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Archive: Hollyweird
Doubletake: Early Halloween for Jacko and Child
Some things just never get old, like bagels with peanut butter, "It's a Wonderful Life," or, say, scrutinizing photos of Michael Jackson and his rarely seen children. Which is why I close out the week with the photo below, of a surgically masked Jackson (in the foreground) and 10-year-old daughter Paris, hidden behind some kind of expressionless facade that at once evokes a flood of images -- Lucha Libre wrestlers, the KISS Army, "V for Vendetta" and a funerary mask. Michael Jackson (right) and daughter Paris. (Splash News) To put this scene in context (which I'm sure will make it much more understandable to outfit one's child in a fetishy mask) Jacko and his three kids -- Paris, Prince Michael and Prince Michael II (aka "Blanket") are pictured browsing a Los Angeles comic book store on Thursday. According to the photographer, the kids entered the store wearing the masks, but...
By Liz | October 10, 2008; 11:20 AM ET | Comments (60)
Save Ginger from Aubrey O'Day
Doubtless, you're expecting a scathing post full of snark about Danity Kane's Aubrey O'Day for her unfortunate choice of outfit (shirt, headband, roots, fake bake -- there's material, trust me) in the picture below. O'Day and Ginger at the Bowlmore Lanes 70th anniversary party Tuesday in New York. (Getty Images) But no. Much as I'd like to take Aubrey to task for dressing while under the influence of some kind of taste-sapping gamma ray, today I write in my capacity as an animal lover. I feel so sorry for this dog -- a teacup Maltese named Ginger -- that I can't sit idly by while the helpless creature continues to be exposed so cruelly around the Web. Look at the pain in her face above. Not only has Ginger been forced to wear a matchy-matchy shirt (hey, maybe she's not for Obama), but Ms. O'Day seems to have fashioned a...
By Liz | October 8, 2008; 11:10 AM ET | Comments (68)
Here's the Story of the Barfing Brady
Listen up all you kid stars. You may be some kind of cute munchkin now, rocking little ringlets and ridiculously cute outfits. But there isn't any longevity in the adorable scamp game. Okay? If you're lucky, you may transition into adulthood unscathed. But for the rest of you, it's reality TV or bust. Luckily erstwhile littlest "Brady Bunch"-er Susan Olsen (Cindy) has stepped in to show us how to reinvent herself almost 40 years after she first charmed a generation of couch potatoes with her lispy cuteness. Cindy was the cutest Brady, there's no denying it. But if you were a kid like me, cute was less likely to inspire admiration than to induce a wave of nausea. And, as it turns out, the now 47-year-old Olsen has managed to nauseate even herself. And in one two-minute segment she's also single-handedly outdone the second acts of fellow "Brady" alums Barry...
By Liz | July 9, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (40)
Head for the Hills: Speidi is Armed & Dangerous
Gun nuts Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag? (Getty Images) When Paris Hilton brandishes a BlackBerry or Mary-Kate Olsen tries to inflict retinal damage by wearing this, we laugh and deftly fend off their ineffectual attacks. After all, how painful is it to crack wise about hobo chic or illiterate heiresses? But when faced with a vapid sub-par star of questionable intelligence brandishing actual weapons -- the kind that result in real stitches, not just a stitch in the side -- how are we to defend ourselves? I asked myself that very question this morning. When Charlton Heston died earlier this year, it turned out to be two tabloid darlings who stepped up to pry his guns out of his "cold dead hands" and carry the banner of celeb gun-toting to a new demographic. "Hills" couple Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag ("Speidi") are rumored to have recently dropped $10,000 on...
