The Kindle Should Burn

Tom Wolf writes:

Ok, I try really hard not to get worked up about these sorts of things, but in the end I just can't seem to put it out of my mind. A week or two ago now, Amazon released the Kindle, an ebook device. It's been talked about to death all over the web, one reason why I didn't want to write this, but I still can't stop getting involved in conversations when it comes up. Joey, my assistant, has had to listen to several rants about it after I've read something online. After the jump are my thoughts on the device in no particular order (they are not original or even remotely interesting and I'm so sick of reading about it I didn't bother looking up anything, so it's all from memory).

Rogues, Renegades & Rule-Breakers

If you were wondering where our beloved WOW Report editor is today, the answer is 30,000 feet above sea-level, en route to New York City to represent World of Wonder at the Radar magazine Radical Space/ Radical Thoughts/ Radical Talent party this Tuesday night. That's a whole lot of rad. You see, World of Wonder was selected (amongst fellow honorees Kathy Griffin and Candis Cayne) as one of the honorees for Radar's New Radicals issue, out now on newsstands, and containing a pretty group picture of some of us WOWers. Say hello to Stephen if you bump into him this weekend in NYC - he'll probably be hanging with one of his peers at a legendary haunt, if any of them are still alive.

– Steven Corfe

Freak Show: Special Christmas Tree Edition

Unbeknownst to us, until James alerted us to it this morning, an increasing underground trend is emerging in the literary fan-world, involving the decoration of a christmas tree in an homage to James St James' award-winning novel Freak Show. Trees come adorned with tiaras, miniature book covers, and no doubt a little fairy dust sprinkled on top, if you know what we mean. Special thanks to Freak Show readers Melissa Chauvin and Alexiss Marchand for making everyone's holiday a little more freakish.

– Steven Corfe

Bike Sexual

Saddles of rental bicycles in Paris are being used in an HIV/Aids awareness campaign. The pink seat covers have condoms, lube, and a brochure attached. I know at least one man who will be very excited by this campaign. (BBC)

– Steven Corfe

Desperate Times

Wisteria Lane gets a post-tornado makeover in a two hour special of Desperate Housewives airing Sunday. Either that or someone brought Eva Longoria a cold cup of coffee.

– Steven Corfe (Image via Herald Tribune)

You Know What They Say About Guys With...

A visitor to an Istanbul art gallery takes in the enormous feet sculptures by Chinese artist Wang Du. If breasts are more your thing than feet, check out Lenora Claire's Merry Titmas art show at the World of Wonder Storefront Gallery next Saturday.

– Steven Corfe (photo via BBC)

The Man Behind the Math

A schoolboy howler from a high school test paper.

Snap! Cap

Needs caption. (Photo via the Sun)

Who Owns It?

Beyonce and Jennifer Lopez in Versace. Beyonce is at a disadvantage without J-Lo's air-brushing, but who owns the dress?

– Steven Corfe

Fight Club

Here at World of Wonder, when we're not dodging notepads thrown by angry execs, we're dodging bullets in the parking lot. The lot, which we share with Hollywood club du jour Le Deux, was the location of a two-man shootout last night, resulting in one man shot in the leg and another shot twice in the gut. Luckily, rubbernecking TMZ have close-ups of all the bloody aftermath, if you like to see that sort of thing. The parking lot was previously most famous for Paris Hilton's fender-bender, and an afterhours bitchfest smack-down.

– Steven Corfe

Ed Magaña's Friday Vid Bits

This week Ed brings some frat-house "Brohemian Rhapsody," the trailer for Italian Spiderman, a little-seen hip-hop Mickey D's commercial, and an eight-minute sci-fi movie about a deejay who does good works by scratching time.

