Some crazy person showed up at LA's Church of Scientology Celebrity Centre yesterday waving around two samurai swords, because that's always a great idea. Sure enough, the man was shot and killed by one of the church's security guards. Is anyone surprised by this?
Police did not release the name of the guard or the man killed in the shooting, which occurred about noon. An investigator said the man had a history with the church but was not a member now. The tape showed the man arriving at the Celebrity Centre's Bronson Avenue parking lot in a red convertible, getting out of the vehicle and approaching a trio of security guards and waving a sword in each hand, [the LAPD deputy chief] said.
He said the man, who was described as being in his 40s, was 'close enough to hurt them' when the guard fired. The man was taken to County-USC Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead.
It was only a matter of time before something like this happened, we're just shocked it took this long.
Brad Garrett, who will forever be known as that guy from Everybody Loves Raymond, is evidently followed around by the paparazzi more often than he'd like. (Who wants to pay money for pictures of Brad Garrett is a completely different topic for discussion.) Naturally, it wears a guy down, and he inevitably snapped last night in LA. Behold the wondrous footage of a man completely losing his cool.
TRUMP FINDS PR OPPORTUNITY IN HUDSON TRAGEDY • "In the wake of her family tragedy, Jennifer Hudson has received a helping hand from a very unlikely source — Donald Trump. Hudson and some of her family members have been staying at the Trump International Hotel & Tower in Chicago, and Trump has been picking up the tab. 'They are safe,' Trump told People on Monday night. 'She’s a great girl and we’re protecting them well.'"
As gruesome counterpoint to Law and Order, where the stories are ripped from the headlines, a Canadian man was arrested trying to plagiarize a a page out of Michael C. Hall's book when he allegedly lured a man into his garage and killed him in a style similar to Showtime's anti-hero serial killer, Dexter.
The story came out around Halloween and it was weird enough to warrant a post, but there was all that election fervor and it got lost in the wayside. So here's the deal: Canadian "filmmaker" Peter Twitchell convinced Johnny Altinger that he was meeting a woman he met on an Internet dating site. But Twitchell was actually making his own movie, that was a sequel to the Star Wars franchise, included a member of the original cast, and apparently necessitated a snuff scene.
Twilight, the teen, vampire, romance movie based on a hyper-successful series of books, has yet to be released and very possibly could be terrible. But that didn't stop throngs of screaming tweens from trampling each other yesterday at a Hot Topic autograph signing with the film's creepy lead, Robert Pattinson.
This violent display of idol worship took place not in some abandoned backwater, but "civilized" Western metropolis San Francisco. A young girl's nose was broken, the cops came and the event was cancelled, all because we're still having trouble teaching our kids to appreciate their teachers more than movie goblins.
The persecution of "witches" throughout the African continent continues.
Far worse than Thomas Muthee, Sarah Palin's spiritual adviser who famously ran an old lady from his village in Kenya after deeming her evil, is the story of the "child-witches" of Nigeria. Convinced by insane, stupid, greedy clerics that their children are being possessed wholesale by demons, Nigerian parents have taken to abandoning boys and girls as young as five after torturing them for their sins. The innocents who have survived their attacks now clog the West African nation's refuges.
FROM HIS COLD, DEAD, LITTLE HANDS Let's hope Obama does something about the guns: "Authorities are investigating whether criminal charges should be filed in the death of an 8-year-old boy who fatally shot himself with an Uzi at a gun show in western Massachusetts, a prosecutor said Tuesday. Christopher Bizilj (Bah-SEAL) of Ashford, Conn., lost control of the 9mm micro submachine gun and shot himself in the head at the Machine Gun Shoot and Firearms Expo at the Westfield Sportsman's Club … Hampden County District Attorney William Bennett said Tuesday he is investigating whether it was a violation of the state's firearms statute … to allow the boy to fire the machine gun … 'At this point in the investigation I have found no lawful authority which allows an 8-year-old to possess or fire a machine gun,' Bennett said in a statement."
The economy sure is bad. How bad is it? Now, even conscious rappers have warrants out!
Mos Def, the Emmy-nominated actor and Brooklyn emcee who made a name for himself with Afrocentric songs about love and how stressful life in America can be, is being sought by Las Vegas police on an arrest warrant stemming from a fistfight with a photographer there in August.
Mos allegedly roughed up a 60-year-old trade publication photographer before snatching the man's camera and smashing it. No word yet on whether the multi-talented artist will turn himself in or stay on the lam.
This is a brilliant career move for Mos, who's obviously learned that gangsta rap is where the money's at.
Sometime Lindsay Lohan lady friend and current Tila Tequila girlfriend Courtenay Semel is the daughter of former Yahoo chief Terry Semel. She is also, as some have described her, a vicious fame-seeking lass. So it makes sense she's being sued by security guard Jaroslaw Jarczok, of Las Vegas' Pure nightclub, who alleges she punched him in the face while drunk and screamed the most awesome line ever:
What is going on with Australia? We thought they were just fun-loving, rough-and-tumble party animals with a taste for bad beer, but we're quickly learning that perhaps the old saying holds true: once a nation of convicts, always a nation of convicts.
A month ago we told you about this kid, who broke into a zoo in the early morning and smashed reptiles to death with a rock before feeding them to a crocodile. Now, there's this:
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MAN SHOOTS TEEN FOR VANDALIZING MCCAIN SIGN "Angered that two neighborhood teenagers knocked over a John McCain sign on his lawn, an Ohio man allegedly grabbed a rifle and fired three times at the duo as they sought to drive away from his Warren Township home. Kenneth Rowles, 50, was charged with felonious assault in connection with the Saturday afternoon incident, which resulted in one boy suffering a minor bullet wound."
HUDSON FAMILY SLAYER SHOULD HAVE BEEN IN PRISON "The convicted felon suspected in the slayings of Oscar-winner Jennifer Hudson's mother, brother and nephew was arrested after police allegedly found crack cocaine in his car in June, but authorities declined to return him to prison on a parole violation, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press. A judge dismissed the charge for lack of probable cause in July, but under the strict rules of the state's parole program, William Balfour could have gone back to prison just for the arrest."
The silver lining of this plot to kill Barack Obama and 102 black youths? That it was foiled, of course. But a quick perusal of the Stormfront boards, an Internet haven for white nationalists around the world, yields another consolatory fact: even a lot of white power shitheads believe it's insane to kill people for no reason at all.
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Two skinheads from Tennessee plan to go on a massive killing spree — during with they shoot 88 blacks and decapitate 14 others — culminating in the assassination of Barack Obama? It sounds too scary to be true. But according to the ATF, it was a real plan that Tennessee residents Daniel Cowat, 20, and Paul Schlesselman, 18, intended to carry out. Luckily, the plan had not reached advanced stages, sources said, although the duo had cased a gun store to rob and were plotting to target black children at a local, predominately-black school.
HUDSON MURDER SUSPECT LOOKING GUILTIER "The case is building quickly against William Balfour, the man police sources have pinpointed as the primary suspect in the murder of Jennifer Hudson's family. More details are emerging: The Chicago Sun-Times is reporting Balfour's girlfriend — whose house he was arrested at — has contradicted Balfour's alibi and cops have caught him in at least one other lie."
What can we say about the Jennifer Hudson tragedy that hasn't already been written? Our thoughts are with the surviving family members, who seem to be getting more and more terrible news, the latest involving the discovery of a body believed to be Jennifer's 7-year-old nephew. Losing a mother, brother and nephew in such a violent and inexcusable act is unfathomable to most of us, so all we can hope is that justice will eventually be served.
After the jump are two videos: One featuring Jennifer talking about her family ties, complete with a clip of her mother standing by her side after her Oscar win in 2007 (starting around the 1:00 mark); the other showing her family at home in Chicago during her Oscar win. We'll keep you updated on any new developments, but until then, keep Jennifer's family in your thoughts. CONTINUED »
CREEPY ACTOR FACING MULTIMILLION DOLLAR LAWSUIT "Oscar-nominated actor Terrence Howard allegedly assaulted composer Tex Allen in a backstage beatdown as they worked together on Broadway's 'Cat on a Hot Tin Roof' last winter, according to a lawsuit. Now Allen, a jazz pianist and the brother of Debbie Allen - who directed the play - is demanding $5 million for his alleged fat lip, according to court papers. Allen claims the alleged assault ruined his music playing. The suit alleges that Howard confronted Allen … during a Jan. 24 rehearsal … and punched him repeatedly in the face and head. The suit does not divulge the reason for the fight."
BODY FOUND; LIKELY HUDSON'S NEPHEW "The Cook County medical examiner's office is investigating reports on Monday of a child's body found in an SUV in Chicago, a spokesperson for the office told CNN. The Chicago Tribune — citing the medical examiner's office — reported that the body of a boy was found Monday morning in a white SUV connected with Julian King, the missing nephew of Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Hudson."
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