Friday, July 25, 2008

YouTube Clip Of The Day

1:26PM Jess McGuire | Today’s selection comes from reader Cassie, and is dedicated to her little one – and our very own Clementine Bastow! We’ve gone children’s cartoon crazy around these parts, haven’t we? Whatever next? More »

Popbitch’s Latest Newsletter Offers Us This Charming Heath Ledger-Related Anecdote

11:33AM Jess McGuire | I both chuckled at and felt oddly touched by the following little anecdote regarding Heath Ledger’s character development for The Joker during the filming of The Dark Knight, and felt it worth sharing with you. During the filming of The Dark Knight Heath Ledger kept a notebook to help him get in character, detailing all the things that he felt the Joker would find funny. The first entry: AIDS. Thank you, Popbitch. More »

Yo, JCPenney: Eat. Our. Shorts.

11:30AM Seth | · You might catch this cherished-Breakfast Club-memory-despoiling ad for JCPenney before PG and PG-13 rated movies this weekend. Yes, you too can look like you just raided Barry Manilow’s wardrobe! [creativity-online] · Russell Brand was asked to host the MTV Video Music Awards in September, instantly elevating him to household who-the-fuck-is-that? status. [AP] · Congratulations Marissa Jaret Winokur on giving birth to your first child, Zev Isaac Miller. (Which according to our Jew/Goy dictionary translates literally as “Levi Alves McConaughey.”) [People] · Here’s video of Christian Bale telling a reporter to mind his own business. The transcript really didn’t do it justice: He can even turn a simple “no comment” into a deeply involving, multi-act affair. [ETOnline] · Why Never to Believe a Publicist, Chapter MMMDCCCXC: That little Kelsey Grammer chest-hiccup? His heart stopped completely: “They had to blast me twice and get me started all over again.” [NY Times] More »

If Lisa Veronicas And Dean Geyer Can’t Make It Work, What Hope Is There For The Rest Of Us?

11:11AM Jess McGuire | In news sure to be a shocking blow to romantics everywhere, the virginal Dean Geyer and his pop star missus Lisa Origliasso have announced to the world that they’re calling it quits. NOOOOOOOOOOOO! A statement from Generation Y’s pin-up couple said the pair split due to personal and professional commitments. “Our careers demand we be in different parts of the world now and in the future, and the pressures associated with this have forced us to make this very difficult decision,” it read. “We remain committed and caring friends, with love, admiration and support for one another. We would appreciate respect for our privacy at this time.” Generation Y’s pin-up couple, eh? Interesting. But apparently it may not just be the tyranny of distance responsible tearing this union asunder. … The Daily Telegraph reports music sources are claiming thoughts of a former flame may have flickered again. Origliasso starting going out with Geyer last year just after breaking up with ex-shock jock, Craig ‘Lowie’ Lowe. That relationship did not recover after a radio stunt exposed the couple in bed together, the morning after the 2006 ARIAs. Lisa can’t stop thinking back to a relationship where her primal ladyurges were satisfied? Surely not. VALE DEAN GEYER AND LISA ORIGLIASSO’S LOVE (2007-2008) More »

We’re So Excited: Screech Set To Unveil The Sex And Drugs Behind The Scenes Of ‘Saved By The Bell’

11:10AM Molly Friedman | When we used to wake up in the mornin’ after the alarm gave out a warnin’, it was always alright ‘cuz we were Saved By The Bell. Yes, all you ’80s-born kiddies, the show we embarrassingly grew up watching religiously despite the fact that catching a rerun these days makes us dry-heave, is in the headlines again. The frizzy-haired, unemployed trophy winner of the World’s Most Nauseating Sex Tape (that is, until Mini-Me stole the title), Dustin “Screech” Diamond, has given up on those comedy club circuit dreams and made the heroic decision to put his nose to the mirror grindstone. As Vulture reports, we will soon have the pleasure reading a tell-all book scripted by Diamond, detailing what really went on behind the scenes of that epic show. And if you’re like us, who consider Jesse Spano’s “I’m So Excited…I’m So…Scared” scene a pivotal moment in our adolescence, don’t despair — Diamond is said to be more than ready to spill each and every bean when it comes to revealing all of the dirty deets of Bayside High School’s Class of 1993. More »

David Lynch Makes A Damn Fine Cup Of Coffee

10:45AM Mark Graham | Any David Lynch fan worth his/her salt will know that the only thing that he likes more than collaborating with Angelo Badalamenti is drinking coffee. (Smoking American Spirits is a close third). And as any David Lynch fan also probably knows, David Lynch launched his very own line of organic coffee a few years back. What does this have to do with the price of tea in China, you ask? Well, anyone who has spent some time on DavidLynch.com knows that as talented as he is behind the camera, he hasn’t quite mastered e-commerce yet (for example, the “buy” link on his site is not functional). All of which is a long-winded way of letting you know that if you’ve always wanted to try his signature coffee line, it’s now available at the (generally) reliable Amazon.com. And if you get Amazon GC’s sent your way as much as we do, well, this news oughta be sweeter to you than the cherry pie at the Double-R. [Amazon.com, vid via YouTube] More »

Chosen Two Outed As Test Tube Babies

10:15AM Molly Friedman | Excellent news to report for anyone who still thinks Angelina Jolie is perfection incarnate, in spite of that silly husband-stealing fiasco, heroin tape, Billy Bob phase, Life Or Something Like It and…well, there are probably a few of you left! According to Us, the conception of the Chosen Two was quite literally chosen to arrive at a specific point in Brangelina’s magical life. A source tells the weekly that the “impatient” soccer team managers didn’t rely on Brad’s super-sperm or Jolie’s scream-filled bedroom style to spontaneously produce Knox and Viv. Rather, the no-longer-immortal duo paid a hefty sum for in vitro treatments to speed up their plan to “have 10 kids…while [they're] young.” But their goal may not work out quite as planned. Reports that Angelina is being forced into joining the trendy rapid weight loss/gain club for her next role may cause a serious delay in recruiting new Jolie-Pitts for quite some time. More »

Spike Jonze Wild Things-Watch, Vol. XXIV. …

9:00AM Defamer Hollywood | Spike Jonze Wild Things-Watch, Vol. XXIV. Perhaps the City of Ember Blowjob Train was good for something other than fanboy condescension after all: A few of the bloggers on the journey to Comic-Con had a word with Ember producer Gary Goetzman, whose Tom Hanks-owned Playtone shingle is also among the interests behind the forever-delayed Where the Wild Things Are. Goetzman assured his interrogators that the troubled Spike Jonze production, which Warners recently pulled off its upcoming release slate, is coming along just fine; those rumours of a lousy performance by young Max Records and Jonze potentially losing the film are “100% untrue.” “I think that Warner Bros.’ vision and Spike Jonze’s vision may be a little different,” Goetzman said, also insisting that Jonze retains final cut. “Warner Bros. has no intention of bringing down the hammer on anyone.” Here’s hoping they can continue this chat on the Wild Things Train to Comic-Con in 2010. [AICN via Vulture] More »

Industrial Light & Merkin To Render Sienna Miller’s Ladyparts More Hippie Authentic

8:41AM Seth | To Sienna Miller’s credit, the It Girl Who Never Really Was continues to work steadily, despite never having fully congealed in the public’s consciousness as a recognisable movie star. (Overheard at an Arclight Stardust screening: “Who’s she again?” “She’s the Australian one who slept with Ryan Phillippe’s nanny, I think.”) Miller is due later this year in Hippie Hippie Shake, a biopic set in the ’60s in which her flower-child character was required to dispense with cumbersome material possessions (like clothing) and jump wholeheartedly into the era’s acid-fuelled orgy culture. One continuity problem: Her overly manicured private areas—a configuration popularly referred to today as a “landing strip”—were simply unheard of in the predominantly laissez-hair climate of the time. More »

Why The Racy New Ad Campaign For ‘Gossip Girl’ Will Backfire

8:15AM Molly Friedman | Gossip Girl, the show that the media can’t stop gushing over despite the fact that nobody actually watches it or anything, has of course been renewed for a second season. And in an apparent attempt to lure the large audience of celeb voyeurs that’s currently interested in the cast members’ bi-curious antics off-screen than on, the sultry young things-obsessed marketing crew at the CW has released some “inappropriate” images from the second season’s ad campaign. Thanks to Miley Cyrus and her “scandalous” series of endless flesh-baring spreads, any photos featuring tweenyboppers practically banging each other or doing their best O-face are fine by us. But releasing racy promos like these is a practice long used by GG’s predecessors, and the sleazy plan relying on that old promise that Sex Sells has a history of backfiring in many a series’ pretty little sweat-drenched faces: