AP - A letter by George Washington has sold for $3,218,500 at auction in New York City, setting a world record for a letter by America's first president, according to Christie's.
AFP - Thailand's revered king called on the politically divided nation to unite Saturday, during a brief public excursion from hospital to mark his 82nd birthday.
AP - Nicolas Cage has won a U.N. award night for his humanitarian work and has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:22 pm
AP - Nicolas Cage has won a U.N. award night for his humanitarian work and has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:22 pm
Nicolas Cage has won a U.N. award night for his humanitarian work and has been appointed a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 10:22 pm
AP - A letter by George Washington has sold for $3,218,500 at auction in New York City, setting a world record for a letter by America's first president, according to Christie's.
A letter by George Washington has sold for $3,218,500 at auction in New York City, setting a world record for a letter by America's first president, according to Christie's. Washington's Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:23 pm
LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Rock on, Anvil. The aging band that never tasted music stardom found a measure of Hollywood fame on Friday when "Anvil, The Story of Anvil" won two film awards,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 9:04 pm
UPDATE: Adam Lambert is no longer persona non grata at ABC. The network confirmed that the saucy singer will perform on The View next Thursday, a day after being feted as one of Barbara...
Reuters - For those of you who have been desperately awaiting the latest comic opus from David and Scott Hillenbrand, the creators of "National Lampoon Presents Dorm Daze" and its sequel "National Lampoon's Dorm Daze 2: Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:03 pm
Reuters - From its generic title to its overly familiar plot line to its B-list cast, "Breaking Point" has the feel of a late-night entry on Cinemax, which no doubt will be its fate sooner rather than later. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:02 pm
Reuters - The tough-guy mugs of Matt Dillon, Jean Reno, Laurence Fishburne and Fred Ward aren't the only familiar aspects of "Armored," an old-school heist movie that doesn't exactly reinvent the genre. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:02 pm
Reuters - Forget cult classics like "Office Space" or TV hits like "The Office." "The Strip," Jameel Khan's new comedy about the misbegotten employees of a low-rent electronics store at a suburban strip mall, doesn't even compare in quality to the endless similarly themed sitcoms that regularly populate the airwaves. Opening Friday (December 4) in various cities, the film likely is to be dispossessed quickly. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 4 Dec 2009 | 7:01 pm
Front Page: Rock doc wins top feature award -- Sacha Gervasi's rock doc "Anvil! The Story of Anvil" has won the top feature award from the Intl. Documentary Assn.
AP - Conductor James Levine returned to the Metropolitan Opera after an absence of more than two months to recover from spine surgery to lead the company's new production of Offenbach's "Les Contes d'Hoffmann (The Tales of Hoffmann)."
NEW YORK - Former NBC News anchor Tom Brokaw and his wife say they were involved in a three-car accident on a New York City highway that killed one woman. Neither Brokaw nor his wife... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 5:08 pm
Fashion Wire Daily - A mix of sparkle, tribal, neutral tones, lucite and denim will be just some of the major trends seen in accessories next spring, said the Neiman Marcus accessory team in their latest presentation in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Fashion Wire Daily - A mix of sparkle, tribal, neutral tones, lucite and denim will be just some of the major trends seen in accessories next spring, said the Neiman Marcus accessory team in their latest presentation in New York on Wednesday, Dec. 2.
Hey, he's already got the body for it.
When the sun has set on The Twilight Saga, Taylor Lautner is going to head up Paramount's possible franchise-starting...
LOS ANGELES (Billboard) - On the chorus of her latest single, "I Am," Mary J. Blige sings in her riveting voice: "Ain't nobody gonna touch you better... more than I am." Since breaking... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 5:02 pm
• Rolling Stone is opening a theme restaurant in LA, believe it or not. [LAT] • The first issue of Bloomberg BusinessWeek hit newsstands today. [NYO] • MTV's Jersey Shore is off to a very solid start, not surprisingly. [Wrap] • Entourage has two more seasons left, and then a movie will follow. [THR] • The NBC-Comcast deal turned into comedy fodder for Conan this week. [NYT] • Editors at Golf Digest are a bit embarrassed. The headline on the cover of the January issue: "The Top 10 Tips Obama Can Take From Tiger." [NYP] • The new issue of Vogue Italia is totally dedicated to Twitter. [R29, TC] • Tom Brokaw and his wife were almost killed in a car crash today, but escaped unharmed. A woman in another car died in the incident. [NYP]
• When Rihanna was asked what famous person she would most like to mute, she said Tila Tequila. Good answer, even though Tila barely qualifies as a famous person. Tila saw a chance to...
The above image, courtesy of TMZ, shows pop superstarlet Rihanna shooting a scene for an upcoming music video, wearing nothing more than a bullet bra and Mickey Mouse helmet. And wouldn’t you know it, one of her ammunipples simply busted out of her Rambo-esque unmentionables.
Can you imagine? Here she is, dressed like slutty Mickey Mouse headed to some sort of apocalyptic topless battle. The face of the Disney Corporation — and, by default, the ABC Network — dressed like their mascot, naked, in some sort of hopeless war.
Which makes one wonder: Given that ABC has canceled 3 of Adam Lambert’s appearances following his controversial AMA performance (specifically Good Morning America, Jimmy Kimmel, and New Year’s Eve with Ryan Seacrest — arguably the gayest show the network has ever put on), what sort of consequences will Rihanna face given the above photo? Not that they should, mind you, but it just seems fair given all of their “High and Mightiness” as of late. Fake oral sex and a gay kiss has GOT to be as bad insinuating that your company’s mascot is some sort of totalitarian Big Brother with a bonus areola hangin’ out of a bullet belt bra, right? Right?!?!
Well, in a perfect world, probably. But in the world we live in today, probably not. Double standards, hypocrites, and all that jazz hands.
We’re just hoping the network doesn’t fire Dick Clark for having a name that could also easily be a term for a dirty gay sex act. (Usage: “Don’t you just love it when your man finishes your day off with a Dick Clark from behind?”) In other news:
UPDATE: Adam will be appearing on ABC’s The View on Thursday, December 10. As well as the Barbara Walters’ “10 Most Fascinating People of 2009,” set to air December 9, aka “The Day 10 Fascinating People Will Cry on National Television.” So… (long pause)… I guess we can all get on with our lives now? Hoorah. (Not to be confused with “Prostitution Hoorah.”)
LONDON (Billboard) - Australian pop singer Kylie Minogue is to release a download-only concert album, "Kylie Live in New York." Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 4:33 pm
Jaimee Grubbs, the only girl to admit to having an affair with Tiger Woods and also share his puny calf complex with the world, participated in a Nov. 8 professional photo shoot in...
Reuters - With plenty of moans, guitars, doumbek, disco, clarinet and synth, Shakira's newest album, "She Wolf," is a grab bag of influences, ranging from pop rock to world music to '80s R&B.
A birthday celebration that culminated in a trip to catch the blockbuster movie "The Twilight Saga: New Moon" could land 22-year-old Samantha Tumpach in prison for three years.
Earlier Friday, the veteran NBC newsman and his wife, Meredith, escaped uninjured from a three-car smashup in the Bronx that left one woman...
Wow: After a long, sensational trial, a jury in Perugia, Italy, has found American exchange student Amanda Knox guilty of stabbing her British roommate, Meredith Kercher, to death two years ago, despite a startling lack of physical evidence. Her Italian boyfriend, who was accused of helping her slash her roommate's throat during a "sex game gone wrong," has already been convicted and is serving 25 years in prison. Knox, now 22, has been sentenced to 26 years in prison. Together, the pair will have to pay the family of Meredith Kercher $7 million, in part to ensure that this follows them for the rest of their lives.
Update: Apparently, the jury was "captivated" by an animated movie made by the prosecution that laid out what supposedly happened. A CNN reporter described the "reenactment" (imagineactment?) as being of "Lara Croft"–level quality.
The more we hear from Ashley Dupré, the former prostitute who brought down Governor Eliot Spitzer, the more we realize that she is the lone voice of reason in this whole Tiger Woods infidelity scandal. (Why is she involved in the first place? Who cares! Not us.) Last night she appeared on Andy Cohen's Bravo show, Watch What Happens Live, and chatted about what she thinks of the ladies. First, she says, Elin Nordegrin, Woods's wife, should try to ignore all the noise about these women and not try to reach out to them. "I feel that right now she needs to focus on herself, and they need to work on their marriage and they need to go to therapy," she said. "They have a lot of work to do." She also says, regarding the reports of money transfers to Nordegrin in order to get her to stay, that from her experience in these situations, "probably 95 percent" of what the media reports from so-called "friends" is not true. As for advice to the women, like Rachel Uchitel (who is getting a bruising from the parents of her late fiancé who died on 9/11), who may have had hopes for a future with Woods, she delivers a pearl of hooker wisdom: "By sleeping with a married man, you're only helping him stay married." Think about that, people. Think long and hard. At least long and hard enough to forget that we devoted an entire post to what a twentysomething former prostitute thinks about a professional athlete she doesn't know and the affairs he may or may not be having.
Katt Williams needs a hobby that doesn't involve law enforcement.
After having been arrested at least three times in the last three years, the otherwise-quite-successful comedian...
The former Saturday Night Live player and her filmmaker beau Paul Thomas Anderson welcomed their second child together Nov. 6, a...
“The entire U.S. financial system and all the major firms in the country, and even small banks across the country, were at that moment at the middle of a classic run, a classic bank run,” the Treasury secretary told Bloomberg today, in response to a question about Goldman Sachs's repeated insistence that it would have survived without government intervention. “None of them would have survived a situation in which we had let that fire try to burn itself out."
Okay, you think. From the pitch of Tim's voice and the redness in his ears, this is obviously getting to be a very sore subject; perhaps this time Goldman Sachs will take stock of its situation, its robust health, its toned biceps, luck with the ladies and general awesomeness, and just let the little guy have this one by admitting defeat? Sorry, no: "We didn’t know what was going to happen and were very glad as a result of government intervention we didn’t have to find out," spokesman Lucas Van Praag responded.
Yesterday Chanel showed its pre-fall collection in Shanghai. (Because they are Fancy, they call it the Paris-Shanghai Métiers d'Art Collection.) This was Karl Lagerfeld's first trip to the city, and he noted the show, in which models wore rice-paddy hats, wasn't about the real China, but his China:
“It is about the idea of China, not the reality,” Lagerfeld told WWD on his first trip to Shanghai. “It has the spirit of, and is inspired by, but is unrelated to China. It is not authentic like a Peking Opera or something.”
