In what we like to call a "listicle," the Telegraph picks the 110 best classic books. Lists are such funny, arbitrary things: people mainly read through for the satisfaction of either nodding in agreement or enjoying a good burst of outrage. They also have a slightly degrading womens-mag function: "Everybody should have a little black dress... and a copy of Wuthering Heights!" In other words, lists keep our society going. [Telegraph]
When we heard today that Christina Ricci instructed her trainer to give her Jessica Biel's butt for her upcoming role in Speed Racer, we too remembered our longtime fascination with Biel's hard bottom. Even though Justin Timberlake famously praised the back door of Kylie Minogue, we're sure he's doing just fine enjoying his current girlfriend's assets. And considering we've had asses on the brain since Gisele thrust hers into our face this morning, we decided to just declare this Hump Day, well, Rump Day. Herewith, we present our picks for the top five best butts in Hollywood. And not to worry ladies; we'll be sure to devote an upcoming Hump Day to the male stars with the most appealing cushions for pushing.
Entertainment Weekly provides one its handy listicles this weekend, in two parts. "50 Most Vile Movie Villains" wisely hands first place to Darth Vader and runner-up to Leatherface from The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. But after that, the selections grow maddening. First of all, Halloween's Michael Myers is nowhere on the list! And, please, Michael could-and would-totally gut the hell out of any villain anywhere, ever.
What is the single most repellent image that humans can conjure up? Apparently, it's scorpions. Trendhunter has a list of the Top 50 "Shockvertisements" in recent history—ads that stirred up a controversy. The most common thread, obviously, is sex; but three different campaigns on the list chose to shock people by picturing scorpions. Scorpions that are touching you! Advertisers find that no other bug comes close in its ability to disgust. Below, pictures of the three scorpion ads: one is shocking but effective, one is weird but effective, and one is just misguided.
CBS News has been running a lot unappetizing stories about sex lately. First it was "Things You Didn't Know About Your Penis" (or "Four Things I Already Knew About Your Penis And One That Grossed Me Out"). Then there was "Top 10 Reasons To Have Sex Tonight" (or "10 Terrible Reasons to Have Sex Tonight.") Instead of waiting for CBS to produce their inevitable list of factoids about testicles, we made our own. After the jump, five terribly important facts about balls.
Entertainment Weekly gets in on the fiery death of Eliot Spitzer's every last hope and dream with a list! Predictably, the mag's "25 Hollywood Hookers" reserves its top spot for the Julia Roberts fantasy Pretty Woman. But it does give a nod to Jon Voight's awesome Joe Buck from Midnight Cowboy. Better yet, there's a full-body shot of a teen Jody Foster in the pedo-bait outfit that helped make Taxi Driver such an iconic must-see. [EW]
"The 250" (pronounced "two-fifty") is the derogatory term used in real-life conversations — never online! — to describe the self-promoting cloud of Web 2.0 popular kids who seem to be constantly typing but rarely building value. In short, The 250 only matter to The 250. I've collected and anonymized some real-life sentences from the field to help you use The 250 authentically.
Not every conversation happens online. A phrase you won't find on Twitter or Technorati is The 250 — pronounced "two-fifty" — a cruelly sarcastic euphemism used in real-life conversations for the small, cliquey group of self-appointed Web 2.0 insiders who seem to spend their days blogging and Twittering about one another. The gist is that The 250 are the 250 people who matter to The 250. None of the other 6 billion people on Earth care which of The 250 are dating each other or got onto a panel at South By Southwest. I'm loathe to name names other than Valleywag editor Owen Thomas, whose site the other 249 check obsessively for mentions of themselves.
In case you hadn't heard, recently resigned NY governor Eliot Spitzer likes call girls. A lot. And while we're still busy casting the inevitable movie of the week, our slideshow-obsessed friends over at Us dove into their archives to reminisce on the hooker-laced pasts of Hugh Grant, Eddie Murphy and escort king Charlie Sheen, who've all been caught with their pants (and dignities) down. But call girls don't always come in the form of silicone sketchballs straight out of the Bada Bing. Sometimes they have hearts of gold and charisma as thick as the air on the 101! If they're played by stars, that is. We dove into our own archives and selected our top five films that revolve around the World's Oldest Profession, flicks that will surely be making their way onto Eliot Spitzer's Netflix queue in no time.
