz/other dance and then everyone dances. Do these writers do any research? —HAUNT_FOX
• So just a thought here. First the writers introduced Jonathan as Jonathan Henry. Now they suddenly tell us he's Gertrude Vanderbilt Whitney's great-grandson or something. I'll let that slip. But if he really is one of Gertrude's descendants, wouldn't he count as well as a Vanderbilt? As far as I remember one of her sons even used Vanderbilt before the Whitney as a last name. And if he's a Vanderbilt, why isn't he invited to the fictional Vanderbilt's affairs in this show? Is it because they are Van der Bilt? No points taken. —MICHELE22
• Serena's necklace is made of Christmas tinsel. Minus 5. —ANNIE_IN_NY
• GG: "Jenny Humphrey went to the ball; Jenny Humphrey had a great fall."
Him: "Jenny Humphrey looks like a skeleton." —PURPLEANDGREEN'S BOYFRIEND
• Lily and Rufus found their long-lost son... and have uttered nary a word about him since then. Minus 1,000. —MANDORLA
The weeklong pop-up sale Save Fashion opened this morning at 7 a.m. And since that's beyond early, we popped over last night to preview the goods, and were generally pleased with what we found. There's a whole rack of the Rick Owens Slab women's line — a jacket is $69 — as well as large selections of mesh neon tops by Shelly Steffee and plaid tops by Steven Alan. And from what we heard, there are about twenty racks in the basement that aren't even out yet. That's what this week is for. Click ahead for a preview of the selection.
November 13 to November 22. Inven.tory, 237 Lafayette St., nr. Spring St.; 11/13 (7–9), 11/14–11/21 (10–9), 11/22 (10–5). More information at SaveFashion.com.
Anyone who considers themselves to be a pop-culture enthusiast has, at one point, spent some time speculating on the sexual orientation of fictional characters. For instance, who hasn't engaged in a lively debate as to whether Sesame Street's Bert and Ernie are really gay, or, for that matter, had their minds blown by Quentin Tarantino's hilarious theory in Sleep With Me that Top Gun is really about one man's struggle with his homosexuality? And now, faster than you can say Dumbledore, comes a theory from Movieline's Kyle Buchanan that Milhouse on The Simpsonsjust might be gay.
His main piece of evidence comes directly from the best source one could possibly know of, none other than Simpsons creator Matt Groening himself. At a party in Los Angeles last night for the Shepard Fairey Equality Project, Groening autographed a poster advocating gay marriage with a postscript that reads "Your fan, Matt Groening, Creator of Milhouse." Now, anyone who watches the show knows that Milhouse has long fancied Lisa Simpson, so perhaps there's a chance that he's actually bi? This assertion seems to be backed up by the site Wikisimpsons, who list Milhouse on their page of LBGT characters under the classification of "Being hinted at being Bisexual." Either way, this should make for a good Friday-afternoon conversation topic for you, the loyal Vulture readership. Do you agree? Do you have another interpretation of what Matt Groening might have meant with this inscription? And what about Martin Prince?
The gigantic new Apple store on the Upper West Side will open its doors to the public at 10am tomorrow morning, so if you happen to be in the area and you see a line of people stretching down Broadway, you'll know what they're all there for (as well as how far some people will go for a free Apple t-shirt).
"I’m going to assume that my colleagues in both parties who said that they wanted to bring this bill to the floor but felt that it was more important that we actually deal with the deficit reduction first, since that’s why we were in Albany, I’m going to take them at their word ... So, once we finish the deficit reduction, then we can proceed with bringing marriage equality to the floor." —State Senator Diane Savino [Daily Politics/NYDN]
Numbers for ad pages for the year 2009 are in. Though In Style sold the most pages among women's fashion titles for the year, Elle came out ahead of Vogue by 110 pages. Last year, Elle trailed Vogue by 317 pages. This year, Elle only lost 473 pages, while Vogue lost a whopping 900. In Style lost 446 pages, and last year came in 141 pages behind Vogue. Vogue publisher Tom Florio is acting like everything is fine.
“I learned how important it is to lead the market in terms of editorial standpoint, versus heavily discount and use our editors to sell ad pages. What we saw happen this year, which we haven’t seen in a while, is the discounts were approaching 70 percent. Some of the deals that were being done were just crazy,” said Florio in a swipe at the competition’s wheeling and dealing.
Just because Vogue hasn't given up its taste for the finer things — or the same boring covers with the same five actresses on them month after month — doesn't mean others won't.
Here’s the premiere of Rihanna’s “Russian Roulette” music video, in which a distraught Rihanna attempts to endure Hannibal Lecter’s holding cell by displaying an array of various cleavage arrangements. Nice to see she’s landed on her feet:
30 Rock’s hormones were raging this episode: At the start, in walks the new cast member — “Danny,” formerly Jack, formerly the Robot — and it turns out he’s a hunk. Canadian, but a hunk. And as soon as you find yourself asking, “What’s that aboot? ” flash to Jack (Donaghy, the one who renamed the new Jack Danny) and Liz Lemon sharing a shockingly intimate dinner: He predicts her every utterance, moves the candle so she won’t catch fire reaching for his dessert, and shoots her dolefully loving looks to rival King Kong. And we can’t help but love her loving it. It’s pure fan fiction, minus the part where he tells her to take off everything but her glasses.
When Jack offers Liz a Dealbreaker chat show, the things go from sexually tense to boringly adversarial. This pays one principal dividend: another weirdly real scene of heavy flirting, this time between Jenna, instigator, and Jack, opportunist. This was a fine episode, with Jenna and Tracy in classic dopey-duo form and a couple of great fantasy bits (Sports Shouting, hilarious; Sports Shouting with guest Tracy Jordan, priceless). But the Jack, Liz, and Jenna triangle felt like the funniest-ever Three’s Company episode squeezed into a couple of minutes. Wang!
More Recaps: Jim Rohner at Film School Rejects is feeling the dynamic duo: “Tracy Morgan and Jane Krakowski are possibly at their strongest they’ve been so far this season.” TV Fanatic says it’s “not the best 30 Rock has ever produced,” and quotes Kenneth (“Miss Maroney, your Mexican diet pills came. Should I start taking them to test their side effects?”).
Referring to the “Chinese copy of Dealbreaker written by ‘Lesbian Yellow Sourfruit,’” Laura Kelley of The Two Cents says, apparently without irony, “Oh, how I love Engrish translations.”
Ben Foster has been attracting attention for some time thanks to his intense (sometimes even downright unhinged) portrayals in action flicks like X-Men: The Last Stand, 3:10 to Yuma, Hostage, and 30 Days of Night. So his affectingly restrained starring turn (alongside Woody Harrelson) as a young casualty-notification officer in this week's The Messenger, writer-director Oren Moverman’s heartbreaking portrait of the contemporary American home front, may initially come as a surprise. It shouldn’t: Foster brings a similar degree of intensity to the part, and manages to keep it coiled for most of The Messenger, a gut-wrenchingly powerful work that’s as intense as any war movie. (In fact, it would make a fascinating double bill with Kathryn Bigelow’s The Hurt Locker.) Foster spoke to Vulture on Veterans Day about trying to do justice to America’s soldiers, and about how he tries to find a way to love even the villains he plays.
What kind of research did you do for this role?
We did as much research within the few months we had to prepare as I suppose we could. We went to Walter Reed and spent time with the soldiers there. We went to Arlington. We were invited to touch the wounds of the soldiers. These kids that had been blown up — just terrific, brave human beings. Every soldier in the background in the film is a real soldier that had just returned. We had someone from the casualty-notification office on set every day. I’ve always had a civilian nod of the head to a soldier, but now I have some awareness of how much responsibility and care and respect they need and deserve. When you can share a common vocabulary with these soldiers, and start to understand their experience, it really changes your perspective on war and what it means to return to a world that can be very isolating.
It’s interesting talking to you on Veterans Day. It’s an emotional day today. And here we are talking about sending 40,000 more troops — we have a very big responsibility to these guys. I’m just really concerned that over the past eight years, there’s been a lot of refinement with casualty notifications.
The notification scenes in the film are absolutely harrowing. What was it like shooting those?
Oren created this incredible environment on set. No scenes were rehearsed in the picture. For the notifications, he kept us separate from the people we were notifying. He talked to us separately. We never met them until we were knocking on the door. And these scenes were shot in single takes. There was rarely any coverage. We were encouraged to go off book, and most of all, listen to each other. The drug of it all is getting lost with other actors and forgetting that you’re not performing at someone, that you’re together in it. We’re exposing ourselves with each other. I think that’s what makes Oren Moverman one of the future greats, period. He’s more interested in the messiness of the experience, as am I. So it was kind of a good fit.
