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David Blaine has suffered liver failure and other permanent damage after attempting to break the world record for holding one’s breath underwater.
 Magician David Blaine left the hospital Tuesday where he had been admitted for observation after being submerged in an 8-foot fish bowl with an oxygen mask for a week followed by a 7-minute breath-holding stunt.
Rescue divers jumped into the 2,000-gallon saltwater tank Monday night and hauled up the magician as he struggled to break a breath-holding record of 8 minutes, 58 seconds. Blaine, who had spent some 177 hours under water, went without air for 7 minutes, 8 seconds as a finale to his endurance stunt.
After being given oxygen, Blaine, 33, looking weak and wrinkly, addressed the large crowd that had gathered around the tank on the plaza of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. “I am humbled so much by the support of everyone from New York City and from all over the world,” Blaine said. “This was a very difficult week, but you all made it fly by with your strong support and your energy.”
The challenge had taken a toll on the magician’s body, including liver damage, pins and needles in his feet and hands, some loss of sensation and rashes, said Dr. Murat Gunel, who heads Blaine’s medical team and is associate professor of neurosurgery at Yale University School of Medicine. His medical team and trainer said they would talk in detail about his condition at a news conference later Tuesday.
Blaine started training in December, with some help from Navy SEALS. He lost 50 pounds so his body would require less oxygen. The water temperature was regulated to help keep his core temperature near 98.6 degrees, and he ate and relieved himself by tubes. He remained tethered to an oxygen tube.
As early as on the second day of his challenge, Gunel said, there was evidence that Blaine was suffering liver failure; the medical team consulted with medical experts at NASA before stabilizing his condition. Blaine’s underwater environment was similar to the weightlessness experienced by astronauts in outer space, he said. “I told him he needed to get out of the water, and he refused me,” said Gunel. “He said he did not want to let the people down.” The doctor said Blaine had agreed to allow researchers at Yale to examine him after the stunt to see what they can learn about how the body responds to the environment underwater.
All this for a feat which, if accomplished, would have impressed virtually no one.
Popularity: 20% [?]
Jessica Simpson wore a red wig to something called the NCLR ALMA awards over the weekend.
ET has the details.
Blonde bombshell JESSICA SIMPSON showed off a sassy new look over the weekend at the star-studded ALMA awards. She had smoldering, red hair! Our own KEVIN FRAZIER was with the A-lister to get the star scoop! “It’s a wig!” she told Kevin on the red carpet. “I put eyeshadow on the blonde to hide it.”
In fact, the wig is part of Jessica’s new hairpiece line coming out soon, as reported by “The Insider”‘s own MARC MALKIN on March 21.
If the reaction of the Gossip Blogosphere is any reaction, this was not a marketing sensation.
IDLYITW’s Todd “Not that she needed it, but the new orange hair thing she has going on just makes her look even more stupid.”
Celeb Guru Ritu: “But just like her attempts to save her marriage, her efforts of looking sexy fell flat that night.”
Miu von Furstenburg is more cryptic, “Very Jessica Rabbit-esque, don’t you think? ”
Hollywood Tuna ignores Simpson altogether in his photo montage of the event.
Frankly, while I prefer her as a blonde or brunette, she looks pretty good to me as a redhead.
   
Then again, it’s not as if her hair is getting most of the attention.
Popularity: 18% [?]
Nicole Kidman still pines for Tom Cruise, who divorced her for no apparent reason.
Nicole Kidman says her divorce from Tom Cruise was a “major shock” — and, she still loves him. “That was a major shock,” the 38-year-old actress says in an interview in the June issue of Ladies’ Home Journal, on newsstands Tuesday. “He was huge; still is. To me, he was just Tom, but to everybody else, he is huge. But he was lovely to me. And I loved him. I still love him,” she tells the magazine.
Quite odd.
Popularity: 9% [?]
To celebrate the demise of a show I have never watched, the creators of the “Gilmore Girls” are bringing in several bands of whom I have never heard.
“Gilmore Girls” creator Amy Sherman-Palladino is going out on a high note, with her last episode for the WB series filled with her musical favorites. “It might be the coolest thing we’ve ever done,” Sherman-Palladino said of Tuesday’s season finale featuring the “eclectic” musicians she admires and lured to the show. “We’ve put together our own Gilmorepalooza,” added her husband, Daniel Palladino, a fellow executive producer on the series.
The couple said last month they were leaving the comedy-drama after failing to reach agreement on a new studio contract. Dave Rosenthal, a writer and producer on the show, will be in charge when it makes its expected move to the new CW network, the result of a WB-UPN merger. Among the artists featured on the sixth-season finale are Sonic Youth, Sam Phillips, Yo La Tengo, Sparks and Joe Pernice.
I have actually heard of Sonic Youth, although I couldn’t name a song without Googling. I’ve heard of Sam Phillips, too, but am guessing this is not the legendary Sun Records owner who discovered Elvis, Johnny Cash, and Jerry Lee Lewis.
Popularity: 10% [?]
The names “Jay and the Americans” and “Jay Black” may be sold to pay off the singer’s gambling debts.
Jay Black, lead singer of the 1960s group Jay and the Americans, might have to relinquish his name — and the band’s — to help pay off $500,000 in back taxes. Lawyers for the bankruptcy trustee handling the case recommended this week that the name “Jay and the Americans” be auctioned. They also have proposed barring Black, born David Blatt, from performing as “Jay Black” or “Jay Black and the Americans.”
Black, 67, said that gambling plunged him into debt but that he has conquered the habit. He will consider selling “Jay and the Americans,” but he must retain “Jay Black and the Americans” so he can continue to tour, he said. “I am trying to dig myself out of this black hole,” Black said Friday. “If they take my name away, it would be my total ruination. It would be like forcing Elvis to sell his name to someone else. How can an impostor perform as Elvis?”
He might have chosen a better example.
Regardless, the idea is rather silly on a number of levels. First, Black/Blatt is right that forcing him to sell off his only hope of making a living is an odd solution to bankruptcy. Second, owning the name “Jay and the Americans” would not make the purchaser a rock and roll band, let alone one that sounded like Jay and the Americans. Third, how much could the name “Jay and the Americans” possibly sell for? The group was essentially a cover band that had a handful of minor hits in the 1960s doing remakes of Motown songs.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Dita Von Teese, who is inexplicably married to androgynous oddity Marylin Manson, has written a book, Burlesque And The Art Of Teese, explaining how to seduce a man. She shared some of her secrets with the Sun‘s Louise Compton.
Apply lipstick in full view of your victim. This is particularly effective when done slowly and with a pretty compact.
Adjust your garter or stockings as though you were attempting to do it discreetly.
Allow your stiletto heel to dangle from one foot.
Touch yourself lightly in places you would want him to touch such as your neck, hair or face. Do this subtly as he talks to you and remember to be fascinated by every word he says.
Go to the powder room. Captivate every man in the room by gliding confidently and effortlessly across the room in your stilettos.
Wear something that feels nice to the touch, like velvet, silk or cashmere.
Wear your signature scent lightly and make him lean in close to smell it.
Eat sexy food such as strawberries and cherries. This isn’t about tying a cherry stem with your tongue to show off, it’s about effortless and natural seduction and this should be applied to all of the above tips.
Of course, those tips are much more effective if you’ve got an amazing body and men already want you.
   
Images via Miu von Furstenberg, whose comments section has a delightful discussion as to whether von Teese is actually sexy at all.
Popularity: 23% [?]
CPG asks, “Anna’s certainly grown up to be a beautiful young woman, hasn’t she?”
Yes, she has. Not that this is a recent development.
    
See CPG for more photos.
Popularity: 41% [?]
Madonna is appearing in a 58-page photo spread with some horses in W magazine.
 Madonna is back in the saddle again. The Material Girl/Mom, who broke nine bones in a horse riding accident last year, stars with six Andalusian stallions in a 58-page photo spread in W magazine’s June issue, on newsstands May 19. On the magazine’s cover, she wears equestrian-inspired garb, complete with a riding crop and fishnet stockings.
No inside photos yet but the W staff apparently gets creative. You pretty much have to if you’re taking 58 pages of photos.
Madonna posed for W at least once before, back in 2003. Here are some shots from that appearance:
  
Popularity: 15% [?]
Michael Jackson is not happy about a GQ spoof piece entitled “Where’s Michael?”
 A recent GQ article spoofing Michael Jackson has the singer demanding the magazine apologize and pull the issue from circulation. In a statement released Friday, Jackson’s representative, Raymone K. Bain, said Jackson is “furious” about a series of photos featuring a Jackson impersonator in the magazine’s May issue, now on newsstands.
The photos accompany an article called “Where’s Michael?” which documents writer Devin Friedman’s quest to find Jackson in Bahrain, the Middle Eastern country where he lives. In one photo, a Jackson look-alike sits in a darkened movie theater amid a row of children. Another photo shows him standing in the desert draped in a black cloak and headscarf, with his trademark glittery white glove.
The statement said: “Mr. Jackson is furious that his image has been used in such a misleading way, and is demanding an apology from the editors of GQ, and its publisher, Conde Nast. Mr. Jackson is also demanding that the magazines be pulled from newsstands.”
Jim Nelson, GQ editor-in-chief, responded with a statement Friday: “It is very clear that the pictures in the story … are satirical, whether it’s a picture of a Michael Jackson imitator sitting in a Bahraini cinema or an image of The Gloved One standing flamboyantly in the desert. “Mr. Jackson may feel that the person in the photographs is an `impostor,’ but he is merely an imitator,” said Nelson.
The feature is currently available online, although only one of the photos is included.
The obsessed know that Michael Jackson has been living in the tiny nation of Bahrain for almost a year. Possibly as a cross-dresser, a drug addict, a Muslim, or at least a still weird human being. After his acquittal last June, he vacated Neverland, flew east, and disappeared into the desert, presumably to escape an entire nation that no longer loved him.
In the intervening year, those who had been searching for it will have found some coverage of Michael Jackson’s life in the Middle East. Sunday Mirror, September 18, 2005: Seen cruising Bahrain in a red Ferrari he had shipped from America. New York Post, November 14, 2005: Went shopping for toys. Daily News, November 15, 2005: Spotted in the women’s bathroom at a mall while visiting Dubai, wearing women’s clothing and applying makeup. (After which Michael Jackson’s spokeswoman in Washington, D.C., issued a statement in response, which was picked up by the Associated Press: It was all a mistake! Wrong door!) Some of the news coverage has been sensationalistic: One plotline has it that Michael Jackson is taking forty Xanaxes a day, delivered via secret flights from California. Which is somehow tied to some underpants that investigators had found at Neverland that tested positive for trace amounts of cocaine but were never introduced at the trial because, you know, anyone could have been handling those underpants (unclear how it all links up, but underpants and cocaine: a bad combination for Mr. Sleepover). And the Jackson family, having caught wind of this addiction, was supposedly set to stage an intervention in which they’d fly to Bahrain and get him the help he needs, thereby preserving the life to which he is now hanging on to by a thread.
I could see where Jackson might be angry. The piece is not presented as a satire, so it could conceivably confuse some readers. Jackson might have a case here.
Popularity: 11% [?]
Eva Longoria loves to play air hockey – naked. So reports FemaleFirst.
The sexy ‘Desperate Housewives’ star revealed her favourite pastime is playing saucy games with boyfriend Tony Parker in their Texan mansion. Eva, 31, explained their version of air hockey has a wicked twist for the loser. She told Britain’s New magazine: “It involved nudity. I had to run around the outside of the house. Naked!”
The brunette has also admitted she hopes ‘Desperate Housewives’ finishes soon to stop people getting bored of the hit series. She said: “I tell Tony all the time there’s no amount of money that would make me decide to stay for the sake of it. I want to do movies.”
Now, movies of her playing air hockey naked would certainly be popular.
Popularity: 29% [?]
As rumored, last night’s “Lost” saw the apparent shooting deaths of the characters played by Michelle Rodriguez and Cynthia Watros, who just coincidentally were involved in separate DUI incidents on the same evening. TV Guide‘s Michael Ausiello reports that producers Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse had this planned long before the arrests.
Ausiello: Was it always your intention to use Ana Lucia as a one-season character?
Damon Lindelof: A lot of this is going to sound like spin, so all we can give you is our word that this is exactly what happened. Around late February of last year, we started throwing our respective lines in the water to find the leader of the tail section, who we knew was going to be a Latina woman and who would be conceived as a romantic foil for Jack. We wanted her to be in her mid-thirties and be a detective from the LAPD. So we started putting out feelers unofficially because we wanted her to show up in the penultimate episode of last year. That way, when we started our plan for Season 2, it wouldn’t feel like we had pulled her out of our asses. So, right around that time…
Carlton Cuse: I got a call from Michelle’s agent saying, “Would you guys be interested in Michelle Rodriguez? But she’s really only interested in being on the show for a year.”
Damon: So we basically said, “A year is not necessarily ideal for us, but let’s bring in Michelle and have the meeting.” And she came in and met with Carlton and I and then, in the last 15 minutes, J.J. [Abrams] happened to be across the way doing some Alias stuff and he came over and sat down with her and we just hung out with her and chatted. It turned out that she worked in Hawaii on Blue Crush and knew a lot of people down there. But she made it very clear in that meeting that she’s sort of a nomadic spirit and she did not want to commit to doing any more than [one season]. She wanted to do one kickass arc, as she described it, and we basically started to wrap our brains around her energy and say, “Yeah, we’ll bring you on the show and then we’ll kill you off at the end of the year.” And she was totally cool with it and we were totally cool with it, and we parted ways and talked amongst ourselves. Obviously, the network and the studio normally don’t want to get into a situation where they’re not making multiyear deals, but we assured them that this was in fact the plan, and that even if Michelle was a rocking sensation on the show, we were going to stick to the plan. So they signed off on it and made the deal accordingly.
Ausiello: And then the DUI…
Carlton: Then she got this DUI and Damon and I looked at each other and we were like, “Oh, great. Everybody is going to think we’re killing her off because she got a DUI.” But there really wasn’t anything we could do about that. I mean, the story was set. We had made plans. With Lost, we think it out well ahead of when we actually shoot it. We thought about altering our plan, but [this] was in fact what was best for the show. The fact that she got a DUI would come and go and what would live on would be the show, and our plan was still the best plan for the character. Ironically, we actually thought about changing it the other way around once [the DUI] happened, but it really was the best story. We wanted to tell the best story.
Damon: And obviously that decision was further mitigated by the fact that Libby is shot at the same time as Ana Lucia. Basically then we said, “Oh, s–t. Both Michelle and Cynthia were busted the same night for DUI and we’ve got this story point coming up where they essentially both get shot at the same time, so it’s going to look like this is the Lost producers attempt to say, ‘Don’t drive drunk!’” But as Carlton says, all it created in us was [the thought that], “Maybe we shouldn’t do the plan now, ’cause people are going to think this is a reaction to [the DUIs], as opposed to this [plan] existing prior to that event.”
Carlton: As you’ll see, everything that happens for the rest of the season all sort of falls from this event. And we’re not doing ourselves or the fans of the show or the show itself any service by altering those plans because of Michelle’s extracurricular activities.
 Frankly, I’m not going to miss the Ana Lucia character. The tough Latina bad cop with a chip on her shoulder routine got old very quickly.
Still, Michelle Rodriguez filled out her bikini nicely. And the scene where she seduced Sawyer and had sex with him in order to steal his gun, while incredibly predictable (did any of us other than Sawyer not see that coming?) had the potential to lead to some interesting moments later in the show.
Popularity: 23% [?]
Star Wars fans can go back to the future with DVDs of the unaltered versions of the original trilogy scheduled to hit stores this fall.
Die-hard Star Wars fans soon can see the original theatrical versions of the first three Star Wars films on DVD.
Even though George Lucas adamantly declared 2004′s digitally restored Star Wars Trilogy DVDs the definitive versions of his movies, fans have held out hope for DVDs of the originals. Their wishes will be granted Sept. 12 when Fox releases new two-disc DVDs ($30 each) of Star Wars (since retitled as Episode IV: A New Hope), The Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi that include the films as they first appeared in theaters, along with the new, restored versions (now available in the four-disc $70 Star Wars Trilogy).
[...]
Fan attachment to the originals is strong. The movies topped entertainment website IGN.com’s recent chart of Top 25 Most Wanted DVDs. “People want the option of having the movies that they remember and people are opposed to George Lucas’ revisionist tendencies,” says the site’s Chris Carle.
The original films’ video quality will not match up to that of the restored versions. “It is state of the art, as of 1993, and that’s not as good as state of the art 2006,” Ward says.
The idea of movies, especially hugely popular classics, as a work in progress is an odd one. Still, most of us routinely by DVD versions of more recent films that differ from the theatrical releases, with the Director’s Cut and additional scenes. No one seems to have a problem with that. And we’re not just talking about films no one will remember.
Some examples:
Monty Python and the Holy Grail
Just announced from Columbia is the two-disc set of Monty Python And The Holy Grail. Replacing the previous. Largely disappointing release, this new two-discs special edition looks terrific. Featuring a new “21st Anniversary” cut of the film running an extra 24 seconds, the feature is presented in anamorphic widescreen, English 5.1 along with the original mono track, subtitles in English, French and Spanish and even a separate subtitle track “for people who don’t like the film” (with text from Shakespeare’s Henry IV!), an “onscreen screenplay” allowing you to read the screenplay while you watch, audio commentary with Terry Gilliam, Terry Jones, John Cleese, Eric Idle and Michael Palin and “Follow the Killer Rabbit” (yes!). Disc two includes”Three Mindless Sing-Alongs” and “The Quest for the Holy Grail Locations” featurette, “How to Use Your Coconuts” educational film, “Monty Python and the Holy Grail in Japanese” (with English subtitles), the BBC Film Night special “On Location with the Pythons,” an interactive cast directory, still galleries with Terry Gilliam’s original sketches and behind-the-scenes photos, “A Load Of Rubbish” with mystery items, unused ideas and other material, and finally two trailers and weblinks. Retail is $29.95. Sweet!
The Wild Bunch, which one reviewer dubs, “one of the most influential films in cinematic history and arguably the greatest western ever made.”
The 144-minute director’s cut enhances the theme of male bonding that recurs in many of Peckinpah’s films, restoring deleted scenes to deepen the viewer’s understanding of the friendship turned rivalry between Pike and his former friend Deke Thornton (Robert Ryan), who now leads a posse in pursuit of the bunch, a dimension that adds resonance to an already classic American film. The Wild Bunch is a masterpiece that should not be defined strictly in terms of its violence, but as a story of mythic proportion, brimming with rich characters and dialogue and the bittersweet irony of outlaw traditions on the wane.
Superman (1978, Christopher Reeve version)
For this brand-new, fully restored DVD release of Superman: The Movie, director Richard Donner has reinstated eight minutes of footage cut from the original 1978 theatrical release. The overall effect of the new footage is just more of a great thing. The additions help to flesh out characters a bit more, especially Jor-El (Marlon Brando), given his short screen time in the original. Such additions as a scene where Superman discusses his newfound purpose with his long since gone father is a good example. This is a rare case in which the changes made for a new special edition don’t detract from the story, such as they often do in many other director’s cuts and alternate versions. (For a detailed look at the changes made to the new edition, visit our Cut List update.)
Now, granted, these examples at least involve scenes filmed along with the rest of the movie, the original actors, and so forth. But it’s odd that there is essentially no controversy over this type of thing and yet Lucas has been the subject of South Park parodies and sheer vitriol over his tinkerings.
Popularity: 8% [?]
Matt Leinart’s draft stock plummeted by staying in school for another year, falling from a surefire #1 overall pick in 2005 to #10 this draft. He does get an interesting consolation prize, however: Paris Hilton:
 Matt Leinart celebrated being drafted into the NFL by partying at a Las Vegas nightclub on Tuesday with Paris Hilton. For the record, Leinart was joined at the club PURE by more than 200 of his closest friends, including Nick Lachey, Wilmer Valderrama and Danny Masterson – but he spent the better part of the evening with the newly single Hilton, a source tells PEOPLE. On his way into the bash, the 22-year-old, 6’5″, Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, who was recently drafted by the Arizona Cardinals, told PEOPLE, “After this, it’s all business, all NFL.”
Inside, he danced with Hilton, 25, on the club’s VIP beds. She called him “baby” and rested her head on his back, sometimes holding his hand, says the source. The pair danced the night away – and at one point disappeared together behind closed doors in the club’s private suite.
Ah, the life of a famous athlete.
Popularity: 17% [?]
California is about to ban private ownership of ultrasound machines on the unlikely grounds that Tom Cruise will set a trend.
The California Assembly has voted to restrict the use of ultrasound machines for personal use, approving a bill that would allow them to be sold only to licensed professionals. Democratic Assemblyman Ted Lieu introduced the bill after “Mission: Impossible III” star Tom Cruise bought an ultrasound machine to see images of his unborn child. The actor’s fiancee, Katie Holmes, gave birth to the couple’s daughter, Suri, last month in Los Angeles.
Doctors and technologists typically receive years of training to perform ultrasound exams, which help obstetricians check a baby’s health. Cruise was criticized by doctors who said improperly using the devices can harm a fetus. Lieu said his bill was intended to prohibit copycats from using the devices at home. An ultrasound machine listed on the online auction site eBay was selling for $5,500 Wednesday. “What we don’t want is someone who unintentionally damages the fetus,” Lieu said Thursday on the Assembly floor.
Who, aside from a crazy Hollywood actor with more money than brains is likely to buy an ultrasound machine for private use?
Popularity: 11% [?]
Time for another OTB Gone Hollywood Caption ContestTM
(AP Photo/ABC,Donna Svennevik)
Gone Hollywood Caption Contest Winners will be announced next Tuesday
Popularity: 22% [?]
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