They waited until now to release this news? A report issued today indicates that even before the current financial crisis started, Americans were punching their own tickets in increasing numbers. The survey reports that the suicide rate for white, middle-aged men jumped 17 percent between 1999 and 2005. [Bloomberg]
Designer, author, and reality TV host Todd Oldham is 47 today. Director Spike Jonze is turning 39. Catherine Deneuve is officially a senior citizen (at least in the U.S.): the actress turns 65 today. Composer Marc Shaiman is 49. Legendary venture capitalist Alan Patricof is 74. Carlos Mencia is celebrating his 41st. Actor Christopher Lloyd is turning 70. New L&O castmember Jeff Goldblum is 56. The rapper Shaggy turns 40. And Jonathan Lipnicki, the little boy from Jerry Maguire, is 18.
The last time we checked in with Bonnie Fuller, in August, the ex-Us Weekly editor was seeking "partners, financing and advertiser support" for a website aimed at women 20-40. That can't be going well right about now. Which might explain how OK! magazine could afford to bring on Fuller as a consultant, as CoverAwards is reporting, even though she was recently pulling down $2.1 million per year as editorial director at American Media Inc.
♦ Jennifer Aniston is pregnant with John Mayer's baby. At least that's what the always-reliable Star is now reporting. [Star]
♦ Remember how Donald Trump said he'd help Ed McMahon by buying his home out of foreclosure? Seems like it was just a publicity stunt at McMahon's expense, although Ed's newfound career as a rap artist should pay the bills for now. [P6]
♦ Your daily dose of Madonna-Guy news: Madge says her husband lived "like a king" off her money and she's insisting the kids be with her during the holidays ("Christmas doesn't exist in the Madonna household because of Kabbalah"). For his part, Guy may already have a new girlfriend. [Daily Mail, Mirror, Page Six]
A new round of layoffs is coming to Time Inc. "in the very near future," sources tell the Post's Keith Kelly. But please don't worry about the top brass, departing magazine staff, because they're doing just fine. They've still got their Caribbean retreats, you'll recall, and millions of dollars with which to buy celebrity baby pictures. And it looks like a surprise contract extension is in store for Ann Moore, the Harvard MBA who saw online revenue grow 76 percent this year, even amid cost cutting. That's probably why she's got enough swagger to gab to the Times of London about the "two-year plan" she keeps right next the contract with 18 months left on it. According to Kelly, she's probably right to feel to secure enough to assume she'll get a renewed mandate:
♦ Bad day ahead? Stocks fell sharply in Europe and Asia overnight and ugly corporate earnings have investors worried. [MW]
♦ Wachovia, which is being acquired by Wells Fargo, reported a third-quarter loss of $23.9 billion. [Bloomberg]
♦ Yahoo says it will lay off 10 percent of its work force. [NYT]
♦ Federal prosecutors looking into the collapse of Lehman have subpoenaed other firms to find out if their analysts were misled by Lehman execs. [WSJ]
In its review of Elle-focused reality show Stylista, the Times finds plenty to like, surprisingly. It seems hippie editor Anne Slowey does a surprisingly convincing impersonation of Meryl Streep imitating Miranda Priestly standing in for mean old Anna Wintour of Vogue. (So much for those embarrassing preview clips from a few months ago.) The catfighting is inspired and "novel." And yet that's not what will hook you on the show. You'll watch because you are aching to pretend, for an hour each Wednesday, that the brutal hierarchy of yesteryear lent work an elegant simplicity. Writes the Times' Gina Bellafante:
Entrepreneur and longtime entertainment executive Neil McGinness bought the deadpan supermarket tabloid Weekly World News from American Media, according to the Times, 14 months after the last issue was printed amid anemic circulation. McGinness has "revived" the website, which AMI had promised to keep open (as publishers tend to do), and might even bring back the print edition. The idea is that online advertising, licensing and movie deals can succeed where the prior incarnation failed. Plus, it's something of a golden age of satire, what with the Onion and Daily Show and so forth. The new site already has old staples Bat Boy and Ed Anger, but the headlines aren't quite up to snuff yet. Perhaps the site's distinguished editors can take some inspiration from this list of headlines from the past (add your own in the comments!):
Sure, it was kind of a McCarthyite move by freshman Minnesota Congresswoman Michelle Bachmann, calling Barack Obama "anti-American" on MSNBC's Hardball. But you know what else it was? A chance for editors across the country to gleefully brandish their pattern-matching skills and knowledge of Canadian classic rock. Hence all of the references to Bachman-Turner Overdrive (hits: "Takin' Care of Business," "You Ain't Seen Nothing Yet") in the screenshots above, all courtesy Eric Spiegelman. As usual, the Daily Show adds that extra dash of awesome.
