I saw two celebrities yesterday. First, I saw that tap dancing dude from Showtime at the Apollo walking down Lafayette with his wife and kid. Yea, I watch a lot of random TV.
Second, I saw Ron Perlman on Houston.
Viewing entries in
Celebrity
I think I just saw a reality TV first--a contestant in the first episode of the second season of Flavor of Love not only shit herself, but...actually shat on the floor. Amazing.
I've never quite understood the appeal of Julia Roberts and on illogical principle, I refuse to watch her hooker movie with Richard Gere. Anyway, check out these recent photos of your favorite actress without make-up or movie magic to subtract 20 years from her life.
Shudder.
This is an amusing, but slightly bizarre music video with one of the members of Lonely Island (which brought you the Chronic-what?-cles of Narnia) and Kal Penn from Harold and Kumar along with a surprising what-the-fuck cameo by Brandon Routh aka Clark Kent aka Superman.[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlxhD284RKM]
Here's an amusing video clip shot by the paparazzo of Vanessa Minnillo sitting outside at a cafe with Nicholas Lachey as she tries numerous times to squeeze out a kiss from her heartbroken lovah.
But Nick knew the papos were across the street and he gives her the denial. While watching the video, I felt that they should have that Sebastian from the Little Mermaid singing "Kiss the Girl." Nick, just kiss de girl!
Is your mind numb yet? No? I have more thoughts on this:
Actually, I don't blame Nick for his wariness with the papos around, because Vanessa strikes me as a bit of a social climber and she might be trying to attach herself to Nick's coattails and step up her own game.
Your 2006 Miss Universe is Miss Puerto Rico (Zuleyka Rivera Mendoza) who promptly fainted during the post-crowning press conference because her "dress was too tight" and the room was "too hot." And because she hadn't eaten in 2 week. The highlight of the show undoutedly was the "national costume" part (I actually didn't watch the airing, but apparently a lot of 18 to 49 year olds did). Here are some that I pulled off the Miss Universe website featuring the hottest "national costume" this side of the "It's a Small World After All" ride at Disneyworld:
(As I was typing this, I realized that the second best blogger ever Kev already covered it...whatevs)
This costume helps the Hermit Nation and China forget Japan's past aggressive foreign policy tendencies.
Despite our lone cowboy ways on the diplomatic and political international stage, I've never been ashamed of being an American. Despite Bush, Cheney, Haliburton, secret prisons, Iraq, and our military industrial complex, I've never been ashamed to say I'm American. Until now. This outfit that blondie is wearing makes me ashamed to be an American.
Is she wearing a cape made out of black construction paper that I used in elementary school??
Channeling The Tempest?
This is why I want to go to Australia. Girl is dressed no different than the hot models I see walking around Soho.[EDIT: Just noticed the boomerang! Hot ya'll!]
This is why Americans make fun of Canada. What culture is she suppose to be reflecting? Trashy Vegas variety shows??
The song playing while she walked out: The Wind Beneath My Wings.
Apparently TGIFs is a country. I want my baby back baby back baby back ribs.
I learned from this girl that if I ever go to Croatia, bring an umbrella.
If I was a Peruvian, I'd demand that she cover up her sash because this is downright embarrassing.
Afterwards, Russian President V. Putin lifted up her skirt and kissed her uh "stomach."
Winning American Idol really does make you famous--so famous that I'm sitting here, using up my precious brain cells and not-so-precious time to write about someone writing about seeing American Idol winner Taylor Hicks at Yankee Stadium:
As we settled in our seats and got over the fact that we paid $8.00 for a beer (for the mathematically inclined, that’s approximately a 1,039% mark-up over the national average price of a single beer in a six-pack) we noticed that there was a commotion going on to our left. We look over to see what’s going on and it seems there is a crowd gathering around a very old man sitting five seats away. Finally the crowd disperses and it’s none other than Taylor Hicks! And he’s there with Seth Green! (Ed. Note: It was not Seth Green, it was in fact Elliott Yamin, the third place finisher in “American Idol.” He was, however, the first place finisher in the “Eating Dippin’ Dots Out Of A Mini Helmet Bowl” race.)For anyone out there who is wondering what Taylor Hicks looks like close up, here is the best description I can give: old. I’m not kidding when I say that this man is lying about his age.
The man looked like he was 40-years-old after the magic of make-up, stylist, and soft-focus TV cameras. In real life he probably looks like this:
The hippest kids on the West Coast and fellow wordpresser, Kev and Moye platonically share a blog. And on their blog, they are currently engaged in a raging flame war betweem themselves over whether hapa model Jessica Michibata is attractive, whose appellation Kevin has designated as simply "Hot Girl."
