The Arbitrary: August 2006

Thursday, August 31, 2006

John Travolta is gay.

Well, you know what they say, a picture's worth a thousand words. Judge for yourself.

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Friday, August 25, 2006

Segregated 'Survivor'

Get ready for a segregated "Survivor." Race will matter on the upcoming season of the CBS show as contestants will be divided into four tribes by ethnicity. That means blacks, whites, Latinos and Asians in separate groups.

The announcement was made on CBS' Early Show. Host Jeff Probst says the idea "actually came from the criticism that 'Survivor' was not ethnically diverse enough." He says the twist fits in perfectly with what "Survivor" does, saying the show is "a social experiment. And this is adding another layer to that experiment." Probst says contestants had mixed reactions to the racial divisions.

This time the new Survivors are stranded on the Cook Islands in the South Pacific. The castaways include a police officer, a heavy metal guitarist, an attorney and a nail salon manager. The new season of Survivor debuts September 14th.

UPDATE:

AP: A group of New York City officials blasted CBS and its hit series “Survivor” on Thursday, a day after the network announced that the teams on the new season of the reality show will be divided by race.

Saying that the setup will promote divisiveness, the officials called on CBS to reconsider its plans.

“The idea of having a battle of the races is preposterous,” said City Councilman John Liu. “How could anybody be so desperate for ratings? [to read the rest of the story, click here]

Thursday, August 24, 2006

Paris dropped after hacking Lohan's mailbox

SpoofCard.com, a company that provides the privacy-inclined with fake caller ID numbers and voicemail service, announced Tuesday that it had dropped about 50 people--including Paris Hilton--from its client roster after it was discovered that the mailboxes of Lindsay Lohan and other "well known celebrities" had been hacked.

Which, in light of tabloid reports that the two are feuding (over men, party circuit status--whatever), led to the idea that Hilton was the one who had messed with Lohan's account.

When questioned about it by TMZ.com, SpoofCard attorney Mark Del Bianco stated that "Paris was entering unauthorized mailboxes," but when it came to Lohan, "a number of the 50 persons [whose service was canceled] were making unauthorized entrances to Miss Lohan's voicemail."

Meanwhile, Hilton's rep, Elliot Mintz, told E! Online that what Del Bianco said with regard to his client "just didn't happen" and, at this point, he can't confirm whether the "Stars Are Blind" singer--who has been in Japan promoting her new album, Paris--is aware that she has a SpoofCard.com account at all.

SpoofCard did not make a direct connection between Hilton's alleged misdialing and Lohan's invaded privacy, but just confirmed that Hilton's service had been axed and Lohan's mailbox messed with. The company said it came across the telephonic breaking-and-entering while reviewing customer records for evidence of fraud or other wrongdoing and has since added software controls to prevent further tampering.

Cameron goes dark

Cameron Diaz has ditched her sunny locks for a more sultry, dark brunette. What do you think?

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Brittany Murphy and fiancee are splitsville

Poor Brittany, she's had just about as many failed engagements as Liz Taylor has had failed marriages. The newest casualty is Joe Macaluso. They met on the set of Little Black Book and became engaged New Year's Eve last year. At the Teen Choice Awards, Brittany was reluctant to answer questions about the impending wedding and on Wednesday released a statement saying that the pair had amicably separated and wished each other happiness. No word yet on why they split or on why Brittany is always engaged but never married.

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Wednesday, August 23, 2006

Tom Cruise fired from Paramount

Sumner Redstone, chief honcho at Viacom, the parent company of Paramount, has ended the 14-year relationship with Cruise's production company, Cruise/Wagner Productions. According to The Wall Street Journal, Redstone cited Cruise's controversial conduct and behavior over the last year as the reason for the split.

Redstone reportedly believed Cruise's antics -- including his now infamous appearances on "Oprah" and "Today" -- had a negative impact on the bottom line for "Mission Impossible III." Redstone said, "As much as we like him personally, we thought it was wrong to renew his deal." Redstone told The Wall Street Journal: "His recent conduct has not been acceptable to Paramount."

Cruise/Wagner produced a string of hits for Paramount, including "Top Gun," "Mission Impossible" and "Days of Thunder."

UPDATE: Paula Wagner, Cruise's producing partner, responded angrily, claiming Redstone's comments were "outrageous and disrespectful." Wagner noted that her collaboration with Cruise has accounted for 15% of Paramount's theatrical revenues over the last decade. Wagner added that she and Cruise broke off negotiations with Paramount within the last few days. Finally, Wagner said her company has raised "a revolving fund of $100 million" from two hedge funds and that they will be making movies in the future.

If you're going to act as insane as Tom, you're going to get what's coming to you.

Digg.this

Bikini Wednesday!!!

What your celebrities have been wearing oceanside this week...

Lindsay Lohan

Alicia Silverstone

James Blunt and Petra Nemcova

Hogan DOESN'T know best in this outfit!

Tuesday, August 22, 2006

Breaking News: K-Fed sucked at Teen Choice Awards

Here's what Yahoo News said:

Kevin Federline's TV debut as a rapper is getting derided as a not-ready-for-prime-time disaster by critics in cyberspace and the hip-hop community. On Sunday, Federline — also known as K-Fed and Mr. Britney Spears— performed his new single "Lose Control" to the peppy crowd at the eighth annual Teen Choice Awards, which aired on Fox. Introduced by his wife, who was dressed in a cleavage-baring mini-dress despite her late pregnancy, Federline stalked about the stage with attitude as he rapped about his bling, popping Cristal (obviously oblivious to the whole hip-hop Cristal boycott) and his amazing rhyming skills. "Don't hate because I'm a superstar! And I'm married to a superstar! Nothin' come between us no matter who you are!" he declared, as dancers pop-locked as his side. It was the most anticipated performance of the night — and the most ridiculed. By morning, videos of it were splashed on Web sites like YouTube.com and various blogs, accompanied by catty comments mocking both Federline and his wife. If the Web world isn't exactly accepting of Federline's rap-star ambitions, the hip-hop community is even less so. Elliot Wilson, editor in chief of XXL magazine, hadn't seen Federline's TV debut. Still, he called it a "YouTube disaster" — something to be laughed off in hip-hop circles. "I just think we ignore him," Wilson told The Associated Press on Monday. "He's a joke, basically. ... I just don't think he gets it. He doesn't get that he's Britney's man and it's hard to take him seriously."

