Archive for September 23rd, 2008
Clay Aiken Comes Out: ‘Yes, I’m Gay’
The shocking truth! Revealed!
Oh, wait, this isn’t shocking. Or a revelation.
Clay Aiken is finally confirming what many people already knew: He’s gay.
The cover of the latest People magazine shows Aiken holding his infant son, Parker Foster Aiken, with the headline: “Yes, I’m Gay.” The cover also has the quote: “I cannot raise a child to lie or hide things.”
Tags: Culture | People | Celebrity | gay | United States | Magazine | Cover | American Idol | Singer | Clay | Aiken | culturite
Is David Blaine ‘A Big Cheater’?
Gawker calls out David Blaine for failing to hang upside down, continuously, for 60 hours as he currently claims to be doing — and they’ve got the “photographic evidence” to prove it.
Is David Blaine faking it?
Is David Blaine a big cheater or what? The droopy-eyed “magician” is currently engaged in his latest stunt, hanging upside down for 60 hours in Central Park. Except that ever since he started yesterday afternoon, we’ve been getting emails from bystanders saying that he wasn’t hanging upside down—instead, he was resting by standing on a platform, only to be hoisted up several minutes later. We don’t know the official explanation, but whatever it is, this sure is a crappy stunt.
[UPDATE: One reader writes in: "Myself and 3 colleagues were there today around 12: 45. We saw the same thing. The security there said the Emt’s check him out for about 10 min per hour standing upright on the crane you have pictured." How can you hang upside down for 60 straight hours when you come down every hour? Ha, it's a trick question!]
Tags: USA | New York | Culture | TV | Entertainment | performance | Celebrity | artist | endurance | stunt | magician | down | david | FAKE | platform | blaine | cheater | Upside | culturite
Radiohead Launch ‘Reckoner’ Remix Project
If you missed the opportunity to remix Radiohead the first time around, here’s your second chance.
Starting Tuesday, the band is making digital musical file stems for the song “Reckoner” available through iTunes and offering them up to would be remixers to tweak, slice, chop, and rework the tune as they wish.
At first listen, two early favourites include a freaky, off-kilter take by Flying Lotus and a siren-filled, bleepy crasher by Diplo. But let’s see what other magic bubbles up to the surface in the coming weeks of the competition.
By most accounts, the Radiohead “Nude” remix project was a smashing success. It resulted in over 2,000 unique reworkings, plenty of hard-hitting analysis, and– however inadvertently– the band’s first significant chart showing for a single in ages. So it comes as little surprise that the In Rainbows gang is gearing up to do it all over again.
The band sent an email today to folks who partook in the “Nude” project, offering advance access to stems for In Rainbows highlight “Reckoner” and revealing that those stems will go up for digital sale to the general public on Tuesday, September 23. As with “Nude”, the stems divide the song into its component parts– all the better to remix with, of course.
For “Reckoner”, folks can nab tracks for “Lead Vocal”, “Backing Vocal”, “Guitars”, “Bass”, “Drums”, and “Piano/Strings”. That’s six stems in all to “Nude”’s five– all the better to chart with, of course.
No word yet whether this project will work precisely like the last one did– you know, with the voting and the ranking and the embedding and all that– but there’s little reason to think it won’t. Eager remix beavers are advised to click on over to the onetime home of all those “Nude” remixes, http://radioheadremix.com/, come Tuesday for more details.
Tags: USA | Culture | Music | Diplo | itunes | UK | single | MP3 | Radiohead | band | project | Digital | song | remix | Nude | album | files | stems | culturite | in rainbows | flying lotus | reckoner
‘90210′ Starlets Called ‘Too Thin for TV’
Leave it to a teen-focused entertainment series like 90210 to continue the relentless promotion of a distorted, 100-pound image of beauty to its vulnerably impressionable youth audience.
And although this not the first instance of stars being called out for their weightlessness, chain-smoking, and inability to eat a proper meal, given how recently these 90210-newbies have been blitzed with the bright lights of temporary television fame, one would hope that their delusions of minor celebrity wouldn’t so quickly affect their physical frames.
You’re an up-and-coming actress who’s finally gotten your big break on a much-hyped new TV show. What are you gonna do now? If you’re Jessica Stroup and Shenae Grimes of the CW’s “90210,” you’re apparently going to cut out unnecessary (read: most) foodstuffs.
At least that’s the word from Us Weekly, which, in its “Too Thin for TV” cover story, claims the starlets have become so alarmingly twiggy that producers and their fellow cast mates are about to intercede.