I had no idea what this email was about. It seemed designed to get me to go to some website. For a second I thought, what if I forgot to pay Barney's New York again? Do they harass you online now? Yet after I clicked the URL at the bottom, I still didn't understand the story. Is it a blog, a splog, or a dog? On the Internet, David Sedaris might drone, no one can tell if you're human. Chief, if you want my attention, send me your next layoff.
Remember how magazines targeting the rich were going to be "largely immune to the problems" besetting the economy in general and publishing in particular? Well, that was way back in March, and if the ensuing seven months have taught us anything, it's that every last one of us will end up a hobo or die in the ensuing revolution. What this means in the meantime is that there is no such thing as a safe publishing niche. To wit, shelter magazine Cottages & Gardens, serving the rich from the Hamptons to Connecticut to Palm Beach, is poised to let "a lot of people go," a tipster informs us. Staff this week were reportedly told that money on hand will fund their salaries for just two more weeks, unless a bigger company swoops and acquires the magazine. This should sound very familiar:
What business does Sarah Palin have spending $75,000+ at Neiman Marcus and $50,000 at Saks if she's not planning to be part of the "Washington elite" or "seek their good opinion," as she told the Republican National Convention in September? She probably wants to look snazzy on TV, because the poors get the same channels as the elites, and appearances matter more than they should. John Edwards knew that, so he spent $400 on hair cuts until he was accused of being a slick poverty pimp by various conservatives. Now that Politico has caught the Republicans' designated working-class icon being far more profligate — Edwards could get 10 haircuts just on the Palin/McCain ticket's monthly hair and makeup bill — reps for the "small town... hockey mom" aren't even bothering to deny their hypocrisy:
It's official: Sumner Redstone's second marriage is finished, confirming our exclusive from Friday. Court papers were filed at the end of last week, according to the Los Angeles Times, and now the Viacom chief has issued a statement saying the split is "amicable" and that "we remain close and supportive friends." In other words, wife Paula Fortunato has finally, 14 months after divorce rumors surfaced, agreed to leave, perhaps because she got something beyond her "iron-clad prenup," once thought to be worth a flat $1 million, or because she's actually now earned $5 million, with the prenup now pegged at $1 million per year of marriage. Or maybe the former public school teacher is just tired of living with the mean mogul, 40 years her elder, and of hearing rumors he's been calling some famous comedian's wife. Whatever happened, Redstone is reaching into his pocket at a time when he can least afford it. Writes the LA Times:
· That's why you need the Zyliss Ultra Peeler: Your lady will barely be able to keep her hands off your kiwis! · These two delightful finds—one featuring nothing but inverted canines, the other, a gallery of impressively morbid creations using chicken bones, KFC containers, and ketchup—do nothing but reconfirm our love of the Internets. [All via b3ta] · We found an actor willing to go on record in support of Proposition 8: Latin heartthrob Eduardo Verástegui. Enjoy having terrible hair and makeup and looking fat in jeans for the rest of your career, Eduardo! (Wily stylists.) [Guanabee] · Tears For Fears's Curt Smith will be playing the third of four dates at the Standard Hollywood's Cactus Lounge tonight at 7 p.m. An intimate, free evening with your high school fantasy boyfriend! How can you pass that up? Here's "Head Over Heels: Literal Video Version" to get you warmed up, from the guys who brought you "Take On Me: LVV." (Not as good as the last one, but whatever—it's also free.) · Does Chace Crawford have a hamburger for you!
A storm surge of Wall Street-in-crisis movies is coming soon to a theater or television near you, and busy trend reporters are preparing us for the worst today with their grim surveys of what to expect in the weeks and months ahead. But beyond the obvious recycling of Wall Street for a new generation of jaded multiplexers, the forecast remains mostly sunny after early, patchy fog; we think you're more likely to see Papi and his Beverly Hills Chihuahua-mates yapping in theaters again before Gordon Gekko ever makes his return trip to Manhattan.Look at it this way: Hollywood hasn't sold a domestic crisis to moviegoers in years. At least not as a drama, anyway; Michael Moore exceeded documentary standards with Fahrenheit 9/11, but the War on Terror, Hurricane Katrina and other recent, rattling history are nowhere at the box office. Vietnam hit and (mostly) missed between 1975 and 1990, with exceptions including The Deer Hunter, Coming Home Platoon and Born on the Fourth of July. Since then, it's all about the distractions; 24 works because Jack Bauer is your kind of torturer. He's as much of an escapist as you are. The financial meltdown offers few such release valves. The familiar, curious comforts of Wall Street and Boiler Room are flying off rental shelves, according to The New York Times, but the next crop of business-themed productions — from Lifetime's Candace Bushnell adaptation Trading Up to the Gekko follow-up Money Never Sleeps — are as stillborn as Stop-Loss and Body of Lies before them. Maybe they need dancing chihuahuas, as Paul Haggis hints to the NYT, or, as an NBC programming boss told Bloomberg today, at least "exemplify the foolishness of the human condition in the world of finance'':
While her old BFF Paris Hilton has remade herself as a third-party presidential candidate, Nicole Richie has been content to slip out of the spotlight, instead making questionable moves like living in Glendale and giving the dude from Good Charlotte a second career as a professional boyfriend. Last night, however, Richie returned to the acting career she had given up after being forced to feign interest in the non-famous for multiple seasons of The Simple Life. In her appearance on the NBC show Chuck, Richie channeled her claws and engaged in a bruising, bloody catfight not seen since the great Aguilera/Richie Baby Picture Smackdown, and we have the confrontation's best moments. Sure, the fight isn't quite Buffy vs. Faith caliber, but at least it's better than the brouhaha that ensued when Paris and Nicole once showed up to a T-Mobile party wearing the exact same hair extensions. Shit went down — trust. [NBC]
Nothing on the fall TV schedule has captured our imaginations more than a tiny, as-yet-untitled program to recently premiere on YouTube, which we informally refer to around Defamer HQ as The William Shatner Has Seriously Lost His Fucking Mind Show. Accompanied by dutiful daughter Liz—the product, it's widely rumored, of a one-beam-stand with a hot little green number from Orion—Shatner has moved on from obsessing over his snubbing from the new Star Trek movie, and now has an entirely new rebuff to fixate on: his exclusion from the George Takei-Brad Altman nuptials.While he enters the conversation with almost Vulcan-like logic (his former Star Trek co-star, whom he "barely knows" but desperately wishes he could have tossed fistfuls of rice at, suffers from acute psychosis-induced jealousy), things quickly start to devolve around the two-minute mark. It's at that point that Shatner begins to drift off to the outer realms, where not even the most up-to-date Universal Translators would be able to untangle his meandering theories on what might have been eating at the bridge's furtively Redshirt-lusting lieutenant all these years.
Click to viewNow that they've fired Melissa Gira Grant, I've got my first Sex Trade assignment! Owen told me to post about Slate's new clip on the escort business in Second Life. Easy: "This is Samantha Henning with Slate V. Now, some vices are socially acceptable. But prostitution, that's not one I was gonna try out in the real world." Back button. Next on Slate: More Sarah Palin sentence diagrams.