Elaborate, as Chanel's pre-fall efforts tend to be, the show was staged on a custom-buit barge with a glass front that faced the famous skyscrapers of Pudong. The boat didn't actually sail anywhere during the show, but it did kick off with a special film in which Coco Chanel fantasizes about going to sixties China and muses about making a collection inspired by a Mao suit. But there's more:
In a potentially controversial move, Europeans in yellow face play some of the Chinese characters. Lagerfeld defended this as a reference to old films. “It is an homage to Europeans trying to look Chinese,” he explained. “Like in ‘The Good Earth’, the people in the movie liked the idea that they had to look like Chinese. Or like actors in ‘Madame Butterfly’. People around the world like to dress up as different nationalities.”
First blackface, now yellow face. Looks like political correctness is out. Models on the runway, however, were not in yellow face. For highlights from the show — including Baptiste's every look (leather pants! furry coats! vamping!) — see the slideshow.
Hundreds of hours of shiny black cassette tape pour through a toothy shark jaw suspended from the ceiling in an untitled artwork by Bahamian artist Blue Curry. This is not the Caribbean... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:55 pm
Chatting on your cell phone constantly does not increase your chance of developing brain cancer, according to a new study. Just don't pass this info on to your workaholic boyfriend. [USA Today]
NEW YORK (Billboard) - Elvis Costello, the British singer-songwriter who swept through the London pub scene, the punk movement and the New Wave fad while retaining his signature sound,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:52 pm
What our IM conversation with the billionaire hedge-funder would have been like today, if we were, like, pals.
Paul-Money: What up D.I. Daily Intel: Hey JP Paul-Money: What's going on, little person? How's the daily struggle for survival? Daily Intel: I just got this annoying letter from Citigroup. They said they were going to vary my interest rate depending on how much I use my card, and if I didn't want it to go up to 10 percent I had to call them yesterday. Daily Intel: It is very confusing. Paul-Money: It appears my evil plan is working. Daily Intel: What? Paul-Money: Oh. Sorry. Er. Paul-Money: Wrong window.
Daily Intel: Anyway, what's up with you. Paul-Money: Well, Bank of America paid back their TARP money, which is great because I have a huge-ass long bet on BofA. Paul-Money: Also, I may have made $45.3 million in the past three weeks on gold. Daily Intel: Wow. Daily Intel: Wait. Daily Intel: What do you mean, "may have." Paul-Money: I don't really know, I haven't done the math, I'm too obsessed with this Tiger Woods thing. Daily Intel: OMG srsly Paul-Money: Had you ever heard of Ambien sex? Daily Intel: Is that really a thing? Or is it just that you take it if you have to have sex with Ryan Seacrest? Paul-Money: No it is a Thing. I Googled it. Paul-Money: I always thought the point was getting ladies NOT to fall asleep Paul-Money: But this morning I totally bought stock in Sanofi-Aventis, and it closed up +0.64. Paul-Money: That will show Business Week I'm no one-trick pony. Paul-Money: That reminds me, I have to go actually. I have a delivery of miniature Shetlands coming to Old Trees this evening. Daily Intel: ponies? Paul-Money: yeah Daily Intel: What for? Paul-Money: Just to have around this weekend. Have you ever seen those things? Paul-Money: They're all fluffy and shit, like dogs, but they're ponies. Paul-Money: They're "high" larious. Anyway, come by later if you want. TTYL Daily Intel: Hahaha ok byee ***Paul-Money went offline at 4:20 PM
As the Art Basel Miami art-fair bacchanalia heads into the weekend, there are some big buys — and even bigger buyers. One or two dozen of the Forbes 400 are here, plus their friends, relatives, art advisers, and seemingly every 20-year-old New Yorker who thinks porkpie hats are still in fashion. Val Kilmer’s buying art — specifically, a huge piece you may remember from the roof of the Met — Sylvester Stallone’s selling it, and the U.S. Federal Marshals stopped by to seize some paintings from a Zurich gallery’s booth in a legal dispute.
Confetti aside, this is all about selling art, and never has the scene been so competitive. The dozen or so concurrent rival fairs, once gentlemanly, are scheduling events head-to- head and as far away from each other as possible. Art Basel’s black VIP card, formerly giving Über-access across town, is spurned as events stop accepting each other’s credentials, slowing the lemminglike migration from party to party. There are perhaps a record number of events and dinners from sponsors like Sotheby’s, Swarovski Crystals, Vanity Fair, Audi, Cartier, and UBS — all those simultaneous — but they’re, by and large, smaller than in previous years. (Overheard, often: “You don’t have a plus one!”)
Amid all the chaos, the art this year, for a change, is actually far better than the parties. Roxy Paine, whose twisting stainless-steel garden, “Maelstrom,” took over the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s rooftop last summer, is the main fair’s art star. Actor Val Kilmer, a relatively new art collector, is here in Miami and has arranged to purchase the huge sculpture that the Met had on display, people familiar with the matter say. James Cohan Gallery, which represents Paine, won’t confirm this, but Jane Cohan notes that Kilmer “recently met the artist and is really excited by his work.” As for Kilmer, chatting tableside at the W Hotel with John McEnroe last night, he didn’t comment on the purchase but did say “I’m building the world’s biggest sculpture garden at my ranch in New Mexico.” The price was undisclosed, but Eli Broad, the collector who has his own building at the L.A. County Museum of Art, bought a smaller Roxy Paine from the gallery, this one for about $500,000.
Sculpture is hot in general, along with Indian art and classic twentieth-century contemporary pieces, which are now at more “realistic” prices, says Larry Warsh, head of AW Asia and probably America’s biggest collector of Chinese contemporary art. (He swore he wouldn’t buy more this year, but is eying a Subodh Gupta.) Simon de Pury, chairman of Phillips de Pury, is usually selling art, but here bought a “fantastic installation” by conceptualists Wade Guyton and Kelley Walker from Greene Naftali Gallery — and added that Miami pied-piper collector and socialite Rose de la Cruz already had one in her private museum.
The scene is hushed but moneyed: Steve Wynn went fair shopping with a Sotheby’s vice-chair, stopping to chat with Stallone, who was offering his own paintings (three sold). Calvin Klein, Marc Jacobs, and several designers and architects have also been spotted in fair booths, along with CEO types (or their kids) from Toys-R-Us, Berkshire Hathaway, and Bed, Bath & Beyond. Real-estate developer Aby Rosen, whose partnership owns Lever House, went shopping at an art show of Bruce High Quality Foundation artworks curated by Vito Schnabel and bought one. "Is the art world back?" we asked him. “Yes — but, you know, it was never really gone.”
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Nothing speaks so dramatically about Clint Eastwood's recent and remarkable burst of creativity as a director of awards-worthy films than the appearance... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 3:28 pm
Reuters - Nothing speaks so dramatically about Clint Eastwood's recent and remarkable burst of creativity as a director of awards-worthy films than the appearance of "Invictus," a historical drama that few if any filmmakers could have launched within the studio system.
Well, f*ck us gently with a chainsaw. Wouldn’t you know it, teen idol Christian Slatermade for a delightfulAnderson Cooperchaser as today’s guest host on Live! with Regis and Kelly. And goodness, is he Christian Slatier than ever! During the exciting “Trivia” segment — where they dial-up an unsuspecting viewer who can then win a beautiful vacation — Christian and Kelly were faced with an all too depressing response: No one was home.
What happened next, you ask? Exactly what you prayed for: Christian Slater kicked off his voicemail with a quote from our favorite movie of all time, Heathers. Imagine the delight (and complete lack of recognition) the listener must have had when she comes back from her morning aerobics class to hear this:
Apparently we were out sick the day the "Michael Jackson wrote the soundtrack to Sonic the Hedgehog 3" rumor was going around, because this is the first time we're hearing about it, but that doesn't temper our enthusiasm in reporting that it was no rumor: Brad Buxer, the official composer of the soundtrack, now says MJ collaborated on the game's music and is only not credited because "at the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music." (Also, Buxer claims, the HIStory song "Stranger in Moscow" came out of the Sonic sessions.) Check out the goods here, or wait for the now-inevitable Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack boxed-set reissue. [MTV]
Every year, elite journalist group the Gridiron Club of Washington, D.C., hosts a big spring dinner where the media puts on a show teasing politicians. This year Obama made headlines by being the first president to skip it since Grover Cleveland. Lesser known, though, is the winter dinner hosted by the 65-member group, which is a more low-key affair that doesn't garner as much attention. Until this year: Co-headlining the event are Sarah Palin and Barney Frank, who are both scheduled to give speeches. Traditionally, the speeches at this event are humorous in nature, which really gets us thinking. What happens when an infamously curmudgeonly, schlubby, liberal, gay congressman from New England and an impeccably coiffed, perky, pretty, Über-conservative former governor from Alaska get together and try to do something that's more hilarious than the situation they're already in? Unfortunately, we'll never know: The dinner is traditionally off the record. Alas.
Hahahahahaahaha. Just kidding. Like Bush's in 2008, obviously both of their performances will be either leaked or reported. That is, if the presence of the two of them in the same room does not set off an electromagnetic detonation, exploding every tape recorder, iPhone, and video camera in a one-mile radius.
The Frosty Needlepoint Belt, Tucker Blair's founder proffering his wares, and the SOLD OUT Lobster Needlepoint Headband.
Labels constantly try to get us to feature their products in Shop-A-Matic. But sometimes a brand so special comes along, we have to do a little something extra. And so we would like to introduce you to Tucker Blair, which has been pushing their Frosty Needlepoint Belt on us. We did a little research to find out more about what appeared to be this prestigious, august label, and it turns out, its beginnings were impossibly humble:
Have you ever sat down at your desk in some anonymous, beige office building, sifting through Excel spreadsheets and realizing that you’d give just about anything to be on the Cape with a beer and a pair of Croakies? Yeah, so have I. Not long after graduating from Colgate, corporate America got real old, real quick. So I set out in 2007 to create a line of needlepoint products that would be second to none in quality, while not breaking the bank. My friends and I always loved wearing fun whimsical needlepoint belts, but the cost was always prohibitive, and I knew that paying retail just meant we were putting more money in a store’s coffers.
And so he went to Asia, sourced his yarn and leather, and, in a dream that really did come true, Tucker Blair was born. Lest you write this off as a hometown label unknown to those who don't summer on the Cape and don't own Croakies (perish the thought), one of their headbands was featured on Gossip Girl. You can buy it on sale for $25 (marked down from $40!). But if you want the lobster belt, which we actually find more becoming, you're out of luck, because that product is sold out. If we were Vineyard Vines, we would be freaking out right about now.
Hugh Hefner wasn't surprised one bit when he heard about allegations of Tiger Woods cheating on his wife.
"I think the only surprise in it, quite frankly, is that anybody would...
