• gossip roundup

    Jennifer Aniston Rumored Single Again

    Bad couple day: Robert Pattinson's Tina Fey lust would be inappropriate, except she started it; there's a conspiracy against the Rihanna-Chris Brown reunion; and John Mayer maybe dumped Jennifer Aniston. More »
  • outrage

    Erin Burnett Makes CNBC Even More Loathsome

    Who's to blame for the economic mess? Not CNBC, says CNBC anchor Erin Burnett! "Everyone in this country knew there was a housing bubble," she told Bill Maher last night. Is she the new Santelli? More »
  • gavin newsom

    San Francisco Mayor Acknowledges Bloggers' Existence

    Gavin Newsom, the shiny-haired mayor of San Francisco who's running for governor of California, told Bill Maher Friday night that things won't be that bad if newspapers die. We'll still have blogs! More »
  • class warfare

    Save the Bankers

    Don't get us wrong: We despise the arrogant and overpaid financiers responsible for this economic mess. They, not taxpayers, should pay for their incompetence. But banker hatred is starting to get worrisomely extreme. More »
  • werner herzog

    'Roman Polanski' Snubbed, Werner Herzog Avenged in Early Oscar Jockeying

    The lauded, mishandled film Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired saw its high Oscar hopes perish Monday when the Academy announced its shortlist of candidates for this year's Best Documentary Feature prize. It joined other conspicuous snubs including the year's top-grossing doc Religulous and the follow-up doc from last year's winner Alex Gibney. But there's a bit of extra sting afflicting Wanted and Desired, which compellingly challenged Polanski's 1978 rape conviction and eventual exile in Paris and was a Sundance darling before HBO acquired it for broadcast last summer. As you might recall, that could have gone better — both then and now. More »
  • arianna huffington

    Arianna Declares 'Biggest Wiener' Of Election Season

    Arianna Huffington's thick Greek accent is usually a social asset. It adds spice to a televised panel discussion, and on the party circuit encourages a conversation partner to lean in intimately to understand the former socialite's words. But give the internet publisher her own hourlong TV show, as with her guest-hosting stint tonight on the Rachel Maddow Show, and the accent becomes a liability, like a single seasoning taking over a dish. "You can't understand a word she says and she even makes my cat get irritated," one tipster wrote 20 minutes into the program. More »
  • bill maher

    'Religulous' Snatches Crown From 'Expelled' in Box-Office Holy War

    The longer-than-anyone-expected-or-even-thought-remotely-possible reign of Ben Stein's anti-evolution screed Expelled: No Intelligence Required atop the year's documentary box office is nearing its end, we hear. And naturally, it's the heathens knocking it down: After outlasting withering reviews and a desperate legal broadside by Yoko Ono, Expelled's $7.6 million gross is expected to succumb this weekend to Bill Maher's godless hit Religulous — itself a $7 million earner in two weeks of release. But while Expelled may lose the ticket battle, is it still the winner in the culture war? More »
  • beverly hills chihuahua

    Chihuahua Attack Snares Michael Cera, Megan Fox and Others in Box-Office Bloodshed

    Welcome back to Defamer Attractions, your weekly guide to everything new, thrilling and thoroughly unnecessary at the movies. And we've got plenty of each to go around today as seven films are opening or expanding on 1,000 or more screens, a pair of Oscar-chasing indies open small and a legion of talking dogs threaten to overtake the box office. You can't say we didn't warn you. So read on for our picks, poxes and DVD alternatives for those of you too overwhelmed to face the multiplex. We feel your pain. As always, our opinions are our own, but with unfailing taste and accuracy like this, why argue? More »
  • bill maher

    Bill Maher Recommends Insane Asylum for Sherri Shepherd on 'View' Appearance Gone Awry

    After Bill Maher sat down with TV Guide last month to rip into Sherri Shepherd's religious beliefs, we figured his days of guesting on The View had been put firmly behind him. Imagine our surprise, then, when some crafty producer booked Maher for a slot on today's View to promote his new (to the world outside Claremont) film, the controversial, religion-debunking Religulous. Would sparks fly? More »
  • The Crusades

    'Borat' Director to Put an End to Religion

    Borat helmsman Larry Charles says he intends to "destroy" organized religion with his newest flick, Religulous, starring Bill Maher. "I don't think 'debunk" is the right word,' he says. "I want to destroy more than debunk, just destroy the whole system." Maher chimed in: "I was raised a Catholic. But by the time I became an adult, scientific thought and rational evidence led me to believe otherwise. You know, when I was a kid and got a cavity I had mercury drilled into my teeth. Then, when I got older, they drilled it out—you can do the same with religion." Such mavericks! More »
  • bill maher

