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With the 2008 Presidential Election less than a month away, our favorite celebrities are coming forward to back their favorite candidates. And Jay-Z lent support to the Obama campaign by rocking out at a rally yesterday (October 5).
The “99 Problems” rapper took the stage at the Bayfront Park Amphitheatre in Miami, Florida, encouraging young voters to get registered and vote Barack into office on November 4th.
Helping out for a good cause, Sarah Jessica Parker was on-hand to kick off the fifth annual “Shop For Public Schools” Program at Barnes & Noble Tribeca in New York City on Wednesday (October 1).
Teamed up with Caroline Kennedy, the “Sex and the City” star proudly announced that “for the next week, more than 200 retail locations across the city will donate part of their proceeds to public school libraries.”
Taking advantage of the pre-Emmy parties, Leighton Meester was present for the “Kids for Kids Family Carnival” at the Park Avenue Armory event in New York City on Saturday (September 20).
The “Gossip Girl star looked happy and glowing, arriving in an adorable loose fitted white blouse at the Kids for Kids event - which has been helping to bring families together for 15 years now while supporting The Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS.
Well look, the market is up again, how (pardon me) UTTERLY FUCKING RETARDED. What this means: another huge plunge is invariably in sight! Because the government achieved this by outlawing short-selling temporarily on all the big stocks you'd want to short, and what the hell are hedge funds supposed to do about that? Gawker tipsters all over financeland are predicting a protracted bloodbath over the next couple months as investors sign up to get their money out of hedge funds. Dozens could go bust. But hey, here is a silver lining: hedge funds are for rich people! (Well, not anymore, now that America is running the world's biggest hedge fund with our tax dollars.) But hedge funds used to be for only the rich, and with your help we can illustrate how rich people are stupid. Inspired by this story about an insane Merrill Lynch investment vehicle called NORMA one expert quoted in the Wall Street Journal called "a tangled hairball of risk", I'm holding the Awful Vodkas I Have Drank of the plutocracy, an "Absurd Financial Product Some Rich Person Actually Bought" contest. I asked one of our tipstering financiers about the most retarded investment vehicle he'd ever seen.
ABSURDISTBANKER: Last year, I built a fund that invested solely in a hedge fund, but it leveraged 2X to do it - so it was a leveraged vehicle to enhance returns on a leveraged equity long/short hedge fund
MOE:: oh god
a SINGLE hedge fund?
ABSURDISTBANKER: Yes
MOE: That is fucking nuts. Not even a "fund of funds." A fund of fund. A truly innovative investment strategy.
ABSURDISTBANKER: I remember saying to the product team that designed it
"People who buy this are insane"
Okay people, here is my attempt at an explanation: at some point everyone with money was all, "Wow. Buying regular stocks and bonds in a company is for suckers obviously, look at that stupid 'Internet' thing and you have to understand like seventy thousand different variables about all these companies. I just want my money to be safe. Putting my money in a hedge fund, now that is what genuine rich people I think are 'smart' do. Because I don't really want to be able to follow what is going on with my money, and the hedge funds won't tell me because I wouldn't understand anyway. But I'll feel good about it because only rich people get to invest in hedge funds, and we wouldn't be rich if we didn't make wise decisions about money."
And the hedge funds were all, "Yippee, money, and we get 1% of that upfront, but shit, how are we going to justify our colossal fees now that there are a trillion dollars of the market invested in hedge funds? Oh well, all these people want is for their money to safe so we will just make a few very safe bets infinitely more complicated because that is like 'adding value.' For instance even regular mortal rich people aren't allowed to buy fancy complex derivatives like credit default swaps unless they are very rich and incredibly pushy, and regular people are not allowed to borrow 50 times their net worth so they can make 50 times as much when their safe little trade yields a safe little return. Regular mortal people also can't usually 'short' stocks especially without buying them first so we will do that. You know, regular mortal rich people get a headache just thinking about all this crap, which is good, because if they thought about it long enough they would probably elect to never again pay a bunch of guys a 20% commission so a bunch of guys could borrow 5000% of their net worth to pay a few dozen guys making 1% commissions pooling together and splitting up and insuring and re-insuring thousands of 9% loans because, hello, that is just some Ponzi shit right there, just ask the last stupid rich person who invested in a 'FUND OF FUND.'"
She’s been in the Big Apple taking care of her guest starring duties on “Ugly Betty” as of late. And last night (September 10) Lindsay Lohan attended a few industry events after work.
The “Mean Girls” actress was spotted arriving at the Marie Claire party for its new fashion director Nina Garcia, held at the Milk Studios penthouse.
