Gawker
Culture Wars
Coming Out of the Bat Cave
Just how gay was our Dark Knight in days of old? Um, pretty darn gay. [Bilerico]
Culture Wars
Public relations
Nike Pulls 'Air Stab,' UK Crime Rates Plummet
Poor Nike just cannot catch a break these days. First all the gays and their blog commenter followers got upset about Nike's new ads featuring a guy with his nuts in another guy's face, which some say are homophobic. (Nike's ad agency would like you all to STFU with your whining about that, BTW). And this controversy is distracting them from the process of pulling all their "Air Stab" shoes out of UK stores because the god damn Brits can't stop knifing each other! More »
open caption
Patti Smith Salutes on the Set of Being There Remake
[Defiled rockabilly Pete Doherty leaving a Somerset courthouse today; image via Splash]
Political ads
Youth Told That Barack Obama Goes Both Ways
Last month MTV announced that it would finally start accepting political ads in order to better engage the youth of our nation in the political process and also because Barack Obama has a huge multimillion-dollar ad account that's not gonna spend itself. But look, the crafty right wing is getting out ahead of the curve here! Because the first political ad ever is now running on MTV, and it is against Barack Obama! Unfortunately it is incredibly trite and may have been assembled by a middle school child with rudimentary video-editing software and a YouTube account. Watch it after the jump and join the McCain revolution! Don't be a stereotypical youth in bed with Two-Way Barack: More »
In Brief
Today in Indie Carnage: Pink Slips Come Out at Paramount Vantage
FROM DEFAMER.COM: The saga of Paramount Vantage arrived at its bloody conclusion this morning, when Rob Moore and John Lesher sent a memo announcing the termination of 60 jobs at the specialty label. More »
blind item guessing game
No One Can Be a Secret Lesbian in Peace Anymore
"Just found out the the former President of my company is a lesbian. She was married w/ 4 kids! HINT—I work in Publishing," whispers a snitch on the YouBeMom parenting messageboard. No, not Bonnie Fuller, the secret lesbian was an "editor," someone else chimes in. Or, wait: "Wasn't an editor, she was in Advertising.. she has her own company now." Despite the unholy thread that unspools, we still have no idea who the secret lesbian—posited to be somewhere inside Conde Nast—could be. In case you were wondering what else these moms have on their shriveled little minds: More »
The Gays
Gay Wars: New York Wins!
In the long-fought battle between New York and Los Angeles, New York has finally won. In terms of which city is better for openly gay actors, at least. After Elton runs a feature today interviewing various gay thespians (redunnndant) about the trials and tribulations of both playing dress up and publicly doing it with men. And one thing is made abundantly clear. Los Angeles has a long and noble history of shaming its gay players into sham hetero relationships and degrading game show appearances, while New York has always let its freak pflag fly and welcomed queers with open arms: More »
GAWKER STALKER
Latest Gawker Stalker Sightings
Submit your Sightings: stalker@gawker.com
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America Ferrara
5th Ave & 90th St
Just saw America Ferrara, Vanessa Williams, and(guy who plays Daniel from Ugly Betty on Fifth Avenue and East 90th street filming their show. -
Kirstie Alley
Lexington Ave & 45th St
Lexington between 45th and 46th Just saw Kirstie Alley buying a pair of stuffed horses at a toy store - wearing a green dress & waving to... -
Mila Jovovich
Broadway & Houston St
Saw Milla Jovovich checking out at the Duane Reade in SoHo today @ 11:30am with her daughter and a man(her husband Paul W.S. Anderson?). -
Mary Kate Olsen
West Side Hwy & Murray St
Battery Park Theatre - Saw Mary Kate Olsen leaving the 7:30 showing of Dark Knight. She looked small, and was wearing huge silver sunglasses, even though it was dark and she was inside. Pretty.
Boldface Names
We Have Been All Wrong on Commenters
Commenters, it has been noted, are the single greatest threat to freedom facing America today. They are mean and libelous and should be rounded up and deported to Narnia. From YouTube to the New York Times, commenters are useless noise machines and racist cowards, and their mothers would be ashamed of them if their mothers weren't also forwarding nonsensical conspiracy theories to blog editors with CCs going out to Tom Brokaw, Perez Hilton, and Iron Man. But it turns out that sometimes commenters are awesome! Like on this BBC story about a court in New Zealand that took custody of a 9-year-old girl so that it could change her name from "Talula Does The Hula From Hawaii" to something New Zealanders consider more normal, like "Number 16 Bus Shelter." "You've been telling us about your unusual names," the BBC says. "Below are a selection of your comments." The first one is from someone claiming to be named "Russel Sprout" who says that his unusual name has helped him "make friends and improve my confidence," and they only get better from there. More »
LOLSlate
Everyone, including their own creator, thinks that Beijing's Olympic mascots suck. Slate asks: "Or are they really good?" [Slate]
Everyone, including their own creator, thinks that Beijing's Olympic mascots suck. Slate asks: "Or are they really good?" [Slate]
In Brief
LOLVogue: I Can Haz Wind Tunnel?
FROM JEZEBEL.COM: The August issue of Vogue has a photo shoot titled "Equal Opportunity," ostensibly about putting menswear-inspired items with frilly feminine stuff. The spread, starring Gisele and shot by David Sims, makes ample use of the wind machine. Your eyes will water just thinking of the velocity! More »
Foreign Affairs
Russia Loves The Office, Hates Emo
A show about depressed industrial workers ruled by a unfunny megalomaniac is headed for its natural demographic — Russians. The BBC has just sold Ricky Gervais and Stephen Merchant's mega-hit sitcom The Office to the country, which plans to adapt its own version as over 70 other countries have already done. (Slave labor being the high concept that unites us all). This might give Slavic fans of Belle and Sebastian something to do with their free time now that the Russian state legislature has decided to outlaw emo. The reason? Unlike anything else you might associate with the land of nihilism and revolution, it "encourages anti-social behaviour and glorifies suicide." [Guardian, NME]
Journalismism
WSJ Secretly Quotes Editor's Own Employee In Page One Yoga Story
It seemed strange that the Wall Street Journal—so concerned about beating the competition in hard news—would choose for a Page One story today a piece on business people who do yoga. Really, WSJ? It's a pretty standard, low-hanging "take a trend, and add business angle" story that might have more rightly been in the back pages. But their work had this added benefit: a WSJ editor owns her own yoga studio, and one of her employees gives great on-the-money quotes: More »
In Brief
DailyCandy is for sale, but Comcast might need more than $75 million
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: Former AOL boss Bob Pittman's Pilot Group Ventures is rumored to have sold its popular email list DailyCandy to Comcast for $75 million. We're not so sure.
Gossip
If Hulk Hogan can't make it work with his lookalike, equally bleached-blond wife, what hope is there for the rest of us? And what about Matthew Broderick and those rumors of his cheating on American's princess, Sarah Jessica Parker? And the impending divorce of the Yankee's A-Rod and his wife, after the Madonna/stripper liaisons? Summer is the season of celebrity divorces, and our Intern Morgan Miller put together a chart of the juiciest scandals, from Lucy and Desi on up. Transsexual prostitutes, drug paranoia, and herpes—as Ivana Trump once said, "Don't get mad, get everything."
More »
Ten Messy Celebrity Divorces
If Hulk Hogan can't make it work with his lookalike, equally bleached-blond wife, what hope is there for the rest of us? And what about Matthew Broderick and those rumors of his cheating on American's princess, Sarah Jessica Parker? And the impending divorce of the Yankee's A-Rod and his wife, after the Madonna/stripper liaisons? Summer is the season of celebrity divorces, and our Intern Morgan Miller put together a chart of the juiciest scandals, from Lucy and Desi on up. Transsexual prostitutes, drug paranoia, and herpes—as Ivana Trump once said, "Don't get mad, get everything."
More »
Celebrities
Blonde actress megastar Scarlett Johannson has been accused of drug use by a random graffiti tagger! But there's even more to the imaginary rendezvous; what did you and the busty Tom Waits fan do after the party, random graffiti tagger?:
More »
ScarJo's Private Life Revealed In Graffiti
Blonde actress megastar Scarlett Johannson has been accused of drug use by a random graffiti tagger! But there's even more to the imaginary rendezvous; what did you and the busty Tom Waits fan do after the party, random graffiti tagger?:
More »
Books
James Wood Is Vexed
Literary critic James Wood left a comment at New York's Vulture blog, objecting to its prior characterization of his new book How Fiction Works. It is not, he says, a "prescriptive guide to writing one kind of book," nor is there is any such thing as "the high realist novel," and even if there were, he would not be its Zhdanovite champion. He esteems "stylistic flourishes," for one — just don't go thinking you can write a pretty little book about nothing. In its defense, Vulture argues that nowhere does Wood actually deny being the leader of a new lit school; the original post referred to Leon Neyfakh's Observer profile of exultant, MFA-carrying Woodies, which quoted the master as saying that his favorite remarks are from writers who claim his essays helped them escape this or that brier patch in their own work. Not sure that makes him a didactic commissar so much as just good. Full comment after the jump: More »
Updates: Bayer Rep Says Baby Ads Are A Hoax
It appears that the two ads we posted yesterday of cute cartoons showing babies being cooked are not in fact real ads for Bayer's new burn cream. The global account director from Bayer's ad agency, JWT, emailed us to say: "We don't know yet who posted them and why but one thing we know for sure is that they were never presented or approved by anyone in Bayer or JWT worldwide... at the very moment its nothing more but artwork with branding. Bayer group received several phone calls today both in US and Europe in regards to those publications and we need to make sure that this will not spread even more." He called the spots a "very bad and nasty joke." We're adding a disclaimer to the original post.
It appears that the two ads we posted yesterday of cute cartoons showing babies being cooked are not in fact real ads for Bayer's new burn cream. The global account director from Bayer's ad agency, JWT, emailed us to say: "We don't know yet who posted them and why but one thing we know for sure is that they were never presented or approved by anyone in Bayer or JWT worldwide... at the very moment its nothing more but artwork with branding. Bayer group received several phone calls today both in US and Europe in regards to those publications and we need to make sure that this will not spread even more." He called the spots a "very bad and nasty joke." We're adding a disclaimer to the original post.
gawker book club
Touring New York's Restaurants With Mr. Zagat Himself
In his just-released book, The Man Who Ate the World, restaurant critic Jay Rayner explores the oft-overblown luxury dining of the world. In a scene from New York, the man behind the Zagat Survey—Mr. Tim Zagat himself—takes him on a whirlwind tour. It's fun to watch brash American Zagat embarrass Rayner, a Brit with a sense of propriety. Who do they run into at Meatpacking District monstrosity Buddakan other than America's favorite "One Tough Cop," private investigator Bo Dietl—who tells them that he came for the food, but stayed for the "pussy": More »
Obsessions
The Kennedy Assassination Can Capture Your Very Soul
If you only read the Washington Post for one thing, read it for its offbeat profiles of weird people in the Style section. Screw politics! Today they profile an author named Max Holland, who's spent the last 12 years—12 years!—working on a book about the Kennedy assassination. His big revelation in that decade-plus of research? That maybe there was a gunshot before the Zapruder film started filming. But, a shot that missed! So who cares, right? Are Kennedy assassination people the most serious-minded crazies in America? Very possibly: More »
In Brief
Brand-Obsessed Chick Lit Makes Us Lose Our Breakfast (At Tiffany's)
FROM JEZEBEL.COM: Remember when we counted the number of luxury brand name mentions per page in the hateful YA series The Clique (1.8 brand mentions per page, for those of you keeping score)? More »
Colbert Was Right, Timothy Treadwell Still Wrong
Holy shit. "Man-Eating Bears Kill Two Scientists And Lay Siege To Survivors Trapped In Remote Forest Base." When asked why this is happening, a government official said: "the bears are hungry." Right.
Holy shit. "Man-Eating Bears Kill Two Scientists And Lay Siege To Survivors Trapped In Remote Forest Base." When asked why this is happening, a government official said: "the bears are hungry." Right.
this thing looks like that thing
Exact Same Poster Spells Doom For Both TV Show and Movie
Alan Ball's new HBO vampire series True Blood looks a bit campy in an annoying way (also, Anna Paquin?), and Jennifer's Body, a movie about a possessed killer teen, was written by irksome Juno wordsmith Diablo Cody, so I think it's funny that they've both bumbled and created exactly the same poster (seen above). My biggie b, tween twitterers. Honest to blog, it would be the mac in my cheese if you didn't mention it again! [via Videogum] Click thru for larger.
Project Runway
Hello, this is Joshua David Stein. I am back briefly to talk about the fifth season of Bravo's Project Runway whose second episode aired last night.
After the results of the next four elimination challenges were leaked on Wikipedia, I began to dread Wednesday's episode. As a pitiably cableless fuck and a people person I, like many others, spend my Wednesdays in the company of fellow Runway followers. We huddle around the television, wringing outrage and joy from the illumined rectangle like it was a hearth and we but cold laborers. But with spoilers in the ether, I feared perhaps one of my friends would feel compelled to announce the loser prematurely. More »
Proj Run Turns Friendships Sour; Cats, TVs and Faces Leather
After the results of the next four elimination challenges were leaked on Wikipedia, I began to dread Wednesday's episode. As a pitiably cableless fuck and a people person I, like many others, spend my Wednesdays in the company of fellow Runway followers. We huddle around the television, wringing outrage and joy from the illumined rectangle like it was a hearth and we but cold laborers. But with spoilers in the ether, I feared perhaps one of my friends would feel compelled to announce the loser prematurely. More »