    20-Time Loser Bill Maher Learning to Forgive Abusive Interviewer, Emmy Voters

    Part of getting in shape for our epic Emmy liveblog this Sunday involves gritting it out through even the toughest conditioning regimens. Today is our equivalent of the Alps stage of the Tour De France: Like the shameless cultural terrorist he is, halfwit Gold Derby gadfly Tom O'Neil videotaped his recent ambush of Real Time host Bill Maher, a 20-time Emmy loser who stands to notch No. 21 this weekend when he faces The Daily Show in the Variety category. (O'Neil notes 19 in the video, but Maher added another at last weekend's Creative Arts ceremony.) Observe after the jump how gracefully Maher handles his inquisitor's googly-eyed ineptitude before finally indulging a variation on the ageless "Who wants one of those ugly-ass trophies anyway" defense. Clearly he has bigger prizes in mind; we'll witness history Sunday either way. Join us! [Gold Derby]
  • bill maher

    Washington Mutual Will Do Anything For Your Business

    Pope-hating straight talker Bill Maher is seriously considering putting some money in failing Washington Mutual now that they're offering free blow jobs with every account. Click to watch the sadly plausible series of fake ads that get worse and worse until we're all broke and can't afford a blow job anyhow.
  • bill maher

    Bill Maher Accuses Sherri Shepherd Of Beating Her Children With A Stupid Stick

    While promoting his new documentary Religulous (the hit of Claremont, CA!), the politically incorrect Bill Maher sat down with TV Guide for its upcoming August 25 issue. After discussing the religion-bashing doc, talk turned to The View (because when doesn't it?), and Maher was asked for his opinion on notorious flat-earther Sherri Shepherd. His response earned him a round of playground high-fives and "oh snaps": More »
  • bill maher

    Bill Maher's Oscar-Bait 'Religulous' Currently (and Quietly) Screening in a Suburb Near You

    The forthcoming Bill Maher/Larry Charles satirical doc Religulous has been on Lionsgate's release calendar for what seems like forever; we remember seeing teaser posters for it at last year's Toronto International Film Festival, where it was recently announced as a world premiere this year. Confusing! But not as confusing as the revelation that you and yours can see the film this week in one of those increasingly en vogue "Oscar dump runs" in LA and New York. The tactic mirrors that of HBO, which last spring sneaked Roman Polanski: Wanted and Desired into two theaters to qualify for Oscar consideration — except that Religulous actually has an Oct. 3 release date in the States. So what gives, and where can you see it? Find out after the jump. More »
  • trailer

    Bill Maher's Religulous

    Talk show host, funny cynic, health freak, and kind of a huge prick Bill Maher has a documentary on religious zealots in America coming out called, er, Religulous. I know, he says "No" just to say "No" and his schtick is kind of retarded, but this movie actually looks good to me. And since the trailer just came out, here it is. More »
  • outrage

    Dear Bill Maher: The Pope's Not So Bad!

    The Mohammad cartoons, the purposefully extra-offensive South Park episodes, and Bill Maher: not funny. Also, if you ignore them, they can't hurt you! SO WHY DON'T PEOPLE EVER IGNORE THEM? Bill Maher said something OUTRAGEOUS about the Pope, and the Catholic church. The outrageous thing he said is argurably true, if inelegantly put. Specifically, he called the Pope a Nazi, which he very briefly was when he was a little boy, and he called the Catholic Church a "child-abusing cult," which, if you have a broad-enough definition of cult, is basically what they are. Anyway—the American Life League has launched a website calling for Maher to be fired from his little HBO show. Ok guys! Jesus, you're getting all worked up about Bill Maher? There is a rich history of virulent anti-Catholicism in this great nation, but it pretty much ended once we all decided the Irish were allowed to be White. Attacking the Pope is no more "hate speech" than calling George W. Bush a war criminal. But: confidential to Bill M: you're taking on the Pope? You got nothing better to do with your time? He's not that bad! Seriously, as Popes go, he's one of the least damaging ever. More »
  • shouting heads

    Bill Maher Bowing To Pope Nazis?

    Not being well tuned in to the Catholic outrage circuit, we missed the big controversy this week over Bill Maher calling the Pope the head of a "child-abusing religious cult," and saying "he used to be a Nazi and he wears funny hats." That sounds fairly accurate, no? Not to Catholic League president and perpetually outraged man Bill Donohue, who demanded an apology on behalf of all Catholics worldwide who care about trivial things. And now Donohue says that he's been assured that Maher plans to apologize tonight for "falsely accusing the pope of once being a Nazi." Because in fact the Pope was just "conscripted into a German Youth organization (from which he fled as soon as he could)." Is Bill Maher now expected to be nuanced when it comes to the objects of his hate? Doesn't really sound like him. If you're reading this, Mr. Maher, and I know you are: just shout "Jesus loved whores!" at the end of your apology, to maintain your cred. The clip of his original Pope rant, after the jump. More »
  • defamer

    Defamer Returns To The Hollywood Hellhouse

    Defamer PartyWatcher Ann and photographer Maggie Serrano checked into Hollywood Hellhouse this weekend, a tour of the depraved we first took three years ago and have now returned to, in the hopes that its horrific depictions of drug use, homosexual intercourse, and botched abortions might eventually begin to nudge us towards the path of the righteous. (Sadly, we appear to just keep doing what it is we're doing, albeit getting progressively drunker.) In its latest incarnation, ensconced in an abandoned Acapulco restaurant on La Cienega that only recently hosted the far cheerier Father-Daughter Purity Ball, Bill Maher good-naturedly donned some devil horns for an impromptu photo-op in the post-Hellhouse Youth Center. The entire photo gallery is here. More »
  • temporary crushes

