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who's who
and now she's dead
Estelle Getty, Everyone's Favorite Ma
Estelle Getty, actress and adorable little old shrunken lady, passed away today. She was 84. Perhaps best known for her role as cranky and wise-cracking "Ma" Sophia Petrillo to Bea Arthur's Dorothy on the sitcom The Golden Girls, Ms. Getty got her start in the theatre. She once played Harvey Fierstein's mother in the Broadway show Torch Song Trilogy! Those two roles alone ought to cement her in the gay pantheon of revered tough and hilarious broads for the rest of time. Ms. Getty suffered from something called Lewy body dementia, which was misdiagnosed earlier as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease. In 2006 she issued a statement through her caregiver about her condition and outlook, telling her fans "that if she has made you laugh, encouraged you to think, and challenged your beliefs, then she has done her job." More »
internet
Hedge Funders No Longer Shelling Out Money to Hear What You Think
Back in 2006, a startup started up that promised to revolutionize the financial information business. It was called Monitor110, and it had a kind of clever idea: it aggregated and analyzed raw content from all corners of the internet and turned it into useful news and information for traders. Like, message board threads and blog comments and Twitters and Flickrs and Tumblrs and what-have-you would all help measure consumer sentiment or whatever sorts of things traders need to know about. Monitor110 raised millions and millions of dollars and their founders kept saying they'd bury Reuters forever and now, today, they are shuttering because no one wants to give them money anymore. Turns out that 2006 was basically wrong about everything! Crowds are morons and their wisdom is useless noise. Calacanis: right again (after the fact)! [PaidContent]
careers
Be Nice To Writers Or They'll Give You A Brain Tumor
Unless that's what you want. Katherine Heigl may have finally done it. Someone on the inside at her popular show Grey's Anatomy is whispering that Heigl's character, Izzie, will get a brain tumor and possibly die in the upcoming season. “It’s their way of screwing with her," the insider says. "She won’t know whether she’s going to live or die.” Hah! ABC has only confirmed that her former costar Jeffrey Dean Morgan—who played a patient that she loved but sorta killed (right?)—will be back in the saddle for some episodes. The inside source says that he'll be appearing in Izzie's tumor-induced dreams/hallucinations. So yeah, she may have finally pissed off the showrunners enough to get once-and-for-all written off the show, which she seems, foolishly, to be gunning for. I mean what other reason could she possibly have to publicly trash the writers (saying that their writing for her character made her unworthy of Emmy consideration)? You know, other than rampant unchecked ego. Now, I'm sure that if the character passes on, the decision will be chalked up to gentle creative differences. But we'll know the truth: it was revenge. More »
It's Baby Time!
Jolie-Pitt Super-Twins Arrive on Earth
Well, they're here. "Angelina Jolie gave birth today to two baby girls at a French hospital in Nice, sources told In Touch Weekly. The much-ballyhooed twins were born in good health and under the watchful eye of Jolie's beau, Brad Pitt, an insider said. The 33-year-old actress gave birth by ceasarean section at 6 p.m. (France time) in a La Fondation Lenval hospital room fully protected from the lenses of paparazzi. The first baby was born at 6:45 p.m. The second girl entered the world 15 minutes later." [NYDN] Update: But maybe not! "Despite recent reports, 'Extra' has confirmed that Angelina Jolie has NOT given birth to her twins. In an emailed statement regarding the reports, spokesperson for the Lenval Hospital in Nice, France, Nadine Bauer, says, 'It is wrong information.' Bauer also said that all information regarding Jolie would be posted on Lenval’s official website."
Shark!
