It's a sign of the times: people in suits lined up around a Manhattan block for a job fair. A tipster outside the Radisson on 32nd and Broadway tells us it's Monster.com's New York Job Fair. "Usually the line is a block long, but today it's wrapping around the avenue block." Anyone else on the front lines have a report to file? (Also, it goes 'til three—hurry!)
Digg poster boy Kevin Rose is so hot that 726 people have already subscribed to a Twitter stream on which Rose pretends to be a head cold. For context, New York Times reporter Matt Richtel has 819 followers to the novel he's posting as tweets. Note to self: Become a celebrity first, then take up writing.
Here's a one-of-a-kind gift idea for the celebrity-obsessed friend on your Christmas shopping list: A California man named Noel Cruz will happily design a disturbingly life-like doll in the image of your favorite celeb. Cruz's site has pics of his Tobey Maguire, Nicole Kidman, Keira Knightley, and Kirsten Dunst. Or you could just order his Celine Dion figurine and stick pins in it, we suppose. [NCruz.com via Coudal]
· Ridley Scott has attached himself to Hasbro-Universal's movie adaptation of Monopoly—he hopes to give it a "a futuristic sheen along the lines of his iconic 'Blade Runner.'" Hmmm...Keanu for Mr. Monopoly? And who'll play this Community Chest lady? [THR] · A Jerry Garcia biopic focusing on his early life is in development. We'll assume it begins with the formative wood-chopping accident that took his middle finger at age 4. (What? We experimented with Deadheaddom in college.) [THR] · HBO is developing a comedy pilot called The Review, set "at a New York literary magazine in the immediate aftermath of Black Monday in 1987." The Iran-Contra affair is suddenly cool again, in that detached, period, Mad Men kind of way. [THR] After the jump: Assess Jay Leno and John McCain unmistakable sexual chemistry!· Jesus Christ will attempt to stop Samuel L. Jackson from detonating London in the espionage thriller Blown. Thanks for making the TomKat Theater version so easy to title, guys. [THR] · John McCain's Tonight Show appearance gave the show its best Tuesday night ratings since February 2007, though the Senator's political career is now in question after he engaged in questionable rolling-pin-flouring activities with the host. [THR]
Worth reading if you have the time (and you're interested in this sort of stuff): Michael Lewis's lengthy take on the financial crisis, especially the part when he meets up with John Gutfreund twenty years after the publication of Liar's Poker: "Your fucking book destroyed my career, and it made yours." [Portfolio]
Yahoos are worrying about today's stock price — and the market is not reassuring them, sending Yahoo down another 4 percent this morning. I'm told the price today sets some compensation formula; more details are welcome. To think: Yahoos are suffering financially along with investors. Isn't that what shareholder capitalism is about?
Though the high-profile political season has gifted Saturday Night Live with some killer ratings, it apparently hasn't floated all sketch comedy boats. Rumors started circulating today that Fox's MADtv was canceled in the middle of its fourteenth season, so Defamer checked in with one of our operatives to get the scoop:"It's true," said the highly-placed source. "We're finishing out the season, then we're done." Fox had been experimenting with potential MADtv replacements over the last few years, though none of its hush-hush, taped pilots ever made it to series. We're hearing, though, that the network has currently decided to keep its other late-night offering, Talk Show with Spike Feresten. Developing!
Oh Fox & Friends, you so crazy! This morning the disastrous Fox News morning Gabberwocky turned its sad wrinkly visage upon dessicated singer Madonna's atomic divorce from film director Guy Ritchie and her crazy "Madonna's Reasons Why Not" list of rules for Ritchie's child visitation rights. And in the middle of it Steve Doocy said "breast" when he meant to say "blessed." And then human Flowbee Gretchen Carlson revealed that she knows the term "Freudian." Chuckling! We are chuckling! Watch the inane clip above.
The actual stories in The Yes Men's fake issue of the New York Times today are a little too earnestly liberal to be funny, though they're still... nifty? (And look, we know earnest liberals are the easiest group to make fun of, even easier than religious psychos, but let's give them some props for pulling the whole thing off okay? Hope, etc.) But the fake ads they put throughout the issue are a little sharper. Dr. Z makes a cameo! After the jump, five of the best ad spoofs, that have corporate America tumbling down as we speak:
Now that Daniel Craig's second turn as James Bond has been threatened by critics, the Communist party, and a diaper-craving Paul Haggis, it almost seems unfair to keep piling on. However, nobody's told 81-year-old Roger Moore to hold his tongue, and the former 007 (perhaps peeved that his general standing as "second-best Bond" is in danger of being usurped by Craig) has weighed in with his thoughts on the franchise's direction to Britain's Daily Mail:
The New York Observer pulled together a crib sheet of Facebook facts from the personal pages of chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and others likely to end up on Obama's team. It's a bit snoozy, since no one admits anything shocking. Current Defense Secretary Robert Gates, who may be reappointed, lists his interests as "espionage, defense policy, national security and Soviet studies." The only surprise on the list is John Kerry, who claims Animal House as a favorite movie.
