The prison thriller "Cell 211" has won eight trophies at the Goya Awards, Spain's version of the Oscars. Among others, the box-office hit about a prison riot took statuettes for best... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 15 Feb 2010 | 2:55 am
Should we take offense, or take it with a grain of salt?
Olympic diversity is, after all, stunning: Diversity of bodies, culture, and language, intermingling in a happy zone of sportsmanship and brotherhood. But with 82 nations parading through Vancouver this year—each angling for its moment of glory—multiculturalism may err on the side of trite. (See: Opening Ceremony, Parade of Nations. Natives beating drums! Bermudans in Bermuda shorts!) In no sport is this minstrelsy of nations more apparent than in kitschy, gimmicky, stage-crafted world of figure skating. Two examples from this year's ethnic masquerade on ice, and whether you should be offended:
Exhibit A: Mixed-Race German Pair Chooses an Awkward Song
Conclusion: Don't be offended, but do avoid making eye contact with Grandpa Harry during this routine.
Exhibit B: Russian Ice Dancing Champs Perform 'Aboriginal Song'
World ice dancing champions Oksama Domnina and Maksim Shabalin first horrified international audiences when they donned brown skin suits, war paint, and eucalyptus leaves to perform an "Aboriginal Song" for an Original Dance in January:
Indigenous Australians protested that the routine as "very offensive," "cultural theft," embarrassingly juvenile, and that the didgeridoo was all wrong. After some bureaucratic haggling, Domnina and Shabalin agreed to split the difference: They'll ditch the costumes, but will use the original music and choreography for their Olympic performance next Monday. The pair say they meant no harm, they just didn't want to do "another Slavic dance." In an athletic field where women routinely don flamenco negligees to sashay like a gypsy to Carmen, where illusion netting is never quite the right shade, and in a nation where they don't have aborigines, you can sort of see where they're coming from, right? And yet, you sort of can't, because how could a well-traveled world-class Olympic possibly think using a "skin suit" to alter the color of his "skin" is a good idea? Conclusion: Be offended, and pity the victims of cultural relativism. There are a lot of them.
•Like Richard, everyone loves the winter Olympics: Ratings for the Olympics averaged 26.2 million on Saturday. That's more than previous summer or winter games, according to Variety. The opening ceremonies alone attracted 32.6 million viewers, which is actually just short of Canada's population: 33.2 million. So it was like all of Canada saw Wayne Gretzky's crazy "oh shit" face when the torch didn't light. [Variety]
•Shocker: Toy Story 3 is going to have a massive toy tie-in. [THR]
Since its 2001 debut, The Amazing Race has been the most unassuming reality show on television. Even after collecting nearly every best-reality-show Emmy, it has never gotten cocky. For example: now entering its sixteenth season, it humbly resists switching to HD cameras (unlike its CBS sibling, Survivor), even as its global scenery cries out for it. And it has no ego about being a star-maker, happily recruiting D-list cast-offs from other reality shows as stunt casting. It just wants to entertain you, and usually does, demanding little in return except that you forgive it when your DVR cuts off its last half when football runs long. The Amazing Race is the friend-who-helps-you-move of reality television, and for that, we happily recap it. So let’s meet this season’s teams.
JEFF AND JORDAN: Speaking of reality cast-offs, this duo were the popular romance in last season's Big Brother. The apple-cheeked Jordan, who won the grand prize, was most famous for the kind of cluelessness (she wasn't quite sure how to tell time) that is only tolerated in the apple-cheeked. The two remain charmingly dimwitted, with Jeff serving as the voice of reason only until he butts up against something that he doesn’t know, which is an only slightly less frequent occurrence. One can’t help but suspect that they have been prompted to act even more oblivious than usual, because that’s what their fans love and expect. How else to explain their reading a clue telling them to fly to Santiago, Chile, only to have Jordan slam into an airline ticket counter and demand “We need tickets to China!” And yet, they not only found the correct country, but they finished the leg in first place: More fodder for conspiracy theorists who believe CBS reality shows protect their own.
BRENT AND CAITE: Dating models, though Caite is by far the more well-known; She was the Miss Teen USA finalist who delivered the infamous, viral “everywhere like such as”answer when asked why many Americans can’t find the U.S. on a world map. After that debacle, she apparently designed a two-step plan for saving face: First, prove she’s not a complete dope and has a sense of humor about herself, which she did in winningly ditzy appearances on Jimmy Kimmel Live! and Tosh.0. Second: prove she can find not only the U.S. on a map, but many other countries as well by going on The Amazing Race. The geography angle of step 2 is going well so far; she and Brent initially finished second. However, she's backsliding on step 1: They received a 30-minute penalty for skipping a clue direction, and when thanking a Chilean, she said, “Danke.”
DAN AND JORDAN: Brothers from Rhode Island, one straight, one gay. To make it clear who is who, their introductory video had Jordan unable to catch a football, presumably because the footage of him watching Project Runway and snapping his fingers was deemed by producers to be too subtle. Jordan, who could snickeringly quote Caite’s “such as” speech verbatim, was shocked to be left in the dust by her, and he learned an important lesson about easy stereotypes. And then he dropped another football.
JET AND CORD: Speaking of easy stereotypes, these two rodeo riders are always shot for their interviews while leaning against a wall as if it were a corral, and every move they make is scored with Aaron Copland knock-off music. These two want to prove that cowboys aren’t dumb, though their case took a hit when they changed all their money to Brazilian currency before heading to Chile. They later redeemed themselves, coming from behind to finish third, and Jet proudly declared that they’d proved that “Cowboys aren’t necessarily just some hicks from Texas.” It was hard not to focus on his use of the word “necessarily.”
JODY AND SHANNON: Both female triathletes, though one is 22, and the other is her plucky 71-year-old grandmother. Every year the Race features a couple of senior citizens who say they are there to prove what older people can do, and yet they usually end up eliminated midway, dazed and wheezing in matching track suits. On the surface, Jody’s physical fitness makes her seem like she could break the cycle, but her tenth-place finish and proclamation that she has “the balance of a drunken elderly woman on stilts” does indicate that perhaps AARP Magazine shouldn’t go about booking that triumphant cover shoot quite yet.
CAROL AND BRANDY: Lesbian partners, notable for two things so far: 1) When Brandy did the Roadblock, in which one teammate had to cross a 100-yard-long cable 120 feet in the air, she so psyched herself out that she had the cables vibrating like piano wires. 2) Carol looks like a really irritated Annie Lennox.
MONIQUE AND SHAWNE: Friends and attorneys who coined the term “mompreneur,” and should probably apologize for it. They are energetic and enthusiastic, which is always welcome, though not necessarily a must-have for winning. During the challenge in which each team had to find and help repaint the outside of a colorful house, Monique was lugging a ladder and happily likened her task to Jesus’ carrying of the cross: “If Jesus can do this, I can do this.” Granted, he was about to be publicly crucified for his beliefs, while she was about to paint a four-foot-square spot of wall in order to get another game-show clue, but other than that, the comparison stands. Can’t wait for the loaves or fishes Detour!
