Gawker
Celebrity science
-
Gossip Roundup
Michael Jackson: Secret Muslim?
- Michael Jackson is a secret Muslim who is actually called Mikaeel, meaning angel of Allah, after the pop star rejected the name "Mustafa," which means chosen one. In a few days Jackson will appear in London court, where an Arab sheikh is suing him for seriously breaching a multi-million-dollar contract. Related? Who knows. The headline? "The Way You Mecca Me Feel." [Sun]
-
Messy divorces
Guy Ritchie Buys Peace With Madonna
Barristers in England are calling Guy Ritchie's freshly-minted breakup settlement with superstar wife Madonna a "model divorce." But cynics could just as easily call it a model victory for aggressive flackery: It was Madonna, according to some gossipy press reports, who initiated and most viciously perpetuated the post-split war of words with her husband; witness her public declaration her husband was "emotionally retarded." If Madonna's objective was to bully Ritchie into a fast divorce — and thus into relinquishing any claim on the singer's $450 million fortune, ten times his hoard — it worked. Ritchie is said accepting not a penny of Madonna's cash, telling the Mirror, "Thank God" it's all over. Madonna promptly got her drink on, said Page Six: More » -
-
Clips
U.S. Attorney General Collapses During Speech
Alberto Gonzalez's replacement at the Justice Department, Michael Mukasey, stuttered and slurred his words before collapsing during a speech at the conservative Federalist Society Thursday night. The attorney general soon regained consciousness and is said to be "in good spirits," though Justice declined to comment on fears he suffered a stroke. The dramatic footage, caught by several different cameras, will no doubt be replayed frequently Friday — and given far more airtime than the thorny but tough-to-dramatize questions on surveillance, interrogation, political patronage and corporate fraud that Justice regularly grapples with. Video after the jump. More » -
Scandal
People's Shady Angelina Jolie Dealings
As a member of the vaunted Time Inc. magazine empire, People has always stood a cut or two above most celebrity magazines, ethically speaking. But Angelina Jolie is "scary smart," in the words of celeb-mag editor Bonnie Fuller, and the actress seems to have had little trouble corrupting People's soul. Set aside the now-common practice of paying for baby pictures. Judging from a Times exposé, Jolie also banished the word "Brangelina" from People's pages, dictated coverage of her charitable work in Cambodia and won from People the "positive" tone she demanded. She seems to have pulled this off with a little editor-source dance that gave People plausible deniability. More » -
videuhoh
Sarah Palin Watches Turkeys Die, For Fun
Like any other governor/aspiring president, Sarah Palin had to pardon a Turkey right before Thanksgiving. But then, because she's a moosehuntin' MAVERICK snow eskimo, the former Republican vice presidential nominee had to do something fun 'n differ'nt, like give a TV interview in front of a guy chopping off animal heads, and then call the activity "neat... levity." We'd hate to see what a rip-roaring good time looks like for the Alaska governor, but points to her for drumming up some free national TV exposure that reinforces her frontierswoman image without doing her any real harm. Video after the jump (keep an eye on MSNBC's leftist subtitles!). More » -
-
Feuds
Keith Olbermann Obnoxious, Couric And Letterman Agree
Katie Couric is on the Late Show again tonight, to try and convince David Letterman that she didn't purposely steal John McCain for her CBS Evening News that night the Republican presidential nominee infamously flaked on Letterman. Of course this is a lie, assuming Couric is as ruthlessly competitive as any network news anchor must be in order to succeed. But her exchange with Letterman is worth watching if only for all the fun bashing of Keith Olbermann, the MSNBC shouting head who filled in for McCain. Click the video icon to watch. -
Strange bedfellows
Hippie Folksinger Invades WSJ Newsroom
Pat Buchanan is defending Hillary Clinton, the Guardian is scooping on U.S. political news, and now this, perhaps the ultimate WTF moment in media this week: Lefty, anti-corporate folksinger Ani DiFranco performed two songs for Wall Street Journal editorial staff today, right before deadline, we hear. "Weird time to be a biz reporter," one staffer at the conservative business newspaper Twittered. The setlist? More » -
Gossip Roundup
Rosie O'Donnell On View Cold War
- Rosie O'Donnell, contradicting Barbara Walters' rosy description of relations on The View: "I’m not saying they loathe each other, but the fact of the matter is, there was not a lot of camaraderie off camera.” [LAT]
-
Secretary Wintour
Vogue editor "to accept a 'cultural post of some sort for the Obama White House,' according to at least one person in the magazine industry." [Scoop, second item]
MORE » -
The closeted gays
Barry Diller's 'Wife' Invites Him Home
It sounds like a fun night for Barry Diller: Closeted magazine Details put on a party for Milk, a movie about the first openly gay man elected to office in California, and the InterActive Corp. chairman was in attendance. Designer Marc Jacobs was there with his boyfriend, as was Gossip Girl's Chace Crawford, chatting, for some reason with Taylor Momsen. Topping off the evening quite nicely, fashion executive Diane von Fursternberg "invited Diller... back to her place," according to Page Six, along with designer Valentino Garavani and actress Marisa Berenson. For dinner, of course. Which was awfully generous, considering that von Furstenberg is Diller's wife. Officially, at least. As Diller knows well, mergers take quite some time to integrate, and some components just never mesh at all. -
Journalismism
Couric Wonders: Why Didn't Anyone Ask Palin About Me?
Greta Van Susteren and Matt Lauer were first out of the gate with lengthy Sarah Palin interviews after the election. The chats were slammed as softball jobs by some critics, and you can now add Katie Couric to that group, at least in one regard: She wishes someone had asked the former Republican vice presidential nominee why she didn't answer Couric's simple and ultimately devastating question about what newspapers and magazines Palin reads. Hopefully Lauer, who hosted Today with Couric for nine years, doesn't take the critique personally, particularly since Couric may very well end up back at NBC. Click the video icon to watch Couric explain her thoughts on David Letterman's Late Show. -
Bloggers in peril
Pro-Iranian Blogger Arrested By Iran For Blogging
This would be ironically funny as an Onion article, but in real life it's just awful: Hossein Derakhshan, pictured, is a Toronto-based Iranian blogger who has grown more pro-Iran over the past two years, supporting the country's nuclear program and its three-decade-old Islamic revolution in the press. The dual Iranian-Canadian citizen blogs in both English and Farsi and generally tries to help people understand his home country. PR win for Iran and its blogger-in-chief Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, right? Actually no, because Derakhshan visited Israel last year for a blogging conference, and bogged there to "show the Iranians a more realistic image of this country," so he's been thrown in jail during a visit home, as a spy, reports The Media Line: More » -
Hope
National Book Awards Has Only Happy People On Wall Street
They say human happiness depends largely on your position (social, economic) relative to those around you, an axiom that would explain why the bunch of struggling New York writers at the National Book Awards on Wall Street seemed so giddy in press reports about the "determined... party." "Our dinner here is larger than it's been in five years... we have an afterparty (with) 300, 400 people coming," the executive director of the foundation behind the gala told GalleyCat (video after the jump). Call it the awards' year of hope, then, particularly with the hopey president-elect getting a shout-out in several speeches and an African American author taking home the nonfiction prize for the first time since 1991. A short (fun!) video and winners after the jump. More » -
Dynasties
What Will Times Scion Do In Gotham?
After two years as a reporter at the Portland Oregonian, Arthur Gregg Sulzberger III will return to New York to work at his family's Times, Portland alternative paper Williamette Week is reporting. Sulzberger wouldn't comment for the paper, but his return to New York appears at first glance unrelated to staff cuts at the Oregonian. So what's the 28-year-old son of Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. (pictured) up to? In all likelihood, trying to help to stabilize not only a faltering newspaper company but a ruptured family. More » -
Rumormonger
Time Europe Gutted
We've heard from two sources that the London headquarters of Time Europe laid off just under 20 of the nearly 30 editorial staff, including, one said, Time Europe editor William Green andwritersenior editor James Graff. Elsewhere, bureau chiefs Andrew Purvis in Berlin and Tim McGirk in Jerusalem are said to be gone after their contracts expire. This has stoked more speculation that the magazine might mimic Newsweek and consolidate to a single international edition — and that London is merely the first in a rolling series of global Thursday layoffs: More » -
Celebrity-industrial complex
Paris Hilton's Breakup Confirmed By Excited AP
Despite her repeated public pronouncements of devotion, it will come as no huge shock to anyone anywhere that Paris Hilton just broke up with her boyfriend of nine months, musician Benji Madden. Even if you weren't up to speed on the latest developments — she was spotted with her Greek, shipping-heir ex and rumored desperately flirty with British princes — you have to figure, well, it's Paris Hilton, whose thirst for attention requires not only the intimate affection of various men but also constant press coverage of how those affections fluctuate. But her breakup is worth noting because the mainstream media seems to buying into her psychodrama like never before! More » -
disasters