I’m impressed with your ability to do so much with relatively little dialogue. So much of what happens in this movie basically happens on your face.
It’s always the space in between the words that interests me: We rarely, in my experience, say what we mean and ask for what we want. One of the first things I do with a director is sit down and go over the script, because I find that one can usually lose about 40 percent of the lines. If you don’t need to say it, don’t say it; feel it.
Does doing a film like this change your attitude at all toward violence and action movies?
It’s funny. I’m doing that exact thing right now. I’m shooting a remake of The Mechanic, which is an old Charles Bronson film about an older assassin who teaches a younger assassin. There’s more consideration, sure, but at the end of the day the morality exists in the approach of the film. We’ve been watching people get eaten by lions for a long, long time. I can’t really stand on a soapbox. It does make you think about the difference between real-life violence and violence for entertainment’s sake. And let’s face it, these days even the news can be taken as entertainment in a very perverse way. It’s a really difficult subject to think about.
I once read that you like to find a way to love every character you do. It’s interesting to hear that, since you’ve played a number of totally vicious, almost psychotic characters.
That’s the exciting part about exploring those darker corners. You open your own morality and find an ability to empathize with that which is horrific and violent and cruel. It becomes about rationalizing and fighting for that person. Everybody needs something. For example Charlie Prince [in 3:10 to Yuma] … if he doesn’t shoot first, he’s going to die. It is the Wild West. He loves his boss more than anything, and will do anything to protect and earn his favor. If this was your father or your best friend, you’d be thinking, “I have to protect this person.” You have to wrap your head around actions which otherwise would seem incomprehensible. The lines of morality get really fuzzy. That’s one of the most exciting things about getting to play in these dark little nightmares.
Name: Arden Wohl Age: 26 Neighborhood: West Village Occupation: I make films and I am going to Culinary School to study classic pastry arts
Who's your favorite New Yorker, living or dead, real or fictional?
Stefan Bondell. He is a living painter.
What's the best meal you've eaten in New York?
That is a hard one! Either the Jungle Curry at Sripraphai in Queens or the squid "pasta" from WD~50.
In one sentence, what do you actually do all day in your job?
I shoot footage, write, and cook.
Would you still live here on a $35,000 salary?
Of course. I love New York so much.
What's the last thing you saw on Broadway? Hair — Karole Armitage does the choreography.
Do you give money to panhandlers?
Yes.
What's your drink?
Soda water and bitters with lime.
How often do you prepare your own meals?
Every day.
What's your favorite medication?
The nitrous oxide they give you at the dentist.
What's hanging above your sofa?
A Hanna Liden photograph.
How much is too much to spend on a haircut?
I don't have a "haircut," so for me no more than $60. Some people may need to spend more if it is very complicated.
When's bedtime?
These days it is midnight.
Which do you prefer, the old Times Square or the new Times Square?
Have you ever seen the documentary Doing Time in Times Square?
What do you think of Donald Trump?
He's aware of the media in a very modern way.
What do you hate most about living in New York?
The cold. I have lived here all of my life and it just keeps getting worse for me!
Who is your mortal enemy?
I don't have an enemy that I know of.
When's the last time you drove a car?
When I failed my road test.
How has the Wall Street crash affected you?
I stopped drinking alcohol!!!
Times, Post, or Daily News? Times.
Where do you go to be alone?
The Hudson River.
What makes someone a New Yorker?
Being able to survive here.
You knew that Mike Bloomberg went to extraordinary lengths to get himself elected to a third term, spending close to $100 million to blanket the local airwaves with commercials and stick flyers in the mailbox of every New Yorker. It turns out his campaigning extended far, far beyond New York as well:
A city resident working in Africa told The Post she was startled to find a letter from the Bloomberg campaign in her mailbox the other day.
"It said thanks for picking up an absentee ballot," recalled the woman.
The letter, mailed before Election Day, concluded, "Regardless of whom you vote for, thank you for voting and thank you for taking an active role in our city."
Yes, it seems the mayor sent out letters to every single one of the 30,000 people voting via absentee ballot—no matter where in the world they happened to be. But at least this explains why Bloomberg's postage bill was so high!