Out in limited release today is Jason Reitman's Up in the Air, the year's presumed Best Picture front-runner, starring George Clooney as a frequent-flying corporate terminator who meets his match in Anna Kendrick, an efficiency expert with plans to ground him. Kendrick got her start onstage, scoring a Tony nomination for her role in High Society at only 12-years-old before transitioning to small films, like 2007’s Sundance hit Rocket Science and the recent art-house favorite The Twilight Saga: New Moon. She spoke with Vulture about auditioning for Air and her own Oscar buzz.
How did your role come about?
Well, Jason Reitman saw me in a film I did called Rocket Science, and he started writing the role with me in mind after he saw that.
Did you know that when you auditioned?
No, actually. I just went in and read and I thought it didn't go well at all. And so I was really surprised when they called like two days later and just offered me the job. I was at least expecting to have to go in and read a million times for a role like this.
Why didn't he just tell you?
Jason, I guess, was trying not to psych me out, because he thought if he told me that he’d written the role with me in mind that it would feel like it was mine to lose, and I would choke. So he was trying to keep a poker face, and so I just thought he didn't like me.
Did you know you’d be working with George Clooney and Vera Farmiga?
No! Certainly, I didn’t know that Vera was attached to it. And I’d heard that George was, but I thought it was kind of just a rumor. And then Jason was telling me all about meeting George and how excited George was to do the movie. And I was trying to act really cool and act like that didn't faze me, like I was totally up to the task.
In both Up in the Air and Rocket Science, your characters are very smart, aggressive women.
I like playing characters like that because they’re really outspoken and really opinionated, and I often censor myself and don’t say the thing that I’m feeling. And, you know, it’s great to be able to tell George Clooney off in a movie. It feels very cathartic.
Was that intimidating at first, to work with him?
Yeah, but he kind of goes out of his way to make you feel comfortable, and make you feel like you’re allowed to give him shit offscreen which means you can certainly make fun of him onscreen.
Twilight is a very different kind of movie (and very different role) from most of what you’ve done. How did you get involved in that?
Well, Catherine Hardwicke also saw me in Rocket Science when she was on the jury at Sundance. And she asked me to come in and read. And at first I just didn't get it. I felt like I had no business auditioning for a kind of a queen bee–type girl, because it’s so not who I was growing up. I just figured the only way that somebody like me should be playing that is to be playing up the kind of things underneath that popular-girl image. You know, like the desperation and the jealousy, and I think that's what makes her so funny.
What kinds of things did you do to get into character as Up in the Air's Natalie?
I talked a little bit to my friends about what I think is a big underlying thing for Natalie, which is the idea that she’s really frustrated by the fact that she was born a woman. And I think that there’s a sense for young girls that if you can kind of conquer the corporate world, and be one of the boys, that you can conquer the fact that you were born female. And I think that that’s what drives her. I think she wants to be taken seriously so badly that she has gotten herself into a career that makes her really unhappy and that she can’t really do, but it’s because she strives to reconcile her frustrations with being a woman.
You're being talked about as an Oscar contender. How does that feel?
It’s a little intimidating and strange and it makes me a little nervous. But, you know, it’s good, ultimately. I want people to like the movie, and I want people to like my performance, so it certainly doesn’t make me unhappy, but it is a little strange to hear your name associated with that word, “buzz.”
Jann Wenner, publisher of Rolling Stone magazine at Madison Square Garden on October 2009 in New York City. Music and pop culture magazine Rolling Stone is getting into the food business, announcing plans... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 4 Dec 2009 | 2:35 pm
Last night’s episode, Scott’s Tots, was, even by The Office’s lofty standards, just about the most awkward awkward that ever awkwarded. The baby-talk intro was probably the funniest cold-open of the season (Thank you…thank you a lot), and after that, well, the episode was a big ol’ punch to the crotch. Hilarious, but very, very painful.
It goes without saying that The Office has always prided itself on a grand tradition of awkward circumstances, from David Brent’s first “She has left him, forgot about that…” to anything involving Michael Scott being in or near the conference room. Still, Scott’s Tots, may have set a new bar for awkwardness in the franchise’s history, with Michael forced to confront a group of underprivileged high school kids to tell them that he will not actually be paying for their college tuition as he had triumphantly and very publicly promised them more than a decade earlier.
Usually, Office awkward situations involve some sort of over-the-line comment that offends a person or two, or the leaking of compromising information, or at worst, something that makes Michael and the persons directly around him uncomfortable for a brief period. Last night, though, Michael’s outlandish tuition promise — clearly borne out of his ongoing need to have people like him, as well as his once overly-optimistic vision of his own success — directly crushed the life dreams of 15 innocent kids. Sure, it’s a little on the exaggerated side for a believable Office dilemma, but we’re six seasons in — our tolerance for awkward is too high at this point for offhand comments about Stanley playing basketball to get us Office-high.
After the jump, a silver lining (not laptop batteries):
The school scenes definitely walked the line between funny/awkward and just straight-up painfully awkward, leaning more towards the latter at times, but the kids’ choreographed dance number and succession of tearful speeches kept making me laugh (loved the dude flipping), and the situation wasn’t helped by Erin being noticeably touched by the stories, completely ignorant of the inevitable bombshell that was coming. In the end, Michael’s escape was actually more painless than I was expecting — his laptop battery consolation prize nonwithstanding — and Erin’s comment on the drive home about Scott’s Tots having a higher graduation rate did legitimately salvage some positivity out of an otherwise apocalyptic situation.
The only question now is, after wiping away the dreams of more than a dozen unsuspecting children, where could Michael’s awkwardness possibly go next? Is he just gonna be napalming babies by Season 8?
In the sideplot, Dwight launched another diabolical scheme to get Jim fired by convincing him to institute an Employee of the Month program and tricking him into unknowingly giving himself (and later, Pam) the award. This leads to one of the other funniest parts of the episode, Dwight’s series of Doubtfire-esque impressions of his officemates:
I’m really enjoying the ongoing plot of Jim struggling as a co-manager. For five seasons, Jim (and the home viewing audience) sat there witnessing Michael botch office situation after office situation, wondering why the company wouldn’t just throw someone remotely competent in the position and instantly solve everything. Now Jim has this privilege, and he’s finding out again and again how uncontrollable the office is and how tough Michael’s job is, and he’s starting to realize that Michael’s “all play and no management” philosophy isn’t so much complete incompetence as it is just the only way to not have a collection of bored, jaded paper company employees hating him all the time.
Can we expect a Tales From The Crypt-style season finale twist where Jim looks in the mirror and realizes he’s turned into Michael and vice versa? Eh…maybe in Season 7.
Episode thoughts? How’d you handle the awkwardness? Favorite parts / lines? Quote away in the comments.
Even in the alternative universe of FlashForward, with 20 million dead and the rest of the planet busily trying to wrap their heads around glimpses of the future, you can't get away from Christmas. As John Waters recently said, "You can love it, you can hate it, but you can't ignore it," and in the winter finale of the show, gratuitous Christmas songs are woven throughout the continent-spanning intrigue, and we're left with plenty of cliffhangers and a few moments of awkward holiday cheer.
"What's a little martyrdom between friends?"
Lloyd Simcoe and Simon Campos go before a room full of angry members of the press on the campus of Stanford where the two work as particle physicists. Lloyd has gotten his way, and they're telling the world that their little experiment with an enormous particle accelerator (the likes of which, in reality, only exists in Geneva), trying to replicate the energy of the big bang, caused the blackout. Simon is less eager to take responsibility, and makes sure everyone knows that the results were "utterly unforeseeable." A crazed woman in a bad blazer sits fumbling with her pockets and looking crazy throughout, and then reaches for a gun and fires a shot at Lloyd, screaming, "You killed my family." She misses. Lloyd and Simon quickly make themselves scarce, and back at the FBI field office, Wedeck vows to track them down. Janis, brilliant gal that she is, remembers Simcoe's name from the hospital where she recovered from her gunshot wounds, and immediately goes to stake the place out and wait for him.
"You're right, she does sound like Eartha Kitt."
The episode opens with the mystery woman in Hong Kong — whose name, we quickly learn, is Nhadra Udaya (Shohreh Aghsashloo) — watching the 1938 version of A Christmas Carol, the "you will be visited by three ghosts" part. Cute. Mark and Demetri have disobeyed Wedeck's orders and flown to Hong Kong to investigate Demetri's potential murder, and all they have to go on is the location of the call, and the improbably accurate "linguistics" evidence showing that the caller is Tehran-born and London-educated. (Also, she sounds like Eartha Kitt, and must be a smoker.) They track her down to a restaurant where she eats dim sum regularly, flanked by four armed bodyguards. Still not knowing who she is or why she's so heavily protected, the two agents confront her, and she ends up telling them that Demetri ultimately gets shot by Mark himself, at close range, by Mark's own gun — the serial number of which she has memorized. This of course makes Mark go completely insane, and just as she sees it in his eyes and says, "Don't," he flips over the table, goes rogue, and takes Nhadra hostage. Cue the arrival, within seconds, of the entire Hong Kong police force, as well as this creepy dude who met them at the airport, Marshall Vogel, who claimed to be an FBI agent himself. Hint: He's not. After Mark is knocked to the ground, he says to Nhadra, "This isn't over," and she delivers the ultimate deadpan response: "It never is."
"Are you taking the piss?"
Simon arrives at the FBI field office to have a sit-down with Wedeck, and makes it clear that he won't be arrested without a fight. He comes back the following day to share information, and Janis shows him the satellite images from 1991 of the weird towers in the Somali desert. Not only does Simon improbably identify the area the images were taken, he can identify the devices, which he says are "specialized pulsed lasers for a plasma afterburner that increase the rate of acceleration for traditional radio frequencies." Did you get all that? Well, get this: He came up with the idea for them in 1992, and the technology still hadn't been built yet. Also of note: Dominic Monaghan, the actor playing Simon, would have been 16-years-old in 1992. Anyway, someone either went back in time with Simon's technology, or came up with it before he did and didn't take credit for it. In any event, Janis immediately pins it on the mysterious D. Gibbons. "Gee, a techie, social misfit, chess-playing physicist. That should narrow it down," quips Simon.
"Are you going to the memorial?"
Zoey phones Demetri's parents, who do not approve of him marrying her, to beg them to come to the Hawaiian wedding she saw in her flash. She saw them there, so obviously they have to listen to her, right? A colleague reminds her to come to a memorial service that night for another colleague named Joyce, and Zoey ends up having a revelation about the white rose she's carrying in the flash: That wasn't her wedding that she saw, that was Demetri's funeral. And she finally admits, after talking to Demetri's mother, that she didn't see him there at all. Nonetheless, and despite his mother confirming that she saw the funeral, too, Zoey remains pathologically optimistic about changing the future.
