Defamer, the L.A. Gossip Rag (via Mowser)

Defamer

Nicole Kidman Celebrates 'Australia' Premiere By Plotting Retirement

The first audience to see the finished version of Australia should be drunkenly stumbling out of the afterparty right about now in Sydney, where Baz Luhrmann's $130 million epic held its world premiere today. Early reviews from the homeland are mixed ("While it will be very popular with many people I think there's a slight air of disappointment after it all," notes The Australian), putting Fox on edge for this weekend's first American press screenings and underscoring downswung star Nicole Kidman's red-carpet threat to walk away from the whole sordid business: More »

8:43 AM on Tue Nov 18 2008
By STV
63 views, 1 comment

Latest by TedCopacabana: She's just going to "walk away from it" so that she doesn't have to deal with the Susan Sarandon Syndrome more »

Short Ends

Ellen Hoping To Avoid Chris Matthews' Handsy Hardballs

· Uh—we think we just saw Chris Matthews grab two heaping handfuls of Ellen DeGeneres.
· Heather Locklear was charged with a misdemeanor DUI. The complaint alleges she was driving under the influence of drugs; "to wit: prescription medications." The florid language didn't end there, as the filing went on to state "that which we call OxyContin by any other generic name would impair as sweetly; Heather! Doff thy name, and for that name which if no part of thee, takest while riding most heavy of machineries."
· Having trouble figuring out what today's TRL finale means for a nation at historical crossroads? Idolator explains.
· The first reviews of Australia from Down Under suggest it has "has international blockbuster written all over it," and "is certainly not one destined to be a classic."
· Yes, we all know Prince told The New Yorker he doesn't approve of "people sticking it wherever and doing it with whatever," over a nice plate of soup. But what kind of soup? Starfish and Coffee soup? Cream of AwwoooooooahHundalasiliah soup? Turns out it was just carrot, but BWE.tv let their imaginations run wild.

6:37 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Seth
1,538 views, 1 comment

Latest by WGARefugee: From the purple Al Green's membership application.. What do you bring to the Xenii Community and what will you offer it more »

Domo Arigato Mr. Moustacho

George Clooney: Keeper Of The Stache

This photo from the Albuquerque set of Men Who Stare At Goats reassured us that George Clooney has proudly inherited the mustache mantel from Robert Downey Jr. We instantly felt the need to draw up another one of those celebrity mustache visual cue-charts—the kind we distribute as retractable blackboard teaching aids to classrooms that incorporate Defamer into their curricula. Help us decide which of these five candidates most closely hews to the goat-staring original in a brand new mustache poll after the jump! More »

6:01 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Seth
814 views, 5 comments

Latest by NefariousNewt, Serving at the Pleasure of the President-Elect: Actually, when I first saw that picture, I thought of John Cleese's Basil Fawlty. more »

Introductions

Sacha Baron Cohen Apparently Unaware of Dutch 'Borat' Spin-Off Premiering Next Week

An ad currently running on Variety is promoting something called Carmen Meets Borat, a documentary about a Romanian girl whose life is thrown into upheaval when Sacha Baron Cohen and co. substitute her village for the title character's Kazakh hometown in Borat. We use the term "promoting" loosely, however, unless you consider "inviting a lawsuit by alerting Cohen to your existence" is promoting: More »

5:40 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By STV
898 views, 1 comment

Latest by Cultmember: But isn't the Borat character itself lifted from Turkish personality Mahir Cagri? + Watch video more »

Dammit

Jail-Induced Sobriety a Quaint Lark, Says Kiefer Sutherland

Now that our Kiefer is free as a bird and more velvet-voiced than ever, he's opening up about the seven-week jail stint that made shower soap negotiation almost as perilous as saving the free world. Speaking to Men's Vogue, he details the jail's living conditions (bad, but at least it wasn't the plebeian hellhole inflicted upon Raffaello Follieri) and the cerebral, mercifully short-lived experience that was his sobriety: More »

5:11 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Kyle Buchanan
2,044 views, 6 comments

Most discussed Desk_hack: Kiefer - You're welcome for the smoke. By the way, I think I wrote down your number wrong, 'cuz I keep more »

Breeders, Anger, Docs

· Music Round-Up: The Breeders at the Wiltern, The Shys, Army Navy, and The Takeover UK at The Troubadour, and Raul Midon, Morley, and Leftover Cuties at The Hotel CafÃ©.
· REDCAT hosts An Evening with Kenneth Anger: Dangerous Cinema, featuring several of the experimental queer director's shorts, and a rare public Anger appearance. (It's sold out, but we got our tickets early. We'll be in the assless chaps on the Satanic Harley. Say hi!)
· A new print of When We Were Kings screens at the Academy Linwood Dunn Theater as part of "Oscar's Docs: Part 4." Also on the bill: Work of Mark O'Brien, "a portrait of the life and accomplishments of the paralyzed poet-journalist who's lived for 40 years in an iron lung."

4:51 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Seth
111 views, 1 comment

Latest by academyscreamer: How old must Kenneth Anger be by now, 80? 90? The fact that at his age he'll spend more »

Watch, TiVo, Kill

Closet 'Big Bang' Watchers Can Safely Interact Here

After a weekend where NBC sent an intimidating message to recently galvanized "Logo viewers" (as "they" are euphemistically referred to in media-savvy red state households), get back to basics with multi-camera sitcoms and early 90's revival casting.

WATCH

The Big Bang Theory [8 PM, CBS] - Wolowitz (Simon Helberg) thinks he's found his soul mate until his crush (Sara Rue) meets Leonard (Johnny Galecki). TBBT hit a series high in viewers last week and has improved significantly since first season. Rajesh Koothrappali (Kunal Nayyar) is our favorite character, and his MacBook chats with his family are oddly reminiscent of our own. More »

4:34 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By McCluskey and Miller
1,181 views, 2 comments

Oscars

3 Reasons Why 'Slumdog Millionaire' is Guaranteed a Best Picture Oscar Nod

If or when the U.S. Treasury stumbles too badly to stop America's slide into recession, we'll always have Fox Searchlight to bail us out. The mini-major had another specialty smash last weekend with Slumdog Millionaire, the Mumbai-based genre-bender whose $35,043 per-screen average was the fourth best of any film this year, trailing The Dark Knight by less than $1,300 per location. And if a quick scan of the Searchlight record tells us anything, the numbers will continue to astound — and they portend even better things for the Oscar race. More »

4:02 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By STV
1,192 views, 5 comments

Latest by Rummy_McGin: is that the dude from skins? more »

Small Wonder: Though this picture appears to show Johnny's Deppy's Willy Wonka after an intense meth bender (and affixed with a Top Model weave), it's actually a photo of Depp as the Mad Hatter in Tim Burton's upcoming Alice in Wonderland. Since the actor's role is rumored to be entirely motion-captured, we're assuming the look is just a test shot. No word yet on whether the mushrooms consumed by Depp's makeup artist made her grow bigger, get smaller, or simply made her totally fucking high. Click through for full-size. [ICYDK] MORE »

15 comments

lipstick jungle

Ben Silverman Searches for Subordinate to Drag Brooke Shields Off NBC Lot

Few were surprised when NBC axed Lipstick Jungle, figuring that if a brutal, Project Runway-assisted title indoctrination couldn't help it gain a ratings foothold, nothing could. But wait! insists star Brooke Shields to Us. "It's not true," she said. "Our bosses are saying, 'Youâ€™re not canceled, donâ€™t worry. Weâ€™re just trying to figure out how to make this make sense.'" Yes, if only a major media conglomerate like NBC could get the word out somehow! Still, James Hibberd writes that even though there's been a fan outcry (really?), there are other factors at play that may doom a new application of Lipstick: More »

3:13 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Kyle Buchanan
1,506 views, 8 comments

Most discussed Little Mintz Sunshine: Don't worry, Brooke. Pope's just been assigned and she's hired those now-available Heroes showrunners and the geniuses behind Bionic Woman. more »

Kevin Smith

'Entourage' Dig At Cupcakeholic Kevin Smith Doesn't Bother Toilet-Shattering Director

