The unlikely duo might be paired up in a new/old movie musical. Also today: Nicole Kidman is a replacement, a big new miniseries is on the way, and Law & Order: SVU has its new detectives!
Break out the Cristal. Mr. Sean Combs turns 40 today. Perhaps he'll get together later to celebrate with Bethenny Frankel of the Real Housewives of New York: She's turning 39. Others blowing out candles today: Matthew McConaughey is turning 40. Kathy Griffin is turning 49. Laura Bush is 63. Survivor host Jeff Probst turns 47. Author Charles Frazier is turning 59. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz is 48. Literary agent Andrew Wylie is turning 62. Publishing industry honcho Jonathan Galassi is 60. Anne Sweeney, the president of Disney/ABC president, is turning 51. Ralph Macchio of Karate Kid fame is 48. And Trishelle from The Real World is 30.
Telling people to watch Survivor is like saying it's OK to wear mom jeans, but even going into it's 19th season, the show is still entertaining. Yeah, it's not cool, but that's no reason not to watch.
Not only does Diddy get to vote or die today, he gets to celebrate his birthday, too. He's 39. There probably won't be much to celebrate in the White House today, but Laura Bush will have one reason to. She's turning 62. Also celebrating: Literary agent Andrew Wylie is 61. Playwright Jon Robin Baitz is turning 47. Book publisher Jonathan Galassi is 59. Matthew McConaughey is celebrating his 39th. Kathy Griffin is 48. Disney/ABC president Anne Sweeney is celebrating the big 5-0. Walter Cronkite is 92. Survivor host Jeff Probst is turning 46. Author Charles Frazier is 58. And the Karate Kid, Ralph Macchio, is 47.
Bedimpled Survivor emcee Jeff Probst is the creator of his own reality show concept, one which he pledges will take its subjects "on the last adventure of their life." The crucial word there is "last," as Live Like You’re Dying hinges on the stultifying premise that a different, terminally ill individual will have their wildest dreams enacted weekly, to the delight of millions of weepy Americans everywhere. In that sense, it could just as easily be called Survivor: Forget About It—anything, really, besides Live Like You're Dying, a title in which the word "like" seems entirely out of place. (Face It, You're Dying?) An enthused Probst explained the pitch further to EW.com:
♦ Judy Miller is joining Fox News as a contributor. [WaPo]
♦ David Carr chats with lousy market prognosticator Jim Cramer, who concedes that it's "a completely humbling market," but won't apologize for suggesting everyone take their money out of the market. [NYT]
♦ Jeff Zucker says NBC will cut $500 million from its 2009 budget. [Reuters]
♦ Jeff Probst has a new show in the works: Live Like You're Dying will feature Probst taking a terminally-ill person on "the last adventure of their life." [EW]
♦ A report on the mood at the Frankfurt Book Fair. [NYO]
♦ Rick Yorn has left the the Hollywood management powerhouse the Firm. [Variety]
♦ Max Payne was the No. 1 movie at the box office this weekend, racking up $18 million in ticket sales. [LAT]
For seasons, fans of Survivor have been awaiting the day when CBS would finally start broadcasting episodes of the long-running reality competition in HD. With so much beautiful scenery on display in every episode, what better way to notice new, unforeseen details of the show to appreciate? Unfortunately for CBS, their first HD episode of Survivor bore full-frontal fruit, as eagle-eyed watchers of this past Thursday's two-hour premiere noticed that hunky doctor Marcus Lehman showed off a little bit more of his own personal immunity idol than the network had doubtlessly intended. The unblurred wardrobe malfunction (courtesy of Survivor Sucks), after the jump (NSFW):
We won't belong to any club that will have us as a member. (Hi, Soho House!) And we definitely won't shop in any store for which one would need to make an appointment first, or one that requires us to submit to inspection by a "stylist" who makes sure we are "right for the store." So there's very little chance that we will ever darken the door of Caravan, whose newly-opened third location (one of the others is a converted Winnebago—class !) has that stringent policy, which helps it keep out the undesirables. Unexpectedly, thought, that category doesn't include 'Survivor' survivor Jeff Probst. "He liked that he could try on a million things and have the store to himself," Caravan co-founder Claudine Gumbel told the Post. Don't all start clamoring for appointments at once, now!
Snoots Only [NYP]
We alerted you yesterday to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt's charity work in Costa Rica, handing out presents to Colombian refugee children. But the flawless philanthropists have no monopoly on good deeds, as celebrities from every letter of the rigid Hollywood caste system came out to help those less needy. A round-up:
· Survivor host Jeff Probst and his girlfriend, former Survivor contestant Julie Berry, spent Christmas serving dinner to patrons of the Wayside Soup Kitchen in Portland, Maine. Just for fun, Probst suggested serving meals to four separate lines divided by race, an experiment soup kitchen officials quickly cancelled after a bearded man in the white line started shouting that the two individuals in the far shorter Asian line were receiving unfairly generous turkey portions. [Canada.com]
· In further New England celebrity charity news, Adam Sandler sent Stephanie and Kevin Hudon, two teenage siblings from New Hampshire suffering with cancer, a hard-to-find Playstation 3 and swag bag, in the hopes that the blowing away of virtual Nazis with high neuro-artificial-intelligence would temporarily take their minds off their troubles. [AP]
One thing we were cognizant of in casting the show, we weren't looking to put a white supremacist on with a member of the NAACP.
