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Taylor Swift is the subject of a probing 60 Minutes piece this Sunday, in which Leslie Stahl connects the crossover country sensation to the collapse of the European economy, Iran's secret nuclear weapons program, and an illegal baby-fighting ring in China. No, just kidding — it's about how pretty she is and how she makes nice songs about how the the boys on the football team never ask her to the sock hop. In this preview clip, Swift explains that she takes herself very seriously. As a role model! I mean as a role model. She takes herself very seriously as a role model. Take it away, Taylor! [60 Minutes] More »
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Film school is the journalism school of people who can't write. It's a place where kids with vague dreams of "making projects" go to chill out for a few years and learn that you should never call a "film" a "movie." Then they come out and get a shitty job for little money that pays them purely in proximity to power. More »
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33-year-old IT consultant Sohaib Athar was just hanging out on Sunday at home in Abbottabad, Pakistan, when he heard an explosion and a helicopter hovering above. He started tweeting what was going on, and ended up unwittingly live-blogging the raid that killed Osama Bin Laden. Athar has become become such an internet celebrity that his website's been hacked. More »
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Last week, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and girlfriend Priscilla Chan adopted a dog named Beast. He already has 65,300 Facebook fans and a photo of himself posing with a visiting dignitary. More »
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In the past few days you may have seen the stupendously awful video for the tremendously bad song "Friday" by a young lady named Rebecca Black. In case you haven't, it's embedded below. It's a good lesson about what days come after and before other days. So what the fresh hell is this? Where did it come from? Well, it came from a dark, scary, sad place. A place called the Ark Music Factory. More »
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Britney Spears posed for Out magazine and did a Q&A by email. She hate flying, loves Sarah Jessica Parker's shoes, and thinks "everyone should be equal." More »
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Usually we think of basketball as the site of celebrity-sports nexus. Think: Spike Lee at the Knicks. But pretty much every celebrity has converged on Dallas today for the Super Bowl. Do any of them even like football? More »
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Less than two weeks after checking into rehab at Dr. Phil's insistence, golden-voiced former homeless man Ted Williams has checked himself out against medical advice. This isn't the happy ending everyone was hoping for when this story started. More »
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After going viral last week and getting picked up (and released) by the police this week, Ted Williams is now going to rehab. Who convinced him? Dr. Phil, of course. Williams is living the entire celebrity lifecycle in one month! More »
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What we got from this profile of Bravo executive Andy Cohen in the Times today is that he basically is like the kid brother to every celebrity on Earth. He just goes around and makes them feel like normal people! More »
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Ted Williams, the panhandler from the side of the I-71 in Columbus, Ohio with the golden voice, has been hired by MSNBC to do voiceovers for the network's Lean Forward campaign. More »
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Why did Paris Hilton suddenly become so famous a few years ago while other ditzy fameseekers with no discernible talent—like, say, Tara Reid—fell off the map so quickly? Elizabeth Currid-Halkett breaks it down in her new book. More »
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There are many interesting ways to earn a living in our post-industrial economy. Like ranting on camera about your sister being nearly raped. That's what Antoine Dodson did—now he's got a Hot 100 Billboard single! More »
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Here goes Whoopi Goldberg getting mad at bloggers for getting mad at her for defending crazy Cujo racist Mel Gibson. She makes some nuanced point about racism or whatever, but really the whole point is: Whoopi Goldberg knows celebrities! More »
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Gracing the cover of Vogue's annual Age Issue is American expatriate and actress Gwyneth Paltrow. She has a cookbook coming out, so they dispatched a food writer to cook with her at several of her mansions. It was sublime. More »
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With the news of Gary Coleman's tragic death and the subsequent sad spectacle of his deathbed photos being sold to the media, the world has wondered: What does Gary Coleman's former agent Victor Perillo think about this? At last—answers! More »
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On April 19, 2009, Richard Lawson's simple post linking to naked pics of Hipster Grifter Kari Ferrell got more than 36,000 clicks. Today, Kari's posing topless over at AnimalNY. Are you not entertained? I'm waiting. More »
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Perhaps the weirdest attack John McCain made against Barack Obama in 2008 was his brief summer campaign charging that Obama was a celebrity. Because Americans, you know, like celebrities. And this year's Republicans have finally learned that lesson. More »
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When Tila Tequila first popped onto the scene, she was the harmless, if ugly, face of fame's grim seduction. In the wake of "fiancée" Casey Johnson's death, she now represents everything wrong with our modern era. More »
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3D glasses: As lucrative as they are dorky. No less than four companies are fighting for the privilege to make it seem like things are popping out of the screen at you during your favorite 3D films. More »
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John Mayer took to the airwaves today on Ellen to announce that he is DONE DATING. Sorry ladies, he is off the market. He did not say that he was done having anonymous sex, however. Back on the market! More »
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Rachel Uchitel is a mess. Her reputation, that is! Her hair's fine. But the Tiger Woods Affair allegations are everywhere. As are other salacious rumors. And pictures. You're not handling it well, Rachel. We're here to help you take control. More »
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We're in a bit of a cranky mood looking over this weekend's releases. A lot of heat but not much light, is the vibe we're getting. Actually maybe not that much heat either. But hey, Sorority Row is still playing. More »
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[Television's queen of ridiculousness, Tyra Banks, created her very own flash mob of dancing girls in Union Square this morning to promote the fifth season of her talk show. Image via Getty] More »
