May 31, 2007
Sitings
• Nine things Maddox learned about the world according to anonymous stock photo models.
• You thought paying for utilities was unpleasant? Try connecting water, gas, and electricity to the three houses in this puzzle.
• Supposedly, six are under 30, seven are single, and all are attractive (but beauty's in the eye of the stockholder). Forbes' 10 Hottest Billionaire Heiresses. Or Billionheiresses.
Return to the Scene
Janet Charlton says on her blog today that the spot where Lindsay Lohan's car went out of control (sorry, we mean where Lohan went out of control) has become a tourist attraction, a must-see spot for tour buses, like that motel where Janis Joplin OD'd. Apparently, all the bits and pieces of broken car are now for sale on eBay, the car of course is criminally absent, and all that's left is Lindsay's turf damage and a dent in the tree. Charlton actually titled her post "Lindsay Lohan's Skidmarks Are Now a Tourist Attraction," which made us laugh, not only because that's a hilarious image, but also because everyone knows Lohan doesn't even wear underpants.
Prom-inent Feature on the Boulevard
And so it begins – the countdown to the James St. James Freak Show party sponsored by WOW TV and Svedka vodka. James McGowan and Andrew Hembel have started the makeover of World of Wonder's Hollywood Boulevard storefront. Just think, tomorrow it will be packed with celebs, freaks, cuties, and James St James!
– Thairin Smothers
Blame James
You might have noticed that Svedka vodka has been in the news an awful lot lately – yes, that's right, it's the official sponsor of James St. James' Freak Show party on Friday in a Hollywood Boulevard storefront. Actually, the Swedish vodka company is co-sponsoring the high-school-prom-themed launch of St. James' novel set in a Florida high school in cahoots with WOW TV. Meanwhile, enjoy one of Svedka's celebrity-obsessed commercials.
The Dope Shows
Marilyn Manson talks about Lindsay Lohan's firecrotch. Yes, it's 2007 now. (via Stereogum; t/y Liz)
Snap! du Cap
What's not to love about this Greg Williams photo of four of Ocean's 13 taken on the terrace at the Hotel du Cap in Cannes? (Time via Just Jared)
Is He Just David Pierce Now?
David Hyde Pierce, Frasier's Niles, of course, long known to be gay by the show business community but not a fact publicly proclaimed by the star, was off-handedly outed in a longish CNN.com piece on him yesterday:
Pierce got to Los Angeles in the early 1990s when his partner, actor-writer-producer Brian Hargrove, wanted to write for television. A short-lived Norman Lear series, "The Powers That Be" led to "Frasier." And the rest is, well ...
The folks at AfterElton checked the partner reference for accuracy with Pierce's people and it was confirmed that Hargrove was and is in fact the actor's life parther. "It's interesting," says the website, "that this quiet yet enormous step was taken shortly after Pierce was essentially outed by Michael Musto in his 'Glass Closet' article that accompanied Out magazine's controversial 'Gay Power List' piece. Is this another situation where a gay celeb was pushed out before he was ready (see also: Lance Bass, T.R. Knight, Neil Patrick Harris)?"