Jaws Comes Home
I keep telling you people—the sharks are coming. It was one thing when the super-predators were feasting on people on the West Coast and in the Gulf of Mexico, but now they are right here! "Three possible shark sightings have been reported near Martha's Vineyard, Mass., where the 1975 beach thriller blockbuster movie 'Jaws' was filmed. The Boston Herald said a lifeguard spotted a large shark swimming through the waves off South Beach Wednesday. The shark was also reportedly seen from overhead by a sightseeing plane and was reported by an anonymous caller from Joseph Sylvia Beach." More »
and now he's dead
Rocky Aoki, 1938-2008
Hiroaki "Rocky" Aoki, the wrestler and restaurateur who essentially introduced America to Japanese food with his Benihaha chain, died today in New York. He was 69. Aoki raised the money to start his first Benihana by driving an ice cream truck in Harlem, which is awesome. More recently, he's been known to New Yorkers through his children, model Devon and annoying scenester DJ Steve. He faced deportation in 2006, and you could do worse for an introduction to his colorful life than this New York story on that incident. It begins, ominously: "'My daughter Grace is telling me, Daddy, your wife is going to poison you to death. Be careful what you eat,' says Rocky Aoki with an odd, amused grin." [AP]
god, it's just too much
5WPR Busted For Even More Blog Fraud; Uses Apology As Slimy Sales Pitch Opportunity
At the risk of sounding earnest, there is simply no end to the incompetence and ethical failure at 5WPR, profane superflack Ronn [sic] Torossian's comically inept PR firm. FailedMessiah.com finds 11 more fraudulent, sock puppet blog comments, dating back to last month, that came from the IP address of the home computer of Juda Engelmayer, the 5WPR VP already busted for one earlier fake comment. I guess the evidence has now become overwhelming enough that Ronn himself has issued a statement—possibly the most laughable, inadequate apology-turned-sales pitch I've ever heard from a PR guy: More »
magazines
Death Of The Brand Extension?
Condé Nast confirmed tonight it will shutter Golf For Women magazine, seven years after buying the Golf Digest spinoff from Meredith Corp. Ad pages were off 7 percent through the July issue and there's been significant turnover on the business side. Meanwhile, also at Condé Nast, Men's Vogue is looking gaunt. Is the magazine brand spinoff an endangered species? After all, a variety of teen-themed brand extensions threw in the towel on the concept two years ago, including Teen People. More »
people's parties
A Very Real Housewives Independence Day
Courageous Guest of a Guest blogger Doug braved the unthinkable this weekend: Jill Zarin's 4th of July party in the Hamptons. The Real Housewives of New York City star and her husband hold an annual backyard soirée at their landed estate, and Doug was (un)fortunate enough to receive an invitation. Everything just farted class, from the salmon and lobster salad to the lychee martinis to the "Team Jill" dessert cookies. And look, even RHoNYC costars Bethenny and Countess LuAnn (wearing flamenco water wings) were there, teetering about in all white, mistaking the event for an actual party (sort of) worth covering. A humble and grateful guest, Doug doesn't really dish any dirt, but there are photographs, so you can make up your own tragic stories. Some select few await you after the jump. More »
and now he's dead
Jesse Helms
One is told not to speak ill of the dead, and even the obit writers of this ill-mannered site usually find some praiseworthy note—Hitler was kind to animals!—in even the shabbiest of lives. But it would be dishonest to pretend that Jesse Helms was anything other than a caricature of a Southern bigot. More »
Me and My Gay Husband
Marvel if you dare at a real-life Craig and Janine, two married contestants on the Gong Show-esque fiasco America's Got Talent (no it does not) who sing and gay their way out of America's hearts.
Marvel if you dare at a real-life Craig and Janine, two married contestants on the Gong Show-esque fiasco America's Got Talent (no it does not) who sing and gay their way out of America's hearts.
