Billy the Kid will not receive a pardon from Gov. Bill Richardson on Richardson’s last day in office.The New Mexico governor made his decision public today, after much outside speculation and derision. (The full text of his announcement is reprinted below.) Money quote:
Tell me this dog isn’t cute. Heidi became the latest St. Bernard “in residence” at Oregon’s Timberline Lodge in September. My cousin, Kristin Garrett, is the wrangler.
Paul Bowles, noted expatriate and author of The Sheltering Sky, was born on this day 100 years ago.Fans have been celebrating all year.Paul Bowles lived to be nearly 89 and stayed in Morocco ’til the bitter end, as this 1998 interview shows.
Dr. J and Larry Bird (and Magic Johnson too!) love their Chuck Taylors. Not actually chewable, but definitely gumball-colored. Official shoe of the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, y’know.
She’s no longer 97 going on 98.Sorry, couldn’t resist. The sad truth is, Agathe von Trapp has died at age 97 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Philosopher Jeremy Bentham is a longtime star of our loop Oddly Preserved, thanks to his unusual demand that his body should be saved, dressed up, and displayed to friends and followers.Here Professor Philip Schofield of University College London tells the story, as Jeremy Bentham’s corpse looks on.
Enough! Enough of these endless headlines about a maybe-pardon for Billy the Kid. Since nobody has explained to my satisfaction why we’re even talking about it in 2010, I’ve done the research. Here are the answers to your eight burning questions about Billy the Kid and the Great Dopey Pardon Scandal of 2010.
Here’s our big list. It starts with feminist Mary Daly on January 3rd, and ends (so far) with JFK advisor Ted Sorensen on October 31st.Who was the most famous person to die in 2010? Tthere’s no real standout there. I give the nod either to Catcher in the Rye author J.D. Salinger, or to Hollywood icon Tony Curtis.
If Marlene Dietrich were still alive, she’d be 109 years old today.
My guess is we’d still be reading about her exploits in Hollywood — suggestive rumors about her “close” relationships with Jesse McCartney and, say, Lady GaGa.
And still making visits to the troops overseas, singing a dubstep version of “Falling in Love Again (Can’t Help It)” (remixed by Kanye and available on iTunes).
Over at HistoryNet.com this month, there’s a terrific piece by author William Secrest titled “The Calamities of Calamity Jane.”
Born Martha Jane Cannary in Missouri around 1852, she became a notorious resident of Deadwood in the Dakotas during the Gold Rush of the 1870s. By the 1880s, the legend of “Calamity Jane” had spread to the east coast in the form of dime novels, newspaper accounts and stage plays.
Kudos and thumbs up to True Grit, the 2010 reboot of the 1969 film that won John Wayne his first Oscar. It’s a great holiday flick.
[ Update, June 2011: Wait, the wedding is off! ]”When I gave Crystal the ring, she burst into tears. This is the happiest Christmas weekend in memory.”
Last December I wrote an encomium to Christmas in Connecticut, the most delightful Christmas movie ever made. Here’s what I had to say about veteran character actor S.Z. Sakall:
Aaron Carter is not dead, according to Aaron Carter. He so tweeted on Christmas Eve:”This is the real Aaron Carter I know there’s a Hoax Going Around, But I’m Here, Alive & Well. At the compound Working on my mind & soul.”Finally: Aaron Carter has something in common with Alexander the Great.
How many ads, promotions and odd themes can you work into one Santa Claus photo?Here we have jolly old St. Nick posing with Richie Rich, the club kid-turned-fashion maven.
Our friends at WENN have sent us a new photo of Justin Bieber, with this mysterious caption: “Justin Bieber and his ‘Swagger Coach,’ Ryan Good, wear moustaches on a recent …..
Who will step in and shut down this insane Broadway production of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark?
The British actress Jenny Agutter turns 58 today.
In this photo, Candice Swanepoel is…1) Giggling at the absurdity of the modeling business2) Showing off an engagement ring from Leonardo DiCaprio
Don Van Vliet, the painter who became famous in the late 1960s as Captain Beefheart, died yesterday from complications related to multiple sclerosis. He was 69 years old.
Captain Beefheart and his Magic Band’s most famous album is 1969’s Trout Mask Replica, produced by his pal and collaborator Frank Zappa. Captain Beefheart also sings on “Willie the Pimp” from Zappa’s album Hot Rats.
A holiday classic from 2009: five Christmas songs we wish would just go away.
Johnny Depp poses with Angelina Jolie in Berlin at the premiere for the second-biggest movie of the holiday season.
I was in downtown Portland, Oregon today, and I took a couple of photos of this Abraham Lincoln statue that is in what the locals call “the Park blocks.”
The Onion has the story.
TV preacher Oral Roberts died one year ago today.
Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter, two of Jeopardy!’s all-time great champs, will compete against an IBM computer named Watson on the show in February.Jennings and Rutter could win a million bucks. If Watson wins, he gets a soothing oil bath.
You probably know Noomi Rapace as Lisbeth Salander, the hard-case hacker heroine of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo and its two Swedish sequels.
Watch this moving clip that takes Yogi Bear and Boo Boo and puts them right into the Brad Pitt and Casey Affleck movie The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford:
Calling it a “minor setback for a major comeback,” rapper and sort-of actor Ja Rule reached a plea agreement with New York authorities that will have him spending at least 16 months in jail.
Grab a bushel of corn and raise a toast: Tom Vilsack was born on this day in 1950. He has been America’s Secretary of Agriculture since January of 2009.
What if the Supreme Court had given the election to Al Gore instead of George W. Bush? New York magazine imagines.
According to this story from Discovery.com, a bone fragment found on the uninhabited Pacific island of Nikumaroro may be part of Amelia Earhart’s finger.
Amelia Earhart and her finger disappeared 73 years ago while attempting an around-the-world flight with navigator Fred Noonan.
Mark Madoff, the elder son of jailed-for-life investment fraud Bernard Madoff, has committed suicide. He hung himself with a dog leash in Manhattan. It happened on the second anniversary of Bernard Madoff’s 2008 arrest.
Yes, Sotheby’s in New York made headlines again today, with the sale of a 7th Cavalry standard (flag) that is one of the last remaining artifacts of the General Custer debacle at the 1863 Battle of Little Big Horn.
Here’s a letter to Robert Krulwich of National Public Radio’s science blog, in answer to a question he posed about why the first men on the moon didn’t travel very far from the lunar module.
The letter is from Neil Armstrong, who just happened to be the first man to step foot on the moon. He also took a lot of the photos and video from Apollo 11’s 1969 trip.
Today a federal jury in Salt Lake City, Utah found Brian David Mitchell guilty of kidnapping and raping Elizabeth Smart back in 2002, when Smart was just 14 years old.
Brian David Mitchell never denied that he took Elizabeth Smart from her home and held her captive for nine months of sexual abuse. Mitchell’s defense that he did it because he was out of his head with delusions.
Surprising but true: Richard Pryor died only five years ago today, on 10 September 2005, of a heart attack. He was only 65.
Formula 1 boss Bernie Ecclestone was mugged in London recently. The thieves gave him a black eye and took $315,000 worth of jewelry — including a Breitling “H
They’re calling it “the world’s most expensive book”: A copy of John J. Audubon’s Birds of America was sold at auction yesterday for about $11.5 million.
Read about the sale here at The Guardian.
It’s a big book. It’s actually four books, and they contain 435 prints — handpainted watercolors — that are about two feet by three feet.
It’s two years in the slammer for Aretha Wilson, the woman who in 2005 crashed a party and jabbed a broken beer bottle into the face of actor Leonardo DiCaprio.
Read the brief news item here.
Surely this will be the strangest photo to come out of the 30th anniversary of John Lennon’s death.
Jon Stewart mocked the alleged War on Christmas pretty darn good in last night’s Daily Show. This after Fox News attacked a renamed “Holiday Parade” in Tulsa, Oklahoma.Skip ahead to the 4:50 mark for the really funny part: a parody with Rudolph, Charlie Brown, and the whole “holiday” gang.
The founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, was arrested today in London.
Julian Assange has been accused of sexual assault and is wanted by Swedish authorities. Reports are that British authorities will agree to extradite him to Sweden.
Assange’s defenders claim the charges are just a way to keep WikiLeaks from publishing more classified documents, but who knows.
Below is a long-ish report from India with a limited number of video clips of Julian Assange:
Andrew Sullivan puts the best possible face on the deal for Democrats.
Here’s a December 7th salute to Admiral Chester Nimitz.After the disaster of Pearl Harbor in 1941 (disaster for American forces, that is), Nimitz was the man appointed by President Franklin Roosevelt to take over the U.S. Navy’s Pacific Fleet and clean up the mess.
Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt delivered the movie glamour on Monday night at the world premiere of The Tourist in New York City. Angelina Jolie stars with Johnny Depp in the big-budget thriller, set and filmed in Venice (
Step aside, thrice-wed Danny Bonaduce, because Kelsey Grammer is lining up number four.
There was an auction yesterday of Johnny Cash memorabilia, and the hottest item ended up being a blue jumpsuit that Johnny Cash wore while rehearsing at Folsom Prison in California.
It went for $50,000.
The auction was held by Juliens Auction. You may remember them as the ones who auctioned off the chest x-rays of Hollywood icon Marilyn Monroe. If you don’t remember that, join the club!
Happy 65th birthday to Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood. He was born on this day in 1945.
{Editor’s note: First published on December 5, 2010. See our Bill Cosby biography for updates on his later convictions and imprisonment.} “My father said, ‘Junior, it takes a man to play …..
They caught Charles Manson with a cell phone in prison. Read about it here at FoxNews.
Charles Manson isn’t supposed to have a cell phone in prison, you see. The report says he called and texted people in California, New Jersey, Florida and British Columbia. I can imagine: “no parole 4 me, FML.”
Danny Bonaduce, still of Partridge Family fame, has married his manager in a surprise ceremony in Hawaii. It’s only his third marriage, so perhaps it’s not fair to give him the “oh dear heavens” treatment. Good luck to
Dig this video from The Hollywood Reporter, featuring actors Jesse Eisenberg (he plays Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network), Mark Ruffalo and Robert Duvall.
Eisenberg talks about his experiences doing multiple takes for the movie’s director, David Fincher. Jesse Eisenberg puts a positive spin on the whole deal.
But not for what you think.
Vladimir Putin probably knew about plans to murder dissident journalist Alexander Litvinenko in 2006, according to American diplomatic cables released by Wikileaks. Litvinenko, you may recall, was poisoned with Polonium-210 in 2006 in London. He accused Putin of his murder before he died.Litvinenko’s assassin now enjoys the “personal protection of Putin,” say the cables, which also call Russia a “virtual mafia state.”
Of course, Rolling Stone adds “of all time” to their title. That’s so we don’t get confused and start thinking they mean “greatest rock feuds of the Elizabethan Period.”
Here’s their gallery of the feuderists. They lead with Mick and Keef, two of the buncha guys who make up the Rolling Stones.
Today is the anniversary of Mark Twain’s birth. Mark Twain was born in 1835, in Florida, Missouri.
He has a new book out! Not bad for someone who died a hundred years ago.
Mark Twain was as popular in his time for his public performances as he was for his sarcastic remarks on the printed page. Mark Twain was a celebrity, not simply some guy to be hailed by future professors for two or three books that became part of the canon.
The day after Thanksgiving, country music legend Willie Nelson, age 77, was arrested at a Texas border crossing and charged with possession of marijuana.
Today the Hudspeth County Sheriff’s Office there released Willie Nelson’s mugshot — his booking photo — and a copy of the arrest report.
Willie’s mugshot is making the rounds, naturally. You can see the arrest report here.
“By the time the film… opens next July, the studio expects advertising and future promotions to have persuaded almost everyone that Mr. Favreau’s movie is a tough-minded adventure on the order of Clint Eastwood’s Unforgiven — with aliens.”It may sound like an action comedy, but Jon Favreau’s Cowboys and Aliens is actually supposed to be really scary.Now that you know, watch that trailer again:
Irvin Kershner, who directed the Star Wars sequel The Empire Strikes Back, has died after a long illness
The Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show 2010 is upon us. Victoria’s Secret is featuring eight of its angels — their term for key spokesmodels — in this year’s show on November 30th. Because You Asked For It, here are photos and a few facts for each of the 2010 Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show angels. Click any photo to see more pictures of that model.
Actor Leslie Nielsen has died at age 84. The cause was complications from pneumonia, a spokesman said.
Ed Harris turns 60 today. He was born in New Jersey on 28 November 1950.
According to this story from The Telegraph, we’re about to be bowled over at the cineplex by Abraham Lincoln. Abe Lincoln has been called the most famous of all the Civil War presidents.
President Lincoln was kilt in 1865, shot by John Wilkes Booth.
Former Republican bigwig Tom Delay was convicted today of money laundering. He faces a sentence of life in prison.
Known as “The Hammer” at the peak of his power, Tom Delay was one of those fake-populist politicians who was on Jack Abramoff’s GOP money train in the early 2000s.
Tom Delay’s idea of family values involved spending a lot of American tax dollars paying his wife and daughter. Tom Delay’s commitment to the U.S. Constitution had a lot to do with playing golf in exotic locations.
When he’s an impostor:
Roald Dahl died on this day in 1990. He was 74.
Roald Dahl is known mostly for his books for children. For his creepy, funny books for children. James and the Giant Peach and The Witches and The BFG and The Fantastic Mr. Fox and, of course, what some have called one of the best children’s books ever, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
“Those of a cynical bent noted that the newly-weds would share their wedding anniversary with Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun.”Anti-royalist as ever, The Guardian comments on the April 29th wedding date of Prince William and Kate Middleton.
Guy Laliberte — fire-breather, founder of Cirque du Soleil, and one of the world’s richest humans — got his star yesterday on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Avril Lavigne made the scene at the American Music Awards last night in leopard-print toenails. Black velvet and spangles: Elvis would be proud. Justin Bieber was named artist of the …..
Chandra Levy was killed by Ingmar Guandique in 2001, a jury found today.After four days of deliberations, a Wasington DC jury found that Guandique killed Chandra Levy as she was jogging in Rock Creek Park in 2001. Gaundique will be sentenced later. Washington has no death
penalty, so he is expected to received from 30 years to life in prison.
John F. Kennedy was shot to death on this day in 1963 by Lee Harvey Oswald. Lyndon Johnson is sworn in as president on Air Force One after the death of John F. Kennedy on 22 November 1963.
Tommy Lee Jones has cooled a little onscreen, with a mere 10 films in the last 10 years compared to 20 in the glorious 1990s when he starred in The Fugitive, Men In Black, Batman Forever and a bunch of other great films.
On this day in 1831 James Garfield was born in Ohio. He was the 20th president of the United States — but not for long. Four months into his term, on 2 July 1881, he was shot twice by Charles Guiteau.
