Archive for February, 2007

All the stars who currently AREN'T in rehab are making an effort to let Britney know that she's loved and shit . Where were YOU people when she was out gallavanting with Paris? Couldn't you have stepped in then? The damage is already done! Her kids think she's the homeless woman who barges into their house every now and then to beg for cigarettes and Red Bull and use the toilet.

Justin Timberlake and Pink are among the stars who have secretly been reaching out to show their support to Britney Spears as the pop singer battles substance abuse in rehab. Friends claim Timberlake left a personal message for his ex-girlfriend after calling the Promises treatment centre in Malibu, California last week. A pal tells America's Life + Style magazine, "He wished her the best and told her to get healthy and come back as the Britney he knew." And Timberlake has asked Spears' mother Lynn to keep him updated with the singer's progress. Pink and Mary J. Blige have also called Promises to leave messages for Spears, who, under the centre's rules, isn't allowed to receive phonecalls during her stay.

That's nice. If Justin really cared about her, he'd lend her his stylist. Mary J., too. I don't know about Pink's, unless Britney wants to look like Pat Benatar's whimsical butch lesbian sister. With that haircut, she's got the butch part down. She should be driving a UPS truck, or piercing nipples for a living with that wiffle.

(Image source: US Magazine)

The ravishing Miss Elizabeth Taylor and her white diamonds celebrated her 75th birthday in Las Vegas. I loved my grandmother's, but I wish I could have had a third one, and it could have been Elizabeth Taylor. She wouldn't have given a shit that I liked boys. She would just want a fourth for bridge, and we could try on all her jewelry and discuss how she stole her husband's from other women. Debbie Reynolds and her daughter Princess Leia were present at the party, too. This is funny because Nana Taylor stole Eddie Fisher, Debbie's then husband and Carrie's Dad back in the dark ages and married his ass. Talk about forgiveness on Debbie's part. I'd be putting ground glass in her salad.

(Splash)

Find out which celebs attended Elizabeth Taylor's birthday bash in Vegas after the jump.

(Splash)

• The Fantastic Four 2 trailer is now online, and it features a little boy-on-boy affection courtesy of co-star Chris Evans. [Towleroad]
• According to Star magazine, Howard K. Stern pimped out Anna Nicole Smith to various dudes because he felt it was "good for business and good for the future," whatever that means. [INO]
• Vincent Pastore says no to "Dancing With the Stars. [People]
• Sorry, 'Las Vegas' fans; the NBC drama will return for it's fifth season without co-stars James Caan and Nikki Cox. [ICYDK]
• Pete Doherty reportedly moved in with girlfriend Kate Moss. The crackhead was spotted carrying his belongings--a gold record, a banjo, and a car seat--into her North London home. [SOW]
• Gwen Stefani claimed she didn't intend for her solo career to continue on for a second album; the singer said she's ready to reunite with her old band, No Doubt. [CDL]

Filed under: Newsstand

Back in 1989, writer-director Steven Soderbergh crashed onto the scene with his film Sex, Lies, and Videotape; pic later went on to win the Golden Palm at Cannes and was nominated for an original screenplay Oscar. So, it’s only fitting that 18 years later Soderbergh would receive a jury summons in the mail (yes, just like the rest of us) — requiring him to head to the courthouse and await further instructions — for a case that eerily mirrors the title of his break-out film.

The case in question is that of a 40-year-old teacher who has plead not guilty after being accused of statutory rape and sodomy of two teenage boys. She’s currently on leave from the school and claims to be innocent … but there’s always that chance she’s lying about all that sex. After answering a few questions from the prosecutor and defense attorney, the judge dismissed Soderbergh when the director said he was too busy to participate (even though the defense attorney argued to keep the high-profile filmmaker there; apparently, they thought he would make a good juror).

Sure, we’re not all shooting films about the Argentinian revolutionary Ernesto ‘Che’ Guevara, but I imagine the rest of the folks in that room had better things to do. Unfortunately, no one bothered to ask Soderbergh if he planned to acquire the school teacher’s life rights, round up a bunch of non-actors and shoot a low-budget digital film for HDNet Films and 2929 Productions. I don’t know about you, but that would’ve been my first question.

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In true full Broderism, the likes of Reps. Allen Boyd, Dennis Moore, and Mike Ross are trumpeting their moderating influences on the Democratic party in today's Roll Call [subscription]. Here's a choice bit from Boyd:

"Let's face it, we all know that both parties, in large part, are controlled by extremes that in some cases are different from what we might represent in the middle," Boyd said. "We don't think the Speaker's philosophy or her particular district's philosophy is important. What we think is important is the management style she uses. How she is inclusive with us, how she acts."

We all know that Nancy Pelosi is an extremist? Only Allen Boyd and his band of 44 Blue Dogs represent the middle? The remaining 190 Dems are a bunch of far-left whacked out extremists? Yes, Allen Boyd, because you have such a positive attitude toward your party and because you are so helpful to the Democratic cause, by all means, Speaker Pelosi should include you. Just think about what you did for us on Social Security. You were so absolutely helpful on that one, being the only Democrat to support Bush's Social Security privatization plan. What a triumph of moderation and bipartisanship that one was.

In all seriousness, the arrogance with which Allen and his merry band of Blue Dog Dems are approaching their role in the party is an obvious problem for leadership. Consider this:

On a recent weekday afternoon, leaders of the moderate group gathered in the office of Rep. Mike Ross (D-Ark.), the coalition's communications chairman, to discuss their place in the new majority, as well as their aims for the 110th Congress. In addition to Ross and Moore, the group included Democratic Reps. Allen Boyd (Fla.), the group's administration chairman, Stephanie Herseth (S.D.), the group's whip, and John Tanner (Tenn.), a co-founder of the Blue Dogs and a current co-chairman of its political action committee.

"I think one of the things that's different now, I think there was a time when Blue Dogs were looked at by some Democrats as though perhaps they weren't really Democrats and I think that's no longer the case," Ross said.

"I think people are recognizing that not only do we represent the middle, which is where we believe the American people are and certainly where we are, I think people within our own Caucus now recognize that we have created the majority and that we have done some pretty heavy lifting as a group to ensure that Democrats did regain a majority...."

In addition, Boyd asserted that Democratic leadership has "been very inclusive when it comes to the committee assignments. They have been very inclusive when it comes to consulting us on legislation. We meet with them on a regular basis."

Did we become a parliamentary government while America wasn't looking? Do we now have a coalition government in which this splinter group of Democrats, a minority of the voting bloc, can work against the will of the majority to gum up the works?

But wait, it gets better:

"We think this is the group that represents where the greatest bloc of Americans are — toward that big middle. Not far left, not far right, but that big middle, that's going to be able to get things done," he added. "And it's going to have to be done on a bipartisan basis."

Did they learn nothing from the previous 12 years in the wilderness? This is not a Republican party interested in bipartisanship. The Bush administration is not interested in working with any Democrats. The Republican party and the Bush administration is interested in using the Blue Dogs as a wedge in the Democratic majority. They are using the Blue Dogs to further nothing but the Republican cause.

The Blue Dog Dems are kidding themselves if they think they are on the vanguard of the new Democratic party--the Democrats didn't so much win in many of these districts as the Republicans lost, and the Republicans lost in large part because of the absolutely disastrous Iraq war. A war which the American people expect a new Democratic Congress to do its utmost to get us out of. And how do they repay that trust the American people have given them? They work actively to derail the Murtha plan, a plan which, btw, a majority of the American public supports!

The Blue Dogs have led the way on some important fiscal issues, taking the lead on pay-as-you-go funding limitations being passed in the first 100 hours. They should stick with the fiscal issues, those core issues for them. And stay the hell out of the Iraq debate if they can do nothing more than splinter the caucus.

(Flynet/WENN)

Cameron Diaz and Jennifer Aniston had a plastic surgery-klatch about the dude who worked rhinoplasty miracles for them. I don't see a difference. But I'm sure when you're a neurotic Hollywood-type, a miniscule shaving of flesh can make you a new woman.

Cameron Diaz, 34, couldn't stop gushing to Jennifer Aniston, 38, about a certain mystery man the two have in common, as the duo partied the evening away at the Night Before Oscar party at the Beverly Hills Hotel on February 24.

Who was this mystery man? None other than Beverly Hills plastic surgeon Raj Kanodia, the man behind Diaz and Aniston's recent rhinoplasty surgeries. (Aniston went under the knife on January 20, while Diaz had hers done last November). While Diaz, 34, gushed to Aniston that her nose was "the nose my nose always wanted to be," she also couldn't help raving about Kanodia's spiritual side and the impact it's had on her life.

I love how they keep repeating Cameron's age. She must adore that. No wonder why she's taken to lying around public parks and smoking herb and not caring. People keep rubbing in how decrepit she is. She's practically dust. A big pile of dust with yellowed dentures. And maybe one of those canes that ends in a miniature walker.