Happy birthday to the late comedian Lenny Bruce, who would have been 84 years old today, had he not overdosed himself off this mortal coil back in 1966. His daughter, Kitty, runs The Official Lenny Bruce Website, and today marks the beginning of a two-week auction of Bruce memorabilia.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton toasts photographers at McDaid’s Pub in Dublin on Sunday. She was accompanied by Art Rooney, the new U.S. Ambassador to Ireland.Clinton visits Belfast for political talks with Northern Ireland leaders today.
Filmmaker Orson Welles died on October 10th (that’s tomorrow) in 1985, at the age of 70. Here are a few links — mostly videos — in tribute to Mr. Welles:
“The Norwegian Nobel Committee has decided that the Nobel Peace Prize for 2009 is to be awarded to President Barack Obama for his extraordinary efforts to strengthen international diplomacy and cooperation between peoples. The Committee has attached special importance to Obama’s vision of and work for a world without nuclear weapons.”From the official announcement from the Nobel Peace Prize committee.
Mr. Lombardi played twice with Obama during the campaign… The first time, in May 2008, came about by sheer happenstance. Lombardi was at the gym, and there was Obama, so Lombardi introduced himself.”Hey, listen,” Obama said, “I have members of my staff here, five or six guys, we wanna play full court, you go find a few guys.”
Singer and actor Harry Connick, Jr. was a guest judge for a talent contest on live television in Australia, part of the show Hey, Hey It’s Saturday, when he was startled by an act that was a “tribute” to Michael Jackson: the skit involved five white men in black face and afro wigs.
Here’s a gallery of amazing photos from Berlin, where they let France’s Royal de Luxe theater troupe crowd the streets with giant wooden marionettes.Courtesy of the Boston Globe.
Variety loves George Clooney’s new movie, Up In the Air.Clooney has scarcely ever been more magnetic onscreen than he is here as Ryan Bingham, a gun-for-hire who specializes in the dirty work some corporate bosses don’t like to do themselves, firing employees.
Vanity Fair has a nifty slideshow of its past photos of Penelope Cruz.
The latest news in the world of TV’s Dancing with the Stars (the on-air dancing competition that features F-list celebrities): Former U.S. congressman Tom DeLay, who went from Powerful Politician (during the the administration of President George W. Bush) to Ousted-and-Under-Indictment TV celebrity, has reportedly withdrawn from dance competition, due to stress fractures in his feet.
Popular Mechanics offers this nifty list of the Ten Fastest Land Speed Record vehicles, beginning with this beauty, the 999, by Henry Ford.
“The polls that I’ve seen ran about 80/20, Betty over Veronica, with Jughead continually coming in a strong third.”Archie seems to be solving his dilemma by marrying both girls. (The Times blames his polygamy on Robert Frost.)
In honor of what would have been Truman Capote’s 85th birthday (he died in 1984), here are a couple of video interviews from 1966, as he talks about working on In Cold Blood.In this video he tries to explain what he means by “non-fiction novel.”In this video he talks about what it was like to arrive in Kansas.
Coming in December is the new album by rap star Chamillionaire. He gave fans the opportunity to vote on the title, offering 10 candidates.The possible titles included Reverse Psychology, Back for Revenge and Karma. Chamillionaire also gives dictionary-style explanations for each title. Our favorite is for Wake Up Call: “A wake up call happens during the times when people are sleeping. You set a wake up call when its [sic] time to wake people up.”
Political columnist and conservative guru William Safire has died at age 79.Safire had been under hospice care for pancreatic cancer, reports the Jewish news agency JTA.
Maybe the film festival wasn’t such a good idea.76-year-old director Roman Polanski was supposed to be honored at a Swiss film festival this week. Instead, he was arrested as soon as he landed at Zurich airport. He’s still officially a wanted man in the United States, and the Swiss have an extradition treaty with the U.S.
A photo gallery of young Michael Jordan, courtesy of Sports Illustrated.
Here’s a brief article from Wired on how Spike Jonze worked the special effects for the film version of Maurice Sendak’s Where the Wild Things Are.
We’ve just posted a new profile of actress Mackenzie Phillips. You may remember her as scrawny li’l Carol from One Day at a Time, but now she’s in the news for some rather far-out comments about her dad.
Three new Orson Welles stamps by artist Paul Hehn.