Drilled into our heads again this week are the twin notions that (a) the future is entirely changeable and subject to free will, and (b) the future is written and we are silly, silly people to think we can change it. At least there's time for a frivolous round of poker and some gun play. We're also introduced, once again, to a brand-new band of villains. TV Fanatic calls it "a terrible episode," but we'll just call it writing-challenged.
"WE HAVE TO TAKE RESPONSIBILITY"
Reluctant super-villain Lloyd Simcoe is shown watching a daytime panel-discussion show on TV where Agent Gough's dramatic suicide of last week is being bandied about as evidence of the whole free-will thing. He's getting ready to hit "send" on an e-mail with the above subject line to some other super-villain accomplices. The e-mail is addressed to several people at "nlap.us.com." This isn't a real-life domain, but NLAP is a real acronym for National Laboratory Audit Program, for what it's worth. He hits "send."
"The gods did it all the time."
Next thing we know, Simon (played by Dominic Monaghan, whom io9 rightly calls an "unconvincing bad guy") is challenging Lloyd to game of poker, in which the stakes are whether to announce to the world that their as-yet-unexplained "experiment" caused the worldwide blackout. Simon even throws out the words "confessing to a mass murder," which he passes off as a "Manchester figure of speech," lest their Asian-businessman poker friends be confused. Using the sleight of hand he's been practicing for several weeks doing tricks for his autistic son, Lloyd manages to win the game with a straight flush, and gives the dealer the entire pot as a tip. (Won't he need that shit for legal fees when word of this "experiment" gets out?) He then hands Simon a draft of their confession so he can put his own spin on it and struts off satisfied.
"Let's hope three-star guy didn't get to our witness."
Mark and Olivia take a much-needed break at the beach, but their couple's weekend is interrupted when a magical cell-phone video featuring a murder shows up at FBI headquarters, and a gunman with a three-star forearm tattoo — just like the one Mark saw on the arm of one of the masked man hunting him down in his flash.
This leads the agents to Barstow and a pet-store owner named Ingrid Alvarez, who shot the cell-phone video. The bad guys are after her, but she and Janis (did we mention Janis is back?) have time for a heart-to-heart about her flash-forward — which shows Ingrid as a blonde and working at the Bronx Zoo. (BTW, how does everyone see themselves in these flashes? Do they all have mirrors?) She doubted her fate, but after the man with the three-star tattoo finally comes after her, Janis recommends she go into witness protection — presumably at the Bronx Zoo.
"Four/five months from now I'm going to be sitting by your side in Afghanistan."
Former dad in mourning Aaron, whose presumed-dead daughter, Tracy, crazily showed up in his dining room last ep, has a lot to learn about the evils of the military-industrial complex. Tracy explains, at least in part, how she and her army buddy were ambushed in the Afghan desert by "Jericho" operatives — military contractors whom she had witnessed killing a whole village of women and children. We don't yet know how she got out of there alive, or why these Jericho dudes would have taken her blown-off leg and sent it home without checking her pulse, but we suppose we've got some intel to look forward to.
Aaron goes and gabs all about it to Mark, even though Tracy swore him to secrecy, and she gets totally pissed. Then we find out there's a whole second part to Aaron's flash, which involves a handsome but scarred Afghani field medic named Khamir who helped Tracy get out. "I don't know what could drag both of us back to Afghanistan, but I have to trust what I saw," he says. (Continuity note: In convincing Tracy of their shared fate, Aaron variously puts his flash at both four and five months from "now," but we're pretty sure a month didn't pass between commercials.)
"Did you open my gift?"
Mark gives Olivia a black lacy bra and panties, which turn out to be the ones she saw herself wearing to summon Lloyd to bed in her flash. Like a good wife, she tries to fuck with fate by tossing the gift in the trash and hoping Mark forgets about it.
"What's that on his hand?"
Bureau chief Wedeck interrupts Janis as she's reading about sperm donation on (get this) Wikipedia, to look at some enhanced images of Suspect Zero, the guy from the pilot episode who was awake and wandering a Detroit stadium during the blackout. The images shows essentially nothing, but you can make out that he's wearing a ring, which Wedeck bizarrely calls a "workable lead."
"Freeze!"
Agent Benford shoots the man who comes after Ingrid at her store, assuming that this is the same guy with the three-star tattoo from his flash.
