One of the many tentacles of Gawker.com has photos of the apartment recently vacated by comedian Tina Fey.
Those photos are here.
It’s a nice place. In fact, I like it better than her new place, where I never get invited either.
Yesterday at Wimbledon, former champion Andy Roddick was upset in the quarter-finals by Taiwan’s Lu Yen-hsun, who is ranked 82nd in the world. Read about it here.
Today at Wimbledon, former champion Venus Williams was upset in the quarter-finals by Bulgaria’s Tsvetana Pironkova, who is ranked 82nd in the world. Read about it here.
That hair! Those crushed velvet pants! That Bill Cosby moustache! Yes, it’s Steely Dan on The Midnight Special in 1973.
According to the gossip site TMZ.com, the divorce is final between superstar actress Sandra Bullock and her cheatin’, chopper-lovin’ husband, Jesse James.Just in time for her to get a date for the opening of The Twilight Saga: Eclipse!
Possibly more trouble for dog-abusing NFL player Michael Vick.
First, the shooting report. Vick celebrates birthday at night club. Vick leaves nightclub, shooting occurs 2:10 a.m. One man injured. That man is an old doggie associate of Vick’s. Hmmm.
6-4, 3-6, 6-7, 7-6… 70-68.Match time: 11 hours and 5 minutes.
The National Enquirer reported this week that a 54 year-old massage therapist says former Vice President Al Gore made unwanted and inappropriate sexual advances on her in a Portland, Oregon hotel back in 2006.
Today’s issue of The Oregonian reports details of the incident, taken from police records and from a statement the woman made to investigators in 2009.
Charlene Wittstock is officially engaged to Prince Albert of Monaco, says the royal palace. At age 52 the royal bachelor scalawag has finally decided to settle down with a fellow Olympian 20 years his junior. (She swam in the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney; Albert was on the Monaco bobsled team in five straight Winter Olympics from 1988 through 2002.)We have photos of Charlene Wittstock, starting with the official engagement photos released by the Monaco royal palace.
Those nasty things said in Rolling Stone magazine by U.S. General Stanley McChrystal have cost him his job.
President Barack Obama met with General McChrystal this morning, then announced that the general was being replaced by General David Petraeus as the commander of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.
Edith Shain, who appeared in the famous Alfred Eisenstaedt photo of a soldier kissing a nurse at the end of World War II (she’s the nurse), has died at the age of 91.
As a tribute to Bruce Campbell, the star of Army of Darkness, some photos and videos:
First, some photos from his memoir, If Chins Could Kill:
From the blog of Leandro Copperfield, a wonderful mash-up of scenes and sounds from movies by directors Martin Scorsese and Stanley Kubrick:
According to this story from MTV News, the estate of pop legend Michael Jackson has generated $1 billion since his death almost a year ago. MTV News got their information …..
Actor Errol Flynn was born on this day in 1909.(Trivia note: jazz saxophonist Lester Young was born the same year and died the same year as Flynn, too: 1959.)Read more about Errol Flynn’s wicked, wicked ways.
The Paris Review has put many of its grand old interviews online, including a wonderful 1955 interview with humorist James Thurber. A sample:INTERVIEWER
You say that your drawings often don’t come out the way you
intended?
“Phillips grabbed a baseball, scribbled his number on it, got the woman’s
attention and tossed it to her. And for the rest of the game, he was
left to wonder how she’d respond.”Seattle Mariners catcher marries fan he spotted from the bullpen.
Red Adair, offshore oil well disaster expert, would have been 95 years old today, had he not gone to that great rig in the sky in 2004.
Director Jimmy Hayward brought his new movie Jonah Hex in at a brisk 81 minutes. How’s it playing with the critics?”‘Jonah Hex’ may not be the longest 81 minutes you ever spend, but it
might well be the most tedious.” (Washington Post)
(From Where’s Weems?)
Art Bell, the spooky radio host who has so often quit his job, can now simply retire instead. He turns 65 today.The last time Bell quit was in 2007, when he was 62. Perhaps he was simply anticipating the French system.
The long-running Dr. Demento radio show has finally gone off the air.
Oh, they’re married — just not by the Governor.
And covered by insurance.
Remember Tareq Salahi and his wife Michaela Salahi? Last November they were busted for making it into a White House state dinner without an invitation. They mingled with Barack Obama and Joe Biden, then they had a long talk with the Secret Service about how they managed to get past security. The Salahis said it was a mix-up, and so far there have been no repercussions from the long arm of the law.
Last month Slashfilm.com reported on another attempt by WB to resurrect the old Looney Tunes characters. Wouldn’t it be nice to have a new Bugs Bunny to wash the other new Bugs Bunny and Space Jam from your memory?
Amazing — and encouraging — news from the UK, where after 10 long years of work the Saville Report has called the 1972 Bloody Sunday massacre in Northern Ireland entirely unjustified.Prime Minister David Cameron has apologized on behalf of the British government:
So said one commenter about the Jesus statue destroyed by lightning last night near Cincinnati. The Springfield News-Sun has a great photo by Nick Graham:
The “largest sculpture of Jesus Christ in America” was struck by lightning and consumed by fire near Cincinnati last night.
The short answer to why movie star James Franco is guest starring in at least ten installments of the daytime soap opera General Hospital? He thought it would be fun and challenging.
That’s according to this interview with the show’s executive producer, Jill Farren Phelps.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has released a batch of files on the late Edward M. “Ted” Kennedy, many of which are threats to the senator going back to just after the 1968 murder of his brother, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy.To access the files, go here.
“Pyongyang is becoming less calculating, less rational and less Machiavellian than it used to be. And this is not good news.”Only in North Korea does “less Machiavellian” equal bad news. But so says North Korea expert Andrei Lankov, assessing the rumors swirling around everyone’s favorite modern-day czar, Kim Jong-Il.
Today is John Wayne’s birthday (1907). These days you don’t run across too many John Wayne movies. There are some good ones. In honor of his birthday, here are some video clips — not from his movies.
Rare home movies of John Wayne:
Today I received a postcard in the mail from our Editor in Chief, Jeopardy! champion Fritz Holznagel, who has been touring the United Kingdom. To his surprise, he was in Edinburgh at the same time as Prince Charles. In Edinburgh Prince Charles is known as the Duke of Rothes (or the Duke of Rothesay).
The trial of former Illinois governor Rod “Blago” Blagojevich is proving to be one in a long line of entertaining stories of good ol’ American political corruption. Not because it revolves around a politician trying to enrich himself by way of his elected office, but because it revolves around a politician who is a dramatic ham. Blago loves the attention of the press.
Before we even heard the rumor Mayor of Gruntland and fabulous actor Russell Crowe had died, we heard the rumor that Russell Crowe had not died.Here we see him flashing the “V for Vitality” sign:
Pop star Whitney Houston is having a terrible time during her “comeback” tour in Europe. Her tour has been plagued with cancellations and complaints, with critics saying Whitney is a mere shadow of her former self. Actually, they’re saying she’s a really big shadow now, having put on some pounds.
This long tale from Deadspin is all about a collector who has a bat that once belonged to baseball bad boy Pete Rose. The bat comes from the 1985 season, when Rose was chasing baseball’s hit record. An x-ray of the bat shows an interior of cork. Corking a bat is illegal.But Pete Rose is banned from baseball for life, and it’s doubtful he’ll make it into the Hall of Fame anytime soon. So big deal.
Tax fraud and Republican lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to four years in prison back in 2008. Earlier this week he was moved to a halfway house — a residential facility that’s not quite prison and not quite home. “Halfway” must mean “you’re halfway done with your sentence, so out you go.”
Read the story here.
And watch this trailer for a new documentary called Casino Jack
Imagine if Marilyn Manson made a Madonna video, then add the self-indulgence of Michael Jackson so that it’s way too long, and you’ve got Lady Gaga’s newest video, “Alejandro.” Good luck sitting through all nine minutes of it — these days that seems like a lot to put up with, just to see a minute or two of sexy role playing:
Had Elvis Presley not died in 1977, he would be 75 years old today. Only 75 years old, I might add.
Recording artist Moby participated in a National Public Radio program called Project Song last month. The radio show was titled Moby: One Song, Two Days, Three Versions.
Fried butter chef Paula Deen says her maid swiped jewelry worth thousands of dollars. So she fired her. And had her arrested. The news just came in from TMZ.
