Gawker
retaliation
retaliation
Scams
Lying An Important Part Of News History
Lies! Today, they spread everywhere instantly thanks to the internet, that wondrous web of computers full of lies. That's how a fake rumor about Steve Jobs having a heart attack can momentarily cost Apple billions of dollars in market cap. But don't blame the internet—blame the inherently wicked hearts of mankind. Because people have been running these same types of media scams to manipulate financial markets for at least 144 years: More »
Celeb divorce
Who Gets What In The Brian And Gigi Grazer Divorce
FROM DEFAMER.COM: It's been a year and four months since we learned of the dissolution of the marriage of Hollywood superproducer (and lesser-known rising sign) Brian Grazer to his screenwriter/author ex-wife, Gigi Levangie. More »
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Actress Still Feeling Giddy/Guilty About Cashing I Know Who Killed Me Paycheck
[Lindsay Lohan shopping in Soho today; image via Bauer-Griffin]
Magazines
Is People Neglecting Angelina Jolie For Sarah Palin?
Is People magazine totally in the tank (like Pareene) for John McCain and his non-English-speaking VP lady? We hear that some staff members of the nation's leading smiling-coverperson mag are grumbling that People is giving too much positive press to the Republican candidates—for example, this feature where they ask readers to submit questions for the Palin family, without once mentioning they engage in moose-killing and other scandalous activities! Or this, with a headline quote that will make you exclaim "Har." Besides, doesn't People know that only Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston are qualified to appear on celebrity magazine covers? Science has proven it!: More »
Bias
Shock: Andrea Mitchell In Bed With Greenspan!
NBC political correspondent Andrea Mitchell is one of the network's news stars, so it's only natural that we've been seeing a lot of her lately. Even when the topic turns to the government's and the candidates' responses to the current financial crisis. But you will not see her, supposedly, when the discussion turns to "past economic decisions" that led up to the crisis. Because Mitchell is married to Alan Greenspan, the former Federal Reserve Chairman who many say is basically responsible for the housing bubble. And that is their conflict of interest compromise: Mitchell will report as usual until the reasons we got to this point are discussed, at which point she'll quietly disappear from your television without explanation. Unethical! Or, you know, the standard way of doing business in political journalism. More »
Listicle
5 Celebrities Who Really Hate the Paparazzi
Actor Tobey Maguire has had another confrontation with the ever-dogged paparazzi, this incident ending in bloodshed. Apparently, his friend punched some photographer and was hauled off to jail. This is the second such outburst for the Spider-Man star, but he's not the only one to lash out at the wicked, prying photogs and their gaggle of flashing lights and inane questions. After the jump take a took at five other celebrities who have stood up and barked "No!" at the insidious rabble. More »
Rants
How Older, White Critics Have Missed the Boat on 'Rachel Getting Married'
FROM DEFAMER.COM: Most of the attention paid to Jonathan Demme's new film Rachel Getting Married has centered on the Oscar-buzzed lead performance from Anne Hathaway, but many critics are consumed with something the movie treats as a non-event: More »
GAWKER STALKER
Latest Gawker Stalker Sightings
Submit your Sightings: stalker@gawker.com
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Jeremy Piven
466 Lexington Ave
At the top of escalator about to leave the building. Presumably had just finished a meeting. He was talking to two girls, one hot blond and one hot brunette. -
Lewis Black
9th Ave
Just saw Lewis Black walking briskly on his own, looking preoccupied. Fittingly, something seemed to be bothering him. -
Seth Meyers
7th Ave & 17th St
Saw Seth Meyers (Oh my god, are you serious?) at the Rusty Knot. Way hotter than you'd expect. He ordered a Tecate. That's weekend update. -
Lauren Hutton
181 2nd Ave
Saw Lauren Hutton in Soho waiting to see a play called "Chekhov Lizardbrain". She looked casually fabulous, and was wearing a neat bamboo-like backpack.
The unspiked files
Trying Out For America's Got Talent
In the latest installment of Gawker's Unspiked Files, Dan Crane auditions for NBC's hit talent contest. (The article follows after the jump.) The Unspiked Files are a repository of pieces commissioned by newspapers and magazines that never made it to the page. Earlier articles on actor Alec Baldwin and a Scientology-related suicide are listed here. If you have an article that deserves to see the light of day, email unspiked@gawker.com.More »
Magazines
The 'Toos Mourns the Loss of Her 'Baby,' CosmoGirl
Women have been wondering since they entered the workforce if they can really, truly "have it all": a great career and a (rich) husband and a killer wardrobe, house in the Hamptons, and a baby. And guess what: they can. Atoosa Rubenstein is the former EIC of CosmoGirl and Seventeen, and now a teen-girl empower-er who has "opted out" of the rat race. And guess what: "I'm still pretty young—young enough to ENJOY the fruits of my labor." Also, she is sad that CosmoGirl just folded because she started it and was, she will remind you, the "the youngest Editor in Chief in the 100 year history of Hearst Magazines." More »
USA
Bingo Gossip: The Last Successful Newspaper
Here's a bright ray of sunshine piercing through the dark skies of the newspaper industry: Bingo Gossip. It's thriving! Could Missy Mouser, the 26-year-old founder of this free bimonthly tabloid chronicling the lighter side of the Texas bingo world hold the answers for what ails the publishing business? YES, if the predilections of elderly Texas bingo fans are any indication!: More »
Ready to Bare
Actress (and fauxmosexual?) Lindsay Lohan is launching a fashion line today. The collection is "pretty eclectic from gold zippers to leather detailing, to buttery soft cashmere." She's at some store tonight at 6pm if you want to meet her, I guess, and buy crazy clothes.
Actress (and fauxmosexual?) Lindsay Lohan is launching a fashion line today. The collection is "pretty eclectic from gold zippers to leather detailing, to buttery soft cashmere." She's at some store tonight at 6pm if you want to meet her, I guess, and buy crazy clothes.
sex wars
Plastic Surgery Is Not Only OK, It's On Our To-Do List
Sharon Obsourne said on Chelsea Lately that she's tired of celebrities that lie about their plastic surgery, from face-lifts to filler injections to Botox to straight-up implants. The professional reality-show subject ingeniously likened Nicole Kidman's unresponsive forehead to a "fucking flatscreen TV." But there's much more openness now about cosmetic enhancement than ever been before. More »
Endorsements
Hitch Joins All-Star Roster of Anti-McCain "Smart" Republicans
Noted Bush-supporting former Trotskyite Christopher Hitchens has endorsed Democrat Barack Obama for president! In Slate today, the beloved British alcoholic raves about how Obama isn't a sad old man, like McCain, or an offensive joke, like Sarah Palin. Hitch, like a Nader voter, declares that there are no substantial differences between the candidates, but McCain's temperament is too unstable, and Obama's is much more reassuring. This is basically the argument of a number of noted conservative intellectuals who have, in recent weeks, either endorsed Obama, resigned themselves to an Obama presidency, or simply unendorsed McCain. As the intellectual conservatives abandoned Bush, now they find themselves abandoning the GOP. More »
meltdowns
The Cyprus 20 and the art of the single-take video
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: The deep mystery of the Camp Cyprus 20: What were they thinking? The most common theory floating around is that the 20 or so Internet-employed twentysomethings who filmed themselves cavorting by the Mediterranean, even as the markets imploded and Silicon Valley shuddered, were simply drunk. More »
Horse Race
Baseball Stat Geek Knows Exactly How Much Obama Will Win By
Nate Silver is the crazy kid who invented PECOTA for Baseball Prospectus and now he's made good in the political prediction world! Can I get a "Woop woop?" Baseball fans? Anybody? Well look, Baseball Prospectus is like The Bible to stat geeks, and PECOTA is like a particularly important passage in that Bible (John 3:16, for example), so the fact that this 30-year-old guy who made it up is suddenly the hottest thing in political polling is unlikely and heartwarming to sports fans and political obsessives alike, to say the least! More »
Rants
It is understandable that film makers prefer to set the apocalypse in the only American conurbation that is recognizable—to international cinema-goers at least—as a city. (The original I Am Legend was set in Los Angeles, but the last year's movie was improved with Will Smith, computer-generated imagery and a Manhattan setting.) But New York has been destroyed so often recently that the suspense is draining from these plots. As soon as one sees the familiar profile of the Empire State Building, one knows something bad is going to happen. And one more thing: the city is in a delicate condition right now. We could have done without this trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still, which shows bad things happening to Central Park, the Giants stadium, St. Patrick's Cathedral—and the city as a whole. More stills after the jump.
More »
Leave New York Alone!
It is understandable that film makers prefer to set the apocalypse in the only American conurbation that is recognizable—to international cinema-goers at least—as a city. (The original I Am Legend was set in Los Angeles, but the last year's movie was improved with Will Smith, computer-generated imagery and a Manhattan setting.) But New York has been destroyed so often recently that the suspense is draining from these plots. As soon as one sees the familiar profile of the Empire State Building, one knows something bad is going to happen. And one more thing: the city is in a delicate condition right now. We could have done without this trailer for The Day The Earth Stood Still, which shows bad things happening to Central Park, the Giants stadium, St. Patrick's Cathedral—and the city as a whole. More stills after the jump.
More »
Trends
'Fauxmosexuals' Ruining It For Real Gay People
As if finding an actual gay companion in real life wasn't hard enough, now a bunch of celebrities are just pretending to be gay, the country of Australia complains. You know the types, the Anne Heches and the Lindsay Lohans (so some suggest at least. We kinda believe that one.) They're calling this trend—because we must name trends, always, silly mashup titles and puns and the like because to name one's enemy is to know it—"fauxmosexual." Or, in the case of the above examples, "celesbians." And people are arguing that all of this pointless "are they, aren't they?" speculation is damaging for the little ones: More »
The panic of '08
The Tragedy Of Business Media
In recent months, new online business sites like Clusterstock and Slate's The Big Money launched—and what timing! The current meltdown of all things money-related is the biggest business story in a generation or more. But therein lies the quandary that is currently fucking with most of the big business media brands. Understand this, and you'll understand everything (about business media): More »
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Mad With Power, Actress Squishes Heads
[Actress Juliette Lewis heading into the Madonna concert at Madison Square Garden on Saturday; image via Splash]
About
Gawker Draws Level With New York Magazine
Gawker has had a reasonably friendly rivalry with Bruce Wasserstein's New York magazine. At least three former editors of this site—Elizabeth Spiers, Jesse Oxfeld and Jessica Coen—have found refuge there after their sentence in the blogging mines. This history makes the latest audience numbers from Compete.com particularly satisfying. In September, gawker.com alone—not including any sibling sites—drew level with New York's nymag.com.
Horror
Wall Street Zombies To Invade Manhattan?
Caroline McCarthy hears a rumor that Zombiecon—the annual New York City "flash mob" that foolishly exalts the greatest menace facing the civilization, the flesh-eating undead—may have a Wall St. theme this year! Because, you know, vast stretches of way-lower Broadway are now hideous, ghoul-filled wastelands, replete with the moaning and lumbering reanimated corpses of various Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch employees. So yeah, it's a fun idea—bloody blue Oxfords, stock ticker tape spilling out of abdomens like guts—but it's also dangerous, because, you know, we don't want to be the city that cried "zombie" for when the real war comes. Ah well. What would your Wall Street Zombie costume be?
Newspapers
Newspaper Needs J Schools to Subsidize Internships
Newspapers continue their march to non-profit and extension-of-J-schools status: the Philadelphia Inquirer just announced that it can't afford to pay its interns. So just offer unpaid slave-internships, right? Wrong—those pesky unions (bless them) don't allow people to work for free, in the grand media tradition. Whatever will they do? "The Inquirer now is asking journalism schools to pay the newspaper a stipend to support the internships. Each school that agrees to do so will have one guaranteed internship." More »
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