And according to A Socialite's Life, many stars including Nelly Furtado, Jessica Simpson, Dane Cook, Mischa Barton and Brandon Routh skipped the after party so they wouldn't have to say anything nice to Kevin. Wow, you know you sucked when even shallow celebrities don't want to be fake to your face. Ouch, Kevin. Ouch.

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Monday, August 21, 2006

Lindsay at Hyde's

LiLo in before (with the hat) and after (without the hat) coming out of Club Hyde on Saturday night. Oh, and she's not cheating on Harry Morton. The guy she's with is one of Harry's friends.

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From Heaven to Hell

The cover of Dave LaChappelle's new book, From Heaven to Hell. Courtney Love, Kurt Cobain, and Francis Bean?

Courtesy of Perez Hilton

Arbitrary Quickies

Christina Aguilera wants to be called 'Baby Jane' from now on. [Hollywood Rag]

Navarro's "other woman" wants to meet Carmen Electra [ContactMusic]

Busta Rymes arrested [TMZ]

Pics from Rumor Willis' 18th birthday party [SplashNews]

Heather Mills seeks refuge in sunny L.A. [PageSix]

Katie Holmes gets retail therapy at Barney's [People]

Pete Doherty busted for... come on, do I really need to say it? [Reuters]

Friday, August 18, 2006

Gibson reaches plea deal for drunk driving charges

Actor Mel Gibson, who ignited a furor with his anti-Semitic rant after being stopped for speeding last month, pleaded no contest on Thursday to a drunken driving charge and was spared jail time in a deal with prosecutors.

Gibson, who was placed on probation for three years, did not appear in Malibu Superior Court for the hearing. The Academy Award-winning director and actor could have faced up to six months in jail if he had gone to trial and been convicted.

The whereabouts of the 50-year-old star were unknown, but his lawyer said his client was willing to enter a rehab program immediately.

Haley "I see dead people" Joel Osment faces pot & drunk driving charges

Reuters: Prosecutors on Thursday charged Oscar-nominated actor Haley Joel Osment, who famously saw dead people in 1999 hit movie "The Sixth Sense," with drunken driving and marijuana possession.Osment, 18, faces up to six months in jail if convicted on the charges that arose after a car crash in suburban Los Angeles on July 20. The actor suffered a broken rib and shoulder injury and was briefly hospitalized.Prosecutors charged Osment with misdemeanor possession of marijuana while driving and with having a blood alcohol level higher than 0.08 percent, including a special allegation of having a level higher than 0.15 percent.

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Lindsay Lohan and Jack Daniels

What is going on here? Mother and daughter Lohan pose for an interesting pic (I'd like to criticize, but other than poor wardrobe choices they look kinda cute being silly together). Of course always classy LiLo has Jack by her side. The pics are old (LiLo's hair is black so they aren't new), but you can always count on her for a good laugh.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

Arbitrary quickies

Screech gets mugged by a chick [E!]

The Sun has apologized for writing a bogus story about Prince Harry and his groping incident [The Sun]

Jennifer Aniston strongly declares that she is NOT engaged! [People]

Jon Benet Ramsey arrest made in Thailand [MSNBC]

Kate Hudson and Jen Aniston's airport encounter [FadedYouth]

Nick Lachey likes Satan more than his ex-father-in-law Joe Simpson [ContactMusic]

Kelly Osbourne's puppy don't preach [x17]

Madonna's camel toe has it's own myspace page

Lookalikes: KFed and Mr. Spears

I'm a bit disturbed by how much Britney's husband and father look alike. Did she marry her father? I bet they both think they're pretty snappy dressers.

[source]

Wednesday, August 16, 2006

When pink goes wrong

Paris was decked out in head-to-toe pink on her way to the airport. Yikes.

Bikini Wednesday!

What your celebrities have been wearing at the beach this week...

Nicolette Sheridan

Prime Minister Tony Blair

Elle MacPherson in the Carribbean

Toby McGuire and Leo DiCaprio

Val Kilmer

Matthew McConaughey

Anorexic Richie

Kimberly Stewert, WTF?

Rod Stewert's daughter out for a day of shopping (with Jack Osbourne skulking in the background).

Tuesday, August 15, 2006

Celebs taxed on their goodie bags

A CRACKDOWN by the Internal Revenue Service could doom the practice of handing out "goodie bags" to celebrities at all of the televised award shows.

The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences recently sent out letters to presenters and nominees scheduled to appear on the Aug. 27 Emmy Awards advising them they will be responsible for paying income taxes on the freebies in their "very special Gift Bag," worth between $27,000 and $33,000.

Every celebrity who received the warning was asked to sign and return a letter to the Academy acknowledging, "You are aware of this obligation . . . We will not be able to present a gift bag to any individual for whom we have not received this signed letter in advance."

The Academy hinted it might be forced to turn over a list of its swag-bag recipients to the IRS. It warned in a letter to the TV talent: "We are presently researching the income-tax reporting requirements surrounding gift bags. We will make a determination later this year as to the Television Academy's income-tax reporting obligations to the IRS and state and local tax authorities."

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