Off to See the Lizard
Here's Ryan Reynolds outside the Century City Hospital, where Lindsay Lohan was being held after her fateful accident on Saturday. Was he there to visit her? Regarding that blue bandanna he's wearing in his right back pocket, we'll have to consult the gay hanky code to find out why. (via Just Jared)
Quote Unquote: Lavigne vs Levine
From Blender:
”Christianity teaches don't have sex before you’re married, lying and stealing are wrong, be kind to others. I'm not gonna talk about my sex life, but I think having those morals kept me, like, you know, I didn't slut it out, is what I'm trying to say.” – Avril Lavigne
“If being single and enjoying being 28 and having a wonderful time is being a manwhore, then I'm a manwhore... I don't apologize for my behavior; it’s certainly exaggerated in the press.” – Adam Levine
Prison Is the New Spa
Paris Hilton – who here appears to be on her way to the recording studio, tunes tucked under her arm, to lay down one more unfortunate track for her next album before she heads off to prison on June 5 – has apparently stopped eating due to stress. "Paris hasn't been eating at all and her parents and friends are beyond worried about her," claims a source. "She breaks down crying a lot because she just can't deal with the reality and the pressure of everything that is happening." But here's the alarming news: A Hilton insider – or perhaps someone "inside" – has said that jail time will make for a "more beautiful" Paris and "it's going to make her more famous than ever. In jail, she's going to get enviably skinny, and without any make-up or products her hair and skin will finally be able to breathe, so they'll look amazing, too. Plus she's going to get all that street cred." (Is anal rape the new street cred?) So we predict there'll be an increase in shoplifting, drunk driving, and what-ever in the Beverly Hills area if in fact Hilton does benefit superficially from her internment. (EOG; photo via Britney.cl)
Karat Top
Last May it was announced that English schlock artist Damien Hirst would be creating his most expensive work ever, as if money were the objet d'art. It was to be a life-size human skull cast in platinum and encased in 8,500 diamonds, the largest of which would be 50 karats. The cost of materials for the well-named For the Love of God would be $10-12 million and, adding in labor, the expected retail cost to the customer would be $100 million – the world's most expensive work of art. At the time, Hirst's statement was, "I just want to celebrate life by saying to hell with death." A year later, the celebratory work is finished – 8,601 stones weighing a total of 1,106.18 carats, with a pricetag of $100 million – and will be unveiled in London at the White Cube gallery's "Beyond Belief" show on June 3. It's already the city's hot ticket, with art lovers restricted to only five minutes with the skull. Turns out creating the world's most expensive piece of art, said Hirst, is "a lot less stressful than putting a bloody great shark in a tank of formaldehyde." (Source)
(Photos: Hirst and The Skull Beneath the Skin, silkscreen with diamond dust, 2005)
Generation Gap
The Who sing "My Generation." And the Zimmers cover it. We hope we get old before we die.
May 30, 2007
Snap! Cap
We'll start you off with this one: "Hmm, I see that pimple between your shoulders is coming to a head." Now you.
Beth Wish
See more at "The Gossip" music channel.
Today the official video of Gossip's "Listen Up" was on Perez Hilton and it features Murray Hill, who was last week's Ring My Bell guest. Now we have the live version from Perez's b'day party on WOW TV's front page. World of Wonder is cool.
– Thairin Smothers
Kiss of Beth
"If there's anyone to blame for size zero, it's not women," says a balls-ass naked Beth Ditto, 25. "Blame men who work in the fashion industry who want these women as dolls." The full-frontal babe from Gossip, who puts the fab in flab, had her ampleness appear on the cover of Britrock mag NME, and blatantly emphasized the roll in rock 'n' roll. (via Metro and Brooklyn Vegan)
Pup Culture
David Duchovny's wife of 10 years, actress Téa Leone, 41, walking the beach in Malibu wearing what looks like a navy blue wimple of sorts, with Duchovny's longtime companion and occasional X-Files guest star, Blue, 13. (Photo via CelebrityDogWatcher)
Lifestyle of the Richie and Famous
Nicole Richie is trying to backpedal and put a spin on that flip and illiterate Memorial Day invite she emailed to pals by having her mouthpiece release this statement:
This invitation was sent via email to her friends who understand that she was responding in a joking manner to the constant untruths printed about her in the media. Her reference to Memorial Day was in no way meant to offend anyone but was simply an expression of her distaste for the current situation.
