Amanda Knox, the American college student who spent nearly four years in an Italian jail for murder, only to have her conviction overturned, is read to tell her story. And be paid handsomely for it. The international drama that unfolded on TV and in newspapers is now about to be told from the inside, in a subjective and profitable account, by Amanda Knox herself. Knox, who was freed last fall after her conviction in the murder of Meredith Kercher was thrown out, has sold her book to HarperCollins for what is said to be $4 million. “It is a story everyone else seems to have told except for the person at the center of it all,” Jonathan Burnham, the publisher of HarperCollins, told The N.Y. Times . “There has been plenty of rumor and conjecture about her, the role she played in events, and speculation about what happened. This book will tell the full story from her point of view for the very first time, and it will be told in her own words.” Amanda Knox, 24, kept prison diaries, the newspaper reports. In addition, her former boyfriend, Raffaele Sollecito , who was also cleared in the killing of Meredith Kercher, is said to be preparing to sell his own memoir. Are you interested to hear what Knox’s book has to say? [Photo: Fame/Flynet]
The New York Yankees have accomplished everything a baseball team possibly could on the field, having won 27 World Championships, by far the most history. But the squad had left no mark at all in the world of personal fragrances… until now! The Yankees have partnered with The Cloudbreak Group to launch a pair of scents –
More On Bossip! Whitney Houston’s New Jersey Home, Where She Married Bobby Brown, Up For Sale: Take A Peek Inside [Photos] Strange Feelings: The Most Random Celebrity Crushes That Make Us Scratch Our Heads Represent! A History Of Beautiful Women Of Color That Graced Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issues Guess Which Love & Hip-Hop Badazz Brawlin’ Banger Got The Boot At A Fashion Week Show In New York???
More On Bossip! Whitney Houston’s New Jersey Home, Where She Married Bobby Brown, Up For Sale: Take A Peek Inside [Photos] Strange Feelings: The Most Random Celebrity Crushes That Make Us Scratch Our Heads Represent! A History Of Beautiful Women Of Color That Graced Sports Illustrated’s Swimsuit Issues Guess Which Love & Hip-Hop Badazz Brawlin’ Banger Got The Boot At A Fashion Week Show In New York???
Marcia Gay Harden has decided to end her marriage to Thaddaeus Scheel after 15 years. “For the sake of the couple’s three children, Harden would like to request that the family’s privacy be respected at this time,” her rep says in a statement. “No further comments will be made, and thank you for your understanding.” The actress and Scheel have 7-year-old twins and a 13-year-old daughter. Harden, 52, won the Best Supporting Actress Oscar in 2001 for Pollock . She was also nominated for Best Supporting Actress for Mystic River in 2004. Most recently, she won a Tony Award in 2009 for God of Carnage .
That’s not a euphemism or double entendre. It was a legitimate question Thursday. This week down at the glamorous and totally disease-free New Jersey Shore … JWoww and Rog patched things up, Sitch and Paula grew closer, Deena “did sex” with some schmoe, while someone ate her and Snooki’s special cake for Danny! How did it all play out in Seaside Heights? Let’s recap Jersey Shore , THG style! Deena and Snooki decide to make an apology cake for their boss. It’s not a meatball cake, but it is made and frosted and decorated by them with love. Aww. Plus 12 . Once morning came, a corner of the cake was eaten! MIKE! Minus 6 . Deena ends up with cake in her face. Again, not a euphemism. Plus 4 . After she says “I wanted him to get the full-on cake,” Danny gives it to her, in the grill. Cake or no cake, Snooki was late to work again, as she goes to the doctor to get treatment for her UTI . Minus 15 for us visualizing the state of Snooki’s UT. She’s had 10 UTIs in the past year she says. How is that even … Minus 10 . Snooki and JWoww accuse Situation of stealing a piece of the apology cake, but it turns out it was … Pauly D! Minus 7 for the (unlikely) false accusation. “Don’t cook a cake in my house and expect me not to eat it,” he says. Fair. Plus 5 . Deena apologizes for blaming The Situation. He’ll find a way for you to make it up to him later, believe us. That or he’ll blackmail you. Either way, Plus 6 . Fortunately, Jenni and Roger did not split. Basically, Rog is “like 65 years old,” according to Deena, so he doesn’t play games. Umm, what? Eh, Plus 8 . The Situation wishes Paula a happy birthday and tells us that she’s his “main squeeze.” Aww! Then it’s birthday sex time. For Paula. Dirty. Plus 12 . Paula tells Sitch he makes her feel special. Time to wife her up, Mike. Since that only means “date” in the Jersey Shore world, you can handle it. Plus 6 . Besides, his actual wife, The Unit, is still in Miami. Plus 3 . Snooki breaks her one-drink rule at the club. Minus 17 , because it can’t be called a rule if it has never once been adhered to. Every night’s an exception. Vinny takes Pauly D on a lunch date. Bromance at its best! Plus 12 . Been awhile since we’ve seen proper GTL (not GTGVB ), followed by a romantic lunch. Ronnie and Sammi let loose at the bar. These two have not fought
File this under Sounded Funny at the Time. MSG Network is facing backlash after the New York Knicks TV crew flashed a graphic of the team’s Asian-American star Jeremy Lin … coming out of a fortune cookie. Following the Knicks’ seventh straight win Wednesday night, MSG showed viewers an image featuring point guard Lin’s head in between ends of the broken snack. “The Knicks’ Good Fortune” was the fortune. CNBC’s Darren Rovell was the first to post the image on Twitter, pointing out that MSG was “walking a fine line” with the offensive image of Jeremy Lin. Lin, who has come out of nowhere and taken over the league in recent weeks, is the NBA’s first American-born player of Taiwanese or Chinese descent. Reaction was less measured in the hours that followed. Some on Twitter called the graphic “a tad on the racist side.” Others called it “accidental racism.” Interestingly, the fortune cookie is actually an American invention by most accounts; it dates back to San Francisco in the late 1890’s to early 1900’s. It’s loosely based on a Japanese cracker, no less. Come on MSG. Are race-based jokes like this considered okay because he’s a Harvard educated Asian-American? It’s hard to say, but MSG isn’t alone in pushing the angle. Check this out:
MTV News chats with ‘Survivor’ expert and former player Rob Cesternino about the controversial ‘One World’ season premiere. By Josh Wigler Kourtney Moon on “Survivor: One World” Photo: CBS The “Survivor: One World” season premiere presented longtime fans of the veteran reality series with a lot of firsts. In a brand new twist, all 18 competitors are living on the same beach from the very beginning, divided into two tribes based on gender. But that’s not the only first: For the first time in “Survivor” history, the first contestant to leave the game was not voted out, but left due to a medical emergency. Kourtney Moon left the island after a nasty wrist-break in the opening immunity challenge — a challenge that the men subsequently won by default, by the way, after they were given the choice to claim victory early or continue competing against their Kourtney-less rivals. Kourtney’s medical evacuation and the short-lived immunity challenge weren’t the only sources of drama. From the first minute, the male and female tribes — Manono and Salani, respectively — made their rivalry clear through theft, fire and harsh negotiations. There is no love lost on the “One World” beach, even if there’s plenty to love for the viewers at home. For more on the “One World” premiere, MTV News joined up with well-known “Survivor” commentator and two-time contestant Rob Cesternino to cover all the blow-outs and break-ups that went down in the new season’s first hour. MTV : Rob, this first episode was a doozy. You had thievery. You had cross-tribal bargaining. Two chickens were caught. An immunity idol was found and given away. An immunity challenge was interrupted for an emergency and called early when the guys were given the chance to proceed or suspend the game in their favor. Another “Survivor” first: a medical evacuation as the very first boot. Can you remember another season premiere where so much stuff happened? Rob Cesternino : It was such a great first two-thirds of an episode. [ Laughs ] It reminded me a bit of “Super 8.” It was such a good start, but two-thirds of the way through, it took a turn for the worse. It was a lousy last 15 minutes of the episode. Very anticlimactic to have the first Tribal Council end with Kourtney leaving over a broken arm. This is the earliest ever med evac from the game, but not exactly the kind of history you want to make. MTV : Maybe I’m not up to snuff on my “Survivor” rulebook, but it seems like a bit of a cheat — if Salani technically lost that challenge, shouldn’t they have had to vote someone out, regardless of Kourtney’s injury? Cesternino : It’s a good question. They’ve definitely done it where a team has lost somebody due to an emergency [and has still had to vote someone out]. But I think they felt that it would have been too much of a disadvantage for the women to be down two people already on the third day. They wanted to play out this men versus women twist. I see where they could have made them vote somebody out, but this was a little bit of a different situation. I don’t think they would want to cripple their team so badly that they’d never be able to come back. MTV : Overall, I’m pretty pleased with how the “One World” twist has played out so far. I think you get a better sense of who these people are when you can watch them engage the enemy so directly so early on. Honestly, I don’t know why they wouldn’t want to utilize this twist every season from here on out. But what do you think: Are you digging the two tribes, one beach setup? Cesternino : I love the way that everything played out. Men versus women helps it in a lot of ways, too. Everyone has a rooting interest from the start. When it’s green team versus red team, you’re not as invested from the beginning as you are with men versus women, even if you’re a man rooting for the women. Everyone picks a side early on in this situation. Also, since it’s men versus women, you know right away which side everybody is on when there are 18 people living on the same beach. I really loved all of the built-in tension that came along with those guys living on the same beach. MTV : So far, I don’t think your high school alliance theory is holding up. It’s very split down the middle between men versus women right now. I don’t see how they’re going to overcome the gender divide at this point. Cesternino : See, that’s not how I saw it. I feel like the high school alliance is playing out that way. All the young, good-looking women made their alliance, the young, good-looking men made their alliance. The only thing missing is the two alliances saying, “Hey, we have the majority if we put our two alliances together. Let’s work together.” Instead, you have a situation where the young women are trying to prop up the insurgents to the hot guy alliance. It’s an interesting political thing that’s playing out. Will the opposition to the majority alliance almost be a de facto part of the other team’s majority alliance? Or could the two majorities decide they need to work together? That would be in both sides’ best interest. Instead, Sabrina finds an immunity idol and gives it to Colton. MTV : Maybe not her best move? Cesternino : Well, considering the previews for next week she says that “Colton is a virus,” I’m guessing that no, this isn’t a favorable move. [ Laughs ] I have a lot to say about Colton. MTV : We’ll get to him in a few. But let’s talk about some of the episode’s other controversial moments. These teams are playing dirty against each other pretty much right away. Mike steals supplies from the girls’ side, the women sneak into the men’s camp in the middle of the night to steal their fire … everyone’s playing so dirty! Cesternino : Everybody on this episode was so horrible to each other. [ Laughs ] Everything is so high-intensity from the get-go, but I guarantee that the person who wins this season is not going to be someone who came out so aggressively to the other team from the start. It’s not a smart way to play “Survivor.” At the end of the day, they’ll be on the jury. If you’re an ass to everybody, they won’t vote for you in the end. Nobody wants to play nice, but you can’t win “Survivor” by not playing nice. Well, you can win “Survivor” by not playing nice, but a lot of other things have to go right — or you have to be from Boston . MTV : The other big controversy was the immunity challenge. Manono was given the choice to call the challenge early and walk away with a win, or finish the challenge out and give the other tribe a shot. They chose to walk away with the win. Everyone from [host Jeff] Probst to the women was shocked. Maybe it wasn’t great television, but it may have been a great move. What would you have done in that situation? Did the men make the right call? Cesternino : Absolutely, they made the right decision. That would’ve been totally idiotic to give up a win in the first challenge in the spirit of sportsmanship. Could you imagine — other than some intramural sports, what other scenario would a team give up a sure win to let the other team have a shot? [ Laughs ] You’re playing a game for a million dollars. People have to remember that this is “Survivor.” Remember that they’re playing for a million dollars. There was nothing mean about it. They got the win. They fought for their lives that day, and they’ll see you tomorrow. MTV : I agree — and if they’d kept going, they probably would have lost. The “Survivor” gods do not look kindly upon stupidity. Cesternino : No. [ Laughs ] You don’t give a win back. MTV : Let’s wrap up by looking at the players a bit. Right away, there are so many contestants that jump out and grab you, at least personality-wise if not in terms of winning the game. Who jumped out at you? Cesternino : Colton. I’m not liking how he played the game. He’s the only gay man on his tribe of all men, but I felt he really gave up from the moment they said this was going to be men versus women. No one on the men’s team told him, “Hey, you’re not going to fit in with us because you’re gay.” He decided that the men aren’t going to like him, and that was it. Then you see him with the women’s team, going up to every woman on the team and telling them he loves them and giving them a hug. At no point, at least they don’t show it, do you see him going up to the men like that. His game is made up on day one. How does he know nobody on the men’s team is going to accept him? He’s already jumping ship to the women’s team for no reason. He’s proving himself to be very untrustworthy. That’s fine if he gets along better with the women, but he’s showing no loyalty to his tribe, and I think that’s going to play out much more over the next 36 days of this game. MTV : Assuming he makes it that far… Cesternino : Assuming he makes it that far. I don’t think he’s come out and played a good long-term game that can be won, at least on the first episode. MTV : On the flip side, who looks good? Who looks ready to do this? Cesternino : I think the people who looked good are the people who shut their mouths. [ Laughs ] Everybody that didn’t come out with vitriol towards the other tribe. You need to be a diplomat in this game. The people I liked were the people who didn’t piss anybody off after only three days of being on “Survivor.” Get more of Rob’s thoughts on “Survivor” at his website . What did you think of the “Survivor” premiere? Tell us in the comments or hit me up on Twitter @roundhoward !
Footballer Tim Tebow also landed a nod for the awards show, which airs March 31 on Nickelodeon. By Kara Warner Justin Bieber Photo: Getty Images Nickelodeon announced its nominations for the 25th annual Kids’ Choice Awards on Thursday (February 16), and the list is as diverse as it is star-studded, spanning the worlds of film, music, TV and sports. Nominees include Jessica Alba, Antonio Banderas, Justin Bieber , Big Time Rush, Jack Black, Ty Burrell, Jim Carrey, Miranda Cosgrove, Tom Cruise, Johnny Depp, Lady Gaga , Selena Gomez, Victoria Justice, Bruno Mars , Taylor Lautner , Danica Patrick, Katy Perry , Michael Phelps, Daniel Radcliffe, Adam Sandler and Kristen Stewart . “Harry Potter” fans will be pleased to hear that their favorite wizards, and the actors who played them, from “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2” earned the most nominations, with four total, for Favorite Movie, Favorite Book (the “Harry Potter” series), Daniel Radcliffe for Favorite Movie Actor and Emma Watson for Favorite Movie Actress. The surprising second-place vote-getter is “The Smurfs,” which nabbed three nominations including Favorite Movie, Sofia Vergara for Favorite Movie Actress and Katy Perry for Favorite Voice in an Animated Movie. Not to worry “Twilight” fans, your favorite franchise is nominated in two categories: Favorite Book (the “Twilight” series) and Kristen Stewart for Favorite Movie Actress. Other notable nominees include superstars in the music categories: LMFAO, Katy Perry and Taylor Swift, who each received two nods and will battle it out for Favorite Group/ Female Singer and Favorite Song. Derek Jeter and Tim Tebow were nominated for Favorite Male Athlete, and Serena and Venus Williams are each up for Favorite Female Athlete. On March 1, kids will be able to cast their votes in 20 total categories across all of Nickelodeon’s digital outlets, including Nick.com, the Nick Mobile app and Nickelodeon’s Facebook page and Twitter feed. Nick.com fans can vote using a Facebook application that will live on the Nickelodeon Facebook page. Users will be able to vote from a tab on the page and, for the first time ever, the entire voting experience can be embedded directly into Facebook wall posts. Also new this year, fans will be able to vote for their favorite nominees on Twitter through the use of custom hashtags. The 25th Annual Kids’ Choice Awards will be hosted by Will Smith and air live on Saturday, March 31, at 8 p.m. Related Artists Justin Bieber Taylor Swift
SI cover model Kate Upton lends her good looks and apparent video game expertise to help a quartet of major leaguers learn the ropes in an ad for the new game MLB 2K12. Titled “Finger Mechanics with Kate Upton,” the ad shows the curvaceous blonde teaching the baseball stars to an unhittable circle changeup … virtually of course. “Take your thumb, go up and then around, and that’s a circle change,” says Upton, who graces the cover of Sports Illustrated‘s swimsuit edition , to her audience. Best. Pitching. Coach. Ever. Kate Upton MLB 2K12 Ad The ballplayers getting their learn on from the 19-year-old stunner are Detroit’s Justin Verlander, Tampa’s David Price, Cincinnati’s Jay Bruce and L.A.’s C.J. Wilson. MLB 2K12 comes out on March 6, and Upton’s lesson may pay off: A user who pitches a perfect game will be entered into a contest for a chance to win $1 million. Date with Kate not included.
