Best-selling British fantasy author Terry Pratchett says he believes an assisted suicide panel should be set up to help Britons who want to kill themselves. Pratchett, one of the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 1 Feb 2010 | 2:59 am
AP - Best-selling British fantasy author Terry Pratchett says he believes an assisted suicide panel should be set up to help Britons who want to kill themselves. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 1 Feb 2010 | 2:59 am
From a distance, Michael Jackson's iconic rhinestone-encrusted glove shimmers like a marquise diamond. A closer look, however, reveals that the piece of pop history is a rather less resplendent re-fashioned... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 1 Feb 2010 | 2:54 am
AFP - R&B diva Beyonce dominated the 52nd Grammys here Sunday with six awards, edging out country star Taylor Swift who finished the music industry extravaganza with four prizes.
Cuban salsa stars Los Van Van drew hundreds of protesters and thousands of fans to their first concert in Miami since protests of a 1999 show turned violent. The Miami Herald reports... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 1 Feb 2010 | 2:32 am
This being Silicon Valley, audacious man-child savants are charming must-haves. In the next scene, Mark and Sean send word that their revenge stunt "impressed Moritz so much that he was making an investment offer that was hard to turn down." (Script clip here.)
[Photos from Bauer-Griffin]
(AP)
AP - All eyes on the red carpet at Sunday's Grammy Awards went straight to Lady Gaga and her solar-system gown that was totally out of this world.
•This is old news, but important news: Jersey Shore is definitely coming back for a second season. Late Friday night, white smoke poured forth from MTV headquarters in the universal signal that contract negotiations had ended and the entire gang would return for twelve more glorious episodes starting later this year. [TheWrap]
(AP)
AP - It's been a year of "Fearless" and fairytales for Taylor Swift.
The most memorable moment of the 52nd annual Grammy Awards may be the onstage appearance of Michael Jackson's two eldest children.
In this article, we learn about how New York children's educational fates are sealed halfway through preschool. Here's another sentence that is great out of context:
"A young brain is a moving target," she replies.
Though the above lady is talking about the deficits of toddler IQ tests, a metaphor involving air guns and weeping children could also work here. Kid brains = lotto tickets for the rich.
Note: The above photographed child is not dumb. As a Scripps National Spelling Bee participant, he is more of a kinderocratic fantasy. [NewYork]
Rhapsody with Spock: DreamWorks' George Gerswin biopic has found its star according to Mike Flemming, and it's Zachary Quinto. The Star Trek and Heroes star will play the famed composer in the film written by Doug Wright. DreamWorks currently has Quinto working with accent and dialogue coaches as shooting seems set to begin in a few months. The real question at this point though is if Steven Speilberg will choose this as his next film or if he'll go with Lincoln or another unknown biopic about a dead white guy. [Deadline]
Something Lame:Jennifer Goodwin is in talks to star in Something Borrowed, a rom-com with a title that we can't believe hasn't already been used for a rom-com. Based on a novel of the same name by Emily Griffin, the films revolves around a New York lawyer (Goodwin) who sparks up a romance with her best friend's fiance. Sounds like his penis is the thing that is being borrowed. [Variety]
Woah: ABC Family is doing its part to revive the careers of Melissa Joan Hart and Joey Lawrence. The network has ordered 10 episodes of Melissa and Joey, about a politician forced to take in her niece and nephew and the impeccably groomed manny she hires to take care of them. We're guessing Joey doesn't get to the first commercial break without saying "woah!" [Variety]
Small Wonders: Spike TV has given the greenlight to two documentary -style series. Scrappers is about a group of competitors in Brooklyn who hunt for the best junk they can find to build things. Half Pint Brawlers continues TV's little person love affair as it follows a traveling group of little person wrestlers. Just in case you needed confirmation of the obvious, "The series is billed as a cross between Jackass and Little People, Big World." [THR]
Story Time: As a part of its Saturday night film series, Syfy (nee Sci Fi) is planning to put a modern twist on classic stories. That means updates of Hansel & Gretel, which involves Hansel seeking out the witch for revenge, and Little Red Riding Hood, in which a descendant of Little Red finds out that her family is full of werewolf slayers. [THR]
Rihanna tried to pass the mic to Beyoncé and Jay's nephew Julez during acceptance speech.By Jayson Rodriguez Julez Smith Jr. Photo: Michael Caulfield/ Getty Images Not many people could... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 31 Jan 2010 | 11:55 pm
When President Obama unveils his $3.8 trillion budget tomorrow, he might want to be wearing an old suit, because someone will almost certainly throw a tomato at him. Obama will announce the deficit for the current fiscal year, which ends in September, will be projected to reach an all-time high of $1.6 trillion, more than the $1.4 trillion of the last fiscal year. The increase is due to spending on a jobs package and funding for states struggling to pay for programs like Medicaid. Obama has a little hope of winning back the haters when he announces that the deficit for the next fiscal year should be $1.3 trillion and, if all of his magic tricks do what they're supposed to, the deficit will be down to around $700 billion in 2013. Sadly, in the world we live in, that's cause for celebration.
Deficit to Hit All-Time High [WSJ]
Reuters - They are the two comeback stories of this pilot season, projects developed years ago that have been resurrected and have landed orders at the broadcast networks. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 31 Jan 2010 | 11:20 pm
Last night's Grammys were three and a half hours long and while most of the evening was filled with hollow self-congratulation and Taylor Swift, there was a handful of extremely entertaining moments. From Lady Gaga's incredible duet with Elton John to the creepy 3-D tribute to Michael Jackson, we've managed to distill the best parts of the evening into the minute-long video below. Check out our liveblog coverage of the Grammys for more details.