This, of course, is quickly proven false when we're introduced to a whole new group of three-star-tattooed bad guys led by pockmarked magician and sometime actor Ricky Jay — who, like so many bad people on this show, has a few non-sequitur words of wisdom to share before the episode's end. Watch the closing quip below, and please join us in asking the writers of FlashForward to give us a break.
Though Lou Dobbs has not yet indicated what he'll do next now that he's left CNN, the 65-year-old anchor will make his first cable-news interview on Bill O'Reilly's show on Monday. There's been a lot of speculation that Dobbs hopes to land a spot on the right-wing network, but as Jeff Bercovici points out, he may have a non-compete clause in his CNN contract that will prevent him from doing so, at least at first. A spot at the struggling Fox Business Network, where his name would really boost the lineup, might be a good fit in that case. [Daily Finance]
Padma Lakshmi hopped on board the 30 Rock cameo train last night (not a real train, unfortunately), confusing my brain with a weird 30 Rock / Top Chef “Things I Like” combo not entirely unlike the pizza / waffles box that Kenneth gleefully revealed to Tracy:
In general, it was a standardly funny episode (not much need to even point that out anymore), but concluded on a legitimately touching note, perhaps drawing us ever-closer to the Jack & Liz coupling that will never happen but would blow away any Ross/Rachel, Casey/Dana, Skinner/Krabappel “finally getting together” tv moment.
Here’s Padma’s appearance (anyone notice that she’s really hot? I think I’m the only one), followed by the eventual Jack & Liz romantic-comedy business reconciliation:
Episode thoughts? Favorite Lines? Comment away (if the comments haven’t intermittently disappeared, which they’ve tended to do)
Nothing spreads faster online than a celebrity sex tape, and the tapes are spreading faster than ever this fall. Rapper Foxy Brown, California beauty queen Carrie Prejean, and Playboy model Shauna Sand are the talk of the town, from CNN to TMZ. This week, Jennifer Lopez reluctantly joined the party when, after filing a $10 million lawsuit, she won a restraining order preventing her ex-husband Ojani Noa from releasing steamy honeymoon clips.
The flood of leaks doesn’t surprise the guy who specializes in this dirty trade: Kevin “KB” Blatt, Hollywood’s sex-tape broker.
“Just about every scumbag caught under every rock in L.A. is trying to sell out an ex-lover,” Blatt says, non-judgmentally. “It’s a direct reflection of the economy.” Since promoting his first tape — the infamous video of Paris Hilton — in 2003, Blatt has been embroiled in naughty bit scandals from the A-list (Colin Farrell, Cameron Diaz) to the D (Verne “Mini-Me” Troyer). “People will always get off on watching famous people having sex,” says Paul Fishbein, president of Adult Video News. “Kevin has a knack for finding the tapes.”
A self-described “nice Jewish kid from Cleveland,” Blatt broke into the trade after marketing adult websites in the nineties. When a guy with the Hilton tape needed a front man, he hired Blatt, whose subsequent notoriety now brings nearly every stolen tape his way. When his cell rings with an offer of a video, he always asks the same question first: “You got the releases?” The Child Protection and Obscenity Enforcement Act — known in the business by the regulations number, “2257” — requires adult sites to keep records proving actors are over 18. While people like to think that all celebrity sex tapes get put out under duress, everyone onscreen has to sign on for a legal, commercial release.
Blatt learned the hard way what happens when there’s no authorization. After the Hilton tape hit, he got chased by entertainment attorney Paul Berra, who at the time was working for the firm representing Rick Salomon, ex-boyfriend of Hilton. On behalf of Salomon, Berra was after the copyright infringers who were trafficking the tape — and Blatt, who was handling the PR. Blatt worried that even though he wasn’t selling the tape himself, he could get nailed for facilitating copyright infringement.
Salomon eventually dropped the suit, though, and struck a deal to legally release the tape online and on DVD. The public controversy, of course, made the tape a hit. While an average porn video sells a few thousand copies, the 1 Night in Paris DVD released by Red Light District has now sold over 700,000 copies, and the web version on hotelheiress.com has made several million more online. The new sex-tape trade was born.
