Little-Known Fact: Talking Heads frontman and avid cyclist David Byrne is not American, and can't vote because of his immigrant status. At least, according to the emails he's been sending out to everyone. (But why hasn't he applied for a Green Card in the 20+ years he's been in NYC?)
We thought: Canadian? But it turns out he's Scottish.
Full Byrne email, in all its strangely cryptic glory, after the jump:
Ryan Reynolds ran the ING New York City Marathon yesterday, finishing with a time of 3 hours and 50 minutes with no Scarlett Johansson in sight. Upon completing the race for Michael J. Fox's team, he said he planned to "allow three to four hours for [his] scary marathon face to go away" and then expressed interest in eating his body weight "in raw dough." Adorable!
If you'll recall, Ryan ran the grueling 26-plus miles to raise money for Parkinson's Disease, a condition that his father has suffered from for 15 years. He said he thought a lot about his father and Michael during the race: "I'm running for those who can't." He can truly do no wrong.
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Well! Now we know why John McCain wormed out of his first David Letterman appearance to instead attend a televised chat with Katie Couric. Because David Letterman, y'know, actually asks questions people on TV without backing bands are supposed to ask.
For instance, after grilling the senator on his incessant whining about Barack Obama's gossamer "connection" to Bill Ayers, Letterman then asks, "Did you not have a relationship with Gordon Liddy?" (Liddy, of course, is the scuzzy ex-con who broke into the DNC headquarters in 1972, thus beginning the Watergate scandal.) And guess what? McCain is buddies with both rotten Liddy and his son! Hahaha! He doesn't even try to pretend he's not a hypocrite.
Other greatest hits of the video below include McCain joking about how he asked his Marine son in Iraq to send him his body armor for his Late Show interview, because talking to a comedian was going to be harder than facing roadside bombs day in and day out, and the part when McCain is like, "I haven't been tortured this bad since I was tortured in a Vietnamese prison!" Heyo! So weird.
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As if she's not busy enough — starring in Saturday Night Live every week, working on a new television sitcom and being pregnant — the magical Amy Poehler is starting a Web series titled Smart Girls at the Party. The show is basically what we all needed as preteens: It "aims to help girls find confidence in their own aspirations and talents, and to prove that you don't have to be famous to be interesting." We truly can't find one bad thing to say about Amy. That is one lucky baby in her womb.
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One year after distributing its latest album, In Rainbows, via a pay-what-you-want system on the Internet, Radiohead has released information about how well its revolutionary sales method was received.
If you'll remember, whether a person should pay for the album was once a point of contention for myself and a former Jossip editor—I said one should, she said one shouldn't necessarily. Turns out that the millions who downloaded the album were similarly divided.
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HANDICAPPED ACTORS ASK FOR RECOGNITION "'We are virtually invisible,' Robert David Hall, a regular on 'CSI,' said at a news conference on Monday announcing a plan to expand media-industry employment of people with disabilities. Mr. Hall, who walks on prosthetics and plays Dr. Al Robbins on 'CSI,' said he played one of only three disabled characters in recurring television roles. At briefings in Los Angeles, New York and Washington leaders of the Screen Actors Guild, the American Federation of Television and Radio Artists and the Actors’ Equity Association said they were planning a broad push to increase … roles for the disabled … A presentation estimated that fewer than 2 percent of film and television characters are disabled, while 20 percent of the nation’s population has a disability of some kind."
TINA FEY'S CHARITABLE BOOK DEAL "… according to a source with firsthand knowledge of the deal, [Tina Fey] finalized [a book deal] with Little, Brown & Co. The book—which was reportedly pitched as a book of humorous essays in the style of Nora Ephron—will be edited by executive editor Reagan Arthur. According to our source, part of Ms. Fey's deal with the publishing house involves a gift to the foundation Books for Kids that will help sponsor the building of six libraries for schools in under-served neighborhoods in New York."
David Letterman recently took time from trouncing all over the mavericky reputation of noted liar John McCain to earnestly beatify his recently deceased friend, Paul Newman. According to Letterman, who raced cars with Newman for years, the actor lived life in the best way possible: "He took care of other people."
I don’t really want to be famous, and I’m kind of scared that might be happening … I might really have to stop and think before I make decisions now, and see how they’re going to affect my life, and see if it’s what I want to be doing with my life. I guess I need to make sure that it’s worth all that comes with it.
Enormously talented and truly unique writer David Foster Wallace hanged himself on Friday at his home in California. He was just 46.
I can't recommend everything DFW wrote, but if there's one thing I'd ask you to indulge me and look at, it's his 2005 Kenyon College commencement address. It shouldn't take more than 10 minutes to read, but its effect lingers. Enjoy.
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Carnegie Mellon professor Randy Pausch, who became famous for his "Last Lecture" in which he spoke as if he were giving his final lecture before dying, passed away today of complications from pancreatic cancer. He was 47. Above is the video footage of the famous lecture, and although it runs over an hour long it's worth every minute. Randy wrote that he knew was he was doing that day: "Under the ruse of giving an academic lecture, I was trying to put myself in a bottle that would one day wash up on the beach for my children." We picked out three of our favorite nuggets of wisdom, but he says so much more that is worth a listen.
• "The brick walls are there for a reason. The brick walls are not there to keep us out; the brick walls are there to give us a chance to show how badly we want something. The brick walls are there to stop the people who don't want it badly enough. They are there to stop the other people."
• "This advice is good for the ladies: When it comes to men that are romantically interested in you, it's really simple. Just don't listen to anything they have to say; pay attention to what they do."
• "It's not about how to achieve your dreams, it's all about leading your life. If you lead your life in a right way, karma will take care of itself. And dreams will come to you."
While every band on MTV2 (MTV1 doesn't show bands anymore) continues to operate under the belief that neon lights and ironic celebrity cameos do a creative video make, Radiohead, composed of England's last living wizards, has once again schooled everyone in the biz on how to be great. Pay attention, Fall Out at the Gym Class!
When Radiohead's world tour started back in early May in West Palm Beach, the band shot a video in a local production company called G-Star. Run by students, the production company used an innovative form of filming where only lasers are used, making cameras and lighting unnecessary. The video for the song House of Cards, from 2007's In Rainbows LP, is highly anticipated…
After the jump, more truly awesome screenshots and the track, "House of Cards."
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George Carlin, a man as responsible as anyone for the current freedoms of the Internet, died of heart failure yesterday in Santa Monica. The comedian, writer and actor was recently named the recipient of the Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. He was 71.
After the jump, some of Carlin's greatest hits, including "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television." (NSFW, but tell your boss to screw.)
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So, the The Office spinoff is shaping up to be less a spinoff and more a brand new show, without any characters from the original American version transitioning. Bummer. But! Like The Office, said new show will star an East Indian actor who doesn't speak with an accent, and that is to be commended.
Details are finally starting to emerge on NBC's highly anticipated "The Office" spinoff — including the show's first cast hire, Aziz Ansari of MTV's sketch comedy "Human Giant."
Producers are mum on Ansari's role, but he'll be part of a larger ensemble that executive producers Greg Daniels and Michael Schur are putting together.
They're still beating us, fellow secessionists! Despite the fact that England's current government is its most conservative in years, its legislation is still decades ahead of America's.
See, over there, they've got this wild idea that television programs should be different from commercials and vice versa. And they're going to put their regulations where their ideals are. Whodathunk!
The U.K. media minister has attacked product placement in TV shows and said he will not allow the practice on British broadcasters even though it has been approved by the European Union.
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Andy Burnham, secretary of state at the Dept. of Culture, Media and Sport since January, dropped his bombshell Wednesday in his first big policy speech on broadcasting.
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“As a viewer, I don’t want to feel the script has been written by the commercial marketing director,” he added. “British programming has an integrity that is revered around the world, and I don’t think we should put that hard-won reputation up for sale.”
Only time will tell how miserable Britons become when they can't find out what kind of soda their favorite sitcom characters drink.
Paul Newman, who the National Enquirer says has six months left to live after battling lung cancer, might be the last decent guy in Tinseltown. Perhaps understanding that he's on his way out, he's taken his entire stake in salad dressing and cookie company Newman’s Own … and given it to charity. All $120 million worth.
THAT'S OUR SEANY BOY! "At the opening day jury press conference [at Cannes], Sean Penn made a pitch for the first-ever jury prexy’s choice screening of the tsunami doc 'The Third Wave;' called George W. Bush’s politics 'evil,' and said, 'film is about art, and art is about love. The brain has a purpose in connecting with the heart. When someone works without a brain or a heart they kill thousands of people around the world.' Admitting that he was 'not comfortable in a group of people like this,' Penn asked one journo, 'can you get me a drink?'"
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