When John King steps down from CNN's Sunday morning program State of the Union next week, long-time political correspondent Candy Crowley will take over, CNN announced yesterday. King is leaving to develop an evening show to fill the spot left open by Lou Dobbs's abrupt exit. Crowley's promotion makes her the only woman currently anchoring a Sunday morning political talk show. So the only question is, does she know how to work King's magic wall? [NYT]
The Hollywood Reporter has noticed a trend in funny TV—people are getting more Indian. The evidence, as it tends to with trends, comes in threes. First there's Nirvana, a show first kicked around by NBC in 2004 when it shot a pilot with Kal Penn in the lead role. Now Fox is bringing it back. Then there's Outsourced, which filmed a pilot for NBC for 2007. Now the Peacock is bringing it back too. Lastly, producers of the British comedy The Kumars at No. 42 are shopping the show in the U.S. with hopes of giving an Office-style remake.
After noticing that there are other Indian-Americans currently on TV (Tom Haverford, Kelly Kapoor, among others), The Hollywood Reporter asks the obvious question: "Is it a coincidence or a delayed Slumdog Millionaire effect?" Neither! Obviously this is all because of RAAAAAAAANDY.
2) Slogan, "A Temporary Pause. To Put You First": Toyota recalled millions of cars because some of them do the worst thing possible for a car to do: They get stuck in "go". To spin the production stoppage as "putting customers first" rather than "keeping customers from getting killed by our dangerously defective product" is lame. This is like if Abraham Lincoln had proposed abolishing slavery as way to "put black people first." No: slavery is wrong, and so is making cars that sometimes double as coffins with power windows. What about "putting us first" by making sure your cars do not infinitely accelerate for no reason in the first place. Seriously, we're having trouble imagining a worse defect for a car to have. Maybe: The GPS system is screwed up so it only gives you directions to sex offenders' houses?
3) Pause button icon: Taken with the Helvetica font and gray/white color-scheme, we're getting a very iPod vibe here. This is confusing because we don't see much of a connection between a music player renowned for its design and a car that can maybe lead to your fiery demise. FLASH POLL: What song do you want to be listening to when your Prius' accelerator gets stuck under the floor-mat, propelling you at 98 mph through a guardrail on California One, out into the Pacific and eternal sleep? Pantera? Yeah, probably Pantera.
4) Blurb: "Why we've temporarily stopped some of our plants." OK, we are not brand identity consultants, but we've read enough Malcom Gladwell to know that Toyota owners and potential buyers do not care at all about the fact that Toyota has "stopped some of their plants." They are mainly worried about: Is my Toyota going to autonomously attempt a landspeed record when I'm driving to the grocery store? How do I protect my family from this threat that has apparently been lurking right beneath my feet for years? Will I ever feel safe again? The only guy sitting over his cereal and his Sunday New York Times wondering why Toyota has stopped some of its plants is the guy who lives next door to one of those plants and notices the bilious yellow smoke that spews constantly from its smokestacks is gone and he is able to see the mountains.
5) "Toyota Customer Experience Center" hot-line:Hello, thank you for calling the Toyota Customer Experience Center. If you have questions about your vehicle's warranty, please say 'Warranty'. If you'd like to find a Toyota dealer near you, please say 'nearest dealer'. If your accelerator has become stuck to the floor of your vehicle, please scream in abject terror. You have selected [blood-curdling scream]. I'm sorry, all of our Customer Experience Specialists are assisting other customers. Please hold. Your call is important to us.
6) "Toyota: Moving Forward": And there's nothing you can do to stop us. Literally.
(AP)
AP - A sampling of quotes from Sunday's Grammy Awards.
Karen Schmeer, a 39-year-old documentary film editor who worked closely with Errol Morris, was killed on Friday in a hit-and-run on the Upper West Side. She was "one of the greatest editors of her generation," said director Greg Barker, who worked with Schmeer on the Sundance-award winning documentary Sergio. Schmeer also handled editing duties on Sydney Pollack's 2005 film Sketches of Frank Gehry and many of Morris' films, including Fog of War and Fast, Cheap and Out of Control, which Morris thought was "completely uneditable." The director was pretty broken up by the loss of Schmeer, telling the Times, "I was writing to someone about what moral do you take from this? To look both ways when you cross the street? To never leave your house under any circumstances?"
AP - Surprise winners and losers aren't the only things that keep the Grammy Awards show pumping. With 20,000 music lovers jammed into the behemoth Staples Center — and millions more watching at home — the Recording Academy's biggest night is one rollicking party featuring some of the world's best house bands. Here's what was seen and overheard from inside and outside Sunday's 52nd annual show.
Beyoncé Knowles and Sasha Fierce almost proved to be an unbeatable team.
The 28-year-old diva collected a field-dominating, record-setting six Grammys tonight, but it was...
Forget Best New Artist or Album of the Year, what we were most looking forward to at this year's Grammy Awards was Lady Gaga's getup.
And the fashionista did not disappoint,...
AP - "The Patience Stone" (Other Press, 160 pages, $16.95), by Atiq Rahimi: According to tradition, there's a stone to which you can vent your pain, share your secrets and unburden your soul. It listens, it absorbs, then one day, it explodes, relieving you of your suffering.
AP - "Lunch in Paris: A Love Story, With Recipes" (Little, Brown and Co., 352 pages, $23.99), by Elizabeth Bard: American writer Elizabeth Bard says her French husband was halfway to home base when she cut into a succulent steak during their first lunch in Paris.
Taylor Swift had to fly. Stephen Colbert had to sing. Pink had to be—and was—the talk of the night. Next to the all-new "We Are the World," that is.
Here's what...
So many performances, so many speeches, so much screen time! And that's just Taylor Swift!
Find out what were the hottest, worstest and most memorable moments of the...
If Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein was really looking to make President Obama want to punch him in the face, he should do exactly what he's about to do—take home a $100 million bonus. The Times of London heard from "bankers in Davos for the World Economic Forum" that Blankfein will receive an eye-popping nine-figure bonus this year, which is his way of "thumbing his nose at Obama." It's also his way of making himself even more filthy rich. The 2009 bonus will break his own record from 2007, when he received a $67.9 million bonus.
Because it will be fun and depressing, let's do some math on Blankfein's bonus. A $100 million bonus for the year means Blankfein made almost $274,000 a day and $27,400 an hour (assuming a 10 hour work day). That comes down to $457 a minute! Which reminds us, this would be the perfect time to open that pitchfork store we're always talking about.
Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs 'expecting $100 million bonus' [Times of London]
Just as George Clooney used the Golden Globes as recruiting grounds for his Haiti telethon, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones did the same with Grammys for their "We Are the World"...
Now that Disney has shuttered Miramax, little remains of the once-great indie film studio. But like a scorned lover trying to remove all reminders of her ex, Disney is trying to unload what's left (the name, a 700-film catalog) of the Weinstein brothers' former company. So far there are 10 interested bidders looking at a price of about $700 million. The Times pegs Summit Entertainment, the powerhouse behind the Twilight movies, as a likely buyer of the catalog, which generates $300 in annual DVD and TV revenue. Now, we don't know much about business, but paying $700 million for something that makes $300 million a year sounds like a good deal, especially since it means owning the rights to Underclassman.
Britney Spears?! Fancy seeing you here. And with your new man, Jason Trawick, no less.
Sure, we realize "Womanizer" was up for Best Dance Recording tonight, so...
Add another menace to New York's growing list of furr-ocious beasts—wild beagles. In eastern Long Island wild packs of adorable beagles, left to fend themselves after being abandon by hunters, will use their immense cuteness to lull you into a false sense of security before eating your face for lunch. [NYP]
Maybe it's a backlash from last weekend's Skittles gowns at the SAG Awards?
Whatever the reason, Grammy glamazons have glommed onto flesh-tone frocks. Ashanti, Heidi Klum,...
Maybe after another 50 first dates, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long will be ready to take the plunge...
But in the meantime, Long has not popped the question yet, according to the...
If British tabloid OK! is to be believed (British tabloid OK! is not to be believed), Zac Efron has been hand-picked by Tobey Maguire to play the webbed one in the upcoming Spider-Man reboot. This would make sense for Efron, who is hoping to make a serious turn, and for Sony, which could tap into Efron's legions of money-spending fans. In fact, there's just one group it wouldn't make sense for—those who actually like Spider-Man. [OK!]
Kristen Bell hasn't been on Mars for awhile, but she's been lurking around clound nine.
The When in Rome star is engaged to live-in beau (and When in Rome stalker) Dax Shepard,...
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs stopped by CNN this morning to answer questions about everything Democrats are doing wrong. The main topic of discussion was the plan, that may or may not have been canceled, to hold trials for five 9/11 terrorists in lower Manhattan. Like his friend David Axelrod on Meet the Press, Gibbs wouldn't say if the trial will definitely be held in New York or even if it would definitely be held in a civilian court. But while Axelrod stuck to evasive talking points, Gibbs sought to assure America that it doesn't really matter where the trial is held, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is getting fried regardless:
"Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is going to meet justice and he's going to meet his maker... He will be brought to justice and he's likely to be executed for the heinous crimes he committed."
The red carpet was certainly a fancy affair tonight: All that Armani! (Gaga and Usher, we're looking at you.) Rihanna made an entrance in Elie Saab Couture while Katy Perry went for a rather shiny Zac Posen. Check out all the dresses and more in the red carpet slideshow, updating all night over at our brother blog Vulture. [Red Carpet at the Grammys]
8pm: Here we are at the Grammys, ready to celebrate music that's over a year old. Yaaay! The red carpet was mostly 'eh,' excepting Lady Gaga's awesome Armani wand and Rihanna's future-Victorian ensemble. (You can see the red carpet looks here.)
8:03pm: Gaga and Elton John are grimy and bedazzled, playing "Your Song" on a Siamese piano sprouting black patent-leather (maybe?) human arms. Go go Grammys!
8:08pm: Stephen Colbert couldn't care less about anyone he's mentioning. "Now I'm saying the people's names they want me to say. Another name! You gotta love music — everyone listens to it! Susan Boyle, everyone!"
8:15pm: Beyonce takes Song of the Year with "Single Ladies," and Green Day performs a musical version of "American Idiot" with what looks like the cast of Rent. Badass!
8:18pm: Hopefully they'll show Nicole Kidman's lips again.
8:26pm: We'd like Taylor Swift a lot more if she were just like, "Yup, I'm obviously winning everything, you idiots."
8:31pm: IS BEYONCE SINGING ALANIS!!? Aaah. Oh, Bey. Seriously, come over. Hang out. You are the best. Dave Coulier, do you think of her when you ___!?
8:41pm: Again with the hanging-in-the-air-and-singing for Pink (seen first, and more impressively, at the VMAs. The whole act is sort of — oh, and now she's soaking wet, spinning, and spraying everyone in the crowd with water. Are we sure she's not urinating? Would enjoy some footage of drizzled audience members recoiling in disgust. Watch Pink's performance:
8:48pm: Sorry to the diehard Zac Brown Band fans, but huh? Who are those people? In any case, they have won Best New Artist and are promptly music-prompted off the stage.
8:50pm: "Who will be the Queen of the Grammys? Beyonce, Taylor Swift, or Lady Gaga?" So, this is basically prom, which is fine. Better, even!
8:57pm: Fergie looked in the mirror and was like, "Yup, this visor is definitely the way to go. Good choice, Fergie! You nailed it again!!"
9:00pm: So, every musical performance has a corresponding commercial airing directly before or after that features the same song. Got it.
9:06pm: Joe Jonas, angling for the lead in a Buddy Holly reboot with those specs. Aw, it's OK though. A trio of gentleboys. Gentleboys to men. Oh, and Lady Antebellem ought to have turned the lights on for their performance.
9:13pm: Best Comedy Album. Good God. "Sadly, no one won, because we decided, rightly, to cancel this category at the last minute, phew!" Just kidding, no, the show goes on. Stephen Colbert takes home the prize, which makes the fact that he's hosting make sense. Wink, wink, nudge, nudge.
9:15pm: Oh, but no kid gloves for Mr. Colbert. Even the host gets the exit music. Let's keep this show rolling on the road, or whatever.
9:18pm: Norah Jones, looking 100% adorable, gives the Record of the Year award goes to... Kings of Leon! Ya burnt, Lady Gaga. Kings of Leon: "We're drunk, sorry!"
9:22pm: Josh Duhamel, visibly bored by Jamie Foxx's, clowny, Musketeer-y fake-opera whatever-or-other rendition of "Blame it on the Alcohol." Haha.
9:26pm: Whoa, hard to keep up. Jamie Foxx sings fake opera, which turns into "Alcohol," and he's joined by T-Pain in a white tux, who're then joined by a mysterious larger, boringly dressed woman who's just standing around doing nothing mostly, and then they're all joined by Slash, who, we think, played his "November Rain" solo. Crazy. [Update: That was his sister on stage with Jamie. Thanks, commenters!]
9:27pm:Stephanie Pratt Ke$ha is THAT MUCH BIGGER than Justin Bieber? Good lord. Biebs is a baby! A perfect little doll man. A doll man who just called Bon Jovi "Beyonce," and then made an adorable save. Nice work, Bieber. Watch Ke$ha and Bieber:
9:33pm: Katy Perry, her blinky-winky eye, and Alice Cooper hand the Best Rock Album award to Green Day. Clean and efficient. On to the next one.
9:34pm: Remember when they cut off that Kings of Leon guy, turned off the mike, and shut down the lights? That was sad.
9:39pm: OK, so that was the Zac Brown Band! Now we know. Dude can really burn down an axe! (To the members of our Grammys party: "What's a slang word for a guitar?")
9:46pm: If you love Taylor Swift so much, Grammys, why don't you marry her?
9:47pm: Taylor Swift should get slimed, like on Double Dare.
9:48pm. Oh, but don't slime Stevie Nicks. Take Taylor to school, Stevie. Take her to a school where she has to stop singing your song. Also: You got Stevie Nicks to perform, Grammys, and you're wasting her by letting Taylor Swift drown her out with off-key wailing on her own song? Shameful.
9:53pm: OK, everyone — time to put your 3D glasses on. You know, the 3D glasses that everyone always has just lying around all the time.
9:55pm: Let the MJ tribute star-flood begin! Celine Dion, Usher, Carrie Underwood, Jennifer Hudson, Smokey Robinson... No Omarion, we see.
9:57pm: Hahaha! Will.I.Am does not look happy to be wearing his 3D glasses. Beyonce and Rihanna, on the other hand, are loving it. Meanwhile, we were not given 3D glasses.
10:01pm: And the MJ tribute is over. Pretty nice. Kids seemed a little uncomfortable at the end there (tremendously uncomfortable, actually, but they're kids, and it's the Grammys, and... they're kids), and the 3D thing was weird. It was sort of surprisingly short and devoid of MJ classics, but there you go. Watch video of Michael Jackson's children:
10:11pm: Bon Jovi's looking a little Bieber-ly, no?
10:14pm: And the "Fans' Favorite Bon Jovi Song" award goes to... "Livin' on a Prayer." And now they're playing it. Can you believe this!?!? Yup!!! It's all pretty regular, actually!!!
10:16pm: Mos Def and Placido Domingo, together at last. Mos Def: "Placido, I don't know why we ever broke up." Haha. And the Best Rap Collaboration Award goes to... Jay-Z and Rihanna, for "Run This Town." No cut to Beyonce? Come on! Who's even manning these cameras?! Also, who was that child they brought onstage?
10:31pm: Andrea Boccelli and Mary J. Blige absolutely kill it with a terrific rendition of "Bridge Over Troubled Water," from the Haiti Relief/Grammys CD (buy it here). Really lovely. Hats off. And hats off to whoever thought of that combo. Refreshing to hear some good, old-fashioned phenomenal singing.
10:40pm: And now for the required "Please don't download music illegally" interlude. Smart that they chose such a hot young woman to deliver that message, so that everyone'll pay attention and not use this section to go to the bathroom. Just kidding, it was an older man whose name we didn't catch. We only do what hot ladies tell us!
10:44pm: A slovenly Adam Sandler introduces a Piven-ly Dave Matthews, who sings a cheesily happy song with a 40-person musician entourage. So. Yup. That was that!
10:46pm. Doesn't Ricky Martin look like Ronnie from the Jersey Shore?
10:47pm: Eat it, Taylor! Beyonce had one of the Best Female Pop Vocal Performance of all of 2009. And an adorably short and classy speech.
10:55pm: SHOW MORE COSTUMES. This is boring. Hope Lady Gaga falls out of the ceiling, explodes, and then crawls out of her own bloody mouth, in miniature, and grows back to life-size by licking paint off the floor. OR WHATEVER. Let's speed this love cruise up.
11:00pm: Ah, we timed our "This is boring" rant perfectly with the beginning of the "In memoriam" tribute montage. Great work, Vulture.
11:03pm: Nice to see Russell Brand timed his shirt-unbuttoning with the "In memoriam" montage as well. (To be fair, he probably unbuttoned it earlier. So. Whatever. Shirts!)
11:07pm: Jeff Beck and his gold-sheathed rockabilly babe make way for Taylor Swift's Valentine's Day commercial! Or are the Grammys a long commercial for Valentine's Day? And Green Day's American Idiot musical? And the Black Eyed Peas's thing? And Target? Whuuuuut. Anyway, time to buy some items and such.
11:12pm: Why is Quentin Tarantino talking like that? Why is Quentin Tarantino? Watch Tarantino's weird introduction:
11:13pm: Lil Wayne and Eminem perform "Drop the World," with comically long bleeped-out stretches. Pretty rad, though. Oh and here comes Drake! This is the first we've actually felt excited all night. Really good. HA, Jamie Foxx is getting it all on his video camera phone thing, or whatever it is. (Can we get a Wayne/Gaga/Stevie collab someday?)
