Welcome to THG’s Week in Review! Below, our staffers look back at the stories, stars and scandals that made the last seven days some of the craziest all year. If you don’t already, FOLLOW THG on Twitter , Google+ , Tumblr and Facebook for news 24/7/365. Let us be your celebrity gossip source across the board! Now, a rundown of the week that was at The Hollywood Gossip : The U.S. women’s gymnastics team won the gold in the team competition … … and some people care about Gabby Douglas’ hair for some reason. Gabby won the all-around individual gold, with Aly Raisman close behind. Meanwhile, McKayla Maroney is not impressed with silver. Or much else. Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh three-peated in beach volleyball. Meanwhile, Michael Phelps made history with 22 career Olympic medals … … and a hot new girlfriend in Megan Rossee , who he debuted in London! Ryan Lochte , meanwhile, was 11 career medals, and plenty of offers. Some even say he’s on the short list to become the next Bachelor ! Either way, this Missy Franklin Twitter pic with Ryan is the cutest.
It might not get any more awesome than Kelly Clarkson. The original American Idol is touring the country at the moment, taking fan requests at each stop and then covering classic tracks. She recently knocked Anna Nalick’s ” Breathe ” out of the impressive park and prior to that she went with a Britney Spears single . But outside of Detroit last night, Clarkson put on her coolest performance yet, donning a grey hoodie and making like Eminem. Watch her version of “Lose Yourself” now, compare it to when Taylor Swift also covered this rap smash and then decide: Who did it better?
Oprah Winfrey may be slipping these days and growing a tad desperate for ratings, but the media mogul is still not afraid to ask tough questions. Rihanna may often cast herself as edgy and hard, but when relaxed and on her home turf (Barbados), she’s not afraid to answer them, candidly. When asked about the end of her relationship with Chris Brown for Oprah’s Next Chapter , Rihanna teared up. “It was embarrassing,” she said. “It was humiliating. I lost my best friend.” “I was resentful. I held a grudge,” Rihanna admitted. “I was dark.” Rihanna and Chris Brown have since reconciled, both personally and professionally; the two stars even collaborated on two remixes in early 2012. Winfrey admitted she was surprised by Rihanna’s non-badass nature . “She was thoughtful. She was very emotional. She was vulnerable,” she said. At the same time, “she pushes the edge a lot,” as we’ve seen in her decision to record with Chris again despite his brutal attack on her in 2009. Rumors persist that the former lovers will get back together again romantically. While that’s just speculation, she doesn’t shy away from feeding it. What do you think? Should Rihanna and Chris date again?
Adding her name to the growing U.S. roster of swimming gold medalists at the London Olympics, Rebecca Soni absolutely dominated the 200-meter breaststroke last night, shattering her own world record to boot. To call it an impressive swim would be an understatement. Rebecca Soni ruled every heat she swam in the 200 breaststroke in London, setting a short-lived world record in her semifinal Wednesday night. She topped that by winning gold – and lowering her world record from 2:20.00 to an amazing 2:19.59 – Thursday at the London Aquatics Centre. “I’m so happy,” said the New Jersey native. “I didn’t focus on medals or records or whatever. I just wanted to swim my race the way I knew I could.” “It’s been my goal since I was a kid to go under 2:20. That’s what my coach (in high school) told me: ‘You’re going to be the first woman to go under 2:20.'” “To break it again tonight, it’s just unreal,” she said. “I guess it’s been four years in the works, training really hard every day. I couldn’t be happier.” Check out the video of Soni’s record-setting effort after the jump:
Hmmm… Erin Andrews or Khloe Kardashian? We may need a few minutes to weigh this decision. NOT! A few weeks after word spread that Andrews, a new Fox correspondent, was interested in hosting Season 2 of this singing competition, Khloe Kardashian has come out and reiterated her interest in the gig. “I’m a big fan of The X Factor, ” Khlo
Slamming NBC’s coverage of the Summer Olympics has become as much of a sport these days as swimming, archery or basketball. The network is not airing many key events as they happen. It’s even spoiling its very own primetime tapings by announcing the winner of various races earlier in the day. It’s a mess all around. But Jon Stewart has found a different reason to go off on NBC: its decision to cutaway from an Opening Ceremony tribute to the victims of the 7/7/05 bombing in London… in favor of an interview between Ryan Seacrest and Michael Phelps. Jon Stewart Slams NBC “You wouldn’t air a six-minute tribute to the rest of the world’s terror victims? Because the world’s most overexposed land-based mammal had a chance to speak to the world’s most overexposed water-based mammal?” Stewart asks in the clip above NBC has defended the decision by noting that it tailors the Olympics for an American audience, giving Stewart an easy target, considering the woeful ratings that network has endured for years: “You’re NBC! You don’t know how to tailor television for an American audience!” Point, Jon Stewart.
Clap for her…and she’ll make it clap for you Octomom Nadya Suleman Makes Enough Money To Get Off Of Welfare According to TMZ reports : Rest easy America, your tax dollars are safe … ’cause Octomom + Porn + Stripping = NO MORE WELFARE!!!!! Sources tell TMZ … the mother of 14 no longer needs government assistance thanks to her various XXX gigs. We’re told Octo has raked in more than enough cash to support herself — we’re talkin’ 6-figs. TMZ broke the story … Octo went on welfare back in March (resulting in a slew of death threats) claiming she needed the cash to help feed her family. But as of June, her 3-month cycle ended and she chose NOT to renew it. We’re told Octo still stands by her decision to go on welfare in the first place … but she’s happy to show the world it was just a temporary situation. Here’s the lesson ladies, if you ever find yourself with more kids than you can handle, get naked and get paid! Way to go hoe! *2 thumbs up* SMMFH… Image via SplashNews
The Bachelorette star Emily Maynard may have found Mr. Right in the end – read the latest Bachelorette spoilers here to learn who – but it wasn’t easy on her. The 26-year-old single mom became increasingly stressed out and worried about her looks throughout the season, according to a new report in Us . “She literally cried,” an insider says, if she was at all dissatisfied with her on-set hair and makeup, and “would throw a fit if she didn’t like her outfit.” “She’d break out in tears when she was unhappy about anything.” For a young woman who always seems so put-together, this report is a little surprising … or just false. Either way, it’s easy to see why she’s stressed. As a single mom to Ricki, who just turned seven, Emily Maynard faces a tougher decision than most of the ABC show’s stars that came before her. Any Bachelor or Bachelorette fan knows it may not work out after the hit show, but the prospect of failure is harder to stomach with a child involved. It remains to be seen if Maynard will accept a proposal from either Sean Lowe, Jef Holm or Arie Luyendyk on The Bachelorette’s Sunday July 22 finale. Tell us below: Who do you think she should choose?
Take This Waltz is an unusually kind film about infidelity — not because it sidesteps or shortchanges heartbreak, but because it doesn’t let any one of its characters bear the full burden of blame. That such a thing needs to or should even be assigned in this scenario is beside the point, as the film defers to the vagueries of the human heart and the way we can, despite our better judgment, form a connection with someone that can’t easily be set aside. It’s tempting to glibly connect this clear-eyed empathy with the fact that Take This Waltz is Canadian and somehow inherently prone to niceness — it’s set in a rosy version of Toronto in which the characters all live in charmingly shabby chic houses and sporadically work in quirky jobs. But what it actually comes from, I think, is that the film is the sophomore feature of actress-turned-director Sarah Polley, who constructs her central love triangle with a determinedly feminine perspective and places all of the choice on her female protagonist Margot, played with typical grace by Michelle Williams. Margot wants anything but to have to make a difficult call, especially one that will result in someone getting hurt. One of the film’s first scenes finds her visiting the living history museum of the Fortress of Louisbourg for work and getting pulled in front of a crowd by costumed, in-character staffers to help with a flogging. “Put your back into it!” yells a man from the crowd when she ineffectually flails at the prisoner, clearly mortified. Later, she ends up sitting next to the heckler on the plane. His name is Daniel (Luke Kirby), and he’s just watched her board in a wheelchair despite not having needed one before, leading her to confess that she pretends at airports because of her terror of missed connections, something born not out of a need not to miss a flight but because, as she puts it, “I’m afraid of wondering if I’ll miss it. I don’t like being in between things.” Margot will, however, spend the movie in between things — between Daniel, who turns out to live across the street (“Shit!” she mutters when she finds out), and Lou (Seth Rogen), the husband of five years with whom she shares a loving if childlike and seemingly no longer passionate relationship. Margot loves Lou — the two tussle like kids and talk adoring about the terrible violence they’re going to do one another (“I’m going to put your spleen through a meat grinder,” Lou sighs) — but she may not be in love with him any longer, and she has an undeniable heated spark with Daniel, an artist who pulls a rickshaw and who watches her with guarded longing. Take This Waltz , which was also written by Polley, has moments of overdetermined dialogue — the line about airport connections is one, and another finds Margot describing Lou, who’s a cookbook writer, as “a really good cook, if you like chicken.” It’s stronger in its moments of wordless sensuality, from its opening scene in which Margot makes muffins, the camera drifting to her bare feet and then her face as she leans it against the over glass. Daniel offers to take Margot and Lou downtown in his rickshaw when they’re headed out to celebrate their anniversary, and we track her gaze across the muscles of his arms and back, catching his eye in the side-view mirror. The draw of the flesh is not inconsiderable, and Take This Waltz doesn’t make it so easy as being a kind of passing temptation, an indulgence to be resisted. Margot and Lou have a stable and relatively happy life together — we see them at home and in the company of their friends and family, including Lou’s sister Geraldine (a memorable Sarah Silverman), a recovering alcoholic. It’s a lot to trade for attraction, no matter how significant, but the film feasibly puts the two on a level, leaving Margot to navigate the decision with growing distress as she tries to avoid Daniel, only to go out of her way to run into him, and then flees back to Lou professing her love and fear. Kirby makes his improbable swain just dangerous enough, the embodiment of the promise of the new, while Rogen shows off his dramatic chops as a man who’s obviously never given thought during his time with Margot of what things would be like without her. But the weight of the film rests on Williams, and she finds a poignant and quiet agony in her character as she realizes she’s the only one who can make this decision and must deal with the consequences either way, after time and again trying to push it off or onto other people. It’s a world of bittersweet sophistication from Polley, and one that accepts that, as a stranger reminds Margot at a swim class, “new things get old,” but that doesn’t make them any less appealing.
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