There are many ways to measure talent in Hollywood. But for the authors of “Hollywood Babylon: It’s Back,” size is everything.
Borrowing the title of filmmaker Kenneth Anger’s classic scandal bible, authors Danforth Prince and Darwin Porter have dared to publish the pictures and stories too explicit and actionable for even the pulpiest supermarket tabloids.
Among those featured in full-frontal shots are Mick Jagger, Daniel Radcliffe, Ewan McGregor, John Malkovich, James Woods, Richard Gere and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. We leave it to you to decide whether all the snaps are authentic.
The authors also write about the reputed size of many other stars in the book, due June 1. Johnny Depp was known as “donkey d-”, they say. Sean Connery posed nude for art studies, and one student said:”It was the biggest I’ve ever seen. It made me drop my charcoal pencil.”
Dishing with abandon, the authors spare no one - especially not the dead, who can’t sue. Lack of sources don’t stop them from claiming:
Marilyn Monroe had an affair with Ronald Reagan. The authors also claim Monroe had a tryst with Joan Crawford but refused to make it an ongoing affair. “She had bad breath,” Monroe allegedly told roommate Shelly Winters. “Besides, she wanted to do things to me that no woman should do to another woman.”
James Dean showed a disconcerting interest in a 12-year-old boy in the early 1950s. Director Elia Kazan believed the tale: “I’ve known many actors who have been twisted up in their sex lives, but never anybody as sick and unhealthy as Dean was.”
Elvis Presley had a gay old time with Nick Adams, who played Johnny Yuma in the hit TV series “The Rebel.”
Lucille Ball launched herself into show business as a hooker, and her husband Desi Arnaz had a fling with Cesar Romero.
Cary Grant had an incestuous relationship with his stepson, Lance Reventlow.
Sir Winston Churchill got “musical” with actor and songwriter Ivor Novello.
Strange things happened to Judy Garland’s body (this in the chapter on “Fan Worship and Necrophilia”).
Police believed Bette Davis killed her second husband, Arthur Farnsworth, by hitting him on the head and causing a hemorrhage that lead to his death two weeks later. But a grand jury - six men who confessed to being ardent fans - found her innocent.
Would you believe that Mariah Carey is bigger than Elvis? Me neither. But she has actually had more number one records than The King.
With her 18th chart-topper “Touch My Body,” Mariah Carey has passed Elvis Presley for the most No. 1 singles on the Billboard singles chart, and is now second only to the Beatles. But while the diva was in full celebration mode after learning of her latest milestone, she was also quick to put her accomplishment in perspective.
“I really can never put myself in the category of people who have not only revolutionized music but also changed the world,” Carey told The Associated Press on Tuesday via phone from London. “That’s a completely different era and time … I’m just feeling really happy and grateful.”
That’s both the right standpoint to take from a PR standpoint and, well, right. Still, there have been a lot of big stars and she’s in rarified company:
Carey’s single is the new No. 1 single on Billboard’s Hot 100 singles chart: The song also is No. 1 on the trade magazine’s digital download chart thanks to a precedent-setting 286,000 downloads in its debut week. She had been tied with Presley with 17 No. 1 singles; the Beatles are the all-time leaders with 20. (Madonna also beat a Presley record this week, surpassing the King for the most top 10 hits with her 37th for her hit “4 Minutes.”)
But, of course, there’s the politics of identity:
Carey said being in such company was gratifying not only because of her personal success, but what it meant for women and minorities. “For me, in my mind the accomplishment is just that much sweeter,” she said. “In terms of my ethnicity, always feeling like an outsider, always feeling different … for me it’s about saying, ‘Thank you Lord, for giving me the faith to believe in myself when other people had written me off.’”
Goodness yes. She was 20 years old before she made it big. It’s amazing she persevered so long.
Priscilla Presley is the victim of a botched cosmetic procedure. What’s worse — it was at the hands of a gigolo who was sent to prison for perpetrating an injectable scam on Hollywood’s elite.
Dr. Daniel Serrano was injecting his clients with low-grade silicone similar to what’s used to lube auto parts. The doctor gave Priscilla the injections in 2003 and told her it was better than Botox. The feds have named him Dr. Jiffy Lube.
