Walter Cronkite Rumored to be Near Death

TVNewser is reporting tonight that legendary CBS newsman Walter Cronkite is "gravely ill," so ill that the network has been "updating his obituary." More »

William Shatner Doesn't Need Your Damn Cameo Role!

If you want William Shatner in your little movie, respect that he is the greatest actor in Hollywood and the most important thing since movable type and give the man a real freaking role! Director J.J. Abrams learned that the hard way when he tried to squeeze the living legend into some bit cameo part in his upcoming Star Trek remake. Abrams agrees with Shatner that he's too much man for a walk-on in any Star Trek project, but he just couldn't make something bigger happen for the original James Tiberius Kirk. More »

The Madonna-Turns-50 Thread

It's Madonna's 50th birthday today! And not 36 like her whacky religion says. Anywho, just to ensure that this event doesn't encroach upon some perfectly innocent item, please feel free to celebrate—or bash—the most famous woman on earth on her B-day to your heart's content in the comments. And if you come across other pics of her from back when she was adorable, that would be awesome too!

Special Sightings: Man Sans Cash Fan

A tipster sends in a sighting of the now-famous Craigslist Cash-Waver outside a Broadway building: "The red, white, and blue sunglasses were in the same slanted sunglass style as the photos, and his matching shoes were those big plastic-y looking sneakers. Shirt and jeans were nondescript, but the chin strap was in full form...This was around 4:15 on Wednesday. I've never used this site before, can I make sure my full name/email don't appear with the sighting? I don't want him to sue/punch me." Sure! Caveat: Yes he was funny and everything, but he didn't really do anything too bad, so everyone (especially us) should try to be nice. Okay! [Previously]

Che For Sale

Two of the revolutionary hero (to some) Che Guevara's kids said this week that they've had enough of their dad being used as a branding icon for advertisers of all stripes. "The appropriation of the figure of Che that has been used to make enemies from different classes" is "embarrassing," said one of his daughters. That's true. But Che's image today is largely made up of consumer products, that people buy in solidarity with a complicated man whose popular representation is—to say the least—highly simplified. Below, ten of the most important Che items that any dedicated revolutionary should own. Get em before they're outlawed. More »

Clint Eastwood Reflects on Dirty Harry

Now that he's a bigtime fancy-pants director, Clint Eastwood wants nothing to do with his role as a rogue cop with a taste for brutality in the Dirty Harry franchise. Kidding! He's totally cool with it. "'At the time in the press, there was a lot of attention to the rights of the accused, and that's not bad or wrong, but nobody thought too much about the rights of the public or the rights of the victim, that's not what the attention was on,' Eastwood said. 'All of a sudden here was a picture about the rights of all the victims, and I think it really resonated with people who were frustrated.'" And Eastwood's not some gun-nut, either. More »

Famous Bookstore Run By Jerk

The Strand, the humongous New York bookstore by Union Square that is like one of the biggest used book stores ever of all time, has always attracted lots of young workers who take the low pay in exchange for the cool factor of working at the place, and the chance to be around books all day. One negative: the store is run by a despised woman named Nancy Bass Wyden (trivia: she's married to Oregon Senator Ron Wyden). I've known several people who worked at The Strand, and they universally agree on her tyranny. Now, the New York Press has actually done some investigative work on the claims, and it's found evidence for allegations of racial discrimination, callous disregard for pregnant women, and—most terrifyingly—"fungus from rats." More »