We're so sure. Incidentally, it was at that party that Mischa Barton was taken ill got drug sick and had to be hospitalized. And speaking of backpedaling, it was also the party after which DUI offender Richie, while operating her boyfriend's BMW (is Joel Madden insane?), backed into a Honda convertible at a gas station at the corner of LaCienega and Holloway Drive. Witnesses saw a "mortified" Richie "hug it out" with the Honda owner. Because hugging it out at the scene is way better cheaper than hashing it out with the insurance companies. (Stuff)
Of Interest
As you may have read with some alarm, America's sweetheart, Jenna Fischer, who plays Pam on The Office, fell down a long flight of marble steps last month when she linked arms with a friend and set off for the dancefloor at the New York City nightclub Buddakan. She fractured her lower back in four places and is looking at 12 weeks of recovery time. "I had a rough night last night," she says on Starpulse. "I'm mostly off the meds, but I did take some last night because sleeping is probably the most uncomfortable thing right now." Our James St James had a similar experience while on a tour promoting his new book, Freak Show. In the VIP room at the Denver nightclub Aztalan, things got a little less literary and James slipped and fell down a couple of steps while he was carrying a naked boy named Augie across the room. It's been five days since the incident and the pain in his lower back is still killing him. "I'm mostly taking hot baths and Advil," he tells us, "although I did take that one OxyContin."
Google Maps: Peeping Tom Cat?
Google Maps is spying on her cat, says BoingBoing reader Mary Kalin-Casey. "The new Google Maps zoom feature zooms all the way into my living room window. See cat on cat perch. Dang, it's so detailed, I can even see he's a tabby!" (Look here)
Sham and Cheese!
Oops! Tuesday night star wars! Brigitte Nielsen, Shar Jackson, Charlene Tilton, and Jim J Bullock invaded Fu Bar last night for the taping of Ryan Glasgow's new pilot Put Your Money Where Your Microphone Is. I went with my dear friend Her Royal Highness Alexis Arquette. Although we arrived after Shar, Charlene, Jim, and all the cameras were gone, we were just in time for a few hours of karaoke and drinking with my favorite bombshell of all time Miss Brigitte Nielsen. Ryan, Alexis, beautiful Brigitte, her sexy Spanish husband, and I hung out in the Fu Bar back room for another few rounds while "bad to the bone" Brigitte talked about life, love, her children, and the future. I was deeply saddened to learn that one of Brigitte's four sons is dying of cancer, but excited when she told us that her 18-year-old is gay. There were lots of tears, laughter, and now, of course, a throbbing hangover. WOW!
– Sham Ibrahim
Your Name Here
Angelina Jolie's latest tattoo is a four-line list on her upper left arm of the geographical coordinates for the countries where her children were born. The top line is Cambodia, where Maddox was born; second is Ethiopia for Zahara's birthplace; next is Namibia, where Shiloh was born; and the last line has the coordinates for Vietnam where Pax, the latest addition to the family, was adopted. The new tat, incidentally, replaces the name of Jolie's ex-husband Billy Bob Thornton in that coveted spot. (The Envelope; t/y Liz)
Jackson Haul
A prototype of ET's head and a bullet-proof vest are two of the 1,100 items up for grabs at the Hard Rock's auction of the Michael Jackson collection, which begins today in Las Vegas and is expected to fetch $100 million. There had been some to-do earlier about Jackson getting a restraining order to prevent some of his more unsavory stuff going on the block, but it was established that Jackson had no legal right to it, and that its fate was in the hands of new owner, Universal Express CEO Richard Altomare. Altomare, however, might by now have returned Gloveboy's sex toys and photos of nude children. "This is stuff we have kept from the auction out of respect to Mr Jackson," he said after being slapped with the restraining order. "The guy has troubles. We all have skeletons in the closet and, if Michael hadn't put up a fuss, I might have quietly, discreetly, just given it to him. I'm a Brooklyn kid and a gentleman.... But if he pisses me off, I may end up auctioning them." (AHN; photos Getty via BBC)
The Road to Recovery Is Paved With Puke
An hour after arriving with friends at the Mondrian's Sky Bar on Sunday, Britney Spears made an emergency run to the men's room to throw up. And she hurled so violently that security had to be called. According to a handy "source," Britney was discovered slumped over the bowl vomiting "with makeup smeared over her face and her wig hanging off." Apparently, between heaves, Spears managed to say, "I’m sorry, I’m sorry. Things aren’t going well for me at the moment." Security lifted her to her feet and helped her from the men's room. Though she had reserved a room at the Mondrian, she felt so bad she had her bodyguard take her home. "She looked a real mess. There was vomit down the front of her black dress and around her mouth," said the source, feeling perhaps that embellishing the hideousness might start the healing. "Britney must have been sick four or five times. She didn’t really seem with it, but I don’t know if she was drunk or not." (Source)
Quote Unquote
"How do I do all this and still drink enough every day to kill or stun the average mule? Many great writers did some of their finest work when blotto, smashed, polluted, shitfaced, squiffy, whiffled and three sheets to the wind. [...] I have never been late for an appointment, never had to cancel a speaking arrangement. I do radio and TV and I don’t slur. I’ve never missed a deadline: you can check that. So it can’t be the case I’m a fall-about drunk. If I needed to prove it to you, I could knock down a lot of booze while we were talking and you wouldn’t notice it." – God Is Not Great author and functioning alcoholic Christopher Hitchens to the Times of London.