By Liz | June 19, 2008; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (74)
Paris and Paula Want You Sober
Paula Abdul at Sober Day 2008. (Image courtesy 5WPR) (AP) Like everyone else with a byline and an e-mail address at a major media organization, I am constantly pummeled with annoying press releases. Any delight I get out of them is solely a product of being able to delete them quickly and without mercy. There's just something satisfying about seeing the product of some forlorn junior level PR rep's morning disappear into the ether. But, as the Post Rockers have showcased so well, some releases transcend the common blah-blah-blah-edness to achieve a certain level of interest -- whether by dint of flowery phrasing, breathlessness or unlikeliness. For instance, this one that arrived in my box yesterday afternoon: At the Sober Day USA 2008 event, held at a private residence in Beverly Hills, stars including Paula Abdul, Paris Hilton, the Kardashian sisters, Chris Tucker, Tom Arnold and Larry King all...
By Liz | May 20, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (56)
Brenda Dickson: Welcome to Her Nightmare
Brenda Dickson has advice on just about everything. (YouTube) Never having watched "The Young and the Restless," I can't say I was familiar with Brenda Dickson's work until the video linked below found its way to my inbox yesterday afternoon. Perhaps because Dickson in effect disappeared from the entertainment world after being fired from "The Young and the Restless" in 1988. Though, as evidenced by these pix, she is still making the Hollywood rounds -- or, rather, the bizarro world Hollywood that is populated by Fabio and "American Idol" rejects. The video is neither new -- it was produced, directed and written by Dickson in 1987 -- or new to the Internet. Mr. Liz happened upon it while perusing Dan Savage's blog. But what it is is a study in the egomaniacal tendencies that afflict several who dare to call themselves celebrities. More akin to Elizabeth Berkley than Elizabeth...
By Liz | April 16, 2008; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
Hollyweirder: Brit vs. Tom vs. Eddie
In Hollywood, truth is often stranger than fiction. For proof, look no further than these three prime examples from the week in Celebritology. 1. Tricky Brit That clever girl, Britney Spears. After pix surfaced yesterday of the walking disaster shopping for home pregnancy tests, close Spears pal Sam Lufti said Spears and boyfriend of a few weeks Adnan Ghalib were "just toying with the paparazzi." See, it's like this -- Brit thought she'd do something all crazy-like to make us think she's like totally wacko when really she's just mostly wacko. I mean she'd hardly choose now as the time to play Russian roulette with the birth control, what with that pesky custody case taking up all her time and in-store appearances, like this alleged naked meet-and-greet earlier this week at an L.A. Betsy Johnson boutique. Still, anything's possible. She's so country, y'all! Stranger than fiction because... Spears remains a...
By Liz | January 17, 2008; 10:22 AM ET | Comments (0)
Outrage Over Iggy, but Not Brit's Kids?
Britney Spears carries son Jayden James in September. (AP/TMZ.com) As the controversy over Ellen's pound puppy, Iggy, continues to unfold I can't help but compare this case of puppy love gone wrong to another custody case originating from the general 90210 area: the question of who will ultimately retain primary custody of Sean Preston and Jayden James Federline. And, measuring the relative public outrage sparked by the two cases I can only assume that SPF and JJ would have a better chance of tugging on our heartstrings if they grew tails and wore collars (hush you). For anyone who hasn't been paying attention, a quick rundown of each case: SPF & JJ Federline: A judge removed Britney Spears's sons from her care and handed them over to ex-husband Kevin Federline in September. Pending several hoops through which Spears must jump (including counseling and regular drug testing), she may or...
By Liz | October 18, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (92)
Bai Ling's Literary Juggernaut
Author Bai Ling in January 2006. (AP) Jenna Bush isn't the only gossip column bold-facer to give in to the writing bug. While the first daughter opted to promote her book, "Ana's Story," the old school way -- with the expected in-store appearances and the obligatory Diane Sawyer interview -- Hollywood fashion mash-up queen Bai Ling hyped her upcoming book with a refreshing shin Band-aid campaign. See, on one shin she pasted a Band-Aid and used a Sharpie to write the words "MY BOOK." On the other leg -- pay attention -- she also pasted a Band-Aid, but this time scribbled the name of her book: "NIPPLES." Genius. Doubtless, Ling's "Nipples" will soon take the literary world by storm because who can hold out in the face of this spacey multimedia tour-de-force? First, though, the book will need to actually exist. Perhaps Amazon's buyers haven't been keeping up with...