"So, you went to Harvard?"
Olivia gets Dylan Simcoe a transfer to a more secure children's hospital in Glendale, and Lloyd is grateful. But rather than stay hung up on the whole "you killed 20 million people thing," she quickly changes the subject to his alma mater, which was announced all over the news. She herself almost went to Harvard, and wouldn't you know it, she almost lived in the building next door to Lloyd's in Cambridge, the very building where his wife lived. He immediately hits on her, sort of, by talking about the Many Worlds Theory, in which all of our choices in life get played out in different ways in alternate universes — basically he's saying, yeah, we're probably married in a parallel plane.
Just as they're loading Dylan into an ambulance, Olivia senses there's something wrong with these brusque paramedics, and it turns out they're not paramedics. They're evil, evil bad guys who shoot a security guard, take Lloyd hostage, pistol whip Olivia, and leave Dylan crying in the street.
"The whole penis thing is kind of a problem for me."
Meanwhile, Janis chats up Bryce (who is given a lucky-cat statue by Nicole so that he can find his love Keiko before it's too late), and asks about how she'd go about having a baby, sans penises. He sets her up with some pre-natal vitamins and a sperm bank. Done and done.
"You really should answer your cell phone."
Mark and Demetri get a special escort out of Hong Kong by creepy Vogel, and Vogel quickly admits that he's not really on their side: He's CIA, and so, probably, is Nhadra, and this "whole Mosaic thing" is a lot bigger than their silly investigation. Naturally Mark gets a call from boss-man Wedeck, who's already seen footage of him flipping over the table and going insane at the dim sum place. He fires him, and Mark surrenders his badge to Demetri. They're left sitting at the gate in the airport watching the same black-and-white Christmas Carol, which must be very popular in Hong Kong. It's the part where Scrooge is talking about living in the past, present, and future. Cute.
Meanwhile, Nhadra is shown back at her office, not watching the movie right at that moment, but harboring D. Gibbons, whose scary face we finally get to see. She says, "They've been following you since the doll factory," which isn't entirely true — they don't seem to have any leads on him whatsoever. But anyway, he's there, they know each other, and Nhadra has her very own Mosaic wall that looks a lot like Mark's except with more stuff on it. So yes, whether or not this would be the case in reality, the CIA and not the FBI is winning the war on the blackout, and/or they had a hand in it.
From the look ahead: We have to note the two-months-ago cultural reference shown in the previews of upcoming episodes, in which bad guy Ricky Jay quotes Where the Wild Things Are: "Let the wild rumpus begin!" Also, Bryce makes out with Nicole (!) and Olivia, obviously, hooks up with Lloyd — after all, her husband's a jobless alcoholic! God bless us, every one.
Every holiday season, spas repackage their treatments with a seasonal spin, usually involving some kind of nostalgic foodstuff. What was a plain old body scrub in April becomes the Gingerbread Body Buff in November, or the Christmas Cookie Body Wrap, or what have you. This season, perhaps in some way related to the economy (a stretch, but work with us), the naming trend is more about happy childhood memories than rich, caloric sweetmeats. There’s the Very Merry at Tribeca Beauty Spa (8 Harrison St., nr. Hudson St.; 212-343-2376), a 75-minute facial or hot stone massage and 75-minute manicure and pedicure ($180). Just Calm Down (30 W. 18th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 212-337-0032) has both the Twinkle, Twinkle Little Toe pedicure ($85) and the one that really charmed us: the “Run Pine Forest Run” massage ($140). Get it? It is, of course, a sports massage that uses peppermint oil and Topricin (a pain reliever) to relieve the stress brought on by going long on the eggnog.
Hugh Grant looks awfully worried about Hugh Grant in this photo from the German premiere of Did You Hear About the Morgans?, or Haben Sie Das Von den Morgans Gehort?, his upcoming rom com co-starring Sarah Jessica Parker. And frankly, we kind of have to agree with the Hugh Grant to the left… Hugh Grant to the right is looking a littttttle haggard. Don’t get us wrong, we’d still live out our Bridget Jones’ fantasies with him even 6 feet under. But as you can see in the gallery below, the floppy haired idol of yesteryear only has a couple hundred more romantic comedy miles left in him. He might be smiling, but his eyes are pleading for mercy.
Check out more images — including a super unfair close-up — in the gallery below.
Since James Cameron's Titanic came out in 1997, great advances have been made in visual-effects technology — but not so, we guess, in end-credits balladry. Via the nice people at Popeater, we have our first listen to "I See You," Leona Lewis's hilarious Avatar theme song, made in the mold of "My Heart Will Go On" and fortified with a full range of late-nineties radio-schmaltz pyrotechnics. It's pretty shapeless, enough so that we're still not totally sure which part is supposed to be the chorus. Maybe it'll sound better in 3-D. Listen below!
Tiger Woods' major sponsors have been standing by him. But if any of them do part ways with the golfer over his extra-marital dalliances, there's probably a pharmaceutical endorsement deal that could be his. According to a report this morning, Woods and Rachel Uchitel were fond of taking Ambien before getting down and dirty. "You know you have crazier sex on Ambien," Uchitel reportedly told a friend. "You get into that Ambien haze. We have crazy Ambien sex." [Radar]
As anyone might have predicted, France is distraught over the court ruling in Christian Lacroix's bankruptcy. Industry Minister Christian Estrosi published a statement on his website this week, in which he said he suspects the economic downturn in Dubai is likely what kept Ajman sheikh Hassan Bin Ali al-Nuaimi from submitting his financial guarantees on time. He is tapping the network of French diplomats in the UAE to "alert the sheikh of the urgency of the situation." Dubai's in the hole, but a legendary couturier needs saving. Priorities, please. Making the situation even more urgent, Lacroix has said he doesn't want to work with the Falic Group on any future projects. So if they relaunch Lacroix ready-to-wear and accessories under license, which is a possibility, he wants nothing to do with it.
Probably not: The former Lehman Brothers CEO is just a little late paying the $212,000 in annual property tax on his Jupiter Island home, is all, but William D. Cohan is 900 words of worried. [Daily Beast]
Listen, we love the purity and innocence of the Rankin/Bass Christmas specials as much as the next guy. Each and every winter, we mix up a batch of hot toddies and get our nostalgia on while watching Rudolph, Santa Claus, and the rest of the familiar cast of characters work their holiday magic. However, unlike those fuddy-duddies over at Mediaite, we don't take any issue with CBS's decision to create an official mash-up in which Frosty the Snowman's voice is replaced with bon mots spewed by the lovably caddish Barney Stinson (of How I Met Your Mother fame, obvs). Sure, it's a little bit on the dirty side and definitely not for the kiddies, but in our eyes, NPH and Rankin/Bass are two great tastes that definitely taste great together.
Though prosecutors sought two months of jail time for Hiram Monserrate — who was convicted of misdemeanor assault earlier this year for dragging his girlfriend, Karla Giraldo, through the hallway after [clears throat] accidentally smashing a glass into her face — a judge today sentenced him today to three years of probation, 250 hours of community service, and 52 weeks of domestic-abuse counseling instead. Judge Erlbaum had some harsh words for both Giraldo and Monserrate, however. To Giraldo, he wished she would one day "have the self-respect to stop acting like a slave." And, referring to Monserrate, Erlbaum noted that the "legislature has in its chamber a flawed human being. Perhaps there are others." Perhaps. Heh.
Phoenix used to strike us as a little too Euro twee, the kind of music that got played at the social gatherings of Baltic models. (Yes, we were bitter about never getting invited.) But then they released Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix earlier this year, and goddamn it if it doesn’t put us in a bust-out good mood every time we hear it, despite the fact that the song “1901” is used in a Cadillac commercial that plays like 50 times during every Giants game. Amazingly, we still enjoy that song. And our love for the band got kicked into the stratosphere with their “secret” show at the P.C. Richards Theater in Tribeca, sponsored by a mobile app called IHeartRadio.
It was a tiny, packed room, with a heavy representation of industry people — not usually the best ingredient for a good time. Indeed, there were a few too many dudes standing around with their hands jammed into their jeans. But the band played a six-song, 30-minute set that was just about perfect, adding a heavy dose of garage-rock vigor to their sweet, frothy pop. If we were starting a band, we’d hire that awesome drummer who bopped around like a giddy teenager while still laying down some sick beats. And actually, we’d take that lead guitarist, too. The highlights were the kick-ass “Lasso” and a gorgeous version of “Playground Love,” singer Thomas Mars’s collaboration with Air. Even closing the set with the Cadillac jingle worked. We guess that if we’d paid money to be there, the brevity would have been disappointing, but we wish more rock shows would be like this: quick, intense, and out in the night. We even went home and downloaded that app, out of gratitude. And why not? It was free, too.
SKIN
• Miley Cyrus appears to have gotten a tattoo under her left breast. Photos taken of the 17-year-old swimming at Miami Beach's Fountainbleau Resort show that it reads "Just Breathe" in cursive. Do you think it's real? [Us]
• Beautyzzz created a special silk pillow that promises to balance out your skin's PH and hydrate it while you sleep, as well as help any night creams you apply absorb and work more effectively. Plus, no crease marks! [Grazia UK]
MAKEUP
• Julia Roberts will be Lancôme's new global spokesperson. Lancôme International president Youcef Nabi thinks Roberts will "embody the brand in the most sublime way possible." More details on the deal will be released early next year. [WWD]
FRAGRANCE
• Bottega Veneta plans to release a line of perfumes in 2011. The company signed a deal with Coty to create, develop, and produce the scents. Coty recently produced Balenciaga's first fragrance for women. [WWD]
• Van Cleef & Arpels will launch a new scent called Oriens next February. The floral scent "pays homage to Asian culture" and will be housed in a bottle inspired by a tourmaline ring. [Now Smell This]
NAILS
• British spa Champneys is getting into the nail business, creating a collection of twenty shades of nail polish. The colors range from nudes and pinks to deep purples and a black similar to Chanel Noir. [Kiss and Makeup]
A few days ago, friend and comedian Katina Corrao called me to see if I wanted to go to a taping of Live! with Regis and Kelly with he– YES! I shouted into the phone, which I then dropped down a grate after falling to my knees in ecstasy. It has long been a dream of mine to see the dynamic duosome of Reeg and Kel doing their “chat over coffee, check out this paper” shtick live, as the title indicates, vs. through my television.
Then, bad news struck. Regis Philbin has just undergone hip surgery, meaning he wouldn’t be warming up the director’s chair with his brand of shouted end of sentences. I ran to my DVR to see who would replace our gristled, Irish friend. Then I saw it. The only person who could possibly top Regis Philbin in a PEOPLE I WANT TO MEET AND BEFRIEND AND MORE Contest… that person… being…
ANDERSON COOPER.