Everyone From Runway Now Suing Harvey Weinstein
When it moved Project Runway from Bravo to Lifetime, Weinstein Company transformed the latter cable network from overearnest television for spinsters into something more chic and cheeky, or so some people said at the time. Weinstein Company was promptly sued by Bravo parent NBC Universal, which won an unexpected victory in court and impounded the show. Lifetime has been stewing, bitterly, and yelling at its cats, like a spurned mistress, and now Lifetime has decided it's going to sue Harvey Weinstein's company, presumably for being a slimy jerk who said the divorce was final when really he wasn't even separated yet. This makes 2008 the year of total meltdown for Weinstein: More » -
Gossip Roundup
Anne Hathaway Has A New Unsavory Boyfriend
- Anne Hathaway's new actor boyfriend "went after all the young heiresses" when he was at Brown University, which makes him as terrible for her as jailed fraudster Raffaello Follieri, according to Page Six's tipster. [P6]
-
Public relations
Spitzer Hooker Apologizes To Wife
Ashley Dupre appears to be at the forefront of a media blitz: In addition to sitting down with Diane Sawyer for a 20/20 segment set to air Friday, the call girl who brought down former Gov. Eliot Spitzer granted an interview to People magazine, which in turn has been excerpted in today's Post. Dizzy yet? Here's the money quote: "If she could say anything to Silda Wall Spitzer, it would be, 'I'm sorry for your pain.'" Other highlights: More » -
Rumormonger
Was Sid Blumenthal The Clinton Leaker?
It was odd, wasn't it, that Britain's Guardian, of all publications, was first to report Hillary Clinton planned to become Barack Obama'sSecretary of State? The paper's DC bureau chief, according to today's Observer, "said... his source said he could use the information as long as he didn’t source it." One tipster of ours, apparently speaking speculatively, is certain the source has to be Sidney Blumenthal, who was a senior unpaid campaign advisor to Clinton during her campaign, was an aide in Bill Clinton's White House and — key detail — has a column at the Guardian, presumably handled by the DC bureau, since that's where he lives. More » -
Celebrity science
How Leno Dissed Chris Matthews
Chris Matthews is becoming the Rodney Dangerfield of TV news hosts. Even his NBC colleagues at the Tonight Show give him no respect. Host Jay Leno just last week led with dashing Matthews competitor Anderson Cooper of CNN, who was first to sit on Leno's couch and got extra time to chat after a commercial break. Matthews? After flying to LA for the appearance, he came out last night after a segment called "Things We Found On eBay," two turns on the couch by self-styled redneck Larry The Cable Guy AND after a special skit involving Larry. Then Larry insulted Matthews with a joke about "The Chris Matthews Show," not realizing the program is known as Hardball. Leno awkwardly tries to salvage the situation in the clip after the jump. More » -
The panic of '08
Shep Smith Yells About His Poor Gardener
Shep Smith's on-air response to an email flame broke several rules for fighting effectively on the internet: Don't give attention to a troll; don't let your opponent know when he's gotten under your skin; don't defend when you could be attacking. As such, the Fox News host's mounting rage against his small-fry critic doesn't deliver the same satisfaction as his other recent smackdowns. An especially ill-advised tactic: Trying to convince emailer "Mr. Fuentes" with an argument about the plight of Smith's "lawn-care maintenance guy." Since, you know, Señor Fuentes will surely understand an economic argument if it's translated into gardening terms. Click the video icon to watch. [via Johnny Dollar] -
Celebrity science
Denis Leary Slams 'Ridiculous' Autism Fakers
Surprisingly, everyone appears to have missed the subtle nuance in a chapter of comedian Denis Leary's book entitled "Autism, Schmautism." Go figure. Controversy arose after the Post excerpted a paragraph from Leary's Why We All Suck reading, in part, "I don't give a [bleep] what these crackerjack whack jobs tell you - yer kid is NOT autistic." Last night Leary appeared on the Daily Show to explain that he was quoted out of context, and in reality was taking a sophisticated stand on the scientific mystery of surging autism cases: More »
