Sacha Baron Cohen pissed off Italian police and fashionistas alike yesterday after wreaking havoc through a major Milan fashion show as Bruno — his flamboyantly gay version of Borat — without permission.
After somehow sneaking his way onto the catwalk in a ridiculously awesome velcro suit, Cohen managed to get about halfway down the runway before a bunch of hoity toity tightasses freaked out and dragged the dude off the stage and into a waiting police car.
Madonna is done sucking the youth and life force of Justin Timberlake and is now moving back to Britney Spears. She and Brit Brit will be combining their super powers for Madge’s Sticky and Sweet tour. New details from the collaboration are popping up daily.
“Apparently a hooded Spears can be seen inside an elevator, where she is pacing back and forth - kicking and punching the walls, like a wild beast. When Madonna asks who the figure is, Britney removes the hood to deliver her catchphrase, “It’s Britney bitch”.”
“The footage, which will include the pair gyrating against each other, will be screened to fans on Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet world tour via giant video screens.”
To add to Madonna’s classical style of shock factor and sex, details of a nude scene have emerged. They participate in some bondage play and dry humping, all of which will be shown on the giant screens during the concerts.
“Britney and Madonna are unwrapped like mummies, to appear together almost naked apart from tiny leather bondage pants and knee-high boots. They then dance closely together, pressing their hands and bodies together. There will be big rows over whether it is sexy, shocking or both.”
The last time they did a video together it was pretty mundane. (Remember the dullness of Me Against the Music?)
The goal is to trump their lesbian tongue kiss circa the 2003 MTV Awards. I think that by today’s standards a lesbian kiss on tv is very soap opera. Short of a donkey, a blow dryer and large amounts of Jell-o nothing they do would surprise me.
Prosecutors cleared JonBenet Ramsey’s parents and brother Wednesday in the 1996 killing of the 6-year-old beauty queen, saying they were “deeply sorry” for putting the family under a cloud of suspicion that hung heavy for more than a decade.
New DNA tests, which focus on skin cells left behind from a mere touch, point to a mysterious outsider. They came too late to clear the name of JonBenet’s mother, Patsy, who died of cancer in 2006.
“To the extent that we may have contributed in any way to the public perception that you might have been involved in this crime, I am deeply sorry,” Boulder County District Attorney Mary Lacy wrote in a letter to the little girl’s father, John Ramsey. “No innocent person should have to endure such an extensive trial in the court of public opinion.”
Lacy said new “touch DNA” tests on skin cells that were left behind on JonBenet’s long underwear point to an “unexplained third party” and not a member of the family.
John Ramsey, a software entrepreneur who now lives in Michigan, said Wednesday he is hopeful the killer will be found based on the DNA evidence.
“I think the people that are in charge of the investigation are focused on that, and that gives me a lot of comfort,” he told KUSA-TV in Denver. He added: “Certainly we are grateful that they acknowledged that we, based on that, certainly could not have been involved.”
For years after the slaying, tabloids and crime shows went after the couple, and Lacy’s predecessor as district attorney, Alex Hunter, said in 1997 that the parents were under an “umbrella of suspicion.” News reports also cast suspicion on JonBenet’s older brother, Burke, who was 9 when his sister was killed.
The suspicions outlived Patsy, who died at age 49 in Atlanta, where the family moved after JonBenet’s death.
“My first thought was obviously I wish Patsy Ramsey was here with us to be able to at least share vindication of her family,” said L. Lin Wood, an attorney for the Ramsey family. “There are many people in this country, if not around the world, that also owe John and Patsy Ramsey and Burke Ramsey an apology.”
Early in the investigation, police found male DNA in a drop of blood on JonBenet’s underwear and determined it was not from anyone in her family. But Lacy said investigators were unable to say who it came from and whether that person was the killer.
Then, late last year, prosecutors turned over long underwear JonBenet was wearing to the Bode Technology Group near Washington, which looked for “touch DNA,” or cells left behind where someone has touched something.
The lab has only been using this technology for about three years.
The laboratory found previously undiscovered genetic material on the sides of the girl’s long underwear, where an attacker would have grasped the clothing to pull it down, authorities said. The DNA matched the genetic material found earlier.
Lacy said the presence of the same male DNA in three places on the girl’s clothing convinced investigators it belonged to JonBenet’s killer and had not been left accidentally by an innocent party.
“It is therefore the position of the Boulder District Attorney’s Office that this profile belongs to the perpetrator of the homicide,” she said in a statement. In her letter to the Ramseys, she said the DNA evidence “has vindicated your family.”
She said investigators hope someday to find a DNA match in the ever-expanding national DNA databank.
Through a spokeswoman, Lacy declined to comment any further.
John Ramsey found his daughter’s strangled and bludgeoned body in the basement of the family’s home in Boulder on Dec. 26, 1996. Patsy Ramsey said she found a ransom note demanding $118,000 for her daughter.
In all honesty, I don’t think they’ll ever figure out who killed this poor little girl.
source: JonBenet’s family cleared by DNA [chicago sun]
Albert Hofmann, the Swiss chemist who discovered the hallucinogenic drug LSD, has died of a heart attack at his home in Basel at the age of 102.
Mr Hofmann first produced LSD in 1938 while researching the medicinal uses of a crop fungus. He accidentally ingested some of the drug and said later:
“Everything I saw was distorted as in a warped mirror.”
He argued for decades that LSD could help treat mental illness, but in the 1960s it became a popular street drug.
While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann ingested some of the drug through his fingertips.
He went home and experienced what he described as visions of “fantastic pictures, extraordinary shapes with intense, kaleidoscopic play of colours”.
The drug was popularised by Harvard professor Timothy Leary who suggested that people “turn on, tune in, drop out”.
Rock stars and the counter-culture of the 1960s picked up LSD as a wonder drug but horror stories began to emerge of users suffering permanent psychological damage.
LSD was made illegal in many countries beginning in the late 1960s. At 102, they can’t say the drugs killed him.
The guy best know for peeing on the red carpet and subjecting himself to torturous acts in order to get some attention, is in Cedars-Sinai Medical Center under a suicide watch. He started making threats of killing himself via emails sent to some of his friends.
After a romance failed he has gone off the deep end and a concerned female friend and his bodygaurd took him to Cedars-Sinai on Sunday.
After walking through the door of the hospital he again went crazy and flipped out. He was screaming about breaking every bone in his body. Doctors quickly got him stabilized thanks to the help of some medication. The hospital has also been treating Steve-O for for self inflicted burns. The Jackass star had been putting cigarettes out on his own skin.
“Right now he’s in his extreme mania,” a family member said. “His concerned friends and family are hoping he’ll seek treatment. He doesn’t need jail, he needs therapy. We’re just really hoping that this will be the wake-up call that gets him back to himself.”
According to his family he has been diagnosed with bipolar disorder. He refuses to take care of himself and has remained untreated despite doctor’s orders.
Either he is elaborately punking everyone or this boy needs some serious help. Scratch that. Steve-O needs help no matter the situation. Get well soon crazy.
Source: Jackass Star on Suicide Watch [Star Magazine]
New York Governor Elliot Spitzer is “involved” in a prostitution ring. Details are still sketchy.
Gov. Eliot Spitzer has informed his most senior administration officials that he had been involved in a prostitution ring, an administration official said this morning. Mr. Spitzer, who was huddled with his top aides inside his Fifth Avenue apartment early this afternoon, had hours earlier abruptly canceled his scheduled public events for the day. He had scheduled an announcement for 2:15 this afternoon after inquiries from the Times. But his appearance was delayed by at least 45 minutes.
Mr. Spitzer, a first-term Democrat who pledged to bring ethics reform and end the often seamy ways of Albany, is married with three children.
Just last week, federal prosecutors arrested four people in connection with an expensive prostitution operation. Administration officials would not say that this was the ring with which the governor had become involved. But a person with knowledge of the governor’s role said that the person believes the governor is one of the men identified as clients in court papers.