While AOL has put together a rosy list of the "hottest on-set hookups," complete with lusty make-out pictures and lovey-dovey tales from between the sheets, we feel obligated to point out that not every "hot" and heavy on-set romance leads to a fairy tale ending. In fact, a few of these couples' choices to get busy in between scenes wreaked havoc on both their personal and professional lives, leading some to lose their spouses, their reps and, in Angelina Jolie's case, a tattoo or two. We put together our own list of the top five most ill-fated on-set hookups, mainly to remind these bed-hopping stars that sometimes it's best to just say no to illicit trailer sex.
Another day, another beauty splits up with legendary duck-faced serial dater Zach Braff. Seems Shiri Appleby, like her predecessors Drew Barrymore, Mandy Moore and Kirsten Dunst, just wasn't up to Zach's inexplicably high standards. It's embarrassing to admit, but we've always embarrassingly found the Scrubs star kinda charming in a college boyfriend who makes you laugh kind of way, but then again, we're mere mortals. So why do actresses like Shiri and Drew fall head-over-heels for this guy? Still, Zach is hardly the only aesthetically-challenged male star notching hottie after hottie on their (rarely worn) belts. We select our picks for the top five improbably lucky swordsmen in Hollywood after the jump.
"I'll never write a listicle," promised exiting Gawker editor Choire Sicha, naming the article form that symbolizes mediocrity (unless you are the Constitution). And while everyone in media except Sicha remains willing to pass off lists as articles, not all listicles are equal. Here are the industry standards for number of items in a listicle.
San Francisco is the city every manchild with a wee knowledge of Ajax and a penchant for dropping vowels from proper nouns flocks to in the hopes of striking a venture capital goldmine. It's not exactly a revelation that you're all a bunch of greedy louts, but Forbes, in what is no doubt a highly scientific study, has determined San Francisco is the country's second most avarice-riddled city — beaten only by its brethren in San Jose. It's also happens to be the most proud. Who's surprised that Oakland turns up as the sixth most wrathful — that is, gun-toting — place in the U.S.?
Sad news for any schadenfreude addicts out there, but there was nary a swan head nor a peek of butt floss out to be seen on the carpet last night. Instead, we saw 80s-esque gold glitter fiascos (Faye Dunaway), billowy black muumuus (Ellen Page) and particularly poor choices in fabric, especially for a former stripper (Diablo!). While there aren't any oh-no-she-didn't moments, we were disappointed in several of the carpet walkers this evening:
Compared to the last few years of beige, gold and altogether safe ensembles, this year's Academy Awards carpet was delightfully packed with surprising silhouettes (Heidi's exaggerated popped collar), feather detail that drifted nowhere near tackiness (Jessica Alba), and form-fitting strapless dresses that made actresses (gasp!) look like they have actual curvalicious figures (Cameron Diaz). Herewith, our glance at who we think stopped the show last night with their expertly picked dresses.
The perfectly coiffed folks over at Men's Vogue decided to put together a very thorough list of the top 50 films that had the "most impact on men's style" when they came out. And their choices (The Graduate and Easy Rider among them) are certainly worthy of mention, but all that superior dressage got us wondering: which style trends should we be most thankful for NOT catching on? From Dante's distressed flannel in Clerks to those infamous white codpieces in A Clockwork Orange, we present a list of our Top 7 least favorite male fashion trends to ever disgrace the silver screen:
Demonstrating fairly impressive comedy turnaround time, David Letterman's top ten list last night was about how Jane Fonda said "cunt" on the Today show yesterday morning. The highlight is less the list (though the Katie Couric joke is funny) than Letterman's alternately gleeful and skittish explanation of the incident (also the fact that he can't quite bring himself to say "vagina."). Clip attached, enjoy.
MENSA International, the V.I.I.Q. club who claims amongst its brainy members such luminaries as Steve Martin, Geena Davis, Jodie Foster, Sharon Stone and Jimmy "180" Woods, has issued a list of what they deem to be the Top Ten Smartest TV Shows of all Time. It's a highly subjective topic sure to provoke debate, as much as for who made MENSA chair Jim Werdell's list (CSI, Boston Legal, Mad About You) as for who didn't (The Sopranos, Quantum Leap, Passions). The full list after the jump:
