It's a sign of our celebrity-obsessed, privacy-deficient times that an Emmy-winning actor can hardly bicker with his mother over a high-end meal in a sleepy beachside community without word of that testy conversation hitting the gossip rags, as Entourage's Jeremy Piven will discover upon stumbling up the item about his alleged intrafamilial Nobu spat in today's Page Six:
People hysterical over the alleged child endangerment issues surrounding the production of Kid Nation—CBS's reality TV show/summer camp/Lord of the Flies hybrid where each episode ends with one child being giving a $20,000 gold star and another being devoured by his or her more socially manipulative castmates—persist in stirring up trouble for this Fall's upcoming breakout hit.
· The Daily Show is going to Iraq, eschewing the safety of the green screen to try its chances in the Green Zone.
· Now this is the way to quit your job. It looks like Ed Limato has one fewer qualified candidate for his blowfish-guarding detail.
· Mark Burnett has sold another show to NBC; think of this one as Are You Smarter Than the Friends and Family Members Paid A Nominal Fee to Humiliate You With Stories You Can Hardly Remember?
·You'd think by now that each time K-Fed gets a temp job, we wouldn't get so excited. But each new gig remains a fresh little thrill, and we can't wait to see what he's got in store for us on One Tree Hill.
· RIP, Leona Helmsley, the Queen of Mean.
On the premiere of her new Court TV show today, Star Jones invited Isaiah Washington to again discuss how a vast conspiracy behind the scenes at Grey's Anatomy forced him to blurt out the term "faggot" at an inopportune moment, ultimately leading to his dismissal from the series. But just when you thought the actor's serial silence-breakings had covered every angle, an all-new football metaphor helped to shed yet more light on the always scintillating subject of Washington's victimhood:
The sale of the Bada Bing's stripper poles should go much more smoothly than the debacle that accompanied the debut of Gay Vito's "Cues to Die For," as all of The Sopranos' stripper-killings occurred in the parking lot outside, far away from 12-foot, brass supports on the club's stage. [ABCNews.com]
· Music round-up: Beastie Boys at the Greek; Talib Kweli at Amoeba; Low vs. Diamond at Spaceland.
· Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson and Scott Brick sign Sandworms of Dune, a new novel based on an outline Dune creator Frank Herbert locked away in two safe deposit boxes, at Book Soup.
· The UnUrban Coffee House screens I Pity the Fool, filmmaker Brent Coughenour's look at Detroit through home movies, letters, and photos found in buildings being demolished for last year's Super Bowl.
Our friends at LAist claim to have identified the Speedo-clad courier delivering scripts for Chris Pontius' Untitled Male Stripper Comedy we wrote about last week as actor Branden Williams, but it's still not clear to us if his services were a favor to a friend or part of a regular Strip-o-Gram gig so many struggling thespians use to pay the rent. [LAist]
We thought it was a little strange when Sony chief Amy Pascal, THR's Most Powerful Woman in Hollywood 2006 and one of the top-rated honorees in Premiere's celebration of the industry's most influential ladies, was left off Variety's recent Women's Impact Report, but now it all makes sense: The trade didn't want to ruin the surprise that it had awarded her its highest honor, an official promotion to Man, for an incredible year of directing her studio to the lead in motion picture marketshare. We congratulate Pascal on this recognition, and can't wait until someone sends us a cameraphone photo of the many baskets of bananas her new male peers are messengering over to ceremonially welcome her into their fraternity.
What at first we thought was the result of a binge-weekend-induced fever-dream incorporating some of the most disturbing images from the worlds of Middle Earth, Sid and Marty Krofft, Laugh-In, and Stonewell-era drag queendom, it turns out was merely a photo taken on the set of Yo Gabba Gabba!, Nick Jr.'s new live-action show for the toddler-set, premiering tonight in nurseries and bong-clouded dorm rooms across the country, and sure to cause much controversy when the Religious Right accuses the green hairy thing of being gay.
Bucking the teacup Chihuahua trend, Ving Rhames owns three 200-pound bull mastiffs and an English bulldog—trickier to have poking out of a Hermès bag on the red carpet, but doable—who were recently accused of having fatally mauled their caretaker, who lived on the property. Now, an autopsy suggests that the dogs weren't responsible for his death:
For her maiden voyage, we dispatched Defamer videographer Molly McAleer to this weekend's Sunset Junction street fair, where a diverse population of Silver Lake hipsters, Echo Park hipsters, and lost-seeming leather daddies hanging on to the festival's more fabulous heyday gathered to listen to some bands in the stifling, 90-plus-degree heat while attempting to stay hydrated with $6 margaritas. If you've somehow never had the pleasure of losing two consecutive days to aimlessly wandering that eastern stretch of Sunset Blvd. in a near-constant state of intoxication/dehydration, we've probably just saved you $15 for next year's entry fee.
· High School Musical 2 pulls in a staggering 17.2 million viewers, making it the most-watched basic cable show ever. And we still have only the vaguest idea of what it is beyond some footage of that kid who's too tan singing. [Variety]
· Jason Biggs and Lizzy Caplan sign up for second banana duty on the the Kate Hudson/Dane Cook comedy Bachelor No. 2, playing the BFFs who must cope with the hilarious antics of their higher-billed castmates. [THR]
· Nerdgasm alert! Veronica Mars star Kristen Bell is joining the cast of Heroes, which apparently won a battle with Lost for her services on a multi-episode arc. [Variety]
· Jessica Lucas is added to the talent roster of CSI, but officially not as a replacement for Jorja Fox's possibly-dead character Sara. [THR]
· Hollywood's Random Romantic Comedy Cast Generator spits out a pairing of Owen Wilson and Jennifer Aniston for an adaptation of the bestseller Marley and Me, the story of a couple who adopt a dog as a trial run for parenthood. Spoiler alert: Thing's don't go well at first, but in the end, everyone learns lessons about love, adulthood, and responsibility! [Variety]
When she isn't regaling her fellow Cirque Lodge dorm buddies with hilarious stories from the Herbie: Fully Loaded set like how Matt Dillon smelled like a mixture of Brylcreem and cheese, Lindsay Lohan has had plenty of time during her most recent luxury rehab stint to strategize the crucial next steps of her career. With the stacks of scripts that used to be sent her way dwindling since the career-suicide double gut-punch of her coke-panted Denalijacking and the release of I Know Who Killed Me, Lohan is now reportedly looking to return to the relatively substance-abuse-friendly realm of pop music. Rush and Molloy reports:
We at Defamer realize that a layout issue in our recent redesign has somewhat reduced our ability to shock you with the unexpected deployment of Brian Grazer's official headshot (the Grazerhead™ to regular visitors), and so in the interest of putting you back on edge, we're bringing out the nukes: this screenshot of a shirtless Grazer, who was cornered by a TMZ video camera this weekend at the Polaroid Malibu Beach House after presumably trying to superproduce an anonymous blonde's phone number by casually mentioning that she'd be perfect for the Splash sequel he's been wanting to do for twenty years.
"The only item Limato, who pulled down a base of $5.25 million before getting the bum's rush, has re turned to claim was a bowl housing his half-dozen exotic fish. 'ICM refused to build him a custom aquarium, which he de manded when ICM first moved into their new MGM Tower offices in February,' noted the insider. 'He had at least one blowfish and named them all after his old assistants. If one ever died over the weekend, his assistants would replace it with an exact replica so Ed would not know.' A call to Limato's new office at William Morris was not returned." We wonder if Limato is aware of his new agency's disturbing history of fish murder. He might have to hire an assistant just to keep his aquarium safe from malefactors. [Page Six]
Panicked that the Emmys were rapidly approaching and they hadn't yet named a host for the awards telecast, Fox has convinced American Idol master of karaoke ceremonies Ryan Seacrest to borrow one of Ellen DeGeneres' tuxedos and assume emceeing duties for Hollywood's Third- Or Fourth-Biggest Night, Depending On How You Feel About The Globes And SAG Awards. While Seacrest's hosting bonafides are certainly beyond question—tens of millions of furiously texting teenage girls can't be wrong—those handling the production remind us why America is so crazy in love with Hollywood's hardest working man and offer a brief tease about the surprises they have in store for TV fans. Reports Var:
Another Monday morning, another coronation of a new box office king. Raise a hand to salute your new multiplex master as you review the weekend numbers:
· Merv Griffin is probably in Heaven right now, which, let's face it, is one of the gayest destinations we can think of.
· K-Fed's subpoena spree spares no one.
· Sophia spreads her legs for art.
· Corey Feldman graciously grants best friend Corey Haim full access to his wife.
· Steven Segal wants the FBI to apologize for ruining a promising career.
· Paris Hilton's philanthropic makeover might not have been entirely her own idea. Her Kitson clothing line, we strongly suspect, is.
· HBO gives John from Cincinnati just enough artistic rope to hang itself.
· Road Warrior Lindsay Lohan's quarry sues.
· AOL Teen spends some time building self-esteem.
· "You were both mistakes!" part-time lesbian Britney Spears tells her children.
· Ben Kingsley on Mary-Kate's feisty face-sucking technique.
· A bulgestastic script delivery boy brightens the day of the city's studio receptionists. We have pictures!
· So You Think You Can Dance: Way gay.
· A banner year for shitty threequels.
· Jim Carrey's zero-figure paycheck.
· Everything you didn't want to know about where Jonathan Silverman bones his wife on Polaroid's dime.