Entourage last night offered a fairly brisk half-hour that balanced the science fiction of Jamie-Lynn Sigler and Turtle displaying palpable screen chemistry with a fairly easier-to-swallow story involving Vinnie getting fired by a Wolfgang Petersen-type on the set of the extremely timely Smoke Jumpers. As Ari desperately tries to get the director replaced, loyal assistant/stapler target Lloyd runs through a list of names, offering only commode-demolishing Zack and Miri director Kevin Smith as being available. The suggestion tees up another Ari sledgehammer—we won't give it away except to say Red Velvet gluttony is involved—which elicited this reaction from Smith on his message board: More »

2:54 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Seth
3,920 views, 11 comments

Most discussed Midge: Forget Sprinkles, WTF is up with Piven's delivery? That clip has got to be an outtake. Right? more »

Twilight's Last Gleaming: If you're not reading this from the line outside the Mann Village, here's what you're missing: Nikki Finke reports that Twilight fans are piling up in Westwood by the hundreds, camping out in anticipation of tonight's premiere event. The accompanying photo was published last night; any readers nearby who have a clean shot at the tent city sure to have emerged in the interim are encouraged to send a photo. There's only a week of hype remaining — every precious second counts. [DHD] MORE »

6 comments

Photo Gallery

The Raging California Wildfires

FROM GAWKER.COM: The Prop 8 fight isn't the only battle raging in California right now. As we complain about the cold here in New York, huge wildfires are quickly gobbling up large swaths of Southern California. More »

2:19 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Richard
3,993 views, 67 comments

Making Spirits Bright

5 Seasonal Classics to Help Stephen Colbert Craft a Hit Holiday Special

Stephen Colbert brought a preview of his upcoming Comedy Central holiday special to Good Morning America today, revealing a glimpse at a stirring interfaith celebration uniting Catholics, Jews, unsightly turtleneck devotees and a raft of other persuasions. But the brief sample of Colbert prying Hanukkah secrets from Jon Stewart isn't quite enough to make anyone forget how far a holiday show really needs to go to achieve immortality. From the head-exploding ambition of the Star Wars Christmas Special to the suave, sweatered croonings of Solid Gold, there's a golden era of genre excellence that even a talent like Colbert will find himself stretching awfully far to approximate. Follow the jump for five seasonal landmarks worth the effort, and godspeed outdoing any one of them. More »

1:55 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By STV
2,581 views, 6 comments

Most discussed StaringatScreen: God damn, Kristy McNicol was hot. more »

Dirty Mind

How Prince Went From "P*ssy Control" To Puritanical Proselytizing

FROM JEZEBEL.COM: As we mentioned in this morning's Dirt Bag, Prince is now a Jehovah's Witness who proselytizes door to door in L.A. But did you know he's also sort of homophobic now? According to a short profile by Claire Hoffman in this week's New Yorker*, Prince says, "God came to earth and saw people sticking it... More »

1:30 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Jessica
7,667 views, 165 comments

Gosh

'South Park' Creators' 'Mormon Musical' To Light Up Broadway With Magical Underwear

File this under "good timing": just as the passage Proposition 8 ignited a gays vs. Mormons clash so intense that only David Archuleta can mediate a resolution, word has leaked about the next project from South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker, a Broadway-bound show entitled Mormon Musical. The two have set openly gay Xanadu alum Cheyenne Jackson to star, and Jackson opened up to Pop Wrap about what to expect (besides, obviously, the angel Moroni slathered in gold body glitter): More »

1:28 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By Kyle Buchanan
3,296 views, 10 comments

Most discussed alexarch: When did Trey and Matt turn yummy? Where was I? more »

Girl Trouble

Miley Cyrus Turns Into Monster When Fed After Midnight

Life is getting harder and harder for 'Bolt' star Miley Cyrus in her 16th year, faced with so many of the crises that make our mid-teens such a dramatically turbulent era. Like the driving instructor taking less than kindly to her defiance behind the wheel ("I don't wanna turn left, I wanna turn right!"), all those cheapskate hangers-on who won't buy tickets to her shows, and the father whom the young phenom reduced to a punchline last Friday while in late-night conversation with Jay Leno. It must have been 'Miley Day' again; these rituals just get more and more painful for poor Billy Ray. [The Tonight Show] More »

1:04 PM on Mon Nov 17 2008
By STV
2,184 views, 3 comments

Latest by unemployedhipster: I am going to get attacked for saying this, but you know what...I watched this entire interview and she wasn't more »