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The Susan Boyle fame narrative continues as expected. Reports came in last night that Scottish songbird, currently vying for the Britain's Got Talent crown, is crumbling under the pressure, causing her to lash out at fans. Like any good singer, she's following all the notes of insta-fame to a T. More »
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Jonathan Jaxson—world's worst publicist, victim of Perez Hilton's sex cons—is so over all this bullshit celebrity culture. (Well after the rest of us!) Still needing cash, though, he's got a book proposal. More »
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Hey, it's the subway hero—he's talking! Chad Lindsey, the smoldering actor who saved a man from the subway tracks in what may be his best career move ever, reveals: his soul is golden. More »
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On Thursday night, the newly-minted Top 13 of American Idol had a red carpet party. A celebration before most of them fade back into sad, eternal obscurity. More »
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People like Nadya Suleman, the IVF junkie mother of 14, and Alfie Patten, the 13-year-old father from England, are getting famous just for reproducing. It's a pretty gross trend. More »
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Today in shockingly vague celebrity gossip: a "disturbed loser" with a kinky ex, a divorcing TV actress, a singer who enjoys sex, and an actress who wants publicity. Get right out of town! More »
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Every celebrity believes that if they unleash their genius unto the world in the form of a fashion line or fragrance, their many fans will make it a natural hit. They're so wrong. More »
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Now that NYC's most famous subway ad remixer Poster Boy got himself arrested, he's more famous than ever! We hear the NYT is even planning a story on him. For us it's about the art. More »
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Former Clinton White House mouthpiece Dee Dee Myers just called Barack Obama "the most famous living person in the history of the world." Whatever! What about, like, The Pope? Or Tom Cruise! More »
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New book Six Degrees of Paris Hilton profiles Darnell Riley, a shady criminal and pseudo-celebrity hanger-on who knows many wicked Hollywood-sleaze secrets. The tome spins many damning stories about the hood-lidded socialite's sordid existence. More »
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John McCain was indeed right. Barack Obama, our glorious just-out-of-the-box new president, is nothing more than a common celebrity. Just look at today's famous person gossip rags. More »
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Magazines! Nightclub appearances! The once easy-access revenue stream for desperate celebrities is swiftly drying up in the shadow of this New Depression. More »
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Actress Scarlett Johansson is sick with a cold and she is famous. Therefore she can go on the Tonight Show, blow boogies into a tissue, and then sell it on eBay for money. More »
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Now that slushy pop entertainer Britney Spears has come back, what's she gonna do now that she's back on top? Who's she gonna do? And most importantly, will she screw it up again? Let's predict! More »
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· Megan Mullally, Kelsey Grammer, Charles S. Dutton, Bebe Neuwirth and Debbie Allen will star in MGM's remake of Fame. They are still looking for the breakout star who will play Coco Hernandez, forced to undress in tears as she capitulates to the perverted whims of a phony director and his "screen test." Coco will never be the same. [THR]
· To recoup some of his holding company's staggering $1.6 billion debt, Sumner Redstone reluctantly sold his majority stake in Midway Games Inc.—which also meant relinquishing the prized Ms. Pac Man bow he loved wearing to industry functions. [Variety]
· NBC tasted a rare victory last night thanks to a fierce battle between some Vikings and some Bears, neither of which had anything to do with Rosie O'Donnell. [Variety] More »
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Let's do the math here: Ashley Alexandra Dupre, America's most famous hooker, hits the news in March when her fortuitous association with Eliot Spitzer becomes public. Except for some vague second-hand insinuations that she wants a record contract, she doesn't make any real career moves until now, when she decides to do her first interviews with the press. We're pretty sure that she's been getting advice—but are her advisers looking out for her interests as much as we, the gossip bloggers, are? Doubtful. We've put together a complete guide to career options for Ashley—or any woman who finds herself famous after a sex scandal—after the jump. Simply select one and go, Ashley:

• Fashion-Remember Monica Lewinsky's successful line of handbags? No you don't, because her handbag line was not successful. She harbored the illusion that women would choose to spend money to have a fashion item with her personal aura hanging off their arms. It turns out women do not want their fashion labels to convey a reputation for, primarily, blowjobs. Not fair, but a fact. Fashion lines without an extremely cheeky touch are doomed to fail.
• Music-We hear you want a music career. Do you have deep and unique talent? Not from what we've heard. Skip it.
• Talk Show—You could give this a shot, right? I mean, how hard could it be to be the next, say, Ricki Lake? She probably gets around too amirite? (SEXIST). The truth is that hosting a successful talk show is way harder than it looks. I'm sure you could convince some desperate off-brand network to give you a talk show, Ashley, but once the novelty wore off, it would either have to get really sexual really fast, or die. Or you would have to turn out to have some heretofore unknown media skills, which we doubt. Stick to being interviewed yourself, not the other way around.
• Advice Column—Now this is an idea! There are several advantages to an advice column. Initially, people would read just because you're famous. But then, if you had good (SEXY) advice, people would read just to hear that! And you can always hire a ghostwriter. And this isn't dependent on your looks! Save this as a retirement plan. But use a current photo.
• Write a Book—You might have a good, trashy tell-all in you, Ashley, but you'd have to be willing to tell all. These People magazine and Diane Sawyer interviews you're doing now are child's play. You can look sympathetic and respectable on the book's cover, but if you don't give up the (SEXY) goods inside, people aren't going to drop $25 at the airport book store. Do this in the next six months, if you need the cash.
• Politics—It would be funny! Vote for the only New Yorker who could defeat Spitzer, LOL! Actually this would only work if Spitzer restarted his political career and the Republicans were very desperate for an opponent. Though you do have a promising career as a political symbol, Ashley.
• Porn—We have to level with you: this is the most lucrative thing you could possibly do. The sad fact is that women who get famous for sex scandal reasons are always branded, foremost, as sex objects. Sucks if you have actual life aspirations! But you can in fact make millions and millions by doing porn, then take your money and go live in Belize in peace. This would also get you out of Jersey. Think about it.

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