The governor’s travel records show that he was in Washington in mid-February. One of the clients described in court papers arranged to meet with a prostitute who was part of the ring, the Emperors Club VIP on the night of Feb. 13. Mr. Spitzer appeared on a CNBC television show at 7 a.m. the next morning. Later in the morning, he testified before a Congressional committee.
Aside from a general sense that chief executive officers ought to obey the laws they’re charged with enforcing and that married men ought to be faithful to their wives, I really don’t care much about this story. The interesting angle, really, is the hypocrisy bit:
Spitzer has built his political legacy on rooting out corruption, including several headline-making battles with Wall Street while serving as attorney general. He stormed into the governor’s office in 2006 with a historic share of the vote, vowing to continue his no-nonsense approach to fixing one of the nation’s worst governments.
Time magazine had named him “Crusader of the Year” when he was attorney general and the tabloids proclaimed him “Eliot Ness.”
But his stint as governor has been marred by several problems, including an unpopular plan to grant driver’s licenses to illegal immigrants and a plot by his aides to smear Spitzer’s main Republican nemesis.
Spitzer had been expected to testify to the state Public Integrity Commission he had created to answer for his role in the scandal, in which his aides are accused of misusing state police to compile travel records to embarrass Senate Republican leader Joseph Bruno.
Having only cursory knowledge of the two scandals, the misuse of the powers of office to harass a political opponent strikes me as more problematic than patronizing prostitutes.
More commentary will follow if the story develops into something more interesting.
Other reax:
Marc Ambinder notes “Spitzer is a Clinton superdelegate.”
Flip Bidot entitles his post “From Troopergate To Shtupergate”
Steve Benen: “[I]t’s hard to believe brilliant people in positions of responsibility could be this stupid and this self-destructive. And yet, here we are.”
Jon Henke wonders if it isn’t time to change the laws.
Sean Hackbarth: “The man who demagogued his way to the governor’s mansion on the backs of Wall Street firms ends up in deep doo-doo.”
Will Bunch: “WNBC-TV says prosecutors have text messages from Spitzer(no link yet). On MSNBC, there’s also talk that this prostitution ring is linked to a probe of the Gambino crime family — still, just wow.”
Bob Owens: “It remains to be seen what political impact this breaking development will have, but all snark aside, my thoughts and prayers go out to his daughters—I think they are teenagers—and his wife.”
UPDATE: Various reports have Spitzer resigning. Headline changed accordingly. Developing.
CNBC reports that, “If Eliot Spitzer resigns, he would be succeeded by Lt. Governor David A. Paterson, who would become New York’s first African American governor and the first who is legally blind.”
UPDATE:Fox’s report on Spitzer’s resignation, “Sources: Spitzer to Resign Following Reports of ‘Involvement’ With Prostitution Ring, Faces Indictment,” is the most cited. Thus far, however, no confirmation. His presser was oblique:
Gov. Eliot Spitzer, accused in news reports of being involved in a prostitution ring, apologized to his family and the public on Monday at a hastily called news conference. He did not elaborate on the story.
With his wife at his side, Spitzer told reporters that he “acted in a way that violates my obligations to my family.” “I have disappointed and failed to live up to the standard I expected of myself,” he said. “I must now dedicate some time to regain the trust of my family.”
The “private matter” bit is straight out of Bill Clinton’s playbook.
A deal has been struck between the major media companies and the Writers Guild of America to end the writers’ strike, former Walt Disney chief executive Michael Eisner revealed on CNBC.
“It’s over,” Eisner said. “They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It’s going on Saturday to the writers in general.”
Eisner, speaking live on CNBC’s “Fast Money,” seemed to hesitate initially about whether it was possible that the writers could still reject the agreement, but finally suggested the deal’s acceptance was inevitable.
“A deal has been made, and they’ll be back to work very soon,” Eisner said, adding, “I know a deal’s been made. I know it’s over.”
Eisner did not elaborate on terms of the agreement. He said he expects most of the media companies affected by the strike to have “small” write-downs as a result of the deal. Eisner said the deal was struck last Friday.
As a result of studio cutbacks, however, many of the writers who went on strike are unlikely to return to the same big-money contracts they’d had as individuals with the studios, Eisner said.
Shares of Walt Disney and CBS were both up in extended electronic trading Thursday.
It’s about damn time!
source: Deal Has Been Reached to End Writers’ Strike: Eisner [cnbc]
It was rumored that Paris Hilton was a bit peeved when her former best friend stole the sex tape spotlight, despite the overwhelming fame she got from her video with ex-boyfriend Rick Salomon. Red Light District reportedly sold over 600,000 of “1 Night in Paris.” Although Paris claims she never received any money for the video, she’s clearly benefitted from its success and paved the way for other celebs to follow.
Kate Moss and Pete Doherty:
Supermodel Kate Moss finally said goodbye to druggie boyfriend Pete Doherty this summer, but her past is still coming back to haunt her. Moss is trying to stop Doherty from selling personal videos of the two during the span of their relationship, according to The New York Post. The paper reports that Moss would be “horrified” if the tapes surfaced, specifically because of some “raunchy” footage that Moss thought would be for their eyes only.
Moss’ alleged on-screen exploits remind us off other stars who engaged in extracurricular activities in front of the camera.
Kim Kardashian:
Kim Kardashian shot to fame as soon as she confirmed the existance of a sex tape of her with actor/ singer, and little brother of songstress Brandy, Ray J. Kardashian, who is the daughter of O.J. Simpson’s late attorney and best friend, Robert Kardashian and a fashion consultant, was mostly known for tagging along her best friend Paris. Perhaps inspired by Paris, Kardashian apparently gets a little more experimental than her best friend, including a “golden shower.” According to TMZ, SugarDVD.com offered Kardashian $2 million for exclusive rights. She reportedly sold it for $5 million.
Actress Vivica A. Fox is the latest Hollywood celebrity to be reportedly caught up in a sex-tape scandal. In the reported video, which was taped using a cell phone, the actress is supposedly inebriated and unaware that she is being taped.
Joanie “Chyna Doll” Laurie:
Before former wrestling star Joanie “Chyna Doll” Laurie moved from the mat to VH1’s “The Surreal Life,” she did a little bedroom wrestling of her own for the cameras. Laurie and her husband sought out distributor Red Light District — famous for distributing the Paris Hilton tape — and sold over 100,000 copies of their amateur sex tape.
Colin Farrell:
Of course, Hollywood’s biggest bad boy Colin Farrell wouldn’t live up to his reputation without a sex tape of his very own. Alas, Farell thought that the tape would be harmful to his career, seeking legal action to prevent the 15-minute tape with ex-girlfriend Playboy Playmate Nicole Narain from being distributed. Hopeful to sell the tape herself for a reported $3 million, Narain joined the fight when a web site — dirtycolin.com — attempted to distribute the video, exposing both to the perusing public.
Tonya Harding [low budget-LOL a water bed]:
About the time it came out that Tonya Harding may have helped her ex-husband Jim Gilloly in the attack on Nancy Kerrigan, another collaboration became public: “Wedding Night.” Gillooly released a sex tape of the couple, in which Harding dons a wedding dress as a Halloween costume. After the tape became available, the two decided to distribute it themselves. Although the tape did little for her ice skating career, it may have helped her move on to other contact sports, such as a small bout as a professional boxer and domestic assault on former boyfriends, for which she was arrested and charged.
Pamela Anderson:
With the new proliferation of sex tapes, it’s easy to pass over perhaps two of the more notorious sex tape stars, ex-Baywatch and Playmate babe Pamela Anderson and ex-husband rocker Tommy Lee. Both fought its release, but couldn’t keep it off the internet. Anderson has since been to court a couple more times to prevent another video — this time with ex-lover and Poison singer Bret Michaels, from surfacing on the internet. Trends would point to a future internet film with Kid Rock perhaps?
Kelsey Grammer:
Despite the millions to be made off of flaunting his sexual escapades, Kelsey Grammer payed dearly to keep them away from the public eye. After hearing rumors that his ex-girlfriend Cerlette Lamme was selling their very private tape to Internet Entertainment Group (IEG), Grammer sued IEG. However, IEG apparently didn’t purchase the tape, but Grammer ended up shelling out $1 million to his ex to keep the tape out of other potential buyers’ hands.
Borat is dead. Sacha Baron Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he’s retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G.
“When I was being Ali G and Borat I was in character sometimes 14 hours a day and I came to love them, so admitting I am never going to play them again is quite a sad thing,” the 36-year-old actor-comedian says in the British newspaper’s Friday edition.
“It is like saying goodbye to a loved one. It is hard, and the problem with success, although it’s fantastic, is that every new person who sees the Borat movie is one less person I `get’ with Borat again, so it’s a kind of self-defeating form, really.”
Baron Cohen brought Borat Sagdiyev — an anti-Semitic buffoon in search of Pamela Anderson — to the masses last year with his smash comedy, “Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan.” He first introduced the character on “Da Ali G Show,” which was carried in the U.S. on HBO.
“It’s much easier for me to be in character and it’s a lot more fun,” he says. “If I’d done the entire promotional campaign for (the `Borat’ movie) as myself it wouldn’t have developed in the same way.”
While amusing characters, it’s the same gag over and over. At some point, it gets rather contrived.
Source: Report: Baron Cohen offing Borat, Ali G (AP)
Amy Winehouse and her husband Blake Fielder-Civil were arrested in Norway after police found 7 grams of marijuana in their possession. Each was fined $700 and released this morning. Amy spent the morning recovering at Hotel Norge’s luxury reports with “a lot of champagne.”
Both Amy and Blake were said to be cooperative with police. The police had been alerted by hotel staff after the smelled marijuana smoke emanating from the singer’s room. Amy was on a day off from her European tour.
A witness said:
“There were four police cars parked around the back of the hotel yesterday for some time so it looks like they were waiting for the right moment. They were in and out of her room very swiftly and didn’t make a fuss. It had been quite obvious that they had been smoking some strong marijuana in their room and guests had complained so the hotel took action.”
“Hotels can be discreet when it comes to smoking a bit of pot, but when you make it so obvious to the other guests they have no choice but to raise the alarm.”
And the surprise meter is registering at an all time low. The recovering rehab quitter was arrested for drug possession, and then coped with champagne. Brilliant.
What others are saying:
Mollygood says, “Well done, Norway. A hefty fine ought to teach her a lesson.”
dlisted says, “BORING! Wino gets arrested and it’s for weed?! So anticlimactic. I really hope there were paps outside waiting. Wino coming out of a jail at 7 in the morning?! It would be like the Bride of Frakenstein crawling out of the sewers after a night without blood.”
A Socialite’s Life says, “This goes from bad to worse, with Amy announcing a musical collaboration between herself and Babyshambles singer, Pete Doherty. I suspect the musical possibilities would be awesome, except that the fact that I’m pretty sure their mutual dealer introduced them means that this can’t be good for anyone.”
Best Week Ever says, “Amy Winehouse was arrested in Norway for pot possession, which is pretty lame. Pete Doherty wouldn’t even count that as an arrest.”
While working with the drug in the Sandoz pharmaceutical laboratory a few years after first producing it, Mr Hofmann ingested some of the drug through his fingertips. 
“Right now he’s in his extreme mania,” a family member said. “His concerned friends and family are hoping he’ll seek treatment. He doesn’t need jail, he needs therapy. We’re just really hoping that this will be the wake-up call that gets him back to himself.” 
“It’s over,” Eisner said. “They made the deal, they shook hands on the deal. It’s going on Saturday to the writers in general.”
(AP Photo/Christophe Ena, file)'/>
Borat is dead. Sacha Baron Cohen tells The Daily Telegraph that he’s retiring the clueless Kazakh journalist, as well as his alter ego, aspiring rapper Ali G.
“There were four police cars parked around the back of the hotel yesterday for some time so it looks like they were waiting for the right moment. They were in and out of her room very swiftly and didn’t make a fuss. It had been quite obvious that they had been smoking some strong marijuana in their room and guests had complained so the hotel took action.”