Now Joan Baez really has something in common with Keith Richards. The folk legend is “resting comfortably” after falling out of her backyard treehouse yesterday.
Queen Elizabeth and Prince Philip put on 3D glasses yesterday at the University of Sheffield. They were actually driving a virtual backhoe, not watching Avatar. The Queen looked tentative at first, but then seemed to get the hang of 3D.
Cartoon icon Mickey Mouse quietly celebrated his 82nd birthday today, in a hidden estate in the French Riviera.Mouse, who has not been seen in public since 1984, is believed to be in ill-health and has been in a wheelchair since his 2007 wedding to actress Uma Thurman.
Today is the anniversary of the first meeting of the U.S. Congress in the new capitol of Washington, D.C.
President George Washington laid the cornerstone for the new center of government in 1793, but elected officials didn’t meet in Washington, D.C. until this fall day in 1800.
They were in a hurry to leave Philadelphia, where malaria and cholera were making even the most eloquent statesmen say, “’tis a bummer, indeed.”
[Nov. 22 update: YouTube has pulled the clip at the insistence of NBC, alas.]If you haven’t seen the cool-irritating video by Willow “Another One of Will Smith’s Kids” Smith for her song “Whip My Hair,” you can see it here. Like most music videos of pop songs, you don’t have to watch the whole thing.
Prince William and his new fiancee Kate Middleton had a royal engagement photocall today, in the State Apartments of St. James Palace in London. Nice setting.
Prince William and his longtime girlfriend Kate Middleton are engaged to be married.
Tycho Brahe, the genius Danish astronomer and wearer of metal noses, is being exhumed by scientists in Prague who want to know how he died.The cause-of-death candidates are:
English author J. G. Ballard was born today in 1930, in Shanghai, China. He died last year at the age of 78. In his honor, I stacked some stuff on a cat.
I will be gone for a few days, so I’ll leave you with some cool links:
Letters of Note — I’d steal something from this every day, if it weren’t so uncool to do that.
Another great site to visit is from the U.S. National Archives, their Today’s Document from the National Archives. Always something interesting there.
Hollywood Insider reported this week on plans to make a movie based on the Rubik’s Cube, the puzzle toy created by Hungarian designer Erno Rubik in 1974.
Sure, there are board games based on movies, but movies based on board games and puzzles?
On this day in 1918 Spiro Theodore Agnew was born in Baltimore County, Maryland.
He was the son of Greek immigrants whose original name was Anagnostopoulos. He liked to be called Ted. His law school education was interrupted by service in the Tenth Armored Division during World War II. He saw combat in France and Germany.
Spiro Agnew was a suburban Baltimore lawyer, and a Democrat until 1947, when he became a Republican. From a background in county politics, he was elected Maryland’s governor in 1966.
The Freelance Review has a glimpse at art chosen for the White House by First Lady Michelle Obama.
The British Monarchy has a Facebook page, you know.
Be friends with Queen Elizabeth! See photos of Prince Harry and Prince Charles and Prince William and Prince Philip and Prince Nelson!
Okay, maybe not that last one.
Thanks to the blog Farbror Sid for this old photograph of Jane Fonda:
Colonel Sanders is a hit in China, as we once noted. Now here’s proof that he’s also a revered figure in Japan:
You have to hand it to the folks behind this this video response to the Nike and Lebron James commercial called “Rise.”
The “Rise” video deserves all the grief — it’s too precious by half. Here you can see the Cleveland “response” and the original ad:
Some people celebrate November 5 in honor of British terrorist Guy Fawkes, the Catholic revolutionary who tried to blow up the Houses of Parliament in 1605.
Nowadays Fawkes is associated with comics legend Alan Moore, whose V for Vendetta has co-opted (or furthered) the Fawkes legend.
To read about some of the celebrations, try this feature from AOL News.
Over at the National Archives, today’s Document for Today is a letter from Richard Nixon to baseball legend Jackie Robinson, just prior to the presidential election of 1960.
Nixon thanks Robinson for his support, with a lot of yakety-yak about civil rights that now sounds pretty phony. Robinson supported Nixon over Kennedy in that election. Nixon lost that one.
Rapper Lil Wayne was released from jail today, after serving 8 months of a 12 month sentence.
From Lil Wayne’s Twitter account.
Thanks to the Huffington Post for this fashion (wink, wink) show by Mad Men star January Jones.
(2008 photo supplied by WENN.com)
According to this story in the Daily Mail, famous TV chef and restaurateur Gordon Ramsay continues on a financial slide.
Last year he admitted things weren’t going so grand. He sold off his Ferrari, closed several of his high-end restaurants, and tried to reorganize his empire.
Today is Adam Ant’s birthday. He’s 56.
Not even historical revisionism has saved the reputation of President Warren G. Harding. Not yet, anyway.
Harding still comes in last in most rankings of U.S. presidents. Even if he did have a famous dog.
Eight years after Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home in Salt Lake City, Utah, the trial for accused kidnapper Brian David Mitchell begins today in federal court.
Smart was 14 years old when she was kidnapped in 2002, taken from her home on the night of 5 June. She was missing until 12 March 2003, when she was found in a Salt Lake City suburb with Mitchell and his wife, Wanda Ilene Barzee.
Ted Sorensen has died of a stroke in New York City. He was 82 years old.
Yesterday Radar Online featured this “bizarre audio” of a statement by actor Randy Quaid.
Quaid explains his (and his wife’s) strange behavior of the last few months as his attempt to get himself free of shadowy group of accountants and lawyers he calls “a malignant tumor of star whackers in Hollywood.”
If you were on a deserted desert island, and the only way to get off was to think about Hollywood’s most famous fashion designer, wouldn’t you think of Head? Of course you would. Edith Head is easily the most famous costume designer in Hollywood history. And today is her birthday.
She costumed more than a thousand films (11 of them for Alfred Hitchcock, and she won 8 Oscars over a career that spanned sixty years.
In her honor, here are a few videos:
John Cleese of Monty Python’s Flying Circus was born on this day in 1939.
Here’s a very young (and clean-cut) Frank Zappa on the old Steve Allen show.
Even though Steve Allen is clearly mocking Frank for being a “bicycle player” (which is what this clip is about), it’s good to remember that Steve Allen was with-it enough to invite Zappa to appear.
Frank Zappa, for his part, is very cool and very clever.
Hillary Clinton turns 63 today. Happy birthday, Madam Secretary of State!
What a career she’s had. Working for the U.S. Congress, she helped put the screws to President Richard Nixon in 1974. She was the First Lady of Arkansas for twelve years. She stayed married to that guy in the White House and was First Lady of the United States for eight years. She was a U.S. senator for the state of New York for about eight years.
Somewhere, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is celebrating. Paul the Octopus has died.
Quite possibly.
File this under “weird but true.”Cuddly children’s TV host Mister Rogers was never an Army sniper, despite the rumors over the years. Neither was cuddly, bespectacled singer John Denver.
Mr. Hehn has posted a new biography of Robert Bork.
Actor Matt Damon (right) with his father, Kent Damon, last month at the premiere of the Boston-based heist movie The Town.
Quick quiz: Rank these actors, from oldest to youngest:
Here, from the German version of Fox Home Entertainment, is a trailer auf Deutsch for Gansgster für eine Nacht, starring Steve Carell and Tina Fey.
You may also know it as Date Night.
Speaking earlier of gridiron bons mots, we linked to this page f
Heh. NFL quarterback Tom Brady had a little on-field argument with linebacker Terrell Suggs during the Ravens-Patriots game last Sunday. Suggs’s account of the rhubarb:
Over at Team Coco on YouTube you can see a live video feed from the offices of Conan O’Brien.
Of course, it’s boring. So we’ve created a brief sample:
John McTiernan gets a year in prison for wiretapping a producer.He should have gotten an extra year for The Thomas Crown Affair.
So Ginny Thomas — wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — called Anita Hill this week, out of the blue, to ask for an apology. The transcript of the phone message:
Ever wonder what shoe purveyor Manolo Blahnik of Sex and the City fame looks like? Us either. But here he was last night in London, at a launch party for Bryan Ferry’s new album Olympia.
[Note: Posted in October 2010]
Jiminy, it’s hard to keep up with the antics of actor Randy Quaid. He and his wife, Evi Quaid, have been tearing up the west coast on the lamest crime spree in modern history — trashing hotels, messing with the landlord and now missing another court date.
I didn’t know that the late Barbara Billingsley was the “I speak jive” lady from the 1980 comedy Airplane.
Washington DC intern Chandra Levy disappeared in 2001, and her remains were found the next year in Rock Creek Park. The sensational case ended the political career of Rep.
Nice to see Michael J. Fox back in action.(Hat tip: Mr. Duffy)
He spelled it despatch in his dictionary… by accident?
Mr. Hehn has posted a new biography of Minka Kelly.
Perhaps it shouldn’t be that much of a surprise, but Adam Sandler is dressing like a girl for his next movie, Jack and Jill. Sandler plays both title parts, it seems, as a family man who struggles with a twin sister who comes for vacation and
Today is the anniversary of the birth of New England poet E.E. Cummings. He was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts in 1894.
The wonderful UbuWeb sound catalog includes two poems read by E.E. Cummings:
That Melancholy
And
There is a story in the Washington Post called Since Dick Cheney shot him, Harry Whittington’s aim has been to move on.
It’s about the man who was shot in the face in February of 2006 by Vice President Dick Cheney. No, not on the Senate floor — on a quail hunt in Texas.
Conan O’Brien seems to be having fun promoting his new show.
Georgia is passing the collar to a new mascot.
“We have lived a magical night, a night we will remember throughout our
lives, a night in which life defeated death.”Last year it was the Miracle of the Hudson — this year it’s the Miracle of the Mine. All 33 Chilean miners are safe and sound.
Simpler times.The Senate historian describes the day in 1945 that Harry Truman became president of the United States:
Jenn Sterger is the woman tangled up in the Brett Favre brouhaha. (Favre allegedly sent her naughty photos when both worked for the New York Jets, though Sterger herself isn’t the one making the allegations.)
[Note: posted in October of 2010.]
“To all those who ever dreamed of nailing a Secretary-General to the wall, today is your day!”
Florencio Avalos was the first out at 4:11 am GMT (12:11 am in Chile) on Wednesday morning. “Los 33” are coming out at about the rate of one per hour.The Guardian is live-blogging.
From time to time our friends at WENN send us photos of the latest statue at Madame Tussaud’s waxworks in London. The shots of staff members touching things up never quite get old, somehow.
Happy birthday to author Elmore Leonard, who turns 85 years old today.
It’s true: 20th Century Fox has bought the rights for a live-action feature film based on the comic strip The Family Circus.Jennifer Love Hewitt should be a lock to play Thel, but the real question is: who’s going to direct? Let’s explore the possibilities, starting with this real-life Family Circus cartoon:
The CBC reports on the planned procedure and on the surprisingly large escape capsule (left). Why so big?
From a 2008 interview of Mad Men star Jon Hamm, conducted by fellow actor Paul Rudd:PR: Who’s your favorite cartoon potato-chip mascot?JH: The guy on the Pringles can. He looks like an old-time
shopkeeper, but he’s made of potato chips. If he got in a fight with Mr. Peanut and Mr. Salty, who do you think would come out on top?PR: Can Mr. Peanut use his cane as a weapon?JH: Absolutely.
Where has this sharp, feisty, straight-talking guy been for the last two years? He’s been so far offstage, I wasn’t sure he was even still in the theater.Here’s the Rolling Stone Barack Obama cover, by Mark Seliger.
And she paid her own way to the auditions for Bull Durham.
Nobel Peace Prize laureate Desmond Tutu turns 79 today, and he announced his retirement from public life.
That doesn’t mean he’ll stop working altogether. He still has a peace center to run, after all. Archbishop Tutu said he’ll be giving up his university position and stop giving interviews. He plans to spend more time with his wife.
Lou Dobbs bashed illegal aliens on CNN while hiring them to handle his daughter’s horses.So says The Nation.
Charles Rocket, the former TV news anchor who joined the cast of Saturday Night Live only to be fired in 1981, killed himself five years ago today.Some think Rocket was a victim of the Saturday Night Live curse.
During an interview with New York magazine, actor and struggling musician Keanu Reeves was told about the “Sad Keanu” meme on the internet.
Robert De Niro and Monica Bellucci stroll on the set of Manual Love 3 yesterday in Rome. At least, our friends at WENN identify the title as “Manual Love 3,” which sounds not-quite-right.
Prince William — “Flight Leftenant Wales” as he’s called in this video — has participated in his first rescue mission.Pulled a heart attack victim off a gas rig.
Thanks to this bit from Twitchfilm.net, we now have an idea of what the Japanese remake of the cheesy ’80s movie Ghost will be like. Looks like extra cheese.
First Monday in October, and the new Supreme Court gets down to business.
From Diagonal U.K., a video of the world’s shortest man, Edward “Nino” Hernandez, in Bogota, Colombia (the video spells the country’s name wrong):
Rock and blues singer Janis Joplin died on this day in 1970.
Yes, Diana Rigg was once tied to a miniature railroad track.Courtesy of Wikipedia comes this lovely nameplate from the Stapleford Miniature Railway. The episode was “The Gravediggers.” The Avengers Forever website notes:
I Married a Mad Man — a 2009 article by the wife of ad man Draper Daniels, the guy who Don Draper was supposedly, partly, modeled after.
We see that the U.S. Army has a special page in its FAQ for the question, “What is the history of Elvis Presley’s military career?”
This portrait of Angelina Jolie on a visit to the uncanny valley just arrived in our mailbox from a Who2 user named Rajacenna.
TV writer and producer Stephen Cannell has died at age 69. He co-created The Rockford Files, that wonderful 1970s detective show starring James Garner, along with The A-Team, Baretta (back …..
Thanks to Buzzfeed.com for this collection of Funniest Moments: Zach Galifianakis.
It includes clips from his stand-up routine, TV appearances and his newest movie, It’s Kind of a Funny Story.
See our profile on Zach Galifianakis.
The David Fincher film The Social Network opened this week. The star of the movie, playing Facebook man Mark Zuckerberg, is an actor named Jesse Eisenberg.I kept thinking “who the heck is Jesse Eisenberg?” I looked up his filmography. I have some thoughts on the matter.
Wow: Julie Andrews is 75 years old today. That’s her above on Broadway in My Fair Lady in 1956, just 54 short years ago.
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.
How beautiful to hear those words — spoken by President Barack Obama from the Oval Office on Tuesday night. We’re not out of Iraq by a long shot: 50,000 U.S. troops are still there. They’re all supposed to be home by the end of 2011. In the meantime, what a great step in the right direction.
After three years of keeping mum, former British Prime Minister
Roger Federer played a terrific between-the-legs shot — a “tweener,” as the announcer calls it — in his first match of the 2010 U.S. Open last night.
ASU Professor Steve Doig was part of a team that used high-def overhead photos to count the crowds at Glenn Beck’s rally at the Lincoln Memorial on Saturday. Beck him
President Barack Obama, with his wife Michelle (at top) and daughters Malia (right) and Sasha, returned to the White House yesterday after the family’s 10-day vacation in Martha’s Vineyard. All four made a stopo
This week on the Who2 blog:
“Miss Hilton pulled out a tube of lip balm. At the same time … a bindle of cocaine in a plastic bag came out of her purse” in plain view of police in the room.The Las Vegas Review-Journal on Paris Hilton’s Friday-night arrest for cocaine possession.
Our new profile of veteran actor Eli Wallach has just been posted by editor Paul Hehn.You look at recent photos of Eli Wallach and think, oh, here’s this grandfatherly old fellow who pinches babies’ cheeks and wears tweed socks and sits on park benches looking harmlessly at pretty girls as they jog past.
Political analyst Nate Silver has moved his excellent blog, FiveThirtyEight.com, to the New York Times.
The original Kermit the Frog has “come home” to Washington, DC.
If so, you see the Google logo 50 times a day.
Here’s a great column by my favorite sports columnist, George Vescey, on Cincinnati baseball hero Joey Votto.
I went to see The Expendables, knowing it wouldn’t be a very good movie. The only thing that would have made it worse is if it had been a better movie. As it is, it’s delightfully bad.
Last March NPR did a story on a proposed opera based on the turbulent life of model Anna Nicole Smith. Now the U.K. press is reporting that the opera will …..
[Note: First published on August 25, 2010]
The story about DNA tests on the relatives of Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler — and you can read that story
Samantha Cameron, wife of British Prime Minister David Cameron, has given birth to their fourth child. It’s a girl.No name yet. The BBC says bookmakers are favoring Marnie, Enid, Annabel and Elizabeth.
David Hasselhoff shook hands with a giant German bear near the Brandenburg Gate today. We have photos.Those are David Hasselhoff’s daughters at left: Taylor Ann Hasselhoff (sort of blonde) and Hayley Amber Hasselhoff (very blonde). The bear is also a blonde. He moved in for a closeup:
Yes, he did — during the show’s first Toronto run in 1972-73.
“We are sad that our marriage is over and we wish each other the very best for the future.” Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren, speaking from beyond wedlock in their …..
Two excitable fans meet actor Rupert Grint, of Harry Potter film fame, at a London PR event for Grint’s film Cherrybomb.Now see a photo of Rupert Grint in a dungeon >>
The 180-year-old chestnut tree that cheered Anne Frank while she was in hiding has finally fallen in a rainstorm. MSNBC has an impressive photo.The tree was saved from destruction in 2007, but fell of its own accord overnight.
Actor River Phoenix would have turned 40 today.
Who said there are no second acts in American lives? Here’s disgraced former Governor Rod Blagojevich posing with Adam “TV’s Batman” West at this weekend’s Wizard World 2010 Chicago Comic Con.
Could be:That’s Taylor Momsen at left, performing today with her band, The Pretty Reckless, at the V Festival in Chelmsford, England. But Momsen typically doesn’t look that much like Cousin Itt, except maybe for the spectacles:
Fred Durst, front man for Limp Bizkit, turns 40 today.Other musicians who turn 40 this year: DMX, Beck, and Josie and the Pussycats.
The Cincinnati Reds wanted to honor Pete “Banned for Gambling” Rose on the 25th anniversary of the day he became baseball’s all-time hit leader. They even got special permission from Major League Baseball to do so.
A grand jury has thrown a fastball at the head of Roger Clemens.
Remarkable footage from Tafalla, Spain, where a bull jumped out of the ring yesterday and injured 40 bullfight fans.
This photo from the set of The Invention of Hugo Cabret caught my eye. Could acclaimed director Martin Scorsese really be that much shorter than everyone else?
Talk radio host Laura Schlessinger announced her decision to end her long-running radio show. Here she is, explaining her decision to Larry King:
“Right away after I hit it I thought it was a home run. Going around the bases, I could hardly breathe. I was starting to
hyperventilate.”Bobby Thompson, the Scot who hit the 1951 home run known as “The Shot Heard ‘Round the World,” has died at age 86.
Ha ha ha! I just found myself chortling uncontrollably while reading Joe Sacco’s comic, “Portrait of the Artist as a Dog Owner.”
Happy 50th birthday to terrific actor Sean Penn.Sean Penn was born on 17 August 1960 in Burbank, California. Being born just over the hill from Hollywood, it’s no surprise Penn ended up as an actor — though it’s maybe a surprise that he ended up being such a good actor.In honor of his 50th birthday, here’s a photo collection of the many faces of Sean Penn. As we’ll see, those many faces have had many different sideburns.
Here it is: New Yorkers Read Amanda Bynes’ Tweets.
She talks about perverts, creepers, Life and Beyoncé.
Some folks also make fun of Amanda Bynes’s tweets.
Zsa Zsa Gabor took a turn for the worse over the weekend, being “rushed” back to UCLA Medical Center on Friday and having blood clots removed. Saturday, her 20th wedding anniversary, was spent in the hospital with her husband, Frederic von Anhalt, at he
Could these men look any more British?
With a quickie bonus reverie, for some reason, about Lost in Translation.
At the tender age of 22, actress Hilary Duff has married hockey player Mike Comrie.
It cracks me up that both The Telegraph and The Guardian call Dr. Laura an “agony aunt” in describing her racial struggles this week.As Fat Tony says on The Simpsons, “It’s funny because it’s true.”
We’ve just posted a new profile of Wyclef Jean — hip-hop star, producer, former member of the Fugees, and now candidate for president of Haiti.
A few days ago we asked the musical question, “Why does Sly Stallone have a plastic bear dangling from his cell phone?”
“Serial Stabbing Suspect a ‘Gentle Giant’ But With a History of Violence.”ABC News on murder suspect Elias Abuelazam.Alternate headline: “Big Ol’ Teddy Bear of a Man Also Liked to Stab People.”
Things we didn’t know about the retiring Cathy Guisewite, courtesy of Wikipedia:
Can’t resist pointing out this photo by Matt Sullivan for Reuters, taken during practice for this week’s PGA Championships. The tournament is in Wisconsin — hence the cheese head atop the tiger. (That is, atop the tiger with giant biceps and claws holding a golf ball on a tee. Atop a baseball cap.)
This career has been a miracle – it let me turn every anxiety into art, be paid for it and connect in such a deep way with millions of other women.Cartoonist Cathy Guisewite says it all about her comic strip, Cathy, which will end on October 3rd.
“When she starts flirting, she is in good shape.”Zsa Zsa Gabor is out of the hospital, says her husband.
Now, that’s a pretty cool Google Doodle. The Wizard of Oz was released on 12 August 1939, making it (as the Google Doodle points out) 71 years old today. The premiere was at the Strand Theater in Oconomowoc, Wisconsin. Why Oconomowoc?
Because we just like photos of presidents getting sports jerseys. That’s Super Bowl-winning quarterback Drew Brees on the left, with other members of the New Orleans Saints in the background. Barack Obama is the 44th U.S. president.
[Update 2: It’s official: Stevens was indeed killed in the Alaska plane crash, according to family spokesman Mitch Rose. The website NASA Watch says that former NASA chief Sean O’Keefe was also on board, but survived.]
That’s Sylvester Stallone, outside a London theater last night for the U.K. premiere of his movie The Expendables.But wait: what’s that hanging from his cell phone?
Buzz Aldrin turned up at the Scientology Celebrity Center in Los Angeles this weekend for the “Church of Scientology Celebrity Center 41st Anniversary Gala.”
Jerry Garcia, leader of The Grateful Dead, died 15 years ago today — on 9 August 1995 — while trying to detox at a Marin County rehab clinic.
Author Kurt Vonnegut on semicolons, from a speech at Albion College in 2002.
Simon Cowell was caught topless “by accident” while changing yachts in Nice, France yesterday. His chest was in marvelous shape. As described by our friends at WENN:
Zsa Zsa Gabor is not stuck on morphine after her hospital stay. Quite the opposite:During her stay at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, Gabor had a bad reaction to morphine, but her condition improved when she was switched to a diffe
In celebration of M. Night Shyamalan’s birthday today, I will almost apologize for ragging on him a couple of weeks ago. Just because you don’t like a director’s movies is no reason to criticize his work, right?
If I were allowed to ask him 10 questions, that might be one of them. But I’m not in that position, so instead here’s TIME magazine asking him 10 questions.
Teenage pop star Justin Bieber signed a deal to release a memoir later this year. But the memoir won’t be a memoir. That’s what Justin says in this story from Entertainment Wise.
The first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, turns 80 years old today. Happy birthday, Mr. Armstrong!
Yes, they’re putting tweets from Kanye West on cartoons from The New Yorker.
Here’s a gallery.
One played a bullying Texan president of the United States in the 2004 movie Love Actually. One gave the thumbs-up to torture while working for a Texan president in the White House in 2002.And both were born on 4 August 1955. Happy birthday, Alberto Gonzales and Billy Bob Thornton.
Al Gore will not be prosecuted over allegations that he made unwanted advances to a massage therapist in Portland, Oregon in 2006. The Multnomah County District Attorney’s office made the announcement on Friday. According to the Oregonian, the DA cited a “lack of credible evidence.”
Charlene Wittstock joined Prince Albert of Monaco last night at her very first Monte Carlo Red Cross Ball as the prince’s wife presumptive, if that’s the right title. Let’s go to the Charlene Wittstock photos:
In his 1944 essay “The Saint,” Maugham describes a mostly silent meeting
with the swami, who was “of a dark honey color with close-cropped white
hair and a close-cropped white beard” and wore only a loincloth. When
Maugham said he felt sick and weak, Sri Ramana replied, “Silence is also
conversation.” This and many of the details of his visit found their
way into “The Razor’s Edge.”
That’s Mark Knopfler, performing at the Plaza De Toros De Las Ventas (“place of the sale of the bulls
According to the U.K.’s Telegraph, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran has a quirky collection of things he dislikes. They provide this list as evidence, from ponytails to Paul the Octopus.
America in Color From 1939-43, from the Denver Post, is a collection of photos from the U.S. Farm Security Administration and Office of War Information. The color images come from small towns during the Great Depression and were part of a 2006 exhibit from the Library of Congress.
“After the Kennedys, she may be the closest thing we have to an American royal.”Really, Boston Globe? Chelsea Clinton?
Barack Obama is “charming as usual” on his pre-taped appearance on The View this morning. That’s according to Joy Behar — or so says CNN. “The president was at ease, Behar said, and did not appear nervous during the taping.”That’s a relief.
This Abbey Road Studios piano used by The Beatles, Pink Floyd, and others in the 1960s now up for auction. It goes under the hammer at
Cartoon wabbit Bugs Bunny turns 70 today, give or take a few years.
Harvard revisits three dropouts from its class of 1969.(Hat tip: Mr. Duffy)
The mysteries of finance: Earlier this year Who2 took out a modest line of credit to do some hedge-trimming and technical roto-tilling around the website. US Bank, for reasons known only to itself and God, routed the approval through some part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. It was never quite clear why.
Barbra Streisand sent me an email today with the headline “‘What’s Up, Doc?’ Coming Soon on Blu-ray.” (The inside headline is all enthusiasm: “What’s Up, Doc? Available in Two Weeks! First Streisand Movie on Blu-ray!”)
Helen Mirren is 65 today. But here’s hoping she doesn’t retire: she’s too good. And she can still wear the clothes.
Mr. Schorr and [CNN founder Ted Turner] eventually fell out over a CNN plan to team John Connally, the former Texas governor and Nixon Treasury secretary, with Mr. Schorr as commentators at the 1984 Republican National Convention in Dallas.
Willamette Week is reporting that cartoonist John Callahan has died at age 60.His personal site confirms his death (if not the age), with the photo below captioned “1951-2010.” Wikipedia also says John Callahan was born 5 February 1951, which would make him 59. Willamette Week says that Callahan had been in ill health for a year.
“I’m at her bedside waiting for her to respond,” said her husband, Frederic von Anhalt. “She doesn’t talk to us, she can’t tell us what hurts and what’s wrong, so …..
Alex Trebek, host of the game show Jeopardy! since 1984, turns 70 today. (Born the same year as Bugs Bunny and Bruce Lee, it turns out.)We wish him the happiest possible birthday. He was 44 when he started hosting the show.
“The original Horse Boy, a man in a purple jumper and a rubber horse’s head mask, was spotted on Google Street View on Hardgate in Aberdeen.
Kinda crazy.
To be fair, it IS hard to look cheery when you’re handcuffed.Here’s Lindsay Lohan shortly beforehand, heading through the metal detectors at the Beverly Hills Courthouse as she turns herself in.
So Dick Cheney had a pump implanted in his heart last week. The prognosis is uncertain: it may be the prelude to heart transplant surgery, or it may be a semi-reliable solution that could endure for years.
According to this story from National Public Radio, a 1914 film called A Thief Catcher has been discovered at an antiques sale in Michigan, and film legend Charlie Chaplin appears on screen for a few minutes as a bumbling policeman.
Today marks the anniversary of the birth of artist Edgar Degas. He was born in Paris in 1834.
Anyone interested in the work of Degas should read this (rather long) piece by Gary Arseneau, titled All Degas Bronze Sculptures Are Fake.
Early this year, the print edition of The Post had this great headline on a story about Conan O’Brien’s decision to quit rather than accept a later time slot: “Better never than late.” Online, it was changed to “Conan O’Brien won’t give up ‘Tonight Show’ time slot to make room for Jay Leno.”
That’s pretty cold, making a dumb headline out of a 93-year-old woman’s hip replacement surgery. We’re just trying to sell some papers here.
It’s the Lizzie Borden sesquicentennial! The accused — but acquitted — killer was born on this day in 1860 in Fall River, Massachusetts.The “acquitted” part is what everyone forgets, which just proves the power of rhyme:Lizzie Borden took an axeAnd gave her mother forty whacks.When
she saw what she had doneShe gave her father forty-one.
“She was watching her favorite show, ‘Jeopardy,’ when the phone rang. She reached over to pick it up and fell.”
His weight has dropped to 195 pounds, and his drink of choice is Diet Coke. His says the thing he misses most is whole milk, which his stomach can’t handle any more either. “I used to drink a half gal of that a day,” he said. “When you were as hungover as I used to be, it was great. Got rid of everything.”
Obama and Oprah are on it; Al Gore isn’t.
Robert Wadlow died 70 years old today, in 1940, aged 22 and heighted 8 feet and 11.1 inches tall.
Poor Nikola Tesla. That’s pretty much how the genius inventor is depicted these days — Poor Nikola Tesla. Take this little video, for example:
George Steinbrenner, the feisty owner and boss-man of the New York Yankees, has died at age 80. He’d been in failing health for years after some strokes, but a “massive heart attack” is what got him.