Several women, including Shawn King, Larry’s wife, and Diane Richie, Lionel’s wife at the time, held injection parties in their homes, with Serrano needling them with the non-FDA approved drug that he had smuggled in to the U.S.
Shawn King has said the injections created a lump in her lip that made it difficult to speak and drink liquids.
Serrano wasn’t even a licensed doctor in the United States.
What others said:
Dlisted says, “I’m waiting for the judges to tell her, “We need to see more emotion in your face!”
A Socialites Life says, “If your ass moves, your face should follow!”
source: Priscilla Presley Victim of Phony Cosmetic Doc [tmz]
Lisa Marie Presley is suing the Daily Mail for libel over publishing an article alleging she is overweight.
The 40-year-old daughter of Elvis Presley said the story, which was widely republished worldwide, forced her to confirm she is expecting a baby.
Her UK laywer Simon Smith said claims that she had an “unhealthy appetite” and is “growing like her dad” had left the star “deeply upset and offended“.
The singer, who is issuing the libel claim against the Daily Mail’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, at the High Court in London, also explained why she was forced into disclosing her pregnancy.
“I have had to show my cards and announce under the gun and under vicious personal attack that I am in fact pregnant,” she wrote.
‘Badgering and harassing’
The announcement comes days after photos of Presley eating lunch in Los Angeles emerged in some newspapers poking fun at her weight gain.
“Once they got a glimpse of my expanding physique a few days ago, they have been like a pack of coyotes circling their prey whilst eerily howling with delight,” said Presley.
The REAL reason Lisa is mad? It’s the picture below.
If someone took a picture like that of me and published it for the world to see… I’d be pissed too.
The once statuesque Lisa Maria Presley has doubled her weight. Rumors of a pregnancy has followed her bulge. Allegedly she gotten knocked up by Michael Lockwood, husband number 4. Obviously by the look of the photos she has begun to eat for two.
At age 40 it is hard to ward off the stress of time, but this is more than just pregnancy weight. She is said to have at least doubled her size. Her father, Elvis, had a long battle with weight issues. Here is where the real problems may lie. The constant yo-yo of weight may be due to eating disorder brought on by mental issues like depression.
Lets just hope she is knocked up and will shed the pounds after giving birth. If not….Lisa…cupcakes aren’t a replacement for love. Beer is though.
Irish actor Jonathan Rhys Meyers, star of the Henry VIII soap opera “The Tudors,” has been charged with public drunkenness and breach of the peace at Dublin, Ireland Airport.
Rhys Meyers, 30, was arrested Sunday after police twice confronted him over his erratic, abusive behavior at an airport gate and at a desk of the British airline BMI, on which he was planning to fly to London.
Dublin Airport Police said they called Ireland’s national police force, the Garda Siochana, after Rhys Meyers refused repeated requests to calm down.
Police charged him with two counts of violating the Public Order Act, then permitted him to pay an undisclosed cash bail on condition he return to Dublin District Court on Dec. 5 for his arraignment.
Rhys Meyers - who was admitted to a California alcoholism-treatment clinic in April and checked out the following month - was in Dublin to appear on “Tubridy Tonight,” a Saturday night national talk show to promote his new film, “August Rush,” costarring Robin Williams.
Ryan Tubridy said he was surprised and sorry to hear of the actor’s arrest. He said Rhys Meyers had chatted with everybody who wanted to meet him back stage, and was drinking nothing more threatening than “a big mug of milky tea.”
“Obviously that was not on the agenda at some time on Saturday night or Sunday morning,” Tubridy said.
Rhys Meyers starred opposite Scarlett Johansson in Woody Allen’s “Match Point” and Reese Witherspoon in “Vanity Fair,” among other films. He also portrayed Elvis Presley in a 2005 U.S. television miniseries, and is now filming the second season of “The Tudors” for the U.S. cable network Showtime.
In an interview last year on the set of “The Tudors,” Rhys Meyers said he felt restricted socializing in Ireland because of its hard-drinking pub culture.
Jonathan was pictured with that crazy ‘drugged‘ look on his face just a week ago yesterday (November 11th). You see these things coming.
What others said:
Daily Blabber says, “Jon did a stint in rehab earlier this year saying that he felt a break was needed to maintain his recovery. Looks like he might need another break.”