Ah Anderson, my old friend. My run-ins with the man have been many and great. From the time he stood over me on the subway, to the time he turned a corner and nearly slammed into me, to the time we stood next to each other on line at JFK security, he might be the on person in New York who could genuinely call me an “accidental stalker.” Now this, going to a live taping where he and I would once again share oxygen. Well, I had to come up with a plan to save face…
That plan being: Try to look as naturally “Oh You’re Here Too?” as possible. Do not make too much eye contact. Stare at your shoes a lot. Become best friends with Kelly while giving The Coop the cold shoulder. In other words: Do not give a care that he’s there. Yes, this double agent scheme of mine is definitely a sign of some sort of mental illness, but this should not be news at this point.
This plan was rendered nearly impossible, because just look at the guy. He is perfection.
But I digress. We arrived at the studio at 7:30 am, and lined up with a gaggle of excited housewives to catch the live taping. Upon being ushered in, we were given a number, which God willing a lucky housewife at home would call out after answering the Trivia question. I got the number 7, coincidentally also my lucky number, which could only mean one thing: I was sure to win a $500 gift certificate to Omaha Steaks? Right? (Update: Wrong. The woman called #77 — so close, but so deliciously far away.)
Following a pep talk by the ubiquitous Gelman (who I also happened to accidentally kick at one point), the show started. And there they were! Anderson and Kelly, whose rapport is off the charts. Kelly is much like you imagined: A hair taller than Tinkerbell, with a beautiful face, powerful arms, and enough energy to power Regis’ pacemaker.
Also tons of fun was the token gay man sitting in our row, a flight attendant for an airline, who during every commercial break would shout out: “Tell Kelly to call Wendy in Vegas!!” in the most gee way possible. While definitely a helpful tip — we’re sure Wendy would love to hear from either And or Kel — this also is a great way to shut down a conversation. Next time someone engages you in a talk you’re not interested in having, shut ‘em down by saying “Why don’t you do me a favor and go call Wendy in Vegas.” Trust me, it works.
The guests did not disappoint. First up was Rom Com Superstar Meg Ryan…
…who had just triumphed over Kelly Ripa in the “Be The Smallest Person Alive” Contest. Seriously, she was just a hair bigger than Jonah in Sleepless in Seattle. Worse yet, I don’t remember a single thing she spoke about. And in such situations, we are really left with no choice but to move on to the next group of guests…
THE JACKSONS.
Yes, there they were. The remaining Jackson Brothers. Marlon, Jermaine, Jackie and, the best, Tito. I was happy to see them, but not nearly as happy as Katina, who loves them truly and deeply. It is because of her and her bold “small wave” tactic that the ADORABLE TITO JACKSON waved Goodbye to both us. Yes. I can now die knowing that Tito Jackson was aware, however briefly, of my existence. The brothers all looked healthy and well, especially Jermaine, whose Bicentennial Man hair was in FULL FX.
Note the random woman in the Tito Jackson hat blocking our shot. Normally this would have pissed me off, but given the circumstances, all I can offer in response is a “well played.”
At the end of the day, the taping was about as fun as any live taping: Enjoyable, but sort of long and, by the end, exhausting. (I was on 3 hours sleep — and will now never forgive myself for not fainting live on the air.) Anderson and Kelly have great, fake flirty chemistry, and if we didn’t think it was beneath him, would love for Anderson to host a morning talk show on the regular. Who cares about boring old evening news when he could just sip coffee and giggle for an hour. They could call it“Sigh on America.”
Perhaps the biggest surprise to come out of the taping was watching Kelly Ripa be great at her job. It all seems very natural at home, but she really earns her keep: At various points during the commercial breaks, she would walk over the audience to chit-chat with them about random things. She posed for photos. She flirted with the deliriously charming Anderson. She asked the tough questions. Kelly Ripa deserves nothing but respect.
And no, I didn’t win $500 in Omaha Steaks. But we’ll always have Anderson Cooper on Sesame Street on the letter “G” to quell our deepest sorrows:
If you love the fact that local Chinese restaurants shove dozens of menus under your door every day, you're going to be overjoyed by J&R's new marketing campaign. The electronics giant is printing up fake menus advertising its same-day delivery service which it's planning to distribute by having them placed under the doors of unsuspecting New Yorkers. Let's hope this doesn't start a trend. [Copyranter]
This week's episode, "The Treasure of Serena Madre" (did that title make anyone else think of Legends of the Hidden Temple? Just curious), was so full of fabulous secrets and lies that we'll forgive the CW for airing it a week after Thanksgiving. You had a lot to say about the fashion choices, specifically Lily and Maureen's matching coats (lame), the flannel (overload), and Serena's catsuit (a fitting contribution to Skank Week 2009). Also, many of you plan on saying "your sweet potatoes are bland" the next time you want to insult someone. Your best comments are below, brought to you this week by mplsgirl.
Realer Than Needing a Sledgehammer to Get Through to Serena
• Someone should introduce Grandma Cece and Grandpa Van der Bilt. They would be the ultimate power couple. Maybe kind of like Blair & Chuck in 50 years. Plus 50 if this ever happens. —BLAIR215
• That dinner table scene was like Tiger Wood's slow moving car crash being rewound and replayed over and over again. Cece had the golf clubs. Plus 20. —KDOW3
• Plus 40 for Lily Having Yet Another Secret, and thank god for it being so much more than “I love my mom and wanted to spend more time with her.” I was about to vomit in my mouth after I heard that. —SUENUE
• The Waldorfs are bringing smoked salmon! they really are jews! plus 8. —MISERABLE
• That reveal scene during dinner was the best Thanksgiving deluge of secrets since the Friends episode from way back when - "Phoebe, I think Jacques Cousteau is dead...Rachel, no you weren't supposed to put beef in the trifle...Monica, we kind of figured about the porch swing." Plus 50. —WANNABEWALDORF
• Only Eric can hatch a sinister plot whilst eating pumpkin pie. Plus 5. —BEJEWELED
• Plus 5 for Rufus turning Bart's office into a mope parlor for his curdled rock n roll dreams. There's no way the co-op board would let him wail on his guitars or play loud music. He probably sits in there and cries. —ARUNDEL
• Plus 5 for "Tripp's eyes dilating weirdly.” It has to be a Van der Bilt thing. Nate's mom had the exact same issue with her eyes when the Captain was bottoming out. Nate probably manages to avoid the affliction with a bowl and a bong. —WANNABEUES
• Cece and Rufus have such a good time sitting together at Thanksgiving that no one bothers to revisit that pesky "Cece paid Lily not to marry Rufus back in the day" thing, the "Cece faked cancer to make Serena go to Cotillion" thing, OR that "Cece told Rufus about the lovechild less than a year ago" thing. The holidays (and the gin) really do bring family closer. Bygones! Plus 4. —PURPLEANDGREEN
• Jenny: “I’ve lost my appetite”
Blair: “And I want pie”
Awww…the anorexic and the bulimic, two generations of Constance Queens with eating disorders. Plus 20 for a Thanksgiving tradition. —NURSELUVBASS
• I like to think that Josh Schwartz was throwing in those OC references for those of us who miss it. S-Fucks-up-Thanksgiving is no Chrismukkah, but it will do as the holiday of choice for this show. Plus 5. —ANNIE_IN_NY
• Nate was a whirlwind of emotions tonight. I'm impressed. Plus 3. —CBASSLUV
• I couldn't tell if Blair was trying to trick her mom into admitting she was pregnant, or to just kill the baby by forcing her to drink wine and eat unpasturized cheese. Plus 5 if it was the latter. —LEAH3T
• Plus 3 for CeCe because clearly secrets and gin are doing that old lady good. She was glowing! —COWT
Faker Than Lily Not Having Her Own Safe
• Dan and I had the same look on our faces when Vanessa walked in to announce she was staying for Thanksgiving. His was caused by a combination of unrequited love and apprehension. Mine was caused by surprise (Vanessa brought her own blanket for the weekend?), and horror (she's wearing it as a coat!). Minus 3, if the Humphrey similarities continue i might end up in plaid. —HOOKEDONBASS
• Also, minus 5 for Serena beginning an affair with someone who is about to move. Because, seriously, Serena is not the long distance relationship type. She has the attention span of a goldfish. —CHIYORK
• Why is Nate giving advice to Dan about Vanessa? Just last Thanksgiving, HE was dating Vanessa. These people switch partners with one another and somehow never have the awkward "hey, we've both slept with you" moment at their weekly gatherings. Minus 5. —JNP1013
• Minus 5 for the 5 inches Trip grew during the elevator scene with Serena. Is it really so hard to find men her own size to date in all of New York? —SPARKLE17
• Vanessa's mom attended a Thanksgiving dinner without asking for a moment of silence in remembrance of the Native Americans. That is Annoying Hippie Behavior 101. For shame Abrams. Minus 3. —TWINSFINDME
• Minus 50 for Lily keeping an incriminating letter in the safe that her children know the combination to. Did she learn nothing about secrecy during her marriage to Bart Bass? —FASHIONRAT
• Scratch H1N1, the most dangerous virus around now is the HMPLD, also known as Humphrey Plaid Syndrome. Unfortunately, Nate and Eric already are too far gone, after having endangered poor Chuck Bass due to his proximity to the two. Ladies, though, do not fear: judging by the virus pattern, it looks like it may spread only among the xy chromosome bearers. Minus 20, even only in case Chuck doesn't catch it. —AWAKEBEAUTY
• I literally laughed out loud when Gabrielle and V stood side-by-side at the dinner party, in all their Target splendor. Would a hippie, liberal, earth-witch like Gabrielle wear such hideous faux bling? Minus 1 because, no, she would wear hideous organic bling, and Birkenstocks. —HAPPY_LOOKER
• Tom Colicchio lives in the West Village. Minus 5. —DIGNELL
• In the first scene we see Blair, her tights are awkwardly and very noticeably twisted. This really bothered me at first, but on further reflection, minus only 1; part of me thinks it’s almost believable that Blair has such implicit faith in her own sartorial magnificence that she has no use for mirrors. —VANLAN
• Serena and Tripp only make out in the elevator!?! What is this, middle school? You know it can't be that hard to get in her pants. Although, perhaps Tripp was worried about his helmet being damaged, so minus only 1. —TRICKYDICKY
• Minus 50 Points since we will never see Cyrus again. Moving to Paris is an excuse to get him and Eleanor off the show. Maybe Pop Pop Van Der Woodsen will be as cool or cooler than Cyrus. But Plus 25 Points since this secures the fact we will never see Aaron Rose again.. —ISGOODATMATH
• As far as I know, no socialite or rich woman would ever use a coat again in the presence (let alone in the house) of a woman who has exactly the same coat and has avoided the awkward moment (the day before...) by doing the classical: "Nice coat" comment. Minus 20. —MICHELE22
Aaron Tveit has a full schedule: At night he sings and dances in the Tony-winning production of Next to Normal, and during the day he seduces Blake Lively's Serena Van Der Woodsen as young congressman (and burgeoning cheat!) Trip Van Der Bilt on Gossip Girl. He's also set to play Frank Abagnale in the upcoming Broadway adaptation of Catch Me If You Can. Tveit, who can still be seen nightly in Next to Normal, spoke to Vulture about the magical Gossip Girl wardrobe of his Waspy golden boy, being spotted by the avid GG fans roaming New York, and his upcoming movie love affair with James Franco.
