The Washington Post and "don't call me the Segway inventor" Dean Kamen want geeks to be famous. Rather than letting creative geniuses get all the glory for their piddly "Oscars" and their "works of timeless art," the Post and Kamen want kids to worship real role models like the Google guys and YouTube founders.
• Ted Turner sells his memoir for $4.5 million; David Carr sells his for $300k. [NYP]
• You shall bow before Katie and Anderson, because they are royalty. [National Journal]
• Brad is Esquire's October cover. Brad doesn't want to talk about whether he cheated on Jen. Did Esquire agree to restrictions? [WWD]
Because we were out having drinks all evening last night — and, yes, we know: mah nishtanah, etc.? — we missed Liz Taylor on Larry King Live. It's rare you get to see quite so much old-person doddering in one hour of television, at least if you live anywhere north of West Palm, and, indeed, from what we understand the broadcast didn't disappoint. Some highlights, selected by a devoted reader:
In what may be the most oddly compelling interview we've seen in a while, Janice Dickinson, the world's first supermodel (and living proof that plastic surgery for necks is nowhere near as advanced as plastic surgery for faces) talks to The Book Standard about her latest work, Check, Please!, a dating guide. Janice, who actually seems more intelligent than her interlocutor, shares her insights on the following topics:
The wonders of email brought this heartwarming tale to Gawker HQ:
Marky Mark Wahlberg "was scheduled to fly on one of the doomed 9-11 planes from Boston to L.A. but changed his plans at the last minute." Had he actually taken the trip, he might have averted the catastrophe. " There were a bunch of us, five or six . . . we were all guys too . . . but I was not traveling with security," says Marky. "We were in first class. We certainly would have tried to do something. I try not to think about it but how can you not think about it?" Whether or not Wahlberg and his funky bunch (the basis, let's not forget, for HBO's "Entourage") would have been able to make the terrorists feel the vibrations is a "what if?" for future historians to ponder, but it sure would have made United 93 a hell of a lot more enjoyable. Especially if Jeremy Piven was on board.
One of our tipsters found a tip sheet for last night's Rolling Stone party, distributed to the press by publicists and left behind by a reporter who'd checked off which of the promised celebrities actually showed. No Keyes, no Death Cab, no Jay-Z, no L.A. Reid, no Lohan, no Tom Wolfe. But, hey, how could anyone complain? David Cassidy was there.
So the big Rolling Stone 1,000th issue party was last night, and we've received several reports. Consensus seems to be that it was fun but not as celebrity-laden as Jann would have wanted; the Strokes were good but they were basically the extent of the music; the gift bags sucked; and Jann had a good time. After the jump, reports from our on-site spies, who set the scene, ID the guests, and, in the case of one unhappy caterer, just vent.
Attention, VCs, engineers, and product managers of the Valley: You are now using the same phone as Paris Hilton.
Ever since the demise of Battle of the Network Stars, you've assumed you won't have a chance to watch dozens of sitcom personalities hanging out together. We thought the same. Until last night, when the cute boy with whom we saw The Threepenny Opera (verdict: meh) brought us for a post-theatrical drink to a little spot called Bar Centrale, upstairs from Joe Allen on Restaurant Row.
This is what fansubs were made for: Japanese leather-daddy Hard Gay took a trip to Yahoo! Japan last year, trying to nab a spot as their spokesperson. But until now, it was only available in Japanese. (Granted, that means half of the Valley could already understand it.) Now HG's fan club has posted a version with English subtitles. Enjoy!
• Matt Lauer adds three years to his Today contract, at $13M per. He'll also receive a footwear allowance, for clickety stilettos. [NYT]
• And Diane Sawyer has lost the game. [NYSun]
• Jack Kliger had to kill ELLEgirl to save it as a website. Or something. [Ad Age]
• First Kurt Andersen calls it, now Variety: We're all tired of celebrities. [Variety]
• Most publications won't accept freebies, Page Six — and David Pogue — excepted, of course. [MB]
At the High Line groundbreaking(ish) ceremony yesterday, Kevin Bacon and Ed Norton whip it, whip it real good.
Because no one was buying that whole "I'm a homeless and hungry Vietnam vet" thing anymore, anyway.
• Will Katie go to CBS? We continue to not really have any idea. [USAT]
• What did Bonnie Fuller learn from getting fired from Conde Nast? "Blatant disloyalty is never the smart course of action." Who knew? [NYT]
• Kurt Andersen thinks — hopes! — that the celebrity moment might finally be over. [NYM]
• Elizabeth Spiers is starting a blog about Wall Street. Also, she used to work here. [IWantMedia]
• Esquire has a funny spoof in its new issue written by — who else? — a Foer brother, in this case champion memorizer Joshua. [WP]
• Simon Dumenco isn't sure newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took the Times until now to get rid of the printed stock tables. [Ad Age]
• Jim Surowiecki thinks newspapers will survive, and he can't believe it took them until now to get rid of printed stock tables. [NYer]
• WWD media reporter Jeff Bercovici breakfasts on spelt toast with almond butter and a home-brewed cappuccino. [Jossip]
• Syd Schanberg quit his job as the Village Voice's Press Clips columnist just after the New Times deal closed, feeling that the company was no longer interested in media criticism. Friday he won an award for his Voice media criticism. [VV]
In this TGIF edition of old-skool, text-based, apparently non-celebrity-menacing Gawker Stalker: Anna Wintour, Gwyneth Paltrow and Chris Martin eating dinner with Jay Z and Beyonce, La Blohan, Bruce Willis and Petra Nemcova, Robin Williams, Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz, Keanu Reeves, Diddy, Hilary Swank, Shakira, Bridget Moynahan, Jena Malone, Julia Stiles, Mike Myers, Fred Schneider, Joaquin Phoenix, Naomi Campbell, Isabella Rossellini, Cynthia Nixon, Matt Dillon, Don Cheadle, Woody Allen, Tim Robbins, Alec Baldwin and Nicole Seidel, Kevin Bacon, Rene Russo, Tyra Banks, Jodie Foster, Jennifer Esposito, Lucy Liu, Dan Aykroyd, Larry King, Kevin Klein and Phoebe Cates, Allie McGraw, Ja Rule, Geraldo, Dolly Parton, and the ubiquitous Tony Danza. All the reports — sent in by readers and entirely unverified — are after the jump. And, of course, sightings are always life-threateningly available on Gawker Stalker Maps.
New York had nine pages this week on 9/11 conspiracy theories, and, truth be told, a lot of them sounded not entirely ridiculous. (The temperature of a jet-fuel fire is lower that the temp at which steel melts? Not even the experts can explain why 7 WTC fell? Bush's black-sheep brother Marvin worked at the security company that protected the World Trade Center and United and American airlines? Interesting.) But, still, it also seemed to be coming from the usual, if well-intentioned, wackos — you know, overearnest Starbucks-bashing punks and overearnest Birks-wearing old hippies and that East Village priest with a soul patch — and so it was easy, as you sat reading Mark Jacobson's piece, to assume that these people were just a little nuts.
Ms. Coen is off "endangering the lives of celebrities"; I've agreed to step in and help Mr. Oxfeld insure you're not too miserably bored at work today. I thought I'd start off with the image that shook me to my core when I turned on my computer this morning. Yes, the tattoo above is supposed to look like Tori Spelling. (And it's also supposed to be sexy.) Apparently, Tori's fiance, Dean McDermott, got the tat in honor of Valentine's Day but only recently shamed himself by displaying it in public. Now all we have to do is wait for the inevitable breakup and the Dr. 90210 episode when Dean heads to see Dr. Robert Rey to have it removed. — Remy Stern