And that’s just the public half of the business. Blatt also makes his money helping keep stolen videos off the market. Fact is, most tapes never get released — or even hit the rumor mill. While Blatt’s seen the release of six tapes, there are at least another sixteen he’s quietly quashed (he has signed confidentiality deals not to release the names of those involved).
This first happened in 2004, when Blatt teamed up with Berra to catch a guy who was trying to extort $2.5 million from Cameron Diaz over a stolen tape. Blatt traced the IP address to computer servers in Thailand, then unearthed the IQ online chat number of a Russian who led him to a photographer. Blatt furnished Berra with the information, and a lawsuit was then filed against the photographer for extortion. It’s impossible to say whether Blatt is the only such broker in town, but he became Berra’s go-to guy for these services.
Blatt now has a system in place. When a tape comes his way, he first tries to get the authorization of the participants. If he can’t, he then tells the people with the tape to back off on releasing it, explaining how and why they’ll be sued. At the same time, he’ll reach out to the lawyers and celebs. While he can’t prevent someone from leaking the tapes online or releasing them commercially offshore, he discourages it as best he can. “When you’re dealing with people like J.Lo, they have enough money to ruin your life, and at end of day, it’s not worth it,” he says.
Brokering sex tapes isn’t much of an income generator. Blatt charges up to $250 per hour for his services, and the negotiations often take just a few days. (He operates out of his home office in Chatsworth, California, heart of the porn industry in the San Fernando Valley; clients find him through MySpace and Facebook. He enlists with hacker types and webmasters for sleuthing.) For Blatt, it’s an ego thing — satisfying his desire to feel like a player, and fueling his day job marketing adult sites.
Guitarist Dave Navarro thanks Blatt for keeping a stolen bondage video from hitting the market. “I consider myself to be one of the chosen few Kevin did give a heads-up to,” Navarro says. “I really appreciate his thoughtfulness on this.” Blatt also assisted former Baywatch star Jeremy Jackson with keeping a sex tape off the market. “KB may have had a checkered past,” Jackson says, of Blatt’s history in the porn industry, “but he really stepped in and helped me.”
Blatt is accustomed to this kind of ambivalence — and being dissed as “a sleazy porn producer,” as the New York Daily News once put it. “I know that people still think I’m a scumbag,” he says, “but I’m satisfied with who I’ve become.”
"You ever watch that TV series Mad Men? If I keep watching this program, will I ever find a happy person? Great television. Good drama. But a lot of really painful reminders in that show about how black people were supposed to run the elevators ... were supposed to ask permission before they get on an elevator. The way women were treated is appalling, and only occasionally funny to me." —Bill Clinton [Chicago Sun-Times]
"Ok, favorite moment this year has yet to air yet! I literally cried laughing in every take. You will see Michael as Santa ... And yes some people sit on his lap! That's all I am allowed to say!" —John Krasinski [Boston Globe]
"I made Titanic because I wanted to dive to a shipwreck, not because I particularly wanted to make the movie." —James Cameron [Playboy]
“I’m definitely never going to be a biker. I’m scared of cars so the idea of riding a motorcycle is just never going to be something that I’m into. I was towed ridiculously while we were filming New Moon. I was on the back of this truck and I probably looked funny doing it. Taylor Lautner rode motorcycles really well. He rides up and skids. I left that to him. I wasn’t about to do that. I don’t think they would even let me.” —Kristen Stewart [Showbiz Spy]
“There is some complex emotional geometry, yes. And Bella’s situation is one of the things I responded to, honestly. It sounds sad but I have been where Bella has, having been dumped. I think everybody has had that experience, unless they are very, very lucky. I often make movies that involve depression or deep holes of sadness, although there are also these other great things in New Moon, like this epic set-piece at the end of the film in Italy.” —Chris Weitz [Telegraph UK]
"The drummer has a really good energy, and he's an Aquarius like me. I get kind of dorky about the astrology, I hate to admit it." —Adam Lambert on choosing his band members [RS]
Just came across this banner ad on a news site, and I’m already bummed out for the weekend. Thanks, cryptic dog warning people!
It was some ad for veterinary somethingerother, which I will now never use because it wants me to mentally picture that happy dog having his hopes and dreams dashed by a slipped spinal disc that he don’t even comprehend. He’s just gonna be all like “Whimper whimper, I don’t understand why I’m hurting but I’m still gonna try to smile because I’m a dog, but can you help me??”
THAT’S IT – I’m getting hammered this weekend. Thanks internet.
AP - "Lincoln for President: An Unlikely Candidate, An Audacious Strategy, and The Victory No One Saw Coming" (Sourcebooks Inc., 416 pages, $24.99), by Bruce Chadwick: It's inevitable that a new book about the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 would seek out analogies between that remarkable event and the election of Barack Obama in 2008.
Jerome O’Hara and George Perez, two of Bernie Madoff's computer programmers who worked in his seventeenth-floor office, were arrested this morning for creating the false documents and trading records that the securities firm used to perpetrate its Ponzi scheme. According to a civil complaint simultaneously filed against them by the SEC, the pair, who had both worked for Madoff since around 1990, almost extricated themselves from the scheme three years ago, in 2006, soon after the now-famous Barron's story came out questioning Madoff's methods (a copy of the story was found in their office). Instead, they chose to dig themselves in deeper.
Having doctored up reports given to regulators and the European Accounting Firm to such a great extent, Defendants knew they could not credibly claim they had no idea the House 17 data reflected fictitious trades...Defendants confronted Madoff in September 2006 about their "special" programs. During these confrontations, defendants communicated that they were uncomfortable with the lies they helped to present to external reviewers. Madoff responded to Defendants objections by telling [CFO Frank] Dipascali to offer defendants as much money as possible to keep quiet and not expose the misrepresentations. Defendants thought about it for a period of time and demanded a salary increase of 25%. Their salaries were, indeed, increased by 24.8% in November 2006.
A major new exhibition opened in the Austrian capital's MUMOK Museum of Modern Art Friday exploring the role of gender in art from eastern Europe since the 1960s. Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 13 Nov 2009 | 10:48 am
Attention all aspiring DJs: Want to work with Will.I.Am? Calm down, we all do. That’s why you have to prove that your worth it, in the Pepsi Refresh Studio Challenge. Here’s how it works:
Head over to the Pepsi Refresh Studio. There, you’ll have the opportunity to remix LMFAO’s club hit “La La La.” Do whatever you want with it, be creative, and make it sound good. Click on the above video to hear LMFAO explain the rules to you themselves.
Then, Will.I.Am of the Black Eyed Peas will review the submissions, pick his favorite, add his own special flair, and make that the OFFICIAL remix. You can check out other examples over on their Youtube page. Or check out the above amazing remix by LALALANYO for inspiration.
You can learn more about the contest from the mouths of LMFAO ahead.
At this very moment, legendary ABC newswoman Barbara Walters is sitting down to interview former Alaska governor and vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin. So we were a little surprised to see her last night at a Time-sponsored panel to debate who should be the magazine's Person of the Year. Inspired by her resilience, we later followed Walters to the coatroom, where she exhaustedly told fellow panelist Rudy Giuliani that she needs to go home and look at the questions for the 118th time. When we asked her about them, she said they mostly concerned Going Rogue, Palin's book. "We've been doing questions all week, writing them, rewriting them, boiling them down," she said. "I think we started a week ago." She said we'd have to "watch and see" how her interview is going to be different from Oprah's, which is coming sooner. "We have different ways of interviewing, we may be more political, we may be more journalistic in that sense," she explained. "From what I understand, Oprah did not do very much politics." Then we asked her the question we know is on everyone's mind: Is she going to make Sarah Palin cry? "That's enough, thank you," she said, starting to turn away but then turning back to ask icily, "When was the last time you saw me interview anyone who cried?"
There are reports today that legendary TV theme writers The Who will be playing the Super Bowl halftime show this February. It is probably just a coincidence that CBS, who will broadcast this year’s game, is also home the CSI franchises that rocketed The Who to theme song stardom. The network just wants to put on a good show for America, and what goes better with chicken wings and nachos than cop show theme songs?? NOTHING!
Why it was just the other day I was locked in a late night debate over whether or not The Who are the greatest writers of TV show theme songs of all time. Personally, I still think John Tesh’s “NBA on NBC Theme” gives him the title, but The Who have nostalgia on their side. Just think how many people probably lost their virginity during the opening credits of a CSI: NY rerun this week alone. Hey, maybe they’ll even cover the NCIS: LA theme! That would be better than a hundred Bruce Springsteen crotch slides!
