All of the celebrities descended on Washington DC for yesterday's presidential ceremonies, in which former President Bush was pushed into the Potomac on an ice floe, never to be seen again. Read the dish!
• There were bound to be a few dramatic moments at the inaugural parties last night: Sheryl Crow had an awkward run in with her ex, Kid Rock, in the lobby of Donovan House. John Legend was forced to make a last-minute stop at Bloomingdale's because his girlfriend didn't have a gown. Susan Sarandon got a reporter kicked out an event for daring to ask a question. And Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony showed up so late to the Neighborhood Ball, they almost didn't get in. [P6, WP, Politico]
• One possible explanation for Lopez's late arrival: She was spotted at the Scientology Center in LA yesterday morning, trying to sneak out of the building without being noticed. [NYDN]
• Another headache for John Travolta and Kelly Preston: A politician in the Bahamas may have been part of a plot to extort money from the couple following the death of Jett Travolta. [OK!]
Kate Moss turns 35 today. Page Six's Richard Johnson is turning 55. Gourmet editor Ruth Reichl is celebrating her 61st. Republican fundraiser (and cosmetics company founder) Georgette Mosbacher is 62. Strokes guitarist Nick Valensi is turning 28. Dr. Laura Schlessinger is 62. And the singer Sade is 50. Weekend birthdays appear after the jump!
♦ Haven't seen Giuseppe Cipriani around town lately? There may be a reason for that: He's believed to be outside the U.S. since he's on probation and because Andrew Cuomo is investigating how the family managed to keep its liquor license earlier this year. [P6]
♦ Angelina Jolie has been undergoing secret fertility treatments in the hopes of becoming pregnant with twins within the next two years. At least that's what Star says. [Star]
♦ Everyone on Gossip Girl may be hooking up with each other, but at least one relationship isn't going so strong: Blake Lively was spotted making out with a guy who was not Penn Badgley. [E!, P6]
♦ Leonardo DiCaprio lost his wallet at Rolf's on Third Avenue, and Tom Cruise lost his Blackberry somewhere in Toronto. [P6, P6]
Keira Knightley walking in SoHo with her mom ... Natalie Portman filming scenes for her new movie at the Wollman Rink in Central Park ... Carla Bruni and Nicolas Sarkozy walking out of a downtown restaurant ... Penn Badgley carrying takeout from Cafe Habana on Prince Street ... Brooke Shields hailing a cab in the West Village ... Naomi Watts pushing her son's stroller in NoHo ... Robin Williams carrying a Juicy Couture bag in the West Village ... Ed Westwick walking on Chrystie Street ... Emma Thompson posing for photographers outside the Letterman show ... Kid Rock leaving the Trump International Hotel ... and Anna Wintour getting out of a car.
"All Summer Long" is one catchy tune. Built on the groove of the late Warren Zevon's "Werewolves of London," spiced up with Skynyrd's "Sweet Home Alabama," the song nonetheless soars on Robert James Ritchie's down-homey delivery of one of the best ballads to hit the airwaves in years. I've heard it on Top 40, country and classic rock stations in the past week. Kid Rock's album, Rock 'n Roll Jesus, is now at #2 on Billboard's chart. All this without iTunes. Why on earth would record labels withhold an album from America's largest music retailer?There's no one big reason. This WSJ report lists several:
Is iTunes helping the music industry—or destroying it? That's the dramatic question we will answer for you in this post. Itunes is the single largest retailer of music in the US, period. It sells nine out of every ten digital song downloads in the country. And since it helped put the Tower Records of the world out of business, lots of artists think there's nowhere to go except iTunes. But how much money are (even famous) bands really making off all those 99-cent singles? Here's, uh, one perspective:
Beyonce showing up to watch her sister Solange perform at the J&R Music Fest in City Hall Park ... Chace Crawford leaving his trailer on the set of Gossip Girl ... Jennifer Aniston shopping for jewelry at Fred Leighton ... America Ferrera dressed up as a softball player on the set of Ugly Betty ... Kid Rock performing with Lynyrd Skynyrd on Good Morning America ... Wesley Snipes walking out of Spice Market ... Katie Holmes leaving rehearsals with a cup of coffee in hand ... and John Mayer walking out of Nobu.
Rejecting a plan to reinforce his white trash bonafides by marrying a 1974 Pontiac GTO sitting atop cinderblocks on a patchy lawn in an economically depressed suburb of Detroit, Kid Rock instead opted to brawl in the parking lot of an Atlanta-area Waffle House this weekend, an altercation that earned him a misdemeanor battery charge and one of the better celebrity mugshots we've seen. Sure, he may be playing it cool, but that smile barely masks the pain of watching his ex-old lady shack up with the Paris Hilton sex tape guy. [AJC.com]
Last night saw the debut of "TMZ" in its televised form, and we're kind of astounded. It's actually really good in a "death of Western culture" kind of way: crass, snappy, humorous, knowing, smirking, and sarcastic. Their turnaround time is impressive, and the little graphical flourishes they toss in make a good case that this is the new standard in omnibus trash television. It's just a day old, so it might be too early to judge, but today we're going to spend some time figuring out why it works so well. Anyway, here's how they covered the Tommy Lee and Kid Rock fracas at the MTV Video Music Awards.
Recounts the Post: "PAMELA Anderson's exes got into a slapfest during the MTV Video Music Awards last night, taking jabs at each other right after their siliconed siren introduced Alicia Keys. Kid Rock and Tommy Lee were sitting precariously close to each other—given their history of rowdy behavior—at the ceremony at the Palms Casino when Rock 'sucker smacked' Lee, the Post's Sandra Guzman reports. The ensuing fight lasted 15 seconds and each man was escorted out separately by security." That fracas, unfortunately, occurred off-camera. Here, however, is our generation's Helen of Troy discussing her hot make-out session with Kanye West.
The dissolution of Pamela Anderson's marriage to Bob "Kid Rock" Richie after just four months may have been the celebrity break-up that launched a million, "Go get her, Borat!" wisecracks, but the internationally renowned joke recycler may have had more of a direct hand in the snuffing of their white trash love than any of us could have guessed. From Page Six:
Chickens' rights activist Pamela Anderson announced on her website today, in a brief message amounting to a haiku of shattered love, "Divorce: Yes, it's true. Unfortunately impossible." This was the very same internet diary where the fake-bemeloned Canadian first announced her intentions to marry the latest butt-rocker of her dreams, Kid Rock, which she giddily announced with a flurry of ellipses and clichés in a stream of consciousness entry back in July. Reports People.com:
