“I think there’s a lot to be said for keeping your own counsel,” the Girl With the Dragon Tattoo lead opined in a recent interview when the subject of attention-craved stars came up. “You can’t buy your privacy back. Ooh, I want to be alone. F– you. We’ve been in your living room. We were at your birth. It is a career; I’m not being cynical. And why wouldn’t you? Look at the Kardashians, they’re worth millions… I don’t think they were that badly off to begin with, but now look at them. You see that and you think, ‘What, you mean all I have to do is behave like a f–ing idiot on television and then you’ll pay me millions?’ I’m not judging it. Well, I am, obviously.” [ EW ]
Photoshoot homages are a dime a dozen at this point, and it’s hard to separate one starlet’s Breakfast at Tiffany’s tribute from any of the hundreds of others. That’s why Lady Gaga’s new cover shoot for Vanity Fair , in which she toasts My Fair Lady and Funny Girl , is so ideal: Unlike most celebrities, she can take iconic images, juxtapose them with her own persona, and make them mean something new. She’s not just aping Barbra Streisand’s pucker like Jennifer Aniston , she’s relating a muse to herself, and that’s impressive even in a bombastic Annie Leibovitz shoot like this one. It’s what really makes her the new Madonna, not sheer popularity. Photos after the jump.
Drive fanaticism is still in (groan) overdrive. The team of Bruno et Tom have created an alternative trailer for Drive featuring The Driver’s silver scorpion jacket, well-lit stoicism, and a bit of musical mimicry. He’s an animated hero! And an animated human being! Coming soon to the Fox Kids lineup. Check all out the cartoon facestomping after the jump.
It’s nearly December which means that it is time for the Sundance Film Festival to announce their competitive programming selections. This year, the slates are varied containing two (2!) Mark Webber features, one Jonathan Kasdan teen rom-com, another Lena Dunham-penned dysfunctional NYC family drama and a number of titles that span genres and the globe.
Steven Spielberg couldn’t be at the AFI Fest premiere of The Adventures of Tintin because he was filming Lincoln in Virginia — and now we know that the Lincoln production process is a completely-effing-serious one. Not only does star Daniel Day-Lewis look remarkable as Lincoln in this new candid photo, but Variety ‘s Jeff Sneider Tweeted a report that he “hasn’t broken his Lincoln accent since March” and his “real name doesn’t even appear on the call sheet.” That is commitment. And insanity. And the new photo will haunt you like a specter in Ford’s Theatre.
Congratulations are in order for lil Justin Dior Combs: Justin Combs, son of international music mogul, Sean “Diddy” Combs, today announced that he has chosen to attend the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA), where he will be awarded a full scholarship to play football at the Division I school. The younger Combs, a 5-foot-9, 175-pound cornerback from Iona Prep, chose the Bruins over offers from Wyoming, Virginia, and Illinois, among others. After hitting the 7v7 camp circuit with the “GoonSquad” All-American 7v7 team this past spring, he quickly started to generate a buzz and secured his first Division I scholarship offer back in April. The latest Bruin commit has also been selected to play in the inaugural Marine Semper Fi All-American Game held in Phoenix, AZ January 3rd, part of college football’s Fiesta Bowl weekend. Combs, who carries a 3.75 GPA and is the Head of the African American Society at his school, will enroll in UCLA this fall and will major in Business Finance. Combs said he felt the combination of academic excellence and winning tradition at UCLA made his decision clear. JUSTIN COMBS STATEMENT: “Today I am truly blessed and thankful to accept my scholarship and give my full commitment to UCLA. Playing division I football was a life long dream of mine, and through hard work I was able to achieve it. I am a living testament that with a strong relationship with God, family, and hard work dreams do come true.” SEAN COMBS STATEMENT: “As a parent, today is one of the proudest moments of my life. This is everything a father could want for his son, for him to excel at what he loves to do and is truly passionate about. Justin is a shining example of what hard work, determination and a strong mentality can achieve. I am honored to call him my son and am happy that he is fulfilling his dream.” Wonderful! Kudos to Justin for working hard, maintaining good grades, and getting that full ride to UCLA (not like he needs it though)…Puff should certainly be proud.
Ladies and gentlemen, I present sophisticated theology. 2011 Bale Boone Symposium – Science & Religion: Are They Compatible? from UK Gaines Center on Vimeo . Read more Jerry’s post from this morning about this Under pressure from blogosphere, Haught explains and relents UPDATE : I have heard from John Haught, who says that he’s satified with my posting his response, and he’ll now okay the release… Broadcasting platform : Vimeo Source : RichardDawkins.net Discovery Date : 02/11/2011 21:58 Number of articles : 3
Herman Cain suffered a media meltdown today in Virginia. The GOP frontrunner lashed out at the media for hounding him like a wanted man during his public appearance with doctors. Broadcasting platform : YouTube Source : Gateway Pundit Discovery Date : 02/11/2011 23:42 Number of articles : 2
Girls! Who run this mutha-?!? It’s been a hundred years and zero women have held the top position at IBM but all that will change when Virginia “Ginny” Rometty takes the reins as CEO of the technology company. Rometty will join a list that includes Meg Whitman, the former eBay CEO, who was named as CEO of Hewlett-Packard in September. The moves will make two women the head of two of the top tech companies. “Ginni’s long-term strategic thinking and client focus are seen in our growth initiatives, from cloud computing and analytics to the commercialization of Watson. She brings to the role of CEO a unique combination of vision, client focus, unrelenting drive, and passion for IBMers and the company’s future. I know the board agrees with me that Ginni is the ideal CEO to lead IBM into its second century,” outgoing CEO Sam Palmisano said in a statement. The 54-year-old strategic thinker will begin her role at the top on Jan. 1. And, on the same day next year, over at Mylan Inc., Heather Bresch will take on her new role of CEO at the pharmaceutical company. The three appointments in the last few weeks will help boost the amount of women CEOs to record numbers. According to USA Today, only 16 women have headed up Fortune 500 companies at the same time. But, pending no shakeups before the New Year, the total number of women leading Fortune 500 companies will rise to 18. Play on playas!! Source Flip the script to see 10 of these 18 amazing women and the companies they represent.
‘No Light, No Light’ is next off upcoming Ceremonials, Florence Welch tells MTV News. By James Montgomery, with reporting by Rya Backer Florence Welch Photo: MTV News On November 1 in the U.S. (October 31 in the U.K., which is a decidedly more fitting date, we must add) Florence and the Machine will return with Ceremonials, the bewitching, ethereal follow-up to their breakout Lungs album . And like that debut disc, the new one finds frontwoman/mastermind Florence Welch drawing from a grab bag of influences, both musical and lyrical, only pushed to the nth degree. To wit, the first two songs released from the album — “What the Water Gave Me” and “Shake It Off” — take their inspiration from the paintings of Frida Kahlo, the death of writer Virginia Woolf and a rather blistering hangover, to name just a few. In fact, this time around, it’s gotten so all-over-the-place that even Welch is having a difficult time keeping track, as she told MTV News. “Literally, a song can be about seven different things,” she sighed. “I do think of songs almost as collages of different images, and so the references will just come from all over the place, and I don’t really know how they’ll all fit together until the song is finished.” The same holds true for the album’s title, which was inspired by a 1970s art installation Welch had seen, and the eclectic, electric rave-ups of her live performances. But robes, pasta and balloons, too. “It was an art installation done in the ’70s, this video piece all done on Super 8, this big procession of kind of coquette-style hippies and all these different colored robes and masks, and it was all to do with color, really saturated, brightly colored pastas and balloons,” Welch explained. “I saw it a couple years ago, and it was called ‘Ceremonials’ and then, like, Roman numerals after it. And the word sort of stuck with me, and I think the whole idea of performance, and kind of putting on this outfit and going out almost to find some sort of exorcism or absolution, to kind of get outside yourself, there’s a sense of ceremony to it.” That same pastiche of influences holds true for the next single off the album, which, in a bit of an exclusive, Welch revealed during our interview (even though she probably wasn’t supposed to). “I do [know what it’s going to be] but I don’t think [I’m supposed to say],” she said. “I think it’s going to be ‘No Light, No Light.’ … It was the first song we wrote for this next record, actually. And the intro was written on my tour bus at four in the morning going to Amsterdam. We had gone out for [Machine member] Rob [Ackroyd]’s birthday to an all-night restaurant in Brussels called Midnights. We went to this funny restaurant and then got on the tour bus and everyone was a bit drunk and it was like, ‘Yeah, let’s write a song.’ “And we recorded the sound of the bus moving, a real drone-y bass sound, and that’s the intro, and then the tour bus arrived in Amsterdam [and we were saying], ‘Let’s go toast this song! We will find a bar that will serve us drinks at 7 in the morning! Come!’ ” she laughed. “So we trotted off into Amsterdam and managed to find a sports bar that would only serve us Midori. It was bright-green drinks and me and [Machine member] Isa [Summers] kind of looking like crazy old ladies.” Related Artists Florence + the Machine