Nicole Dearest

Nicole Kidman's two children with Tom Cruise, Isabella, 14, and Connor, 12, are being raised as Scientologists in Los Angeles with Tom and Katie, which irks the actress; but she's more upset that they don't call her Mommy. "They don't even call me Mom," she told a UK TV show. "They call me Nicole, which I hate and I tell them off for it." And, in that awkward way she has of putting things, she said this about her relationship with her children. (ExpoSay)

"Yes, they're being raised as Scientologists. I don't want to go there. My daughter and son, their life is molded by the way I live. If I wasn't willing to take on that responsibility, I shouldn't have adopted them. Then it can be argued that I should never have divorced, and that's true, too, but sometimes you don't have a decision in that. People fall out of love, they do. When children are teenagers, they have a say in where they want to be. Los Angeles is a big draw, and I'm looking to get a place there so we can share more."

Plump Fiction

John Travolta was spotted at the Century Spa, a downscale, out-of-the-way Koreatown steam and body scrub joint currently favored by gay men who like to cruise in a relatively obscure environment, no matter how far they have to drive from Bev Hills. And when the folks from LA Rag Mag showed up for a scrub, the giggling Korean ladies at the front counter couldn't wait to blab who was there.

Once we saw John we instantly ran to our locker to try and take a picture of him, but it didn’t work so we have no proof. But we are telling you straight up our experience, we saw him there, and he was checking out Alex’s Middle Eastern feast in the showers.

Love Transamerican Style

LOGO network announced today the new series Love Transamerican Style, a competition dating series centered on transgender activist, artist, actress, and author Calpernia Addams. The show is hosted by our favorite gay comedian Alec Mapa and also features Calpernia's best friend and fellow transgender activist Andrea James. We at World of Wonder are so excited by this show not only because we're producing it, but also because, as Perez Hilton says, it's a first for US television.

We spoke to Calpernia shortly after the announcement and here's what she said: "My text messages and email box blew up this morning and I've heard from some old friends who I haven't spoken to for years. Andrea and I have been laughing about the comments on all the blogs....both the cool things and the bitchy things. It's all good!"

Executive producers include Randy, Fenton, Tom Campbell, and Joe Del Hierro; co-executive producer is Julio Kollerbohm; senior producer is Sara Jandrian

There's Good Nudes and Bad Nudes

Actually, there's only good nudes. But the bad news is that Brad Pitt just told the BBC that he couldn't see doing anymore nude scenes in his career. Which means that we won't be seeing anymore either. Like, you know, Thelma and Louise and Troy. Good times. "I don't want to be embarrassed when my kids get old enough to see my films," he said. He's also adamant about not making anymore movies with "Oceans" in the title. "There's no more. I think we need to put away childish things." But didn't he just say he wanted to make films his kids could see? In which case, childish would be good. We're confused. Well, he figures he's got very few films left to make, so they should be carefully chosen. "Who knows how many I'll get to do now, so I want to do something I'm interested in. Otherwise, I don't want to bother. I think it's a younger person's game." (People)

Booty Pageant

If you like sick and twisted
If you have a penchant for the occasional porn star
If drag queens whet your whistle
If blaxpoitation makes you sweat

Catch Starrbooty this weekend at Outfest's Fusion at the Egyptian Theater in Hollywood. There's also an in-store signing with RuPaul and director Mike Ruiz at the Sunset Boulevard VirginMegastore at 8PM Friday.

I highly recommend!

– Randy Barbato

Pregnant Pause

Contrary to the statement JR Rotem released on November 28, In Touch has documented proof that on Monday, November 26, the music producer did indeed confirm in these text messages that Britney is pregnant and that he is the father. When asked about rumors about Britney's pregnancy and whether he is the father, JR texted "It's true." And when questioned about Britney's intentions regarding her unborn baby, he responded, "No clue on what she will do. She is unpredictable." (InTouch)

There's Good Nose and Bad Nose

Actually, there's just bad nose. Deborah Gibson's took a turn for the worse after a surgeon's botched attempt to make it less trunk, more button (via Jezebel). But our nose got bent out of shape (which, if you've ever seen us, you know we mean more bent) when we saw that Star is yet another magazine that's stolen the title Knifestyles of the Rich and Famous from the original Details magazine's mid-'80s cosmetic surgery column. On her website, Martha Frankel, author of the gambling memoir Hats & Eyeglasses, fondly remembers her days writing the column for that magazine.

