David Letterman Apologizes to Sarah Palin Again (Video Added)
Reports have surfaced that David Letterman offered yet another apology to Sarah Palin at this afternoon's taping of his show set to air later tonight. He couldn't have made a bigger mistake. By apologizing again, not only is Letterman giving legitimacy to Palin's ridiculous claims that his "perverted" jokes inspire sexual mistreatment of women, but it also breathes new life into an issue that had sort of fizzled out of the news cycle over the weekend. Besides, does he really think that Palin will ever accept any apology from him? Of course not! This will just give the media another opportunity to stick cameras and microphones in Palin's face so she can continue to bray on and on and on about "ole David Letterman" being a dirty old man. He'd have been much better off ignoring it and letting all of this fade away, as it was already beginning to do, but instead he winds up essentially vindicating Palin's unwarranted indignation instead. Regardless, here's what Letterman said at the taping of his show today, which is set to air later tonight: "All right, here - I've been thinking about this situation with Governor Palin and her family now for about a week - it was a week ago tonight, and maybe you know about it, maybe you don't know about it. But there was a joke that I told, and I thought I was telling it about the older daughter being at Yankee Stadium. And it was kind of a coarse joke. There's no getting around it, but I never thought it was anybody other than the older daughter, and before the show, I checked to make sure in fact that she is of legal age, 18. Yeah. But the joke really, in and of itself, can't be defended. The next day, people are outraged. They're angry at me because they said, 'How could you make a lousy joke like that about the 14-year-old girl who was at the ball game?' And I had, honestly, no idea that the 14-year-old girl, I had no idea that anybody was at the ball game except the Governor and I was told at the time she was there with Rudy Giuliani...And I really should have made the joke about Rudy..." (audience applauds) "But I didn't, and now people are getting angry and they're saying, 'Well, how can you say something like that about a 14-year-old girl, and does that make you feel good to make those horrible jokes about a kid who's completely innocent, minding her own business,' and, turns out, she was at the ball game. I had no idea she was there. So she's now at the ball game and people think that I made the joke about her. And, but still, I'm wondering, 'Well, what can I do to help people understand that I would never make a joke like this?' I've never made jokes like this as long as we've been on the air, 30 long years, and you can't really be doing jokes like that. And I understand, of course, why people are upset. I would be upset myself. "And then I was watching the Jim Lehrer 'Newshour' - this commentator, the columnist Mark Shields, was talking about how I had made this indefensible joke about the 14-year-old... MORE >>
The Delicate Economics of Being Paid to Show Up
What we feared would happen last year has come to fruition. Celebrities are having a hard time commanding high appearance fees. A-listers still do all right, but everyone else? We're talking in the four-figure range. Depresso-rama! BizBash reports that not only are Z-listers like Kevin Federline "not likely to command any fee at all" this year, but also that the bigger names have to do more for the company/product/suicide cult that's subsidizing their Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf tabs only to get a lower figure than they would have netted a year ago just for showing up. But basic appearance fees aside, the trend is toward integrating celebrities into events in ways that involve more than just showing up on the red carpet. When LG launched its new Rumor2 phone, the company looked to Heidi Klum to serve as the product's "ambassador of style," a partnership involving an advertising campaign, online webisodes, and a consumer promotion. And these celebs will take it! Because if you don't do a movie or TV show or whatever for two years and you've been spending like it's going out of style (it is), then you need these weird, almost-underground jobs to keep yourself in Priuses. "Because of the recession, I would say fees are down approximately 50 percent," said Lori Levine of talent booking and brokering firm Flying Television, which has offices in New York and Los Angeles. She also noted that the top stars still fetch top dollar. "Couple that with events being down 75 percent, so all in all celebrities are definitely looking twice at events this year that they would have turned down last year." Though, don't worry. Certain in-demand celebrities are doing just fine. It's just that they might not be exactly who you'd think: Currently, Zac Efron and Robert Pattinson are among the two hottest commodities on the market, according to people who wrangle celebrities. And, perhaps an anomaly, "Paris Hilton continues to draw six-figure appearance fees," said Rita Tateel, president of the Celebrity Source. Stars of 90210, High School Musical, and Gossip Girl are among the others who can command big bucks. Anyway, this isn't really any great economic loss for anyone, it's just some fat-trimming that Hollywood has desperately needed to go through for a while now, albeit a bit more drastic than the disappearance of gifting suites or whatever. Basically, if Boost Mobile offers you $2,000 to get drunk on Level Vodka while RCA Records' newest stable of pop sensations plays on the Bose speakers overhead, you goddamn do it, Selena Gomez.. You do it. Image of the T-Mobile Sidekick™ LX via Splash MORE >>
Everyone's Just Gonna Rip on Heidi & Spencer Today
After Al Roker showed the reality baubles how it's done in his neck of the woods earlier, the gurgling pair were taken to task by the Furies at The View. Whoopi said they were gonna end up on the street. If they don't get their minds right! Because, you know, they can't ever give a straight answer to questions about what producers told them to do and what was faked and what was real, etc & etc forever. Joy then sass-mouthed Heidi for aspiring to be like Mother Teresa but then going and posing nude for Playboy. Perhaps every lite-news outlet has just had their Peter Finch moment this morning and just aren't gonna take it anymore. Too bad Ryan Seacrest doesn't do an afternoon show so the the Pratts could whine and moan about how unfair everyone's being all over again. Tonight, Wolf Blitzer is going to unhinge his jaw and devour them whole. Then they'll pass through Larry King's lower intestine and end up in Pat O'Brien's backyard. From there, no one will ever hear from them again. MORE >>
Bruce and Emma Willis' Newlywed S&M Gift to All of Us
Bruce Willis, 54, and his new wife, model Emma, 32, recently did a sexy-pex S&M nudie pictorial for W magazine. Go there for more pictures. (Two might not be SFW). The essential crux of this photo shoot is this: Actors and models are weird. Really. While photographer Steven Klein was shooting these, and a crew hung around watching, the Willises stood naked and stretched in strange positions and, well, that was a Tuesday. To boot, they'd just come back from their food and wine heavy wedding getaway in the Turks & Caicos, so Bruce wanted some barbells around to do last minute toning and who knows what Emma did. The two met at the gym, so we're sure she did something. Bruce said of the shoot, "vanity dies hard," referencing his movie from a hundred years ago before going to stretch out in his black underpants while his new wife straddled him wearing a robot-wolf costume and everyone watched. So, it couldn't be that hard. MORE >>
Like a Staycation, But at Work, For No Pay
The Way We Live Now: Eking out a hard living in cubicle hell while beauty dies, duh. We work without music. We work without pay. We work without jobs, just to say "Hey, one day." Virgin Megastore is officially dead. Dead along with it is one of your top five theoretical backup jobs in the event of your layoff; the idea that selling music in a store could be a profitable endeavor; your own whimsical daydream about one day maybe opening up a little record shop, just the really cool shit, and just living that life; and the music industry as a whole. Hell, Joan Kroc gave the Salvation Army $1.8 billion and it still can't scrape together enough to build a new swimming pool in Detroit. Argentina's not crying for you, buddy. At least you have a job. You better hold onto like the precious diamond that it is—a valuable gem made out of dirt that you squeeze really tight. You do what you must. You do what the boss says. You do what the boss doesn't say, just to scrape and give yourself that tiny edge that just might cause them to lay off Doris, the receptionist, instead of you, when the time comes. "Furloughs," they said. "Ten percent less in the check, but you get a few more days off each month," they said. What happened? You work right through those furlough days. Because there's too much work. It's kind of like a staycation, but at work, and minus the "-cation." Just a "stay." Of execution? One might say that. Yes one might. Because your Stay could be a staycation—of poorness: "The real problem is that long-term unemployment is going up dramatically," said Franklin Allen, finance professor at the Wharton School. "Unfortunately, many people in their late 40s and 50s may never get jobs again." How do you like them apples? I hope you like them enough to sell, for nickels, for the next 30 years. MORE >>
The Revolution in Iran: A Recap
If you're like most Americans you spend your summer weekends tuning out the rest of the world. In the event you turned on your computer today and wondered, "What the hell is going on in Iran?"—Here's a summary. In as close to chronological order as we can determine, here is a brief summary of the major events that have taken place over the last couple of days. Iranians went to the polls last week in large numbers (85% of registered voters turned out) to vote in that country's Presidential election, a sign usually favorable to candidates challenging incumbents. Reports begin to emerge that the high turnout has definitely worked in favor of Mir Hossein Mousavi, who many, including former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami, believe will win in a landslide. Turnout is so great that Iranian election officials extend the voting deadline an additional three hours so that more citizens are allowed to cast their ballots. Within hours of the polls closing, the Iranian government announced that incumbent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election with 62% of the vote, reported to be the largest margin of victory in the history of Iranian Presidential elections, while main opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi received only 33% of the vote. Due to the large number of hand ballots cast in Iran, this declaration of victory seemed extremely odd, as it was expected to possibly take days for election officials to count all of the ballots. Already sensing a bubble of unrest on the verge of bursting, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei states that all Iranians, including the losing candidates of the presidential election, must support Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ignoring the government's orders, thousands of Iranians, many of them covering their faces out of fear of being recognized and punished for rising up against the government, take to the streets in spontaneous protest. Reports emerge that cell phone calls and text-messaging have been blocked throughout Iran. Protests in the streets reach critical mass with thousands of average citizens doing battle with Iranian police and military outfitted in full riot gear. Iran's supreme leader issues a statement calling the election a "divine assessment." As the uprising begins to turn violent, with protesters throwing stones at Iranian officials and Iranian officials mercilessly beating hundreds of protesters, the New York Times' Bill Keller talks to an anonymous Iranian election official who says this: "They didn't rig the vote. They didn't even look at the vote. They just wrote the name and put the number in front of it." British journalist Lindsey Hilsum files this remarkable report from Tehran, in which she says she feels as though she "went to sleep in one country and woke up in another." Reports emerge that Mir Hossein Mousavi has been placed under house arrest by the Iranian government. A group of employees within the Iranian Interior Ministry, the government body overseeing the election,... MORE >>
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