Good god, the rumors are true! Charlie Sheen is in fact the highest paid actor on television, commanding a mind-boggling $825,000 per episode of his sitcom Two and a Half Men.
Serious question now: Who watches that show? We don't know a single person – not one – who watches Two and Half Men. Are you a fan? If so, please explain why Charlie Sheen is worth almost a million dollars a week.
HATE OUR PREZ, LOVE OUR MOVIES "The U.K. stood as the biggest consumer of U.S. movies for the seventh straight year in 2007, sending back $499 million in rental revenue to the Hollywood studios, 10% more than in 2006. Altogether, the six U.S. majors brought home a record $4.5 billion in '07, with No. 2 Japan accounting for $396 million, up 2.9% year-to-year; No. 3 Germany, $384 million, up 15.8%; No. 4 Canada, $342 million, up 2%; and No. 5 Spain, $304 million, up 4.9%."
Uh oh! Despite the fact that both magazines paid millions and millions of dollars for "exclusive" rights to photographs of Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's new set of twins, the Los Angeles Times thinks Hello's spread has bested People's in terms of cuteness and intimacy.
And the award for most overhyped baby pictures of the year goes to People magazine, which had a countdown on its Web site over the weekend in anticipation of this glimpse at the new Brangelina twins. But don't worry if the cover doesn't satisfy your thirst for Knox and Vivienne — this week's issue will feature 19 pages of the babies and America's golden couple. Guess the mag has to get its money's worth.
Now that we're tanking like Rome and everyone's been fired and air travel is a luxury few can afford, the airlines are doing exactly what you'd expect in these uncomfortable economic times: taking more of the consumer's money and offering him shittier service in return.
Not only have some carriers started charging for extra legroom and checked baggage, today, US Airways has stopped offering free water to its passengers.
US Airways says it will provide water and drinks for passengers in cases of medical emergency and during extensive delays. If a desperately thirsty passenger does forget a few extra dollars, US Airways spokesman Morgan Durrant says flight attendants will likely “err on the side of the customer” and give him or her water. After all, the airline wouldn’t want its customers drinking tap water from the aircraft bathroom. That water is safe to drink, just not very palatable, according to Durrant.
“Frankly, that’s just not classy,” he says.
A bottle of water now costs $2 on a US Airways flight.
Assuming that the in-production Transformers sequel will, like its predecessor, take 16 months to produce, the car accident injures sidelining star Shia LaBeouf for 30 days will put into jeopardy no less than $18,875,000, the Transformers 2 monthly budget.
Cynthia Rodriguez looks like she means business, and that attitude is carrying over into her divorce case with baseball player Alex. Although the two signed a prenuptial agreement, Cynthia has now decided she wants half of A-Rod's money earned during the couple's time together. Oh, and he can throw in a $12 million waterfront estate while he's at it.
While naming no figure, she petitioned for alimony and child support, including such benefits as life and health insurance and private schools — suggesting she be able to maintain the 'high standard of living' A-Rod has provided his family so far.
The good news for Alex is that the divorce is taking place in Florida, so he doesn't have to explain why his marriage is "irretrievably broken." We're sure Madonna is breathing a sigh of relief as well.
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AND THE WINNER IS… "People magazine has drummed up the winning bid for the first pictures of Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie’s twins — Knox Leon and Vivienne Marcheline. It is rumored that the winning bid is between $10 million and $15 million."
ANOTHER GREAT SIGN FOR THE ECONOMY "The Bennigan's Restaurant chain has shut its doors. … At about midnight Tuesday, managers were told that all of the Bennigan's restaurants nationwide will be closing as of July 29. Calls to several Dallas-Fort Worth area restaurants confirmed the closure."
If you ever start to feel down about the state of humanity, just remember this: Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are making way more money than you.
We didn't believe it when we saw the video of the couple we love to hate as they went house shopping yesterday in [Malibu]. They looked at two homes: the aforementioned $12 mil beach house and a 10,000 sq. ft. estate with an asking price of more than $15 mil.
So we thought it was a big publicity stunt, until we called the realtor who showed the property. Sandro Dazzan says they're 'serious buyers.'
Guess this is what happens when you sell all your pride.
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Try as she may, Britney Spears just can't drum up much excitement about her new album that's in the works, even when she starts singing songs called "ATM." The lyrics to that fine song are as follows: "Hey Mama, I know it’s my cash you seek. … You know they treat me like an ATM, but y'all know that I’m too good for 'em."
Taking her frustrations out on her mother? Nothing new. What is new, however, is her claim in another song, "Already Bad," which contains a confession for Justin Timberlake: "I know you thought you were the first, but I had already quenched my thirst, I was already bad." Unfortunately for Britney, this would have been shocking had it been the year 2003. Now, after witnessing the head-shaving incident and Brit being carted away in an ambulance, that's nothing.
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We will miss Portfolio's napkin math sessions when the magazine eventually closes. Last month, they calculated the net worth of Led Zeppelin's "Stairway to Heaven," supposedly the most profitable song ever recorded, which earned an estimated $572 million. Now, they've moved on to other pop culture fare: Project Runway. Just how much is the fashion reality show franchise worth?
And it's not watching the newest reality show to destroy our youth, Queen Bees. Oh, who am I kidding? I'll be watching. But only for work-related purposes. I recently caught the promo for the show — which aims to make mean girls nice — and lasted about two seconds without having the urge to shoot my television. What could be so appalling that even a reality TV junkie was forced to gasp in digust? It was this lovely gem from one of the contestants: "I do have ugly friends. But I don’t go out with them at night.”
Seriously, where do they find these people? And I don't care how pretty they become on the inside — I can think of a million people off the top of my head that deserve $25,000 more than these girls.
DO. NOT. WANT. "Given the enormous box office success of 'Sex and the City,' talk of a sequel is not surprising. And on Thursday HBO confirmed that Warner Bros. and New Line Cinema are already at work on No. 2. 'There is enormous interest' by Warner Bros., Michael Lombardo, president of the HBO programming group, told reporters at the Television Critics Association press tour in Los Angeles. 'And I think, in fact, they’re trying, with our help, to put that together now. When that happens, how long between, can’t say. But there’s absolutely interest.'"
Well, it's only 2008 and the admen already think (know?) we're this lazy and programmed to conform, so how long until they completely abandon their games and just start saying, "Give us your money because other people have"?
Rush Limbaugh, the most listened-to voice on the radio dial bar none, has signed a $400 million deal that keeps him on the air through 2016, as Drudge breathlessly reports. This deal "SHATTERS BROADCAST RECORDS."
THE COST OF CELEBRITY CULTURE "Jann Wenner is said to be quietly exploring a sale of celebrity magazine Us Weekly to Condé Nast and the price tag could hit $750 million."
The casting of insanely hot Michaela McManus as Law & Order: SVU’s new assistant district attorney isn’t the franchise’s only major casting news. The spin-off Criminal Intent also has a roster change up — and it’s a doozy. Having cashed another decent pay day with Sex and the City and not liking the request to take a pay freeze instead of an increase, Chris Noth is ditching the TV show, where he plays Det. Mike Logan and has, since leaving the original Law & Order when it started 18 years ago before returning to CI, split his screen time with Vincent D’Onofrio, who swapped in every other episode. But Criminal Intent, whose ratings had NBC Universal moving the new episodes of the series off NBC proper and on to USA, isn’t moving to a standard format with only one set of regular detectives — Noth has a successor. And you might know him from a little movie called Jurassic Park.
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