Pop On The Pop says, “In most of the pictures I see of him he looks more like a crackhead, than a drunk. It’s all in those freakish eyes!”
source: Jonathan Rhys Meyers Arrested in Dublin Airport [people]
Elvis Presley has been dead for thirty years. But he’s still making more money than anyone likely reading this.
Just because you are dead, it does not mean you can’t stage a comeback. Web site Forbes.com (www.forbes.com) said on Tuesday that Elvis Presley regained the top spot on its list of the highest-earning dead celebrities, ousting Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain who had beaten him last year.
Elvis shimmied his way back atop the seventh annual list of 13 top-earning legends that he had ruled since its inception, with estimated earnings of about $49 million in the year ending this month. The rise from $42 million last year comes after CKX Entertainment, which bought part of his estate from daughter Lisa Marie Presley, embarked on a mission to renew interest in the late singer and actor.
Forbes.com said in a statement that the top 13 — who generated massive amounts of merchandising revenue — grossed a combined $232 million in the year.
In second place came Beatle John Lennon, who was murdered in New York in 1980 at the age of 40. He earned $44 million while the creator of Peanuts comic strip, Charles M. Schulz, took the third slot with earnings of $35 million.
Cobain was one of four who fell off this year’s ranking. He debuted on the list in first place last year after his widow, Courtney Love, sold part of his song catalog for a reported $50 million.
Rounding out the top five on this year’s list were George Harrison from the Beatles, who died in 2001, with $22 million, and German-born physicist Albert Einstein with $18 million. Einstein has become a key trademark in child education due to the Disney-owned Baby Einstein brand of videos and toys.
Many members of these lists are one-year wonders, who get on there because a movie came out, their estate was sold, or something similar. Presley and Lennon, though, are mainstays who continue to sell massive numbers of records decades after their passing.
Get out your checkbooks… this is an opportunity of a lifetime!
Here’s your chance to own Elvis Presley’s very own Grand Piano! Let me tell you… I’ve been to Graceland and saw the piano there, but they had the area roped off, so I couldn’t stick it in my purse.
It’s for sale on Ebay, with a starting bid of a mere $250,000. Isn’t that a bargain?
John Travolta doesn’t suffer from lack of ego. The “Wild Hogs” star recently boasted that he was as big a star as Elvis Presley and Marilyn Monroe — but didn’t suffer the same fate as them because of his values and religion. “I have fame on the level of a Marilyn Monroe or an Elvis, but part of the reason I didn’t go the way they did was because of my beliefs,” Travolta told the Irish Independent.
The star went on to credit his sometimes controversial religion for the difference between his fate and theirs.
“People make judgments about it [Scientology], but often they don’t know what they’re talking about,” Travolta said. “I would advise anyone who wants to know about it to read up on it. We [the Church of Scientology] are only getting bigger and we help people all over the world, from disaster zones to drug rehabilitation.”
This was a dumb thing to say on a whole variety of levels. Travolta is indeed a big time star and has been since his national debut as Vinny Barbarino on the 1970s sitcom “Welcome Back Kotter” and his emergence as a movie star with “Saturday Night Fever” (1976) and “Grease” (1977). But he’s simply not the cultural icon that Elvis and Marilyn became. The backlash from claiming that level of superstardom dimishes his legitimate status as an A-list celeb.
Scientology strikes me as incredibly dumb. Still, Travolta, Tom Cruise, and a host of truly successful Hollywood stars who are practitioners have indeed managed to avoid the tailspin that so many of their cohorts have fallen into. If Scientology is the reason for that, more power to them.
If L. Ron Hubbard suggested that dorky hat, though, all bets are off.
Several women, including Shawn King, Larry’s wife, and Diane Richie, Lionel’s wife at the time, held injection parties in their homes, with Serrano needling them with the non-FDA approved drug that he had smuggled in to the U.S. 
The singer, who is issuing the libel claim against the Daily Mail’s publishers, Associated Newspapers, at the High Court in London, also explained why she was forced into disclosing her pregnancy.
Rhys Meyers, 30, was arrested Sunday after police twice confronted him over his erratic, abusive behavior at an airport gate and at a desk of the British airline BMI, on which he was planning to fly to London.
