<![CDATA[Gawker: duh]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: duh]]> http://gawker.com/tag/duh http://gawker.com/tag/duh <![CDATA[So You're Into Haggis?]]> Yesterday we received a press release. It declared, "Hello! I recently found your blog post about Haggis and want to introduce you to our website." Oh? Which blog post was that?


[Referring] To your post:

http://gawker.com/5389594/oscar+winner-paul-haggis-publicly-resigns-from-church-of-scientology-over-gay-rights

Ah. Yes. Paul Haggis. They suggested we link to their food website, which has a recipe for haggis, "A sheep's heart, liver, and lungs mixed with minced onion, oatmeal, suet, spices, salt, and stock...boiled in the sheep's stomach."

We will ask Paul Haggis if he's into that.

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<![CDATA[Although Junior Mints Have]]> Since the last terrifying report 15 years ago, movie theater popcorn has not become healthy.

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<![CDATA[Fake Sprite Ad Director Speaks: It Was Fake. Duh.]]> Max Isaacson, who directed the fake Sprite Blow Job Spec Ad that was too hot for the world emails: it was a spec ad. Not a real ad. Not connected to the Coca-Cola Company! Hopefully they won't sue him now.

The video has been pulled from Youtube — "This video is no longer available due to a trademark claim by a third party" — so you will never ever see a blowjob involving Sprite on the Internet ever again.

Here's what Max has to say:

My name is Max Isaacson,
I directed and produced the fake Sprite ads that have been making the rounds over the past five days. There have been quite a lot of false statements made regarding these and I would like to make a few things very clear about these spots. First, there was no involvement from either The Coca-Cola Company or Greencard Pictures. Second, this was not supposed to be taken seriously by anybody. They were made completely on spec, which was clearly stated on the YouTube pages on which the ads were primarily seen. I paid for, produced and directed both spots independently. I am frankly quite surprised that spots of this nature were so quickly and easily believed to be legitimate. I hope that all parties involved will understand that this was a simple mistake that went much too far too fast, and that it is now made clear that these were not real commercials, nor were they ever produced with intention of being taken as such.

Thank you,
Max Isaacson

PS: I would like to thank Gawker personally for immediately realizing that these were spec commercials. I believe you were one of only two sources that did any fact checking before posting.

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<![CDATA[Clay Aiken, Broadway Star and American Idol, Reveals Shocking Gayness]]> Not since the University of Alaska's 2006 study proving that bears do, in fact, shit in the woods has a more exciting and revelatory discovery been made: on the cover of the new issue of People magazine, American Idol runner-up Clay Aiken comes out of the closet. Yes I know. Take a seat and a deep breath before continuing.

The long-suspected homosexual (who got caught trolling for gay internet sex a few years back) recently had a kid through a surrogate and starred on Broadway in Spamalot. He made his decision to come out because he realized he "cannot raise a child to lie or to hide things." Welcome to the world, sir. But wait, first Lindasy Lohan comes out on the radio and now this?? Who's next, Anderson Cooper? [Towleroad]

(Seriously, though, good for him. All the best.)

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<![CDATA[Celebrity Media Finally Ready to Admit That Lindsay Lohan Is Dating a Girl]]> Oh look, everyone's finally starting to catch on to the whole Lindsay Lohan/Samantha Ronson clambake. The Mirror is reporting that deejay Sam's deejay/producer brother Mark and his girlfriend approve of her lesbadoodle relationship with actress and former skiing enthusiast Lindsay. Mark's girlfriend Daisy (also a deejay?) says "Their relationship is totally genuine. And they're just so sweet together." Aw, that's nice. Couple that with the new Life & Style magazine cover (above), and it looks as though the mainstream celebrity-industrial complex is finally ready to accept what people like us have been talking about for a month. Though, heh, we were a little slow to catch on, too. Now I'm not going to get into the whole "this would be so much different if it were two men" thing, so I'll just leave you with a video of Ronson after the jump.

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<![CDATA[Shocking Statistics: Mostly Women Plan to See Sex and the City]]> Friends, we are just four short days away from the Sex and the City movie. The most important film ever shot in New York (and the most important film about women, ever) is getting huge buzz and, as it turns out, advance ticket sales. Fandango, the largest of the online-ticketing sites (think: annoying paper bag pre-movie ads) says that 94% of polled ticket buyers are ladies, and that 67% of pre-orderers are planning to go in a large group. My Chinatown bus straw poll yielded the same results: this gawker overheard a woman loudly talking on her cell phone saying that "I want it to be a whole night, we'll go to the movie, then get apple martinis. You, me, Jeannie, Donna, Tina. All the girls. Apple martinis, yeah. A whole Sex and the City theme." (She then yapped for an hour more about God knows what). Like The Devil Wears Prada before it, the SATC movie could prove that movies with a near-exclusive female audience can still be box office hits. For the few non-gay men in the audience it's a good thing that Miranda inexplicably shoots two handguns at once and then Samantha blows up about halfway through. [AP]

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<![CDATA[SPOILER ALERT]]> Gossip Girl mom Kelly Rutherford (delightful actress, superfluous character) just let slip the true identity of the 'mo on the show. Oops!

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<![CDATA[The Paper Of Record Weighs In]]> "Does Weight Lifting Make a Better Athlete?" Yes. DUH. [NYT]

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<![CDATA[Guess What? The Internet Made Patrick Moberg Famous!]]> NY Press's Matt Elzweig thinks that subway love dreamfinders Patrick Moberg and Camille Hayton's rise to quasi-fame has something to do with Jakob Lodwick and Julia Allison's 'connections to Gawker.' "There's an implication that because of your ongoing relationship with both Gawker and Patrick Moberg, that you may have had something to do with the 11/5 and 11/6 items on Gawker about Moberg," he wrote to Jakob on 11/26, in a chain of emails that, in the spirit of "Hey, I tried," Matt saw fit to include in today's cover article. "Did that connection (between you and Gawker) have anything to do with its reporting on the Moberg story? Did Gawker learn about the video and/or Moberg's website directly from you? (If not, how do you suppose they did learn about it?)" Huh?

For starters, by "there's an implication," Matt maybe means, "I would like to imply, though I can't find any evidence to support my theory."

Jakob Lodwick has no "ongoing relationship to Gawker" besides being someone we write usually-mean things about from time to time.

We found out about Patrick's website the same way we find out about most of the things we write about: we got a bunch of emails about it. No one pitched it to us, and we didn't publicize it as a favor to anyone. We don't ever do that because, a) ew and b) we don't have to!

"The price of fame has dropped to $20 a month, payable to Verizon Wireless," Matt writes. Well, right! To anyone who has been reading the Internet for the past few years, though, that isn't a particularly shocking revelation. What would be shocking: a blogola scandal whereby Jakob Lodwick and Julia Allison fed Gawker information to ensure that their protege Patrick Moberg attained fameball status!

That's not what happened, though: It didn't need to. The way the internet works is, the cream floats to the top. And by "cream," we mean "most attention-grabbingly retarded shit."

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<![CDATA[Is The "Four Hour Workweek" Guy On To Something?]]> So the cover article in this week's Sunday Styles section was about this guy Timothy Ferriss, who has become a guru to the rich nerds of Silicon Valley by advocating an "information diet"—"his methods include practicing 'selective ignorance'—tuning out pointless communiqués, random Twitters, and even world affairs (Mr. Ferriss says he gets most of his news by asking waiters)." Though he admits to not practicing what he preaches, his disciples say that adhering to these rules makes them feel "peaceful." Could this advice help me do my job better and faster? I had to wonder.

Well, one of the things I hate most about my job is reading and then regurgitating Sunday Styles articles. So after I read the one about Timothy Ferriss, I took Timothy's advice and asked a waiter to sum up the rest of it for me. Actually, a retail clerk, but same difference.

There was one problem: she hadn't read the Style section either. "I just looked at it, I didn't read it. I read Arts& Leisure! Want me to sum it up anyway?"

"Sure, go for it," I said.

"Okay," she said, "Well, there's probably an article that's like, 'Is information technology affecting our relationships and how we dress for the winter? What part do blogs play in all this (style, relationships, etc.)?' An article about leggings probably called 'What happens after leggings?' and some pictures of some cool headphones. Oh, also one of those love life articles about meeting your future inlaws and do you still want to date this person now that you know their parents are judgy WASPs, culminating in the author's realization that s/he her/himself is a judgy WASP?"

Close enough! All the time I've saved? I am going to use it to update my Facebook status and send out some resumes.

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<![CDATA[They Tried To Make Amy Winehouse Go To Rehab, She Said 'Oh, Fine.']]> The British soul singer, whose recent collapse shocked maybe the people who thought that Kate Moss and Pete Doherty's relationship was going to go the distance or that Anna Nicole Smith was going to live to be 100, has checked herself into The Priory clinic in London, according to the ever-reliableish Daily Mirror. (By the way, Doherty is a "successful" graduate of The Priory!) That esteemed publication has also found some quasi-friends and family sources to interview, including Amy's husband Blake Fielder-Civil's dad, who shares this insight: "[Blake] told me he was very worried about her. He admitted they both drank and did drugs but that came as no surprise." It didn't?

Fears for Winehouse [Daily Mirror]

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<![CDATA[Fortune editor David Kirkpatrick catches...]]> The Sam Whitmore Sampler]]]> http://gawker.com/index.php?op=postcommentfeed&postId=278417&view=rss&microfeed=true <![CDATA[Loser Girls Are Friends With Their Moms]]> Today, Times chronicler of our dumbassest life-minutia Stephanie Rosenbloom tries to figure out what's up with kind of girl who calls her mom four times a day to talk about the weather and what she ate and stuff. So, Stephanie, what gives?

Developmental psychologists and sociologists say this phenomenon of attachment is only now beginning to be studied. They have identified several factors that could be contributing to an intensified mother-daughter symbiosis: technology that makes it easy to stay connected; the smaller number of children in each household; young adults who are prolonging decisions about career, marriage and children; parents who want to have a less-hierarchical relationship with their offspring; and parents who feel the need to keep their grown children close at a time when anxiety and depression levels among young adults are at some of their highest points ever.
Right. Also, some girls and moms are fat losers who need to cut the damn umbilical cord already.


Mommy Is Truly Dearest
[NYT]

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<![CDATA["So the national obsession with celebrity...]]> "So the national obsession with celebrity culture has come to this. Even at their worst, hot young actresses can move product, and fashion companies that in the past would have shied away from provocateurs are less reticent to embrace them." [NYT]

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<![CDATA[Was Foxy Lady Fired For Hitting On A Gay?]]> rachelmarsden_1.jpg"Which cable chat up-and-comer was fired after her efforts to glom onto the network's marquee name and a gay anchor freaked them both out?" asks Ben Widdicombe today. Oh hmm! We haven't devoted much thought to this before (or have we?) Let's try to puzzle this out, poll-style!

Gawker Media polls require Javascript; if you're viewing this in an RSS reader, click through to view in your Javascript-enabled web browser.

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<![CDATA[McSweeney's publisher Eli Horowitz on their...]]> McSweeney's publisher Eli Horowitz on their save-our-asses Ebay auction: "I'm sure if we keep this going, we'll get more and more misguided. We're never sure how far to expand into ridiculousness." [NYM]

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<![CDATA[Authors Are Self-Dramatizing Crybabies]]> Pity the poor souls still laboring under the delusion that book-writing can potentially be a lucrative, fulfilling career. Or, like, don't! Today, we learn of some of the pitfalls and dashed expectations that, yes, even published authors find themselves coming up against. Such as: even a six-figure advance isn't really enough to live on for a year once your agent's 15% comission has been subtracted and you've had to pay for your own permissions. Also, did you know that writing alone in your room all day can be depressing?

Yes, it's hard. Even professional bloggers like Rachel Sklar find themselves unprepared for the challenges. "I wasn't going out, I wasn't shopping.... I berated myself and may have had a few meltdowns," she says of her twice-postponed guidebook about being a contemporary Jew. Oh noes! But at least she's not as hard up as recent Kenyon graduate Brendan Sullivan, who, at 25, has "thrown away several careers and one college degree to spend my time working in bars, D.J.'ing in bars and drinking my rejection letters away." Drinking! Not shopping! Not making a lot of money! People with book deals turn out to be Just Like Us.

My Book Deal Ruined My Life [NYO]
Related: Every 'Unsolicited' Column Ever

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<![CDATA[Youngsters Shocked By Sex In The Office]]> From the message board of Ed2010, the organization whose young members vow they will be magazine editors by 2010 (three years left, guys!):

I just found out that a girl I really respected (a fellow future magazine editor) is sleeping with one of her bosses!!!!!!! He is nearly 10 years older than her. Even if the relationship is for real I still find it really disappointing and disheartening. Is this what it's come to? Doing the deed with an editor she knows will likely help her get a job?
In a word: Yup!

Sleeping Your Way To The Top [Ed2010]

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<![CDATA['Times' Brings Earthshattering Rich Baby News!]]>

Since 2000, according to census figures released last year, the number of children under age 5 living in Manhattan mushroomed by more than 32 percent. And though their ranks have been growing for several years, a new analysis for The New York Times makes clear for the first time who has been driving that growth: wealthy white families.
"'We knew Manhattan was having a baby boom,' said Andrew A. Beveridge, a demographer at Queens College of the City University of New York, who conducted the analysis. 'Now we know who's having the babies.'" Get the fuck out, dude.

In Surge In Manhattan Toddlers, Rich White Families Lead The Way [NYT]

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<![CDATA[Williamsburg: "Where Would All The Puerto Ricans Go"?]]> Hey, have you heard about Williamsburg? Apparently, it's this Brooklyn neighborhood that used to be an industrial ghetto, and then it was a secret haven of artists and Orthodox Jews. Now it's a really cool and cutting-edge place to live—except that luxury condos rising on the newly rezoned waterfront are about to displace the last remnants of the old neighborhood. How nefarious! How shocking. Luckily, the Washington Post has come to town!

So this is truth: About eight nanoseconds ago Williamsburg was the national-magazine-certified coolest hood in America, with more vaguely employed white hipsters per square inch than anywhere on the continent. There are 22 clubs and 61 art galleries and enough pubs pouring fine Belgian beers to pitch any 22-year-old into a state of bleary-eyed ecstasy. Makis Antzoulatos was fine with all that.

But something nagged. As the neighborhood went hyper-hip and rents spiked, where would all the Puerto Ricans go? Or the old Poles who run the delis, and the Italians in East Williamsburg, where you can wander into a pasta joint at 11 p.m. and get a plate of scungilli and okay-but-slightly-headache-inducing Chianti?

Antzoulatos gathered pierced hipsters on the bare floor of his tenement living room and founded Gentrifiers Against Gentrification.

SPOILER ALERT! This grassroots group failed to stop gentrification.

A Condo Tower Grows In Brooklyn [WaPo]

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