“They want the girls to gain weight,” a show insider tells the mag. “They are really worried about them, especially Jessica. They are trying too hard to be skinny, and it’s started to wear on them. It’s just not healthy.”
Both actresses previously sported more robust frames, but the mag now estimates that Stroup, at 5-foot-8, tips the scales at only around 100 to 105 pounds, while Grimes, at 5-foot-3, is eyeballed at approximately 90 pounds. Wardrobe sizes are said to range from double-zero to two.
“I’ve never seen Jessica or Shenae eat,” tattles a second source, with still another blabbing, “The two of them smoke like chimneys.”
Tags: USA | Culture | TV | Entertainment | Health | Show | Celebrity | television | Jessica | Series | Magazine | Thin | EATING | teen | disorder | CW | skinny | culturite | 90210 | Grimes | shenae | Stroup
Kanye West to Produce ‘Hip-Hop Meets the Muppets’ TV Show
Is Kanye West about to become hip-hop’s Jim Henson? According to reports, West is “hard at work” developing a puppet show, tentatively titled Alligator Boots — that will feature celebrity guests, puppets, and hip-hop music.
Presumably, the lead muppet will be Kermeezy the Blog who will rap about how ‘it ain’t easy being me’ before storming off the set to beat up a bunch of photographers.
Attention fans of Kanye-related nonsense: GET EXCITED. According to The Hollywood Reporter, the popular blogger-musician is hard at work with Comedy Central on a variety show hilariously described as “hip hop meets the Muppets.” Tentatively titled Alligator Boots, the show will be hosted each week by a different celebrity guest and feature puppets, obviously, along with music produced by Kanye and Rhymefest. Boots is being considered by Comedy Central to air in 2009 and would possibly compete against the rumored reboot of the actual Muppet Show (which likely wouldn’t stand a chance).
Tags: Culture | TV | Entertainment | Show | Alligator | Celebrity | television | Series | West | BOOTS | puppet | Kanye | rhymefest | Muppet | Produce | muppets | jim henson
The 10 Most Talentless People In Movies
The Movie Blog has put together an incisive list of the “top 10 most talentless actors” in the movie biz and, guess what, they’re right on the money.
I’d like to take particular note of a few names on this list: less-than-fully-famous hacks like Dane Cook and Jon Heder who, although they aspire to being comedic actors, seem incapable of being anything other than annoying.
Do you agree with this list? Who would you add or take away?
We’ve all said this phrase several times about one actor or another: “How on earth does this person keep getting parts in movies!?!?”. Maybe sometimes we see and understand why someone keeps getting parts… hell maybe we even love seeing them, but when it comes down to it we admit to ourselves and others that the person in question is actually talentless and probably doesn’t belong on the big screen [...]
So here for your consideration is The Movie Blog’s top 10 most talentless actors in the movie business,
#1 – ARNOLD SCHWARZENEGGER
The big guy has to be in the #1 spot. I love him as much as anyone, but come on, let’s be honest here… a thespian he’s not. Smart man, loads of charm, zero in the talent department.
#2 – PARIS HILTON
Is there anyone else on the planet who embodies the phrase “famous for being famous” more than this girl? Zero talent (if you were one of the 18 people who saw Hottie and the Nottie you know) and annoying as hell.
#3 – JESSICA SIMPSON
Full marks for being VERY hot, and I’ll admit to even liking her singing voice, but dear heavens this girl can’t read a menu let alone a decent script. Hell, she couldn’t even play herself (dumb blonde) in Dukes of Hazzard. I guess it helps when your daddy produces movies.
#4 – STEVEN SEAGAL
I liked Under Siege as much as the next guy, but holy crap if this guy had to play a corpse he’s find a way to ruin it. But don’t laugh… the guy has a couple of albums and they’re actually pretty good.
#5 – DANE COOK
This guy is actually the inspiration for doing this post after seeing him bomb in the dreadful “My Best Friend’s Girl”. A comedian with absolutely ZERO acting ability who continues to embarass himself and those acting with him in every movie he appears in.
#6 – ORLANDO BLOOM
If a pretty face equalled talent, then Orlando Bloom would have an Oscar by now. Instead, we now see the flat, reserved performance he gave in Lord of the Rings (which was perfect for that role) was really all he had anyway. He was poised to be a major superstar… then he made the mistake of letting us all see he had no talent.
#7 – ASHTON KUTCHER
A big tip of the hat and much respect to any man sleeping with Demi Moore… but he should probably just stick to that. The guy is as believable as Sarah Palin (that’s not a good thing)
#8 – JON HEDER
In the movie world, the phrase “One hit wonder” really does apply to Jon Heder. Mr. Dynamite blew up with his hit indie classic… and then showed he really had nothing else to offer. How can you be in a movie with Rob Schneider and be so bad that you make HIM look good?
#9 – CURTIS “50 CENT” JACKSON
I’ll be honest with you, I’m not sure why I don’t have him much higher on the talentless list. This guy is a door stop with all the depth of a saucer of milk. Absolutely brutal… has no place in the movies whatsoever.
#10 – CHRIS TUCKER
The talent pool goes bone dry with this guy. But say what you will… the man knows how to negotiate and has one hell of an agent. Him getting $20+ million for Rush Hour 3 is one of the biggest blunders in film history. You could have put in a comatose train wreck victim in that role and it would have almost been as entertaining.
Tags: Culture | Movies | Entertainment | hollywood | People | 50 Cent | Celebrity | Paris Hilton | Jessica Simpson | talentless | Orlando Bloom | culturite | Jon Heder | Steven Seagal | Dane Cook | kutcher | chris tucker
Spielberg Donates $100,000 to Support Gay Marriage
Following Brad Pitt’s $100k lead from last week, Steven Spielberg and his wife Kate Capshaw have joined the fight for gay rights and matched Pitt’s donation of $100,000 to oppose California’s Proposition 8 which would seek to band same-sex marriage.
Steven Spielberg and his wife, Kate Capshaw, are the latest celebrity donors to the fight against California’s November ballot initiative that would overturn the state Supreme Court decision legalizing same-sex marriage.
Spielberg and Capshaw have donated $100,000 to fight Proposition 8, they announced in a statement Monday.
“By writing discrimination into our state constitution, Proposition 8 seeks to eliminate the right of each and every citizen in our state to marry regardless of sexual orientation,” the statement said. “Such discrimination has NO place in California’s constitution, or any other.”
Tags: California | Culture | Movies | hollywood | Los Angeles | kate | Celebrity | gay | marriage | pitt | donation | support | actor | Rights | Director | steven | brad | DONOR | spielberg | same-sex | Capshaw | culturite | Proposition 8
Bollywood’s ‘Hari Puttar’ Wins ‘Harry Potter’ Lawsuit
Could this be the first time that a product associated with JK Rowling’s ‘Harry Potter‘ global megabrand, even by name only, is allowed to exist without fear of a legal lockdown?
This week an Indian court allowed the release of the Indian film, ‘Hari Puttar‘, to go ahead, despite concerns by Warner Bros. that the movie would “confuse consumers and benefit from the well-known and well-loved Harry Potter brand.”
‘Hari Puttar’ will be released in India this Friday and globally in October.
Move over Harry Potter. Make way for Hari Puttar.
“Hari Puttar” is set to hit cinema screens this week after an Indian court rejected a Warner Bros. lawsuit claiming the name was too close to its Harry Potter series.
The court said in its ruling Monday that people who have watched the Harry Potter movies and read the books would know the difference between that and an Indian Punjabi film called “Hari Puttar — A Comedy of Terrors.”
The producers, Mirchi Movies, said the Puttar movie bore no resemblance to the famous boy wizard franchise. Hari is a common name in India and Hindi for God, while “puttar” is Punjabi for son.
“It’s clearly great to have won this case,” Munish Purii, Mirchi’s chief executive told The Associated Press on Tuesday. “We are hoping for a good release although the timing of the Warner case distracted us from marketing.”
Tags: Culture | Movies | court | India | Film | movie | lawsuit | United States | comedy | UK | Bollywood | INDIAN | harry | WARNER | Bros | potter | rowling | Hindi | Jk | Punjabi | culturite | Hari | Puttar
It’s Time…To Celebrate David Caruso Day
It’s a little late in the day to celebrate, but we couldn’t let David Caruso Day pass by without honouring it.
Today, September 22nd, has been the official day to celebrate CSI: Miami’s stoic, red-haired hero. There are official rules (below) for celebrating the man, the myth, and mystery, but your first order of business should be to pick a your favourite one-liner from this hilarious, exhaustive, and endless compilation of Horatio’s (un)questionably ‘finest’ moments.
Monday, the start of the seventh glorious season of “CSI: Miami,” we have declared David Caruso Day — a 24-hour tribute to the most underappreciated thespian in the primetime firmament. It’s something like that National Talk Like a Pirate Day — which, in one of those incredible coincidences that makes covering TV such a paranormal experience, is today!
On David Caruso Day you don’t have wear an eye patch or say “Aargh!” all day long. Instead, you get to hiss pithy, mockable one-liners while leering over the top of your Maui Jim’s, and generally muck about like an actor who, early in his career may have gotten to fill in for the lead role of Jean Valjean in “Les Miserables” on Broadway for six months, but who is coming to the realization the defining role of his career is a vocabulary-challenged cop saddled with the name Horatio.
Here are the official rules of engagement.
[T]he OFFICIAL DAVID CARUSO DAY RULES:
- Maui Jim sunglasses must be worn all day. Outfit should ideally also include a dark expensive suit (Armani for verisimilitude), dress shirt, no tie, badge, and a Hummer for transportation. When speaking, head must be cocked to one side, hands on hips (aka Caruso Handles).
- If you are using more than 10 words in a sentence while speaking, you are doing it wrong.
- The more the mundane the spoken sentence, the more it must be delivered with the slit-eyed intensity of a man who has just cornered John Dillinger — or, if you prefer, the slit-eyed intensity of Laurence Olivier as Heathcliff. The goal here is to make William Shatner look well-modulated. Less mundane sentences spoken in the course of the day (example: “Boss, you can take this job and shove it.”) may be delivered with only a pseudo-grim look.
- When calling someone by name in a conversation, participants must follow that person’s name with an extremely pregnant pause. Example: “Frank (pause, pause, pause) it looks like the Xerox machine is broken again.” When the topic of conversation is very serious, the person must be addressed by their full name (“Francis” instead of Frank). Address women you work with as “Ms” followed by last name, never by their first name.
- At least 75 percent of statements made in the course of the day by participants must be delivered as a question. Example: “It’s … cold outside?”
- At least once per hour, you must open your cell phone abruptly, dial a number, tensely whisper terse instructions into the phone and slap the phone shut — before the call could possibly have connected to the person you dialed.
- When speaking to someone at length, you must first address the person’s feet, then slowly look up and, before making eye contact, look away, then walk out of the frame. Exception: It is acceptable to look a small child in the eye.
- Appear in places when you are least expected, especially to confront your nemesis, who is hopefully from another country, like Brazil. When your nemesis finally spots you, smirk, call out his/her name, say you are coming to get him or her, then immediately disappear.
Tags: USA | Culture | TV | Miami | Celebrity | Horatio | actor | csi | david caruso day | david caruso
Top User ‘Zaibatsu’ Banned from Digg.com
Digg’s top user, Zaibatsu, has been banned from the social news recommendation site, after alleged repeat violations of the site’s Terms of Service.
There’s more user unrest in the community of popular social news site Digg, after the all-time number 3 ranked user Zaibatsu, a.k.a. Reg Saddler, was banned for alleged multiple violations of the Digg Terms of Use. That decision is “final and irreversible”, according to an email Saddler got from Digg today.
Although the exact reasons are unclear, Digg asserts that Reg Saddler was banned after submitted sites linking to spam:
So why was Saddler banned? It wasn’t associated with the recent bannings of other digg users over using Greasemonkey scripts. Rather the ban was handed down after Saddler submitted a website which was, in the words of an email Saddler received from Digg, “spam and a solicitation of products and/or services”.
Nevetheless, not everyone agrees with the ban and some high-ranking members of the site’s community have spoken out about the case:
It’s difficult to know what the wider Digg community thinks, but Zaibatsu is friends with a lot of other diggers and those diggers obviously want to see him back.
A user named Bianconeri4ever said:
“It’s a thorny issue to be honest. In a perfect world the whole issue would have been resolved between Digg and Zaibatsu privately. It’s just the timing of the ban was very unfortunate. In the light of the 80+ users banned, unbanning Zaibatsu would put Digg in a very bad light, that there are some users who are above the law, even if the banning of the 80 and the banning of Zaibatsu are two separate issues. It’s a real shame because Zaibatsu’s is a great guy, he is very helpful with beginners and loves the Digg community.”
What’s your take on this issue? Should Zaibatsu be exiled from Digg forever?
Tags: Culture | internet | news | ban | Community | Site | Website | Digg | banned | Social | user | social media | Zaibatsu | reg saddler