We heard fourth-hand that Matthew Winkler, the bow-tied tyrant who leads Bloomberg News' editorial side, announced internally this morning that he is "stepping away from day-to-day management of the news operations." Another source said he's not stepping away—"it's more like he's spreading the wealth around a little bit." This would probably be a planned evolution of management rather than a result of the newswire's recent monumental fuckups, but employees would be happy for less of Winkler either way. Any Bloomberg people who can provide some info on this, please email us ASAP. UPDATE: Talking Biz News has the fuzzy, but possibly horrifying details of Winkler's move:
Bloomberg spokesman Judith Czelusniak, in an e-mail, said, “There was an executive editors’ meeting yesterday, and Matt did a video for news staff based on it. He’s following up on some new workflow procedures that he said he’d be implementing in the news department back in July…when the Company did its reorganization. No new hires or promotions, but more global coverage hubs and more responsibility for exec editors. Some editors being moved around the globe.”
The executive editors, including Amanda Bennett, Al Hunt and John McCorry, will now apparently decide daily coverage.
No more Winkler determining coverage? Sounds good, right? But:
“If we are going to get to the next level for the sake of everyone, I can’t continue in the same role,” Winkler said on the video conference, according to a Bloomberg reporter. “As the senior managers assume more responsibility, I will spend more time with the reporters and editors I rarely see, on strategic planning in the bureaus, on recruitment, and on determining the most important business and economic and political issues worth reporting."
Uh oh. One reporter sums up: "Fairly unclear."
[Talking Biz News; more at Reuters Mediafile]
Dave Zinczenko is the self-proclaimed "Barak [sic] Obama of publishing"! That, we hear, was just part of the inspirational email that Men's Health editor and former Julia Allison boyfriend Dave "Abs" Zinczenko sent out to his entire staff recently! He alone can save the magazine, was reportedly the gist of the message. Also, the Zinc is apparently searching for a top-notch publicist to get him back on the Today show—he used to appear regularly, but then his friend, a Today show producer, got fired! First he lost his title as Designated Magazine Industry Hottie, and now this. Perhaps Dave should be a bit more generous passing out the dinners with Men's Health models. Is Zinczenko really this much of a narcissist? He looks like such a nice young man. If you got the last email, or have other recent info to share about the abbed one, email us. [UPDATE: Dave Z tells us that Men's Health is looking for a new PR director, but that he is "Absolutely not looking for personal PR. (And never have)"]
It can be hard to sift truth from myth from conspiracy theory when it comes to Sarah Palin, even if that's what you're paid to do. But one would hope a professional journalist's natural skepticism would be piqued by the now-notorious Photoshop job at left of Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin holding a rifle next to a swimming pool while wearing a bikini. Too good to be true! But Lola Ogunnaike, entertainment reporter for CNN's American Morning, seems to believe the image is authentic. Yesterday she told Reliable Sources host Howard Kurtz that Palin should maybe avoid posing with guns like this, because it might come back to bite her in the ass:
I mean, McCain has been really good about painting Obama as this lightweight, using the word "celebrity" as a pejorative. They don't want to have a boomerang effect. They don't want that to come back on Sarah Palin, and people say, yes, she looks good in a bikini clutching an AK-47, but is she equipped to run the country?
Kurtz never corrected Ogunnaike, on either the fake picture or on the even more absurd suggestion that some critical mass of people think the VP candidate looked good in it.
Next on CNN: Whether Palin alienated conservative voters by faking her own pregnancy.
The number eight is considered lucky in China, and so everyone assumed that's why the Beijing Olympics opened on August 8, aka 08/08/08. This little chestnut gave the media a mildly exotic (but easy to understand!) piece of Chinese culture to talk about in their inevitable stories on the Olympic host country, and also something interesting to say about the opening ceremonies before they happened. But NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol explodes the myth of 8-8-08 in the Times today, saying superstition is "not really why the Olympics started then." The real reason? Money. (Duh.)
Before it had the 2008 games sewn up, China planned to bid on then using a September start date. But this would collide with NFL coverage in the U.S. and thus dampen ratings, as occurred in the 2004 Olympics in Sydney. NBC, which already had TV rights to the 2008 Olympics, urged China to consider moving the date.
So China proposed a mid-August start date in its official bid, and won.
But it turned out that date interfered with the U.S. Open, meaning tennis stars would skip the Olympics, meaning more ratings pain.