Book review: “Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory”By Ben Macintyre401 pages
Cyrus is the new film that stars John C. Reilly, Jonah Hill and Marisa Tomei.It’s directed by brothers Mark and Jay Duplass, so-called “indie” filmmakers who directed 2005’s The Puffy Chair, an arthouse favorite for reasons I can’t understand (beyond “at least it’s not Hollywood”).
Pop star Shakira holds the official Jabulani ball before the final match of World Cup 2010 yesterday. (Spain beat the Netherlands, 1-0.)A few days earlier, Shakira showed off her startlingly football-player-like abdominal muscles at the Glastonbury Music Festival.
Roman Polanski will not be extradited to the United States, say Swiss authorities.The “measures of restriction on his liberty have been lifted.” That is to say, he’s been freed from house arrest.
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“Don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s raining” — that’s the famous catch-phrase of TV’s Judge Judy. (She even made it into a book title.)
The LeBron-O-Meter is on empty. LeBron James is joining the Miami Heat.
Here’s a new video from Sarah Palin, called “Mama Grizzlies.”
Not because a mother grizzly bear raises her offspring without the help of the father, who is off roaming the wilds of Alaska in search of another mate. And certainly not because a grizzly’s diet is 90% vegetarian. No, “Mama Grizzlies” because mother bears are protective of their cubs, and according to former governor and part-time biologist Sarah Palin, “‘cuz moms just kinda know when somethin’ is wrong.”
Life in London as a Jonas Brother.
According to this report from TMZ.com, actress and fungible tabloid celebrity Lindsay Lohan has been sentenced to 90 days in jail for violating court orders going back to a 2007 arrest for driving while intoxicated.
Basketball fans — especially those in Cleveland — are waiting for word on where free agent LeBron James will end up playing next season.
Sports analysts on TV and radio have been guessing for months because James’s contract with the Cleveland Cavaliers expired this year. Will “King James” stay in Cleveland and finally bring them a championship? Will he go to New York where the lights are brighter? Will he go to New Jersey, where he can see New York’s brighter lights? Will he announce his decision on The View or Oprah?
Merv Griffin and Bill Haley were both born on this very day in 1925. Haley was born in Michigan, Griffin in California.Bill Haley gained super-fame earlier, thanks to “Shake, Rattle and Roll” and especially “Rock Around the Clock” in the 1950s. He was super-famous all over again in the 1970s, when “Rock Around the Clock” became the official anthem of 1950s nostalgia.
When Andrade was born in Salto, Uruguay’s second city, in 1901, his father was said to be 98 years old, an expert in African magic who had escaped from slavery in Brazil. In the team photograph of the first winners of the World Cup in 1930, José stands out: his is the only black face.A peek at Uruguay’s surprising World Cup history.
United States chess champion and all-around oddball Bobby Fischer died in Iceland in January of 2008. Yesterday his body was exhumed, some DNA samples were taken and he was reinterred.
Rafael Nadal has won Wimbledon 2010 in straight sets over Tomas Berdych, 6-3, 7-5, 6-4.
Serena Williams whipped Vera Zvonareva 6-3, 6-2 today to win her second Wimbledon in a row and fourth overall.
Beryl Bainbridge, author of An Awfully Big Adventure and many other dark-ish novels, has died at age 75. Cancer was the cause.She was a fascinating gal, but didn’t like being called “eccentric”:
In my collection I have a book called Movie Stars in Bathtubs, by Jack Scagnetti, from 1975.
The recent deal between the Home Shopping Network and Liza Minnelli has gone viral, in the form of this YouTube clip, in which Liza trots out her jewelry and clothing lines:
“I researched the genetic makeup of the city on the Internet… we like small towns, with Italian and German lineage, with people that live and work in the field and villages. This helps keep the genetic makeup more concentrated.”
As you can see from their subheadline, the Los Angeles Times wasn’t very excited about the new fantasy thriller from film director M. Night Shyamalan.
The arrow on the kid’s head represents the direction of Shyamalan’s career.
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:
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:
French filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard had a film at Cannes this year. The 79 year-old legend of avant-garde cinema — at least in the 1950s and ’60s — screened Film Socialisme, a statement of some kind about something-or-other, shot with digital cameras and, if you believe the reviews, without plot or characters.
Here’s Dennis Hopper being “interviewed” on the red carpet by Jiminy Glick (Martin Short).It’s funny and strange.
At least, that’s what people seem to think, and this week, the adage held true with the passing of actor Gary Coleman, actor Dennis Hopper, and speaker-to-children Art Linkletter.Rest in peace, fellas.
Hours after the news that actor Gary Coleman had been put on life support, comes the news that he was taken off life support today and is dead at the age of 42.
You can read the account at Radar Online.
Diminutive TV star Gary Coleman has slipped into a coma and has been put on life support in a Utah hospital, according to this story from E! Online.
Coleman slipped in his home and hit his head the other day, and yesterday he took a bad turn, slipping into unconsciousness.
Today is the anniversary of Jim Thorpe’s birth, in 1888. Thorpe was voted “The Greatest Athlete of the Century” in 1950 by the Associated Press for his decades of excellence in baseball, lacrosse and football. Thorpe was a gold medalist in the 1912 Olympics, in the decathlon and pentathlon, but because he’d played semi-pro baseball in 1909 he lost his amateur status and they took his medals away (this was in the old days, when the Olympics was for amateur athletes).
His medals were returned to his family in 1983.
Two more for the heap.The Washington Post:”An enervated, crass and gruesomely caricatured trip to nowhere.”The New York Post:
Rapper 50 Cent has dropped from 214 to 160 pounds — a whopping 25% of his weight — according to the ThisIs50 blog. He lost the pounds to play the role of a cancer-stricken football player in the upcoming movie Things Fall Apart, says the blog, which also says that Fitty is now back touring (and eating).
4.8 million hours wasted last week.
In my time zone I still have 70 minutes to celebrate the anniversary of George Willig’s climb up the South Tower of the World Trade Center buildings, on a Thursday morning in 1977.It took him three and a half hours, and when he got to the top he was arrested. But he had time to sign his name up there, as you can see here.And I found some TV footage of the event:
Sex and the City 2 may be a train wreck, but at least the reviews are good for a chuckle.New York:The film is an epic eyesore. It’s as if they set out to make a movie that said, “You’re right! We are hideous!”Boston Herald:
The house made famous by the 1977 book-n-movie The Amityville Horror is up for sale. The asking price is reported to be $1.5 million. It’s a big, beautiful home.
The murders in that house of the DeFeo family were said to be the cause of the “Amityville Ghosts” that haunted the home’s next residents, George and Kathy Lutz.
May 25th: a day that will live in non-infamy!
For some reason this story headline just cracked me up. I guess if Frank Sinatra’s piping-hot memories aren’t available, Frank Sinatra Jr.’s lukewarm memories are the next best thing. Turns out that “Frank Sinatra Jr.’s Vegas Memories” are mostly of the shrugging-the-shoulders variety.
Note to Cincinnati criminals: don’t mess with the grannies. Mike Bedinghaus already tried it:
It’s impossible to keep a secret… especially one as wonderful as this. We want to be the first to share with everyone this great news that we are expecting a new addition to our family.That’s the news from John Travolta’s official site. Travolta and his wife, Kelly Preston, are expecting a baby in November. He’s 56, she’s 47, just in case you’re counting along at home.
Bicycle champion Lance Armstrong “participated in doping” while winning some of his seven Tour de France victories, according to former teammate Floyd Landis.
The First Dog is valued at $1600 — as revealed in President Obama’s financial forms. He’s listed as a gift to the Obamas from the late Sen. Edward Kennedy.
We’re pretty sure she isn’t, but pageant officials are skirting the issue.This AP story is typical of the pageant’s take on the background of Rima Fakih, who was named Miss USA 2010 on Sunday night:
Below is the audio recording of Vice President Alben William Barkley speaking his last words, on 30 April 1956. Barkley had a heart attack in the middle of a speech at Washington and Lee University in Lexington, Virginia. He was 78 years old at the time, serving as a U.S. senator from Kentucky.
It happened in Antarctica in 1961. The doctor — and patient — was one Leonid Rogozov.”The operation started at about 22:00 on 30 April with the help of a
driver and meteorologist, who were providing instruments and holding a
mirror to observe areas not directly visible, while Rogozov was in a
semi-reclining position… Rogozov made a 10-12 cm incision and
proceeded to expose the appendix.”
Rima Fakih was crowned Miss USA 2010 last night as Donald Trump proudly looked on. (He owns the pageant, after all.)
Former United States Vice President Levi P. Morton was born on this day in 1824, in Shoreham, Vermont.
Levi P. Morton also died on this day — on his 96th birthday! — in 1920.
“My relationship with death remains the same. I am very strongly against
it.”Woody Allen chats with the press at the Cannes Film Festival.
Jessica Watson has returned to Australia after sailing around the world, nonstop, by herself, at age 16. She spent 210 days on a pink 33-foot boat named Ella’s Pink Lady.Her consumables for the trip:
Litres of water: 150
Cartons of juice: 160
Tins of Spam: 32
Tins of tuna: 64
Maybe.
Also called “Green Porn,” these short films about animal reproduction are informative, clever and, sometimes, just plain weird. They’re on the Sundance Channel.Rossellini, as you may know, is the daughter of Hollywood legends Ingrid Bergman and Roberto Rossellini.
Maybe you noticed today was Miranda Cosgrove’s birthday on our Born On This Day feature, and maybe you wondered who the heck Miranda Cosgrove is.
Anyone who has seen the Richard Linklater film School of Rock (also known as “the last good movie Jack Black was in) will recognize Miranda Cosgrove as the girl who played Summer, the uptight band “manager.”
Time Out runs ’em down. 30 movies are actually on the list, but a half-dozen are clearly included just to be argued about. We’re not biting!
Sports Illustrated is now able to curse athletes before it hits news stands.
President Barack Obama got medium wings and hot chat yesterday on his trip through Buffalo, New York.Obama stopped for lunch at Duff’s Famous Chicken Wings, ordering 10 medium wings (five extra crispy) plus fries and onion rings. Then the president got some extra-spicy banter from local resident Luann Haley, who told him: “You’re a hottie with a smokin’ little body.”
I particularly detest books that begin something like, “Ah, there was joy and happiness in the quaint Tasmanian home of Professor Flynn when the first bellowings of lusty little Errol were heard…” So if you are interested, let’s get down to the meat of the matter.So begins My Wicked, Wicked Ways, the jaw-dropping 1959 autobiography by Errol Flynn. Posthumous autobiography, it turned out: Flynn died at age 50 on a bedroom floor in Canada before his finished book could be published.
May the porcelain be with you.
It was Appalachian Trail time again this weekend for Gov. Mark Sanford. He spent the weekend in Miami with his once (and future?) mistress, Maria Chapur.
In the spirit of “We got company” and “It’s gonna blow!” (Note: some naughty language.)
David Cameron meets Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace on 11 May 2010 and agrees to form a government as Prime Minister. Below, Cameron and his wife Samantha arrive at …..
Sooner than expected, has resigned as prime minister for the United Kingdom, and his rival from the Conservative Party, David Cameron has taken over the post, becoming the youngest prime minister in a couple of centuries (Cameron is 43 years old).Read about it here at the BBC, or visit the official site of Prime Minister Cameron here.
Frank Frazetta, the fantasy painter and illustrator whose images of sinewy warriors and lush vixens graced paperback novels, album covers and comic books for decades and became something close to the contemporary visual definition of the sword-and-sorcery genres, died Monday after suffering a stroke the night before. He was 82.”Sinewy warriors and lush vixens” — that’s saying it.
“Rampersad compared Horne with [Jackie] Robinson, the Brooklyn Dodgers great, in that she was given ‘a kind of role of leadership within the black world’ that was to some extent bestowed on her by white American society.
Neither one had judicial experience before being nominated to the Supreme Court.William Rehnquist was nominated to the court (and then became Chief Justice) after serving as a lawyer in the Richard Nixon administration. Elena Kagan was nominated after serving as a lawyer in the Bill Clinton administration, and as Solicitor General under Barack Obama.
The wooden gun that gangster John Dillinger carved and then used to escape jail in Indiana in 1934 was sold at auction last December.
According to Heritage Auction Galleries, the “gun” went for $19,120. They also say there’s no way of knowing for sure if it’s the same hand-carved fake. There are two others vying for that title.
Carved into the side of the gun: “Colt 38.”
Yes, he had one. It doesn’t look like much racquetball got played.
Gordon Brown will give up his post as leader of the Labour Party, meaning he’ll be done as Prime Minister by September at the latest. The deal is thought to improve Labour’s chances of making a coalition government with the Liberal Democrats.
Today, May 10th, is the birthday of actor John Wilkes Booth, the man who killed President Abraham Lincoln in 1865.It’s also the birthday of jailbird James Earl Ray, who admitted to killing Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968.
Reluctant barrier-breaker, one might say:
According to this story out of New Zealand, tough-guy actor Russell Crowe says in an interview that the late pop singer Michael Jackson used to call him up and pretend to “be in trouble” as a prank.
Crowe says after he rose to stardom in L.A. Confidential, he met and befriended Jackson and found they had a similar sense of humor. So they would occasionally crank call each other.
The cat is out of the bag on the top-secret J.J. Abrams + Steven Spielberg movie project at Paramount.It’s sci-fi, it’s called Super 8, and it will be out in 2011. Trailers are going out with screenings of Iron Man 2.
Jalopnik proves that the famous testimonial letter from John Dillinger to Henry Ford (“Drive a Ford and watch other cars fall behind you”) was faked, probably by Ford itself.
Yes to pirate costumes and drunken voting; no to giant rosettes and the Queen. Rules for voting in today’s U.K. elections.Dogs must be in an “accompanying” role rather than “free-range,” while horses and ponies must be left outside. Pot-bellied pigs are at the discretion of local officials.
Jennifer Karady photographs scenes from soldiers’ lives, restaged at home.(Credit: Jennifer Karady/SF Camerawork)
Hans Holznagel reports in from Kent State University on the 40th anniversary observances there this week.See Part 1 and Part 2.
It’s hard to say from this video that’s been making the rounds, but it sure does look as though young song stylist Justin Bieber doesn’t know what the word “german” means.
The host cuts Bieber some slack, at first explaining Bieber’s confusion as perhaps being due to the host’s “kiwi accent.”But even after Bieber is shown the word, he still says he doesn’t know what it means. “We don’t say that in America,” explains Justin. The host is as polite as can be.
Below are several links on the man accused of trying to set off a car bomb in Times Square in New York City. His name is Faisal Shahzad, and he was arrested before he could make his flight to Dubai. Authorities say he is cooperating with the investigation, and there are still quite a lot of unknowns.First, here’s President Barack Obama’s first public statement about the incident:
…and in marvelous ways!
Erin Andrews is 32 years old today.Congratulations, Ms. Andrews. You are tearing up Dancing With the Stars — and, apparently, Maksim.
English actress Lynn Redgrave has died at the age of 67, according to press reports.
Redgrave was the daughter of actor Michael Redgrave and the sister of Vannessa Redgrave (and the aunt of the late actress Natasha Richardson. Lynn was nominated twice for an Oscar award, first for 1967’s Georgy Girl, and again for 1998’s Gods and Monsters. She had been undergoing treatment for breast cancer off and on since 2003.
Actress Lynn Redgrave has died at age 67.No official cause of death has been given, but her children said in an announcement that Lynn Redgrave “passed away peacefully after a seven year journey with breast cancer.” Redgrave underwent a mastectomy in 2003.
The “Dude, you’re getting a Dell” guy is preparing a one-man autobiographical show.
It is according to classy filmmaker Errol Morris, his tongue somewhere between 8% and 92% in cheek.
So let’s go to the video: Robert Lee (not that Robert Lee)
for Cullman Liquidation.
President Barack Obama did the usual presidential joking last night at the White House Correspondents Association Dinner — though his jokes were maybe better than most. The Chicago Sun-Times has the full transcript, god bless ’em. A few zingers:
Super Saver won the Kentucky Derby on Saturday afternoon, but the real winner was Glen Fullerton, a Texan who was at the track and won $900,000 courtesy of the DreamBet sweepstakes.
Catching up on a loose end from this week: Randy Quaid and his wife Evi have settled the fraud, burglary and conspiracy charges against them.
English film star Michael Caine talks about politics, and about his 2009 role in Harry Brown in this nice Q&A from The Onion’s A.V. Club.
Leslie Buck, who designed the ‘Anthora’ — the iconic Greek paper coffee cup that’s been a Manhattan favorite for 45 years — has died at age 87.
The Magic Moment happened in the mid-1960s, when Buck was the sales manager for the paper company Sherri:
Come to beautiful Mt. Airy, North Carolina, where Barney Fife’s girlfriend gets robbed on the street!
Actor Uma Thurman and tennis ace Andre Agassi were both born on this day in 1970. They turn 40 today.Actor Daniel Day-Lewis and ill-fated “Grizzly Man” Timothy Treadwell were both born on this day in 1957.
Five things Gordon Brown might have muttered instead: “That ought to hold the little voters.” “Didn’t she remind you of the Queen? Except not as ugly.”
According to this story in the New York Times, former First Lady Laura Bush finally “opens up” about the 1963 automobile crash she caused that killed a classmate.
“A car crash” for British PM Gordon Brown and the Labour Party.
Sandra Bullock has filed for divorce from her wandering husband, Jesse James.As a lagniappe, she’s adopting a three-month old baby boy from New Orleans. People says the adoption started before her break with James, and she’s now continuing it as a single parent.
Actor Randy Quaid and his wife, Evi, were arrested yet again yesterday, this time in Santa Barbara.
New York prisoner Thomas Hagan has been paroled, four decades after taking part in the assassination of Malcolm X. Hagan, convicted in 1966, is the only man to have admitted his role in the 1965 shooting of the charismatic leader.
Chelsea Clinton has been at the top of our popularity list all day, apparently because she flashed her engagement ring on Broadway last night.Here’s the photo of Chelsea Clinton’s engagement ring, courtesy of the New York Daily News and Sykes/AP:
Gawker offers some options.
Edward R. Murrow, journalist extraordinaire, died 45 years ago today.We offered a two-word salute to Murrow on his centennial in 2008.(Edward R. Murrow seen through an office window at CBS News in 1957.)
The Onion gears up for The Kentucky Derby.
What does a country power couple have for breakfast? Apparently, an oozing mass called Garth’s Breakfast Bowl, which involves Tater Tots, pork sausage, bacon, cheddar cheese, tortellini and a dash of Elvis. Brooks is “the first person I ever met who puts pasta with eggs an bacon, but it works,” Yearwood writes, adding, “Don’t worry if you can’t finish it; Garth will come along later and ‘clean up’!”The NY Times
Ohio fans of President Ulysses S. Grant are fighting back against the proposal to put Ronald Reagan on the $50 bill.
Anyone familiar with the personal history of actor Burt Reynolds will read “Burt Reynolds says no to drugs” and think “uh…again?”
Just last year Reynolds was in rehab for an addiction to prescription pain killers.
“Archie Comics announced Thursday that Riverdale High will enroll its first openly gay character in September. The character, a blond newbie named Kevin Keller, will debut in No.
“Taxi!”Leonard Nimoy says that he will no longer play Mr. Spock, and good luck to him with that.Not that we doubt his good intentions, and they seem very good indeed:
Camilla Parker-Bowles, the Duchess of Cornwall, is wheeled to the stage on Thursday for the launch of British Food Fortnight 2010. The Duchess broke
her leg earlier this month “whilst hillwalking in Scotland.”(Photo Pool/Anwar Hussein Collection/WENN.com)
The movie deals with artificial insemination, romance, sex and organic goat cheese, which are promising areas for investigation, but it’s so watered-down, it approaches homeopathy.Roger Ebert chuckles over The Backup Plan, the new Jennifer Lopez romantic comedy.Speaking of Nuts the terrier (as Ebert does), Lopez posed with him on the red carpet at the LA premiere this week.
Veteran NFL kicker Joe Nedney took on a robot this week for the placekicking championship of the world. Nedney is 234 pounds and 77 inches tall. The robot, Ziggy, is an intimidating 340 pounds and 14 inches.Who prevailed? Let’s go to the tape.
In honor of the birth anniversary of bandleader Charlie Mingus, here are clips from the Ray Davies (of The Kinks) documentary, Charles Mingus Weird Nightmare.To see Davies talk about the film and to see more segments, go to Weird Davies Nightmare.
Today Bettie Page was born in Nashville in 1923. A pin-up queen from “men’s magazines” of the 1950s, Page’s distinctive look is now what most people imagine when they think of that era of striptease burlesque. Page retired long ago and died in 2008.
To hear an audio interview with Page from 2007, go to this video (it includes a slideshow of typical Bettie Page poses).
James Mason (center) with Cary Grant, Eva Marie Saint, and Martin Landauin the 1959 Alfred Hitchcock thriller North By NorthwestEditor Paul Hehn has just profiled actor James Mason, and thank heavens. He’s a great one.
“All those who enjoy Hitler bunker parodies, please leave the room.”(Hat tip: Mr. Hehn)
The BBC says that producers are worried about MGM’s financial problems. Sam Mendes was in talks to direct, with a release date set for 2012 — the 50th anniversary of Dr. No.Maybe suspension is a good thing, given how dopey Quantum of Solace was. They should take all the time they need to get back to the magic of Casino Royale.
Funny Cide, the plucky chestnut colt who won the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness in 2003, turns 10 years old today.Funny Cide raced until he was 7 years old, won $3.5 million, and is now retired to the Kentucky Horse Farm. Alas, Funny Cide is a gelding, so it’s not the usual retirement at stud enjoyed by most Derby winners and NFL quarterbacks. Still, he’s eating peppermints and enjoying life.
Christina Hendricks and Esquire magazine go together. Hendricks — best known as Joan, the luscious take-charge secretary on the TV show Mad Men — is featured on the May 2010 cover of Esquire. It’s their annual ‘Women We Love’ issue.
Rapper Lil Wayne — a.k.a. “Weezy” — has a way of keeping his name in the papers, even though he’s in jail in New York.
His newest stay-in-the-public-eye scheme is a blog from his prison cell, which so far is a combination of meditations on professional sports and blatant advertisements for his most recent “rock” album, Rebirth.
Actress Nicole Kidman and her husband, country star Keith Urban, at the the 45th Annual Academy of Country Music Awards last night in Las Vegas.
Last year on this date English writer J.G. Ballard died at the age of 78. Ballard’s most famous book might be his memoir, Empire of the Sun, made into a 1987 movie by Steven Spielberg (introducing a young kid named Christian Bale).
In honor of the late J.G. Ballard, here are some links to some good sites:
A great collection of essays, videos, sound clips and links can be found at Ballardian.
PopEater speculates on which actress will snag the title role in the American remake of The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.It’s depressing reading. Kristen Stewart? Megan Fox?
Oscar-winning actress Grace Kelly married Monaco’s Prince Ranier III in 1956.
Charles Manson was sentenced to life in prison in 1971 for his role in the 1969 murder spree that took Sharon Tate’s life.
One perk of being President of the United States: When filling out your tax return, under Your occupation you get to write “U.S. President.”It’s the little things that count.
So why didn’t anyone tell me that there’s a scene in The Girl WIth the Dragon Tattoo where a young Swedish woman waving a golf club chases a sex fiend out of the house and into his SUV and then, as he tries to careen off down the driveway, she bashes in the driver’s side window with the five iron?(It looked like a five iron to me, though that’s not specified in the movie. Just like real life!)
Zooey Deschanel: we knew she was in a band of sorts, but we haven’t really been thinking of her that way. Yet there she was this weekend at the Coachella Music Festival, snapping her fingers and fronting the band She & Him. Good for her. Nice dress.More photos of Zooey Deschanel from the same event:
And a pretty nice guy. The pride of the Grant High Generals!
At last! The U.S. Supreme Court has updated its fusty old website with a new SCOTUS 2.0 edition.
“I mean, he’s a sex machine. Why don’t we just admit it? It’s running on kerosene, but still.” Joy Behar’s unlikely take on eight-times-married Larry King. Meanwhile, ABC News struggles …..
From LIFE magazine’s archives, here’s a gallery of photos most of us haven’t seen before of that brainy feller Albert Einstein.And don’t worry, he’s not shirtless in all of them (unlike that show-offy beefcake Stephen Hawking).
The BBC on the crash that killed Polish President Lech Kaczynski:”The crew was
aware of the inevitability of the coming catastrophe, if only due to the
plane shaking after the wings hit the trees – which we are certain
happened.”
Barack Obama and Michelle Obama paid $1.8 million in taxes this year on a gross adjusted income of $5.5 million. (Most of the dough came from book sales, and it boiled down to $4.98 million in final taxable income.)Toss in the $1.4 million he earned for winning the Nobel Peace Prize, and Barack Obama is your first Six Million Dollar President!
We chanced upon this brief — very brief — clip from Portland, Oregon, where Harrison Ford and Brendan Fraser are filming a medical drama called Extraordinary Measures.
There he is, running through a home improvement store, right near Portland Meadows, where they still run the ponies for a crowd of about a dozen or two.
According to this story in People magazine, a new album is due to be released in May by two of the three Dixie Chicks.
Lead singer Natalie Maines sat out as sisters Emily Robison and Martie Maguire recorded an album as Court Yard Hounds. On May 4th they’re releasing an album of the same name, and that link to the People article will take you to where you can hear a sample song, the single “I Miss You.”
We snagged this photo from this bit on the Huffington Post.It’s super-old, short movie star Al Pacino with a woman described as his girlfriend. Keep that woman away from Larry King, Al!
Greta Garbo, the Swedish siren of the 1930s, died on this day in 1990 after 49 years in retirement. She’d be 104 years old if she were still alive and paying taxes today.
TV talk show host Larry King has filed for divorce from his seventh wife, Shawn Southwick. Irreconcilable differences, claims the NY Daily News. The National Enquirer says trouble has been …..
Today is the birthday of cartoonist Daniel Clowes (rhymes with “rose”). He drew Ghost World and David Boring and Art School Confidential. Below are two parts of a BBC documentary on modern cartoonists, and Clowes is the focus.
First Lady Michelle Obama and Dr. Jill Biden visited Haiti yesterday. Photos follow:
We almost missed Jack Chick’s birthday — April 13th. He turned 86. Chick is the man behind Chick Publications, Christian comic tracts that have been around since 1970. The kind of little comic you might find at a bus station or in a laundromat, Chick’s publications are moral lessons meant to educate readers about the power of Jesus, and, more often than not, the terrors that await you if you don’t accept Jesus as your personal savior.
Mia Sara has been at the top of our search list the last two days, apparently due to a rush of online searches for “where is Mia Sara?” We can’t figure out the reason — she doesn’t seem to be in the news. It’s one of life’s mysteries.
A clerk remembers retiring Justice John Paul Stevens: During William Rehnquist’s tenure as chief justice, a lawyer was
arguing in the court for the first time. When asked a question by
Justice Anthony Kennedy, the nervous lawyer started her response with,
“Well, Judge –Chief Justice Rehnquist interrupted her. “That’s
Justice Kennedy,” he said.
TV By the Numbers likes Conan O’Brien’s move to TBS.Ken Tucker concurs, with a few jabs at Conan’s fan base.
“What a Wonderful World,” reimagined.
It was just a matter of time until someone wrote the Great American
Musical about credit default swaps. With a shove
from This American Life, we have the first song, penned by Robert Lopez
of Avenue Q: “Bet Against the American Dream.”
That’s right, the rumor that actress Elizabeth Taylor would marry for the umpteenth time has been deemed untrue.
Dame Liz herself said so, on her Twitter page.
Yes, Dame Elizabeth has a Twitter page. About her so-called engagement, she says the rumors “simply aren’t true.” She adds that her rumored betrothed, Jason Winters, is her “dearest friend.”
Here’s a photo of Liz with her fourth husband:
Tina Fey hosted Saturday Night Live this weekend and got better ratings than anything in prime time.Chalk it up as another victory for Sarah Palin if you like: people tune in just to see her parodied. The video clip’s below — Fey starts slow, but picks up steam. The ‘Wheel of Fortune’ moment is a good one.
Art Seder: “When we graduated in 1947, the Northwestern faculty had an understanding with Justice Wiley Rutledge of the Supreme Court that he would take one Northwestern student as a law clerk.”But the faculty, Seder says, didn’t want to pick between him and Stevens.Seder: “So they asked us to flip a coin to decide who would go down to Washington as law clerk.”Nice piece from CPR on retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens.
The caption, as provided by our friends at WENN: “WWE champion John Cena faced former WWE champion Sheamus for the title
belt at The O2 arena and after long battle Cena won when Bret ‘The
Hitman’ Hart distracted the Irishman. But after Sheamus’ homecrowd booed
and jeered Cena he handed the belt to Sheamus to delight of the
Dubliner’s fans.”
Phil Mickelson has won the Masters for the third time. He shot a 16-under 272, beating Britain’s Lee Westwood by three strokes.Mickelson also won the Masters in 2004 and 2006. His wife has been battling breast cancer, making the win just a little more meaningful. It’s his 38th PGA Tour win and his fourth major win: he also won the 2005 PGA Championship.