god, it's just too much
Caustic 5WPR Employee Pimps Own Wedding Out To The Media
Back in March, we wrote a long post about incompetent superflack Ronn [sic] Torossian of 5WPR calling his former HR director Melissa Weiss a "stupid cunt," and being generally disreputable. The lone defender of Ronn in that case was one of his employees, Christine Garabedian. She wrote in to say Ronn is a great boss, and called (the victim!) Weiss a "jealous" single girl, ending with, "PS Melissa I just got engaged- Now are you even more jealous of me :)." LOL! At the time, several people urged us to go after Garabedian for her meanness, but we refrained, because she seemed like a peripheral figure. Well, we tried. But now she's out there pitching her own wedding to celebrity magazines as a "great story." Poorly! Oh, this is just pure gold: More »
and now he's dead
Clay Felker, Who Taught A City To Talk About Itself
Clay Felker, the founding editor of New York magazine, died today at the age of 80 after an extended illness. The Missouri native got his start in journalism as a magazine writer for titles like LIFE, Time, and Esquire, but he will go down in history as the man who codified a method for chronicling the elite of New York, while providing a platform for the city's best writers. He's responsible for creating the only real glossy city magazine that is also a good magazine on its own merits—unapologetically elitist, but not blinkered. And slick enough to justify it all. More »
tv
Will They All Be As Bitchy As Heather Mills?
Britain, the place where horrible television is born, has determined to give Paul McCartney some rebound dating options with Britain's Missing Top Model, a modeling competition for women missing limbs. The amputee fetishists of a nation tremble in anticipation. Pictures and pathos after the jump. More »
battlestar galactica
New Battlestar Galactica Movies Are Coming!
Yay! Even after the Sci-Fi Channel's space sock-hop Battlestar Galactica finishes its final season next year, there will still be more BSG for all—in movie form! Former Gawker Choire Sicha is reporting for the LA Times that the first of as many as three Battlestar made-for-TV movies has just gotten the go ahead. And he got it right from Pretty Asian Cyclon herself, Grace Park: "'I just heard about the first Battlestar movie being greenlit,' said Park [...] A TV movie, but still! But this—it's like, yeah, it's over but we're ready to move on but nobody's manager or agent has been called. It's supposed to start in August.'" And what can she tell us about the end of the series? More »
film
David Carr On The New Hunter S. Thompson Documentary
New York Times media reporter David Carr—a former crack enthusiast—takes a look at Gonzo, the new documentary about legendary drugs-and-freedom-loving journalist Hunter S. Thompson. "Few writers have commodified narcissism so completely — his participatory style of journalism became its own genre and gives the film its title — but still we are invited to sit in the dark of the theater and have a flashback about his flashbacks. When the film opens on July 4, why will people, as Thompson would say, buy the ticket, take the ride?" More »
the poors
Oh, hey, people of The South! The New York Times might like to hire you as a stringer/researcher/ admin/journalistic sharecropper! But please remember: This is an elite newspaper for the elitist elites in fancy New York, so please no redneck type people. To help ensure you are not a hick, the Times has asked you to pre-pitch five stories NOT involving anything the Times has ever covered before (you do take the Times right? It's only $665 per year in trashy zip codes!), and also NOT about cliché things only of interest to the poors: "Please do not submit ideas concerning dog fights, cock fights, or the Confederate flag." Anyway, if you do get the job, you'll be rewarded with good pay and creative freedom. Ha ha, just kidding, you'll tackle "light administrative duties" and also "the pay is very modest," but at least you'll learn how to talk right, and the money will probably go a long way in your shantytown or whatever. Full job listing after the jump!
More »
Times: "Do Not Submit Ideas Concerning Dog Fights, Cock Fights, Or The Confederate Flag"
Oh, hey, people of The South! The New York Times might like to hire you as a stringer/researcher/ admin/journalistic sharecropper! But please remember: This is an elite newspaper for the elitist elites in fancy New York, so please no redneck type people. To help ensure you are not a hick, the Times has asked you to pre-pitch five stories NOT involving anything the Times has ever covered before (you do take the Times right? It's only $665 per year in trashy zip codes!), and also NOT about cliché things only of interest to the poors: "Please do not submit ideas concerning dog fights, cock fights, or the Confederate flag." Anyway, if you do get the job, you'll be rewarded with good pay and creative freedom. Ha ha, just kidding, you'll tackle "light administrative duties" and also "the pay is very modest," but at least you'll learn how to talk right, and the money will probably go a long way in your shantytown or whatever. Full job listing after the jump!
More »