By Liz | October 2, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (60)
Perez Hilton Comes to Town
Perez Hilton -- aka Mario Lavandeira. (Liz Kelly for washingtonpost.com) Video: Liz Quizzes Perez Aug. 17, Arlingon, Va. 10:05 p.m. It's Friday night at Clarendon ballroom and event promoters -- in this case radio station Hot 99.5 -- are buzzing the assorted journos gathered in a basement greenroom regularly to assure us that he --- Perez Hilton -- is still coming, and soon. Perez Hilton is hot. So hot that in the past month he's turned up in the realities of both Victoria Beckham (on NBC's one-hour "Welcome to America" special) and Kathy Griffin (on her Bravo show "My Life on the D List") and, for one brief shining morning, in Rosie O'Donnell's vacated "View" seat. He calls his celeb-skewering blog "Hollywood's Most-Hated Web Site" and this self-described "queen" -- who tonight is sporting haphazardly-dyed orange hair, a rumpled shirt and a shiny red tie -- is a bona...
By Liz | August 20, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (0)
Does Dave Chappelle (Heart) PWC?
With apologies to Celebritology's international audience, today we hop on the trendy "hyperlocal" train to talk about a little Beltway buzz. Dave Chappelle. (AP) Yesterday, rumors about Dave Chappelle's possible Prince William County, Va. hospitalization made the blogosphere rounds and had fans frantically calling in sightings to one local D.C. radio station. By day's end, a Chappelle spokesperson issued a statement saying the comic was hospitalized over the weekend for "exhaustion" and had since fully recovered. A friend of Chappelle's also came forward to say the comedian had been hospitalized, yes, but in San Francisco. The truth of the matter seems elusive and we may never know if one of America's funniest dudes was in fact confined to a padded room across the street from Manassas's Red Panda Buffet (where an all-you-can-eat lunch buffet in close proximity to where a major celeb may or may not have been confined is...
By Liz | July 18, 2007; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
The Art of the Celebrity Courtroom Sketch
Beauty, it has been said, is in the eye of the beholder and when that beholder is someone who lives and breathes celebrity news 24/7, beauty comes in unexpected forms. One starts to appreciate, for instance, the twisted world reflected by 14 over at Gallery of the Absurd and begins to annoy one's spouse by framing particularly striking tabloid covers and hanging them in areas of the house that are not my closet. Portrait of Paris Hilton as a young lawbreaker. (AP) So I was instantly charmed when last week's Paris Hilton courtroom sketches began to move on the wires. Stripped down to the bare essentials, courtroom artist Mona Shafer Edwards captured a frail, waiflike urchin surprised to find herself de-blinged, de-entouraged and decidedly un-hot. In the photo at left, we see Hilton in a new light: reduced to wearing polar fleece and trying to hide her face with her...
By Liz | June 14, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (0)
Forget Paris, Here's Some Real News
While important celebrity news sources like CNN and MSNBC have been busy inundating us with incremental Paris Hilton jail updates, some important stories almost slipped by unnoticed. Building on Celebritology's legacy as a hard-hitting well-rounded news clearinghouse, today I bring you three stories that matter (just as much as Paris Hilton): Bobby Brown vs. Osama bin Laden While our focus has been on domestic threat of blond hotel heiresses, ex-New Edition member and sometime addict Bobby Brown reminds us to remain on guard against equally menacing Saudi trust fund babies. In a recent interview on British TV, Brown renewed his call for vigilance against Osama bin Laden, the 9/11 mastermind who once professed a desire to add Brown's ex-wife Whitney Houston to his harem. "I feared for my life," said Brown. "I'm still on my guard. The most wanted man in the world wants you dead." | Full Story The...
By Liz | June 12, 2007; 10:51 AM ET | Comments (0)
Busting Hollywood's Double Standard Wide Open
We spend a lot of time here talking about hair styles, fashion flubs, physical attributes and such. But, not surprisingly, when we get on the "What was X thinking?" trip, "X" usually equals a female celebrity. (For instance, this morning's links to some seriously gnarly pictures of Christina Aguilera and Sharon Stone.) Jack Black bares his rack in 'Nacho Libre.' (Paramount Pictures) If you're into this kind of entertainment (i.e. pointing and laughing at the expense of others with too much money and too little taste), you probably -- like me -- have a well-worn Go Fug Yourself bookmark, too. (If you're not familiar with it, Fug bloggers Heather and Jessica viciously, yet hilariously, rip fashion-challenged starlets to shreds daily). Again, though, a quick scan of the "Frequent Offenders" menu reveals categories for 25 women and zero men. Not much of a revelation, I know, in a world where women...
By Liz | March 7, 2007; 10:43 AM ET | Comments (65)
Paris Hilton and Midgets and Goats, Oh My
(Photo Illustration courtesy Worth1000.com) With all the heavy news we've had lately -- Anna Nicole's death, Britney's rehab and the bust up of the Van Halen reunion that never got off the ground anyway -- my mind was ripe for distraction. So, let me tell you how this went down. I was minding my own business, clicking around the New York Post when I read the following sentence about Paris Hilton's 26th birthday party: After downing TY KU liquor and bottles of Dom Perignon, guests reported seeing Hilton play with a monkey while a band of midgets led a pack of goats around the room. (Full Item) Immediately recognizing that my 26th birthday party did not include midgets, goats or monkeys, my finely-tuned Celebritologist sixth sense knew there was something here worth investigating. So, because it's my job (hey, someone has to do it) to probe these things while...
By Liz | February 21, 2007; 10:46 AM ET | Comments (8)
When Celebrities Divorce
Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock at their July wedding ceremony. (Getty Images) Word in the buzz-o-sphere is that fictitious wild-and-crazy Kazakh Borat is not only an insensitive slob who exploited a poor Romanian village named Mud (I'm not making this up) and tricked drunken frat boys into acting like drunken frat boys, but can also take credit for ending the four-month marriage of Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock, aka GQ's "Newlyweds of the Year." At a private screening of the "Borat" movie, Rock reportedly became enraged about Anderson's role in the film as Borat's object of affection, telling her she'd humiliated herself, and publicly insulting the former "Baywatch" star. Apparently, the movie was nowhere near as classy as the couple's bikini-and-beer wedding in St. Tropez in July. Still, Anderson and Rock are only the latest in a growing list of celebrity marriages to break up in 2006. Reese and...
By Liz | November 29, 2006; 10:42 AM ET | Comments (0)
Hollyweird: Jay-Z's Bud, Borat vs. Gypsies and Liza & David
Okay, after scanning the entertainment wires, I'm left with no choice but to add yet another sheet to the Hollyweird file. What is this Hollyweird file of which I speak, you ask? Why, obviously, it's where these stories belong: Bring this man two Buds. (Reuters) Can I Get a Bud, Bud? Something about Jay-Z pimping Budweiser just smacks of sell out. Trust me, I'm a big Jigga fan and have cheered his incredible stewardship of Def Jam Records and Rocawear, not to mention his kick-[butt] on-again, off-again music career and his long-term relationship with Beyonce. Still, I was surprised to learn that he'll be the new public face of Budweiser Select (whose current campaign features urban singles on a subway car and urges us to "expect everything"). Jay-Z has already appeared in one commercial alongside NASCAR legend Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Indy Racing League driver Danica Patrick. (Full Story) Age...
By Liz | October 20, 2006; 11:59 AM ET | Comments (0)