China looked at the $894 million in NBC money it had already deposited into one of its banks and decided to accommodate one last change request from NBC, to August 8. Americans looked at the price of gas and the lack of money in their bank accounts and decided to stay home and watch the Olympics rather than go out at night or on vacation. Ratings soared and NBC was very "lucky" The End!
[Times]
Hey lesbos and bi-curious ladytypes! We have got the perfect girl for you. She fancies herself the bisexual Carrie Bradshaw! You see, she's short but head-turning, she goes to fancy parties, and she hates fat people! (And Latinos and people with children.) We're not exactly sure why she's chosen to look for a woman at this point rather than a fella, but she sent us an email of a post that she put up on internet carnival Craigslist so we've decided to help her out. It's hideous! You should totally read it after the jump. Good luck ladies!
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Now that we've heard the nightmarish story of NBC's pooping intern, we're looking for other true stories of workplace humiliation. Have you seen any firsthand, or experienced one yourself? Email us immediately. Names of the humiliated are not necessary, but details are.
We are certainly probably not the first bloggers to point out that Anna Wintour is (until November anyway; yes, Scorpio, duh) the same age Grace Mirabella was when she got canned. Of course, Grace hadn't built herself an entire stable of Vogue-branded titles! Of course, said stable is looking a liiiitle bit sickly: Teen Vogue lost its role on The Hills, Men's Vogue just lost a managing editor to the Journal glossy, and Mothership Vogue is looking thin in the only possible bad sense of that term this September, with the month's ad pages down 7% from last year — following on the the heels of four consecutive months being beaten out for ad pages by ELLE. (And many consecutive months of progressively more creepily Photoshopped covers.) Even the latest Vogue India looks less luscious than just a few months ago, though I am pretty sure Anna is not to blame for that! Any information that might enhance our Wintour Kremlinology? Email me.
At this point in her modeling career, Marisa Miller is used to having people checking her out. And that’s just what happened last night at the “All in For Tikva” casino night.
Hosted by uber-designer Mark Ecko, the benefit shindig was top-shelf all the way. And with a swanky setting like Cipriani on 23rd Street in Manhattan, it was sure to be a success.
Sometimes you have to make an effort to reinstate communications with (or in our case, about) old friends who you haven't spoken to in a while. We used to write regularly about the travails of Jonathan Cheban: party boy flack, designer, and former Access Hollywood correspondent and Lizzie Grubman partner. But we've said barely a word about him since February, when he supposedly registered at Barney's for his own birthday party. Jonathan is simply too crucial a character in the celebutard publicity machine to go unnoticed. We hear he still leads a very eclectic social life. What do you hear? Anyone with important Cheban information, please email us.
Wow, so Paris Hilton just told a San Diego newspaper that "I’ve created a superhero with Stan Lee, which is [based on] me, and we’re doing a cartoon right now with MTV." That would be Stan Lee, co-creator of Spider-Man and X-Men and former president of Marvel Comics. Which begs the question, what will Hilton's comics-esque cartoon be called?? I vote for either The Flash or The Taped Crusader. You? [San Diego Citybeat]
Having the characters head off to college made already-bad shows like Dawson's Creek and Boy Meets World even worse, yes. But Buffy? Puhhleeze. It only got better. [The Top 10 TV Shows Killed By College]
Tricia Romano, the Village Voice's former nightlife columnist (and now editor at Pop and Politics) writes, "the publishing industry isn’t interested in paying for content. They are interested in just generating content." [Pop and Politics]
It won’t be long until we’re enjoying the sight of her on the big screen in High School Musical 3: Senior Year. And Vanessa Hudgens was spotted doing some beauty treatment yesterday to make sure she keeps up her beautiful look for the whirlwind promotional tour coming up.
The brunette babe paid a visit to Sherman Oaks, California beauty spa Treats for the Face to enjoy a relaxing and beautifying facial treatment.
Shriek! New Facebook! New Facebook! Boxes and "Application Tabs" and some sort of news feed/Wall mash-up that's impossible to read. I always fear change, and this is why.
Earlier this week, she checked out the premiere of “The Dark Knight,” and yesterday, Lauren Conrad was all about checking out the 2008 Paws for Style event.
The “Hills” hottie was spotted hamming it up for the paparazzi outside Arena for the Animal Fair Media shindig, looking hot in a knee-length red party dress teamed with black peep-toe heels.
"God knows the truth in all of this, and at the end of the day, that is the only thing that matters. Jesus was persecuted, and I'm going to get persecuted, ya know?" — Insufferable idiot Heidi Montag, from MTV's reality A-bomb "The Hills," commenting on the speculation that she spread rumors about a friend's sex tape.
