Reuters - Director James Cameron's 3D blockbuster fantasy film "Avatar" tied with British drama "An Education" and Iraq war movie "The Hurt Locker" with eight nominations each at the BAFTAs, Britain's main film awards.
AP - Sci-fi extravaganza 'Avatar,' Iraq drama "The Hurt Locker" and coming-of-age story "An Education" earned eight nominations apiece Thursday in the race for the British Academy Film Awards, Britain's equivalent of the Oscars.
Jeffrey Goldberg, 12.22.09, "The Value of Actual Journalism": While it is true that both Gawker and TMZ are laying on reporters, it's fair to assume that these reporters won't be doing what the Times does, namely, expose wrongs that cause the deaths of hundreds. [...] Why not subscribe to The Atlantic while you're at it? That would be striking a blow for civilization! Plus, it's a bargain!
Andrew Sullivan, 9.14.09, "A Simple Request": So please, if you haven't already, subscribe. It's only $14.95 for a year - ten issues for the price of eight. [...] I love this magazine, and its editorial integrity, and want it to continue to flourish in an increasingly beleaguered industry. If you do too, please subscribe.
Andrew Sullivan, 3.13.09, "Subscribe!": If you like the blogs, you'll love the mag. Get two free issues here. These are very tough times for magazine advertizing, so it really does help support us to subscribe. A first year's sub is $14.95. In my online view, there's nothing like reading a real essay on paper.
Anyway, Goldberg and Sullivan may not need a team of plucky street urchins to save them with soaring songs, a two-step, and a union. In "A Simple Request" Sullivan is quick to point out that "no one at The Atlantic has put me up to this," and Goldberg isn't shilling so much as evangelizing:
Jeffrey Goldberg, 9.17.09, "Is The Washington Post Losing Itself?": For 152 years, The Atlantic has done the right thing — long-form, narrative journalism that exposes sin and corruption and holds powerful people accountable and at the same time enlightens and, yes, even entertains. There is no doubt in my mind that the current leadership of The Atlantic will maintain the magazine's righteous course, even if newspapers like The Post lose their way.
Arise and seize the day!
(Reuters) Reuters - ABC on Wednesday picked up two hour-long pilots, "Cutthroat" and "Generation Y." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 21 Jan 2010 | 1:40 am
Conan O'Brien reunited with an old friend on last night's Tonight Show, perhaps for the last time, depending on how things go at the NBC negotiations. Both David Letterman and John Oliver also discussed Conan's intellectual property on their respective shows, while Stephen Colbert provided an unorthodox solution to NBC's Dick Ebersol. Finally, Jay Leno proved that he pulls no punches in his reignited rivalry with Letterman. Watch our compilation to see what you missed.
The 10-episode series "focuses on the actor's entertainment endeavors and helping his teenage daughters break into the recording industry," according to THR. Then he will help them try desperately to cope with fame, have a very public breakdown and stage a comeback by starring in their very own A&E reality series. META. [THR]
•Everyone knows Friday is going to be Conan O'Brien's final night on The Tonight Show. But 'officially' he is still under contract at NBC due to problems working out an exit agreement. Most of the big stuff is settled; now lawyers are quibbling over tax issues and other stuff. One fun thing: a "disparagement clause" which would determine how many mean things O'Brien could say about Leno after leaving NBC. The official announcement should be coming tomorrow. Please let this be over soon. The keys on our keyboard which spell out "Conan O'Brien" and "Jay Leno" are almost worn out. [Variety]
•The Oscar shortlist for Best Foreign Film is out: Front-runners include A Prophet and The White Ribbon. A Prophet is French, and is about a guy in prison; The White Ribbon is a creepy German film. We haven't seen either because we refuse to read subtitles unless they are N'avi. [The Wrap]
•Here are some new pilots ABC: Generation Y is about people today flashing back to their high school days in the early 2000s; Cutthroat is about a single mother who runs a drug cartel in Beverly Hills (So, Weeds?). FOX: Strange Brew is a project from Will & Grace creators about a family-run brewery; NBC: The Whole Truth is a Jerry Bruckheimer-produced legal show. Fun! [Variety]
•Former Gawker Intern James Frey's young-adult sci-fi novel is being adapted for DreamWorks. I Am Number Four is about a group of aliens who hide out on earth by disguising themselves as humans. Michael Bay is producing and may direct. James Frey continues to prove that cheaters always prosper. [THR]
•We have that Roundup rule about always reporting 3-D stuff, remember? So, we are bound to inform you that Warner Bros.' Clash of the Titans might be in three glorious dimensions. [THR]
Loco:Clive Owen has signed on to star in the action thriller Protection, written by Brandon Noonan and directed by Patrick Alessandrin. The film is about a special forces agent (Owen) who wades into the world of Mexican gangsters to rescue a judge's daughter. It must be a pretty important judge, because Mexican gangs are damn scary. [Production Weekly]
Order Up: Adult Swim has ordered 40 more episodes of Robot Chicken, keeping the show on TV for a fifth and sixth season. The Seth Green and Matthew Senreich-created show the highest rated show on Adult Swim and TV's longest running program featuring a robot and chicken hybrid. [Variety]
Hey Hoser: Sitcom pilot Strange Brew, from Will & Grace creators David Kohan and Max Mutchnick, has landed at Fox. The sitcom will focus on a family that runs a brewery where they've never once produced a bottle of beer with a mouse in it. [THR]
Mad Zombies: AMC is hoping to continue killing it with excellent dramas after giving pilot orders to The Walking Dead and The Killing. The first is based on a graphic novel series about a zombie apocalypse and a group of survivors traveling the country looking for a safe house. Frank Darabont, who adapted Robert Kirkman's novel, will direct. The Killing is based on a Danish TV show about the murder of a young girl and the hunt for her killer. We'll be watching the one with the zombies because, when given a choice, we always choose the one with zombies. [Variety]
Freedom Fighter:Alexander writer Christopher Kyle will adapt Jon Land's best-selling book The Seven Sins: The Tyrant Ascending. The film follows a man adopted into an Italian crime family who must rise up and defend Vegas against terrorist attacks. The character is being set up as a James Bond-type who will keep coming back, keep slaying terrorists, and keep getting the girl. [THR]
Photo taken January 17 shows Chinese movie-goers wearing 3-D glasses as they watch the science-fiction blockbuster "Avatar," at a cinema in Hefei, east China's Anhui province. The movie has become China's... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 11:46 pm
The Hollywood blockbuster "Avatar" has become China's all-time box-office champion, as officials confirmed a controversial plan to pull the 2D version of the film early from theatres. ... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 11:46 pm
President Obama plans to announce some pretty serious new limits on the size of the country's biggest banks and the risks they can take today. The approach Obama will champion is one long supported by former Fed Chair Paul Volcker, who will be on hand for the announcement. The basic idea, according to the Times, is to "prohibit proprietary trading of financial securities, including mortgage-backed securities, by commercial banks using deposits in their commercial banking sectors." If Congress ends up passing regulations that include these rules, some of the countries biggest banks may have to say good bye to running hedge funds and investing in real estate or private equity, says the Wall Street Journal. This sounds like something that men in nice suits will be angry about.
So this is how it's going to be from now on.
Jay Leno, gearing up for a Tonight Show comeback after barely five months in prime-time, continued to trade potshots with the man who...
NEW YORK - Shani Davis made peace with Stephen Colbert after calling him a "jerk," then edged the faux pundit by a mere 13 minutes for the final spot on the U.S. Olympic speedskating... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 11:10 pm
Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. And hello Mrs. American Pie!
Tara Reid got engaged Monday to boyfriend Michael Axtmann after he popped the question at a Los Angeles restaurant, her rep tells...
AP - Jet and Cord McCoy, a pair of bull-riding brothers from Tupelo, Okla., are among the 11 teams competing on the upcoming 16th edition of CBS's "The Amazing Race." Other teams competing this season include a grandmother and granddaughter, a father and daughter, married high-school sweethearts, and a couple of attorney moms. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 20 Jan 2010 | 10:28 pm
Mayor Bloomberg delivered his State of the City address yesterday, pledging that 2010 will be all about saving money. He announced the creation of a new task force that will "consolidate," "centralize" and "reduce" the size of the city government. Early plans include cutting the number of city vehicles and reducing city office space by 10 percent over four years, saving $40 million in rent and energy costs. Several city agencies will also be combined, including the Department of Juvenile Justice and the Administration for Children’s Services, a change that should result in fewer young people going to jail. Seems pretty hard to argue with that.
There aren't too many people on Twitter wishing happy days for Scott Baio right now.
The former sitcom star's is being reamed by fellow Twitter users after posting a highly...
On Monday, the two were at the center of CNN's coverage: Gupta operating on a girl and Cooper rescuing an injured boy from looters were major stories in themselves. But the reporting tonight—eight days after the earthquake hit—focused mainly on the lack of supplies, medical and otherwise, that could make the aftermath as deadly as the disaster itself. Cooper toured an ill-equipped medical facility and a destroyed school where scores of students and their teachers died; he points out a skull in one shot. Meanwhile, Gupta was dispatched to a clinic run by a pair of twin surgeons who still aren't receiving any of the much-lauded international aid.
Earlier pictures—violent looters, Gupta's surgery, a desperate dig for a trapped woman—were urgent and full of action. Tonight's scenes, though, suggested a country that has come to rest on a new baseline of horror and deprivation. People huddled under makeshift shelters, crowds clung to boats in the hopes of escaping Port-au-Prince, elderly patients languished in the sun outside of a collapsed senior home.
And in their on-screen chats, Gupta and Cooper seemed to be resigned to the fact that the suffering around them was of a magnitude greater than anything even two do-gooder journalists could hope to address.
Gupta might as well have been referring to his own on-air neurosurgery from Monday when he says:
It's one of those things where you don't want to not try, because that's the instinct, to try to jump in and help. But I think these doctors are fully cognizant that without any follow-up care, with out any kind of resources to stabilize these patients afterward it's a little bit fruitless, and I think that's an extremely frustrating thing.
The change in tone was more noticeable in Cooper. Two days ago, he raged against international bureaucracy that was keeping aid from reaching Haitians. His daring rescue of a young boy was fitting action to back up his almost scornful declaration that aid workers need to just "roll up their sleeves" and get to it. But he was just a journalist tonight, urging medical personnel to come to Haiti and reflecting on the limits of his own role as a reporter:
And we all know what's going to happen in a week, in two weeks... people are going to start losing interest in this as a story. They're going to stop watching it. It's going to stop getting the coverage it's been getting, and the people who are here are going to remain here...
Kidding. The Hollywood Reporter's story that Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie are planning a...
Quincy Jones and Lionel Richie are planning to re-record "We Are the World" to both celebrate the 25th anniversary of the original and raise money for Haiti. Jones and Richie had planned to celebrate the anniversary on January 28, but once the earthquake hit they decided to re-record the song and push back the celebration date. Now it will take place on February 1, the day after the Grammys, so that all the star power in Los Angeles can stay an extra day and record the song together at the Nokia Theater. Finally, Lady Gaga and the Zac Brown Band together! [Showbiz 411]
Finding something positive in NBC's late-night mess is difficult, but it seems like the renewed rivalry between Jay Leno and David Letterman just might be that something. Once Conan leaves to count his money, Leno and Letterman will go back to sharing a time slot and battling for number one. Leno was pretty consistently number one back in his Tonight Show days but Letterman has had a taste over the past few months, and we're guessing he likes it. What Letterman doesn't like is Leno. He's gone after his former buddy relentlessly over the past week. His latest shot came tonight when he accused Leno of pushing Johnny Carson out the Tonight Show. Harsh! Not to be outdone, Leno hit Letterman with this: "You know the best way to get Letterman to ignore you? Marry him." You can almost smell the hatred through the TV.
One prominent conservative (the prominent conservative?) is refusing take part in the Scott Brown love fest that's sweeping the right today. Glenn Beck lit into Brown on his radio show this morning for a silly remark the senator-elect made last night about his daughters being "available." Beck was shocked, shocked he told us. But he also proposed a way to control Brown once he reaches Washington.
I want a chastity belt on this man. I want his every move watched in Washington. I don't trust this guy. This one could end with a dead intern. I'm just saying. It could end with a dead intern.
Yikes! Beck had a chance to make nice on his TV show later in the day, but he didn't. Instead, Beck criticized Brown for his nude modeling and re-addressed that "available" remark, saying that if he ever said anything like that his wife would have certain body parts of his in a drawer at home. That's right, Glenn Beck is talking about his balls.
Do not under any circumstances read this item if you love Gossip Girl and you don't want to be spoiled for a huge/major/giant tragic plot twist that's coming toward the end of the...
First of all: It is good to raise money for Haiti. So, the "worst" Haiti fundraiser is a relative thing. For example, the worst Haiti fundraiser is way better than even the best case of food poisoning. In the great universal scale of justice, the worst Haiti fundraiser is maybe equivalent to a mediocre grilled cheese sandwich.
But still: Here, via CityFile, is the press release for the event, which is apparently called "Models Play Ping Pong for Haiti":
Models Play Ping Pong for Haiti
Anyway, watch the livestream at Modelinia and see if you can spot Susan Sarandon and Jonathan Bricklin smooching for Haiti.
Here is a model and Judah Friedlander playing ping pong for Haiti:
And a model talking about Haiti for Haiti:
Stay tuned for Gawker's Haiti fundraiser: Making mediocre grilled cheese sandwiches for Haiti.
While it used to be that most movies based on SNL skits were box office bombs, the trailer for MacGruber looks like it could just be clever enough to save...
Glee is about to make its debut in Japan and just like Americans, the Japanese make promos in anticipation of such events. But Americans don't make promos like this. Featuring two adorably fat sumo wrestling tweens, retired sumo great Akebono and a cast of fly girls, this promo should result in Super Bowl level ratings. As Akebono would say, "So fun, so Fox!"
Barack and Michelle Obama, and maybe Sasha, Malia and Bo, have donated $15,000 from their personal bank account to the Clinton-Bush Haiti fund. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said they were inspired to give by the millions of Americans who donated in these tough economic times. Which seems like a pretty stupid thing to say since those millions of Americans didn't need inspiration beyond a desire to help the victims of the catastrophe. But whatever, a donation is a donation. [Washington Post]
Set your TIVO to record C-SPAN on February 4th, because that's the day NBC boss Jeff Zucker will be hanging out with Senate Judiciary Committee's anti-trust panel. Zuck has been asked to testify about the impact the NBCU and Comcast merger will have on competition and you, the loyal consumer. Comcast CEO Brian Roberts will also be present, but unlike Zucker, he won't be dressed as a Na’vi. [The Wrap]
Front Page: Cabler renews 'Robot' for 40 more episodes -- Adult Swim has locked in its top-rated franchise for another two seasons, handing a whopping 40-episode order to "Robot Chicken."
Front Page: Steve Harvey will parent long-running 'Family' gameshow -- Who's been tapped as the new host of the syndicated gamer "Family Feud"? Survey says … Steve Harvey.
Reuters - There are hundreds -- well, perhaps dozens -- of reasons why anyone would want to become a lawyer, but after watching ABC's new Thursday drama "The Deep End," it's hard to think of one. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 20 Jan 2010 | 6:55 pm
White House gatecrashers Tareq and Michaele Salahi, in their waning moments of relevance, appeared in front of a Congressional committee today and invoked their Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination. And then they invoked it again. And again. All said, the couple declined to answer questions 30 times but members of the Homeland Security Committee didn't care. They kept asking and the Salahis kept not answering (They wouldn't even say if they were in the room!). The only break the Congressman took from questioning the couple was to lecture them like couple of tweens caught out past dark. It's really pretty uncomfortable.
Front Page: Announcement expected Thursday morning -- It's coming down to the wire for Conan O'Brien.
The decision comes after a two-day conference on the topic of sex-verification. The medical specialists gathered decided that, in light of the super-complicated Semenya case, it was time to advance IOC sex-verification testing past merely checking to see if athletes have the proper dangly bits when they pee in a cup for drug testing. According to the AP:
Among the key conclusions was a proposal to set up health centers where experts would diagnose and treat athletes with what are known as "disorders of sex development." Most cases, Ljungqvist said, require treatment such as surgery or hormone therapy.
Not all athletes will be tested—it will be determined on a case-by-case basis. (Only on athletes who score 6 or greater on the Raster-Klinefelter Butchness scale?) Meanwhile, Caster Semenya has been banned by the South African Olympic committee for being too manly.
"Brooke had to have emergency surgery to have her wisdom tooth extracted," Mueller's mother,...
Though you might have thought so since the funnyman's set to star...
And this was before he saw them in bikinis. Now Jonah Golberg must really love him some Brown kids. (Via Wonkette.)
(AP)
AP - Rapper Ja Rule lost a bid Wednesday to keep a loaded gun found in his luxury car from being used against him in a weapons-possession case.
• Can you believe it's been five years since Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt were a thing. Wow, time flies when you're having flirty 40 fun! But wait, is she really OK? People mag is happy...
We know that the last thirteen days have been extremely difficult for you, the loyal Vulture reader. After all, we too have felt the effects of sleep deprivation brought on by the recent fluctuations in David Hasselhoff's esteemed career. However, we're excited to let you know that you will no doubt be getting some well-deserved shuteye tonight, as A&E confirmed today that they have greenlit production on a Hoff-centric reality show. The network ordered up ten episodes of the as-yet-untitled program, which will revolve around the former America's Got Talent judge as he "focuses on his multiple entertainment and business endeavors, as well as his most important role as a single dad trying to help his teenage daughters’ break into the recording industry." Yes, you read that correctly, he's finally made amends with his daughter (Ann, 19) that videotaped his drunken hamburger exploits and then promptly passed them along to the tabloids. We're unsure as to whether or not either of them has more talent than the other famous reality show daughter who never quite made it in the biz, but for the sake of their future careers, we hope that this program will be broadcast in Germany, too.
Michelle Obama recently unveiled a new haircut. The change was somewhat subtle, but she cut enough off for those of us obsessed with her style to have a mild fit. Cathy Horyn calls the new do "rounder, more managed." She added, "One might be tempted to call the style an updated version of the classic Washington helmet," but noted Michelle Obama has tried many styles over the course of Barack's presidential campaign and presidency. She began with side bangs, grew them out late last year, and now is on to what we'll call her mom bob because we think it flatters her, and calling it a helmet implies it never moves or blows in the wind or does anything interesting even after the help of heat styling. But it does all of those things! Michelle is already experimenting with styling her new mom bob and looks to be having fun with it, as any woman with a chic new haircut should. Take a look back at her hair evolution in the slideshow.
AP - Just weeks after something dubbed a "squeakquel," we have a movie advertised with the tagline: "You can't handle the tooth." One quakes for the marketing that awaits us for "Marmaduke."
The latest thing that will surely either kill or save Hollywood: Starting Friday, YouTube will offer movie rentals on a trial basis. Five full-length features drawn from this year's and last year’s Sundance Festivals (including The Cove) will be available on the site for $3.99 a pop for 24 hours, until the end of the month. Watching D2: The Mighty Ducks broken up over thirteen different clips, however, will still be free. [HR]
Michael Loccisano/Ethan Miller/Philippe Merle/Getty Images
The world’s greatest cartoon band is back! Gorillaz today announced a March 9 release date for their third album, Plastic Beach, along with some more made-up backstory: Apparently, they’ve “taken up residence, recording on a secret floating island deep in the South Pacific, a Plastic Beach HQ, made up of the detritus, debris and washed up remnants of humanity.” (Kind of like these crazy people!) We also got a full track list, which adds Super Furry Animal’s Gruff Rhys, old friends De La Soul, the Fall’s Mark E. Smith, and Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of the Clash to previously announced guests Lou Reed and Snoop Dogg. And best of all, we got the first single! “Stylo,” now streaming and available for download on the 26th, is a tight piece of funk layered under Bobby Womack’s impassioned love-mongering and some of Mos Def’s finest mumbles. As usual, ringleader Damon Albarn is content to hang in the back, piping in with a few spacey, mild-mannered bars. For the record, this still doesn’t make up for no Blur stateside reunion dates.
Also, check out the the Plastic Beach cover art here.
The powers that be at NBC still have a lot of 'splaining to do for the past couple of years, but by god, they seem to be getting smarter by the minute.
According to the...
In the 10 to 11 a.m. time slot on the Fashion Week calendar, a listing between "Derek Lam" and "TSE" reads "Bebe/Kardashian." This can only mean Kim, Khloe, and Kourtney Kardashian are showing their Bebe line during Fashion Week. Every year these — oh, how to label them? — sham shows occur. Sheree from The Real Housewives of Atlanta staged her She by Sheree show at New York Fashion Week last season. We don't know if she's showing this season and we don't care enough to try to figure it out, but with more and more celebrities and fauxlebrities designing clothing lines, and with more and more people taking them seriously, we can only expect the sham shows to proliferate. Because what is a sham show one season, in a dingy Lower East Side apartment with a taco booth out back, could be a legitimate show with only sham flavor during Fashion Week next season (read: Erin Wasson's RVCA line). If the Kardashians can show during Fashion Week and get on the freaking official calendar, can Snuggie please come back with a Bryant Park blankie spectacular? Last season's show made us feel so alive.
Playbill - Tarragon Theatre in Toronto will present the world premiere of Rosa Laborde's Hush, the story of a father and his daughter, Feb. 9-March 21. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 20 Jan 2010 | 4:13 pm
Hey, good news from NBC for a change! The network just ordered three more episodes of Community, two more Parks and Recreations, and four additional Traumas to avoid having to show repeats this season. [Live Feed/HR]
Last year, New York Times Company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. traveled to Apple's headquarters in Cupertino, California, to meet with Steve Jobs to discuss the paper's digital strategy, according to two Times sources with knowledge of the meeting. Since then, rumors have swirled that the Times was preparing to partner with Apple to distribute its content on Apple's rumored tablet device, which is expected to be debuted next week. During a speech in the fall, Times executive editor Bill Keller fanned further speculation about a Times-Apple partnership when he told the audience, "I'm hoping we can get the newsroom more actively involved in the challenge of delivering our best journalism ... [on] the impending Apple slate."
But, according to two senior Times officials, the announcement that the paper would be launching a metered pay model for its website has nothing to do with the upcoming release of the Apple tablet. One senior business-side executive said the announcement "had no bearing on what Apple may or may not be doing," and a senior Times journalist with knowledge of the paid-content debate confirmed that view. "We made this decision for a lot of reasons, but it has nothing to do with Apple," the source told New York. Bill Keller added that the announcement of the meter had been planned for a "good long while" and had nothing to do with Apple's pending product launch. "This is something we were going to do on our own, no matter what partnerships might or might not come along."
The Apple tablet until now has been portrayed as a potential savior for old media, as publishers have rushed to ready tablet-ized versions of their publications. But despite the fevered speculation of just what the Apple device might be, publishers like the Times are taking a revised view about the tablet's potential to reinvent their digital businesses. With iTunes or an Apple-controlled online store, publishers will be cut off from their readers. Apple will handle payments and Apple will control all the lucrative demographic information that publishers collect to sell to their advertisers. The tablet may vastly improve the mobile reading experience, but in terms of providing a business model that publishers will leap to adopt, there's a strong case to be made that the Times and others shouldn't fall prey to the iTunes trap.
In announcing its semipermeable pay wall today, the Times is signaling that it wants to be in control of its vast readership and fully monetize its audience. Media writer David Carr made the point in his 1,400-word analysis of the meter announcement that "in the long run, [Apple and Amazon] would have controlled and benefited from the relationship far more than The Times." The paper may very well sell its content through Apple's app store or some new iTunes-like service, but as much as they can, the paper wants the primary point of payments to come through the meter.
For a sense of how the Times meter will develop, I talked to Rob Grimshaw, who oversees the Financial Times' metering system. Grimshaw was pleased the Times decided to adapt a metered approach. He explained that the system gives publishers maximum flexibility to attract the widest audience possible while capturing the loyal segment who will be willing to pay. Also, the meter is superior to a conventional pay wall because publishers don't have to decide which content should be placed behind the wall. Readers decide how much to read and what they're willing to pay for. "We found the straight pay-wall model created a lot of headaches," he says. "An article that's gold dust to one user is irrelevant to the other. With the meter model, you never have to make that choice. The consumers are always right — they know what they're interested in."
Grimshaw says the Times should be conservative in its approach to setting up its meter. The FT debuted its meter in 2007 and allowed readers to sample 30 free articles per month. A year later that number was ratcheted down to fifteen free articles. Now it’s down to ten articles. Grimshaw added that the Times needs to make sure its technology is ready. Any snafus and readers might be scared away and never return. "What we found is that the consumer doesn't mind paying and registering, but what they do mind is hassle," he said. "If you don't have good quality, you're going to struggle through those hurdles. You want to get the basics right before you put it out there. It's very important to focus on getting things right instead of a specific launch date."
Grimshaw agreed that the meter is a far-better sales platform than ceding control to Apple or Amazon. "There is a battle developing around this," he said. "The platform providers are recognizing that if they can interpose themselves between the publisher and the consumer, they have an opportunity to create an incredibly lucrative business without the costs of producing content in the first place."
Currently, the FT has a free iPhone app that works on the meter model. Presumably, the Times could follow suit. "iTunes and others want to own all the customers," Grimshaw said. "Publishers have an opportunity to avoid that happening."
Later this year, the FT is planning to upgrade its meter with a micro-payment model. Readers will have the option of purchasing a day pass instead of an annual subscription, or potentially a single article for a nominal amount, if the technology for processing the tiny payments can be implemented effectively.
"We think there's a large audience out there that would be happy to pay for content but doesn't have the willingness or the need to pay for an annual subscription," he said. "But it's a big leap. You are completely disaggregating your proposition. It may be that's the way the world is going."
Rose Byrne attended the season-three premiere of Damages in New York last night wearing a white mini by London designer Hakan along with black Miu Miu heels. She finished the look with a tight ballerina bun and bright-red lips.
Just when you think there isn't anything left for Chanel to stamp its brand on—maybe you'd be interested in buying a temporary tattoo for $75?—and Karl Lagerfeld comes through with another surprise. Yes, Chanel-branded footballs can now be purchased for $175. Don't forget to share the good news with all the fashion-forward football fanatics in your life! [FWD]
Shane Smith (far right) and along with some of the Vice crew at the magazine's fifteenth-anniversary party this year.
Last night at Public Assembly in Williamsburg, CNN and Vice magazine held a party to celebrate their new partnership, in which the news network has agreed to host several documentaries produced by the magazine's online news network, VBS.tv, on CNN.com. That a network trafficking in hard news has gone into business with a magazine whose current issue features a fashion spread of men with hard-ons might seem odd, but founder Shane Smith told Daily Intel that the partnership is indicative of the fact that Vice has, slowly but surely, been "growing up."
"Young people have become disenfranchised with the news," Smith said, explaining his company's decision to get into the business. He described his own disenfranchisement thusly: "The mainstream news media has failed in the past decade. Like, when you’re in New York, and it was after 9/11, everyone was doing blow and partying and stuff. Like, then you go out into the world, and you’re like — you can’t fuckin’ move because the traffic is insane. You’re like, where the fuck are the adults? Like, what’s happening to the god-damned thing?"
He continued: "We got upset, we got angry. We’re like, “What the fuck’s happening here? It’s shit. And no one’s running anything, no one’s being smart. You need someone to say, this is fucked! This is totally fucking insane. The absurdity of the modern human political condition is off the fuckin’ charts. So, rather than fuckin’ saying, Nike’s coming out with the new Air Woven that Comme des Garçons did, and you can only get a hundred of them in Tokyo, we’ve said, 'Okay, we’re gonna start doing different shit.'"
Still, the documentaries CNN will air retain a distinctly Vice-like flavor. In the first one, which went up on CNN's website today, Smith traveled to Liberia, where he watches children smoke heroin, visits a brothel, and meets up with a rebel soldier turned preacher named General Butt Naked — so-called because of his penchant for fighting in the nude — who matter-of-factly admits that he used to drink the blood of babies for good luck. It's unclear whether this was a fact Smith attempted to verify. "Liberia was scary," Smith said last night. "Everyone has been through a war, so everyone’s killed somebody. Everyone’s eaten human flesh."
But their new, serious bent and the partnership with CNN doesn't mean Vice is relinquishing its role as the "hipster's Bible," does it? "I hope so," Smith said. "Because if I’m still concerned about being the hipster’s Bible, then I should give up. I’m an old fat man, and I don’t give a shit about shoes and denim anymore. I give a shit about what the fuck’s happening, and if it’s like — they used to get mad at Bob Dylan because he went from being acoustic to electric. And you’re like, well, if I wanna stay the same, if I wanna be Vice, that used to be like, ‘Fuck everybody, and Do’s and Don’ts, and all this shit,’ then I should retire. Because that shit’s over. It is. It’s over."
Michelle and Bo Obama greeted visitors at the White House today in honor of Barack's one-year inaugural anniversary. The First Lady wore a patterned wool coat and tall, flat black boots. Bo wore his preferred dark-gray fur. See the full look in the Michelle Obama Look Book.
Morgan Stanley chairman John Mack was gracious enough to forego a bonus for 2009. But pretty much everyone else did just fine. Despite the fact the bank reported its first annual loss in its 74-year history this morning, the firm said it set aside $14.4 billion to pay employee bonuses and salaries, "an astonishing figure, even by the gilded standards of Wall Street" and one that's up 30 percent from 2008. Of course, it's always possible the windfall led a magnanimous banker to toss a couple of coins in the direction of the poor guy assigned to polish the Morgan Stanley logo this afternoon. Feel free to consider that the upside if you'd like! [NYT, FT]
Fashion Week's last run in Bryant Park is just weeks away. In September the shows will go on in Lincoln Center's Damrosch Park. And so Fashion Week organizers have created a new Fashion Week director position to ensure the venue change goes smoothly. Industry bigwigs held a very fancy, very official party last night at Diane Von Furstenberg's meatpacking-district headquarters to welcome Stephanie Winston Wolkoff to the job. So what exactly is she doing all day? "A day in the life right now is really getting to know the whole Lincoln Center campus, all the auxiliary buildings, all the constituent buildings, as well as all the people within Lincoln Center that help facilitate everything that's going to happen at Lincoln Center," she told us. "Working with everyone at IMG, CFDA, the designers, just walking them through what all the different possibilities will be at Lincoln Center in September. Right now, there's nothing that I walk into on a day-to-day basis that's the same thing. Every day is different." Auxiliary? Constituent? Fashion Week? Sounds hard, but Wolkoff is a tough cookie, after serving as Vogue editor Anna Wintour's special-events planner (she oversaw the Met Gala, of all things). "It's a job that I'm looking forward to really succeeding at." Well what if animal-rights activists storm the runways or stage upsetting protests? Wolkoff, clad in a white, maybe-fake, maybe-not fur shawl, said, "I've had no problem with PETA after eleven years working with Anna, so come get me!"
Wintour recommended Wolkoff for the role. "When Anna suggested Stephanie, it was such a good idea," Diane Von Furstenberg explained. "In essence, Stephanie will be an ambassador. We needed someone who knows who is who and how to handle everything. When we had the incident at the White House in January and some strange people walked in, my first reaction was, 'It would never happen if Stephanie were there.'"
Fashion folks showed a mix of excitement and resignation about Fashion Week's move to Lincoln Center. Fern Mallis emphasized that shows will still take place in the comforting tents we're all used to when the move to Lincoln Center happens. But, she said, "it's been eighteen years, it's time for a change. Bryant Park was home in many ways, but if we have to move, we're moving to one of the most interesting and iconic locations in the world." She added that the CFDA weighed other options, too. "Milk wouldn't be big enough for the whole event, but [we considered] the West Side Pier. Cabdrivers would be like, 'What street?' You can't get in, you can't get out. And certainly rubbing shoulders with all of the arts and culture is very exciting for fashion."
Realizing that many people at this function might be afraid to say what they really think, we approached a woman who would give it to us straight: Kelly Cutrone. "I think designers, what they really care about is: Are people going to come to my show? Can you get me an affordable venue? What am I going to get? And can you please give me more than what I'm paying for? And that's kind of the framework of what will make a designer happy," she explained. "Everybody understands that it's New York and it's time to move on, there's no real choice. It's not like, 'Should we have, like, a 1-800 number where people can phone in and call and vote about if we should stay in Bryant Park or go to Lincoln Center?' We're being nixed and we've got to move on. Listen, I remember when I went to Bryant Park and I remember what that represented to me. And I remember when I went to Paris and I heard about this place called the Carrousel du Louvre, and I was like, 'Oh my God, that sounds so fancy.' And I didn't even know how to say it. And then I went there and I was like, 'It's a shopping mall.' And when I went to Bryant Park I was like, 'It's midtown.' Now we're like the Jeffersons, we're movin' on up."
Former Lucky and Teen Vogue publisher Gina Sanders has been named president and CEO of the Fairchild Fashion Group, after the departure of head-clonking Condé big Richard Beckman. Sanders will run WWD, Footwear News, and Fairchild Books, and will report to Condé Nast CEO Charles Townsend. It should also be noted that Sanders is married to Steven Newhouse, Condé Nast chairman Si Newhouse's nephew. [WWD]
Coco Rocha held a contest on her blog for readers to name her clothing line. She won't reveal the winning entry yet. "I can’t even give you a clue, cause it’s so good!" she told the Daily. Tee hee! But seriously, she added "it’s still in the final, last-minute phase with lawyers putting things together," which is why she can't reveal the name. However, she said she hopes to show it in a presentation at New York Fashion Week in September. She added:
"I can tell you that I love the 1800s, costume-y, but elegant, Victorian-inspired clothes. When you wear that style out today, it’s definitely considered costume. I’m trying to take pieces and elements of that era and put it into a modern woman. I also believe 100% that we need affordable clothing. High fashion affordable—that is my big goal for this coming summer."
Great! Then we won't have to buy our princess dresses at the Disney store, which is what we've been forced to do for ages now.
Tanya Romero is unemployed, and damn happy about it. And she wears happy colors. She loves vintage and "things with a story. Things that are kind of quirky or always off." How adorable! Her jacket is a Navajo grain sack, her bag is from Kenya, and that scarf she's wearing? It's no ordinary scarf. It's her magic blue poncho, obtained after a magic weekend at Joshua Tree. We've had magic weekends, but instead of scarves, we had hallucinogens. Watch the video to find out more about the happiest girl you will ever encounter on the street.
Carving out a niche in Fox News' afternoon programming, Megyn Kelly is returning from maternity and will get her own show, the network announced this afternoon. The spunky legal expert, who used to host America's Newsroom with Bill Hemmer, will take over the 1 to 3 p.m. slot from current Live Desk hosts Martha MacCallum and Trace Gallagher. (MacCallum will go to the morning to join Hemmer, and Fox had no word on what will happen to Gallagher, though he'll stay at the network.) The as-yet unnamed show will cover breaking news, feature interviews, and include her “Kelly’s Court” legal segment. Kelly, who appears regularly on Bill O'Reilly's show, was likely selected to inject some personality into the afternoon hours, when other cable-news networks shift into general headline coverage or even paid advertisements. Her main personality rival will be Andrea Mitchell on MSNBC, whose political show occupies the 1 to 2 p.m. hour.
It's only been a couple of weeks since the TSA announced plans to install 300 full-body scanners at airports around the country. Which is more than enough time for an ad agency to figure out a way to exploit the subject and suggest in a new ad campaign that women will now need to pay more attention to the lingerie they wear. [Copyranter]
Last week, the world was introduced to a song called “Pants on the Ground” via one General Larry Platt and American Idol. That video became viral, it’s singer, a hero. And one week later, the inevitable: Thousands of people covering this jam on Youtube. But when the name of said song is “Pants on the Ground,” it goes without saying some of those covers are going to be highly disturbing.
This is the story of those covers.
10. The Preteen Girl Pants on the Ground. Reasons 1 through 1 million as to why we are happy the internet did not exist when we were 13. Because this definitely would have happened to us, only it would have been Les Miserables. Cue “Castle in a Cloud” with a showercap and a Swiffer.
9. The “Wait, He Actually Put His Pants on the Ground” Pants on the Ground. You know the old “Not Safe for Work? Not Safe for Life!” joke that’s been traveling these here internets for hundreds of years? Well, if you ask us, it secretly somehow originated from this “Pants on the Ground” cover. Before pressing play, just look at the still. Look at it! I gotta go disinfect my eyeball tweezers, brb.
8. The Too Much Testosterone Pants on the Ground. When not being able to pronounce his own name correctly, Brett Favre has another favorite past time: Screaming the words to viral videos out loud in the locker room. Surprisingly, Favre’s cockroach weatherman is actually quite genteel.
7. The “Make This Our Wedding Song?” Pants on the Ground. Many of you will remember this face. That’s because it’s Alex Wagner-Trugman, the lanky former Idol contestant who charmed with his pitch-perfect wit. That being said, what’s most disturbing about his cover of “Pants on the Ground” is that it sounds so good gurl. We want him to whisper sing this into our ear as he does our taxes (code for makes love to us).
6. The Sexually Confusing “Pants on the Ground.” We seriously have no idea what gender any of these people are. But look: Autotune + vaseline on the lens + bent over in front of a fire place = We think we’ve been to Nam now.
5. The Fat Adam Sandler Pants on the Ground. No description necessary.
4. The Mouth Remix Pants on the Ground. I’ve just always found people who can make record scratch noises with their faces disturbing. This might be a personal thing.
3. The Ellen’s Biggest Fans Pants on the Ground. Look, we’re not just assuming that these girls are Ellen’s biggest fans because they’re wearing giant pants and Timberlands. Because by assuming, you make an ass out of you and Ming, and I’d like to leave Chinese vases out of this. (More like the Zing Dynasty.) No, the reason we know is the video keeps telling us. Every 2 seconds. “Help us get on the Ellen show.” Then they say “Ellen DeGeneres with your pants on the ground.” We love Ellen, but we’re pretty sure even she would chalk this up to disturbing.
2. The DO YOUR F*CKING LAUNDRY FAKE JASON MRAZ Pants on the Ground. Nothing is more disturbing to us than a slob.
1. The Intense, Visibly Dancing Jeans Pants on the Ground. Nothing disturbs us more than a ghost dancing in jeans. Also, octave runs.
BONUS VIDEO: Here’s a cover we found that is actually adorable. 3 guys with nothing better to do than sing “Pants on the Ground” using child instruments…
With thanks to Lauren Deiman for her help in compiling these!
Well, it’s only January, but it looks like we’ve got our very own 2010 Rupert Tragedy.
Casper, the adorable little cat who would go on an hour long bus ride every day to see the sites and the people, was tragically hit by a car and killed. A giant blow for animals, lovers of animals, and anyone who has ever ridden public transportation and wished a cat was sleeping right beside them (all of us at some point).
If you missed Casper’s adventures the first time around, here is the BBC video that made him a worldwide bus riding cat celebrity. RIP Caspies. Hope you’ve got exact change up in heaven, wherever you are.
The National Enquirer has produced photos of a man they claim is Tiger Woods (and it certainly looks like Tiger Woods) wandering around outside the Gentle Path rehabilitation clinic in Mississippi. We bet we can guess why that guy looks so grumpy, whether it turns out to be the golf great or not. [National Enquirer via Radar]
Despite its name, MTV's Jersey Shore isn't really a reflection on New Jersey, says Slate's Jonah Weiner. It's more a comment on where half of the cast is originally from: Staten Island, "prime summer-rental feeder community," longtime haven to members of the Mafia, the site of one of the city's biggest landfills, and "home to the largest per-capita Italian-American population in New York state." [Slate]
Tom Ford was instrumental in bringing Balenciaga to Gucci Group in 2001. Ford admired Nicolas Ghesquière, a hot young thing who came on as head designer of Balenciaga in 1997 and quickly became a critically acclaimed sensation. Ford interviewed Ghesquière for the latest Interview. His Forbulessness got naked (more on that later) and called him up one day, and the resulting piece ended up being just as much about Ford as about Ghesquière. This is probably due to the fashion industry's unique and fascinating culture of self-importance, of which Ford admits he is a product. He told Ghesquière:
If you are a designer, sometimes it is better not to delegate, because someone pays money for something that you, Nicolas Ghesquière, designed, so it should be exactly the way you want it, exactly the way you would have chosen it. People call me a control freak, and I say, “Well, my name is on the shoe.” It means the heel needs to be the way I want it and not the way somebody else wants it, and the toe needs to be exactly the way I want it, and the fabric and the material have to be exactly the way I want it. It is not a democracy — it is a dictatorship.
A dictatorship! With the designer as the dictator! No wonder fashion people feel so special and beautiful and worshiped all the time. So much so that they can shamelessly have conversations like this:
FORD: The hard part is, once you do it, you have to keep it there. If there are a few collections that are not as good, it starts to go away. Were you popular as a kid?
GHESQUIÈRE: Yes, I was. Yes.
FORD: [laughs] I love that! Most people say, “Oh, no, I wasn’t.”
GHESQUIÈRE: I was! I grew up in such a small city, I had to be popular or I’d be dead. So I had to be popular!
FORD: So you had lots of friends, everyone liked you, and you were very beautiful.
GHESQUIÈRE: Maybe not all of that, but I had great friends. Most of them were girls, and I was already commenting on the way they were dressing. It was really like a small village.
FORD: Are you still in touch with those friends?
GHESQUIÈRE: Some of them, yes. Not all of them, but a few, absolutely.
FORD: It is hard when you go home because usually everyone else looks like hell, and you still look good. [laughs] You don’t have much in common with people anymore.
GHESQUIÈRE: Yeah, it’s hard to keep a normal relationship with them — they are very nice, and they kind of understand what my life is about —
FORD: It is a very different world, though.
And yet it (or something lurking in his psyche) has caused Ford to shun clothes.
FORD: ...This is going to sound crazy, but the first thing I do when I get home is take off all my clothes — at home, just around the house. Like, right now, I am sitting here completely naked. [Ghesquière laughs] I take everything off. I can’t stand clothes! I take everything off — my shoes, my socks, my watch, shirt, everything. I am completely naked.
GHESQUIÈRE: [laughs] Do you wear your perfume?
FORD: That is what I was going to say. I stay this way pretty much 24 hours a day. Richard is very funny. He is usually completely dressed. He does not like to be naked. So he is in the house; we are having dinner. I am sitting there naked; he is sitting there completely dressed. [Ghesquière laughs] I also take, like, three baths a day — it is not to be clean, it is because I like to relax and lie in the water. It is the way I calm myself down. But every time I walk past my bathroom, I go in and I put on some perfume. I use different perfumes for different moods. If I feel that I need to calm down, I put on certain fragrances that are more sensual. If I feel that I need to energize, I put on something else. Fragrance for me is so important. How did your fragrance begin?
Only an all-powerful ruler could get away with eating dinner naked while smelling like he spent all day walking the ground floor of Bloomie's under attack by the perfume-spritzing staff.
Awwww yeahhhh, Rolling Stone knows what we all wanna hear about — John Mayer’s masturbation habits. And John Mayer’s goofy masturbation habit explanations designed to spark, I don’t know, controversy? Mild, passing interest?
Whatever, I’ll take the bait. We’ll acknowledge this quote long enough to take it in, process the attempted information, and agree to resume our lives as normal:
I have masturbated myself out of serious problems in my life. The phone doesn’t pick up because I’m masturbating. And I have excused myself at the oddest times so as to not make mistakes. If Tiger Woods only knew when to jerk off. It has a true market value, like gold bullion. First of all, I don’t jerk off because I’m horny. I’m sort of half-chick. It’s like District 9. I can fire alien weapons. I can insert a tampon. No, I do it because I want to take a brain bath. It’s like a hot whirlpool for my brain, in a brain space that is 100 percent agreeable with itself.”
Not much doubt anymore — John Mayer is well into Heidi/Spencer “what’s it gonna take to get noticed on the internet for three seconds today?” territory. 10 plastic surgeries can’t be far down the line.
You could have stayed at home to watch horrific, bloody scenes of human misery unfold on TV. Or you could have jetted over to Milan, where the espresso is better and this week's menswear shows have been all about death and violence. Before you go and ask whether some members of the fashion industry are a little out of touch with what's going on in the world—is it really appropriate to send models down the runway covered in fake blood when every news network is broadcasting images of bloody survivors of the earthquake in Haiti?—keep in mind that war and other forms of human tragedy are actually good for the fashion biz. After all, they stimulate creativity! As Guy Trebay of the Times explains it:
War is evil, but historically it has also been the engine of innovation, a fact most obviously true of technology although not necessarily less so when it comes to fashion.
The flaming gunpowder arrows ("flying fire") that Song dynasty warriors loosed on invading Mongols were early versions of the Pentagon's drones. The trench coats, Eisenhower jackets and jumpsuits produced to outfit soldiers in different wars and divergent eras are still very much with us—or they were throughout the last four days, when designers showing men's wear for fall seemed to have war on their subconscious minds.
It wasn't the devastation in Haiti that inspired yesterday's runway show yesterday by DSquared, the line by Dean and Dan Caten (left), the insufferable designing duo and judges on Bravo's Launch My Line. It wasn't even the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. (It was hockey-related violence, apparently. Go figure.) But there were plenty of other designers to pick up the slack, like as Giorgio Armani, whose show was all about "military romanticism," according to his design team.
Thanks to the buckets of fake blood, though, the Catens probably deserve first prize for creating the most awkward images to come out of the fashion world this week. (A few of them are below.) It actually would have been worse, though, if the Catens had gotten their way. Although they'd really, really wanted singer (and Rihanna-beater) Chris Brown to attend the gore-fest yesterday, he "prudently declined a fitting and an appearance," reportsVanity Fair's Michael Roberts.
HAIR
• For Vivienne Westwood's fall 2010 menswear show, the designer charged her beauty team with creating homeless-chic models. That translated into hair that was matted down with powder, as to give the illusion of early-morning frost. [Beauty Counter/Style.com]
• Charles Baker Strahan, celebrity hairstylist for Herbal Essences, counts Leighton Meester among his most valued clients. Their relationship is mutually beneficial — the stylist lives in Meester's building, so he's pretty much on call for her hair emergencies all the time. [Makeup Loves Me]
MAKEUP
• Procter & Gamble is planning to launch an e-store this spring, which is exciting because it means you would be able to get products like Olay, SK-II, CoverGirl, and more right from the manufacturer, rather than a retailer. [Retailer Daily]
• Abigail Breslin, 13, is going through a blue eye-shadow phase. [Nylon]
PLASTIC SURGERY
• After going on the cover of People magazine and saying she is addicted to plastic surgery, Heidi Montag is taking back her statement. "I think I look like myself. I think I just look like a different, improved version of myself." [NYDN]
What happens when you’re casting a movie called Howl, and the script calls for a gentleman with Don Draper like tendencies? You go to the source, that’s what you f**king do. Which is why you might not be fully surprised to catch glimpse of Jon Hamm in the following sneak preview to Howl, with James Franco as Allen Ginsburg. When Hamm gets up to say something in his bespoke suit, I half-expected him to launch into his famous Kodak Carousel pitch speech.
And let it be known that while all the ladies of the world will be flailing over Hamm and Franco, I’ll gladly be tending to my immaculately kept David Strathairn shrine. My Lost in Yonkers lunchbox needs to be dusted anyway…
Our Reader Look Book project — wherein you, fashion-savvy Cut readers, upload pics of your sartorial achievements — is picking up the pace, with plenty of new contributions (like the one at right, from a reader in Dallas). But we want more. And we've got some eye candy from the boys out there, but ladies, step it up, please! We want to see what you're wearing — your finest ensemble achievements, the vintage pieces and designer shoes, the best of your closet assembled into one flawless look. And, of course, we'll pull out our favorite uploads so you get the recognition you deserve. So using the tool below, show us what you've got. Or click on the thumbnails to see our most recent uploads.
Need more explicit instruction on how to use the tool? Go here.
It isn't just conservative lawmakers who are worried about New Jersey's new medical marijuana law, which gives people with debilitating diseases the right to purchase up to two ounces of marijuana each month. Pot dealers are concerned, too! "It's going to cut a lot of the bridge-and-tunnel customers," one dealer tells the Daily News, adding that if he tried to compete with the legal stuff based on price, he'd lose "hundreds of thousands of dollars a year." If you're out of work and were thinking about dealing a bit on the side to pay the bills—not such a bad idea, at least up until now!—you make want to think about some other way to make quick cash. [NYDN]
Golden Globes-winning "The White Ribbon" by Austrian director Michael Haneke, seen here on January 17, is among nine movies in contention for the Oscars' coveted best foreign film prize, officials said... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 12:07 pm
In a development that no one with a most rudimentary understanding of pornography could have foreseen coming light years away, an Avatar-themed porno is in the works, via the same topical geniuses who brought us the Twilight porn.
The film has been disappointingly titled “This Ain’t Avatar XXX”, but I’m confident we can do better. In the grand tradition of terrible pun titles — as essential an element of porn movies as the d*cks themselves — here are 8 possible titles for the inevitable Avatar porno:
1. Blew Men
2. F*ck That Planet
3. James Hammerin’s Latest Release
4. Mandora
5. Slam That Box Office
6. Man Vs. Wild (P*ssy)
7. You’re Not In Candace Anymore
8. Fellash’ Navi-dad
Avatar porn titles? Leave ‘em in the comments (bearing in mind, Wordpress tends to automatically asterisk anything too swear-y. Gotta be creative)
AP - "Just Kids" (Ecco, 304 pages, $27) by Patti Smith: "Just Kids," the new memoir by Patti Smith, recalls the life she shared with Robert Mapplethorpe.
AP - Young designers showed off edgy new clothing on Wednesday as Berlin's fashion week opened, an event that underlines the German capital's hopes of establishing itself as a fashion power.
Australian model Miranda Kerr struck another blow for hot Victoria’s Secret models in her latest GQ shoot, proving again that if you’re really hot, dating Orlando Bloom, and posing topless all the time, you really can make it in this business:
She’s definitely got the PETA-style “Hey look at me I’m naked! (I’m not actually showing anything but it’s technically true and I got your attention)” thing down pat.
Maybe she can transition into film and take her shirt off from behind in the trailer for a PG-13 movie then go on talk shows and constantly bring up her prepared anecdote about being naked on the set. Man, if I was a hot chick, I’d have this sh*t SO figured out.
In the meantime, here’s more pics from the GQ shoot in the gallery below:
Comedian Eliza Skinner has passed on to us perhaps the greatest viral video we have never seen. It’s the live action story (sorry Pixar) about a service dog – a gorgeous golden retriever named Ricochet – whose penchant for chasing after birds turned him into a service danger.
But then things take a real twist. “Ricki” learns to surf… (didn’t see that coming, right?)… and finds a disabled surfing owner who is a perfect fit. Sure, the music here is a little over the top cheesy, but if you can let your attitude go for 5 and a half seconds, you will almost surely have a nervy b at work from weeping so hard. Trust me… you think you’re OK. Then the last thing happens and its like Shining Elevators, Fourth Floor of salty eye-brine.
In other words, cancel your lunch plans and watch the following:
Fashion Wire Daily - Dolce & Gabbana are the reigning dichotomy of Italian fashion, who love to be poles apart in their two major lines, their signature collection and their "junior" label D&G. The latter this season was presented on Tuesday, Jan. 19, in front of a mock up of a tony Alpine resort, the type where local servants help you take off your boots, serve you mulled wine and guide you to a Jacuzzi after an afternoon on the slopes.
Shelly and her husband, Daren Forney, were the happily married parents of three beautiful girls, 13-year-old Jessica, 9-year-old Erica and 4-year-old Valerie. "Erica is my little sunshine because she lit up the house," Shelly says. "She was making us laugh before she was a year old."
Attorneys for director Roman Polanski fired back against Los Angeles prosecutors, saying the law clearly allows for Polanski to be sentenced in absentia while under house arrest in Switzerland.
Serbian director Emir Kusturica arrives to attend a film festival in 2009. The French-Israeli short film "Lost Paradise" won the top prize at a film festival hosted by Kusturica in Drvengrad, western Serbia,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 10:33 am
Front Page: Sixty-five films originally qualified in the category -- Oscar has chosen the foreign films that will advance to the next round of voting in the category.
AP - "Noah's Compass" (Alfred A. Knopf, 277 pages, $25.95), by Anne Tyler: Anne Tyler takes ordinary people and shows the reader how fascinating those people can be. In her latest novel, "Noah's Compass," that person is Liam Pennywell, a very laid-back man of 61 who has just been fired.
Roman Polanski, pictured in 2008, is completing his Berlin film festival entry "The Ghost Winter" while under house arrest in Switzerland. New movies starring Ben Stiller, Julianne Moore, Gerard Depardieu,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 9:29 am
Posters of Catherine Zeta-Jones, Richard Gere and John C. Reilly appear in Potsdamer Platz in Berlin on Wednesday to promote the 60th Berlin film festival. Chinese film-maker Wang Quan'an's "Apart Together"... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 20 Jan 2010 | 9:29 am
Conan mainstay Norm Macdonald graciously stopped by the Tonight Show last night to finally congratulate Conan on securing his place in history and to deliver the gift basket he’s been meaning to deliver for the past few (eight) months.
Wherever Conan ends up in this crazy workaday world, Norm is likely gonna follow, so really, we’re all gonna be fine:
Yesterday if you had asked me if I’ve ever seen Martha Stewart pole dancing, I would have been like, “No, I haven’t, why are you asking me this strange specific thing you strange specific stranger? Also you should start conversations with ‘hi’ or something.”
If someone asked me today if I’ve ever seen Martha Stewart pole dancing, I’d be like, “Why yes I have, I watched the video several times on the institution called the world wide web. I am still slightly taken aback by your very specific question before saying hi or introducing yourself, stranger, but you just so happen to be correct on this particular occasion.”
Frankly, I’m a little disappointed we didn’t at least get some sideboob:
AP - The old-fashioned jetpack doesn't make much sense as a way to get around. Physics, gravity and the limitations of the human physique — not to mention the potential threat of flaming buttocks — have all conspired against the technology, which sci-fi geeks have been craving since the 1920s.
John Malkovich has played some of the most compelling villains of his generation but the "Burn After Reading" actor insists he doesn't always play bad guys.
Amy Winehouse avoided jailtime by pleading guilty to common assault and disorder this morning. Fortunately, England doesn’t have a “three strikes and you’re out” policy; instead, she’s still fine under England’s more lenient “get out-googlyed for an entire weeklong cricket friendly and you have lost, sir.”
After a dynamite MLK weekend, Avatar will almost certainly pass Titanic on the all-time box office charts sometime this week. James Cameron plans to celebrate the landmark by having a f*ckload of money.
Charlie Danielssuffered a minor stroke over the weekend, probably from having to repeat that damn Geico ad every time TNT goes to commercial.
AP - Opera impresarios looking for authentic settings have sometimes gone to the ends of the Earth, presenting Verdi's "Aida" at the base of the Pyramids and Puccini's "Turandot" in Beijing's Forbidden City.
AP - "Creation" is a pretty small film considering its huge themes — evolution vs. divinity, essentially, Darwin vs. God. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 20 Jan 2010 | 4:35 am
So this is how it's going to be from now on.
Jay Leno, gearing up for a Tonight Show comeback after barely five months in prime-time, continued to trade potshots with the man who...
Bye-bye, Miss American Pie. And hello Mrs. American Pie!
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The former sitcom star's is being reamed by fellow Twitter users after posting a highly...
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• Can you believe it's been five years since Jen Aniston and Brad Pitt were a thing. Wow, time flies when you're having flirty 40 fun! But wait, is she really OK? People mag is happy...
The powers that be at NBC still have a lot of 'splaining to do for the past couple of years, but by god, they seem to be getting smarter by the minute.
According to the...
Awwww yeahhhh, Rolling Stone knows what we all wanna hear about — John Mayer’s masturbation habits. And John Mayer’s goofy masturbation habit explanations designed to spark, I don’t know, controversy? Mild, passing interest?
You could have stayed at home to watch horrific, bloody scenes of human misery unfold on TV. Or you could have jetted over to Milan, where the espresso is better and this week's menswear shows have been all about death and violence. Before you go and ask whether some members of the fashion industry are a little out of touch with what's going on in the world—is it really appropriate to send models down the runway covered in fake blood when every news network is broadcasting images of bloody survivors of the earthquake in Haiti?—keep in mind that war and other forms of human tragedy are actually good for the fashion biz. After all, they stimulate creativity! As Guy Trebay of the Times explains it: 
It wasn't the devastation in Haiti that inspired yesterday's runway show yesterday by DSquared, the line by Dean and Dan Caten (left), the insufferable designing duo and judges on Bravo's Launch My Line. It wasn't even the war in Iraq or Afghanistan. (It was hockey-related violence, apparently. Go figure.) But there were plenty of other designers to pick up the slack, like as Giorgio Armani, whose show was all about "military romanticism," according to his design team. 
In a development that no one with a most rudimentary understanding of pornography could have foreseen coming light years away, an 