I wrote the first Knifestyles of the Rich and Famous, a first-person, on-going column about plastic surgery for DETAILS. This was in the mid-80's, when plastic surgery was still in the closet. I had my breasts made smaller (one of the highlights of my life), and met women and men who had every single part of themselves transformed. These people told me their stories, both successes and failures. Knifestyles was both uplifting (no pun intended) and very frightening – when plastic surgery goes wrong, it goes horribly wrong.

Yes, We Do Incest

It's like yesterday's clip from the Australian webisoap Bisquits, Tea & Incest really stirred the sludge up from the bottom. Today it's come to light that Grey's Anatomy newbie Chyler Leigh was romantically involved with her brother, Christopher Khayman Lee, in her first movie, 1997's Kickboxing Academy, when she was 15. Presumably, the producers figured since their surnames were spelled differently no one would know. Be warned: the clip contains a prolonged sibling kiss. Actually, the movie doesn't look that bad. We're putting it on our NetFlix queue.

From the Big House to Winehouse

Blake Fielder-Civil, Amy Winehouse's husband who's in prison for "perverting the course of justice," as they say in Blighty, feels the pain he's putting Winehouse through by being away from her so he's come up with a solution to prevent her having a total breakdown: He wants to write a kind of diary/day planner with daily tasks for her to carry out while he's incarcerated. "He wants her to feel as if they're still sharing life and he's with her every day," says Fielder-Civil's mum, Georgette. "Blake thinks that if Amy has a little thing to do for him each day that'll propel her on, give her something to work towards and get her out of bed in the morning." We're sure Winehouse's mum, who would like nothing better than for her son-in-law to be sent to the gallows, can only imagine such a book would contain various versions of the directive "Ruin your life" on every page. (RTE)

Of Interest: Their Hair's a Mesh Edition

Hair apparents Brendan Fraser and John Travolta. (Detail)

Artist & Model

Supermodel Elle Macpherson, 44, and rocker-turned-portrait photographer Bryan Adams, 48, are secretly in love. It's very hush-hush. (Daily Mail; photo: Dave Bennet)

Tara on Tour

Tara Reid, currently on Scrubs' Do Not Hire list for stinking of booze and cigarettes, will be hosting the 21st annual Hookers Ball in Darwin, Australia, on Sunday. Billed as "Hollywood A Lister & Star of Amercian (sic) Pie," her duties will include participating in a wet T-shirt contest, and it's expected that she'll be dressed in lingerie or as a prostitute, and therefore probably not wearing a T-shirt. It's promoted as a night of bondage beds, fantasy, latex, porn stars, and erotic dancers, and the event's hospitality manager said it was a big coup for the club specifically and Darwin in general to have Reid host the evening, saying they usually get passed over by "big-name stars." "It's something our promotions team worked very hard for and we just managed to secure her in the last week," he said. "I believe Tara Reid and her people were very enthusiastic to come here." If she's smart, she'll do what Paris does: show up for 15 minutes, get paid, and leave. Or get carried out.

Love Handles Criticism

Actress Jennifer Love Hewitt, who became engaged to actor Ross McCall last week, was recently photographed with her fiance at a beach in Hawaii looking a bit chunkier than her usual self. But the Ghost Whisperer seems not to care. Famously the inspiration for former boyfriend John Mayer's "Your Body Is a Wonderland," she now says, "My body is far from a wonderland. My body is more like a pawnshop: There's a lot of interesting things put together, and if you look closely you'd probably be excited, but at first glance, not so much." (Daily Mail; photos: Splash)

The Most Offensive Xmas Art Show Hits Hollywood

To read the story under the headline, click here. (Painting by Ed Mironouk)

Sensual Sedizzle

Beyoncé Spotted in New York

This is Beyoncé leaving the Spotted Pig in New York yesterday. Bloomberg's Alan Richman says the resty "is the epicenter of alternative dining in New York, a ridiculously cramped gastro-pub in the West Village where you suffer physically and usually eat well." Thus, Beyoncé is either appropriately dressed to get spilled on or she's doing early Christmas.

Shameless Plug: Accept No Substitutes Edition

World of Wonder management would warn you that there's a website called Perez Sez that should not be confused with what Fenton Bailey calls "our delightful series of What Perez Sez specials" on VH1, the next of which airs December 13, with Perez Hilton putting 2007 in perspective. The two Perezes are mutually exclusive and have never met.

Curry Dish

On the Starting Over Talk Message Board Forum, someone calling herself Debby wonders "What is going on with Ann Curry?" She's thinking something has changed about her, perhaps in her private life, causing her to become a bit erratic, making insensitive and inappropriate comments on the Today show,. For example:

Last week she was interviewing a couple who just had identical quads. She never even asked basic questions like how do you determine if quads are identical, but just told them several times how horrible the experience was going to be taking care of that many infants and bascially rained on their parade.

Last week THe Today Show was doing a contest about the location of a certain place that they would give clues for and the audience was supposed to guess the place. Ann comes on the air and starts giving her guesses out loud. Matt and Al seemed stunned and tried to play it down THEN they come back from break and she is not standing there with Matt and Al. She then runs onto the camera apologizing and saying she was talking and forget what time it was.

Pup Culture

At Fenton's house in Palm Springs over the Thanksgiving break, one of his dogs, the easily riled Biba, viciously attacked Randy's sweet rescue bitch Charlie out by the pool, in a hair-raising whirlwind of a dogfight as spinningly horrifying as anything a Merrie Melodies or Loony Toons artist could muster. Teeth were bared, blood was drawn, Biba was muzzled, and Charlie came back from the vet wearing a cone. Yesterday, Randy's bf Clancy, who was there, sent this Dogs with Cones site to us. Charlie – who this is not – is doing well.

Perez Envy?

Last night, as the team on What Perez Sez raced to finish the next episode (What Perez Sez... About 2007, which airs December 13 on VH1 at 10PM), Perez decided to have fun with the telestrator and get all penis-centric on it. These were the results:

Left, Perez sends a cute little valentine to What Perez Sez producer Cooper Green and producer-director Glenn Gaylord. • Right, Perez has a special message for Ben LeVine, one of the What Perez Sez editors.

– Glenn Gaylord

Paris, Pot, and Poses

When Paris Hilton was hired to pose for a magazine spread, if you'll pardon the expression, in a tony house in LA, she pulled a mini Britney and showed up 45 minutes late for the 9AM call, then slept in her car for another 45 minutes before going into the house in her bathrobe and carrying her dog, who ended up pissing on the bed in one of the rooms Paris used as a dressing room. While smoking weed all day (she insisted on it), she refused to talk to anyone, including the photographer who was shooting her for German Vanity Fair, and left the bedroom covered in spilled food and stray hair extensions. (Janet Charlton)

Well, If You Incest

You could watch All My Children every weekday for a year and not get as much action as you do in this one episode of the Australian webisoap, Tea, Biscuits & Incest.

Rise of the Video Game

Tonight at 8PM on the Discovery Channel, World of Wonder's well-reviewed five-part series, Rise of the Video Game, airs Level Two, exploring how the release of Sega's Genesis and Sony's PlayStation encouraged gamers to eschew cutesy cartoon characters in favor of grittier heroes like Sonic the Hedgehog and the anti-heroes of games like Grand Theft Auto III. Says Rock, Paper, Shotgun: "Rise of the Video Game demonstrates a depth of research and work that lifts it above the usually banal, patronizing rubbish that television normally produces on the subject. It interviews all the right people, knows to show clips of all the right games, and makes the assumption that you’ve already a basic knowledge of the subject." Check it out.

Producer Produces Britney Baby

South African music producer JR Rotem, 32, has owned up to being the father of the baby Britney Spears has been telling friends she's a month pregnant with. Michael Marchand be damned, apparently; she's been bedding Rotem on and off, so to speak, since separating from Federline. Look closely and you'll she he still has traces of fur on his wrists from Brit's handcuffs. Although she has no intention of marrying the guy, In Touch reports,"For all her recent troubles, she seems convinced that having another baby will turn her life around – and she believes that JR Rotem will make a great father." Or, as Best Week Ever says, "Looks like she’ll keep poppin’ em out until the Judge finally lets her keep one." (Source)

UPDATE: Sam Lutfi, another producer friend of Spears, has said in a text message to Ryan Seacrest's radio show that the story is "BS. Don’t know who made it up. JR doesn’t even know what’s up. It’s fake. Completely fake."