Yep, the inevitable: agency Trident is hawking a book proposal by the self-revealing former Gawker writer and controversial New York Times Magazine covergirl. The working title is And The Heart Says... Whatever; "I assume it's 400 pages of the word me in different fonts," says one publishing industry spy. Dewy Gould's latest career move isn't that surprising: Ana Marie Cox went out to publishers the week after the Wonkette editor appeared on the front cover of the same Sunday supplement. Gould's outline is being messengered rather than emailed to prevent a leak to a certain website. But I'm sure someone can sneak at least a few pages to the scanner. Email us.
When Ian Usher separated from his wife, he figured he might as well walk away from his home, his job, his friends, and all his worldly possessions while he was at it. So he put the whole damn works up for grabs on Ebay and the bidding, which started this morning, is through the roof. "The British immigrant to Australia, who said the trigger for his bold offer was the break-up with his wife, had hoped he would attract a bid of 500,000 dollars (477,000 US). Shortly after the seven-day auction began Sunday, a bid of 300,100 dollars for 44-year-old Ian Usher's Perth-based lifestyle was listed on the Internet auction site eBay. By late afternoon, some 40 bids had been made with the highest offer at 650,000 dollars. 'I brought out the champagne at three o'clock when it passed the 400,000-dollar mark,' Usher told the Australian news agency AAP. 'It's unbelievable that it's going up like this so early in the auction.'"
"Usher has promised to introduce the winning bidder to his friends and hand over his 420,000-dollar house and his hobbies. The winner will also secure Usher's job as a rug store assistant for two weeks initially, but this could be extended depending on the store owner's agreement.
"Usher will retain only his passport, wallet and the clothes on his back if the deal goes ahead. He said he decided to start a new life after separating from his wife Laura just over two years ago, and selling all his worldly goods seemed like a logical step to take.
"'The separation from my wife was the initial trigger for what I'm doing, especially living in the house that was built for the both of us and being surrounded by our furniture,' he said. 'It's part of the moving on process. I guess this is the last step before making a fresh start.'" [AFP]
It’s always great to see celebrities giving back to the community, and at yesterday’s A Time For Heroes Celebrity Carnival, Mischa Barton showed off her love for literacy.
The former “OC” babe sported a Giambattista Vall dress and Christian Louboutin heels as she made her way through the charity event to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation.
She has a hot new reality show beaming over the airwaves, and her ex-husband Charlie Sheen recently remarried… Translation: Denise Richards has a lot going on!
The “Wild Things” beauty was spotted at the A Time For Heroes Celebrity Carnival to benefit the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation held yesterday at the Wadsworth Theater.
Decked out in a pink top and black sweats, Reese Witherspoon was in a cheerful mood as she attended the Sixth Annual Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in Washington D.C. on Sunday (May 4).
According to a press release, the Legally Blonde babe’s duty for the day was to “support walkers at points along Sunday’s route.”
Now that summertime is upon us and bathing suit season is just around the corner, Reese Witherspoon is pumping up her physique for the beach.
The “Sweet Home Alabama” babe was spotted making some funny faces as she returned to her car following a grueling workout at a local Los Angeles gym.
Today on Essentially Emily, Emily Brill asserts that Nick Denton is not the only reason why people bother to read Essentially Emily. No, they care about the pseudo socialite who is "friends" with Kristian Laliberte because of her dad, former media tycoon and current airport security specialist Steve Brill, and not because Gawker occasionally highlights her wit and wisdom. Emily claims, "Nick's greatest fantasy, indeed, would have been a public feud with Steven Brill over his humiliated daughter." I've been to Nick's apartment, and his fantasies have nothing to do with Steve Brill.
Emily continues:
Nick figured that I was just another dumb shit/ yacht-hopping "heiress" and that the only retaliation he would get would be from Steven Brill- best of all, that this was going to 'up' his status and maybe even land him a good table at Michael's.Although Nick's motives are never clear to anyone, Michael's is way too far uptown for him. Also, it isn't 2004.
What sets Emily apart, of course, is not merely the distinguished name, but the coupling of that name with her profound and impressive cluelessness. In college, I had a seminar with Emily while she was a visiting student at Columbia. Her incessant references to prep school and befuddlement about how to get to the center of the Brooklyn Bridge ("Where should I tell the cab driver to stop?") intrigued me, and I had no idea who her father was. I found her website from the pre-Essentially Emily days, where she had posted a picture of herself in her Hanukkah jammies getting a brand new Lexus, complete with a large red bow, just like the ads.
(Her specialness aside from the name may be why no one bothers her brother Sam.)
But all the ridicule of the internet has not deterred Emily. As she says, "I developed a 'now or never' mindset (which I do not regret to this day)." This day is now, right? Because if it were never, that wouldn't make sense at all.
And what exactly is Emily doing now? Her dad wants to know: "He keeps telling me to 'Get a J-O-B.' got one dad."
Apparently getting mocked on Gawker is now a profession. Consider this post your spring bonus.
Here's a heartwarming adage from my grandmother: "You can never be too rich or too thin." (Can't wait to see you this weekend, Safta! Yes, I'm laying off the matzo.) Emily Brill has always been rich, but hasn't always been thin. In fact, she was once chubby in a spoiled 10 year-old kind of way, which makes sense because she is the daughter of media millionaire Steve Brill, so she probably got to eat allll the candy she wanted to. But now Emily is thin. And on her blog, she announced that she'll do whatever it takes to stay that way.
But I do have a battle to fight every day I wake up, so sometimes I give off that impression. But guys, I'm at a normal, healthy weight. And If I don't watch every piece of food (and drink) that goes into my mouth and keep up a vigorous cardio and strength training regimen, I will get fat again. This might sound controversial, but sometimes I do feel like a cancer survivor in the sense that every morning when I wake up, I know that there are forces fighting my body to get back to a state of existence that, for my purposes, might as well be death.Is this a sensible strategy or a cry for help? Like so many blog posts it's impossible to know. But I will say this: we're all terribly proud of her bravery and incredible strength. Together, we can beat awkward adolescent chubbiness.
Last night, at the Regal Union Square's 7:35 showing of Best Picture No Country for Old Men, the audience catching up on the Oscar winner they had missed was left underwhelmed and confused. "Is you serious? asked a teenage girl, addressing the screen as the credits rolled after the final monologue. "Best picture, my ass," added another youth. Half the theater started to laugh.
Before now, rap songs dominated the "song's lyrics expressed through ironic graph" genre. (The most famous was the Village Voice's analysis of This Is Why I'm Hot.) Now a bunch of loveable webtards have done the same to pop songs. Some favorites are below.
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There are more here and here. Commenters are of course encouraged to top this.
Hey, you know what would make a great sports trend story? Something about how all that ultimate fighting stuff is getting really popular. Gee, what will it do to boxing? Did you know Senator John McCain once called it "human cockfighting?" But now it's really popular on pay-per-view and stuff? Oh, it all goes along with the rise of mixed martial arts, or MMA to people in-the-know. You could even let some fighter guy actually kick you! It'll be great. Yes, this story needs to be permanently retired until somebody can come up with a new angle for it. Because all people really want to see is ultimate fighters getting knockedafuckout. Like so:
As part of the 2008 Berlin Film Festival in Berlin, Germany, the Cinema For Peace organization held a gala last night. And Hilary Swank was in the house to lend her support to their cause.
The “Boys Don’t Cry” actress looked elegant in a grey with silver sequins gown that was just sexy enough to get the boys’ attention.
Anyone have a clip from the video tribute to the 84-year-old mogul, played at last night's benefit at the Waldorf-Astoria? So much high-powered insincerity: it's just got to be a classic.
New York Post editor Col Allan does not appreciate your skepticism, goddammit. Via his flack, Allan has issued a statement in response to all the crap he's been getting today for his Mary-Kate-As-Prime-Suspect cover.
"We confirmed this story last night with an impeccable source inside the NYPD and we stand by our reporting. Almost immediately after the tragic passing of Mr. Ledger, Ms. Olsen’s attorneys began emailing us threatening letters. As has been well reported, there were a number of calls to Ms. Olsen from the masseuse before the NYPD arrived on the scene. We would find it strange if Ms. Olsen were not questioned at all. The New York Post will not be pressured and we find it odd that the chiefs at the NYPD appear to be terrified of 4-foot-11 inch, 90-pound Mary Kate Olsen.”Did the Post just out-and-out call the New York Police Department a bunch of pussies? Yeah, they totally did.
In the October Playboy, Keith Olbermann called Fox News "worse than Al Qaeda." The letters page in this month's Playboy "is littered with negative reaction to the Olbermann interview," according to TVNewser. Except for the positive one Playboy editor Chip Rowe solicited from the lady who runs an Olbermann fan site! The letter's author blogged about it, possibly unaware that she was embarrassing the respected titty mag. [BloggingOlbermann.com via TVNewser]