· Thanks to a visit from Snoop, Pete Wentz and Ashlee Simpson will never again have to second-guess the correct temperature for their baby's malt-liquor formula. [TRL]
· So according to Paris Las Vegas Rules, Lindsay, Samantha, and the Entourage boys count as a full house. [Gawker]
· We feel compelled to somehow touch upon last night's Tony Awards, so here's a gallery of stars in attendance. If Mandy Patinkin isn't playing Johannes Brahms in some musical, then we're concerned he might have let himself go. [bestweekever.tv]
· Martha Stewart has seen Paul Newman, and thinks he looks "a little thinner," but "absolutely fine," and his salad dressing, "tastes a little synthetic and chemically for my tastes." [ET Online]
·Goats for sale! Really, really weird looking goats for sale! [israelforum.com via BoingBoing]

Read More »

The latest installment in the "Gee whiz, Flight Of The Conchords are kicking goals eh bro, aren't they?" department is the news that their second season will be bigger and better than the first, and - in news that will have the tabloids wetting themselves in anticipation - that it will shine a light on the rivalry between New Zealand and Australia.

In other words, chuck another shrimp in your Chilly Bin, because the stereotypes will be sure to delight all!

Sayeth Conchord Bret McKenzie:

"We have just started ten weeks of writing the second series and we are definitely going to explore the rivalry between Australia and New Zealand at a Government ambassadorial level. One storyline is one of us ending up in a relationship with an Australian."

The first series, which aired in the US last June and is gathering a cult following on Channel Ten in Australia, has undertones of the country's rivalry and McKenzie says American viewers warmed to that.

In other news, upon hearing this, the queue of Australian starlets trying to make it in Hollywood/New York and desperate to play Bret and/or Jermaine's potential Aussie love interest can now be seen from space.

This isn't the first time she's tried to conquer the notoriously difficult US market, but it looks like Delta Goodrem is set to really make us proud this time around. How do we know this? She's posing on the cover of some Las Vegas glossy!

Nomi Malone would be proud of our Delts; here's what's going down:

Touted as "the biggest thing to come out of Australia's music scene since Olivia Newton-John", Goodrem was selected to flaunt her new-found profile for the cover of Vegas magazine's fifth anniversary edition and will headline the title's extravagant birthday bash this weekend.

Posing in a sexy cowgirl outfit, Goodrem joins world-famous beauties Giselle Bundchen, Heidi Klum and Eva Longoria as a Vegas covergirl, ahead of her scheduled performance in front of Hollywood's elite at leading hotel The Palazzo on Saturday night.

Hmm, a "sexy cowgirl outfit", I leave that up to the jury to ponder:

May the showgirls of the world correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't being on the cover of Vegas sort of like, say, Katy Perry coming to Australia and ending up on the cover of the Heidelberg Leader, or that official magazine of Westfield Shopping Town, but with more spangles?

Temperamental and/or difficult actors are nothing new, of course, but as alluded to earlier today in our glimpse at the new-and-slightly-spiritually-improved Mike Myers, it takes a special kind of difficult to make the "stroppy" cut. To wit, does your rep for tantrums, whining and/or demanding final cut equal or exceed your rep for such actions making your films better? Then you might be headed for the All-Strop Team, as laid out today by Guardian contributor Andrea Hubert: Folks like Edward Norton (the captain), Eddie Murphy (the leadoff hitter, if only for knowing when to take a walk on Pluto Nash), Gwyneth Paltrow (the cleanup hitter, for publicly referring to her film View From the Top as View From My Ass) and others.

Read More »

A new book of photography called Crying Men contains portraits of some of the most respected and accomplished male movie stars of our era, engaged in the kind of emasculating waterworks we're all taught from a very young age is better suited to those who obsesses about designer shoes and tap their feelings out into a computer. ("Later that day I got to thinking about shows of emotion etc etc...") How did photographer Sam Taylor-Wood elicit these moments of raw vulnerability from his subjects? In some cases, such as in the portrait of Hayden Christiansen above, it was as simple as reading the actor selections from a number of Jumper reviews. Others were not so easy. From the publisher's website:

Read More »

Apparently Denise Richards' life of collecting alimony and contemplating posing for Playboy is so busy that she requires a full staff to function. In this week's episode of It's Complicated, she upbraids her two warring assistants about some clothes she had borrowed that were supposed to be returned but hadn't. To Denise, it's an issue of integrity. Much to our surprise, she managed to utter the word "integrity" without being struck by lightning.

Read More »

Whoop, whoop! Big cheers for Daniel Johns, who walked away from the APRA Music Awards last night in Sydney with three paperweights for Silverchair's big comeback single, Straight Lines.

Naturally this is cause for celebration - so spare a thought for Julian Hamilton (from the Presets), who co-wrote the killer track with Mr Johns, but who is - by virtue of being a "who?" in the eyes of the tabloid media - relegated to an also ran, despite sharing the Song Of The Year gong with Johns.

Check it:

Silverchair frontman Daniel Johns has picked up a trifecta of trophies at the 2008 APRA Music Awards in Sydney.

Silverchair's hit single Straight Lines, which was written by Johns and The Presets' Julian Hamilton, was named song of the year at the awards, which honour songwriters.

Straight Lines was the most played Australian work, while Johns was named songwriter of the year.

It is the third time the 29-year-old singer has claimed the prestigious title - the only artist in the history of the APRA awards to do so.

Look, I know Johns is the spearhead of Silverchair and all that, but really, it's pretty easy to read that little excerpt and think that our boy Daniel did all the work, isn't it?

But given that the song was also Most Played this past year, Julian can just wipe away that tear with a $100 note while sitting in his solid-gold toilet.

Or something.

As we've learned on our first few voyages into the Living Lohan household, where Dina Lohan knows best and familial ties do not exempt you from abiding by her all-knowing wrath, the multi-tasking Momager extraordinaire proved her managerial skills outstandingly in last night's episode. The Other Lohan, the surfer-haired preteen brother whose dismal fate has been shoved to the side the more worried and concerned we become following rising rap star Ali's increasingly deafening fits of rage, had his first shot at some real camera time during this episode. And despite Dina's obvious disinterest in her son's career prospects (that is, until he hits puberty and his marketing appeal among tweenybop girls increases exponentially), the queen of the house does find time to throw cash at the problem. Low-prioritized Cody-centric tasks include hiring a token age-equivalent friend, halfheartedly attempting to include him in yet another Ali photo spread, and feigning concern for all three moneymakers children during whiny, crocodile tear-filled cries for help aimed at Tough Love Lohan grandmatriarch, Ann Sullivan. Our picks for Dina's three most inspiring parenting lessons from last evening's half-hour are:

Read More »

Hurrah, more great news for Channel Nine!

Remember when they were all "Eddie McGuire's game show will save our sorry souls, and the ratings to boot"? They're celebrating on the other sides of their tear-stained faces now: 1 v 100 (and can I just say what a fantastic name that is; so memorable, so visceral) has been given the arse - after just two weeks back on air.

All together now, Nine staffers: "Ceeeelebrate good times, come on!"

Nine had hoped to use 1 v 100, which has been in hiatus since last year, to spearhead its bid to erode Channel 7's Friday night dominance.

But the show was belted by Better Homes and Gardens, Seven's highest rating program of the week with 408,000 viewers.

"It was only there to fill a hole," McGuire said.

"We didn't do any publicity for it. It went as well as you could expect."

Sounds an awful lot like Eddie is saying, "What? NO, I am not upset! I didn't even like it anyway! SHUT UP SHUT UP!" before running into his dressing room in floods of tears.

So what's left in Channel Nine's ratings war chest now? Not counting 1 v 100, that's roughly three big launches that have gone down the toilet so far this year. Do they have any big launches left for the year? Anyone? Anyone...?

You'll notice the Winegums Watch titles are getting more and more idiotic; well, perhaps when you spend close to a year tracking the antics of Ms Winehouse, you too will feel your grey matter slipping down the back of your throat like mucous.

Anyway, some serious news today: evidently Winegums is not a well woman. I mean, less well than she usually is. You know, like sick. But like, actually ill.

Oh, just read it:

"Amy was at home this afternoon when she briefly fainted.

"Fortunately, her manager's assistant was there to stop her falling," publicist Tracey Miller said.

"She quickly recovered and her father Mitch took her to hospital as a precaution.

"Doctors are unsure of the cause of the incident and Amy is currently undergoing tests. She may be kept in overnight for observation."

Did they perchance take her to the hospital in the bunker 10 miles underground and coated in lead that was still in operation in case the Millennium Bug caught up with us all eight years too late? Would they really not be sure of the cause? Could it possibly, just possibly, have something to do with living on fish'n'chips and icy-poles, and smoking crack?

Call me a wildly insane medical maverick, but it's just a thought.

Watching Dave Letterman sucker-punch Hills axis of vapidity Spencer Pratt on The Late Show Friday night brought up one major question for us: why has it taken this long for a talking head to publicly shame the guylighted villain? Shilling, we presume, merely for the gruesome brand that is Spencer and Heidi, the numb and pathological Pratt answered a few very pointed questions regarding the MTV show's obvious scripted nature and what exactly Bromance nobody Brody Jenner does for a living. At that point, Letterman finally pulled out the big guns after Spencer boastfully claimed he "won't go to a club for less than $100,000." Dave's shock, insulting-yet-gentle series of guffaws and his no-beat-missed announcement that he wants Spencer off his set immediately sum up an interview too good to be true. See for yourself after the jump:

Read More »

· Robert Downey Jr. is in talks to star in DreamWorks/Universal's Cowboys & Aliens, which is actually about cowboys and aliens, not the Bush regime's immigration policy. [THR]
· Indiana Jones and Iron Man brought Paramount Pictures International to the $1 billion box office grosses milestone six weeks earlier than last year, celebrated by Viacom Ringwraith Sumner Redstone hoopin' and hawin' over the studios in his fire-breathing skull-dragon, much to the dismay of the Star Trek cast and crew. [Variety]
· More reasons to love Eva: Eva Mendes is close to signing onto Werner "Abel Who?" Herzog's Bad Lieutenant continuationing.
· AMC is producing pilots based on Glen David Gold's 1920s magician novel Carter Beats the Devil, and Ice, about a family who works in New York's diamond district. [Variety]
·Mark an "X" on June 24th, which pits Celebrity Family Feud vs. the premiere of Wipeout vs. Kitchen Nightmares vs. America's Got Talent vs. I Survived a Japanese Game Show. (The "X" is there to remind you what day the world is ending.) [THR]

Read More »

Actors love to brag about the huge, painful physical transformations they under take to get into character. Whether it's Tom Hanks starving himself for Cast Away or Renee Zellwegger making the ultimate sacrifice of eating food to star in Bridget Jones Diary, your favourite stars will do whatever it takes to impress Oscar voters. That is, except for Abigail Breslin. The iPod touch loving, anti-Fanning first showcased her laziness when she donned a fat suit to play a chubby child beauty pageant contestant in Little Miss Sunshine. Sure, she's pre-pubescent and forcing a weight gain could have done some serious damage to her still-growing body, but a serious actress wouldn't have minded. The fact that her work was Oscar-nominee worthy must be considered a fluke. Real actors alter their bodies. All Breslin did was, ahem, act.

Read More »

If you happened to miss the two dozen or so reminders that your humble, athletically-ungifted Defamer editor would be a featured guest on Dr. Drew Pinsky's radio show this past Friday, we've collected some of the highlights for your listening pleasure. (Before you judge our performance too harshly, you must consider for a moment how nervous we were to be in the presence of the man who taught us everything we know about the relative riskiness of the fringe sexual practices that defined much of our experimental late-20s.) Drew surprised us right off the bat by opening up the floor to our own questions. We took the bait and started grilling him about his recent feud with Tom Cruise and the first word from the set of Celebrity Rehab 2.

Read More »

A rep confirmed this afternoon hour that Stan Winston, whose special-effects efforts on Terminator 2, Aliens and Jurassic Park won Oscars and established benchmarks in their field, died Sunday night at his home in Los Angeles. He was 62 and had suffered from multiple myeloma for seven years, staying on the job all the while, contributing effects and make-up work to the likes of AI: Artificial Intelligence, Big Fish, Iron Man and overseeing the effects department on the currently filming Terminator 4.

Read More »

Hulu — the NBC-Universal/Fox owned video website that is not so different from the numerous other websites offering full episodes of television shows, is the subject of a fawning, incredulous profile in today's Los Angeles Times. While all of the major networks already offer the bulk of their primetime line-ups for free online, Hulu boldly puts a bunch of it together on one site, thereby saving precious seconds of web surfing time. In an embarrassing display of old media-ness, reporter Scott Collins rhapsodizes over Hulu's "special features."

Read More »

As excited as we are for borderline troublemaker Emma Watson and her rumoured new deal to become the "face of Chanel" at 18, the $6 million contract comes with a curse or two. The French cosmetics giant has been airbrushing celebrity visages in ad campaigns for years, but its most recent short-term star partnerships haven't always ended amicably, nor have they resulted in the kind of chaste and glossy reputation sources predict for Watson. Though a friend insists that "She's not going to end up like these other Hollywood train wrecks, she just isn't...No one is going to be saying, 'I never wanted to see Hermione in that light,'" we took a look back at her quilted bag-carrying predecessors to shine a light on the kind of controversy this same wallet-fattening gig has earned its celebrity reps in the past.

Read More »

While this summer's blockbuster stars may yet go down as the stroppiest on record, Mike Myers has pulled a bit of an midseason upset by usurping the season's sulky, moody, bridge-burning crown from long-time "passion" front-runner Edward Norton in the new issue of Entertainment Weekly. Not that the rap on Myers today isn't that much different than it's been in the last 17 years, but with The Love Guru drawing fire from all sides and Myers' spirituality-and-humor crossbreed having apparently all but hijacked his, well, humor, now seems as good a time as any to stir up the bad blood trailing him to the screen this weekend:

Read More »

Alec Baldwin may have a surprising new lover —- the deericorn. In an interview with the New York Post about his seeming mid-life crisis, 30 Rock's master thespian railed at the tabloids for focusing all their energies on his unpaid voiceover work while missing all the truly interesting stories about his life. As Baldwin told the Post:

Read More »

Anti-smoking watchdog groups might not be too pleased with William Hurt's turn as the stogy-chomping Gen. Thaddeus Ross in The Incredible Hulk, but the gruff, unscrupulous character was one of the film's pleasant surprises. Like Jeff Bridges as Iron Man's Obadiah Stane, the Hollywood veteran was rendered almost unrecognizable, called upon to play the villain beneath some bushy facial outcroppings and the corrugated complexion of a former pretty-boy pushing 60. Sitting down with a starstruck CNN correspondent, Hurt couldn't underscore enough just how "not fun" the creative process was:

Read More »

Never saying never might be the smart play for Guillermo Del Toro, who once went off so memorably on the Lord of the Rings franchise ("I was never into heroic fantasy. At all. I don't like little guys and dragons, hairy feet, hobbits — I've never been into that at all. I don't like sword and sorcery, I hate all that stuff") only to commit to directing the godforsaken Hobbit two-fer less than two years later. Alas, he's at it again this month in an interview with Complex Magazine, apparently setting himself up for his first stab at romantic comedy after he returns from New Zealand:

Read More »

Naturally we couldn't ignore a blind item involving our favourite celebrity trend of the season, lesbian chic, that appeared in yesterday's NY Daily News. Especially when the item not only involves a starlet who dabbles in Lohan/Ronson-inspired games with the same sex, but also outs her bad boy boyfriend for helping her appear as straight as possible in the public eye. As the News asks today:

Read More »

Congratulations go out this morning to M. Night Shyamalan and his beleageured backers at 20th Century Fox, who weathered brutal buzz and worse reviews to nurse The Happening to an impressive $30.5 million opening. We've never been happier to underestimate a film's box-office juice — especially when Manoj's Folly needs all the support it can get before heading on the road. First stops: Mexico and Korea, where the film's marketing materials now include some of those countries' respective national landmarks among the decimated landscapes:

Read More »

A just-about-perfect L.A. weekend is now over. Stir a little extra Hazelnut Coffee Mate into your World's Sexiest Assistant mug, and bite absentmindedly into some raspberry-jelly-filled box office numbers. We'll get through this:

Read More »

Bringing to mind that little-known time when a snoring Anna Nicole Smith was briskly escorted from the Cannes premiere of Wong Kar-wai's 2046, chatter coming out of the desert has folks wondering what Britney Spears might be up to at the ongoing CineVegas Film Festival. This isn't quite like Paris Hilton or Lindsay Lohan hitting Park City to ostensibly promote their own films, after all; with four years remaining before Crossroads: The 10th Anniversary Cut makes the A-list fest rounds, Britney's attendance may have been purely incidental to the cinephile bedlam around it. Nevertheless, at least one observer (a fest juror, no less!) wasn't letting the celebritunity pass her by:

[T]he presence of Britney Spears in a poolside cabana at the CineVegas party was enough to turn all of us serious cinema people into gawking gossips. I counted four people in her cabana — and every time I looked in, no one was speaking, and at one point, Ms. Spears herself appeared to be texting — but this micro-entourage required a full wall of security detail, and attracted a nearly-unnavigable crowd of onlookers.

Read More »