WHY THE INTERNETS EXIST "… how can we possibly explain the seemingly useless interest that we have in the lives of reality-show contestants, movie stars and public figures of all kinds? One possible explanation may be found in the fact that celebrities are a recent occurrence, evolutionarily speaking. In our ancestral environment, any person about whom we knew intimate details of his or her private life was, by definition, a socially important member of the in-group. Barkow has pointed out that evolution did not prepare us to distinguish among members of our community who have genuine effects on our life and the images and voices that we are bombarded with by the entertainment industry. Thus, the intense familiarity with celebrities provided by the modern media trips the same gossip mechanisms that have evolved to keep up with the affairs of in-group members. … Research published in 2007 by Charlotte J. S. De Backer, a Belgian psychologist now at the University of Leicester in England, finds that young people even look to celebrities and popular culture for learning life strategies that would have been learned from role models within one’s tribe in the old days. Teenagers in particular seem to be prone to learning how to dress, how to manage relationships and how to be socially successful in general by tuning in to popular culture."
WEB GOSSIP LINKED TO CELEB SUICIDES IN S KOREA "Choi Jin Sil, a movie star … was the closest thing South Korea had to a national sweetheart. So when the actress was found dead in her apartment on Oct. 2 in what the police later concluded was a suicide, her grief-stricken homeland sought an answer to what drove its 'national actress' to suicide. The police, the media and Parliament immediately pointed fingers at the Internet … Choi, 39, apparently succumbed to a suicidal impulse provoked by malicious online rumors, the police said after studying memos found at her home and interviewing friends and relatives. … Choi's death followed a string of high-profile suicides attributed to cyberspace harassment. Two young female celebrities, one a singer and the other an actress, killed themselves last year after insulting comments about their alleged plastic surgery flooded the Web."
Michael Musto is a frank gossip who won't hesitate to put your name into his books or his column in the Village Voice if you slight him in the least. Amazingly, many celebrities don't like him.
Long the victim of of cruel anti-rumormonger attacks, Musto has compiled his "ickiest" celebrity encounters into one neat little blog post. Click through to be in awe of a few of the bespectacled, hirsute man's more disastrous run-ins with famous people, including the time Laurence Fishburne JUST WALKED AWAY!!!!! from a question Musto asked him.
Further proving the theory that most people successful in traditional media are like monkeys faced with calculus when it comes to the Internet, Ashton Kutcher, actor and reality show producer, and his production company, Katalyst Media, give us Blah Girls.
Part gossip blog, part episodic comedy program, Blah Girls attempts to dally in the difficult position between mocking celebrity culture and heralding it. In the videos, the Girls prattle on about Hollywood rumors while frequently interjecting the conversation with crude jokes; in the blog, the Girls attach one-liners to famous photos of the day; and oh how terrible it all is.
AC SLATER'S BACK ON THE MARKET "Karina Smirnoff and Mario Lopez have called it quits, Smirnoff’s rep confirms to People. 'Karina has parted ways with her two year relationship with Mario Lopez,' says Smirnoff’s spokesperson. 'The relationship wasn’t heading in the right direction.' Lopez issued the following statement through his rep: 'Karina and I have the utmost respect for each other. She is a phenomenal and talented woman. I support her always and feel blessed to have her in my life.'"
Well, this is different:
Young starlets starving themselves isn't uncommon in Hollywood, but grown men doing it is a little strange. Woody Harrelson plans on going to a remote island for forty days and starving himself. And he's not even doing it for a movie role. He just wants to see how it affects his brain.Woody says, "I know it's going to be really hard. But can you imagine it? Eating nothing for 40 days?"
Now imagine how hard it's going for Woody to not eat for 40 days while also taking bong rips the size of watermelons every hour on the hour.
Gasp! A celebrity using their child to fill their coffers? We're absolutely flabbergasted:
Which A-list couple agreed to let a paparazzo shoot their kids, but only after the lensman agreed to give the family half of the six-figure paycheck? Later the duo got greedy and demanded two-thirds of the loot, telling the pap: "We just got new furniture and need to pay it off."
Could Brangelinahaddohpaddox sink so low? Of course they could! But, did they?
In order to not get sued for using them, we often have to "make a story" of the photos we put on the site, so, here's the story: This is a thrice-divorced, hepatitis-infected mother of two, presumably buzzing and definitely exposing her crotch to the entire party she's making awkward. It's a sad story, but a story nonetheless.
[Source]
Oh, c'mon! How could we not use that headline for pictures of Usher posing with and for Navy officers?
[Source]
A pregnant Nicole Kidman's children, adopted in the 90s with Kidman's ex-husband Tom Cruise, don't love her anymore. That's the bad news. The good news is that she's resigned herself to that fact and she's not really putting up a fight.
She tells Heat magazine, "It's a pity they have been manipulated by the father to distance themselves from me."
…
"They are closer to their new mom now," she admitted.
Oh well. Can't win 'em all. Good thing you have that bun in the oven - you can just replace them, like they did you!
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Dear Internet,
Hey! It's me, Cord.
Sorry to leave you hanging, but I've been quite busy lately. Tax season! or whatever, right? Then I had to go to Trader Joe's, and everyone in NYC knows the lines there are ridiculous! Oh, and then I had to go to Riyadh, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia to donate a kidney to my ill father. Yes, seriously.
Anyway, that's that. I am working from over here for now, but, because Mollygood.com is a banned Web site (Baaaaaaaaaanned in the KSA!), I've got to go through other channels to post.
That's why my pal and managing editor Andrew Belonsky has been popping up on the site.
If you'd like, you can check out my Saudi exploits at Kidney and the Kingdom, a blog I perhaps stupidly named after that one TV show that's become an advertising campaign for a movie.
Be excellent to each other,
Cord
This movie! This MOVIE! This damn Sex and the City: The Movie movie!
It's inescapable (especially in THE city), but does that mean it's going to be successful? No.
But probably yes, too.
The recent history of female-focused summer films shows it could go either way. The Devil Wears Prada debuted in June of 2006 with $27 million opening weekend — on its way to a considerable $124 million grand total domestically. But just a few weeks ago, Tina Fey and Amy Poehler took center stage in Baby Mama, a widely hyped comedy that opened with a respectable-but-less-than-stellar $17 million opening weekend.
After the jump, industry analysts assess the situation while simultaneously calling you and your friends predictable and Kentucky primitive.
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Gossip, led by hostess with the mostess Beth Ditto, has fans so rabid and annoying that they've done quite the opposite of what fans should and made me completely uninterested in the group's music. But today I stumbled across this YouTube clip of Gossip's performance on last night's Letterman and decided to give it a go, and I must say, I haven't been missing much.
How has it gone unnoticed that Ditto's "soul" vocals are actually just off-key screams? And why hasn't everyone ditched this band for The BellRays, who are one million times better? Lord, I feel old.
After the jump, The BellRays, the Economist to Ditto's Gossip.
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An Italian circuit court ruled Friday that reporting gossip in Italy will be illegal unless it helps make a larger point about the figure in question.
…
"Everyone will abuse the gossip rules, but now those who do will risk being sanctioned," said one television producer quoted by news agency ANSA. "The rules cannot be enforced universally but some will have to worry about their rivals using the rules against them."The rules apply to television, print and radio media.
Mamma mia! This a-slope, she's a-slippery!
• Kate Bosworth dragged herself up to Toronto to promote her movie, The Girl In The Park. Doesn't she just look like an emaciated, barely-there angel? Awww….
• Julianne Moore's face are looking like one of those smooshed doggies. [Dlisted]
• The VMAs left quite an impression on a special someone. [Jossip]
• Stevie Nicks apparently spent over $1 million on blow during her drug days. Adjusted for inflation that's $1 billion and at least five trips to rehab. [StarPulse]
• Shocker: Britney Spears didn't wear panties to the VMAs. [ICYDK]
• While Britney was flashing her shit, Kevin Federline threw a birthday party for his cute little "mistakes". That custody battle just got easier… [People]
If you squint real tight, turn around five times and knock back a few, it almost looks as if Victoria Beckham's smiling in this picture with Oscar De la Renta.
Almost…
Holy cluster fuck, Pap Man!
I haven't seen such a hodge podge of celebrities since May of 1988: the last Battle of The Network Stars. Last night's post-VMA party at TAO wasn't a battle, but there may have been some casualties.
See what happens when Jermaine Dupri, Nelly and Travis Barker are picked to host an MTV party and celebrities stop being polite - and start getting drunk.
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Editor