He’s really most sincerely dead: Meinhardt Raabe, who played the singing Munchkin coroner in The Wizard of Oz, has died at age 94. He passed on in Florida, where he lived in a retirement community.Raabe was born in 1915, so he was about 22 when the film was shot. TV Guide says he used the money from the shoot to pay for college. Here’s his big moment:
Tiger Woods pulled his tee shot on the par-3 6th hole at The Masters today, and the boys in the CBS control booth didn’t cue up the phony bird sounds fast enough. Instead they caught Tiger’s reaction:
US magazine reports that screen legend Liz Taylor is planning to get married again, for the ninth time.
The lucky man is Jason Winters, “who recently became Janet Jackson’s manager.” Winters works for Sterling Winters Management and is 49 years old. Liz is 78.
Today is the birthday of Tom Lehrer, whose comic songs of yore include “The Vatican Rag,” “Pollution” and, performed here, “Poisoning Pigeons in the Park.”And, according to this YouTube channel loaded with Lehrer stuff, there’s a CD/DVD set due out next week.
Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens is your newest Supreme Court Retiree Of The United States.
Buzz Aldrin with partner Ashly DelGrosso-Costa on Dancing With the Stars. Photo: ABC
Astronaut and super-stud Buzz Aldrin got the boot from Dancing With the Stars last night.
Tiger Woods tees off in The Masters on Thursday at 1:42 pm Eastern time. That puts him in the next-to-last group of the day. (Coincidence, or are those crafty old hound dogs at Augusta National milking the drama?)
Inventor Dean Kamen’s talk at the TED conference was about a mechanical arm he devised for wounded veterans. It’s nearly 20 minutes long, but if you can spare the time and relax enough for Kamen’s steady, sincere delivery, this video is worth watching.
Today is the anniversary of Raphael’s birth. He would have been 517 years old today if he had lived. And had been a sorcerer. Or a descendant of Methuselah.
Raphael was one of the most influential Italian Renaissance painters, working in Florence and Rome in the early part of the 16th century. He died young, at the age of 37.
It’s also the anniversary of Raphael’s death. Yes, he died on his birthday, in 1520. Bummer.
ShowBizSpy, January 5: George Clooney ‘Ready to Marry Elisabetta Canalis’ShowBizSpy, April 6: George Clooney Dumps Elisabetta Canalis
Prince Rainier III of Monaco died five years ago today. Prince Rainier ruled Monaco for just about 56 years, from 1949 until his death in 2005. “Ruling” is a funny term for running Monaco, the sunny tax-free playground for the rich. Not that it’s easy to do well, but it’s also not exactly like “ruling” a traditional country.
Tiger Woods held a press conference yesterday at Augusta National, and journalists weren’t too satisfied. John Hopkins of The Times called it “a master class in evasion.”
Coach Mike Krzyzewski won his fourth NCAA basketball championship as head coach of Duke University last night. Boring old powerhouse Duke beat plucky, lovable, far-more-deserving Butler 61-59.Thereby assuring that thousands of boring bracketeers who picked obvious choice Duke to win the tournament are now blandly and smugly satisfied.Not that we’re bitter.
Here’s an amusing clip of former U.S. president Gerald Ford appearing on the television game show What’s My Line. At the time of his appearance he was still a congressman (and House Minority Leader). He signs in as the “mystery challenger,” and the panelists — including Gene Rayburn — are blindfolded. At the end he gets to do a little politickin’ on behalf of President Richard Nixon.
President Barack Obama played former NBA first-round draft pick Clark Kellogg in a game of P-O-T-U-S (standing in for H-O-R-S-E) yesterday at the White House. And Obama took him down!
Throwing out the first rhyme: Rapper Dr. Dre shows off his Beats headphones — now with Red Sox branding! — at opening day in Fenway Park yesterday.Credit: Nicolaus Czarnecki/WENN.com
A short video from Weird Al Yankovic, in which he corrects the grammar on a road sign. It’s one of several of his videos on his YouTube channel. Here’s another …..
John Forsythe, the famous Georgia governor, senator, and Secretary of State under Andrew Jackson star of Charlie’s Angels and Dynasty, died this week at the age of 92 in Santa Ynez, California. It was pneumonia what got him.
I just added photos to our profile of Pappy Boyington, the hard-living World War II flying ace who shot down 28 Japanese planes and won the Medal of Honor.Something about the photo looked familiar. I pondered it a while, chewing on a thumbnail… and then it arrived:
This offer just arrived in the Who2 editorial mailbox. The new Broadway revival of The Miracle Worker, starring Abigail Breslin as Helen Keller, is closing after just 38 performances. Estimated …..
Pop/Jazz/Country singer Norah Jones turns 31 years old today. Happy, happy, joy, joy. In honor of her birthday, here’s a video interview from 2008 with Charlie Rose:
You’re 65 years old today.
Elin Nordegren won’t be at the Masters golf tournament for the big comeback by her husband, Tiger Woods. At least, so says People magazine:
There’s a new documentary coming out by filmmaker Alexandre O. Philippe about the complicated relationship between fans of Star Wars and its creator, George Lucas.The movie is called The People vs. George Lucas, and it’s currently making the rounds, appearing at film festivals across the U.S. The official site for the film is here (though you may find more useful information at their blog).
Director Steve Pink talks about making Hot Tub Time Machine.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:727:]]Pop singer Mariah Carey is 40 years old today.
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Heh! Congressional grump John Boehner gets the viral video treatment.
Justin Bieber is the Canadian teen singer discovered on the Internet in 2009 and now appearing everywhere. Since we added our profile of Justin Bieber, we’ve been following with interest his attempts to establish street cred with various poses and hand signals.Herewith, the Street Cred of Justin Bieber — photo edition.[[wysiwyg_imageupload:638:]]
Roger Bannister, the man who broke the four-minute barrier for the one-mile run — in 1954, as he was attending medical school! — turns 81 today. Here’s a nice recap of the local meet where he broke the record. And heck: it’s on YouTube:
(Secretary of State Hillary Clinton congratulates President Barack Obama prior to a meeting in the Situation Room of the White House, March 22, 2010. Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
Ted Kennedy gets a note from his son.
Talk about opposites: TV preacher Pat Robertson and Broadway composer Stephen Sondheim were born on the exact same day in 1930. Both men turned 80 today.Stephen Sondheim was born in New York City and Pat Robertson was born in Lexington, Virginia, and that’s not much surprise in either case. Well, it’s all show business, after all. Happy birthday, gentlemen!
We mentioned in a post from March 11th that golf player Tiger Woods was paying money to former White House press spokesman Ari Fleischer for some public relations help.It didn’t last long. According to this report from Business Insider, Ari stopped giving Tiger advice on repairing his image, but so far hasn’t said why.
When I finished Raiders of the Lost Ark, I took the script up to George to give to him. I was very ceremonial back then.
Sirhan Sirhan turns 66 years old today. He’s still in jail for killing Senator Robert F. Kennedy in 1968. Below is an brief interview with Sirhan from back then (“I’m not mentally ill, but I’m not perfect,” he says):
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:16:]]Mr. Duffy asked for a photo of the late Fess Parker with Ed Ames as his sidekick Mingo. Wish granted!
Pop star Alex Chilton has died of an apparent heart attack, Variety reports.Chilton was a teen star with The Box Tops, who had a number one hit in 1967 with “The Letter.” He was also in the band Big Star, and later he recorded as a solo artist. A favorite among indie musicians in the 1980s, he was never a household name, but he had a loyal following. Below are two of my favorite Chilton songs, “The Letter” (of course!) and “Holocaust” (by Big Star):
Her goal: 1000 pounds by 2012. The kicker is in the final sentence.
He’s on board.
In honor of First Lady Pat Nixon’s birthday — she would have been 98 today, but she died in 1993 — we offer the first ever (maybe?) “Pat Nixon Desert Turkey” photo:
Tiger Woods will golf at The Masters, he said in a statement today on his official site:”The Masters is where I won my first major, and I view this tournament with great respect. After a long and necessary time away from the game, I feel like I’m ready to start my season at Augusta.”Woods adds, “I still have a lot of work to do in my personal life.”
David Beckham suffered a full tear of his Achilles tendon on Sunday, according to Dr. Sakari Oraval, the Finnish surgeon who repaired the injury yesterday. Beckham is out for the World Cup:Asked whether Beckham would be able to play in the World Cup that starts on 11 June, Orava replied: “No, I don’t think so… healing takes a long time.
Before Ted Haggard and his trips to Denver, and just after Jim Bakker and his hush money to Jessica Hahn, there was the Rev. Jimmy Swaggart.
“In 1998, he joined his wife, Joan, in an effort to get Los Angeles to ban gasoline-powered leaf blowers from residential areas, testifying before the City Council, ‘We’re all victims of these machines.'”Jeepers, good for Peter Graves.
Of the 68,647 cartoons that appeared in The New Yorker magazine from 1925 to 2004 only two referred to Freemasonry and five referred to the Shriners. Courtesy of the Grand Lodge of British Columbia and the Yukon (good sports indeed!) comes this fine page of Masonic References in the Comics.
[[wysiwyg_imageupload:2355:]]Wayne Coyne rides the crowd in a big plastic bubble as his band The Flaming Lips kicks off South by Southwest 2010 at the Austin Music Hall.See more nice photos »Photo: Tom Zinn / WENN
Today is the 62nd birthday of singer James Taylor.To read in detail about his early career and how he approached songwriting in those days, read this (text only) Rolling Stone interview from 1979.And here are a few videos:
Via this Seattle Post Intelligencer blog post about a collection of Hugh Hefner letters and cartoons from the 1940s.Before Hugh Hefner founded Playboy magazine, that is.
The New York Post reports that golfer and swinger Tiger Woods has hired on former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer.Tiger’s now moved to the post-scandal step of refurbishing his image, after all those gnarly headlines about cheating on his wife, model Erin Norgren, with umpteen waitresses, porn stars and unnamed third, fourth or fifth parties.
Mehmet Ali Agca, the man who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II back in 1981, has been released from a Turkish prison, according to this article in the Guardian.
Our man Mike Duffy passes along this nice slideshow of Faces Behind Famous Hands.Now you can find out what those hand models look like. Our favorite slide is the one of Pamela Moses, whose hands replaced those of Transformers star Megan Fox in a television ad for Motorola.
Did Branwell Bronte really die standing up?So says Somerset Maugham.We mentioned earlier that Maugham lists Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights in his book on the 10 greatest novels of all time. Emily was preceded in death (barely) by her older brother Branwell, and Maugham relates a curious anecdote about his death.
The LA Times blog The Envelope has it all pretty well covered.
If the aftermath of a politician being arrested for drunk driving can be called refreshing, this story is refreshing:”I’m gay,” [Sen. Roy] Ashburn told KERN host Inga Barks in an interview this morning. “Those are the words that have been so difficult for me for so long.” Ashburn made the admission even though he has a long history of voting against gay rights. Can’t have been easy; good for him.
Kathy Ireland says she “wasn’t on meds” at the 2010 Oscars. So take that, critics! [[wysiwyg_imageupload:321:]]See our biography of Kathy Ireland »Photo: WENN
Whatever happens at the Oscars tonight, having 10 best picture nominees is already a huge win. It’s such a relief. It’s SO much more fun. Adding five movies doesn’t really dilute the field, first of all. 417 movies were released in the U.S. in 2009, so with 10 total nominees we’re still above the 97th percentile.What we gain is color, unpredictability, and that all-American theme of plucky underdogs getting their shot at the big prize.
Another fine performance by Christopher Walken, reading Lady GaGa’s “Poker Face” on BBC. The video is here.
Alfred Hitchcock cameos from (nearly) all his films, courtesy of fan Roy van der Zwaan:
I am holding in my hand (courtesy of Cincinnati’s Mercantile Library) a first edition of Great Novelists and Their Novels, in which author W. Somerset Maugham names his 10 greatest novels of all time.
I went in and pitched it to the studio as Romeo and Juliet on a ship: “It’s going to be this epic romance, passionate film.” Secretly what I wanted to do was I wanted to dive to the real wreck of Titanic, and that’s why I made the movie. James Cameron tells the TED Conference about his fascination with diving and how it’s affected his career.
It happened while Theodore Geisel was editor of the Dartmouth humor magazine, the Jack-O-Lantern:Geisel was very proud of his position as editor. But it’s a title Geisel would lose one fateful night on campus.”His senior year he decided to hold a party for all of the Jack-O-Lantern staff,” Pease recounted.
Nice bit of legwork by Above the Law.(Hat tip: Daily Intel)
We’ve added a new biography of Woody Harrelson, just in time for the Oscars on Sunday night.
The Oscars official YouTube channel doesn’t allow you to see their many videos without going there. So go there.Some of the best ones are the meetings of the nominees with the press. You can get a feel for how different the nominees are from each other, for one thing. Here are a few links:Woody Harrelson, for example, looks a little out of place in a suit and tie, as you can see here.
For absolutely no reason at all, here’s a video of the opening credits to the ’80s TV show St. Elsewhere (second season). Note the many familiar faces, from Ed Begley, Jr. to Denzel Washington:
He’s now a free bird in Oregon.
“There’s no denying Depp’s gifts and abilities, but this performance feels both indulgent and something we’ve all seen before.””Johnny Depp brings
“Sometimes you do just have to go do a job to make money, and sometimes — I think — who was it? Was it Edward G. Robinson who said — you did three movies a year. One for the location, one for the money, and one for the art.”Stanley Tucci, in an interview with Dark Horizons last year.
A terrific compilation for fans of the movies (and for fans of the band Massive Attack):
The Telegraph has compiled their 10 worst injustices in Oscar history. Stanley Kubrick, Kevin Costner, and (ugh) Forrest Gump all figure prominently. “2010’s most obvious potential injustice — will District 9 …..
Rapper Lil Wayne was scheduled to be sentenced to prison today, but the Manhattan courthouse where he was scheduled to appear had a fire in the boiler room, so his sentencing has been postponed.
Movie critic Roger Ebert hasn’t been able to use his voice since he had larynx surgery in 2006. But the CereProc company has made it possible for him to “speak” with a computer voice designed to sound like Roger Ebert.According to this article from Popular Science magazine, they used samples from the hours of DVD commentary Ebert did before he lost his voice.
Happy birthday to Theodore Geisel, the beloved children’s author known as Dr. Seuss. He was born on this day in 1904.We’ve had a lot of queries in the last 48 hours about his death: variations on, “How did Dr. Seuss die?” and “Doctor Seuss, how did he die?” It’s not clear if this is just standard curiosity, of if there’s a trivia contest out there and participants are on the hunt.
“Here for the first time is the first hard evidence that [John] Wayne volunteered for potentially dangerous service with the equivalent of today’s C.I.A., and the papers are not out of someone’s attic, but official government documents.”That’s the latest public defense of the World War II travails of John Wayne, courtesy of the politically conservative site Big Hollywood.