How did you end up on Gossip Girl?
I’d actually auditioned for Gossip Girl a couple times over the past few years for different characters — one was a love interest for Jenny a couple seasons ago, and the other was a Skulls leader at Yale — but I think finally this character was better suited for me. I auditioned right at the end of our Next to Normal run in D.C., so I probably sent my tape in a year ago. January. Our closing night was on a Sunday and I literally had to be on set the next morning at 7 a.m. in New York.
What made Trip’s character seem right for you?
I knew right away who this guy was. I thought the Kennedy-esque story line they seemed to be setting up was interesting. I’m interested in history and politics as a hobby, so it piqued my interest.
Was the cast of Gossip Girl aware that you had this other life in musical theater?
Blake [Lively] and Penn [Badgley] had seen me in Wicked — they’re avid musical-theater supporters. And James Naughton, who plays my grandfather on the show, he’s of course from the theater, and Holly Fain, who’s my wife on the show, is too, so we had a lot to talk about on set. This fall a lot of the cast mates came and saw me in Next to Normal; then I think they realized, “Oh, this is actually what he does.”
You have the smarmy Wasp thing down pretty well. Are you basing Trip on anyone in particular?
That wasn’t really a conscious choice I made. It’s something about putting on those suits. I don’t wear suits in my everyday life. When I started last year, the first episode had the whole football scene [at the Van Der Bilt compound], and my joke with friends is that it was the scene from Wedding Crashers. I thought of that character Bradley Cooper plays. It’s very similar — the sense of an upper-class American society that we don’t think exists anymore, but it really does.
After this past week’s episode, where he unexpectedly showed up at Serena's house for Thanksgiving, we find Trip a little, well, creepy. Do you?
This is an argument I’ve been having with friends of mine who watch. As opposed to theater, where you learn about a character and do one thing every night, this is great because you get to live in the day-to-day life of the character, and you have to come at everything from a positive standpoint — I have to think what he’s doing is right and just. So I don’t think he’s a bad guy; I think he genuinely loves Serena. I immediately justify what he does without even knowing it!
Do you see a difference in the recognition you get from being part of a TV phenomenon versus being in a Tony-winning musical?
It’s funny, walking through the theater district, I get stopped from time to time about the show, but now I’ve been walking around and I just hear “Trip!!! Trip!!!” I kinda can’t believe it. Especially because I wear a jacket and a hat most of the time. At first I didn’t realize they were talking to me. It’s unbelievable how many people watch the show.
We experienced the Gossip Girl paparazzi one afternoon recently at lunch in Tribeca, when Blake and Chace [Crawford] were eating at the restaurant we went to. It’s insane.
I remember that day! They were in there with Chace’s mom, who was in town. It was crazy! I was shooting with them after lunch. It’s mind-blowing that they have to deal with that. For some reason I thought New York wasn’t like that.
You’re playing Frank Abagnale in the new musical of Catch Me If You Can, which is coming to Broadway, right?
I am. They’re working on the show now doing tweaking and fine tuning, and we’re hoping it’ll be on Broadway in the late fall.
And you’re also in the new Howl movie with James Franco ...
I play Peter Orlovsky, who was a beat poet at the time, and he was the man of Allen Ginsberg’s life; they were life partners. A third of the film is live action, a third is footage from the trial, and a third is really trippy animation. James was fantastic to work with. I think it’ll be really cool.
You have so much going on — how old are you, exactly?
You know, I always say, "I’m as old as they need me to be." I play 17-years-old onstage right now, so, there you go.
Hedge fund kingpin and mega-art collector Steve Cohen should be chilling out at Art Basel Miami right about now, eyeing the overpriced artwork he plans to add to the ridiculous $700 million collection that sits inside his ridiculous Greenwich compound. But it's unlikely the billionaire hedge funder is having a very good day. The painfully embarrassing lawsuit filed by a former employee of Cohen's SAC Capital in 2008—which involves, among other things, sexual harassment, sodomy, female hormones, and forced cross-dressing—has finally been unsealed for all to see. And it's quite a doozy, needless to say. [Dealbreaker]
Gisele is not the sort of pregnant famous women who will take her clothes off and flaunt her belly on the cover of a magazine, like Christina Aguilera on Marie Claire or Demi Moore on Vanity Fair or Britney Spears on Harper's Bazaar or Heidi Klum on Vitals. Nor is she the sort of pregnant woman who will strip down and flaunt her belly in an editorial, even if it is for Steven Meisel and Italian Vogue and Twitter-inspired. She appears in the December issue covering her belly like a bullfighter. Abbey Lee Kershaw was a little less modest, and appears sitting bottomless on what we hope is an ottoman and not a bucket. See Meisel's Twitter imaginings of Natasha Poly, Karlie Kloss, Anna Selezneva, and more at the link. [Daily Feed/Models.com]
Just as we were prepared to shut the door on the first (hopefully of many!) annual Skank Week, new rumors have surfaced about the so-far-denied affair between Rachel Uchitel and Tiger Woods. From Radar: "Uchitel told friends that she and Tiger liked to have sex while taking the drug Ambien. Uchitel told one pal, 'You know you have crazier sex on Ambien — you get into that Ambien haze. We have crazy Ambien sex.'" Readers: Is that a thing? We've witnessed people in an Ambien haze, certainly. But Ambien sex? This makes us feel old not knowing this. (This is not the first time in all of this that we've heard about Ambien. Allegedly Tiger mentioned that he needed to take one after having a particularly vivid dream involving Uchitel, Derek Jeter, and David Boreanaz.) Meanwhile, now blogs are running around saying Woods did "drugs before having sex," which is technically true, but we're not sure we'd say Viagra spokesman Bob Dole was running around "doing drugs" before sex.
Corrupt-cop drama Brooklyn’s Finest has a lot going for it: a name cast (Richard Gere, Don Cheadle, Ethan Hawke, Ellen Barkin, Wesley Snipes); solid Sundance buzz; the possibility of director Antoine Fuqua's return to form following a few stinkers; and the heartwarming tale of its screenwriter, former subway worker Michael C. Martin. Now it’s got a new trailer, too, in which we meet the three cops — Cheadle’s hesitant undercover, Hawke’s scummy family man, and Gere’s apathetic near-retiree — whose stories interweave. The clip hits a lot of familiar notes (“one cop ... just trying to get by”; “these streets got an expiration date on ‘em,” etc.), but doesn’t give away any huge plot points. Does that mean Finest is more interestingly complicated than can be summed up in two-and-a-half minutes? Hopefully! (By the way, they use “Run This Town” in the trailer, which means they should know enough to throw the original “Brooklyn’s Finest” into the movie somewhere.)
It's looking less and less likely that Rudy Giuliani will end up challenging Kirsten Gillibrand for her Senate seat in 2010. Two weeks ago, Giuliani aides suggested the ex-mayor would probably announce his candidacy within "the next 48 hours." But there hasn't been any news of a political bid since then, and today Rudy's security firm announced it will be advising Rio de Janiero on its preparations for the Olympic Games in 2016. Rio is one of the world's most dangerous cities, of course. So that should keep him busy for the next six years, no? [NYDN]
EVENTS TOMORROW
• Check out Henri Bendel's Christmas decorations, including 21 Da Vinci Chandeliers by Schonbek made with Strass Swarovski Crystal. Shoppers can bid on the chandeliers in a silent auction. 712 Fifth Ave., nr. 56th St. (212- 247-1100).
• For the man who has everything: An expert from La Rosa Cubana will be hand-rolling cigars for purchase at Cynthia Rowley. 376 Bleecker St., nr. Perry St. (212-242-3803); 2–5.
• The sixth annual Shop N Mingle event is taking place at the National Black Theatre in Harlem. Browse jewelry, accessories, clothing, beauty products, and home décor from stores like Harriet's Alter Ego and Pedigree Sneaker Gallery. Other amenities include an open bar, barber services for men, and dessert tastings by local pastry chefs. Admission is free and open to the public. RSVP here. 2031 Fifth Ave., nr. 125th St.; 1–7.
• Dozens of artisans and crafters will be selling their wares at the Martha Stewart Living Holiday Craft Sale. Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, Starrett-Lehigh Building, 601 W. 26th St., nr. Twelfth Ave., ninth fl.; noon–6.
SUNDAY
• More than 200 vendors will be selling their wares at the Bust Holiday Craftacular. The first 500 attendees will receive free coffee from Joe , as well as snacks. Admission is $2. Metropolitan Pavilion, 125 W. 18th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; 10–8.
SALES STARTING TOMORROW
• Dolce Vita is hosting a warehouse sale, offering shoes for up to 70 percent off and clothing for up to 80 percent off. The stock includes spring and fall shoes, sandals, and boots, as well as clothing from designers like Tsesay, Caroline Hedaya, and Dolan. Through 12/6. 156 Ludlow St., nr. Rivington St., fourth fl.; S–Su (noon–7).
ENDING TOMORROW
• Couture bridal dresses and evening-gown samples by Kelima K are 30 to 60 percent off. An ivory sheath with chiffon ruffles is $960 (originally $2,400), a silk taffeta ballgown with a shirred bodice is $895 (originally $1,695), and a short embossed silk dress is $575 (originally $895). 229B Mott St., nr. Prince St. (212-334-6546); T–S (3–7).
• Alexis Bittar jewelry is 50 to 70 percent off at the annual sample sale. The 80s Triple-Strand necklace is $150 (originally $295), the Moondust bangle is $150 (originally $295), the Coral Reef collar is $600 (originally $1,200), and the pink tourmaline Waterfall earrings are $135 (originally $295). 30 W. 21st St., nr. Fifth Ave.; W–S (9–6:30).
• Jackets, cardigans, knits, and more from Ashish, House of Dagmar, and Margarita Saplala are 60 to 80 percent off at the W29 showroom stock and sample sale. DeCouture exotic skin handbags are $250 (originally $1,500). 208 W. 29th St., nr. Seventh Ave., Ste. 201 (212-563-0163); Th–F (10–7), S (noon–4).
• Merchandise from Band of Outsiders, Shipley & Halmos, Vena Cava, and more is discounted at The News sample sale. 495 Broadway, at Broome St., fifth fl. (212-925-9700); Th–S (10–6).
• More than fifteen designer brands are up to 80 percent off at the Metropolitan Pavilion's warehouse sale. Sale merchandise includes 7 For All Mankind, Antik Denim, Rock & Republic, William Rast, and more. 124 W. 18th St., nr. Sixth Ave.; F–S (10–8).
ENDING SUNDAY
• Saks Fifth Avenue is hosting a bridal sample sale. Find 70 percent off hundreds of gowns from Vera Wang, Amsale, Monique Lhuillier, and more. 611 Fifth Ave., at 50th St. (212-753-4000); W–S (10–8:30), Su (10–8).
• Handbags, shoes, and wallets are 50 to 75 percent off at the Botkier sample sale. The Taylor satchel is $250 (originally $545), the Trigger Clyde is $175 (originally $650), and the Nikki booties are $50 (originally $645). Come to the sale wearing a Botkier bag or shoes and receive an additional 10 percent off your entire purchase. 195 Lafayette St., nr. Broome St.; Th–F (11–7), S (11–6), Su (noon–5).
• Christopher Fischer Cashmere is hosting a sample sale, offering up to 80 percent off. Men's and women's cashmere and blended sweaters are $40 to $150 (originally $195 to $495), cashmere scarves and accessories are $30 to $95 (originally $195 to $495), and home accessories are $50 to $95 (originally $150 to $295). 200 W. 39th St., at Seventh Ave. (212-575-2941); Th–S (10–7), Su (11–5).
• Men's and women's merchandise is up to 70 percent off at the Penfield sample sale. T-shirts are $10 (originally $44), outerwear is $60 (originally $398), and accessories start at $5. The Reed Annex, 151 Orchard St., nr. Rivington St. (212-253-0588); F (1–7), S–Su (noon–7).
• Select watches are 30 percent off at Swatch during the annual holiday sale. The AHHH! watch from the Street Painters collection is $55 (originally $38.50) and the Sliding Waves watch is $70 (originally $100). Various hours and locations.
STARTING MONDAY
• Cashmere, cashmere-blend, and cotton apparel is up to 75 percent off at the Autumn Cashmere sample sale. Through 12/11. 231 W. 39th St., nr. Seventh Ave., Ste. 924 (212-398-2244); M–F (9–6).
• Showroom Seven is hosting a holiday sample sale, featuring up to 90 percent off brands like Orla Kiely, Erickson Beamon, Issa London, and more. The Orla Kiely multi-stem-print maxi-sling bag is $101 (originally $195), the Erickson Beamon Lock & Key long charm necklace is $372 (originally $1,000), and the Issa London silk-jersey print dress is $325 (originally $625). Through 12/18. 263 Eleventh Ave., nr. 27th St., third fl. (212-643-4810); daily, 10–7.
• Handbags, wallets, and small leather goods start at $15 at the Perlina annual holiday sample sale. Through 12/11. 10 W. 33rd St., at Fifth Ave., Ste. 1005 (212-268-8530); M–Th (9–6), F (9–4).
• Shop deep discounts on clothing from Wren, Citizens of Humanity, C&C California, and more at the Simon Showroom sample sale. Through 12/9. 95 Fifth Ave., at 17th St., third fl.; M–W (10–7).
“I had a dream we were married and I was leading the tournament,” Woods reportedly wrote. “I came home, excited to see you, and there you were in the bedroom getting f–ked by Derek [Jeter] and David [Boreanaz]. Some part of me thinks you would like that.”
Nice! I was just thinking, this story was really missing a Derek Jeter / Bones Dude Eiffel Tower. Can we please misinterpret the “dream” part and just start this as an actual rumor? Pleasepleaseplease? I don’t ask for much, tabloid world, but this has to turn out to be true.
Jake Gyllenhaal, who’s been filming a movie in Pittsburgh for the past month (working title: Bridge Sandwich), revealed a new interestingly-placed inked football allegiance on Jimmy Kimmel last night:
You can watch the clip of Gyllenhaal showing off his new Steelers tramp-stamp here.
Say what you will about celebrity sports fans (and this is pretty dead-on), but I’ll take a tattooed Gyllenhaal over a Simpson sister in a Romo jersey rooting for my team any day. Bold stance, I know. But that’s why they call me “Johnny Bolds”.
Should he choose to follow-through with his Steeler-fandom, Gyllenhaal will join the eclectic ranks of these celebrity Steeler fans:
Snoop Dogg:
Bret Michaels:
Charlie Daniels:
Barack Obama:
(Granted, he’s from Chicago and all Presidents hold up jerseys of the Championship-winning teams that visit the White House, but do most presidents appoint a team’s owner ambassador to Ireland? The judges say this counts).
Coincidentally, this group is actually the NFL’s desired Super Bowl Halftime Show for 2011. If Charlie Daniels isn’t busy, of course.
Spring 2010 shoes by Rodarte, Givenchy, and Versace.
A psychologist/foot scientist in Manchester says recent research reveals a woman's foot position around potential mates is a strong indicator of how hot she is for them. Women tend to move their feet away from their bodies in more open-leg stances when conversing with someone they're attracted to. If they cross their legs or keep them tucked under the body, they're probably not into whoever they're talking to. But what if they're wearing seven-inch heels and can only hold their feet in certain positions based on what the footwear will allow, and wind up pigeon-toed in front of someone they're trying to bag? What then, science? Hm? [UPI via Jezebel]
Drew Barrymore going to lunch at La Esquina with a friend ... Kate Beckinsale arriving at JFK with her daughter and later sitting on a swing in Central Park ... Naomi Watts leaving lunch at Smile ... Sienna Miller running from photographers outside Jude Law's apartment and later shopping downtown ... Howie Mandel walking in Midtown ... Hugh Jackman playing with daughter Ava ... Wayne Gretzky and wife Janet Jones walking in Midtown ... Meg Ryan leaving ABC after an appearance on Regis & Kelly ... Jessica Simpson getting out of an SUV ... Robin Williams leaving his hotel ... Elijah Wood walking around on Long Island ... and Tito Jackson signing autographs outside his hotel.
At over 25,000 square feet, American Eagle's new Times Square store is a sight to behold, both inside and out. The building's façade, which features massive LED screens, blasts videos eighteen hours a day — including images of customers who pose at the store's miniature photo studio. Inside, there are four sprawling levels carrying both men's and women's items, several NYC-exclusive, artist-designed pieces, and a massive denim library that holds over 20,000 pairs of jeans. A highlight of the new location is the top floor, dedicated entirely to aerie, the company's lingerie and loungewear line. With soft lighting, vintage-inspired décor, and a multitude of cheeky bras and undies, the aerie floor feels like an intimate, pretty boutique. We scoured American Eagle's new flagship from top to bottom and picked out our favorite items.
American Eagle Outfitters, 1551 Broadway, at 46th St.; 212-205-7260
Three out-of-work bankers are in for a treat! Steven Land Clothing is looking for a few new faces to represent the brand, and it's decided to turn to the city's pool of unemployed Wall Streeters to fill the positions. There isn't any money involved, unfortunately; the three men will get $500 worth of Steven Land clothing, which means whatever chance they have of landing a new job in finance will probably be shot if they show up in what may be the tackiest clothing you've ever seen (see above). But there's always a dollar or two to be made on eBay! The press release is below.
Attention WALL STREET MEN... Out of a Job? Become the New Face of STEVEN LAND CLOTHING!
BUZZ UP! PR is looking for the new face of STEVEN LAND CLOTHING- designer/clothing manufacturer for sophisticated, stylish, professional men. We're interested particularly in casting the 'Wall Street' type and are accepting photos from non-professional male models within the United States.
Given the state of the financial markets, we are expecting to receive a bevvy of applicants who perhaps are in a career transition and are looking to try something different. STEVEN LAND CLOTHING will choose 3 models from the applicant pool and feature them on their website and online marketing campaign launching in early 2010. Additionally, the three chosen models will receive $500 worth of STEVEN LAND CLOTHING. Below is the announcement- feel free to reach out to me for further details!
Libby Lee BUZZ UP! PR [redacted] [redacted] STEVEN LAND CLOTHING WEBSITE: www.stevenland.com
MTV pretty much just went Christopher Nolan on everyone last night. I stopped caring about the channel’s manufactured shows long ago, but Jersey Shore was the Batman Begins of the reality genre. Yea, I said it. This was The Real World: Reboot. Disagree with me and I’ll Snooki Punch you in the face.
(Note: If you are unfamiliar with that term, watch this clip from the preview of the rest of the season. You’ll be hooked. And probably horrified.)
I wanted to hate the people on this show (and they sure gave me a garbage bag suitcase full of reasons to), but after last night’s two hour premiere, I can’t help but love them. I would rather be forced to spend an entire summer with the “guidos” and “guidettes” of Jersey Shore than one afternoon with anyone on The Hills. For as much hair gel and fake tanner the Jersey crew use, you can’t manufacture personas like that. Granted, if I was in that house, I would most likely be ground in to a protein shake within twenty minutes for referencing How I Met Your Mother or something.
[More fist pumping after the jump]
The first ten minutes or so were actually pretty standard reality show fare. The cast threw out a bunch of producer-scripted lines about what it means to be a Jersey Shore guido and how much they were going to party. I almost turned it off here. “Being a guido means fist pumping while tanning your hair!” or something along those lines. We get it. Soon though, we learned that these loveable creatures have lives and families and dreams and goals and… ok they mostly wanted to party. But it got better. The housemates have to hold down a job apparently in order to live in the house. Give a guido a Jersey Shore house and he’ll party for a summer, but TEACH a guido to shore house, and he’ll… probably get some kind of venereal disease. Also, what exactly did landlord/boss Danny mean when he said, “You’ll be doing a little bit everything for me from selling t-shirts to *stalking* to cleaning.” Stalking? Did I hear that right?
As for the housemates, you have eight guys and eight girls, which by my calculations means there should be zero drama and every one should be easily matched up with someone else without any fights or arguments, right? Maybe in a perfect world, but this is Jersey. Off the bat, Mike aka “The Situation” was smitten with Sammi “Sweetheart.” They were totally meant for each other, or to use the preferred nomenclature, they were “vibing.” The way they prepared that sausage and peppers dinner together? America definitely had its new Ross and Rachel.