    Bill Maher Is His Own Security Force

    Hey, you know what? Bill Maher would make an awesome high school principal! (A mouthy, obscene and lecherous one, but still.) During Friday's live broadcast of his HBO show, "Real Time With Bill Maher," (a show responsible for revealing the comedic political genius of regular guest Ben Affleck—no, seriously), Maher took care of business when his crack security team proved not to be. Maher tried to make light of a heckling 9/11 conspiracy theorist working the room: Chris Matthews, Joel Stein and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson sat quietly by. (Who knew Matthews was such a pussy? Stein, yeah, but Matthews?) Heckler #1 got tossed by Maher but still had some friends in the audience—Maher's best line came when he got back to the stage to yet more shouting. "I'll kick your ass outta here too! Hey! This isn't the Iowa caucus, okay? it's not a debate, it's a debate between us; you're in the audience. Audience comes from the Latin, to listen."
  • defamer

    Hollywood PrivacyWatch Special Edition: Bill Maher And Winona Ryder Bond Over Jewish Liberalism At The Tower

    The orgiastic clusterfuck that is Oscars Week in L.A. can produce just about any variety of celebrity composite, and so one is hardly compelled to raise an eyebrow at sightings involving Orlando Bloom pouring hot fudge from a gravy terrine down Penelope Cruz's cleavage, with an incapacitated Courtney Love lying on the floor directly below, hungrily collecting the drippings. But something about this PrivacyWatch sighting of Real Time host and tireless cokewhores' rights advocate Bill Maher cozying up with Saks' Fifth-Most-Wanted Winona Ryder struck as instantly noteworthy: More »
  • bill maher

    'NYT,' CNN, Won't Repeat Scurrilous Rumor That Ken Mehlman Is Gay

    The Times takes a look at Bill Maher's recent appearance on Larry King, where
    he and Mr. King discussed several of the factors contributing to the Democrats' election victory the day before, among them scandals involving several Republicans, including Representative Mark Foley. Mr. Maher then began to speculate on the sexual orientation of some high-ranking Republican officials, and Mr. King, seeming to forget that he was on the air, asked for names. The comments were broadcast live, but CNN's rebroadcast of the show later that evening cut a portion of Mr. Maher's remarks.
    The paper goes on to mention that a video clip of the segment, in which Maher suggested that retiring RNC Chief Ken Mehlman is gay, has been removed from YouTube (although, should you still wish to hear Bill Maher name retiring RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman a homosexual, HuffPo still has a clip). While the Times itself does not bring up retiring RNC Chairman Ken Mehlman as the person named as gay, they may just be following CNN's lead: "CNN said that while the network was not responsible for Mr. Maher's initial comments, it could be held responsible for republishing them without further research." More »
  • Morgan Stanley continues to slap Sulzberger around. [NYP] More »
  • halloween

    Bill Maher Wins 'Too Soon' Award In Local Costume Contest

    Ours is not to cast judgment upon Bill Maher's choice of costume, nor, for that matter, to say what constitutes an appropriate waiting period before a freak celebrity death becomes fair game for laughs—after all, 40 years still hasn't made it possible to show up to a Hollywood Halloween soirée as a "decapitated Jayne Mansfield" without hearing at least a couple tsks of derision from offended partygoers. Still, if Maher simply had to go to the Playboy Mansion (or whatever monster bimbo bazaar he opted to attend this year) dressed as Steve Irwin with a stingray barb hanging out of his chest, one would have hoped he would have more fully embraced the "tasteless mockery of untimely, recent tabloid deaths" theme by throwing Al Franken in a short, blonde wig, giving him an oversized, prop pill-bottle marked "METHADONE," and introducing everyone to his "bunkmate in celebrity heaven, Daniel Smith." More »
  • defamer

    Bill Maher's Softer, Cokewhore-Loving Side Revealed

    Ho to the hip-hop stars Karinne Steffans had no shortage of conquests to write about in her tell-all memoir, Confessions of a Super Vixen, but one in particular always stood out. Ironically, he was the unblingiest of all: Bill Maher. Feel free to reach for the sickness bag conveniently located behind your monitor as your mind fills in the naked-Maher-having-sex blanks:
    More »
  • bill maher

    Gossip roundup

    · Liz Smith says we've unfairly locked her in the supply closet: "don't they know that Babs doesn't have a thing to do with me? I'm on her Z list. I'd be the last person she'd ever invite April 24!" [Liz Smith] More »
  • bill maher

    Bill Maher on the Oscars

    Comedian Bill Maher argues that the American public shouldn't be robbed of the opportunity to mock celebrities over some silly little war. "Either do it or don't do it. But if you're going to do it, show the world, you know, what we're fighting for. Which is, of course, lavish overindulgence. Get out there in your cheesy tit suit. Say something stupid about your agent. Thank God and your mom and have all of us make fun of your dumb headdress. Don't take that away from us." Hear, hear. More »