Kudos, CBS. And you get bonus points for the fact that Super Bowl XLIV is in Miami. I hope all your advertising looks like this:
A couple weeks ago, Stephen Colbert responded to Miracle Whip’s XXXXXtreeeeeme!!!!! mayo-bashing ad campaign with a youth-targeting ad of his own proving that mayonnaise is, in fact, the most SKAAAATEBOARD WOOOOOO!!!! condiment of them all.
It’s nice to see the Miracle Whip people at least acknowledge and embrace the ridiculousness of their original campaign, as well as to recognize the potential publicity explosion of getting into a condiment war with Colbert Nation (albeit one they will assuredly lose).
I would’ve expected their response to have come in the form of some disheartened legal document humorlessly clarifying the errors in Colbert’s broadcast, but that would’ve just been TOO MAYO. Your move, Colbert.
Fashion Wire Daily - Basic American sportswear is what spring is all about this season at Calvin Klein, as a crisp collection of whites and natural tones created a casual vibe at the spring 2010 presentation on Tuesday, Nov. 10 in New York.
The phenomenon of the "Twilight" franchise has turned little-known actors into household names. Now it's doing the same for a group of indie musicians on the films' soundtracks.
Daniel Radcliffe was allegedly photographed smoking weed at a party and walking around blurting “I love weed!” Kids are likely to be disappointed by this news, not because he’s a children’s movie star smoking pot, but because of how incredibly uncool he sounded.
Martin Scorsese will accept this year’s Cecil B. DeMille lifetime achievement award at the Golden Globes. The presentation is expected to be spectacular but probably deserve about 20 minutes cut out of it.
ABC is planning a modern adaptation of the classic tv action show Charlie’s Angels, a thing which has never been done before.
The director of Twilight semi-confirmed that Kristen Stewart and Robert Pattinsonare, in fact, dating. Man, with these rumors swirling, New Moon might actually do pretty well at the box office.
And finally, Megan Fox reveals the Michael Bay / Hitler joke that was cut from SNL before the taping, presumably because it was too offensive to both Bay and Hitler.
Fashion Wire Daily - Alexander Wang has won the 2009 Swiss Textiles Award, making his the second American design house to nab central Europe's most valuable fashion prize.
Fifty storey-high tidal waves engulfing entire cities, miles-wide meteors on a collision course with Earth, homicidal alien invaders with pulverizing technology -- nothing beats a good old disaster epic.
Mogul Donald Trump expressed shock at former Ms. California Carrie Prejean's attempt to walk off the set during her appearance on CNN's "Larry King Live."
Brandi Glanville wants things done a certain way from here on out.
Saying she quit working at Eddie Cibrian's request back when they were dating, the stay-at-home mom is demanding...
Just as he has with so many other women, Robert Pattinson has become a full-fleged citizen of Stephenie Meyer's fantasy world.
The usually press-shy author who gave life to Bella,...
Cindy Crawford's nanny was apparently mixing it up with the wrong kind of guy.
Court documents show that Edis Kayalar, who's accused of trying to extort more than $100,000 from...
Larry King might be long in the tooth, but the lovable ol' crank still has what it takes to get an ex-beauty queen mad at him.
Which, in the case of Carrie Prejean, isn't...
Over the past week, I’ve noticed that my DVR has been strangely full to the point where I have to delete like three things just about every time I record anything. Last night, I vowed to unearth the root of this problem, and it only took me about four seconds to figure out what had happened:
When Jon Gosselin touched down at LAX yesterday, we were sure he was about to launch another media-whoring trip here in Hollywood and braced ourselves for the obligatory photo ops of him...
Just because the Glee cast was ousted from the NBC Thanksgiving Day Parade lineup doesn't mean our favorite high school singing club is holding a grudge.
Glee's main man on...
Stephanie Pratt might not be the brightest bulb, but she could be pulling out a novel defense in her drunken-driving case:
Don't blame the booze, blame the...
It's been a whirlwind week of press junkets and wardrobe changes for the Twilight trinity. But unlike Rob and Taylor, who can simply throw on a clean pair of jeans in each new city (scratch...
You knew that Mike Bloomberg went to extraordinary lengths to get himself elected to a third term, spending close to $100 million to blanket the local airwaves with commercials and stick flyers in the mailbox of every New Yorker. It turns out his campaigning extended far, far beyond New York as well: 
There are 