At Long Last Long

Drew Barrymore and Jeepers Creepers star Justin Long are still getting along famously. After dumping Zach Braff (and what girl doesn't after five minutes?) and Spike Jonze, Barrymore found love with Long while costarring with him in He's Just Not That Into You. Now the two are being spotted everywhere together, inseparably thisclose. They recently spent Thanksgiving with his parents in Fairfield, Connecticut. "Drew and Justin were adorable," said someone who watched them drinking apres-turkey cocktails and making pretty at the Southport Brewing Company on Friday night. (People)

It's Always a Drama

Remember it was reported yesterday that Britney Spears wanted to shoot in two hours what would normally take over a week for her new "Piece of Me" video? The reason being, presumably, to get it over with because she has more pressing issues to deal with than her career. The shoot at the Social Hollywood club was called for 8AM yesterday, but Spears didn't show up until 8:35 that night, pissing off the dancers who'd showed up on time. The shoot wrapped around five o'clock this morning, a whole lot longer than Spears would have liked. In the video, Spears and four bewigged lookalikes (pictured) try to trick the paparazzi. Also in the video, Spears tries to trick the eye: She used a body double for all the scenes that didn't require her face, according to an on-set source. (Us; photo: Ramey)

Pink Is the New Museum

To help promote Saturday's opening of the New Museum on the Bowery in New York, Calvin Klein allowed the museum's advertisers to pull a Banksy and drip pink paint over his billboard of Lara Stone and Jamie Burke wearing CK jeans. "The New Museum has partnered with Calvin Klein on an unconventional initiative that seemed consistent with the museum’s focus upon new art and new ideas," the museum told Gothamist. "Since Monday, the famed Calvin Klein billboard on Houston at Lafayette has been 'defaced' with pink paint and today, the drips have revealed the shape of the building and our new brand." The billboard will stay up until December 3. (Photo via Josh Spear and Tien Mao)

High School Snoozical

Is it a case of deja vu or just laziness? In what sounds like Freaky Friday meets 13 Going on 30 meets Big, the upcoming movie Seventeen will star Matthew Perry playing his co-star Zac Efron in the wacky story of the high jinks that ensue after a middle-aged father wakes up one day to find he's a teenager again and blah blah blah enrolls in his kids' high school. It's directed by Burr Steers, who made Igby Goes Down and directed episodes of Big Love and Weeds, so maybe. But it's written by Jason Filardi, who wrote Bringing Down the House, so maybe not. And yes, we prejudge. So? (Source)

Wreck Room

It could turn out that the very thing that attracted Kevin Federline to Britney Spears – other than her fame and bank account – will be the very thing he'll use against her in court: her obsession with sex. According to Star magazine, an "insider" just happened to stumble into a double-locked second-floor room in Spears Mulholland Drive mansion, and was shocked to discover it was a mirrored-ceiling "fantasy room" stocked with ticklers, whips, fur-trimmed handcuffs, a glass jar of paddles, and a closet containing uniforms for maids and Catholic schoolgirls and a Cinderella costume. Star is saying that Spears' new boyfriend, actor-slash-waiter Michael Marchand, is currently the one with a key to the room, though Marchand's mom thinks the pair spend their nights "watching videos together and playing Scrabble." Well, they need to rest sometime and allow the chafing to subside. Meanwhile, why does Spears keep her paddles in a jar? Is there a freshness issue? Now, that's kinky. (NY Daily News)

Star's source also claims the house is a stinky sty – that the white couches bear hideous stains of diaper-changing and Britney's dog. According to the tab, a "court-appointed watchdog" is set to declare the place a potential "health hazard."