LOUIE AND MICHAEL: Another team from Rhode Island, this one a pair of undercover detectives. (And judging from Louie’s epic handlebar mustache, he is the most conspicuous undercover agent since Mrs. Featherbottom.) For all their bluster, they staggered badly out of the gate, only eventually scoring a ninth-place finish because of one team’s paralysis on the Roadblock. (Details later.) At the mat, they declared that they had learned their lesson and were coming back strong, but on the Race, macho confidence and longevity are usually inversely proportional.
JOE AND HEIDI: Husband and wife, and he proudly identifies himself as bossy and confrontational. No actual evidence of that yet, but if you’re the kind of person who likes to see airline ticket agents and/or wives treated very poorly, then this could be another hallmark season.
STEVE AND ALLIE: He’s a former Phillies coach, she’s his daughter. Could be a strong team, because they clearly care about each other (he was moved to tears by her succeeding in the first challenge: wait until the jet lag really starts jangling his emotions, then he’ll be sobbing in the fetal position every time she successfully ties her shoes). Plus, they don’t blame each other when something goes wrong, like when they stumbled into a renovation site and started sloppily painting a random person’s interior wall, much to the confusion of a foreman who must have wondered if he was now on Extreme Makeover: Really Shoddy Workmanship Edition.
DANA AND ADRIAN: Married high-school sweethearts who stuck together even after Adrian lost their life savings in a bad business idea. Adrian is scared of heights, but volunteered to do the cable-walk Roadblock because “I’m the big dog.” After multiple teams passed him, he froze up midway, fell off twice, and was eventually unable to finish at all. It’s always sad to see a team leave first, but this was even sadder because this man clearly needed a win: He likely thought the challenge was a metaphor for his professional future, and then the challenge suggested he start selling his own blood. We’re sorry to see them go, and hope they don’t next pop up on The Marriage Ref.
AFP - Some fashion designers face financial difficulties, other are going through an expansion, but Catherine Malandrino and Yohji Yamamoto showed this Sunday that fashion, above all, will always be a product of technical prowess.
Reuters - Roman Polanski is a filmmaker who could envelop an old lady's stroll along a boulevard with a sense of anxiety and dread, so it's a little odd that he hasn't made more thrillers in his career. "The Ghost Writer," an out-and-out thriller with international politics and war crimes as its background, gives him a springboard to take a deep dive into all the moody atmosphere, breathtaking betrayals, words loaded in double meanings and heart-stopping threats that make the genre so cinematic. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:45 pm
Reuters - Advertised as the first Russian film about drag queens, writer/director Felix Mikhailov's "Jolly Fellows" vaunts the brash, in-your-face liveliness of a debut film on a naughty topic. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:44 pm
Reuters - Martin Scorsese's "Shutter Island" is a remarkable high-wire act, performed without a net and exploiting all the accumulated skills of a consummate artist. It dazzles and provokes. But when did Scorsese become a circus performer? Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:44 pm
Reuters - Romania has been enjoying its own new wave in cinema in the last few years. Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment Reviews | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:43 pm
Kevin Smith says he's "way fat," but that shouldn't stop him from flying. The director and actor says a pilot ejected him from a Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank,... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 11:36 pm
The editors of The Hurt Locker took the prize Sunday night at the American Cinema Editors Awards (known as the “Eddies” - cute!) for best editing for a dramatic film, beating out the editors of Avatar, District 9, Star Trek and Up in the Air. The Eddie winner for best drama typically goes on to win at the Oscars. The editor of The Hangover won the Eddie for best comedy/musical editing; and Up won for best editing for an animated feature. [HR]
Rebecca Taylor's vision for fall 2010 means a healthy dose of masculinity. The New Zealand native, whose feminine frocks and silky blouses have become a staple during New York Fashion... Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 10:59 pm
Custo Barcelona has gone hairy. The loud, colorful Spanish label showed a collection Sunday inspired by "hairy metal." It was a mishmash of shaggy fur and patterns delivered in extremes: Source: RSS feed - channel BNewsEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 10:50 pm
As always, the Hervé Léger show was packed with pretty young things wearing skin-tight bandage dresses. Those things are pretty unforgiving, so we were impressed to see Jessica Szohr sharing a box of chocolates with a newly brunette Melissa George — in the front row, and therefore in view of the whole world. Three cheers for publicly consuming solid food! We were also relieved to see that Szohr's usually ratty-looking extensions actually looked quite nicely groomed.
Also well groomed: One Tree Hill's Sophia Bush, who arrived in a very sparkly frock, leading her boyfriend (and co-star) Austin Nichols by the hand. "She looks great," we overheard him say to a reporter, and we're inclined to agree, although we feel less sure about his suspenders. Sophia got the best spot in celebrity row — right smack in the middle — and she certainly has earned it, as she's been to every Hervé Léger show ever, and a few of Max Azria's others to boot. Sophia was flanked by Mad Men's Alison Brie — who went to nearly each show that occurred today, and yet never looked anything but perky and chipper — and the very beautiful-in-person Maggie Q, whom you may remember as being beautiful-on-screen in Mission Impossible III. We also spied Tinsley Mortimer, looking petite in a hot-pink bandage dress; the ubiquitous Leigh Lezark; the lovely Maggie Rizer; and actress Alexis Dziena, whom the reporters largely ignored, perhaps because they didn't want to have to talk about how terrible her movie When in Rome probably is.
We also spotted, on the way out of the show, Whitney's sudden friend Samantha from The City. We didn't notice her earlier because, as she complained very loudly, she was given fifth-row seats because the invites were sent to her in her capacity as a Bergdorf employee, instead of her capacity as a semi-minor character on an MTV reality show. Samantha also complained — at similarly high volume — about being expected to make an appearance elsewhere later, loudly announced she needed a drink (it was 3:45 p.m.), and bitched about a person she'd spoken to earlier who then went and tweeted their entire conversation. One would think that a woman who was so peevish that her "celebrity" status was overlooked when on the topic of her seating assignments would be flattered that her thoughts were considered tweet-worthy, but goodness knows, Fashion Week is full of contradictions.
And you thought you were having a sucky Valentine’s Day watching Love, Actually by yourself and scarfing down Smarties! Today at the New York Rangers-Tampa Bay Lightning game, the Madison Square Garden JumboTron displayed “Melissa, will you be my Blueshirt Bride? Love, Nick."
As the camera zoomed in on the couple, Melissa took a few seconds to register the proposal, before she stood up and walked out, leaving Nick to wallow in embarrassment and disappointment amidst a sea of Rangers fans who just watched him get dumped.
At about 99.9 percent of Fashion Week's shows, the media tumult surrounding the celebrities is such a free-for-all that people get crabby with each other, maybe a few elbows are thrown, and it all ends with a bunch of tall men in suits announcing that everyone needs to get off the runway because various famous people can't breathe. But at Y-3 on Sunday night, the PR staff had it down to a sedate, organized science: Photographers made a semicircle around the tunnel through which the celebs entered the Park Avenue Armory, and each was presented separately by a staffer who told us the name, supplied the correct spelling, and then moved the person along once every lensman had gotten his or her shot. It was so civil we almost asked for tea and biscuits.
