Actor and old-school Hollywood icon Tony Curtis has died at his home near Las Vegas. Tony Curtis served in the Navy in World War II (he was in Tokyo Bay when the Japanese surrender was signed) and then worked his way up through the old Hollywood studio system. He acted with everyone from Marilyn Monroe to Cary Grant to Laurence Olivier — well over 100 movies in all.
Let’s get right to it.That’s Prince Charles at front left, riding in a little green golf cart while touring Celtic Manor golf course in Wales today, before this weekend’s Ryder Cup golf tournament.
The story goes that Beyoncé “crashed” this block party in West Orange, New Jersey.It was near the home of Jay-Z’s mom. That’s Beyoncé’s mother-in-law.Everybody in the crowd seems to know the dance moves here, but Beyoncé seems to have a certain something:
There’s just something extra-insipid about that headline.
It’s a drag when you have to rush a bank robbery because you gotta pick up the kids at school.
Film editor Sally Menke was found dead early this morning, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Although no cause of death is known, Menke had been hiking in yesterday’s extreme heat. She was 56 years old.
George Clooney and his girlfriend Elisabetta Canalis pose for photos before the Giorgio Armani show at Milan Fashion Week (that is, Milano Moda Uomo) yesterday:
A sad story, and not exactly the best PR: Jimi Heselden, CEO of the Segway corporation, has died after
The American Book of the Dead has a copy of a letter written by sci-fi legend Philip K. Dick that’s being auctioned by his widow, Tessa.
You can see the letter here, at Tessa’s blog.
A rare kinescope of Game 7 of the 1960 World Series has been found in Bing Crosby’s cellar, of all places.Why the kinescope? Crosby owned the team but couldn’t bear to watch in person.Crosby was so superstitious about hexing his Pirates that he and Kathryn listened to the game with their friends Charles and Nonie de Limur in Paris.
Former actress Lindsay Lohan is actually going to jail. So they say.
This comes after a seemingly endless parade of stories — well, more headlines than stories, really — about how she *might* be going to jail, or how she didn’t show up to court, or how she failed this or that drug test, or how she was the mastermind behind the attacks of 9/11… it’s been tough to keep up.
Here’s a trailer for the first part of the movie version of J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows:
“Deleting the gene in mice made them more skilled at navigating mazes and remembering objects.”
Thank goodness, the wait is over, and now we know who the judges will be for the next season of American Idol.
Former pop star, movie star and tabloid star Jennifer Lopez will join the panel, and so will Steven Tyler, the sometime-former-maybe frontman for the rock group Aerosmith.
Kara DioGuardi is out after two seasons.
Happy birthday to Bill Murray, who turns 60 today. He was born on this day in 1950, just five short years after the end of World War II.Now see a photo of Bill Murray in a canary-yellow parachute outfit >>
LA Weekly asks the question:
The museum in Las Vegas that’s devoted to popular pianist Liberace — “Mr. Showmanship” — is going to shutter their doors after 31 years in business. I first read about it here.
Randy Quaid update: He and his wife Evi Quaid made themselves at home while squatting in their old Montecito house, according to TMZ:
Randy Quaid is at it yet again. He and his wife Evi have been charged with burglary after they were caught squatting in the guest house of their former home near Santa Barbara.
“It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career… I never intended to trick anybody. The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind.” That was director Casey …..
From The Onion:(Hat tip: Lyle Hehn)
I’ve never once in my life seen any film of mine after I put it out. Ever. I haven’t seen “Take the Money and Run” since 1968. I haven’t seen “Annie Hall” or “Manhattan” or any film I’ve made afterward. If I’m on the treadmill and I’m scooting through the channels, and I come across one of them, I go right past it instantly, because I feel it could only depress me. I would only feel, “Oh God, this is so awful, if I could only do that again.”
Psychologist Jean Piaget died 30 years ago today.He was a specialist — a pioneer, really — in child development. See our full Piaget profile.
Justin Timberlake and Mila Kunis film a scene from their movie Friends With Benefits yesterday at Los Angeles International Airport.Yahoo Movies previews the plot:
“The thing that shocked me the most when I first met reporters was the
people who would step aside and say, ‘Boy, I wish I could say what
you’re saying.’ You have a show! You are a network anchor! Whaddya mean
you can’t say it?”
Jon Stewart, quoted in America is a Joke, New York Magazine’s new article about The Daily Show.
He’s still The Boss, of course, but Bruce Springsteen looks a wee bit older these days.Springsteen turns 61 next week, so it’s a testament to his rugged longevity that we’re only noticing now. Here he is with his wife, Patti Scialfa, at the Toronto Film Festival yesterday:
Today is the 26th birthday of Prince Harry, third in line to the British throne.
Lt. Harry Wales will spend his birthday in training to become an Apache attack helicopter pilot in the British Army Air Corps. It’s not just a one-day, birthday thing — Harry’s been in training since July, and he still has 6 months to go.
Actor Kevin McCarthy has died at the age of 96. McCarthy is best known for his starring role in the original version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the 1956 science fiction classic.
McCarthy also had a cameo in the 1978 remake starring Donald Sutherland and Leonard Nimoy.
On this day in 1903 film star Claudette Colbert was born. Colbert is best remembered for her role opposite Clark Gable in the 1934 movie It Happened One Night.
Claudette Colbert won an Oscar for that performance, and was nominated twice more after that, 1935’s Private Worlds and 1944’s Since You Went Away.
She also famously didn’t want the right side of her face photographed, and for publicity stills and in the movies went to great lengths to avoid it.
Kim Clijsters and her daughter, Jada, after the tennis star won her second straight U.S. Open yesterday.
He was at a casino, yes. But still.
The Sun-Times says thumbs up, the Tribune says thumbs down.Just like old times!
The tragedy of Joaquin Phoenix’s self-destruction has been made into “I’m Still Here,” a sad and painful documentary that serves little useful purpose other than to pound another nail into the coffin.Roger Ebert takes on the new Joaquin Phoenix “documentary.”
Car crash in the morning, record-breaking contract in the evening — everyone agrees yesterday was a wacky,
Rich Cronin, frontman for the old hip-hop boy band LFO, has died at age 36. Leukemia, alas. He’d been fighting it since 2005.LFO had their biggest hit with “Summer Girls” in 1999. I don’t think I’ve actually heard Cronin’s name before, but I vaguely remember the band itself — mainly because I knew their name stood for “Lyte Funky Ones,” which they wisely ditched in the manner of KFC.
The news from Radar Online is that Rodney King plans to marry Cynthia Kelley, a woman who sat on the jury of his civil trial against Los Angeles way back in 1993.
The civil trial was a result of the 1991 beating by Los Angeles cops that made Rodney King famous. After the 1992 trial that acquitted the officers, riots broke out in Los Angeles, prompting King to utter his famous line, “Can’t we all just get along?”
Video from Dublin, of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair arriving at a book shop to promote his new memoir, A Journey:
It sure sounds like it. (Not that he’d be a shoo-in.) The election’s in February.Rahm Emanuel himself hasn’t said a word, but the DC replacement guessing game has already started.
Congratulations to Lee Pelton, who is moving to Emerson College next year after 13 good years as president of proud and plucky Willamette University.
Colonel Sanders, founder of Kentucky Fried (‘Call Me KFC’) Chicken, was born on this day in 1890. He’s been gone for 30 years now.Meanwhile, Hugh Grant is 50.
Griping about the United States government is an American hobby (or pathology), but every once in a while it’s a good idea to step back and admire the work of those who toil away — yes, at the taxpayers’ expense! — at the unheralded task of preserving our culture, by way of the Library of Congress.The Library of Congress has always been a terrific source of Americana, and by government decree. It’s also a great place to visit, if you’re ever in Washington, D.C.
Along with this trailer for First Look Studio’s new movie, My Son, My Son, What Have You Done?, director Werner Herzog answers a series of questions posed by Twitter users.
It’s all very nutty, with Herzog gamely playing along, from answering how to have a good wedding to explaining “I don’t know who Chuck Norris is… is he an actor?”
Mark David Chapman, the man who killed ex-Beatle John Lennon in 1980, was denied parole for the sixth time yesterday. He’ll be up for parole again in 2012.
Tom Shales goes there, delicately.Showing his cranky side, and hinting at his notorious temper, Lewis
complained repeatedly about the sound equipment, the plug in his ear and
not being able to hear.
It’s been 40 years.
Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than
nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist. It is not necessary to
invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.Physicist Stephen Hawking speaks his mind on Why God Did Not Create the Universe.(“Blue touch paper” is an old-fashioned fuse for fireworks.)
Here are 10 things *I* didn’t know about President Andrew Jackson and his famous home, anyway, until my visit to The Hermitage yesterday. 1) Jackson was verrrry skinny. The man was 6’1″ and 140 pounds when elected president. (John Quincy Adams, just before him, was 5’7″ and stout; Martin Van Buren followed him at 5’6″ and also full-figured.)
It’s been a musical Labor Day Weekend for the Who2 midwest HQ. Friday it was a jazz lunch at Cincinnati’s handsome Mercantile Library, with singer Kathy Wade and pianist Ed Moss:Historical homey Salmon P. Chase looked on with (presumably) approval:
“They said I was this William Shatner character, and I figured I had to be it,” he said. “Pompous, takes himself seriously, hardheaded… So I played it. But I didn’t see it. That character doesn’t seem like me to me. I know the real William Shatner.”The New York Times studies the many iterations of William Shatner.
J.R.R. Tolkien is officially spinning in his grave… and coming up Frodo, Frodo, Frodo!
That’s Andrey Melnichenko’s $300 million super-yacht off the coast of Malibu, California today. It’s 394 feet long and shaped funny to make it tricky for pirates to board. Tricky for uninvited pirates, that is.
Michael Douglas is being treated for stage four throat cancer — a “walnut-sized” tumor at the base of his tongue. That sounds grim, but Douglas says doctors have given him an 80% chance of survival.
[ Posted September 2010 ]Well well!
1884 days counting back to her stroke on July 6, 2005, that is.Zsa Zsa Gabor was rushed to the hospital yet again yesterday, the poor kid, after being found “unresponsive.” But it turns out it’s not life-threatening. “Reports of my mother’s passing are hurtful and unprofessional,” says her daughter, Constance Francesca Hilton.
“The American” is an exercise in style and withheld sentiment, a bleak
and atmospheric art-house thriller that’s more of an aesthetic
experience than an emotional one.Wahhhhh. Funny, the trailer makes it seem a little more exciting.
The Internet’s ironic love affair with The Family Circus continues with The Jersey Circus. Yes, all captions are actual utterances from the Jersey Shore cast.