Four disembodied right feet washed up on the shores of British Columbia (which is in Canada) between August of last year and this summer. Then a left foot washed up. Then another right foot washed up, but that was a hoax. Apparently we missed a foot or two because number seven has just made it to the banks of the Fraser River in Richmond, B.C.. This one is a left foot, wearing a New Balance sneaker, which means it might be a match for one of the right feet. The foot was found by a local city council candidate! "I poked it with a stick. I didn't want to touch it. It was really hard material inside the shoe. I picked it up and put it in a bag and it was very heavy," he said. The Mounties say there's no specific evidence of foul play but hey guys, seven disembodied human feet have washed up on land. [CBC]
The Tribeca Film Institute hosted a benefit screening for the Quantum of Solace last night, which was followed by an afterparty at Tavern on the Green. Attendees included Daniel Craig, Becki Newton, Chris Diamantopoulos, Robert De Niro and Grace Hightower, Craig Hatkoff and Jane Rosenthal, Julia Stiles, Kelly Killoren Bensimon, Jeffrey Wright, Debra Messing, Andre Balazs, Andrew Saffir and Daniel Benedict, Hoda Kotb, Jill Stuart, John Sykes, Judy McGrath, Howard Stringer, Rob Wiesenthal, Liya Kebede, Stewart Rahr, Molly Sims, and Serena Altschul. [PMc, Wireimage, GoaG]
Google hasn't been prone to sweeping, top-down reorganizations; instead, its practice has been to expand divisions organically, and split groups up when they become unwieldy. But we hear that Google's going through a reorg now. Details are scant, but David Eun, Google's vice president for content partnerships, is getting a promotion. Eun, atypically for a Google executive, has a long resume in old media, having worked at NBC and Time Warner before joining the search engine. We'll update as we hear more; your tips are as ever welcome.
After a brief, thrilling lapse into the parallel universe of stars attacked by their own security detail, we're kind of relieved today to see the restoration of celeb-on-paparazzo violence. And few do it like Brad Garrett, a pap-attacker from way back who last night staged a stunning return to form outside Dan Tana's. TMZ's record of the altercation suggests Garrett was provoked, and unless the taunts "He's just a tall faggot, anyway," and "Pussy" were defanged at some recent historical moment we overlooked, we think we'd tend to agree.Either way, criminal charges may be forthcoming for Garrett, whose fierce right jab concludes with the most satisfying crunch you'll hear this side of your lunch hour. We can't say the same for Garrett's shrill, "Come on" supposedly meant to entice his aggressor into actual fisticuffs, but that's what the break between rounds is for, we guess. Expect his famous, full-throated baritone to mutter much more insistently when the fight resumes next spring on a red carpet to be determined.
Poor failed investment bank Lehman Bros. is selling $8 million worth of art that used to inspire I-bankers to create beautiful works of finance, but now is just sitting around waiting to be liquidated in order to pay off creditors. Sad. But also appropriate! Because Richard "Dick" Fuld, the ex-CEO who ran Lehman into the ground, is auctioning off some of his own personal art collection tonight—and he was smart enough to get a $20 million guarantee for it, just before everything went to hell!:
♦ NBC chief Jeff Zucker is tightening making another round of cuts. This time it's CNBC, which will see its budget slashed by 10 percent. [NYO]
♦ A group of liberal activists printed up fake copies of the New York Times today to hand out to passerby in Midtown. [NYT]
♦ Gerard Baker has been named deputy editor-in-chief of The Wall Street Journal and Dow Jones. [Romenesko]
♦ Katie Couric's advice for Sarah Palin: "I think she should keep her head down, work really hard and learn about governing." [Page Six]
♦ John McCain's first TV appearance since he lost the election translated into big ratings for Jay Leno's Tonight Show. [THR]
♦ Monday's interview with Sarah Palin was also a winner with Greta Van Susteren's On The Record earning its best ratings of the year. [B&C]
As we've learned from his last big screen effort, Sacha Baron Cohen employs a wide variety of low-tech tricks to sell his comedy illusions. For example, to create those Borat Polaroids in which his face grazed his teenage son's exposed manhood, a gay porn star was hired who looked young enough to be the Kazakh's spawn. But with follow-up Bruno, the stakes and degree of technical difficulty have upped considerably.No longer will audiences be satisfied with the suggestive flopping around of a fist-shaped dildo and post-gay-pride-parade communal showers. A movie about a gay Austrian fashionista simply demands unobstructed man-on-man-on-man penetration—and Cohen is determined to deliver on every front. And back. And daisychaining where necessary. NY Daily News reports, using our fake title yet again:
Ridley Scott's master plan to turn every property into Blade Runner has brought him to the board game Monopoly, which he has agreed to direct as a feature. Scott's critical success with the Philip K. Dick adaptation means that every time someone desires a director for a high profile property, he happily throws his name in the mix, with the subsequent press touting how this one will be the next Blade Runner. Apparently mixing Blade Runner with Monopoly is the pitch that finally worked on Universal execs, for reasons we fail to understand:The Hollywood Reporter says that Scott will bring Blade Runner-style futurism to the project, and notes that "board games and branded properties have become more attractive as studios look to mitigate risk by finding built-in audiences." Monopoly will slot in besides similar Hasbro projects like the Michael Bay-produced Ouija Board, and a feature based on Battleship. So now Blade Runner meets Monopoly...how exactly? Who nodded their head during that pitch meeting? We want names.