He had a Harvard Medical School degree, a thriving practice as an orthopedic surgeon, and a nice place in the South End with a Saab parked outside. Then, in the summer of 2002, while performing complicated spinal surgery, Arndt walked out on his patient — who was lying on the operating table, anesthetized and sliced open — so he could go cash his paycheck. The Boston Globe catches up with Dr. David Arndt.
Robert Conrad’s disputed birthday got us reminscing about his old TV commercials for Eveready batteries — the ones that briefly made a catch phrase out of “Go ahead — I dare ya!” He was the Energizer Bunny of his day.(He was also the go-to tough guy of the day, starring as World War II flyboy Pappy Boyington in the TV series Baa Baa Black Sheep — part of the setup for the ads.)
[First published on March 1, 2010.][[wysiwyg_imageupload:2230:]]
Star Wars, perhaps the most successful science-fiction film ever made, breaks dozens of laws of physics but has been enjoyed by millions. Its more recent prequels break no more and are, to those of us who grew up with the originals, heartbreakingly worse.Actor David Mitchell reflects on “reality” in the movies.Movie crews don’t much care… until they’re filming a scene about filming a scene:
First it was King Tut Thursday — now here’s Woody Allen Saturday. A funny routine from 1965 that begins with the unlikely (for Woody) phrase, “Um… I shot a moose once.”
Apolo Anton Ohno, come on, man: you shoved him. These things happen. Just own up, baby!We’re talking, of course, about the men’s 500 meter short-track speed skating event on Friday night. Ohno finished second, but then was disqualified after judges ruled he had bumped Francois-Louis Tremblay on the final turn.
Today would have been the 78th birthday of singing legend Johnny Cash. He died in 2003 at the age of 71.It’s also the official release date of his latest record, American Recordings VI: Ain’t No Grave.Both National Public Radio and Rolling Stone magazine look back on his long career.
If you’re a Saddam Hussein aficionado with a half-hour to kill, Slate has just published a fascinating five-part series titled “Searching for Saddam: How the U.S. military used social networking to capture the Iraqi dictator.”It’s not about Facebook and Twitter, but about how the Army used similar theories of social networking to work their way through Saddam’s tribal contacts and figure out his whereabouts.Here’s the series.
DNA research has given the experts some convincing evidence as to why King Tut died at the young age of 19.The short answer is in-breeding and malaria.King Tut’s parents, they say, were brother and sister. On top of that, or maybe because of it, he had a degenerative bone disease. He also had a club foot and a cleft palate.
Shepard Fairey has a new exhibition at the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati. Called “Supply and Demand,” it runs through August 22nd and shows about 250 of his works.
Harvard Beats Yale, 29-29Documentary – 2008Viewed on: Saturday night, 20 February 2010Pre-movie meal: French onion soup, fries, and a Dr. Loosen Riesling
A drunk was in front of a judge. The judge says “You’ve been brought here for drinking.” The drunk says, “Okay, let’s get started.” A man goes to a psychiatrist. The doctor says, “You’re crazy.” The man says, “I want a second opinion!” “Okay, you’re ugly too!” The food on the plane was fit for a king. “Here, King!”Happy 12th deathday to the “king of the one-liners,” Henny Youngman.
The newest edition of Smithsonian magazine has a brief feature on author Joyce Carol Oates and her sense of place.In her case, it’s all about rural New York, specifically Lockport, where she grew up.
Slate asks the question, “Can Lil Wayne Bring His Teeth to Prison?”.
Retired NBA star Jayson Williams has been sentenced to five years in prison.Williams today gave a teary-eyed apology to Superior Court Judge Edward Coleman.
From the archives of Pacifica Radio, a 1956 interview with Rosa Parks:
Yes, from the Office of His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama, it’s his Twitter account!
First Lady Michelle Obama appears with schoolchildren at a White House concert by jazz musician Harry Connick, Jr. Credit: Carrie Devorah / WENN.
“Even if I could come, I wouldn’t, because the last time I went to a festival to accept an award, I ended up in jail.”Roman Polanski, under house arrest in Switzerland, in a message to the Berlin Film Festival after winning the best director prize for his film The Ghost Writer.The Turkish drama Honey won the Golden Bear as best film.
Amazing piece of reporting on Afghanistan in The New York Times this morning by C.J. Chivers.Marines Do Heavy Lifting as Afghan Army Lags in BattleA taste:
Alexander Haig, the former general who was Secretary of State when Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981, has died at age 85.The Washington Post obituary says the cause was “complications from an infection.”
No, it’s not his birthday. No, it’s not the anniversary of his death. Who2 doesn’t even have a profile of famous Old West lawman Virgil Earp (but we have profiles of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday).
Tiger Woods made his speech of abashment this morning. It was covered on TV like a State of the Union address, with all major network and cable players cutting to …..
Frozen-in-time actor Gary Coleman was on the tabloid TV show The Insider, trying to talk about his recent run-in with the law over a domestic dispute. He ended up storming off the set, after telling panelist Lisa Bloom “you’re pushing my buttons.” Indeed, she was pushing his buttons, and he ended up turning in one of the most dramatic performances of his career: See the video right here.
“It’s a great song… It’s a fun song. There are many other songs that I think are as good in our canon, but I don’t mind being known for ‘My Sharona.'”Following up on yesterday’s post about the death of “My Sharona” writer Doug Fieger: here’s a 1998 Rolling Stone interview with a few choice Fieger nuggests.
Entertainment Weekly has this brief interview with Sharona Alperin, the real-life inspiration for the 1979 hit single “My Sharona.”Doug Fieger, who wrote the song and made it famous as a member of The Knack, passed away February 14th, after fighting cancer for many years. Fieger and Alperin dated for a few years, way back when. Now the Sharona sells real estate. You can see for yourself at her professional site.
Writer and “psychogeographer” Iain Sinclair pens this tribute — loaded up with big words and big ideas — to the late author J.G. Ballard, titled “Crash: JG Ballard’s Artistic Legacy.”
Fashion designer Alexander McQueen hanged himself last week, according to evidence presented at an inquest today.McQueen left a note and there were “no suspicious circumstances.”More from BBC News and the Daily Telegraph.
Madonna is said to be writing and directing a new film about Wallis Warfield Simpson. Wallis was the American divorcee who in 1936 winkled King Edward VIII into abdicating the …..
Actor Channing Tatum has launched a new site — coincidental with his new movie, Dear John — that promotes the idea of telling someone you love, “hey, I love you.” …..
Mystery writer Dick Francis has died at age 89.
Government officials have released the timeline of when the Christmas Day bomb suspect — a.k.a. “the underwear bomber” — Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab was arrested and, later, advised of his Miranda rights.Being “Mirandized” means being advised of your constitutional right to refuse to answer questions unless you have legal representation.
Apolo Anton Ohno won a silver medal in the 1500-meter event of men’s short-track speedskating on Saturday night. Ohno moved from fourth to second on the final turn as two South Koreans wiped out just ahead of him. Jung-Su Lee, a 20-year-old South Korean, won the gold medal.
Olympic luge athlete Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during a training run accident on Friday, just hours before the opening of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics.
Lindsey Vonn takes a turn in this photo from the 2009 Alpine Ski Championships in Val d’Isere, FranceJust in time for the Vancouver Olympics, we’ve posted a new biography of skier Lindsey Vonn.
“Dear Friends,
A popcorn lid, not a pie tin, is what inspired Frisbee inventor Fred Morrison:
Former U.S. president and global gadabout Bill Clinton was in the hospital in New York today. He went feeling chest pains, and by the end of the day he’d undergone surgery.The Wall Street Journal says that President Clinton underwent a “stent procedure” to unclog some arteries.President Clinton had quadruple bypass surgery in 2004. He is 63 years old.
Bo, the Obama family dog, frolics in snow outside the White House in the aftermath of winter storms in Washington, DC. More than a foot of snow fell on the city.(White House photo by Pete Souza)
Those are the current candidates to describe Sarah Palin’s digital assistant.(Hat tip: Mr. Duffy)
Happy 70th birthday to you, Roberta Flack.
The Minneapolis Star-Tribune has the latest on that strange George W. Bush billboard on I-35 in Minnesota — the one with just his photo and the caption “Miss me yet?”
It sounds like a headline from The Onion.11 fans turned out to cheer Peyton Manning and the Indianapolis Colts as they returned from losing Super Bowl XLIV.
Pennsylvania Congressman John Murtha has died at age 77. He had been suffering from an infection after gall bladder surgery.Just two days ago Murtha became the longest-serving Congressman in Pennsylvania history. He took office in 1974 and was reelected 17 times.A Vietnam War veteran as a Marine, John Murtha was a “master of pork barrel politics” and an ally of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi.
Abe Vigoda lives!
Dave, Jay and Oprah really were all together on the same couch.
The New Orleans Times-Picayune smacks The Who.
What did Sarah Palin have written on her “palm pilot” last night?”Energy… budget cuts… tax… lift American spirits.”
Former vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin likes to make fun of President Barack Obama for being articulate — at this week’s Tea Party Convention she referred to the president as …..
From the pages of The New York Times comes this bizarre story about killings in the Philippines over karaoke disputes. Specifically, it’s about how dangerous it is to sing the Frank Sinatra song “My Way.”Some karaoke bars have banned the song or removed it from their song lists, and the Philippines news media have “recorded at least half a dozen victims in the past decade,” in what they call “My Way Killings.”
He wouldn’t let Meat Loaf play in his golf tournament.Now see six boring Peyton Manning photos >>
Vince Lombardi, the legendary pro football coach, has now been profiled by editor Paul Hehn.And just in time: the NFL Super Bowl trophy has his name on it. (Lombardi, not Hehn.) Lombardi is a “gapper” — someone we should have profiled long ago.
In every James Cameron movie Michael appears in, his character is bitten on the hand by another character. From Wikipedia’s entry on actor Michael Biehn. But wait: there’s a caveat!This does not include Terminator 2: Judgment Day (however, Biehn is only in one scene in this film, and the scene is not part of the theatrical version; it is only available in the extended edition of the film).
The Sun covers the novelty item of the year: a dozen golf balls with sketches of Tiger Woods’s alleged mistresses.
Tiger Woods has checked out of a Mississippi sex addiction clinic and flown off with his wife, Elin Nordegren Woods. That’s according to various media reports, none of which have an on-the-record quote or attribution.
Prince Charles visits Burnley Football Club on 5 February 2009This photo of Prince Charles just cracks me up, for some reason. You have to love the guy.
“This is the second fan letter of my long career.”So begins a great little 1948 missive from artist Norman Rockwell to illustrator Al Parker — now found on the fabulous site Letters of Note.
Writer and performance artist William S. Burroughs was born on this day in 1914. One of the 20th century’s Counter Culture Heavyweights, he wrote Naked Lunch and shot heroin (and his wife). He lived to the ripe old age of 83. In honor of his birthday, here are a pair of video clips:William S. Burroughs Likes Weapons:
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Patricia Highsmith, the creepy and sophisticated author of The Talented Mr. Ripley, died 15 years ago today.(Aside: When did 1995 get to be 15 years ago?)
(More photos of Katie Couric)
Yep, that’s 2010 Oscar-nominee Morgan Freeman as rhyming ‘n’ dancing “Easy Reader” on the old educational TV show The Electric Company. His song and dance partner there is Oscar/Tony/Emmy/Grammy winner …..
Lyndon Johnson “gave up alcohol and drank tea, Tab and Fresca” after he became president in 1963, as we note in our profile. We didn’t know until now that he used Fresca as a weapon, too.
Recent publications of images from Mars have kicked new energy into the once-vibrant Science Division of Who2.From HiRISE (that’s High Resolution Imaging Science Experiment, from the University of Arizona), we analyzed this image:
Yes, it’s the anniversary of the plane crash in 1959 that killed early rock and roll star Buddy Holly, as well as Ritchie Valens and J.P. “Big Bopper” Richardson.Buddy Holly is known for the songs “That’ll Be The Day” and “Peggy Sue.”Ritchie Valens had a big hit with “La Bamba.”
Good grief, not again.Meryl Streep
Cartoonist Bill Watterson, the creator of the beloved Calvin and Hobbes comic strip, has given his first interview in many years to the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
It’s over. Punxsutawney Phil emerged from his den this morning and, in a rock-star ritual enhanced with texting, predicted six more weeks of winter.
“Groundhog Day is a lot like a rock concert but the people are better behaved and there’s a groundhog involved.” So says Tom Chapin, editor of the Punxsutawney Spirit newspaper, …..
Author J.D. Salinger was not a recluse, as so many have said (cough). Or so claim his New Hampshire neighbors:He would, until recent years, vote in elections and attend town meetings at the Cornish Elementary School, and he went to the Plainfield General Store each day before it closed. He was often spotted at the Price Chopper supermarket in Windsor, separated from Cornish by a covered bridge and the now ice-jammed river, and he ate lunch alone at the Windsor Diner. Mr.
The news of the arrest of 78 year-old actor Rip Torn — crashed out in a Connecticut bank with a weapon — gives us a chance to review this classic little bit from 1968.Beware the foul language, moms and dads, as Rip Torn and author Norman Mailer get into a nutty macho brawl, in a precursor to today’s “reality TV.”
San Francisco author Richard Brautigan, dead lo these many years, would still only be 75 today.He was born, like Sonny Bono and the Dalai Lama, in 1935. Brautigan’s biggest book was Trout Fishing in America, published in 1967.
What will Conan O’Brien do next? Maybe team up with former Secretary of Labor Robert Reich for a detective drama. They did the pilot already on Conan’s old show.
The above ad is from RareLibrary.com. It’s probably true that any first edition of Catcher in the Rye is likely to have the swear words underlined, so it’s understandable that a book that’s been scribbled in can still be considered to be in very good condition.
Last year we noted that author J.D. Salinger was 90 and deaf. Now, alas, he’s 91 and dead. Salinger passed away of natural causes, according to his son, at his remote compound in Cornish, New Hampshire.
President Barack Obama gave his first State of the Union address last night, on 27 January 2010. The speech ran for an hour and nine minutes — unusually long for a State of the Union talk.
We would like to present you with an exciting, innovative proposal — one that would benefit both Punxsutawney and Punxsutawney Phil. Please… make the compassionate decision to use an animatronic …..
{ Posted: January 2010 }
American historian and critic Howard Zinn has died of a heart attack. The author of the influential history book A People’s History of the United States, Zinn was 87.His obituary from the Boston Globe recounts his career and his influence on modern historians and students, and includes details of his run-ins as an agitator at Boston University.
It was on this day back in 1998 that Hillary Rodham Clinton, at the time the First Lady of the United States, defended her husband on NBC’s Today show and used the term “vast right-wing conspiracy” to explain why we were hearing all about Monica Lewinsky.
LIFE magazine has this terrific gallery of Famous Literary Drunks and Addicts — and it holds a few (though not many) surprises.By far “alcohol” is the most popular form of addiction here (although for Ernest Hemingway they call it “booze”).
Author John Updike died of lung cancer one year ago today.
