A Continental Express flight from Newark crashed into a home in the suburbs near its destination of Buffalo. All 48 people on the plane were killed, plus one on the ground.

Mickey Rourke put some Oscar-race distance between himself and Sean Penn last night, winning the British Academy Awards' Best Actor prize before ceremonially washing it down backstage with a bottle of Champagne.

Arsonists relighting extinguished brush have worsened wildfires raging in the Australian states of Victoria and New South Wales. The fires have already killed 108.

If you detected an extra pungent smell of Cheetos and Mountain Dew in New York today, it wasn't coming from New Jersey. It's emanating from the Javits Center, home of 2009's New York Comic Convention.

Jeez, America, can't you take a joke? You only think Etta James hates Beyoncé because you think Miley Cyrus is racist because Britney Spears is sober. Or something.

What happened to No-Drama Obama? As the blithe candidate of hope, he led a leakproof, gaffe-resistant campaign. Ever since the election, he's been exploding with scandal and gossip. Fantastic!

Having second-guessed his nearly disastrous decision to squeeze into a spandex battlesuit (as Oscar-poisonous as a latex fatsuit) and climb into the Wrestlemania ring, Mickey Rourke is now onto stop #2 of his redemption tour:

Rest assured, America: Lawless hippie dope fiend Michael Phelps will not get a pass from the brave sheriff of Richland County, South Carolina. Nor will A-Rod assert independence from Madonna without consequence.

Alan Cumming thinks he has found a man whose wang is bigger, wider, and even more America-shaping than Billy Crudup's cerulean love-stick: our president, Barack Obama.

Pictured, tautly manboobed sexagenarian Sylvester Stallone, toasting Planet Hollywood's purchase of Buca di Beppo, who plan on extending the movie motif to the Italian chain by rechristening it Apastalypse Now.

Even as their country plummets down the geyser hole, Icelanders are still awfully nice to gay people. They've appointed an out-and-proud lesbian to be their interim Prime Minister, a world first the papers say.

The publisher of the New York Times is seeing a married-but-separated woman he met several months before announcing his own marital separation. This proves he never slept with Caroline Kennedy. What?

When we intuited that Mickey Rourke was having second thoughts about a Wrestlemania appearance that would obliterate both Chris Jericho and his Oscar hopes, we weren't far off the mark. Rourke's publicist just told us:

Preternaturally lanky Olympic swimming medalist Michael Phelps hit his knee on a table at a press conference in Saudi Arabia. Ow! But what was he doing there?

GLAAD has announced that their annual "excellence in media" award will be going to Tyra Banks. No, seriously! This honor comes as word leaks about Banks's most insanely gaysploitive project yet.

We have a Secretary of the Treasury! The Senate voted in Tim Geithner, despite the New York Fed chief's failure to pay $34,000 in taxes. "An honest mistake," says the White House's top flack. Oh?

The credulous public didn't hear the REAL performance by Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman at Barack Obama's inauguration. It heard a two-day old recording. Along with that fake oath.

For most swag PR teams at Sundance, snagging John Krasinski for an interview or picture with their product would be a high-profile get. This is not the case for Timberland, however.

Lots of people watched the Inauguration of Barack Obama, around the country and around the world. AP photographers were everywhere, snapping pics of people watching hope take flight. A gallery is after the jump.

Barack Obama has given your speech. Now have your say: How did his words strike you?