Jessica has a blog herself where she primarily posts candid photos of herself partying, hanging out and (this one's for Nick and Kaizar) occasionally hitting the stripper pole. Kevin added her to his blogroll under the title "Hot Girl." I added her to my blogroll, because she seems like an interesting person to talk to about Al Gore's new documentary "An Inconvenient Truth."
Moye is decidedly anti-Jessica. To Moye, "hot girl" is simply a hot mess. On the other hand, Kevin is obsessively pro-Jessica. Moye is convinced Kevin is blind. Kevin is convinced Moye is blind. I say, can we leave the optically-challenged and visually-impaired out of this debate?
What do I think? I think we're all beautiful, each and every one of us.
Check out this video of Matthew McConaughey (with Lance Armstrong and the gays number one recruit, Jake Gyllenhaal) asking the hoard of paparazzi for some money so they could buy lunch after a bicycling session. Scroll to the second video link on the page--although there's some other good stuff on there as well. I think if I could go kick it with one celeb, it'd probably be with MCon. He always seem so relaxed and chill. I don't think he was "acting" too hard in Dazed and Confused because I suspect he's sort of like that in real life. The best thing about being MCon I guess is that he gets older, and the girls stay the same age. Git-R-Done!
File this story under "Because Celebrities' Lives Are That Much More Interesting Than Ours."
I started worrying because in the past 24 hours, the Shamu article at the Times was bumped to the third spot on the Most Emailed List. But she's a fighta' I tell ya, a fighta'! The Shamu article is back to the one spot! If the Da Vinci Code, Bible and Harry Potter series were all rolled into one, it'd look something like the Shamu article. I don't know what's going to top it.
My friend Kristy and I took a class on Terrorism at Columbia University taught by groovy professor Stuart Gottlieb (I knew more than a few girls in that class that had a crush on him). Well, I was in his class in the spring semester of 2005. Today, I got an instant message from Kristy with a link that sent me to this photo with the following caption:
Attending Professor Stuart Gottlieb's 'Terrorism and Counterterrorism' class at Columbia University in promotion for 'V for Vendetta', NYC (March 6th 2006)
There is Natalie Portman standing in front of my professor! In some way, that is the story of my life right there. If I just took that class a year later, I would have been sitting 10 feet away from Natalie (albeit, spouting inanities). Yea, I'm usually the dork that sits in the front row with my laptop out to take notes with.
Screw the pedagogy and world class faculty of ivory towers! I attended Columbia and Brown to see celebrities! I was robbed! Instead, all I got was a very drunk and red faced mayor, Buddy Cianci, speak in my urban studies course about the 'revitalization of the water front.'
So the new season of Project Runway kicked off with a nifty "hat' trick yesterday. By nifty, I meant to say quite terrible. Using materials and items from their apartments, the designers had to construct a dress. One of the designers placed what quite literally resembled a lampshade onto of his model's head. The hat paired with the big lamp hat made the model look...unwell. She might as well have been wearing a bicycle helmet and looking for her baseball. Nonetheless, the model still looked hotter than you and me. That's why she's a model and you aren't. I didn't want to be sucked into yet another reality show (I'm already committed to "So You Think You Can Dance"), but this damn show had me at hello.
Anyhoo, the gossipmongers at New York Daily News have a bit of a spoiler for this season's Project Runway. If you're curious, click on "more" below.
The Daily News writes:
Hungarian model Jia Santos (whose real name is Eliza Jakubek), 18, became one of the three finalists. But near the end of taping, she was struck by a bus while riding her bike to the show's location in the city.
"She was dragged underneath the bus," her agent, Avenue Models' Javier Hernandez, told us yesterday. "She fractured her skull and her eye socket and was in critical condition for three days. Now she has been in intensive care for a month."
Her first words upon waking up, Hernandez tells us, were: "Am I still on 'Project Runway'?"
It's good to see that this model has her priorities in the right place, but I'm wondering who chose her "model" name "Jia Santos." Her real name seems model appropriate. I wonder how frequent this practice of changing names is in the modeling industry.
NOTE:
Thanks to all ya'll posting comments on this great show. Please don't stop at this entry. Check out the rest of my blog--I'm sure you'll find something else here that'll amuse you.
Update Looks like I'm not the only one with a changing opinion of this d-lister. Kathy Griffin's earned the ire of Page Six (which, in celebrityland, is like a violent death). Instead of opening her act with asking "Where are my gays?" she may, instead, need to ask, "Where are some of my gays?" Page Six gossips:
Chelsea gay club Splash is throwing a hissy fit over comic Kathy Griffin. Club spokesman Len Evans tells us Griffin - the star of Bravo's "Life on the D-List" who often talks about her gay friends in her stand-up act - has turned down an offer to perform there in September. "We offered her $5,000, but she wanted 30 grand plus a $10,000 rider," Evans says. "On her show she's always like, 'My gays' and 'I love the gays,' but it's totally opposite in real life. We were taken aback by her response. If she had love for her gay fans she'd do it. I mean, J.Lo just performed at Gay Pride for free. I guess it's all about the money." Griffin's publicist said, "Any public appearances or stand-up bookings go through her agent."
Will more gays jump off the Kathy G vaginawagon?
On the growing success of her show on Bravo, ever self-deprecating Kathy Griffin has definitely been stepping her game up and the ascending sunrise she sees in the distant horizon just may shine favorably upon her and elevate her onto the c-list of celebrities. I've been a big fan of hers--not quite on the level of worship offered by her gays--for a long time, but lately I've been developing an internal seismic shift that's making me rethink my opinion of her.
The shift isn't set in stone, but my love for Kathy that developed over her first season on Bravo has lately been tainted by a new hesitation and ambiguity. This shift is similar to the feeling that develops when I begin noticing annoying habits or tendencies of a girl I've recently started dating. I'm sure everyone can relate to that. You go from thinking the girl (or boy in Moye's case) is the flyest and sexiest chick in the world to being first, distracting, then irritating, and then finally absolutely being disgusted by her because she...says "like" a lot or chews with her mouth open (nasty FYI). This is how I'm slowly beginning to feel about Kathy Griffin.
I still love her show and her dishing on celebrities, but her handling of the situation with her ex-husband, Matt (best name ever, by the way) disgusts me and is making me think that she's as self-absorbed as the Nicole Kidmans, Catherine Zeta Jones, and Nicole Richies that she hilariously makes fun of.
"That money totaled $72,000. And he was doing [it] systematically over about a year and a half," Griffin said.
I understand that every married couple organizes their finances differently (my parents' money all went into the same pot), but one spouse stealing money from the other seems to be symptomatic of a larger problem in their relationship. Of course, what that is, is unknown to us at the moment. There are rumors flying around the blogosphere that Matt was usually responsible for paying for everything (dinners and such), which he couldn't afford--a problem exasperated by Kathy's demanding personality towards Matt. Even if she's only living in a d-list atmosphere, that's still out of the reach, financially, for most people (her house has a freakin' elevator for god's sakes). With Matt playing the role of hair dresser and personal assistant to Kathy's non-normative schedule, I imagine Matt's career took a backseat to Kathy's.
All of this is speculation and I take it with a grain of salt (and so should you). What has really triggered my changing opinion of her, however, is her decision to air her and Matt's dirty laundry in a very public way. I think it's very distasteful and unfairly vindictive.
I wouldn't have a problem if Nicole Kidman decides to go on Larry King to reveal all about her beard marriage with Tom Cruise ("Larry...it was very cramped in that closet."), because her and Tom are on a equal and balanced fighting field. Matt, despite his appearances on Kathy's show (and in my opinion, often funnier than shrill Kathy), is still relatively a nobody just like you and me. He's not going to get invited anytime soon to Larry King or Jay Leno or hell, even the View. The guy doesn't get a chance to tell his side of the story.
Adding to this, a story came out today that her two favorite gays from her first season aren't in the second season and in fact, they are completely estranged from Kathy. The reason? Money. They wanted some money to appear and Kathy's admitted obsession with gettin' paid excludes hooking her friends up with some Bravo money. I would link to the article, but I can't seem to find it at the money. You google it.
One final thought: Kathy told Larry that she isn't dating anyone right now. Okay, she's funny and seemingly quite likeable (my aforementioned comments notwithstanding), but she's not the prettiest rose in the bunch. She should date a blind guy with a good sense of humor and who doesn't know how to use an ATM.
Someone clearly has too much time on their hands...but thank goodness they do, because this is a masterfully amusing game that lets you step into Zidane's magical shoes and head-butt your way into glory. To play...Click Here.
Using NYC's hip hop radio station "Hot 97" as the focal point, the always awesome New Yorker examines the current state of hip hop in New York City. It's a very fascinating, engrossing and entertaining read. Here's an excerpt from the article:
A recent edition features a scene shot last year, before Gravy’s feud with Hot 97, and shortly after he and Fendi had negotiated to take their private label, Dirty Money Records, to Warner Bros., for a reported three million dollars. It is night, and Gravy and Ice-T are standing on Eighth Street, in the Village—a young rapper on the cusp of success, basking in the attention of an elder statesman. “We just chilling,” Ice-T says. “I bumped into Gravy. Say, ‘What’s happening?’ We talking.”“We gone got the official Gangsta Man,” Gravy says. “You can’t get more gangsta than this man right here, you know?. . . Tell me, what you got going on, Ice-T?”
“Right now, I’m on TV—niggas watching me on ‘Law and Order: Special Victims Unit,’ cause I’m the real mothafuckin’ pimp,” Ice-T says. “Playing the police. Imagine that. That’s real pimpin’ for a street nigga like me.”
Ice-T mentions that he’s got a new album coming out (“Gangsta Rap”), along with a clothing line (310 Motoring) and an energy drink (Liquid Ice) to promote: “I’m just trying to get it all, man. I’m trying to stay in the game.”
Gravy, nodding along, is wearing three huge silver necklaces, with crosses dangling in front of his stomach. “My man, shit, let me check out how you roll,” he says, turning and pointing behind Ice-T to a silver luxury car.
“Yeah, this the Bentley,” Ice-T says, before directing the camera to the front seat, where he shows off a customized steering wheel. “Got a lot of wood up in there. You go check niggas’ Bentleys out, you ain’t even going to see the wood steering wheel, ’cause that’s extra. That cost five thousand. . . . But I got it from hard work.”
Ice-T turns serious. “The hardest thing in the world to get is street respect, where niggas really are happy to see you with this type of stuff, you dig? That’s the hardest thing to obtain, is to get it, and have the hood feel like you deserve it, you dig? ’Cause you can go out there, get a budget, and get a whole bunch of money—niggas will run right up in your crib and repossess that bullshit, real quick. Look, look, look— ”
A double-decker sightseeing bus has pulled to a stop behind the Bentley (“Ladies and gentlemen, Ice-T!”), and tourists on the upper level begin snapping pictures. “What’s up, Ice-T?”
“What’s happening?” he shouts back.
“There he is!”
Turning to face the camera again, Ice-T smirks, and says, “That’s all white people—trip. That’s all white people. So you got to be good in the hood, and gets respect from the top deck, you dig? World renowned, internationally known, and locally respected. That’s me and Saucy”—Gravy—“we do it like that.”
The cameraman asks, “Ice-T, how’s the rap game changed since you’ve come up?”
“I mean, the rap game’s changed a lot, but I’m not mad at it,” he says. “It’s more raw. . . . Now every rap crew is made of real mothafuckin’ dangerous individuals, you dig what I’m saying? You got to understand, I got in the rap game to get out of the streets. . . . Now the streets is in the rap game.” Ice-T, as if in a time warp, appears to be counselling his protégé Gravy from some vantage point in the future. “Now niggas idolize the shot, not the shooter,” he says. “You brag how many times you got shot. I’m supposed to be impressed? . . . I’m down with the niggas who staying on the streets, who ain’t getting shot, ’cause nobody wants to shoot ’em. . . . I’m down with the niggas who come from the gutter but are trying to do it right, so they can feed they kids. Them is my crew. . . . Like this, ya heard?” He tugs Gravy back into the frame. “If you motivate niggas to do low, you hustling sideways.”
Ice-T’s wife, Coco, who is white, enters the picture, and his mood lightens. “She representing—just got her mothafuckin’ nails done,” he says. “I love her to death. . . . All the black women that got problems with Ice-T with a white girl? Kiss my fucking ass.” Then he puts his arm around Coco and starts singing “We Are the World,” swaying from side to side.
People are asking me why I'm switching from my old blog to this new one. If they use the points made in this article as a metaphor, they'll understand my motivations. I'm just trying to step up my game, ya heard?
Another family has joined the social network neighborhood. Friendster first arrived on the scene in 2002 with a splash, but this master was soon surpassed by the grasshopper as MySpace (for emo and music fans originally) and Facebook (college students) quickly dominated the social network scene. Google's Orkut service is primarily popular in only Brazil (I don't quite understand why, but that's the way it is). In the never ending pursuit of greater market, most of these social networks have attempted to become more and more inclusive. There are a couple notables that prides themselves on being exclusive, like this new network strictly for the thin, tall, and beautiful. And it doesn't count if you competed in a few mall modeling contests. Nope. Started by Jesper Lannung (see below) and called ModelsHotel.com, this one is only open to legitimate models who are signed and represented by the "top 50" agencies.
It is difficult to be ridiculously good looking and so it is understandable models want a space that is safe and comfortable for them where their anorexia and homoerotic photo shoots won't be mocked by a public that doesn't understand the art.
The first 100 to join will receive a "Members Only" jacket.
Here are a few photos from NBC Late Night's Conan O'Brian's wedding. These photos were taken from the wedding photographer's website. Conan and his now wife had a baby recently. From these photos, that baby will grow up to be the whitest baby in the world. 10 minutes in the sun will result in a major sunburn.
One became a world class athlete and the other a famous thespian and Hollywood star. Both have been known to use their heads to kick some ass.