May 29, 2007
Sitings
• Passive-aggressive notes. Perhaps yours is here.
• A personal blog about addiction and recovery: Out of the White.
• Prada all over the place. It's not just expensive clothes anymore.
(t/y Eduardo)
Charles in Charge
Steve Schalchlin and Jim Brochu live together and perform in musical theater and collaborated on a hit play about the relationship between two gay men who live together and perform in musical theater. They knew the late, already-missed Charles Nelson Reilly and back in 2000, when they went to dinner at his home, Steve took along his omnipresent video camera. Here are three minutes of that visit. It may give you a bit of an idea what CNR was like.
– Des Sures
The Doctor Will Seize You Now
After Courtney Love complained to People magazine about Dr Martens' use of her dead husband Kurt Cobain's image to sell its boots – in heaven, no less – the company's CEO has apologized to the widow woman and fired the ad agency that came up with the campaign (that he hadn't signed off on?). "We are really, really, really sorry," said David Suddens in triplicate, claiming the ad was intended only for onetime use in a single magazine in the UK. "We do think that it is offensive. We made a mistake." Axed agency Saatchi & Saatchi defended the campaign, saying, "We believe the ads are edgy but not offensive. We regret that the controversy has led Dr Martens to terminate the contract with [us]." Meanwhile, Love is most likely thinking of ways to use Cobain's image that will benefit her. (Virgin Media via AgendaInc)
Of Interest
Zach Lipovsky, contestant on Fox's On the Lot, and Ross Greenberg, WOW's development dude. (t/y Liz)
And You Will Know Us by the Trailer
What took so long to make this Japanese horror film? Really, hair extensions haven't had their own story in a film since...ever. In Ekusute (Exte: Hair Extensions), the hair of a girl killed by someone working a human-organ racket continues to grow and is harvested and sold to beauty salons whose clients are randomly attacked and mutilated by the extensions made from the vengeful hair. Talk about a brush with terror! Having seen only this trailer, it's already our favorite movie. We like to imagine ushers having to collect mounds of ripped-out hair weaves and braids left in the seats and aisles after screenings of the film. Are there any theaters still with ushers? (LAist via Agent Bedhead)
Lohan Behold
Here's Lohan, with her lawyer, arriving at Promises Rehab in Malibu on Monday, looking all wondrous and slightly apprehensive, as if she'd never been near a rehab facility before and was frightened, the little morning-after actress. A source said that she will be in "a serious medical treatment program" for perhaps 30 days, followed by a much-longer outpatient program. Lohan will be arraigned August 24th. This last bout with the law – a heady mix of DUI, leaving the scene of an accident, and possession – may have finally damaged her Hollywood career (her purported real one, where she acts). It had been said that she was to start filming on the Shirley MacLaine-produced-and-starring vehicle Poor Things, but since the weekend, casting is still open for what was to be Lohan's role. (Source; photo: SplashNews)
The Life of the Ball
At Saturday's Life Ball in Vienna, Austria, the Scissor Sisters performed, Heatherette walked the runway, 4,000 partygoers frolicked in sequins and feathers, and celebrities abounded, from Amanda Lepore to Sharon Stone – all for the continuing fight against AIDS. "It's very important for us to remember that the AIDS and HIV situation is a situation that began from love, and it's a situation that will end with love," Stone said at the beginning of the celebration. Last year's Ball raised around $1.5 million. Towleroad has some glorious photos taken at the event by Scissor Sisters photographer Kevin Tachman.
Afterglow
Last Thursday night was the wrap party for The Minor Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman, which has finished filming its second season, and cast and crew were treated to cocktails, crab cakes, and cigars. Jackie herself, comedienne and series creator Laura Kightlinger, was in fine spirits, dancing the night away with partner-in-crime Nicholle Tom, while the rest of the gang warmed up their vocal chords for the midnight live-band karaoke. I left at the party's peak, just as the grips got a bit gropey, and the best boys started to look less than their best. Shame really – we were curious to see how exactly one performs Madonna's "Ray of Light" with a live backing band. Catch Minor Accomplishments on IFC this August, and befriend Jackie on her MySpace for airing reminders and behind-the-scenes photos.
– Steven Corfe
Photos: WOW's Chanelle Bailey, Mary Kay Place (Minor episode director & plays Jackie's mom), Jonathan Becker (Minor's associate producer & location manager); inset, Steven Corfe and Nicholle Tom (plays Minor's Tara)
Recently Dead
Marquise Hill, New England Patriots defensive end (#91) and former LSU star player who spent much of his free time and a lot of his money helping family in New Orleans rebuild their lives in the wake of Katrina, drowned Sunday after he and an unidentified woman fell off jet skis in the swirling current of Lake Pontchartrain. He was 24. A nearby boat rescued the woman, who couldn't swim but had held onto a pylon, and spotted Hill, a good swimmer, but he disappeared in the current before he could be rescued. Neither he nor the woman were wearing life vests. Hill's body was discovered by searchers about a quarter of a mile from where he had fallen into the water. (Source)
Snap!
Maggie Gyllenhaal, the distaff half of the Gyllenhaal siblings, demonstrated how she can talk on the phone and give the finger to a photographer at the same time while she and Peter Sarsgaard and their infant daughter Ramona walked in New York's West Village yesterday. (Photos: PacificCoastNews via Just Jared)
Again Again
The Teletubbies' Tinky Winky can't catch a break. First, the Rev Jerry Falwell famously lashed out against the infantile TV star for his purple color, triangular head appendage, and fetching handbag – all spelling out G-A-Y to the Christian world. Now, a children's-rights watchdog in Poland has accused the Teletubbies program of promoting homosexuality, thanks to Mr Winky's participation. "I noticed Tinky Winky has a lady's purse, but I didn't realize he's a boy," said Ewa Sowinska, the government-appointed Big Brother. "I have heard that this could be a hidden homosexual insinuation." It's a mystery to us why Tinky Winky is continually picked on as a gay sore-thumb when that bickering same-sex couple Bert and Ernie continue to cohabit on Sesame Street without much of a hidden homosexual insinuation at all – except by winky-winky homosexuals, of course. After all, Bert, Ernie, and Tinky Winky are all cut from the same cloth. (Source)
When Nora Blogged Rosie
Rosie O'Donnell isn't welcoming guests onto The View anymore, but they're still welcome on her blog. Yesterday, humorist Nora Ephron had a go at blog writing courtesy of Ro. The author of the current bestseller I Feel Bad About My Neck (not to mention writer-director of the chick hits Sleepless in Seattle and You've Got Mail) contributed an olio of haiku, blank verse, self-conscious rambling, and a personal anecdote about The View:
I even made my husband watch. And he did. On the treadmill. I said, trust me, it’s riveting It’s a hockey game There might be blood on the ice You’ll see.
He had to admit it was amazing He wasn’t just being nice He meant it Then he went back to watching the World Series of Poker.
May 28, 2007
Rematch
On an Early Show in March of 2002, hilarious Match Game alums Brett Somers, Betty White, and Charles Nelson Reilly reunited and reminisced about their high jinks on the game show. (t/y Phil Heffley)
Quote Unquote
"I'd like to see workplace seminars on the conscious use of sex in business.... On your way to work tomorrow... do some circular breathing and start an erotic fantasy to get your sexual energy running. [Move] that energy up your body, out your heart center, and into your day. You can even imagine it landing on your boss' desk and coming back to you in the form of a raise. A few moments of sex magic on your way to work can help make your highest hopes a reality." – Barbara Carrellas, in her new book Urban Tantra: Sacred Sex for the 21st Century. (Source)
She's Buggin' Out
Ashley Judd, whooped it up in the rain yesterday, thrilled that her husband Dario Franchitti just won the Indy 500. (Photos via Kawaiiwood)
May 27, 2007
The Break Up
Over the weekend I learned that the guy next door broke up with his girlfriend and is moving out of the house. Big moving vans transporting large pieces of furniture all day yesterday... and then this photo I took this morning. Break-ups are hard.
– Ray Cochran
Recently Dead
Charles Nelson Reilly, the Tony-winning Broadway actor and director who became famous for his eccentric outfits and double entendres as a "game show fixture" on Match Game and Hollywood Squares, died in Los Angeles on Friday from pneumonia. He was 76. (NYTimes)
Mr. Reilly’s openly gay persona was many years ahead of its time on television, and it had its risks. He recalled being dismissed early in his career by a network executive, who told him that “they don’t let queers on television.” Paul Linke, who directed [Reilly's] one-man show, said Mr. Reilly later had the last laugh when he would page through TV Guide and count how many times he was on the air that week.
Watch Alec Baldwin as Charles Nelson Reilly on an SNL "Inside the Actors Studio" sketch with Will Ferrell here. (t/y Rohan)
May 26, 2007
Lindsay: Fully Loaded
Stills from the Splash News video that followed Lindsay Lohan's DUI saga early today. Yeah, cocaine was found at the scene.
The Lush Life
Does rehab work? In Lindsay Lohan's case, no, no, no. She was cited early today on suspicion of drunk driving when she crashed her 2005 Mercedes SL-65 convertible onto a curb and into a tree near the intersection of Sunset and Foothill Drive in Beverly Hills. No other vehicles were involved; she just went haywire. Two passengers were in the car with her but were uninjured. Lohan, however, was slightly hurt and taken to the hospital, which spared her the ignominy of being cuffed and taken to the station. Police sergeant Mike Foxen said the actress "was cited and released because she has been admitted to a local hospital for minor injuries." We suspect her appendicitis is acting up again. Lohan will be expected to make a court appearance sometime next month. Too bad – wouldn't it have been fun for everyone if she and Paris could have shared a cell at County? (via Actress Archives)
The Morph the Merrier
Five hundred years of women in Western art. But still not as many looks as Madonna has had.
21st-Century Vox
Staying Thankful
I always wonder if we have a dream and it comes true, will we feel it all at once or will it take a while to sink in? Today I got to have a tiny bit of that feeling when I opened my new Entertainment Weekly and there on a page somewhere in the back of the television section was my picture staring back at me announcing my upcoming show The Lair. OK, well, I wasn’t technically staring back; it was me overtop of anther guy about to stick fangs into his neck but, still, it was a picture of me.
At first I was like, Dude, you have been in magazines and shit before, who really cares. But then it started to sink in that little old me was in Entertainment Weekly. It was such a great feeling because it was something that I have dreamed about for a long time. Then I started thinking about the new television show on Spike that I just filmed called Murder, and the fact that I will be doing Debbie Does Dallas: The Musical starting in August at the Key Club, which is a huge venue on Sunset, and all of the sudden I was just overwhelmed that maybe my dream is coming true.
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