Seven Halloween Costumes to Avoid
There's only ten shopping days left before Halloween. So, it's time for Halloween costume listicles! Lots of people want to tell you what to wear. We'd like to spare you the humiliation of following their advice. Every year there are a bunch of people who all decide to take something topical as inspiration for a "witty" outfit. We have a good idea what they'll be this year, and you should check yourself before you scare everyone. So, to avoid the great Borat outbreak of 2006 or the Dark Knight/Joker takeover of 2008, here are some pop cultural outfits that you definitely want to leave in the costume shop if you don't want to run into several dozen other yahoos wearing the exact same getup. Sarah Palin Why Not: It was a bad idea last year. It's even worse this year. Besides, while everyone who doesn't race snow machines is still trying to forget her, you'll just be helping her sell books. Safe Alternative: Levi Johnston What You Need to Make It: This is a boy's only costume. All you'll need is a nude body stocking (or a pair of briefs if you're bold) and attach a vintage copy of Playgirl to the crotch. Bonus points for carrying a baby and/or a bag of pistachio nuts. If you have a friend who will dress up as Tank Jones, your look is made. Max from Where the Wild Things Are Why Not: This would have been cute a year ago, but now that the movie's out, everyone's going to try to replicate it. You can do better than that. Safe Alternative: H.R. Puffinstuff What You Need to Make It: You're going to need a whole lot of paper machine, fabric, paint, and time to do this other retro children's hero up right, but it will be a huge hit. Summer of Death Celebrities Why Not: No, it's not too soon, it's just not very creative. So yes, that means no Michael Jackson, Farrah Fawcett, Patrick Swayze, Ed McMahon, Billy Mays, or any of the others we've lost recently. It's not edgy, just lazy. Safe Alternative: Elizabeth Taylor or Kirk Douglas. They're not dead yet, but they could be any day. Go as the next dead celebrity. What You Need to Make It: For Dame Liz, a wheelchair, a crazy hat, and some White Diamonds perfume. For Kirk, a cleft chin, a tuxedo, and disappointment in your son, Michael. Zombie/Vampire Why Not: Because every movie, TV show and book these days is about one or the other. Every teenage girl and boy is going to be rocking this, so you'll look like you're trying too hard to be down with the youngs. Safe Alternative: A banshee. They are so the monster of 2010. What You Need to Make It: Long hair (a wig will do), a long white gown preferably tattered, and a loud shouting voice. Balloon Boy Why Not: This is going to be popular because it will be easy to rig together and everyone will think it's funny and current. It's neither. And let's hope that in 11 days this story is officially over. Safe Alternative: The old man from Up. What You Need to Make It: Square glasses, grey hair, a sweater vest. Attach a bunch of baloons and a cardboard cutout of a house... MORE >>
The Defamer Guide to Saving the Oscars
The show may or may not get higher ratings than the American Idol finale, but the subject of who will host and produce the 82nd Academy Awards telecast remains Hollywood's perennial obsession. And right now there is a bit of panic afoot in showbiz, that with a mere 138 days until showtime, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences still hasn't decided on a helmer for the trophy trot. Nikki Finke reported last week, that last year's host and producer, Hugh Jackman and Bill Condon, are planning not to return to the Kodak stage. The pair's up-market, olde-timey glamour version of the show, gave Oscar its first ratings uptick in seemingly forever; a dramatic break in its long slide into irrelevance. ("What an honor for the Aussie actor" grandma Nikki writes of the of the Academy's desire to bring Jackman back to the show.) UPDATE: Since the writing of this item, the producers have been named...and they are...Hairspray director Adam Shankman and former Fox CEO Bill Mechanic.) Every year, Hollywood debates the question of how to update an event that is inherently the stodgiest thing thing on Earth. For starters, the thing that Oscar was conceived to honor — big glitzy prestige films — don't exist anymore, so the show will from now until forever be torn between giving their statues to little independent films that no one saw (and hence, that no one wants to see an awards show celebrating) or trying to find ways to squeeze nods to Dark Knight into a show that will never actually honor such popular films. And for that matter, what with the media attention span being half a second long these days, if you are talking about movies that came out last year, you might as well be giving a lesson in like, the Cold War or Vietnam or something. Not to mention — three hours of people in tuxedoes getting trophies and making speeches?!? In the epoch of cat videos!? Is this some kinda of Twilight Zone episode? Is America being punk'd by Oscar? So what the heck do you do with a still huge but dwindling monstrosity like Oscar? Basically you can embrace the future or deny it, and either route has its merits. Here's our suggestions for the roads Oscar could take: EMBRACE THE KIWANIS WITHIN Oscar is never, ever going to win over these kids today, so go with your strength. Lead with the stodgy; you'll play well to your base and once every decade and a half, catch a retro wave. These days the Hollywood establishment is the aging Baby Boom generation, who are bound to actually become cool one of these days. Host: Billy Crystal Producer: Jeffrey Katzenberg Ideal Best Picture Winner: Braveheart Opening Number: A Rockettes lead a musical tribute to the films of screenwriter Ron Bass, high-stepping to the greatest moments from Rain Man, Snow Falling on Cedars and Dangerous Minds. Clips Reel: A complete recap of The Today Show reporting the weekend grosses every Monday morning of the past year. Log Line: This IS your grandfather's Oscars. DRINK THE GLOBES... MORE >>
Facebook, as Cast by Hollywood
It appears Aaron Sorkin has confirmed many of the casting choices for his upcoming Facebook movie. If only Silicon Valley were this good looking. There's someone from Gossip Girl, Melanie Griffith's daughter — even a very built male model. Citing a quote from Sorkin himself, The Playlist reports the cast includes Armie Hammer from Gossip Girl; model Dakota Johnson (who is Griffith's daughter); Max Minghella of Agora; and male model Josh Pence. This goes beyond lead actors Jesse Eisenberg, Justin Timberlake and Andrew Garfield, who were already confirmed. A quick look at the cast members, with some thoughts on who some of the new people might be portraying (all pics by Getty Images unless otherwise credited): UPDATE: We've updated the entires for Hammer, Song and Pence. UPDATE: And Mara. esse Eisenberg plays founder Mark Zuckerberg. He's got the curly hair and geeky look down well enough. Justin Timberlake plays early Facebook adviser and Napster co-founder Sean Parker. (Insert Parker photo by Andrew Mager on Flickr.) Andrew Garfield plays spurned co-founder Eduardo Saverin. Brenda Song, of the Disney Channel, would appear to be a shoo-in to play Zuckerberg's girlfriend Priscilla Chan. UPDATE: One tipster tells us Chan does not appear in the script but that Saverin is supposed to have an Asian girlfriend, so perhaps Song is taking on that role. Whomever model Josh Pence is playing, he's definitely not part of the Silicon Valley tech scene. How about the Winklevoss twins, two Olympic rowers from Harvard who accused Zuckerberg of stealing their idea for Facebook? UPDATE: That part is being played by Armie Hammer (see here). Perhaps Pence could be another Harvard kid?That would seem to work. Pic via Nous Model Management. Dakota Johnson looks like the kind of girl you'd hope to meet during a night on the town in San Francisco. And Zuckerberg did escort that Victoria's Secret model away from a party there — at least according to author Ben Mezrich. <pRooney Mara (The Winning Season) looks so downright nice. Zuckerberg's geek girl friend at Harvard, maybe? UPDATE: A tipster suggested Zuckerberg's sister Randi. Good call.Send us your guess. Max Minghella — no idea who he might play. Thoughts? Armie Hammer from Gossip Girl. UPDATE: He is playing the Winklevoss twins, Olympic rowers who sued Zuckerberg for stealing their idea for Facebook, according to a tweet from director Richard Kelly. Pic via MORE >>
Gossip Girl: Bi-Bi-Birdie
The most amazing thing about Chuck Bass kissing a guy wasn't the kiss itself, but when he acknowledges that it wasn't the first time he kissed a dude. Wowza! Chuck's power increased tenfold now that he can seduce both sexes. Aside from Chuck kissing a guy, last night's episode was pretty whack. There was way too much Vanessa. Remember when she was just some weird little girl who worked in a gallery and we would only see her when Dan used to whine about how rich Serena is. Ah, those were the days! Along with all that Vanessa, the other atrocity is that everyone is wearing purple and asymmetrical tops. It's like the lavender version of the swine flu. Dorota: Power Play: Even though she is not there to serve her Miss Blair in person, she uses her faithful servant as a way out a tight spot with Chuck: +3 Total: 3 Season to Date: 40 Power Position: Down Chuck: Fashion Points: Purple!: -2, His haircut is very nice: +1 Sexual Intrigue: Consoles Blair after her nightmare: +1, Doesn't even hesitate for a second to go gay to please his girlfriend: +2, Kisses a guy: +4, Admits that he has kissed a guy before: +10, It was probably Nate that time they took E in Ibiza, which doesn't really count: -5, Disses Blair for being a schemer: +1, Really doesn't want to dump her, but does on principle. Moral high ground is not a place Chuck should be visiting: -3 Social Schemes: Lets Blair use his burgeoning bisexuality for her little reindeer games: -2 Total: 7 Season to Date: 22 Power Position: Down Olivia: Fashion Points: Purple!: -1 Personality Flaw: Way too excited to meet Dan's parents: -1, Gives good gifts: +1 Power Play: Acts like an ass in front of Lily and Rufus: -2, They forgive her and invite her over for breakfast: +2, She's so important, they don't let Eric out of his room to come have breakfast because they don't want to be embarrassed: +2 Social Schemes: Takes toast away from Blair and Vanessa without even trying: +3, Let's Vanessa convince her that Dan doesn't want her to meet his parents, twice: -2, Cancels the speech to have Dan's "special chicken": -1, Gets to give the speech without even asking for it back: +5 Total: 6 Season to Date: 2 Power Position: Up Blair: Fashion Points: Great grey dress at the parents' dinner: +1 Personality Flaw: Is nice to Vanessa. Boo!: -3 Power Play: Has nightmares about Vanessa. So do we: +1, Has the new mean girls firmly in check: +2, Treats her minions like crap and reassigns their pecking order: +1, Adding insult to injury, she gets lessons on taste from Lily!: -2 Quip: "Get out, you cable knit queen": +1 Sexual Intrigue: Convinces her man to go gay: +3, It's a little too easy: -1, Pisses off Chuck by using him in her scheme and not trusting him: -5, Grovels to get Chuck back: -1 Social Schemes: Can't convince Josh to give her the toast: -1, Tells V she doesn't get to give the toast and then starts her plan to get it back: +2, After Chuck kisses a guy (and we like it!) she gets the toast: +2, Loses the toast and her... MORE >>
Yahoo Lap Dancers the Latest in a Chorus Line of Tech Sexism Scandals
Yahoo has apologized for providing lap dances on stage at a Tawian programming event. Critics aren't mollified, and that's probably just as well: it's all but certain something like this will happen again soon. Certain, that is, if you judge from recent history. Here's a roundup of tech chauvinism flare-ups from just the last couple of months: "Booth babes" were explicitly discouraged at the TechCrunch 50; some people still hired the attractive spokesgirls. On stage at the same event, Penn Jilette promoted his iPhone magic app by explaining how it helped a stripper increase her tips. Oy, said Twitter When the fit, female co-founder of the startup TotalTrainer gave a presentation at VentureBeat's Demo conference, some male geeks in the audience got snarky about her body on Twitter, provoking a backlash against their "sexist tweets." Attendees at TechCrunch had to be warned not to mock the accents of speakers from foreign countries, according to co-organizer Jason Calacanis. What's more, the girls who danced on stage at this year's Yahoo Hack Day were merely a sequel to the gyrating women who appeared on stage last year, notes Kara Swisher at All Things D. That's despite the fact that an all-woman team won the top prize at Yahoo's first Hack Day, in 2006, and that Yahoo has a tough-as-nails female CEO. Chalk it up as evidence that, whether a woman calls the shots or not, the tech world remains heavily male dominated. It goes beyond that, though: Human relationships, across the gender divide or not, get severely twisted in Silicon Valley's intense startup culture, where they're all too often pushed aside to make way for technical achievements (think marathon coding sessions) or business success. The Hack Day incident is as much about interpersonal awkwardness as sexism (does this guy look like he's enjoying himself?). Images from this year's event are below, via simonwillison.net and CocaChou on Flickr. It's a well-stocked gallery, purely so you can fully appreciate how, uh, deplorable this whole scene was. via CocaChou on Flickr via CocaChou on Flickr via CocaChou on Flickr via CocaChou on Flickr MORE >>
What Do Adam Lambert and Details Have in Common?
Oh, look: metrosexual Bible Details landed America's biggest gay pop star for a cover shoot. A very heterosexual cover shoot. (He sorta kisses a girl!!) No, Details doesn't look gay at all. Isn't this just the problem with closeted Details in the first place? It's always been so obviously gay, but at the same time it's like your college roommate who would blast Liza Minnelli and then talk about how he loved fucking his girlfriend who lives in Canada. The mag's closet mentality has even rubbed off on Lambert and they get him to say some really freaky things. I am gay, but I like kissing women sometimes. Women are pretty. It doesn't mean I'm necessarily sleeping with them. Yeah, that was really convincing. Adam, why are you going along with this? Say it loud, you're queer and you're proud. And now is not the time to be ashamed. What is pretty shameful is the press release announcing his cover story. It says the American Idol runner up talks about "getting bras thrown at him onstage, kissing gorgeous women, and living the American dream." Yes, being a gay man making out with a woman really is the American dream—if you're a member of Exodus and trying to convince yourself you're straight. And just check out the awkward photo shoot. In order to get Lambert to make out with the model, they gave her jockstrap flavored lip gloss, which our man is now trying to devour. This is possibly the first men's magazine shoot where the male and female models are wearing matching nail polish. This pose is so awkward that it has never been found in nature or heterosexual lovemaking ever in the history of the world. It shows Adam Lambert doesn't even know where the vagina lives. "Is it over here? No. Is it over here? No." Lambert stares off into the distance at a monitor playing scenes from College Dudes 24/7. He needs to keep his motivation up, because in a minute, they're going to make him touch that yucky girl again. Here is the cover. Adam looks pouty. That is the usual reaction when mean magazine editors make gay guys spend a whole day touching boobs. MORE >>
Padma Lakshmi Still Haunting Salman Rushdie's Dreams
According to Page Six, Salman Rushdie's ex-girlfriend says he's "cowardly, dysfunctional, and immature" and won't stop talking about Padma Lakshmi, the one that got away. Pia Glenn, a ludicrously tall 32-year-old stage actress, started dating Rushdie in September of 2007; Rushdie dumped her via e-mail (well, he is a writer, right?) in June. On Sunday, she told the Daily Mail that he was a coward, and today she tells the Post that he still isn't over Padma: He would talk about Padma day and night. He felt hurt and betrayed by her. He would talk about her so much I'd ask him to stop. Glenn tried to keep in touch with Rushdie after he dumped her, but they just ended up fighting all the time. "Its clear that he's not interested in friendship now, which calls into question why he was interested in me in the first place," she told the paper. "If I had thought he only wanted me for sex, I would have gotten out immediately." Yeah, because who'd have thought that a 62-year-old, four-time married novelist who only dates models who are 25 years younger and a full foot taller than him would want a woman for sex? MORE >>
Ali Wise Charged with Being Craziest Ex Ever
Ali Wise, the former Dolce & Gabanna publicist who got in a bit of trouble for hacking into the voicemail of anyone dating her ex-boyfriends, has been charged with four felonies. The true extent of her craziness is absolutely crazy. The most fascinating thing about Ali Wise's craziness is its very pedestrian nature—pedestrian on crystal meth, maybe, but still. She didn't snap and murder her ex's lover in a jealous rage; that's been done. Instead, she hacked into their voicemails, deleting messages as she went. It's a nightmare, because who would believe you when you told them you didn't return their call or make that appointment because your messages were surreptitiously deleted by a jealous, tech-savvy fashion publicist? The crime's unlikely nature is what makes it deadly (socially). Anyhow, cops say that Ali didn't just go all Hackers on one lady interested in her ex, Downtown Records boss Josh Deutsch; she was all up in everybody's voicemail. The NYP reports: As if to prove the axiom that publicists are forever on the phone, the 337 "hacked" calls Wise allegedly made into Freudenberger's cell and landline voice-mail systems were just the beginning. She made at least 137 additional calls into the voice mails of Victim No. 2, at least 119 calls into the voice mails of Victim No. 3, and at least 102 calls into the voice mails of Victim No. 4, the criminal complaint says. She's facing charges of trespassing, tampering, eavesdropping, and stalking. Girl, you know he's not worth it! [Pic: Getty] MORE >>
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