A well-placed mole has forwarded us the Silicon Valley equivalent of hard-core pornography: an explicit look at Facebook's finances. They're even more staggering than we expected. A gusher of profits has left the social network with a cash hoard to rival established companies like 3M, eBay and Yahoo.
On tonight's Colbert Report, Stephen Colbert re-examined the Republican race now that Christine O'Donnell has endorsed Mitt Romney. It's a great excuse to run down the list of the other big names who have thrown their support behind the candidates. Except for Rick Santorum who is endorsing himself.
On tonight's Daily Show, Jon Stewart pitted Mitt Romney against President Obama in the only category that truly matters: ball size. Each man has a legitimate claim to the prize, Romney for suggesting that Newt Gingrich is inconsistently conservative and Obama for asking Iran to return the downed drone that was spying on them. The competition was most certainly stiff and, in the end, President Obama won by a hair.
Major media companies say online piracy is such a problem that the federal government should adopt a draconian system of blockades and blacklists to stop infringement. But maybe they should first focus on the pirates they pay and employ, who've just been exposed torrenting the hell out of competitors' movies and TV shows.
With Christmas nearly upon us, television has been crammed full of weepy Christmas episodes and heart-wrenching tales of all kinds. As a result, there have been a lot of women crying on TV lately. I guess all the men who make the big TV machine run think that bursting into tears is the first, and probably best, option that a woman has when confronted with conflict. Maybe they've driven the women in their lives to the brink one too many times. As they say, write what you know.
Do you like food, television and chat—or at least two of those three things? Take a moment to think about it… OK, time's up. You know the answer is yes! And that means you've just qualified to join our Top Chef live blog. So drop whatever less-than-66%-fun thing you were doing before, and join us in the comments!
Speaking of youth-obsessed Russian leader, bad husband, and likely ballot-stuffer Vladimir Putin, have you looked at his face lately? Rumors about Putin's plastic surgery have been floating around since September, but his face keeps getting stranger. At a recent elections-related appearance, he looked like Rachel Zoe. Fillers, I'm thinking, plus Botox on the forehead.
Tonight, the American Broadcast Company airs Barbara Walters Presents: The 10 Most Fascinating People of 2011, wherein TV's grande dame of celebrity reacharounds offers profiles of some of the most spellbinding figures of our time. This year's list includes the likes of Katy Perry (fascinating breasts), Donald Trump (fascinating hair), Simon Cowell (also fascinating breasts), Herman Cain (finds breasts fascinating), and the Kardashians (fascinatingly stupid). As a companion piece, we have compiled this list of The 10 Least Fascinating People of 2011. Think of it as a love letter to everyone who bored, bothered, or left us utterly cold over the past 12 months.
#RIPScottBaio was trending on Twitter this afternoon, despite the effusive and vulgar protestations of the Joanie and Chachi star. If you'd visited Wikipedia, searching (as one does) for some "Baio"-graphical information, you would've learned what killed him: diaper rash. "There was only one way to spread awareness of the very real threat of 'diaper death,'" I was told when I talked the guy who'd kicked off the rumor.
We heard from a tipster that glass closet aficionado Anderson Cooper was bringing his boyfriend Benjamin Maisani to the holiday party for his daytime talk show Anderson tomorrow evening and alleges it is because the show is prepping Anderson's big coming out episode for February sweeps. Can this be true?
Wikileaks unveiled a mysterious social network today on Twitter, called Friends of Wikileaks. It's the social network for people who think their personal information is too safe in the hands of Mark Zuckerberg.
In France, people are all very sensitive about things, and prefer to approach sensitive issues (all) by arguing sophisticated points of serious political philosophy, while making dismissive hand gestures and holding cigarettes. This is why the French are such a bunch of pussies who aren't even tough enough to be involved in several doomed wars of choice in the Muslim world. Le wimps! Amirite?
Twin surgery! Young insurance! Teen weedheads! Statin flu! Cookie dough! Thin tricks! Working moms! ADHD drugs! And the very latest cigarette news from Eastern Europe! It's your Wednesday Health Watch, where we watch your health—sickeningly!
In a new GQ profile, Nick Nolte upended one of the great tales of the internet age, revealing that his famous wacked-out mug shot—taken after he passed out while driving on the Pacific Coast Highway—was not actually a mug shot, but a Polaroid he willingly posed for after a cop asked for a picture. Is it true? As true as any recollection Nick Nolte has about his drug-induced catatonic episodes. Which is to say no, it's not true.
ZOMG, Justin Bieber is trending! How can we short the Jonas Brothers?? That, apparently, is the sort of conversation that's becoming more and more plausible on Wall Street; hedge funds are increasingly turning to Twitter, Facebook and YouTube trends to place social media driven bets in the "tens of billions of dollars," according to a company that sells them data.