11:26pm. THE MOMENT WE'VE ALL BEEN WAITING FOR. Taylor Swift. Where are you, Kanye???? A nation turns its dum-dum eyes to you.
11:27pm: More footage of Gaga's icicle unicorn costume, plz.
11:28pm: Nope, nevermind, that's it. We're gonna go barf ourselves to sleep. Byee!
Red-carpet season continues tonight with the Grammys. We're bringing you all the looks live and will be continuously updating throughout the evening. Share which ones you love and which ones you hate in the comments! For all the Grammy hit-or-miss moments, click ahead to our slideshow.
11:30 PM: Well, remember how I tried to get you guys to sympathize with Taylor Swift at the beginning of the night? So not going to happen now. Hopefully Beyonce won't mistake TyTy for TayTay and knee him in the face. Lessons? The Grammys are completely unmemorable because they keep trying to wow us with these overwrought, intensely packaged performances that end up becoming muddled in execution. There wasn't one epic, classic performance. And everyone here threw something at their screen at some point during the night. The bottom line is that car commercials are the only place rock and roll is less rock and roll than it is at Grammys, when the record industry tries so hard to get us to like what they have to offer. Rock and roll should, in theory, be cool. And trying to be cool is the ultimate cool-killer. They roll everything out, they kill all the mystique. From Almost Famous:
Yeah, I've got nothing else. Hope you guys had fun!
11:28 PM: TAYLOR SWIFTBOATED! TayTay upsets Beyonce. LOL. Someone check on Kanye West, please.
11:25 PM: Carlos Santana on the Grammy stage makes me twitch. Also, Supernatural came out ten years ago? Dave Matthews is just happy that they pronounced his album right.
11:24 PM: Gaga Headgear Porn:
11:20 PM: CBS censors: Eminem! A drummer with tattoos! A scary looking rapper! And that kid from DeGrassi who obviously got mixed up in the wrong crowd! *leans on audio gap buttom* Better safe than sorry.
11:16 PM: You may not share my enthusiasm for Drake, but you should. Reasons:
1. Half-Jewish rapper.
2. Canadian rapper.
3. Used to be on the new version of DeGrassi rapper.
4. His mixtape was easily in the best albums of last year.
5. "Best I Ever Had" is kind of genius. Especially the line about the Andy Griffith theme song.
11:15 PM: DRIZZY DRAKE!!!! THE DRIZZLE!!!
11:14:30 PM: Eminem's looking to break Weezy's Grammy Audio Time by about twenty seconds. And just put in a dope performance.
11:14 PM: Laughing so hard right now. Lil Wayne got about 15 seconds of audio past the censors. That's probably five more than we expected.
11:13 PM: There is absolutely nothing less hip hop than the way Tarantino just introduced Drake, Lil Wayne, Eminem and Travi LOOK OMG IT'S LIL WAYNE!!!!!!!!!!!!
11:03 PM: Dead people montage, Jeff Bridges comes out to talk about Les Paul. Excruciating restraint being used to not reference...well, you know. Jeff Beck's playing and the "pit" in front just keeps clapping, like the cocaine-powered front row monkeys they are. Somewhere, Miley Cyrus tells the person sitting next to her that "Les Paul is a dumb name."
10:50 PM: Beyonce victory for "Halo." She tries not to knee Taylor Swift in the face on the way up to the stage. More importantly, DRAKE/LIL WAYNE ARE COMING. Kinda "meh" about Eminem being there, especially since no Eminem performance (or Elton John performance, including tonight's Lady DingDong duet) will ever match up to this:
That said, this is Lil Wayne's last public performance before he goes to jail for a year. In his honor, bust open the remainder of your codeine cough syrup from the last time you had a cold, and some Coke, or Pepsi, or RC Cola. Any of them work fine. Measure equal parts, mix it, and DON'T DRINK IT. Wait until Lil Wayne comes on stage, and then decide whether or not you're going to drink it. It won't make you Lil' Wayne, but it will give you the uncanny ability to understand what the fuck he's saying.
10:45 PM: The Dave Matthews Band performing with the cast of Sesame Street past and present look restrained in comparison to every other performance tonight. Which actually, somehow, makes it impressive. Adam Sandler came out and made a bad joke as an excuse for dressing like a shlub to the Grammys. I owned that shirt in 8th Grade.
10:33 PM: Mary J. Blige and Andre Boccelli get on stage, Andrea Bocelli forgets Method Man's "All I Need (Remix)" verse. Just kidding, I didn't watch it. But really, everything they've pulled out tonight is so big—of such enormous magnitude and supposed importance, where the Grammys are suggesting to us what associations we should make from one artist to another that we normally wouldn't (for a good reason)—that nothing they've done tonight has really been all that memorable. Will awards show producers ever learn?
10:25 PM: Wyclef: "The music industry is still alive even though they aren't any more record companies." This gets a really, really nervous laugh from the audience. Also, best comment on the Placido Domingo/Mos Def presentation from earlier goes to the New York Times' Jon Caramanica:
In fact, credit where it's due, him and New York Times ArtsBeat blogger Dave Itzkoff are predictably on a roll, but their Twitter feeds are hysterical/everything they can't run on the Times' website.
10:18 PM: Yeezy's gonna make it. Jay-Z and Rihanna brought a cute kid up with them, because if Hov breaches the two-feet rule, he gets a Be-Knee to the face. Sasha Fierce, indeed. But really, this song is the jam:
10:17 PM: If "I'm On A Boat" beats "Run This Town," Kanye West will spontaneously combust.
10:11 PM: Bon Jovi's recorded the same song twenty times over and keeps tricking people into thinking it's different. Listening to one Bon Jovi song over another is like picking out the brown M&Ms because you think they taste the worst. You're wrong. They all taste the worst. A small note on Jennifer Nettles, though: she used to be in a group back in the day called Soul Miners Daughter when she was still playing the coffeehouse circuit in Georgia. And they perfectly epitomized the coffeehouse sound of that moment, which is something between Rusted Root and Jewel. Anyway, Bon Jovi got "voted" to play "Living on a Prayer," because if you're gonna take something bad for you, you might as well get the uncut, pure, source product.
Wait, that Kesha and that tiny boy, those are real people? That wasn't a shitty SNL sketch?
Fine lines: blurred. Green Day wins an award and thanks Butch Vig, who, if you don't remember, used to be (is still in?) Garbage with Shirley Manson.
9:21 PM: Having reformed addict Robert Downey Jr. isn't exactly the most appropriate choice for introducing "Blame It," is it? Jamie Foxx comes out after two opera singers, and the only person who seems to be entirely, sincerely enjoying himself among the celebrities is George Clinton, though Jay-Z thinks this is all really quite funny. One day, Brian Moylan will tell you the best story ever about George Clinton. Meanwhile, T-Pain just revealed himself by taking off a white wig, and they cut to Mr. Death of Autotune himself, Jay-Z, who now looks simply confused. He's not alone. Doug E. Fresh gets on stage, and then, Slash gets on stage. Did you ever mix all four flavors of Slurpee available to you? That's something like this, except: it doesn't suck ass, make you feel old, or give you a tingling in your ears that's essentially being violated by the sonic dong emerging from your TV right now.
9:19 PM: How 'bout them Kings of Leon? Remember when they weren't a Hollywood band? Alex The Roommate just point out the serious Coke-Jaw they have going on. Nice attempt at covering it up with the chewing gum. "Use Somebody" really was one of the best tracks of the year.
8:58 PM: This is Foster's roommate, Alex. Hi. He's opening his beer and chugging it. He started screaming at the TV when the Black Eyed Peas did the "Mazel Tov" line, and it kinda scared me. He'll be back in a minute. Bye!
8:57 PM: Oh, for fuck's sake. I'm opening my beer now. My roommate's gonna take over for a second.
8:54 PM: Taylor Swift > Miley Cyrus by a million, billion miles. I'm going to convince all of you to enjoy Taylor Swift by the end of the night, at the very least, in comparison to almost everyone else in that room. You know—contrary to the chorus of her biggest hit, "Party in the U.S.A."—she's never even heard a Jay-Z song? Seriously. She said that.
8:52 PM: I still haven't opened my beer. A Target ad with that goddamn Black Eyed Peas song about what a great night tonight's going to be even though it's Sunday and we all have work tomorrow just played. Please, please tell me they're going to play it tonight. Please. It's just a masochism thing at this point.
8:40 PMShit, another performance? Pink's in a burka-thing looking hot—Roommate: "Grace Jones-type shit."—and I just want to open my first beer. Also, Leonard Cohen got a lifetime achievement award, but no performance, no appearance, nothing. Let's hope Alex Balk didn't see that. Pink totally just did some rockin' Cirque du Soleil type-ish and survived after they dunked her in that goo that kept people plugged into The Matrix. That's where all the Live Nation radio programmers go to feed every three weeks, BTW.
8:27 PM: SWIFTBOATED. She gets up there and thanks her label for letting her write her own songs, because she knows she's the exception.
8:25 PM: Kristen Bell's cleavage like woah. None of these Country People stand a chance against the SwiftBoat. This must be torture for these people.
8:16 PM: Lady Gaga Apocalypse Musical > Green Day Musical. Never gonna work on Broadway unless the band plays with them, and they won't, so it's gonna suck. Don't overestimate the power of fame.
8:13 PM: Beyonce doesn't go up on stage to accept her award for Song of the Year because she's getting ready to perform, and because she's not there, they totally cut off the songwriters. Nice. But Taylor Swift was dancing in the aisle to "Single Ladies," which was cute! I get how Taylor Swift is totally hateable for some people, but really, is she that hateable? Yes, she's Aryan, pretty, and made for mass consumption. On the other hand, she writes a lot of her own songs, has personality that doesn't resemble that of a robot's, dumped Taylor Lautner for being boring, and was a better SNL host than anyone they've had on in forever. She's charming and nice and cute and not, you know, any number of young women in Hollywood whose fame makes me worry about the fate of the universe, or the possibility of being eaten by a black hole out of mercy.
8:11 PM: Stephen Colbert's opening monologue is solid, but the kicker: he busted out a fucking iPad, teasing Jay-Z: "What, you didn't get one of these in your gift bag?" His daughter, like the rest of America, is totally unimpressed. Also, Stephen Colbert's daughter is totally playing along with Dad's routine to a tee. Likable celebrity daughters! They exist.
8:06 PM Gaga does some of "Poker Face," and then leaves while some guy screams around that "SHE'S A MONSTER," alluding to her The Fame Monster album title, not her penis, which didn't show up tonight. Meanwhile Gaga and Elton John do a really vampy "My Song," and Elton John explains "how wonderful life is with Gaga in this world." Which it is! Also, imagine what the inevitable Gaga-Meets-Tommy post-apocalyptic musical could be like. Seriously.
Here's what you should expect:
Lady Gaga's supposedly opening up the show with an Elton John duet. One of them will have a penis.
Songstress Jennifer Nettles singing with Bon Jovi, who people somehow still care about. He won't sing "Dead of Alive." Get over it.
Eminem will rap with Degrassi alumnus Drake, prison-bound Lil Wayne, and DJ. AM's former collaborator, Travis Barker.
Michael Jackson's kids are going to make a speech, and even if Joe Jackson gets up there, they won't boo them.
A lot of people will talk about Michael Jackson.
And DJ A.M.
Mary J. Blige and Andre Bocelli will attempt the "Brown Sound."
Taylor Swift will get a bunch of nominations, and Kanye West will stay seated every time she wins, because he won't be there.
Unless Lady Gaga gets snubbed completely, in which case, someone might freak out. SOY BOMB TIME. But it won't be Our Lady of the Immaculate Penis, because she has class.
Some people might talk about guitar god Les Paul, who's dead.
And Beyonce has 10 nominations, so basically, this entire show is a grudge-match between Jay-Z's wife, a performance artist, and the girl you hated in high school because she was either unattainable or too skinny and had rich parents.
If you got 'em, smoke em. I'm going to get beer now. Dead serious. WRITE THINGS IN THE COMMENTS. Oh, and turn it up. Loud.
Story
Hurt Locker: Guys from the military who defuse bombs planted by insurgencies they set out to bring "peace" to. Avatar: Guy who takes on alien life form via computer to betray and then fight privatized-military presence with terrorist tactics while becoming one of the tribe he'd originally set out to destroy.
Advantage: Hurt Locker, by an inch. We don't really give a shit about Cameron's alien tribe because they're blue.
Performances
Hurt Locker: Actors most people maybe knew but weren't really familiar with did a great job making us believe they were defusing big, scary fucking bombs. Avatar: Actors most people maybe knew but forgot about (because Sam Worthington's never been memorable in anything) did a great job making us believe they were blue people.
Advantage: Hurt Locker, because there's not one remarkable performance by a human while they're human, and if you want to know what an emotionally compelling performance using an image that isn't flesh and blood is, all you had to do was watch the first ten minutes of Up.
Technical Achievements
Hurt Locker: Made the most hair-raising, suspenseful movie of the year, about bombs, for $11M. Resourceful! Avatar: Took $237M and reinvented visual effects. For $14 you could get a 3D alien dicktail in your face, and for $20, you could see said alien dicktail on an IMAX.
Advantage: Avatar, because even if you thought it sucked, you still felt like you were 12 again at one point.
Financial Achievements
Hurt Locker: Again: Made the most hair-raising, suspenseful movie of the year, about bombs, for $11M. Resourceful! But so far, has only taken in $16M. An Oscar win could easily boost its box office revenue, especially considering it was a film given a limited release, about Iraq, that's not a melodrama with too many existential questions about war. Avatar: Took those 3D alien dicktails and pounded box office records previously set by James Cameron's last movie, Titanic, until they drowned in Avatar's blue 3D glory.
Advantage: Avatar, because even though Hollywood likes the prospect of money, they like the idea of patting themselves on the back for making a shitton of it even more.
Message:
Hurt Locker: War sucks, and especially waging wars against terrorist tactics, but for some people, this is their life. Avatar: War sucks, and especially waging wars using terrorist tactics, but some wars are worth fighting, like the war defending your home, and nature..
Advantage:Avatar, because Hollywood's rife with treehuggers and liberals and people who want to empathize with Iraq. Not that Avatar has anything to do with Iraq!...
Actual Message:
Hurt Locker: All wars are pointless, and they all result in death, and a compulsion/trauma tied to it that some people can never escape, no matter how far from it they may or may not try to get. Also, men are selfish, irresponsible assholes who can't control their most base impulses for the sake of their families. Avatar: If an imperialist regime shows up at your door to make a mess of your native culture, you should kill them before they kill you. Also, no matter how awesome your native culture is, there will always be an Awesome White Man around to join it, infiltrate it, become part of it, and become superior to everyone in its native, non-adopted citizenry.
Advantage:Hurt Locker, because (A) the last thing Hollywood has ever done is take a risk with a message they believe might go against the grain of Real America (see: Brokeback Mountain), and (B) because anybody intelligent enough to see the not-at-all-subtle Awesome White Man angle of Avatar is reasonably both disgusted and tired of it.
The Directors
Hurt Locker: Not just a woman, but an ex-wife, and James Cameron's ex-wife, doing something women in Hollywood don't do: direct movies. Also, two kinds of people mostly shafted by Hollywood's ever-stagnant dominant male paradigm, unless they're being patronized by other women (The Starter Wife, The First Wives Club, etc, etc. Just read the now-famous Manohla Dargis NYT interview if you want to know exactly how bad women in Hollywood have it). Avatar: James Cameron, The Ex-Husband, a rich white guy with big dick money, big dick explosions, and a bunch of Oscar awards and box office records. Also, terribly memorable acceptance speech to back him. Which goes without mentioning his patronizing Golden Globes acceptance speech of recent:
Advantage:Push. Hollywood also enjoys bucking trends, and the aforementioned Dargis interview was, while nothing shocking, definitely a bucket of very public cold water to their faces. On the other hand, Cameron made them all a bunch of money, and it's called and kept a "dominant paradigm" for a reason: the men of Hollywood could want to assert their power in a caveman-esque show of solidarity against the ladies. Wouldn't be shocking.
Precedent
Advantage: Hurt Locker/Bigelow. Time for a gamechanger, Hollywood.
But Bodog Bookies know Hollywood precedent, and betting lines rely heavily on this kind of thing especially for bets that aren't on sports. New lines haven't been released yet, but at this point, it's safe to assume this line's going to change to favor Bigelow, which means Cameron would get the profit bet, while Bigelow would be the "safe" bet. As it is, those are pretty decent odds in Bigelow's favor, anyway.
Advantage: Hurt Locker/Bigelow. The money people don't fuck around, but I might put a $150 on Cameron if I were a betting man looking to score some dinner money.
Calling It
The split. What's more American? A movie about the soldiers in Iraq, or a movie that made an inconceivable amount of money?Best Director's gonna go to Kathryn Bigelow, and Best Picture's gonna go to Cameron and Avatar. Best Picture typically represents the achievement Hollywood wants to tout as the one they're most "proud" of, rather than the one that's actually the best thing out there, which they'll give out for Best Director. 59 out of the 80 films to win Best Director won Best Picture, while 21 went home sans Big Prize. Everyone supposedly wins in this situation, even though it's just more of the same bullshit, and in twenty years, Avatar's gonna look like fucking Pong. The end.
Also, here's the beginning of The Hurt Locker. It's better than Avatar.
We know you’re probably having trouble sitting still, what with tonight’s Grammys — which Vulture will be liveblogging — being just hours away, but in case you needed more reason to tune in, here are three things to look forward to:
1. Britney will be there! According to her manager’s daughter’s Twitter (basically the most reliable source ever), Ms. Spears will be in attendance tonight — if true, it's a decent guarantee of some kind of memorable/cringe-worthy moment.
2. Rap heavyweights Eminem, Drake and Lil Wayne will take the stage together to perform “Forever” joined by drummer Travis Barker. Check out the pic at left, snapped by October's Very Own at one of their rehearsals this week, and decide for yourself if that’s Eminem to the right… or some kind of crash test dummy.
3. Though it hasn't been officially confirmed, it's rumored that Lady Gaga will be opening the show with a duet with Elton John. What will they sing? What will she wear on her head? And will Elton try the monster claws dance?
Bedbugs are so last decade. The newest pests to invade New York City are stinkbugs, or pentatomoidae, which earned their name due to their rotten cheese-like odor. The Post reports the stinkbugs have arrived in Brooklyn and are spreading fast. Though they do not pose a health risk, the bugs can lay up to 30 eggs at a time, which explains their speedy proliferation.
So if you discover a stinkbug infestation, pest control specialist Robert Macri offers this advice:
"If you smash them, the odor comes out. The best is to pick them up and flush them. The problem is they're hard to catch because they fly."
"The phrase 'too big to fail' has entered into our everyday vocabulary. It carries the implication that really large, complex and highly interconnected financial institutions can count on public support at critical times. The sense of public outrage over seemingly unfair treatment is palpable. Beyond the emotion, the result is to provide those institutions with a competitive advantage in their financing, in their size and in their ability to take and absorb risks." - Paul Volcker, in his op-ed in today's New York Times. [NYT]
Top three this weekend: Avatar, $30 million; Edge of Darkness, $17.1 million; When In Rome, $12 million. Gibson's dark thriller was crushed by the Avatar juggernaut, which is showing little sign of weakness in its seventh week. [Box Office Mojo]
Massachusetts Senator-Elect Scott Brown was unsurprisingly diplomatic in his sit-down interview with Barbara Walters that aired this morning on This Week. Has President Obama made the country more safe? “I don’t think it’s just about the President. It’s not his job.” Is Brown planning to run for president someday? “I’ll let the political pundits…talk about that stuff." And, most importantly, has he read Sarah Palin’s book?! “I haven’t read it. . . but I hope to someday.”
When Walters pushed him on his stance regarding “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” which Obama hopes to have repealed, Brown uncomfortably avoided a direct response, explaining he’d “like to hear from the generals in the field”:
Metallica guitarist Kirk Hammett (L) and bassist Robert Trujillo perform during a sold-out concert in Las Vegas, Nevada in 2009. The US heavy metal band has belted out new and old songs from its three-decade... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 31 Jan 2010 | 9:45 am
Miss Virginia Caressa Cameron took the crown at last night’s Miss America Pageant, speaking out during the interview portion of the evening about the need for children to spend less time indoors. "We need to get our kids back outside, playing with sticks in the street like I did when I was little," she said. "Expand your mind, go outside and get to see what this world is like." [CBS News]
There is so much that is so great about this AP report detailing Barack Obama’s attendance at yesterday’s Duke-Georgetown game. Obama — who sat courtside with a crew including Vice President Joe Biden and White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod — “munched on popcorn and occasionally used his Blackberry” during the game. The President: just like us!
Not content to just watch though, Obama actually stopped by the announcer’s booth during the second half, where he spent seven-and-a-half minutes guest-commentating with CBS announcers Verne Lundquist and Clark Kellogg.
"After retirement, I'm coming after your job, Clark,” Obama told Kellogg on air. "I'm just letting you know. So you either have three more years or seven more years.”
Perhaps the best detail? After a call against Georgetown, the crowd launched into a vulgar chant that was stopped when one student said to the other: “Dude, the president of the United States is right there.”
Visitors check out the newly-opened Folkwang Museum in Essen, western Germany on January 30. In time for its year as a European Capital of Culture, the German city of Essen has welcomed the opening of... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 31 Jan 2010 | 8:28 am
In a voiceover, we learn that Sequoia partner Michael Moritz pushed Sean out of a company once, and that Sean swore to "make those guys kiss my ass and then cry like girls" before the age of 25. Revenge, masculine anxiety, youth worship: three plagues known to afflict hotshot geeks. Since Sean's in alpha-male mode and Mark's a frump, Mark agrees to the badass scheme. (
This being Silicon Valley, audacious man-child savants are charming must-haves. In the next scene, Mark and Sean send word that their revenge stunt "impressed Moritz so much that he was making an investment offer that was hard to turn down." (
Beyoncé Knowles and Sasha Fierce almost proved to be an unbeatable team.
The 28-year-old diva collected a field-dominating, record-setting six Grammys tonight, but it was...
Forget Best New Artist or Album of the Year, what we were most looking forward to at this year's Grammy Awards was Lady Gaga's getup.
And the fashionista did not disappoint,...
Taylor Swift had to fly. Stephen Colbert had to sing. Pink had to be—and was—the talk of the night. Next to the all-new "We Are the World," that is.
Here's what...
So many performances, so many speeches, so much screen time! And that's just Taylor Swift!
Find out what were the hottest, worstest and most memorable moments of the...
Album of the Year: Fearless, Taylor Swift
Record of the Year: "Use Somebody," Kings of Leon
Song of the Year: "Single Ladies (Put a Ring on It),"...
Britney Spears?! Fancy seeing you here. And with your new man, Jason Trawick, no less.
Sure, we realize "Womanizer" was up for Best Dance Recording tonight, so...
Maybe it's a backlash from last weekend's Skittles gowns at the SAG Awards?
Whatever the reason, Grammy glamazons have glommed onto flesh-tone frocks. Ashanti, Heidi Klum,...
Maybe after another 50 first dates, Drew Barrymore and Justin Long will be ready to take the plunge...
But in the meantime, Long has not popped the question yet, according to the...
Kristen Bell hasn't been on Mars for awhile, but she's been lurking around clound nine.
The When in Rome star is engaged to live-in beau (and When in Rome stalker) Dax Shepard,...
