Less than a week after saying she was still together with John Edwards , Rielle Hunter now says she and the disgraced politician are no longer a couple. Apparently they broke up within the last few days. “We are a family, but as of the end of last week, John Edwards and I are no longer a couple,” she said on today’s Good Morning America . “Not at all.” Rielle Hunter , who has a daughter, Quinn, 4, with John, said she still loves the two-time presidential candidate, who was seen at her beach house last week. As for whether that feeling is mutual, “You have to ask him,” said Hunter, whose covert relationship with Edwards was exposed and led to his political downfall. “I really think he does.” “I fell in love with a married man and became something I wasn’t in order to be with him,” Hunter gushed last week, while promoting her new book. Rielle would not reveal who initiated the split with the former U.S. Senator from North Carolina, only, “We decided to end it. It’s hard. It’s painful.”
Rihanna told us all about her crazy night at a strip club on Tuesday via her Twitter timeline and a series of racy Instagram pics. Well done, Internet! The star, 24, apparently jumped on stage at a strip club, where she danced next to female exotic dancers and showered them with dollar bills. Par for the course, right? This is how the night ended: Despite her wild antics, Rihanna isn’t worried about setting a bad example, reacting with defiance to controversy over her racy Coachella pics , then posting an even crazier set of Tweets and photos from the strip joint. Some of her updates throughout her night out: Best stress reliever= $tripper$. Kill it Tip it My nigga I’m faded…And I don’t give a phuck! My daddy would be proud #RoleModelShit #NaviShit Then, the next morning, with the photo above: Woke up repenting!! Feelin like a sinner… Hope it was worth it. Sadly, there is no video of this, but you can follow the jump for a couple of racy (sort of NSFW) Rihanna pictures she shared:
After traveling back to the 1960s for their first round of performances last night, the final five on American Idol traveled overseas. They covered a slew of British pop songs, with Joshua Ledet once again leading the way and an interesting race to the bottom unfolding. Who will be eliminated this week? Watch the second set of Idol covers from this week and then vote on the best… Hollie Cavanagh went all Leona Lewis on viewers, following up a version of “River Deep Mountain High” with this solid take on “Bleeding Love.” Hollie Cavanagh – “Bleeding Love” It was back to the guitar for Phillip Phillips for “Time of the Season.” Compare this performance with his rendition of ” The Letter ” now. Phillip Phillips – “Time of the Season” Skylar Laine struggled a bit with her opening song, but did she make up for it with “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me? We think so. Skylar Laine – “You Don’t Have To Say You Love Me” Jessica Sanchez slowed it way down and told somebody out there: “You Are So Beautiful.” It was an impressive follow-up to ” Proud Mary .” Jessica Sanchez – “You Are So Beautiful” But nothing could match Joshua Ledet on this night. Was “To Love Somebody” his best audition to date? Decide for yourself.
For a phony online dating ad – in which he stars on behalf of his role as Popchips’ “president of pop culture” – Ashton Kutcher dons multiple costumes and pretends to be four different eligible bachelors. There’s a character named Raj, for example, that features the actor in brown face and and with an Indian accent. And while it’s all meant to be in good fun, many on the Internet have not reacted with laughter. Ashton Kutcher Dating Site Commercial “I can’t imagine I have to explain this to anyone in 2012, but if you find yourself putting brown makeup on a white person in 2012 so they can do a bad “funny” accent in order to sell potato chips, you are on the wrong course,” wrote Anil Dash , a tech blogger, in response to the spot. “Make some different decisions.” And Popchips now has: the company has pulled the ad from YouTube and Facebook, while releasing the following statement: “The new Popchips worldwide dating video and ad campaign featuring four characters was created to provoke a few laughs and was never intended to stereotype or offend anyone. At Popchips we embrace all types of shapes, flavors and colors, and appreciate all snackers, no matter their race or ethnicity. We hope people can enjoy this in the spirit it was intended.” What do YOU think? Should the spot have been removed from the Internet?
Cate Edwards, the daughter of John Edwards, had to leave his trial on federal campaign violation charges yesterday after some upsetting revelations. She walked out of the courtroom, crying, as a witness started to describe an argument between her parents after a tabloid reported her dad’s affair. The former U.S. Senator faces charges of illegally using campaign contributions to cover up his affair with Rielle Hunter while running for president. Former Edwards aide Christina Reynolds testified about the day in 2007 when John and Elizabeth Edwards learned of the National Enquirer ‘s report. They were at the airport, and “Elizabeth was very upset… She was very vocal,” Reynolds said. “She stormed off and collapsed into a ball in the parking lot.” After aides helped Elizabeth Edwards get back to her feet and led her to a nearby restroom, “She seemed a little calmer,” said Reynolds, “then stormed out of the bathroom and tried to engage Mr. Edwards.” In an emotional outburst, Elizabeth reportedly told her husband, “You don’t see me any more,” and tore off her shirt and bra on the spot. John Edwards “didn’t have much of a reaction.” Elizabeth Edwards died in 2010 at age 61 after a long battle with breast cancer. Shortly before she passed, she left John, though they never divorced. John denied, adamantly, that he had an affair with Hunter, though he was later forced to admit it … as well as the fact that he fathered her love child. This was all too much for their daughter to take yesterday. After a brief recess, Cate Edwards, 30, a lawyer, returned to the courtroom. John Edwards, 58, faces up to 30 years in prison and up to $1.5 million in fines if convicted of the charges, which he adamantly denies. He admits myriad personal shortcomings, but denies diverting nearly a million dollars in campaign funds illegally for the Hunter cover-up. Former aide Andrew Young, who says he facilitated the cover-up, said Edwards called her a crazy slut when he learned Rielle was pregnant .
Former aide Andrew Young, the star witness in the trial of former presidential candidate John Edwards, began his testimony against his former boss Monday. Edwards is accused of using hundreds of thousands of dollars from 101-year-old Rachel “Bunny” Mellon and Fred Baron to conceal his affair with Rielle Hunter . Young, testifying as the first witness Monday, said Mellon was an enthusiastic supporter who apologized for not being able to give more than $1 million. “She said she was close personal friends with Senators John and Bobby Kennedy and felt like Edwards was the best combination of them,” Young testified. Prosecutors say Edwards broke federal law by accepting about $725,000 from Mellon and more than $200,000 from Fred Baron, a now-deceased Texas lawyer. The money was used to pay for Rielle Hunter’s living and medical expenses, travel and accommodations to quash the scandal while he sought the presidency. Edwards is accused of concealing the money from the public and the Federal Election Commission, which polices political contributions, in the 2008 campaign. Federal prosecutors say he filed false and misleading campaign disclosure reports to do this, though Edwards denies any (legal) wrongdoing in the case. The defense argues the money he received from Mellon and Baron was for personal reasons – to protect Edwards’ wife, Elizabeth, who was dying of cancer. Basically, he says he did it to hide his cheating from his family, and that the donors would have given the money regardless of these rare circumstances. Of course, by concealing it from his family, he also hid it from the public, and made a serious run at the White House in the process. Needless to say, the John Edwards trial represents a murky legal gray area. Young, who is married, initially claimed he was the father of Hunter’s child. He went on to become the author of The Politician: An Insider’s Account of John Edwards’s Pursuit of the Presidency and the Scandal That Brought Him Down . In the book, he accuses Edwards of using money from his rich benefactors to maintain his relationship with Hunter, breaking the law in the process. Edwards admitted to his affair with Hunter in 2008, after his presidential ambitions foundered. In 2010, he admitted he was the father of Hunter’s daughter.
Man vs. beast, man vs. man, man vs. corporation, man vs. himself — The Hunter takes all these pretty ladies out for a spin, but can’t seem to decide which one to bring home. The set-up is so swift it could easily pass you by: Martin (Willem Dafoe) is contracted by a shady outfit to bag a Tasmanian tiger, presumed extinct, in the Australian wilderness. Rumor has it there’s one left out there, and what better reason to fully extinguish a species than in the name of pharmaceutical patent? Martin appears to have no particular feeling about this assignment; as long as his toiletries are properly lined up and he’s left alone, he doesn’t appear to have a particular feeling about much of anything. Martin’s inscrutability is both a key element of all the above-listed plotlines and the reason no one of them is fully realized. Billeted in a remote Tasmanian home with two young children who have a missing father and a grieving mother (Frances O’Connor) who dopes herself through the days, Dafoe’s character is prepped for a transfusion of warmer, more human blood early on. Sass (Morgana Davies) is the big sister with the foul mouth and matter of fact attitude, Bike (Finn Woodlock) is the mystical mute little brother who draws pictures of Tasmanian tigers (a striking mix of jungle cat and mountain wolf) and seems to know more about his father’s whereabouts than he lets on. Both are utterly irresistible, and with their mother MIA they launch a full charm offensive, even jumping in the tub with Martin after he finally gets a broken generator — and some hot water — flowing again. Scene by scene The Hunter , adapted from a novel by Julia Leigh, holds your attention like a pair of big, inquisitive eyes, or perhaps the point-blank scope of an automatic rifle. Director Daniel Nettheim finds a smooth, confident rhythm that almost carries the underdeveloped story (by Alice Addison and Wain Fimeri) across the finish line. In his new home Martin is assimilated into the children’s sprawl whether he likes it or not, and eventually he is moved to help their mother get back on her feet. In town he is inducted into the local dispute between the loggers and the “greenies,” a group of activists attempting to stop the exploitation of the land. Sam Neill plays a fixer of sorts, one with eyes for O’Connor’s fragile widow and a dubious connection to the company desperate for the Tasmanian tiger’s trophy glands. Strange things happen during Martin’s first trips into the wild: a shot is fired, a camera is rigged to monitor one of his traps, and a laser sight hovers near his head. The hunter is being hunted, but by whom? Martin’s moral awakening would seem to be the center of the story — “man” being the only constant in all of the available themes — where human attachments interfere with the mercenary thrust of science, progress, or just mechanical job-completion. And to an extent it is: He develops a protective interest in his host family, even searching for signs of their missing father, with whom he has more in common than it first appeared. But the self-reflective side of that process — specifically the point of Martin’s mission and his feeling about it — only gets cloudier the closer he gets to his target. And it’s not the good kind of fog, which is on ample display in the mood-enhancing veils of mist captured by cinematographer Robert Humphreys, among countless other gorgeously textured shots of the teeming Tasmanian landscape. The paradox of Martin’s character feels accidental, or at least unresolved: The more we evidence we get of a beating heart on the homefront, the more mysterious that heart seems out in the wilderness. Because the film alternates between Martin’s expeditions and furloughs, the contrast becomes starker as the film goes on, and it’s hard not to lose interest in a hunt whose stakes seem unclear to the hunter. The conflict that develops around the terms of his assignment is less convincing than it could have been, making for a rushed and unsatisfying, pseudo-nihilist climax. Still, Dafoe and Woodlock in particular have a few moments that transcend the plot holes surrounding them; in a movie with this much going for it there’s no shame in letting them take direct aim at your heart. Follow Michelle Orange on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
The first trailer for Tim Burton ‘s Dark Shadows was unveiled today, revealing what Burton really has up his sleeve for his adaptation of the cult soap opera. Namely: Gothic guffaws! 1970s humor! Johnny Depp playing vampire Barnabas Collins with that unmistakable Johnny Depp quirk! Seriously, is every Depp role for the rest of time going to feel like some variation on his Hunter Thompson? Anyway: Check out the trailer and unleash your thoughts. Head to Apple to watch the trailer in hi-res. I’m sure hardcore Dark Shadows fans will have the most to pick over here, seeing as Burton’s take isn’t quite exactly a straight translation of the ’60s-era melodrama to the big screen. And yet the tone feels so very Burtonesque, the sets and cinematography are lush and vintage, and despite the soundtrack of disco cliches it’s starting to grow on me. Plus, how can anyone resist sardonic teenager Chloe Moretz? Dark Shadows is in theaters May 11 and also features Eva Green , Helena Bonham Carter, Michelle Pfeiffer, Jonny Lee Miller, Jackie Earle Haley, Bella Heathcote, Gulliver McGrath, Christopher Lee, and Alice Cooper as himself, because of course. [via Apple ]
Rachel Hunter was shopping in Hollywood this afternoon and stopped traffic, literally. She was crossing the street and two cars crashed right beside her.
Kendall Jenner is back in a bikini, although the latest variations aren’t especially revealing. At least not compared the the bathing suit that landed her in a bit of trouble in July 2010. As seen below, the 16-year old recently completed a photo shoot for White Sands Australia, a random swimwear company that makes it clear she has every intention of following in her sister’s scantily-clad footsteps. “This was my first professional swimwear shoot and I got to wear the most gorgeous bathing suits and cute coverups,” Kendall ‘s intern wrote on her blog . “What do you guys think of the pics?” Well… answer the young woman, readers!