Happy birthday to Bessie Coleman, who was born on this day in 1892.With Black History Month coming up, it’s only natural to toss Coleman an extra salute. She was a rare bird.
Who’s the tougher Spartacus: Spartacus from the new TV series Spartacus: Blood and Sand, or Spartacus from the great 1960 film Spartacus?
Oscar nominee Abigail Breslin will play Helen Keller in a Broadway revival of the play The Miracle Worker. The play opens March 3rd at the Circle in the Square.
Today’s the anniversary of the death of famous Chicago gangster Al Capone — “Scarface.”Al Capone, one of the F.B.I.’s most-wanted criminals in the 1920s and ’30s, was eventually caught and convicted in 1931 of tax evasion.He was released from prison in 1939, after serving about seven and a half years of an eleven-year sentence. By the time he was released from prison Capone was in bad health. His brain was turning to mush as a result of syphilis.
From the What’s With That Guy? File: A photographic review from BuzzFeed to remind us of the many incidents involving obnoxious behavior by one-time comedian Andy Dick.
Robert Burns, beloved poet of Scotland, turns 251 today. As a Burns birthday salute, here’s the poem “A Bottle and Friend,” published when Burns was 28. The theme is one of his favorites: the simple pleasures of life. A Bottle and FriendThere’s nane that’s blest of human kind,But the cheerful and the gay, man,Fal, la, la, &c.Here’s a bottle and an honest friend!What wad ye wish for mair, man?Wha kens, before his life may end,
Call them Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, or call them (shudder) Brangelina: the actors have been an item (though they’ve never married) since they met on the set of the 2005 film Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Here are photos of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt over the years.
Our recent review of Une Histoire Américain by Georges Ayache included this shot of the book’s cover:
Jazz guitarist Django Reinhardt was born 100 years ago today — on 23 January 1910.Reinhardt grew up in a Gypsy caravan, which is where he learned to play the guitar with with that Romany swing. His background made him a rather odd duck on the Paris jazz scene for sure.
Book review: Une Histoire AméricaineBy Georges Ayache256 pages for 20 euros [[wysiwyg_imageupload:1737:]]
The trailers for Harrison Ford’s new movie Extraordinary Measures have been baffling. Are they cops, doctors, journalists, er whut? And why is everyone shouting?Thanks to Roger Ebert’s review, I now see that it’s a desperately-seeking-a-cure movie — as Ebert puts it, “Lorenzo’s Oil with a different disease.”
Tiger’s sex addiction is ruining his golf life.Grant’s golf addiction is ruining his sex life.
Today is the birth date of Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, born in Virginia in 1824 (in Clarksburg, which is now part of West Virginia).A distinguished military tactician and veteran of the war between the United States and Mexico in the 1840s, he died in 1863, after losing his left arm as a result of friendly fire. His arm was amputated and went on to have a history all its own. Jackson died shortly after that.
Conan O’Brien will soon have more free time on his hands.
It was 25 years ago today that Ronald Reagan was sworn in as president — in a private ceremony — for his second term.Because January 20th, traditionally Inauguration Day, fell on a Sunday, public ceremonies were held off for a day.At this point in his presidency, Ronald Reagan had aggressively upped the ante in the Cold War, told America to “just say no” to drugs (the illegal kind), seen the worst of a “slight recession” and wrassled with the Democrat majority in congress over deficit spending and budget cuts.
“Scott Brown Wins Mass. Race, Giving GOP 41-59 Majority in the Senate”- The Village Voice
Buzz Aldrin — moon-walking hero and one of our favorite astronauts — was born on this day in New Jersey in 1930.A few birthday photos from his Apollo 11 days:
“What do you say about a 72 year-old man who died? That he was beautiful? Or brilliant?”Who knew Segal was a professor of classics at Oxford, or that he was the son of an Orthodox rabbi, or that he knew Ali McGraw from their days at Harvard and Wellesley?
From the portfolio of photographer Peter Ross, a gallery of photos of various items that belonged to the late writer William S. Burroughs.
Musical genius Quincy Jones likes to point while being photographed.
ABC News says that NBC and Conan are “on the cusp of an agreement.”And they add something new:
Movie Review: Stranded: I’ve Come from a Plane that Crashed in the MountainsViewed on: A late Saturday afternoon in Cincinnati, OhioPre-movie meal: Dewey’s Pizza (half ‘Bronx Bomber’ and half ‘Socrates’ Revenge’) and a pint of Dewey’s house aleWe saw ‘Avatar’ in 3-D at a 1:00 show at the local theater. Then, buzzed from the wild visuals, we came home and saw this DVD that’s at the other end of the movie-experience spectrum.
Werner Herzog interprets Curious George:
The network owns the intellectual property behind such popular O’Brien characters as Pimpbot 5000 and Conando, as well as recurring segments such as In the Year 3000 and Desk Driving. Sources involved in the settlement negotiations say NBC is keeping the copyrighted and trademarked elements of O’Brien’s shows as part of the deal. That means the bits and characters will likely never be seen after O’Brien’s “Tonight” ends its run January 22.
Earlier we noted Pat Robertson’s claim that the people had made a deal with the devil.Now Satan is having his say:”When I strike bargains with people, they first get something here on earth — glamour, beauty, talent, wealth, fame, glory, a golden fiddle. Those Haitians have nothing, and I mean nothing. And that was before the earthquake. Haven’t you seen ‘Crossroads’? Or ‘Damn Yankees?’
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Conan O’Brien seems close to a deal to leave The Tonight Show, paving the way for a return by Jay Leno.
January 10th is the anniversary of the very first Super Bowl, or, as it was cleverly called, Super Bowl I. The year was 1967, and the teams were the National Football League’s Green Bay Packers and the American Football League’s Kansas City Chiefs.The Packers were favorites to win, and they did, 35-10, behind the coaching of Vince Lombardi and the talents of quarterback Bart Starr.Here’s a recap from the Green Bay Packers.
Film reviewer and internet jockey Roger Ebert came out swinging today, in an open letter to Rush Limbaugh that starts with “You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of the nation.””You should be horse-whipped for the insult you have paid to the highest office of the nation.”
Here’s an update to our post about Two Gentlemen of Lebowski, that marvelous mash-up of the Coen brothers and William Shakespeare:DMTheatrics is staging what they say is the New York City premiere of Adam Bertocci’s play, which uses Shakespearean-style verse to retell the story of the movie The Big Lebowski (1998, starring Jeff Bridges).
Here’s a belated book review of my most frustrating read of 2009: Ted Sorensen’s book Counselor: A Life at the Edge of History.The book came out in 2008 and it’s billed as Ted Sorensen’s frank personal memoir of his 11 years as John Kennedy’s speechwriter and right-hand advisor.
Lady Gaga has signed on as the creative director at Polaroid. (Nope, the company’s not defunct yet.) That’s Gaga flashing her business card on Twitter. Her quote: “The Haus of …..
Actress Megan Fox has signed on as a jeans and underwear model for Armani. This is one of the teaser photos of Fox in Armani released by the company this week.
Singer Teddy Pendergrass has died at the young age of 59. He’d had a rugged eight months recovering from colon cancer surgery, according to his son.
Up to 100,000 dead in Haiti. Fortunately, Pat Robertson is ready to put it all in perspective:Christie, something happened a long time ago in Haiti, and people might not want to talk about it. They were under the heel of the French, you know, Napoleon the Third and whatever. And they got together and swore a pact with the devil.
Reporter falls, clashes with aide while trying to question Democrat seeking Kennedy’s old seat – The LA TimesReporter takes stumble chasing Mass. candidate – The Boston GlobeWeekly Standard Reporter Attacked Outside Democratic Fundraiser
We’ve just added photos to our profile of John Edwards — including this irresistable shot of a baby at a 2008 Edwards campaign rally in Las Vegas.
How much would you pay to drive the Tiger Woods Escalade — the one he crashed in November while (allegedly) being chased with a golf club by his wife Elin Nordegren?GM has stopped loaning Tiger Woods new cars, says USA Today’s Drive On column. But buried in the story is this nugget:
[Conan O’Brien released this statement to the public this afternoon.]People of Earth:In the last few days, I’ve been getting a lot of sympathy calls, and I want to start by making it clear that no one should waste a second feeling sorry for me. For 17 years, I’ve been getting paid to do what I love most and, in a world with real problems, I’ve been absurdly lucky. That said, I’ve been suddenly put in a very public predicament and my bosses are demanding an immediate decision.
Well, according to this Esquire piece, former cable television personality Lou Dobbs has learned a whole lotta things, growin’ up on the farm out west and attendin’ that high-falootin’ yoo-nee-versity called Harverd and heck, just bein’ a good ol’ true-blue ‘Merican who’s all the time fightin’ for the little guy.Oh, and he learned the quiet virtue of humility, too.
An excerpt from Game Change, the new book about the 2008 presidential election, features details of the unsavory “implosion” of presidential aspirant John Edwards. The excerpt is titled “Saint Elizabeth and the Ego Monster.”
So Mark McGwire told Bob Costas in their interview last night.Costas: “On the 98-99-2000 seasons…”McGwire: “I learned to hit.”Costas: “Could hit 70 home runs without steroids.”McGwire: “Absolutely. I was given this gift by the man upstairs.”Oh, dude, come on.
The LA Times says that not only is the Spider-Man 4 movie in trouble, so is the expensive new Broadway show.
Director Sam Raimi is out for Spider-Man 4. So are Tobey Maguire and Kirsten Dunst.
Baseball great Hank Aaron says that Mark McGwire has asked for his forgiveness for using steroids — and Aaron has granted it: “I think that it’s wonderful that he did …..
The rumors are true: Simon Cowell is leaving American Idol after the coming season.
More details on the Mark McGwire steroids story from USA Today:Before coming clean publicly, [McGwire] informed his family and made apologetic phone calls to Commissioner Bud Selig, Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and Don Hooton, a Texas man who took up the anti-steroids fight after his son committed suicide after taking steroids.
Former Illinois governor Rod Blagojevich — “Blago” — says in his just-released Esquire magazine interview: “I’m blacker than Barack Obama. I shined shoes. I grew up in a five-room apartment. My father had a little laundromat in a black community not far from where we lived.”
A juicy thought about the Jay Leno brouhaha at NBC: If Leno goes on at 11:35, and Conan O’Brien moves to 12:05, that means David Letterman will have to fight two opening monologues opposite his show.Points out Ken Tucker.
Stud mountaineer Sir Edmund Hillary died two years ago today. His family marked the occasion by walking a new seaside trail named for him in New Zealand. Hillary was 33 …..
Singer Katy Perry is engaged to British comedian Russell Brand.[Editor’s note: Yup, they married later in 2010.]
NBC confirms the rumors. Jay Leno will be back at 11:35 after the Winter Olympic games.
Is 3D really the future of television? Really? Really?
Fans of the Jeff Bridges movie The Big Lebowski should love Adam Bertocci’s terrific blend of William Shakespeare and the Coen brothers:Two Gentlemen of Lebowski.
To honor the death in 1943 of Nikola Tesla, we’ve hauled out a few links to enjoy.
Philip K. Dick’s family seems to think so.”Nexus One” is the name of Google’s new phone, which uses the company’s Android operating system.
On this day in 1811 Charles Sumner was born in Boston, Massachusetts.
Another few decades and he’ll be a has-bean. (Nyuk!)Rowan “Mr. Bean” Atkinson turns 55 today.
“Annie Hall,” the Oscar-winning 1977 film by Woody Allen, was originally titled “Anhedonia.” So says Jon Carroll (and so agrees the New York Times, in this great little time capsule interview.) Anhedonia is “a psychological state where nothing gives a person pleasure.”
NBA veteran and former New Jersey Nets player Jayson Williams is making the news again, this time for crashing his car under suspicious circumstances.According to this story from TMZ, Jayson Williams was arrested for suspicion of driving while intoxicated, after crashing his car in Manhattan in the wee hours of the morning.
The John F. Kennedy Library has begun following John F. Kennedy’s 1960 presidential campaign on Twitter.You can get updates (quotes, mostly) from here (or sign up to follow the tweets). Spoiler: Kennedy won that election, beating out Richard Nixon. Barely.
Yes, it’s a couple of months old, but this interview from Pitchfork is still a great treat for fans of Brian Eno, music producer (U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay) and rock star (“Baby’s On Fire” and Music for Airports).
Today is the 145th anniversary of King Camp Gillette‘s birth. Born in Fond du Lac, Wisconsin, King Gillette was a traveling salesman who came up with the disposable shaving razor. …..
Event planners are suddenly everywhere these days. What are they up to?
Turns out that while Tareq and Michaele Salahi were busy crashing the White House state dinner in November, another more discreet gate crasher was also making his move. (No, not Buzz Aldrin.)
Sir Isaac Newton is the Schrodinger’s Cat of birthday boys: He both was and wasn’t born on Christmas Day. And he both was and wasn’t born in 1642.How is, Mr. Man? How can be? Let’s talk it out.
Mary Daly, the feminist philosopher and teacher who tangled with Boston College (and others) over the last five decades, has died at age 81.
Happy birthday to you, The Hangover star Bradley Cooper. You were born on this day in 1975.Dude, still looking good!
In honor of Erwin Schrödinger’s death, we offer this simple illustration as an explanation of that whole deal about his cat.[[wysiwyg_imageupload:73:]]It has something to do with a light saber, a box of radioactive material, and an unsuspecting cat (as if there is such a thing).
The new allegation that Warren Beatty has been, uh, very friendly with 13,000 women during his lifetime puts him up there among the great doers of mythic deeds in America — figures …..
Sir Isaac Newton in a 1689 portrait by Godfrey Kneller.
Stud astronaut Buzz Aldrin and his wife, Lois, attend the premiere of Avatar in December at Grauman’s Chinese Theater.See Buzz in other places >>(Photo credit: Nikki Nelson / WENN.com)
Roger Ebert says that actor Philip Seymour Hoffman is in three of the top 10 movies of the 2000s. How disturbing!
A San Francisco evangelist has set a firm date for the Rapture: May 21, 2011.Harold Camping lets out a hearty chuckle when he considers the people who believe the world will end in 2012.
Victor Borge on The Muppet Show in 1979. Clockwise from top center: Borge, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, Animal, Fozzy Bear.
George Clooney is tipped to be an Oscar nominee for his performance in the new romantic comedy-drama Up In the Air. Here are some photos of George Clooney over the years.
Rush Limbaugh didn’t have a heart attack and said Friday that tests show nothing wrong with his heart.The talk radio czar was rushed to the hospital with heart pains on Wednesday. But now he has been released from The Queen’s Medical Center in Hawaii. “The pain was real, and they don’t know what caused it,” Limbaugh said in a press conference on Friday.
Happy 526th birthday to Who2’s unofficial mascot, Ulrich Zwingli.The cranky Swiss theologian was born on this day in 1484.