It was not to be, however. The long, two day romance of The Situation and Sweetheart blew up like Pauly D’s hair. By the end of the episode, she ran to the perennially shirtless Ronnie (seriously that dude did not wear a shirt once in two days).
The Situation tried to rebound and hook up with some classy boardwalk ladies they picked up on the walk home from the bar, but self proclaimed C-blocker and alleged cheater Angelina ruined everyone’s good time.
Angelina also made a huge deal about how some random chicks took off their thongs in the hot tub and now the water is unsanitary. Last time I checked, thongs aren’t some air-tight bio-shield. Go cheat on your boyfriend again with that guy who I’m pretty sure was Lennie from “Of Mice and Men” in an Ed Hardy t-shirt. Pauly D was right to call you out for having garbage bags for suitcases. Have some class, lady.
Meanwhile, her Royal Highness Snooki, the Princess of Poughkeepsie, is going through some real emotional baggage after getting bombed on the first night, which was only made worse by the fact that she is being tormented by an evil duck-shaped telephone. Ol’ Snickers wanted to leave after being a drunken mess, then decided to stay, then found her future Prince of Poughkeepsie at the club. Even after he puked on the roof, she walked him home. That’s love, man. That’s love.
Then there is Jwoww. I expected big things (and not just her boobs) from her based on her pre-scripted intro. She already cheated on her boyfriend with Pauly D, so now that that plotline is neatly out of the way, we better see plenty of fights out of her. Also, when describing this show to my friend Kenny, he said “Snookie? Jwoww? Are you sure you weren’t watching Star Wars.” He has a point (again, statements like this would get me drowned in the hot tub).
Finally, Vinny got pink eye. It wasn’t very contagious. Look, sometimes life deals you a minor case of pink eye. Lessons are being learned here, people.
Needless to say, I’m 100% on board with this show. It was worlds better than any portrayal of fake d-bags in many YouTube sketches out there. I will sleep better at night knowing the Jersey Shore guidos and guidettes are out there, partying shirtless for all of us. They’re not the heroes we need, but they’re the heroes we deserve.
We wanted to stop posting on the Victoria's Secret fashion show. Really, we did. But alas, their marketing is more powerful than our will. So let's talk about the model-search winner! Not to brag or anything, but we knew as soon as we saw Kylie Bisutti's MySpace page, set to the tune of AC/DC's "Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap," that she'd win all along. Not just because she's blonde and busty, and the American masses, who like blonde and busty, were in charge of selecting the winner. But also because she has that little something extra, a twinkle in not only her bra but her smile! And she's a married Christian Aries, so she must be wholesome despite her talent for wearing underwear on national network television, and if anyone gets ahead in fashion, it is the wholesome. Unsurprisingly, it didn't take long for her to find a real agent. She just signed with One Management and is said to have booked a Victoria's Secret swimwear shoot on St. Barts. Also, she is newly blonder, after her agent told her she wasn't blonde enough. And you thought she'd just disappear as soon as the show ended, hidden away in the back of church with a tray of cupcakes and a Big Mac and a thermos of Kool-Aid. Well. She's showing you.
The reality tv community is all abuzz cause it’s Jersey Shore week, but not to be lost in the shuffle of tanning beds and tattoos and tattooed tanning beds, this seminal week also marked the premiere of A&E’s Steven Seagal: Lawman, a show I’ve been anticipating for quite some time.
In SSL (what I’ve been calling it around the water cooler all day, to no one), cameras follow around Steven Seagal during his side-job as a deputy for the police in Jefferson County, Louisiana, as he rides around arresting people and helps teach the cops Seagalness in his spare time. How was this show not as instantly awesome as that sentence sounded?
The show started off as with one of the greatest opening sequences in reality history, and briefly justified my lofty expectations; watch the first 1:10 here, and you’ll have seen the biggest highlight of the premiere:
Unfortunately, the show tailed off quickly.
The rest of the episode (which was mercifully only a half hour long, unlike a certain MTV premiere…) just followed around Seagal and his cop peers responding to calls like any regular ol’ episode of COPS, and in two instances — a carjacking and a concealed-weapon drug deal — the situation was resolved before Seagal even got there, and he just said a bunch of general stuff afterward to the cameras about how cops have to be careful out there.
The only interaction in which Seagal actually did something was when he and another cop arrived at a bar to escort away a drunk underage kid who was bothering bar patrons, which took about five seconds, and the rest of the scene involved the Louisiana residents crowding around Seagal to shake his hand and presumably sign their copies of Fire Down Below. In a lighter sideplot, Seagal also tutored an officer in “Zen shooting” to help him pass his firearms test, instructing the guy to “push the bullet out” along with a handful of other vague phrases, and the guy passes at the end of the episode.
No clips of Seagal fighting criminals, no criminals pulled a weapon on him, no criminals recognized him and laughed, no one referenced any of his movies, and this was the frickin’ premiere — if they couldn’t cobble together 18 minutes of footage to keep me excited in a show I’ve been excited about for a year, then
Will I be tuning in next week? Of course. But I might postpone my Lawman party where everyone dresses up as their favorite Lawman character. Mine is Steven Seagal.
Anyone watch the Lawman premiere? Feel free to throw episode/series thoughts in the comments.
Here’s the trailer for a new parody movie, ingeniously entitled “The 40 Year Old Virgin Who Knocked Up Sarah Marshall and Felt Superbad About It”. I looked it up on IMDB and still don’t believe this is a real thing, but whatever it is, it appears to be attempting to make fun of Judd Apatow’s universally liked comedies of the past few years, although it confuses “making fun of” with “having other people just do the stuff.”
Either that, or it’s a brilliant parody of the Meet The Spartans guys’ movies, but for some reason, I have trouble using the word “brilliant” after witnessing any second of this (NSFW, some language and old people having sex, obviously):
UPDATE: Adam Lambert is no longer persona non grata at ABC. The network confirmed that the saucy singer will perform on The View next Thursday, a day after being feted as one of Barbara...
Hey, he's already got the body for it.
When the sun has set on The Twilight Saga, Taylor Lautner is going to head up Paramount's possible franchise-starting...
• When Rihanna was asked what famous person she would most like to mute, she said Tila Tequila. Good answer, even though Tila barely qualifies as a famous person. Tila saw a chance to...
Jaimee Grubbs, the only girl to admit to having an affair with Tiger Woods and also share his puny calf complex with the world, participated in a Nov. 8 professional photo shoot in...
Katt Williams needs a hobby that doesn't involve law enforcement.
After having been arrested at least three times in the last three years, the otherwise-quite-successful comedian...
Hugh Hefner wasn't surprised one bit when he heard about allegations of Tiger Woods cheating on his wife.
"I think the only surprise in it, quite frankly, is that anybody would...
Last night’s episode, Scott’s Tots, was, even by The Office’s lofty standards, just about the most awkward awkward that ever awkwarded. The 
Usually, Office awkward situations involve some sort of over-the-line comment that offends a person or two, or the leaking of compromising information, or at worst, something that makes Michael and the persons directly around him uncomfortable for a brief period. Last night, though, Michael’s outlandish tuition promise — clearly borne out of his ongoing need to have people like him, as well as his once overly-optimistic vision of his own success — directly crushed the life dreams of 15 innocent kids. Sure, it’s a little on the exaggerated side for a believable Office dilemma, but we’re six seasons in — our tolerance for awkward is too high at this point for offhand comments about Stanley playing basketball to get us Office-high.
The school scenes definitely walked the line between funny/awkward and just straight-up painfully awkward, leaning more towards the latter at times, but the kids’ choreographed dance number and succession of tearful speeches kept making me laugh (loved the dude flipping), and the situation wasn’t helped by Erin being noticeably touched by the stories, completely ignorant of the inevitable bombshell that was coming. In the end, Michael’s escape was actually more painless than I was expecting — his laptop battery consolation prize nonwithstanding — and Erin’s comment on the drive home about Scott’s Tots having a higher graduation rate did legitimately salvage some positivity out of an otherwise apocalyptic situation.
Ah Anderson, my old friend. My run-ins with the man have been many and great. From the 
But I digress. We arrived at the studio at 7:30 am, and lined up with a gaggle of excited housewives to catch the live taping. Upon being ushered in, we were given a number, which God willing a lucky housewife at home would call out after answering the Trivia question. I got the number 7, coincidentally also my lucky number, which could only mean one thing: I was sure to win a $500 gift certificate to Omaha Steaks? Right? (Update: Wrong. The woman called #77 — so close, but so deliciously far away.)
Hedge fund kingpin and mega-art collector 
MTV pretty much just went Christopher Nolan on everyone last night. I stopped caring about the channel’s manufactured shows long ago, but Jersey Shore was the Batman Begins of the reality genre. Yea, I said it. This was The Real World: Reboot. Disagree with me and I’ll Snooki Punch you in the face. 
two hour premiere, I can’t help but love them. I would rather be forced to spend an entire summer with the “guidos” and “guidettes” of Jersey Shore than one afternoon with anyone on The Hills. For as much hair gel and fake tanner the Jersey crew use, you can’t manufacture personas like that. Granted, if I was in that house, I would most likely be ground in to a protein shake within twenty minutes for referencing How I Met Your Mother or something. 
“Being a guido means fist pumping while tanning your hair!” or something along those lines. We get it. Soon though, we learned that these loveable creatures have lives and families and dreams and goals and… ok they mostly wanted to party. But it got better. The housemates have to hold down a job apparently in order to live in the house. Give a guido a Jersey Shore house and he’ll party for a summer, but TEACH a guido to shore house, and he’ll… probably get some kind of venereal disease. Also, what exactly did landlord/boss Danny mean when he said, “You’ll be doing a little bit everything for me from selling t-shirts to *stalking* to cleaning.” Stalking? Did I hear that right? 
As for the housemates, you have eight guys and eight girls, which by my calculations means there should be zero drama and every one should be easily matched up with someone else without any fights or arguments, right? Maybe in a perfect world, but this is Jersey. Off the bat, Mike aka “The Situation” was smitten with Sammi “Sweetheart.” They were totally meant for each other, or to use the preferred nomenclature, they were “vibing.” The way they prepared that sausage and peppers dinner together? America definitely had its new Ross and Rachel.
Meanwhile, her Royal Highness Snooki, the Princess of Poughkeepsie, is going through some real emotional baggage after getting bombed on the first night, which was only made worse by the fact that she is being tormented by an evil duck-shaped telephone. Ol’ Snickers wanted to leave after being a drunken mess, then decided to stay, then found her future Prince of Poughkeepsie at the club. Even after he puked on the roof, she walked him home. That’s love, man. That’s love.