Today is the birthday of pop star Prince, or, as you may know him, The Artist Formerly Known As Prince Who Is Now Known As Prince Again. He’s 52 years old.
In tribute, here’s a 2009 interview with Tavis Smiley of PBS:
Republican and House Minority Leader John Boehner wants an apology from Sir Paul McCartney. Stop the presses.
The story is here.
Thanks to the wonders of the internet, we now know that Hollywood prop masters recycle newspapers. In this case, it’s a specific newspaper prop, one that shows up over and over in movies and on TV.
Here’s the link.
Spain’s Rafael Nadal won his fifth French Open yesterday, beating Robin Soderling. That puts Nadal at the top of the rankings in men’s tennis, replacing Roger Federer.
That makes seven Grand Slam titles for Nadal. Federer has won sixteen Grand Slam titles in his career.
Today’s the anniversary of the death of President Ronald Reagan. He died in 2005 at the age of 93.Below is a video clip from one of his finest hours, as the governor of California. In this clip he’s as funny as he is brilliant.
Here’s a collection of older footage of Hollywood movie star Angelina Jolie, who turns 35 today. The videos include some early Angelina Jolie appearances on TV and in the short film Angela and Viril, as well as an interview with a teenage Jolie about modeling.
A song by Francis Scott Key, who is rolling over in his grave.
Stage and screen star and, more importantly, the man who played Jean-Luc Picard in Star Trek: The Next Generation, Patrick Stewart has been knighted.
In an otherwise boring and meaningless speech in Grand Rapids, Michigan, George W. Bush, who served as the president of the United States recently, let drop that U.S. authorities had tortured the man they suspected of planning the attacks of 11 September 2001.
Film director James Cameron says his offer to help BP figure out how to fix their monstrous oil spill was rebuffed. His name showed up in the news this week in relation to the crisis, and the news was met with mixed reviews.
That means some people said, “Right on, that dude knows how to run things!” They have in mind Cameron’s films, including Titanic and Avatar, both of which are more undertakings than they mere movies.
Radio host and Democrat-whacker Rush Limbaugh is said to be getting read to tie the knot — for the fourth time.
According to this bit of gossip, Rush is set to marry Kathryn Rogers, a resident of Florida who is 26 years younger. And a lot blonder.
Today marks the anniversary of the death of baseball great Lou Gehrig. New York’s “Iron Horse” died at the age of 37, of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis — ALS, which for years was known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.
Former U.S. president George W. Bush seems to have a new Twitter account.
I can imagine him saying to Laura after dinner, “Think ahm gonna go on down ‘n’ do some tweeterin’ — er whatever they call it.”
The most recent entry reads: “Since leaving office, President has remained active. He has visited 20 states and 8 countries.”
With the passing of Dennis Hopper came several news stories that reviewed his career and its standout moments. I was never much interested in Rebel Without A Cause or Easy Rider, but as a teenager I was blown away by Apocalypse Now, so I tend to think of that movie when I think of Dennis Hopper.Even though I’m sure I’ve quoted him more often from Speed. “Way to go, Jack, way to go!” and “That’s MY money, that’s money due ME!” and “the whim of a madman!” And so on.
Today is the anniversary of the Indian Citizenship Act, enacted by the United States Congress in 1924. The act granted citizenship to every Native American born in the U.S.
Of course, as this piece from the Library of Congress points out, that didn’t mean it granted Native Americans the right to vote. That was still for the states to decide: “Until 1957, some states barred Native Americans from voting.”
Yes, that’s 1957.
Here’s a clip from a 1981 Tonight Show appearance by stand-up comedian Rodney Dangerfield. It was part of this list of best comedians, from Guyism.com.
DETAILS magazine has a brief Q&A with “bad boy” author Bret Easton Ellis (still famous for his first novel, the ’80s pop hit Less Than Zero).
Ellis has a new novel out called Imperial Bedrooms, and now he’s out and about promoting it, saying semi-outrageous things to irritate feminists and the sensitive left, who are still a little frosty over his book American Psycho.
The big news today from Politico.com is this story about the separation of former Vice President Al Gore and his wife, Tipper.
They’ve been married for 40 years.
Well, that’s sad. So is this: