Saturday, October 18, 2008
10:15AM Kyle Buchanan | About Time: It was only a matter of time before the week’s two big autism stories collided, but let’s thank Access Hollywood for hastening things along. Billy Bush caught up with “cleavage and veggies” advocate Jenny McCarthy to get her comments on Denis Leary’s assertion that autistic kids are stupid and lazy, and she described a scene that sounded as though it had come straight out of a Sarah Palin rally. “Whoo! First of all, let me tell you, the autism community has received probably 10,000 emails [saying] ‘Go kill him!’ ‘Go yell at him,’” she told Bush. “[But] it’s so hard to even get up enough juice in me or energy in me to even try to fight someone that is obviously stupid.” Really? Jenny, consider your guest-blogging privileges at Defamer revoked. [Us] More »
Defamer Presents The 10 Greatest Halloween Specials Of All Time
9:45AM Seth | It’s just eleven Sarah Palin-glasses-shopping-days ’til Halloween, and in honour of the spookiest night of the year (besides the ones in which Holly Madison attempted to conceive at the *THUNDER CRASH!!!* Playboy mansion), we thought we’d pull together ten of the greatest Halloween-themed TV specials to haunt and delight our distant youths. We think you’ll find that all the essentials are there—your Great Pumpkins, your Roseannes, but sifting through the YouTube stacks, we were reminded of some long-forgotten gems: More »
First Photo of Brad Pitt Hints ‘Basterds’ Is Just a Catalogue Shoot
9:04AM STV | After a long slog winning over everyone from skeptical Germans to Cloris Leachman, Quentin Tarantino is already a little more than a week into shooting his World War II action epic Inglourious Basterds [sic]. And now the first photo from the set features star Brad Pitt in smooth, modelesque repose — just the way we remember our grandfathers telling us about the European front. See him in all his Nazi-scalping sartorial splendour after the jump. More »
Newly Emancipated Guy Ritchie Free To Admit Kabbalah Is A Load Of Horseshite
8:46AM Seth | Ah, what a difference a divorce makes. To see Guy Ritchie’s jubilant face on the occasion of his 40th birthday on September 10—just weeks after Madonna had embarked on her Men Are All Sickening, Selfish Pigs Tour—is to look into the toothy grin of freedom itself. Sure, he got perhaps one more African orphan out of the bargain than he had hoped for, but there was really no point in looking backwards now, was there? He was 40 (still relatively young), his career was right back on track, and he would never again be faced with daily surveys of the, “So which do you think—the embroidered python jodhpurs or the deconstructed parachute pants?”-variety. More »
Marcia Brady on Anal Sex: ‘Ow, My Rectum!’
8:20AM Kyle Buchanan | Remember sweet, innocent Marcia Brady? If you do, you probably haven’t been paying attention this week, as her portrayer, Maureen McCormick, has undertaken a press tour meant to despoil her clean-cut image once and for all. First, McCormick regaled a horrified Today audience with tales of congenital syphilis, then she took to The Morning Show with Mike & Juliet to reveal her coked-out near-miss with the Indiana Jones franchise. Now, McCormick has taped an appearance on Howard Stern’s Howard TV set to air later tonight, and in the clip excerpted after the jump, she discusses her painful anal sex experiences and a drugged, aborted date with Steve Martin. Somewhere, a horrified Carol Brady is shaking her stylish flip. Enjoy! More »
7:45AM Kyle Buchanan | Aaand He’s Out! When we last checked in on Travis Barker, he’d extended a healing middle finger to the camera while reassuring fans that he’d be released from the hospital soon. Looks like that came even faster than he’d anticipated — the rocker was discharged from Sherman Oaks’ Grossman Burn Centre today. Upon hearing the news, negligent ex-wife Shanna Moakler ducked into the dressing room at Maxfield to cannily whisper into her cell phone, “Trav? Babe? I’m at the hospital, where are you?” [E!] More »
7:16AM STV | IMDB is Finally Legal: We know where your mind probably went hearing that the Internet Movie Database turns 18 today. But despite the lovely note passed along by founder Col Needham, we’re mostly just relieved we can finally throw it out of the house. So, IMDB, consider yourself emancipated — write if you get work, and don’t forget to vote. [IMDB] More »
Ellen DeGeneres Finally Puts Her Money Where Her Mouth Is On Prop 8
6:50AM Kyle Buchanan | For nearly a month, we’ve needled gay Hollywood to contribute to the “No on Prop 8″ cause that, for a while, seemed to be the exclusive domain of straight allies like Steven Spielberg and Brad Pitt. Most visibly MIA was Ellen DeGeneres, whose marriage this summer to actress Portia De Rossi should have given her even more reasons to fight Prop 8, which is designed to take away marriage rights awarded to same-sex couples in California. Now, finally, DeGeneres has stepped up to the plate, donating $US100,000 so that the “No on Prop 8″ campaign can air a new ad DeGeneres has recorded about how the proposition affects her personally. Props must be paid. The ad, after the jump: More »
The Road to Oscar Hell is Paved With Dead Paramount Movies
6:25AM STV | What a mess: Paramount’s reshuffling of 2008 awards bait including Defiance and The Soloist — the latter of which now won’t open until next March — has left devastated Oscar watchers (including us) tossing out their carefully wrought Trophynomics™ calculations for the American fall movies season. Few are more dismayed than the DreamWorks gang, whose hopes that The Soloist might at least cover the cost of hiring movers were met with the reality check that the ‘Mount has more important, Brad Pitt-y things to do before year’s end. We think this, along with other traumatic developments elsewhere over the last week, calls for an all-new Oscar scorecard; start over with us after the jump. More »