The boldest of the boldface names to arrive was Ciara, who seems to be jockeying for greater renown by kitting herself out in things that are either ugly, or paying rent on a property that borders it. Tonight, her zip-up, sporty mini wasn't terrible, but it had a round pattern over each boob that looked suspiciously like burners on an electric stove. Those might have come in handy for whipping up a batch of the aforementioned tea, but since her dress didn't appear to plug in anywhere, it was just kind of distracting.
Rev Run's son Diggy Simmons was in attendance, as was Leigh Lezark — still in her tiny blue Herve Leger from earlier in the day — and her Misshapes partner Greg Krelenstein, Maggie Rizer, Coco Rocha, and blogger Tavi, who posed with fans and apparently created such a stir that security had to step in and protect her. Tavi is eerily self-possessed in front of the cameras — it's easy to forget the kid is only 13 and has gone from zero to paparazzi fodder in what feels like three seconds, so thank God the men in suits were keeping an eye on her. In another two days she's going to need her own Secret Service.
Actor Justin Theroux (and his date, whom we believe is stylist/costume designer Heidi Bivens) also made an appearance. Theroux is usually a very stealth attendee — one year we saw him at a Karen Walker show in a fedora and nobody recognized him — but he cocked an eyebrow and posed for the photos in good spirits, and then went and sat down next to Alison Brie. It was apt placement, as he's guesting on Parks and Recreation, which airs right after Brie's Community. Synergy! Maybe Y-3 was even better organized than we thought.
For the past two seasons, Betsey Johnson — renowned for her party-atmosphere shows — has done presentations, so we were thrilled to learn the buoyant designer would be back on the runway this time. On Sunday night, she did not disappoint: Only Betsey would tee up an evening featuring cape-holding man-slaves, models who threw money into the crowd, and Kelly Osbourne carrying a dog and wearing a bowler hat and a mustache.
She also gave us a celeb sighting we've never had before at Fashion Week. As we trudged down the hay-covered runway and tried to will away our allergies, we spied a glittery headband in the front row and noticed it crowned the head of none other than Melissa Joan Hart. Since when is she such a huge Betsey Johnson fan? Clarissa explained it all to a reporter: "I interviewed [Betsey] for Nickelodeon when I was 16." She also plugged her upcoming show, Melissa & Joey. "I play a girl who's raising her sister's two teenage kids, and Joey [Lawrence] is the nanny." So basically, it's like Who's The Boss?, but for the four people in the world whose lives have been irredeemably bleak since Blossom and Sabrina the Teenage Witch went off the air. Still, we're happy she's working, and even though her blue satin, strapless, buttoned-and-belted blue dress was a bit like something one would've worn to prom back in her heyday, we're just grateful she exited child-stardom without seeing the inside of a rehab facility.
Down the way, Gossip Girl's Matthew Settle was giving a reporter the rundown on his recently announced stint as Billy Flynn in Chicago — meaning that in addition to following in Peter Gallagher's televisual footsteps (as the dry-witted father of a dry-witted teen on a Josh Schwartz soap), he is also following in Gallagher's Broadway footsteps. He does not, however, appear to be completing the trifecta by following in Gallagher's eyebrow footsteps. Perhaps because those footsteps are too big. Of his preparations for the role, Settle said, "I've seen a few variations of the show. I hope the producers are open to some ideas, maybe some subtext that we can create." We'd like to nominate a plot in which Mr. Flynn tells Jenny Humphrey to wash her face and put on some pants.
And then, the show. The show's theme was love and Westerns, segmented into chunks titled things like "Brothelettes" and "Gypsies" and "Madames." Kelly Osbourne — who walked three times in total — opened it to immense cheers. All the models did something: blew kisses, made finger-guns, brandished plastic pistols, pulled cash out of garter belts, and even danced to tunes as varied as "Black Betty" and "Jolene." One model threw Melissa Joan her bowler hat, which Melissa Joan promptly put on with an enthusiastic grin. The penultimate costume was a tribute to a fallen comrade: A model in white — and with wax lips — behind whom stomped a man carrying a sign that read, "Long Live McQueen." Then four ladies appeared in panties that, when they flashed us, spelled "LOVE," and Betsey finished it by coming out in a mustache and pulling Patricia Field out of her seat for a weird pantomime that may explain why we thought Field was dressed like some kind of a witch cowboy. All the models followed her with giant inflatable heart balloons and batted them into the crowd — and in one case, straight into our faces. Bludgeoned by love on Valentine's Day: That sounds about right. Oh, Betsey, how we missed you.
AP - "Gator a-go-go" (William Morrow, 336 pages, $24.99), by Tim Dorsey: More than a decade ago, Patrick McKenna ratted out a violent gang of Florida drug dealers and disappeared into the federal witness protection program.
AP - "Gator a-go-go" (William Morrow, 336 pages, $24.99), by Tim Dorsey: More than a decade ago, Patrick McKenna ratted out a violent gang of Florida drug dealers and disappeared into the federal witness protection program.
AP - "I Am an Emotional Creature: The Secret Life of Girls Around the World" (Villard, 176 pages, $20), by Eve Ensler: Anyone familiar with the work of activist-writer Eve Ensler knows she's all about girl power.
Susie Lau, an editor for Dazed Digital, was sporting a "winter urban" look at the tents. "New York is pretty relaxed because I don't have to go to everything," the British writer told the Video Look Book. Watch the video to see how she mixes name designers with an Etsy-made scarf.
Now, Tavi is synonymous with "fashion blogger" and everything wonderful or terrible one might choose to see in the species. It's all about access: If you're bullish on bloggers, Tavi's weird dress and untrammeled prose prove that only the roaming satellite, the lone enthusiast, can rescue an industry where identically uncomfortable shoes are always sitting atop egg shells, so concerned are its members about being cut off from the goods. But detractors argue that Tavi's own access derives from her uncritical fawning over certain designers. They see young fashion bloggers like Tavi and Bryanboy as little more than copy writers who work for free samples, eagerly shilling the products fed to them by older, savvier industry folk. Are Tavi and her ilk tools of the establishment or true iconoclasts? Short-lived gimmicks or a revolutionary vanguard? All the anxieties of an access-obsessed industry are reflected, then magnified in Tavi's tiny, spectacularly swathed frame. After all, if Tavi is the next big thing, you better make nice ASAP.
Though this might be totally over-thinking it. To the crowd at China One in the East Village, where last night Brooklyn design duo I Love Factory held a Fashion Week party for a new line of fancy hats, Tavi was a real gut-level, "holy shit!" superstar. Tavi's entrance—mom and entourage in tow—was heralded by a tectonic shift as partygoers scrambled out of Tavi's way. Tavi passed through the parted crowd, back to where models showed off the hats. The two syllables of her name filled the room. A semi-circle of fans snapped pictures with their iPhones. The bolder ones approached her, then the party photographer Bronques waved them away so he could get a clear shot. Positively knee-high, with dyed gray hair and chunky, clear-framed glasses, Tavi looked like a fortune-teller with a malfunctioning pituitary gland. But in a good way! She looked over the product, spoke with some well-wishers then headed for the door.
(Reuters) Reuters - Stephen Martines has landed a recurring role on the CW's freshman drama "Vampire Diaries." Source: Yahoo! News: Entertainment News | 14 Feb 2010 | 9:30 pm
The Vancouver Olympic Games are delivering strong ratings for NBC after the first two nights of competition, way outpacing ratings for the Torino Games four years ago. NBC’s coverage Saturday night, which mostly focused on speed skater Apolo Anton Ohno, was watched by 26.2 million people, more viewers than any night of the Torino Games garnered. This comes on the heels of the 32.6 million who watched Friday night’s opening ceremony, significantly more than the 22.2 million who watched Torino’s, though less than the 45.6 million for Salt Lake City’s opening ceremony in 2002.
And it appears that Wisconsinites are as passionate about short-track speed skating as they are about beer and cheese (generalizations!): the highest local market scores for the first two nights of the Games came from Milwaukee. [Variety]
"I think it was my favorite show," Betsey Johnson told us today after showing her fall 2010 collection. "It was the most 'me' show, with all the cornball stuff like the birdies and the chicken bags." The designer also worked in a tribute to Alexander McQueen — a bride with wax lips trailed by a "Long Live McQueen" sign. Johnson changed the look two days ago to honor McQueen and worked out some preshow jitters today by wrapping the bride's bouquet herself. "I was scared with the lips," she said. "I love those lips, and when McQueen did those lips I thought, Oh my God, he loves those candy wax big red lips! But his were real."
Kellan Lutz and Mehcad Brooks wear suits to Calvin Klein, unfortunately.
Kellan Lutz was a model before he was a Twilight fantasy, but he was still intimidated by his Calvin Klein underwear photo shoot. “I’ve never had to do anything like that, so in the beginning, I was just, like, ‘So, is the temperature going to be hot? Do I need, you know, fluffers maybe?'" Lutz told us today at the Calvin Klein Menswear show, where he was fully clothed. “They made it really easy. The clothes fit great — there wasn’t anything that was riding up, so you don’t feel uncomfortable posing.”
Lutz's friends are teasing him a bit, and expects that his mom will get a lot of calls from her lady friends. But the Twihards love it! “You know, the Twilight fans have been amazing with it,” he said. “They really are a loving group of ladies.”
Mehcad Brooks, of True Blood fame, said that he had to get his Zoolander thing on for the shoot. “The weirdest thing is trying to take yourself seriously when you’re trying to look sexy,” he explained. “I was doing my ‘Blue Steel’” Brooks said, squishing his face. “I was like, okay, whatever you do, don’t laugh. And I probably laughed half the time, so they had to cut out half the pictures from the shoot.” Brooks says his father advised him to choose boxers over briefs because they are less revealing. He didn’t really have a choice in the matter, and ended up wearing both types.
Not everyone has dreams of underwear modeling. “There would definitely be a lot of discussion; I don’t know,” Chace Crawford told us. He thought a moment, then made a decision. “If Eva Mendes does it, okay, maybe.”
We've heard your feedback loud and clear, and since we launched Google Buzz four days ago, we've been working around the clock to address the concerns you've raised. Today, we wanted to let you know about a number of changes we'll be making over the next few days based on all the feedback we've received.
Specifically, the changes were:
Buzz will no longer have you "auto-follow" people based on who you most frequently communicate with in Gmail. This feature revealed people's email/chat habits, and was basically a cheater's worst nightmare.
Buzz will no longer automatically sync with your Reader and Picasa Albums. This, combined with the "auto-follow" could potentially lead to some embarrassing/dangerous situations, like your Mom seeing all the pictures you took in the sauna that one time.
More robust and clearly-labeled privacy options—if you value your privacy more than... whatever it is Buzz does, you can disable Buzz completely!
Tonight the Times assess the fallout. Would you believe that some people think these changes make Buzz safe, while some people think they don't go far enough? Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center—which will not rest until all your information is locked up in a big vault and tossed into the Mariana Trench—told the Times: "Even with these changes, there is still the concern that Gmail users are being driven into a social networking service that they didn't sign up for."
They may not have signed up for it—but they're clearly using it: According to Mashable, there have been "over 9 million posts and comments in about 56 hours." Mashable thinks all these privacy concerns will blow over, and that Buzz will go about changing (sigh) the metaphorical game. While the exact amount of change Buzz will bring unto the game is debatable, we also believe that anger at Google's Buzz privacy sins will dissipate, or at least be absorbed into the less virulent "Google is a Dangerous Privacy-Demolishing Robot God But We Will Use All of its Products Anyway" paradigm.
Key lesson: You can give away whatever of your user's information you want so long as you also provide a clearly-marked button they believe will turn off the flow. It's the choice that counts.
Note: Don't make Peaches Geldof mad. Today at Diane von Furstenberg, Peaches — overwhelmed by the crush of photographers who were ignoring her in favor of snapping pics of One Tree Hill star Shantel VanSanten — turned to her companion and snapped, "this is making me cray-cray." She then removed her leather jacket with such dramatic and excessive vigor that she actually hit us on the arm with a surprising amount of force. She neither apologized nor looked at us. Poor Peaches. Being ignored in favor of a CW starlet must really sting. The best cure for that, as far as we know, is getting an actual job. Maybe she can try that before next season and see how it changes things.
For her part, Shantel seemed as far from cray-cray as a girl could possibly be — not to mention, she's a tall, gorgeous drink of water who was working a brave pair of leather pants. Shantel wasn't the only One Tree Hill actor in the house: Sophia Bush made a quick change out of her Herve Leger and into a DVF frock and took a seat in the front row between 90210's Shenae Grimes — who had on way too much makeup, and therefore managed to look about 38 years old — and Molly Sims, who is currently suffering from a vicious case of tanorexia. Sophia's boyfriend/co-star, Austin Nichols, was sadly forced to sit behind her, like an assistant, but he didn't seem too fussed by the snub. We didn't notice the OTH stars interacting at all, so we can only assume they're in some sort of blood feud, much like we apparently now have with Peaches.
And speaking of blood feuds, also sitting in the front row was the world's greatest expert in highly publicized fatwas, author Salman Rushdie. According to our sources, he and DVF are old friends. Diane runs with quite a cosmopolitan crowd, as we also spied Fran Lebowitz and original socialite and sister of Jackie Onassis, Lee Radziwill, who looked elegant perched next to André Leon Talley (who, for his part, was wearing a fur shrug/stole that we worry was made from a slaughtered Muppet).
Finally, we were thrilled to finally get Fashion Week's first glimpse of our beloved Tim Gunn. Tim was hard to miss, as he leapt up at the end of the show to give Diane a rousing standing ovation. We can't say for sure, of course, but we suspect getting a standing O from Tim might be the very best part of being DVF.
The more revelations that emerge about the past of Dr. Amy Bishop - the University of Alabama-Huntsville neuroscientist accused of fatally shooting three colleagues and wounding three others Friday - the stranger the whole thing gets. Bishop, a 45-year-old mother of four, was charged on Saturday with capital murder, after the shooting of three fellow faculty members during a meeting Friday. She had recently been informed that she would not be receiving tenure, according to University officials.
On Saturday, Braintree, Mass. police confirmed a Boston Globe report that Bishop accidentally, and fatally, shot her brother in 1986 in an argument outside their home. Bishop was not charged in the murder and the report filed by the on-duty officer at the time has, strangely, been missing since 1988, according to the Braintree police chief.
And then today, Bishop’s husband, James Anderson, confirmed another Globe report: that he and his wife were questioned after a 1993 mail bombing plot against Harvard Medical School professor Dr. Paul Rosenberg.
“We were not suspects,” Anderson said, explaining they were cleared in the investigation. “They questioned everybody that ever knew this guy.”
Anderson told reporters today he did not know his wife had a gun with her at the faculty meeting Friday, and he has “no idea” how she obtained it.
Last week, Bill edged away from utter asshole oblivion, forgiving Margene and Ben and coming clean about his street urchin past (if not his shady present). Or did his hubris just hit some transcendent new phase, as he gave himself over to God’s plan for his super-awesome unstoppable greatness? It’s gotta be the latter — this episode, Bill proves himself a true politician, making every easy, flawed compromise, grabbing for money, vindictively lashing out (why does he hate Marilyn Densham so much again?), and woodenly apologizing for his sexual misadventures. But others actually dominate this terrific, messy ep, which sees the past burbling up like so much swamp gas — and a semi-shocking end to this season’s most intriguing story line.
So yes, Dale hanged himself. (Hear what Ben Koldyke, the actor who plays him, has to say about this.) On the one hand, we’re relieved that Dale never had to face heartbreak and see Alby for who he really was — a “sociopath,” as Bill not inaccurately described him, warning Dale that word of their “collaborating” was getting out. Dale and Alby actually had a beautiful sort of of relationship. But of course, we’re sullen that the show’s most hopeful, valiantly struggling character has gone poof. And it hurts to know that he actually submitted himself to electroshock as a way to de-gay. (There was also something about puking while watching porn — there’s new a fetish!) But in spite of all the aversion therapy and group counseling, Dale remained stubbornly, heroically homosexual, and we suspect that doing himself in at the love pad Alby rented for them was not to spite Alby, but to show that he wanted to be with Alby right until the end. Or maybe he just didn’t want his family to find him. Either way, he was a stand-up guy, and we’ll really miss him.
(By the way, when Bill learns Dale is making lovin’ muffins with Alby and offers his support, not thunderous condemnations, how obvious is it that the show can’t bear to show Bill as he’d really be — a religious nutjob homophobe? Sure, they both have secrets. But Bill thinks his secret is awesome.)
Surprise two: Ana’s back! Barb and Bill see her — and her baby bump — at a restaurant where mother and unborn child are staggering around serving parties of 12. And the baby is Bill’s! Ana is understandably bitchy when Bill insists on playing daddy, and Barb, Marge, and Nicki want to play sister-wives. (Not so much Nicki, actually — she’s the only one with common sense enough to be bitchy right back.) But after shooing them away, Ana suddenly decides that yes, she’ll take Bill’s money. She just doesn’t want three hens squawking in her ear. Then Barb learns the baby wasn’t conceived in the 48 hours Bill and Ana were actually sealed, and that Ana now has a scruffy-hot fiance. This leads to Bill’s rotely admitting that he “made a mistake.” Whatever, John Edwards.
Surprise three: Nicki in an I Love the Eighties side ponytail, miniskirt (bare-ass legs! Though no actual bare ass) and skyscaper heels. We know some Mormons needed a change of long-johns after they saw her storm into the sealing ceremony where she found Cara Lynn, who was to be “lucky” No. 7 to a lesbian-resembling man named Toby. Nicki’s daughter is saved, but not her mother, who finds herself in a no-tell motel room with J.J., being commanded to remove her nightgown. (“Let me admire you.”) This dude is seriously perverse. Like, penguin-fucking perverse. No wonder why Nicki thinks she’s “damaged.” Between all this and seeing Marge live her dreams (“We are the women behind the woman!” Brilliant), Nicki’s unraveling in a very real way. Whatever she internalized in her youth is clearly breaking the surface, and if it means more early-era Madonna outfits, we’re all for it.
And surprise No. 4: Ben went way down in Mexico with his grandparents, who are acting out some grotesque fantasy of young family life. Poor Jodeen is also there, but she’s not up to any high jinks this week, beyond smirking when translating the Mexican bird merchant who asks to touch Ben’s beautiful hair. (But “he’s all dirty!” Ben protests. Heh.) Despite all the hand-wringing over his whereabouts, this would not have been such a big deal, except guess who’s back? The Greens! Remember creepface Hollis and his butch sister, Selma? Selma’s out of the clink, where we imagine she made a few friends, and her crew’s got antique pistols — not to mention good reason to allow the bird merchant to touch Ben’s hair. Good luck, Benny!
Square-jawed, tall, and almost cartoonishly handsome, Ben Koldyke looks every bit the classic leading man. But in the last few months, the 40-year-old actor has begun to make his name with a pair of high-profile parts that use his all-American appearance to somewhat subversive effect: On Big Love, he was Dale, Alby’s closeted (and tormented) trick-turned-lover; on How I Met Your Mother, he plays Don, Robin’s goofy, pants-averse co-anchor/future boyfriend. He called Vulture from Los Angeles to discuss his double life. (SPOILERS.)
So, you’re on two hit TV shows. Yet, somehow, you’re not on Wikipedia ...
Truth be told, I am a relative newcomer. I was a schoolteacher and a coach in Chicago, and I didn’t come out here [to Hollywood] until kind of late in life. I sold a couple of scripts, made a couple of short films, and then, only about a year and a half ago, I was interviewing to be a writer on a comedy pilot for Fox and they asked me to come in and read as an actor. I did, sort of on a whim, and I got the job. That shifted everything.
It’s unusual for an unknown actor to break through simultaneously in both a comedy and a drama — how did that come about?
My general sensibility is most certainly comedic. But when I signed with my manager, he said, “I think you could do dramatic stuff as well.” So, rather than making the choice to do it, I sort of agreed and deferred. By no means does it feel close to home, but I was willing to explore it. Big Love was the first dramatic audition I ever had.
There was a scene on that show in which your character, Dale, is sleeping, and Alby takes a cell-phone picture of the two of them in bed. The audience, knowing Alby, instantly thinks “blackmail,” but later it becomes clear that Alby really has feelings for Dale, and vice versa. Do you think Dale ever saw Alby for what he really was? I don’t. [On tonight’s show] Bill gave Dale his version of the Alby reality, but when Dale confronted Alby on those things and he told him that he isn’t that person, Dale’s reaction was one of relief and welcoming. I think he loved the guy! I wish I’d had more time to explore that — it felt fast. There is so much going on in that show that it’s tough for them to let things unfold a bit more slowly, so I think the net of it is that you end up with a more sexually-oriented sense of the relationship. But what Matt [Ross, who plays Alby] and I worked for was just two people who really dug each other.
But Dale’s delusional about Alby, right?
Yes, I think he was tricked. Doubtless he would have ended up finding out and being crushed by it, but we all have our sides. What Dale saw, and what he felt, was only a part of Alby, but it was a real part nonetheless.
Why do you think Dale decided to hang himself?
I think that he had just run out of gas. He was facing, for the first time, the reality that this [homosexuality] was not going to change. He’d spent a life of therapeutically trying to address it, and when he realized that it was just futile, it was too much to confront.
There was a moment, I remember, when I stopped playing baseball — which was my lifelong love and the thing that I was best at — but I realized that this was it, this was over, and that I was never going to be able to be what I wanted to be. That was a tough moment. And when you put that in the context of something far deeper and more real, like your character, who you’re able to love, and how you’re able to live your life, that’s pretty tough.
Well, it seems like your run on Big Love is over. Unless you go back as a ghost.
Alby is the king of odd visions, so I suppose you never know. Frankly, I’m not sure how the character is landing, in terms of significance. I’m getting far more attention from the How I Met Your Mother stuff.
Really? In what sense?
Well, certainly my college teammates did catch the man-on-man kiss [on Big Love], and that was big news in a locker room sort of way, but when I appeared naked on HIMYM, that was by far the bigger splash.
And it does seem that you have a future on HIMYM — the narrator has implied that Don’s going to be around for a while.
They write these things by the minute, so that could change at any second. There’s a lot of this guy in the next few episodes, but the tricky part is that it’s happening in the middle of pilot season, so there’s been some tension between my being on the show and being able to get out [for other auditions]. For instance, I just tested for a network on Friday, to be the lead in a comedy, so if that happens, it’s going to make [staying on HIMYM] pretty tough. But it’s hard for me, too, because I absolutely love working on that show.
Yet you don’t want to be, say, ninth on the call sheet forever.
That’s right. I don’t want to shortchange what’s going on with How I Met — it’s a blast to play such a goofball, and for the first time they’re getting a sense of the character in my voice, and they’re writing for me — but it would be nice to be the lead.
Maybe you’d finally get that Wikipedia entry.
Yeah, let’s get that going, right?
The scene at Calvin Klein's menswear show on Sunday was the type of thing that makes teen girls reach for their diaries and stain them with happy tears. The first person there was Twilight's Kellan Lutz, who is also a newly minted underwear model for the brand, but whose now-famous man panties were sheathed by a very suave suit. He confessed that he's trying to watch as much of the Winter Olympics as he can, in between fashion shows and … you know, having great abs. Which is incredibly time-consuming, we imagine, as we are too busy even to maintain our perfect quarter-pack.
As Extra got its Lutz on, down the way E! was grilling Chace Crawford on really important things like whether he wears boxers or briefs. He seemed to say "briefs," in case that's vital to anyone's sanity. We also believe we overheard him saying, in response to a question about whether any women in his life have an influence on what he wears, "I've kind of stopped letting my mom do that." Good move, Chace. Ladies love a man who loves his mom, but not a man who still has a mommy.
Then the crowd parted and we spied True Blood's Mehcad Brooks, who is not only the tallest and most savory drink of water in the entire city right now, but who laughed easily and chatted comfortably with every interviewer, to the point that we saw actual, tangible charm molecules leaking out of his pores. Brooks is also appearing in Calvin Klein ads right now, and his answer to the boxer-or-briefs debate was, "My dad gave me a piece of advice: always choose the boxers." Can't imagine why — the briefs are doing him quite a few favors in those ads. He also explained that his secret to being in great shape is "a strict pizza regimen, maybe a few hot dogs." Ours too! Let's work out together, Mehcad.
While the new-era heartthrobs held court, an old-school one, Jared Leto, slipped in sporting the gelled-up greaser bouffant he has favored of late. Ryan Phillippe and Lee Pace — as sexy if not more so than the lot of them — sat totally ignored. The frenzy for Crawford and Lutz raged in front of them as they sat unmolested, and Phillippe and Pace turned to each other, shrugged, and broke out laughing. We were going to sneak up to Pace and tell him how much we miss Pushing Daisies, but by the time we made it over there, Phillippe had slid down the row so the two could talk without using hand signals. Far be it from us to interrupt a love connection on Valentine's Day, even if it is only a platonic one. We'll just cry about it in our diaries later.
Kathryn Bigelow, nominated for an Oscar for her war drama The Hurt Locker, will head to HBO for her next directing project, the pilot of The Miraculous Year. The series, which she will also executive-produce, will offer a raw look at the miraculous success the director has achieved in the past year as she goes up against her high-profile ex-husband for the Best Director Academy Award!! Just kidding, it’s about a family who lives in New York, from the perspective of a “self-destructive Broadway composer.”
The script is by John Logan, who wrote The Aviator, Gladiator and Any Given Sunday. Filming is set to begin later this spring.
The world's longest married (living) couple, Herbert and Zelmyra Fisher, who have been married a staggering 85 years, took to Twitter on Valentine’s Day to answer user-submitted questions about their relationship and the nature of love.
The couple, who are both over 100 years old, did not really provide much specificity for their 4,438 followers as to how they have kept their flame alive for so long, offering a mix of cute (“What was your best Valentine’s Day memory?" "Herbert left work early & surprised me - he cooked dinner for me!") and dull (“Is there anything you would do differently?” "We wouldn't change a thing").
Alas, the couple never got around to answering our question for the tweeting duo: “How long is appropriate to wait to respond to a text message?”
AP - Celine Dion's new movie, "Celine: Through the Eyes of the World," does more than highlight her performances during her last world tour; it also allows fans rare glimpses of her offstage life.
Madonna will appear as a celebrity judge on Jerry Seinfeld’s upcoming reality show, The Marriage Ref. The show, which will premiere on NBC on February 28 and is being promoted during literally every Olympics commercial break, features real-life couples “at war” over MAJOR relationship issues (e.g. “She flosses in bed and it’s so annoying!” “He keeps his motorcycle in our living room!”). The panel of celeb judges, including Kelly Ripa and Alec Baldwin, will weigh in on the various conflicts.
This makes so much sense: if there’s anything Madonna's known for, it’s her totally normal and enduring relationships.
Tweakout! Judging from Silverman's performance in The Aristocrats, this is going to get real filthy, real fast.
1.Ruffian's military-inspired, sleek double-breasted peacoat (look thirteen) with patent touches reinvents the classic. (The multi-gold button, navy wool Louboutin short boots were pretty fab, too!)
2. The slouchy menswear-inspired beige wool coat at Jason Wu adds swagger to a chiffon dress.
3.DKNY's Vicuna jacket with black leather sleeves over a mini-kilt — Balenciaga inspired, but thankfully without the price tag!
Interestingly, because Keller and the New York Times are taking these rumors and—intentionally or not—controlling a news cycle and hoarding traffic, all while declining to respond to requests for comment.
Interestingly, because Keller and Hoyt fed even more bullshit into this non-story today, as they addressed it in Hoyt's column, writing off every other news organization who reported on it as essentially beneath them. Keller managed to do this while feeding no new information into the story, and refusing to address anything they were or weren't looking into regarding Paterson. Essentially, Hoyt's column today is like everything else the Times has (or hasn't) done with these rumors, as it only serves to drum up interest in something that—if it isn't damaging—might only be interesting because of the speculation about it.
A bunch of news outlets picked up on the rumor, including us. Koblin wrote an article last week about the rumor cycle that's as meta as it is fascinating, and it came with a nice chart detailing the path of the rumor which has so far amounted to nothing but a pissed off Paterson calling the Times out for letting the rumor fester.
You'll note the involvement of the New York Daily News, former Gawker writers Choire Sicha and Alex Balk at The Awl, The Albany Times-Union, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, a local news station, the Associated Press, and the New York Times themselves, among others. This is where it gets interesting, especially when Times executive editor Bill Keller gets quoted in Hoyt's column today after Hoyt asks Keller why the Times didn't disclose whether or not there was any kind of bombshell story in the wings.
He said that addressing rumors just "spreads them and gives them an aura of credibility, even if the intent is the opposite. For The Times to issue a statement saying, ‘We are not investigating rumors about the sex life or drug use or financial shenanigans of Public Figure X' doesn't clear the good name of Public Figure X. It simply announces that we've heard the rumors and for some reason chose not to look into them." It would be even worse, he said, if the paper said it was looking into rumors about Public Figure X. Keller added that the paper generally does not talk about what it is working on because news is a competitive business.
He said Paterson's adversaries "are doing their best to flush out any negative material we might be looking into, and, in the absence of that, they are letting innuendo do their dirty work for them. The governor and his supporters are trying to neutralize any negative material that may come out by portraying it in advance as an unsavory muckraking exercise. Gawker and the Drudge Report and The New York Post are wallowing in all of this because that's what they do."
"Obviously we are not responsible for what other news organizations are reporting. It's not coming from The Times."
Not that he knows where the rumors are coming from.
Not that anybody knows. And obviously, the Times doesn't want to open up a story they're in the middle of working on.
Is it possible that these rumors are coming from the Times internally? Absolutely. And if you're running the paper, why the hell would the Times comment? The longer the rumors and truth stay in the air, the more speculation about what's going on at the Times exists, and that speculation inherently leads to curious eyes (and traffic).
Bill Keller not only has his head up his ass if he's simply writing off other news outlets as "wallowing" for the sake of doing so, because that's our "purpose," but he also starts to sound like anyone else who's ever been reported on: combative and dismissive. Wallowing? Not so much.
We were reporting a story, which we did both when we first posted about the rumor just as we did when we were on the phone with the governor's office, getting a denial the Times wouldn't address, thereby shutting down part of a rumor. I'm pretty sure that's reporting.
Sexton's story became a newsworthy item in and of itself, which is something they don't enjoy. Among other things, it could affect their reporting of the story, which doesn't help their cause. And nothing makes reporters more uncomfortable than being newsworthy themselves. It's part of the reason and culture around why organizations like the New York Times have always taken issues with organizations like ours: the tunnel-vision of not being able to hear a call coming from inside the building.
Jim Carrey may be a Yes Man, but he said "no way" to a typical Valentine's Day declaration of love. Instead, he hired a skywriter...
The bigger they are...the louder they complain. At least that's the case for director Kevin Smith, who got bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight for being, to use his term "a...
We learned yesterday via the Boston Globe that Amy Bishop had a history of gun violence in her life: in 1986, she accidentally (and fatally) shot her brother with a shotgun, a story that was corroborated by her mother, but a strange one, regardless: two accidental gunshots, same day.
She said she loaded it but had trouble unloading it and it accidentally went off in her bedroom. Still hoping to unload it, she said, she went downstairs to ask her brother to help her, accidentally shooting him. Her mother said she had witnessed the incident and generally corroborated her account.
The report said the girl was initially unable to provide information due to "her highly emotional state" so the investigators decided to let her and her parents go, with the plan of interviewing them later after they had "sufficient time to stabilize their emotions." When investigators did interview Bishop, "she reiterated adamantly that the discharge had been accidental," the report said.
More has since come up on Bishop, again from the Boston Globe, but this time, regarding the bombing of a Harvard professor that she was a suspect in, along with her husband, Jim Anderson (who was detained yesterday by Huntsville police after his wife was arrested).
Bishop surfaced as a suspect because she was allegedly concerned that she was going to receive a negative evaluation from Rosenberg on her doctorate work, the official said. The official said investigators believed she had a motive to target Rosenberg and were concerned that she had a history of violence, given that she had shot her brother to death in 1986.
[...]
The US attorney's office in Boston did not seek any charges against Bishop or Anderson, and no one was ever charged with mailing the bombs to Rosenberg.
Note the emboldened reason for suspecting Bishop of murdering that Harvard professor. Bishop reportedly went on her shooting rampage after being denied tenure. Also, she had—according to one Globe source—been working on a novel at the time of the bombing investigation, in 1993. What was the novel about?
...a female scientist who had killed her brother and was hoping to make amends by becoming a great scientist...
Again, Bishop wasn't actually convicted of anything. Suppose somebody in a position to protect people knew about this; would it even have mattered? Because there aren't any real ways—even if you've taken precautions to evaluate someone's past and emotional stability— to keep shootings like Bishop's from happening. When there's a disturbed, angry will, more often than not, there's a way. Amy Bishop found hers. The next question, of course, remains to be answered, but inevitably will be: Who gave it to her?
20th Century Fox Studios has halted production on...
The Amazing Race celebrates its supersweet 16th season tonight with the usual mix of stunt casting and, um, ordinary people.
Some teams stand out as early favorites even before they...
Production of 24 has been temporarily suspended so Kiefer Sutherland can have surgery "related to a ruptured cyst near his kidney," reports the LA Times. According to Sutherland's publicist, the cyst ruptured last week and he should be able to return to work next week. It's going to take a lot more than a ruptured cyst to keep Jack Bauer down. [LA Times]
Google apologized yesterday for Buzz, the confusing and sometimes-annoying social networking thingamajig it launched last week in an attempt to catch up with 2008. Google product manager Todd Jackson announced some changes to the service too. No longer will it automatically link people up to their most frequent Gmail contacts or automatically connect to Picasa albums and Google Reader items. A new tab will also allow users to entirely do away with the damn thing. [LA Times]
AP - From the personal greeting she gave to each of her two dozen guests to the thoughtful answers to questions about the construction of her designs, Victoria Beckham staged an intimate preview of her fall collection at New York Fashion Week Sunday that was all class and polish.
The much-hyped morning talk show battle between former VP Dick Cheney and current VP Joe Biden didn't really amount to much today as each said the same stuff they've been saying for weeks. Anyone who has listened to Cheney's growl over the past few months could have predicted what he would say. Things like, Obama's approach to terrorism is dangerous, Biden is "dead wrong" when he says there won't be another 9/11-style terrorist attack and waterboarding should still be an option. There was one surprise though. Cheney supports repealing "don't ask, don't tell."
Biden, unfortunately, was just as predictable, criticizing Cheney for not giving the Obama administration the credit it deserves for fighting Al Qaeda, explaining his statement about the likelihood of another large-scale attack, and defending the administration's handling of the KSM trial and the underwear bomber.
It was kind of bizarre to watch the debate play out across networks and it just made you want these two veeps to sit down across from one another and pummel each other like real men.
Valentine's Day soared to the top of the box office this weekend, taking in $52.4 million over the past three days. Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief came in second with $31.1 million and The Wolfman was third with $30.6 million. Avatar fell to fourth, its lowest position yet, with $22 million and Dear John rounded out the top five with $15.3 million. How to explain the success of Valentine's Day? Old friend Paul Dergarabedian knows: "To have a movie titled Valentine's Day on Valentine's weekend was a no-brainer that absolutely worked." Exactly! [AP]
We knew that Kevin Smith wasn't exactly trim, but fat enough to get kicked off of an airplane for being a "safety risk"? Surprising! That's just what happened to the director yesterday according to a torrent of tweets. Smith writes that he was thrown off of a Southwest flight from Oakland to Burbank after he was already seated and buckled up. The airline gave him a $100 voucher to apologize, but that didn't quell his anger.
So, @SouthwestAir, go fuck yourself. I broke no regulation, offered no "safety risk" (what, was I gonna roll on a fellow passenger?). I was wrongly ejected from the flight (even Suzanne eventually agreed). And fuck your apologetic $100 voucher, @SouthwestAir. Thank God I don't embarrass easily (bless you, JERSEY GIRL training). But I don't sulk off either: so everyday, some new fuck-you Tweets for @SouthwestAir.
He went on.
Wanna tell me I'm too wide for the sky? Totally cool. But fair warning, folks: IF YOU LOOK LIKE ME, YOU MAY BE EJECTED FROM @SOUTHWESTAIR.
And, hey? @SouthwestAir? I didn't even need a seat belt extender to buckle up. Somehow, that shit fit over my "safety concern"-creating gut.
Naturally, Southwest apologized via Twitter, writing, "@ThatKevinSmith Again, I'm very sorry for the experience you had tonight. Please let me know if there is anything else I can do." While this beef is fun and everything, isn't the real story here that Kevin Smith is flying on a discount airline? Everyone, go see Cop Out and get this man in first class!
@ThatKevinSmith via PopEater
Fashion Wire Daily - For Joseph Altuzarra's third outing at New York fashion week, the designer proposed tough dominatrix looks for latter day Elviras for his Fall 2010 collection, which he showed Saturday evening, Feb. 13, at Milk Studios, the downtown fashion week outpost.
It's a question that Nerve ably tackles this weekend, ranking our nation's commanders in chief from 1 through 43. We won't reveal number one (because what's the fun in that?) but we will tell you that it's not JFK or Barack Obama. We'll also tell you who's dead last—Mr. Richard Milhous Nixon. [Nerve]
Was it the combined powers of Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner? The romantic-comedy return of Julia Roberts? Really good timing?
Whatever the reason, Valentine's Day owned...
Avatar and The Hurt Locker each won yet another trophy yesterday at the Art Directors Guild Awards. Thanks to the peculiar rules of the awards, Sherlock Holmes got some love too. The ADG separates its awards into categories for production design in a fantasy film (Avatar won that one), a contemporary film (The Hurt Locker took that one) and in a period film (that went to Sherlock Holmes). Awards were also handed out for TV, going to Mad Men, Weeds, the Grammys production and HBO's Grey Gardens. [The Wrap]
There's a crime epidemic sweeping through the city's gyms and it has nothing to do with failing to wipe down equipment. The NYPD says at least 41 thieves have been terrorizing gym locker rooms all across the city, smashing locks and snatching cash and clothes while people work out. A police task-force is on the hunt for the thieves, who target Equinox and New York Sports Club more than other gyms. They also tend to target people who have stuff worth stealing:
"They go for high-end items like Rolexes, and they work all over town," a police source said.
So yeah, this is terrible for rich people who love working out. But if you're lazy and looking for another excuse for not going to the gym, this is pretty fantastic news.
If you lived here, you'd be engaged by now. Or so the story goes. Corcoran's Kimberly Lyn Pressman says every person who has called this Greenwich Village one-bedroom home since 2002 has gotten engaged or shacked up. The seller met her now-husband within months of moving in. When her two roommates left, one did so to get married and the other bought a place with his girlfriend.
Back in 2008, the seller and her husband moved to a different neighborhood (they had a baby and needed more space) and the current tenant took it over. Now he's moving out with his wife, who he proposed to while living in this deceptively romantic apartment. Are they charging extra for the love ju-ju? "No, but we should," jokes Pressman, who's not quite sure what it is about the apartment that has apparently made everyone who's been in it the last eight years commitment-happy.
But the "why" isn't important. "Looking too closely takes away the magic of it," Pressman says. So, if your guy or girl fails to pop the question today, all you have to do, apparently, is find make an offer on this place, hire a lawyer, find a mortgage and get approved by the coop board. Sounds easy enough.
Monday's episode of The Bachelor, airing at 8 p.m. on ABC, is going to be redonkulous.
Last we heard, Ali was out of the show and fully done with this reality-show love business, but...
Now that Academy Award nominations are out, big buzz is building about who's going to win what, especially and obviously Best Picture.
There's plenty else cooking on the Oscar...
Fashion Wire Daily - Good news for gym-goers this fall: you can forget about the lunges, the squats and the leg presses, because the hemlines are falling down, down, down.
Ashton Kutcher appears on the red carpet with his wife, Demi Moore, at the European premiere of his new movie, "Valentine's Day." See more stars on the red carpet this month.
Indian actor Shah Rukh Khan poses for photographers as he arrives for the premiere of the film "My Name is Khan" at the 60th Berlinale Film Festival on February 12. "My Name is Khan" takes a look at the... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 4:23 am
Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is seen here in 2008. His Chinese remake of the Coen brothers' neo-film-noir classic "Blood Simple" got a warm welcome at the Berlin Film Festival, the second Chinese... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 4:23 am
A woman walks past a painting by artist Banksy during an exhibition in London in 2007. The elusive British graffiti artist is due to walk the red carpet when he presents his directorial debut in Berlin... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 3:29 am
Grafitti by the elusive artist Banksy adorns a building in New Orleans, Louisiana. The British graffiti artist is due to walk the red carpet when he presents his directorial debut in Berlin but organisers... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 3:29 am
Fans wait for stars to walk the red carpet during the 60th Berlinale Film Festival in Berlin on February 13. Elusive British graffiti artist Banksy is due to walk the red carpet when he presents his directorial... Source: RSS feed - channel BNImagesEnter | 14 Feb 2010 | 3:29 am
The bigger they are...the louder they complain. At least that's the case for director Kevin Smith, who got bounced from a Southwest Airlines flight for being, to use his term "a...
The Amazing Race celebrates its supersweet 16th season tonight with the usual mix of stunt casting and, um, ordinary people.
Some teams stand out as early favorites even before they...
Was it the combined powers of Taylor Swift and Taylor Lautner? The romantic-comedy return of Julia Roberts? Really good timing?
Whatever the reason, Valentine's Day owned...
Monday's episode of The Bachelor, airing at 8 p.m. on ABC, is going to be redonkulous.
Last we heard, Ali was out of the show and fully done with this reality-show love business, but...
Now that Academy Award nominations are out, big buzz is building about who's going to win what, especially and obviously Best Picture.
There's plenty else cooking on the Oscar...
