« September 12, 2007 | Main | September 14, 2007 »
If you've been following the superb love triangle of Luke-Noah-Maddie on "As the World Turns," tomorrow would be a good time to tune in. Below is a clip of an intense scene between the two guys that just rings so true. I am amazed at the quality of this storyline, and so, so heartened by it.
AfterElton.com, which has been leading the coverage of this, will be live-blogging about the episode beginning at 2 p.m. ET. I know I'll be reading!
This is kinda sad.
TMZ.com reports that 86-year-old Broadway legend Carol Channing had her luggage stolen this afternoon as she was checking into the Hollywood Renaissance Hotel. It is such a bizarre story.
Wouldn't you know it? The damned thief didn't take a bag that included shampoo and stuff. The small black roller bag contained the sparkling "diamond dress" that Channing is wearing in this picture with the Reagans and Rockefellers. Channing famously wore the dress in the role as Lorelei Lee over 700 times in the stage production of "Gentlemen Prefer Blondes."
The valuable dress was scheduled to be photographed and then sent to the Smithsonian for exhibition. Channing is also donating her 1964 Tony award for "Hello Dolly" to the museum but it was in another bag. Channing is in town to perform at the Hollywood Bowl this weekend.
This showbiz legend knows the show must go on...
Meant to blog about this yesterday but I took off to the newsroom and left my notes at home. Was watching "The View" to see if there would be any mention of Rosie's suggestion that Barbara Walters retire. But, no dice.
Then something even better happened: Elisabeth Hasselbeck was essentially told she was off-point by Whoopi Goldberg and to shut up by Walters.
The NY Post printed a blow-by-blow which I'm lifting from because it's got all the good details: The outburst began when Hasselbeck mentioned Monica Lewinsky in a discussion about presidential candidate Mitt Romney's Mormon religion and how a small sect of Mormons still practice polygamy. The Monica reference triggered an avalanche of reaction from Whoopi Goldberg - and then Barbara.
"This is a good woman who has gotten a masters degree at the London School of Economics!" raged Walters, poking her finger at Hasselbeck's face. She pulled her hand back suddenly, took a flustered breath, and continued in a calmer tone. "She's doing her best to have a life. Enough with Monica, everybody can move on."
Goldberg requested that Hasselbeck - a conservative who famously clashed with Rosie O'Donnell last season - not bring Lewinsky up again.
"I'm asking you to do me a favor because there's no reason for it today," Goldberg said. "This has nothing to do with Bill Clinton."
Hasselbeck justified mentioning Lewinsky because the women were joking about Romney one day announcing he had a second wife.
"You're worried if some other woman would come out of the closet as the 'other woman,' " Hasselbeck sputtered. "It's not that much of a jump" to Monica. We've seen that before where another woman popped up" in the White House."
Walters, almost shouting, then said, "DO YOU THINK..." Then she took a breath and started again asking Hasselbeck if there would EVER be a Democratic candidate that you would NOT be against?
My take: I wonder if Hasselbeck is becoming a liability in the way that Star Jones did. I'd love to see ABC's polls on this. I don't sense that the studio audience connects with her anymore or respects her. Her upcoming maternity leave could come at a bad time for her because with Whoopi and Sherri Shepherd (not exactly a bleeding heart liberal) on board, the show might clearly be better without her.
There is precedent for this: When Deborah Norville went on maternity leave from "The Today Show" back in 1991, Katie Couric was the substitute co-host. Katie was so popular that Norville, unfairly tainted because she had replaced the beloved Jane Pauley, never returned to the show.
I'm so glad for AfterElton.com and the speed in which the site posts transcripts of some interviews of interest. Neil Patrick Harris visited Ellen DeGeneres' chat show today and talked about attending the Emmys this year, not only as a nominee, but as an out actor who will be making his way down the red carpet of the Shrine Auditorium with boyfriend David Burka.
Ellen: That's great, this is the first time that you can actually ... did you go together before and walk in separately? Or how did you do that?
NPH: [grimaces] Yeeeeeeeah, I don't know. Yeah. We would arrive together and he went ahead and I did the photos. It wasn't this [makes head movement as if dodging] sneaky thing that we were trying to play. He's an actor in his own right. I like to be there for work and am not really as a political kind of guy. But now we can smile together.
Ellen: That's great. I think that's great.
The "How I Met Your Mother" star wanted to know how Ellen handled it at first.
Ellen:"... I would go and my girlfriend would go in separately and I would be taking pictures alone. I look at it as, whoever you go with ... you go with your spouse or your husband or your wife, or your boyfriend or your girlfriend. So for me, I'm just happy I get to walk down with Portia and take pictures and not look at it as anything to be ashamed of."
NPH: Absolutely.
The UCLA track is known to draw its share of famous hunks or a workout. Ryan Phillipe used to be a regular and Jake Gyllenhaal had been photographed there taking a run. Now these two guys from "So You Think You Can Dance" I have not heard of because I never watched the show. But these and similar pics are all over the blogoshpere today of Neil Haskell training with Danny Tidwell. I think Tidwell is the one in the red dolphin shorts. I didn't even know they still made dolphin shorts!
Anywho, enjoy!
It's not easy not living like the First Lady of New Jersey.
Dina Matos McGreevey, whose hubby resigned as governor as he told the world that he's "a gay American" then took up with a rich Aussie, wants a judge to increase her monthly support nearly fourfold to $4,000 so she can live a lifestyle closer to that of New Jersey's first lady.
Poor Dina and the former couple's 5-year-old daughter live in a modest 3-bedroom house. Meanwhile, the former gay guv and his male partner live in a lavish 17-room mansion.
''In total, I need $11,162 per month to meet my expenses,'' she told the court in papers filed Monday. ''This lifestyle by no means approximates the lifestyle which plaintiff enjoys, much less the lifestyle we enjoyed while plaintiff was governor.''
She makes McGreevey sound like McGreedy saying that his assertion that ''he is only obligated to pay $1,129 per month in support for Jacqueline given his income and lifestyle is outrageous.'' She accuses the louse of intentionally keeping his 2005 earnings to $165,000 ''to limit his support obligations.''
''He expected that by the time he had to reveal his 2006 income, our case would have been settled, and so in one year he more than doubled his income,'' she stated.
Citing 2006 federal income tax returns, she says his adjusted gross income was $428,833, including $17,400 from Kean University for adjunct teaching and $60,000 in consulting fees from a law firm. She grossed $82,000 in 2006 from her position with Columbus Hospital in Newark. She also got a $275,000 book advance, of which she netted $195,000 after expenses.
Poor thing. She barely has two nickels to rub together...
"My prayer is that in 40 years, being part of the LGBT community in this country will be nonsense; it will be the same as being part of mainstream America. If we continue to make progress, as we have done in the past, we will be recognized first and foremost by our achievements and contributions and not by our sexuality. I have always wanted one thing: equal rights and opportunities for all."
- Billie Jean King in the 40th anniversary issue of The Advocate
"After the supposed remarks I made [mocking President Bush during a 2004 fundraiser] it got very difficult to get work. It was scary. I've taken every president to task, but I started thinking, 'Do I stop being political?' At that time no one was saying anything that wasn't in step [with the Bush administration]. It's okay now to be an American again. It's okay to get the dialogue going."
- Whoopi Goldberg in the current issue of People magazine
"Elisabeth, anti-abortion, pro Bush, pro war, believes in everything I don't, and I believe in everything she doesn't. She's as slender as I am fat, as restrained as I am vociferous, as polite as I am frank," adding, "Right from the start I could see in this slip of a girl so different from me, I could see something fierce, a fist in the frill, and I liked that. But we had no language in common."
- Rosie O'Donnell on Elisabeth Hasselbeck in her forthcoming book "Celebrity Detox."
"It’s ridiculous. I mean it’s absolutely absurd.…Dannielynn is gonna read this garbage and it’s almost like she’s gonna have to get counseling from the age of 3."
- Howard K. Stern on allegations in the book "Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death" that he and Larry Birkhead had an affair.
First there was the red carpet kiss, or almost kiss. And now Ewan McGregor and Colin Farrell admit, with a wink, that the stars of "Cassandra's Dream" are the hot new couple.
The following exchange was reported in Metro.co.UK today:
Ewan: "Me and Colin Farrell lovers? Yes. You heard it here first. Friends, lovers, all of those things."
Colin, walked up behind him on the red carpet in Toronto and confirmed it: "We're lovers, but only physically. No movies, no dinners, or long meaningful conversations caring about how the other person is doing in their lives...We just like to make love every now and then. Once a year is going to be the deal, like Woody Allen makes his films....We're going to make love once a year. He does look well, doesn't he? Very dapper. It's the accent as well that gets me."
Ewan: "I'm going to watch a film with people who like to watch films. Then Colin and I are going to go crazy!"
I know they are kidding but it's still kinda hot.
Rosie's book, "Celebrity Detox," hasn't even come out yet but little tidbits are being "leaked." According to "The Insider," Rosie reveals a painful childhood secret that is much worse than the time Oprah smashed her glasses then made it look like her house had been broken into to cover up her deed.
She writes that as a child, she used to break her own limbs with "a baseball bat" or a "wooden hanger." "My hands and fingers usually. No one knew. My secret." Why? "Proof," she writes, "that I had some value, enough to be fixed." And later, Rosie cryptically adds, "There were many benefits to having a cast. In the middle of the night, it was a weapon."
OK, I have no idea why she needed a weapon in the middle of the night but it can't be good. Anyway, Rosie's book comes out on Oct. 9.
At the Los Angeles Confidential Magazine party the other night, I spotted this gorgeous guy in a snug white v-neck t-shirt and jeans doing interviews. I didn't know who the heck he was but I wanted to find out (for my readers, of course). He's Jason Chambers, 27 years old, and is on the martial arts show "Human Weapon" on The History Channel which airs on Friday nights.
He explains: "We travel the world and my co-host and I travel the world and learn different martial arts where they came from and then at the end, one of us actually fights in that style."
Chambers had a background in martial arts so the show is a dream job : "I was in New York doing acting so this is kind of a unique mix. I actually found out about this show when I was in Japan for a [martial arts] fight of my own, heard about this casting and had my manager call. It's great. I get to travel the world doing something I love."
Personal life: "I'm newly single so I'm trying to get out and have more fun." [He seems real straight but I didn't ask]
Career goals: "I really love movies like "The Bourne Ultimatum" that show martial arts in a realistic and gritty atmosphere and I really liked 'Fantastic Four,' things that are more fun. So I want to do some action stuff."
First role: A bit part on an episode of "Sex and the City." He had one line. Jason was a bartender who handed Samantha a drink, "I was a bartender in New York at a place called Bed. The bartender who was supposed to work on the show didn't show up so they said, 'Hey, can you just say this line real quick?' I was like sure. The line was 'Would you like that shaken or stirred?'
And a few more pics after the jump!
I'm not cool I guess but I don't know who Ja Rule is. But he has certainly gotten my attention with recent comments he made in an online interview about toning down misogyny and homophobia in hip-hop lyrics.
He just went off: "There's a f***ing black kid right now about to get 25 years for having a fight with some white kids over hanging the nooses over the white tree, lets get to that. Let's get into sh*t like that, because that's what's tearing up America, not me calling a woman a b*tch or a hoe on my rap songs. And if it is, then we need to go step to Paramount, and f****ng MGM, and all of these other motherf**kers that's making all of these movies and we need to go step to MTV and Viacom, and lets talk about all these f***ing shows that they have on MTV that is promoting homosexuality, that my kids can't watch this sh*t. Dating shows that's showing two guys or two girls in mid afternoon. Let's talk about sh*t like that! If that's not f***ing up America, I don't know what is."
Hmmmm.
I'm not a fan.
Greg Hernandez has covered the entertainment industry for the Daily
News since 2001. He's considered a bit odd by some for his obsession
with box office numbers, has been known to camp out near the kitchen
at premieres for first crack at the hors d'oeurves, and Greg's never
seen a red carpet he didn't want to stroll down.