Gyllenhaal of Famer

Jake Gyllenhaal has signed on to play '60s-'70s Hall-of-Famer Joe Namath in a currently untitled biopic of the legendary New York Jets quarterback who rose from poor kid in the steel town of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, to flamboyant fur coat-wearing crazy-famous media superstar known as Broadway Joe – the first in what would become a long tradition of flamboyant crazy-famous media superstar athletes. If the movie's done right, it'll get Gyllenhaal in pantyhose (see clip). Gyllenhaal still has two movies to finish and the writers strike has to end before production starts. (EW)

Happy Birthday, Tom Wolf

Tom's on the right. (Photo: Chris McKim)

From Detox to Botox

At the Evening Standard Theatre Awards in London, where the heavily Botoxed Christian Slater made an appearance but not much facial movement, people were probably muttering about his horrid forehead, because in England "forehead" rhymes with "horrid" and it would have been too easy. (dlisted)

They Tried to Make Me Go to Rehab and I Said Ho Ho Ho

We know this photo accompanies a story in The Sun about tragic mess Amy Winehouse canceling the rest of her UK tour because she's fucked-up on chemicals and sick over her beloved husband being in prison for God knows how long, but we thought it was such a festive, Christmassy snap of her, what with the uncharacteristic green bandanna knotted in her hair, that bright blonde forelock we never knew she had, and that cheerful red bag of what are probably tasty holiday pork rinds. Enjoy. (Photo: WENN)

Babs for Billary

Hot on the heels of Oprah’s endorsement of Barack Obama comes news from the Clinton campaign that legendary singer and Democratic activist Barbra Streisand officially endorsed Hillary Clinton for president today, and literally will be singing Hillary’s praises during the Democratic primary races and beyond. And now, if you count Chuck Norris’ endorsement of Mike Huckabee on the Republican side, it’s starting to look like celebrities are the new “soccer moms” for this election season.

– AguynamedWayne

We Won!

We are pleased to announce that congratulations are in order for ourselves here at World of Wonder for Tori & Dean: Inn Love winning Best TV Reality Webisode on TV Guide's very first Online Video Awards. And along with Tori and Dean and the producers and crew, we thank all of you for voting for us – because we know you did. Thanks.

Mandy Out of Handy

Yesterday, Tyra Banks took great pride in outing Mandy Moore as a closet filthy-mouthed curser on her talk show, a segment which seemed rather familiar for those of us at World of Wonder working on the Perez Hilton show. Barely two months ago, Perez interviewed Mandy on his VH1 special What Perez Sez, and made pop's good girl say some very rude words on camera. I won't repeat them here on our family blog, but let's just say that Mandy Moore's favorite curse words rhyme with "pucker," "mother-pucker," and "pig-pucker." Oh, and "rum-slut".

– Steven Corfe

Kidney Kate

Mary-Kate Olsen, the pretty one, was in the news only last week when she was suddenly hospitalized in New York City for a kidney infection, an ailment all-too-common in cats. She was expected to be "out of action" for at least three months, but was seen last night with sister Ashley, coming out of the Spotted Pig restaurant in Manhattan, seemingly having had it up to here with Fancy Feast. It's presumed the twins went straight home afterward and Ashley put Mary-Kate to bed with a dish of milk.

Britney, We've Senior Future

And it's not too distant. This is eerily like looking into a crystal ball.

Snap!

Johnny Depp went Christmas shopping in London yesterday with his friend Tim Burton.

A Cup of Joe

Actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt talks about the lips on French women, movies, and actors in a kind of screen-test format for the New York Times. We like him. He's very likable.

Ovine Intervention

Madonna has been taken to task by the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals for dyeing the sheep that live on the grounds of her Ashcombe estate in Wiltshire, like those pictured here, for a photo shoot in homage to famed photog Cecil Beaton, who used to live on the estate. The RSPCA and outraged animal-rights activists have called it an irresponsible publicity stunt that will lead to copycat incidents. Because, you know, so many of the celebrities who keep sheep on their land find white so humdrum an ovine color and now that Madonna's done it..... The shoot was for the book Vogue Living: Houses, Gardens, People, profiling 36 celebrity homes and gardens. Vogue, you'll recall, is a dyed-in-the-wool, so to speak, champion of fur-wearing. Meanwhile, we remember once in New York going to a dinner party for the Wool Bureau, at which rack of lamb was served.