Go surfers!

Poetic justice:

 A paparazzo trying to photograph Matthew McConaughey at the beach told police he was attacked by a mob of surfers who threw his camera in the ocean.

Traumatic movie

Via Andy Borowitz:

A self-styled heterosexual man from Akron, Ohio said today that he was “traumatized” over the weekend after attending a showing of the new Sarah Jessica Parker film, “Sex and the City.”

Hendrick Colton, 34, said that he bought a ticket to the summer blockbuster “Iron Man” at his neighborhood multiplex but wandered into the theater showing “Sex and the City” instead.

“The minute the movie came on, I knew something was terribly, terribly wrong,” he said.

Mr. Colton, a sales clerk at a Home Depot in the Akron suburbs, said he tried to leave the theater immediately but was seated in the middle of a row, making it impossible to escape without causing commotion.

“Everyone around me was laughing their heads off and shouting ‘You go, girl!’” he said. “It was terrifying.”

A spokesman for New Line Cinema, the company that released “Sex and the City,” said that the film grossed $55 million over the weekend but that Mr. Colton was the only heterosexual man known to have seen it.

Friends of Mr. Colton who spoke on condition of anonymity said that the Akron man seemed shaken by the experience of seeing the movie and was concerned that others might now doubt his longstanding claim of being heterosexual.

Davis Logsdon, a professor of human sexuality at the University of Minnesota, said that a straight man could attend a film such as “Sex and the City” without experiencing any change in his sexual identity.

“A heterosexual man could see that movie and remain heterosexual at its conclusion,” Dr. Logsdon said. “Having said that, it’s totally gay that he did that.”

A bridge in Brooklyn

A nifty bit at Improv Everywhere with cascading lights flashing down the Brooklyn Bridge a week before it’s 125th anniversary.  Go to the site and look at all the photos, the write up, etc.

more about “A bridge in Brooklyn“, posted with vodpod

Ladies and gentlemen, here are your targets for seduction

Does Forbes really have nothing better to do than this?

They’re young, fabulously wealthy and have blue blood coursing through their veins. Meet the “20 Hottest Young Royals” in the world, compiled by influential fortune tracker, Forbes magazine.

Too young

Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in NYC this afternoon.

You can take the girl out of the trailer park, but…

You know, I’ve REALLY REALLY not wanted to comment on the pregnancy of Jamie Lynn Spears - let’s face it, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel - but Dan Savage’s comments are too good to not repeat.

But first, a summary.  Synopses can be found all over the internet, this one comes from HuffPo:

Britney Spears’ younger sister Jamie Lynn Spears has announced in OK! Magazine that she is pregnant. Meanwhile her mom Lynne Spears’ book on Christian parenting, due in Spring 2008, has been indefinitely delayed. Us Weekly reports Jamie Lynn’s father - Lynne’s ex-husband Jamie - is “furious” that mother and daughter sold their story to OK! and “devastated” at the news that his youngest child is pregnant. Jamie Lynn supposedly got a $1 Million back-end deal for the interview.

Jamie Lynn, who is the star of Nickelodeon’s hit show Zoey 101, on which she plays a schoolgirl, turned 16 on April 4 and is a high school junior. She tells OK! Magazine, on newsstands in New York and LA Wednesday and nationwide Friday, that she and (possibly ex) boyfriend Casey Aldridge are expecting a child, that she is 12 weeks along, and that she is keeping it.

The mind boggles.  Where to begin…

OK, first off, the thought of Lynne Spears writing a book on parenting (HuffPo is the only site that specifies “Christian” parenting) is risible.  I’m sure it will be on the best seller list next to such scintillating titles as Marital Fidelity by Rudy Giuliani and the FEMA Disaster Recovery Handbook.

This is where Dan Savage’s insight came in.  He quips:

Uh… Mrs. Spears? Wouldn’t your divorce and your daughter’s divorce, drug use, and spectacularly bad parenting disqualify you from writing a book about “Christian parenting”? Didn’t you think that was a little jinxy–even before your other daughter got herself knocked up at 16?

Next question.  No, make that two questions.  First off, will rules that typically apply only to the “little” people be applied here?  Casey Aldridge appears to be a cute kid and all, but he is 19 years old, and Jamie Lynn is 16.   I’m talking criminal charges.

The follow up question there would be what kind of shitwits are these parents all around?  What kind of ninnies allow such that a child of only 16 has a long time serious boyfriend?  More to the point, when your minor child is “dating” someone sufficiently older as to be outside the Romeo and Juliet laws,  real parents DO things.  Things involving firearms and restraining orders.

And Casey, what WERE you thinking?  Didn’t you learn anything from the example of Jason Alexander, that in Hollywood “I love you” really means, “I’m stoned off my ass and yours is the nearest erection.”

And have you seen the silly cover of the OK! spread? Shocked and scared?  Are we to believe they didn’t know where babies come from?

I do feel sorry for the co-stars on her TV show, whose future plans are going to be changing since it’s unlikely Nick will be inclined to keep her around.

Update:

Brilliant little quip from Balloon Juice:

Will the 18-year-old who nailed Britney Spears’ 16-year-old sister get to spend the same amount of time in jail as Genarlow Wilson?

A very valid question - as I said, criminal charges!

Better than Britney

Not that that’s exactly a high bar to reach…but Seattle’s Eric and Todd Dammann have scaled it quite handily

Nice arrangement, nice harmonies.  Give them a contract.

Hat tip: Brat Boy Bulletin 

RIP, Pavarotti

Alas.  I saw him live only once, but he was a treat to listen to.

Luciano Pavarotti, opera’s biggest superstar of the late 20th century, died Thursday. He was 71. He was the son of a singing baker and became the king of the high C’s.

Pavarotti, who had been diagnosed last year with pancreatic cancer, died at his home in his native Modena at 5 a.m., his manager told The Associated Press in an e-mailed statement. His wife, Nicoletta, four daughters and sister were among those at his side, manager Terri Robson said.

Live long and propser

Great news for my fellow Trekkers:

Leonard Nimoy isn’t through with Spock yet. The 76-year-old actor will don his famous pointy ears again to play the role in an upcoming “Star Trek” film due out Christmas 2008.

“This is really going to be a great movie. And I don’t say things like that lightly,” Nimoy told a gathering of 6,500 fans Thursday at Comic-Con, the nation’s largest pop-culture convention.

Zachary Quinto plays a younger Spock.

HP5 Rocks

See it.  Now.

The theater down the street showed it on 11 screens at 12:01 AM, with several additional screens starting at 12:30 AM.

They did an incredible job.  Now, I get to see the movie again tonight with the wife and kids…and then hold my breath until the new book…

Due credit

It took less than a day for Dan Radcliffe’s Leno appearance to make it online.  They’re worth viewing.  He’s a class act - and that’s saying something these consider the state of so many of our younger celebs…

MuggleNet and the London premiere

Great stuff and fun YouTube clips from the London premiere of Harry Potter 5.

Other clips at the MuggleNet site.  Worth a play for fans.

Not that I’m anxious for the movies and new book to get here or anything…

Abba s/he ain’t

Holy cow.  Is this what’s become of Eurovision 2007?

Best of the worst

6 Music at the BBC selected the top ten worst lyrics of all time.

An amusing list to check out.  I’m not sure I agree, or that the selections are even the worst of the represented groups’ fare, but it’s a good read.  I see my eighties music is well represented.

Underrated cities

Interesting bit at MSNBC’s site on ten underrated cities that are worthy of attention.

Having acquaintance with several of the cities in question, I agree with their comments and selections. Of course, I’m particularly partial to Minneapolis and Sacramento.