About Me?

Your Minutemaid can also be found blogging about the indie rawk (shoplifters of the world unite and take over!) on the Subterranean blog. In her spare time she likes to gossip and read non-fiction books about history and neuroscience. She doesn't do "quotes".

At the MTV Video Music Awards

It's MTV VMA weekend in L.A. and guess who's here? Lots of celebs, yeah but also - me!

The gossip I've learned so far: pre-production is underway on Judd Apatow's follow up movie starring VMA host Russell Brand, who reprises his insane rock star role from "Forgetting Sarah Marshall." The production are actually working on the Paramount lot where the VMAs will be held and have been gorilla-style shooting interesting little vignettes with female music stars like Pink, Katy Perry and Christina Aguilera. No word on how this will manifest in the movie, just that the shots involve lots of staged paparazzi chases...

The VMAs are shooting on Stage 16, which is also the lot where Alfred Hitchcock's "Vertigo" and John Hughes's "Pretty In Pink" were shot.

And last night we went to dinner at a throwback 70s style Mexican restaurant called Gardens of Taxco and who should come in and sit right behind us but "Superbad" star Jonah Hill!

Tons of network TV shows are already shooting on the Paramount lot including ABC's Dirty Sexy Money, the new Christian Slater series My Own Worst Enemy and...some other ones I plan to discover today.

More gossip from the set of the VMAs to come all weekend!

Diddy's Obama Blog! #16

Celebs say the funniest things. Yeah the NY Times, Washington Post, Slate...every reputable and not reputable source in the media world are reporting on the various Sarah Palin mishaps, gaffes, missteps, unfortunate wordings and whatnot that are flying out of the McCain camp since she was announced as his running mate.

Does anyone care about what Diddy has to say about politics really? Especially since his 2004 Vote or Die campaign was so successful that it got investigated for breaking federal election laws. I don't give a crap about how Diddy's voting but damn this YouTube video about how Diddy feels McCain is "bugging the fuck out" is funny. Clarification: unintentionally funny.

His complaints? There are no black people, crime, foreign policies or crackheads in Alaska! McCain is making crazy decisions and buggin! And he means bugging the fuck out X 5! He literally can't even articulate how crazy he thinks the decision is and then recommends McCain should have gotten Michelle Obama as his running mate for something "strategic and fly."

All said with "no disrespect," of course. Hilarity!

Justin Theroux Takes the Thunder

It was a super slow Labor Day weekend in NYC so I went to see "Tropic Thunder" on Sunday evening. i'm glad I did - it was really funny! It seems many movie goers agreed with me because it's #1 for the third straight week at the box office.

And hey Sex and the City fans did you know one-time Carrie boyfriend novelist Vaughn Wysel (from the "Shortcoming" episode that also featured Valerie Harper playing his mom) Justin Theroux was the writer and exec producer of "Tropic Thunder"? He and star Ben Stiller previously worked together on "Zoolander."

Theroux wasn't in the movie but he does star in the 30 minute mockmentary "Rain of Madness," a hilarious behind the scenes, available for free on iTunes.

Audrey Tautou to Play Coco Chanel

French ingénue Audrey Tautou (perhaps you remember her from "The DaVinci Code" or hopefully from her breakout role in "Amelie") has signed on to play Coco Chanel in a bio-pic about the famous designer for Warner Brothers. Wonderful casting since Tautou is the current Chanel spokesmodel.

The Hollywood Reporter further tell us that Karl Lagerfeld, art director for Chanel, has signed on to recreate those original Coco costumes like the iconic Chanel suit, the "little boy" frocks for women of the 1920s and her popularization of the little black dress.

The film will be adapted from the French language biography "L'irreguliere" - but if you'd like to get into a good English Coco bio to gear up for the movie then I recommend "Chanel: A Woman on Her Own." I read it some years ago and it was great. Coco had a much more bizarre, erratic life than I would have guessed.

"A woman who doesn't wear perfume has no future." - Coco Chanel

Is Kirsten Dunst the New Winona Ryder?

Looks like Kirsten Dunst is jockeying to be the girl with the most cake - or rockstar boyfriends. She's just starting to tally up a notable total in the rockstar arena, so she's nowhere near Winona Ryder's level of notariety in that case.

Ryder has famously dated/flinged/crushed out on practically every cute boy since 90s alterna-rock started, possibly including: Soul Asylum singer Dave Piner, Wilco singer Jeff Tweety, Paul Westerberg, Ryan Adams, Bright Eyes singer Conor Oberst, Rilo Kiley guitarist Blake Sennet, Green Day drummer Tre Cool, Lemonheads singer Evan Dando, Pete Yorn and Adam Durtiz of Counting Crows - along with her fair share of co-stars and Hollywood hunks, of course.

It seems like Kirsten Dunst is following in her footsteps and racking up quite the list of "possibly involved with" gentlemen. Her rumored rockstar beaus so far include Razorlight singer Johnny Borrell, Strokes drummer and Drew Barrymore ex Fabrizio Moretti and now she's rumored to be with MGMT singer Andrew Vanwyn-Garden, after seeing their show this July at the McCarren Park Pool Parties.

I undestand the appeal - Vanwyn-Garden is super foxy, above and beyond your usual scraggly indie rocker look. Can't wait to see where this Winona road goes for Kirsten!

The WB Relaunches

While you're waiting for that Veronica Mars movie to get solidified you can head over and watch some of the original V. Mars episodes - teen titan TV network The WB have relaunched in the form of an online portal.

All the girlicious (ty Blane from Project Runway) favorites are up in episodic format to view - Gilmore Girls, Buffy, V. Mars, The O.C., One Tree Hill - plus some new online series, a blog, games and play tools to make the site all yours.

There is still a lot of filling out to do for the site, but the old WB shows alone will get me going there.

The Ultimate Bromance

Scandalist posted today that Brad Pitt and George Clooney are having the ultimate bromance. Sure, they travel together, star in movies together, hang out at Clooney's impossibly glam house in Italy together...but the mark of a truly outragous bromance is hitting those important moments in life together and Clooney hasn't popped out any offspring yet or even gotten a serious lady friend. That we know about.

I think the true Ultimate Bromance of our time title is still held by Ben Affleck and Matt Damon. When Ben got hitched, Matt settled down in short order. When Ben started having kids, Matt started having kids (and they both kept going!). They've cut back on the professional ties, but you know "Good Will Hunting 2: Electricbugaloo" is in one of their computers right now.

Gossip? Who Cares.

For days now the gossip news of the world has been totally blah.

I'm sure a lot of people do care, but I couldn't care less what American Idol does. Unless they cancel the show. Then I might smirk a little. Apparently there's a 4th judge being added this season, which is no doubt one of several changes we can expect to see since the show's ratings plummeted last season.

Madonna turned 50, kicks off a tour and hates John McCain. Blarg, who gives a crap. If she gives an interview about her plastic surgery, however, I'm all over it.

Kate Hudson is being sued by some scientists - hilarious but not hilarious enough to lift my apathy regarding most everything Kate Hudson and her ringlets do.

A million celebs had babies, are super pregnant, announced they just got preggers - the only interesting thing here is this means empire shirts will be in style for another year.

It's all so meh, I think I'll just watch the Democratic National Convention instead.

Lulz @ The Hills

I've posted another installment of Lulz @ The Hills for the new episode on Monday night. This was the inadvertently Stephanie-centric episode.

Hey, you know what else is interesting? This salary breakdown of what everyone gets paid to be on "The Hills"!

Lauren Conrad $75,000 ($1.4M per year)

Heidi Montag: $65,000 per episode ($1.25 million per year)
Spencer Pratt: $65,000 per episode ($1.25 million per year)
Audrina: $35,000 per episode ($665,000 annually)
Whitney: $20,000 per episode ($380,000 per season)
Brody: $10,000 per episode ($190,000 a year)
Lauren “Lo”: $10,000 per episode ($190,00 for The Hills Season 4)
Stephanie: $8,000 per episode ($152,00 for Season 4)
Frankie: $0

Heidi Presses On With Music Career

Heidi from "The Hills" wants to get physical, Olivia Newton-John style. The Montag camp released photos from the set of her new video "Overdosin" over the weekend to the world at large and it looks like quite the camp production.

This will surely be better than her paparazzi-esque video first video for "Higher" with more of a tongue-in-cheek approach.

No word yet on when we can expect to see the final video, but wtg Team Heidi for timing this release for the new season of "The Hills"!

Tune in Monday night for my weekly Lulz @ The Hills blog and keep your ear to the ground on the Spencer & Heidi reality wedding event of a lifetime. I wonder if they can get through it without killing each other?

Doctor Celine Dion

On this past Thursday pop singer Celine Dion became a doctor. Which is rather amazing considering she never finished high school.

Dion was awarded an honorary degree from Universitie Larval in Quebec - which was Canada's first official institution of higher learning and is very highly regarded for its teaching and research programs.

Dion was awarded an honorary degree and told the graduating class and attendees, numbering 800, "If there is something that has guided my life, it's my wish to excel and go farther, to the maximum of my abilities, to the top of my goals, my hopes and my dreams."

Reportedly her heart will go on.

The Next Carrie Bradshaw or More Larry David?

HBO have optioned Sloan Crosley's essay collection "I Was Told There'd Be Cake" to adapt into a series. A friend suggested I read Crosley's book a few months ago and I absolutely loved it. It's created of anticdotes from her own life as a 20something who grew up in the suburbs of NY state and then moved to the city.

If you're automatically thinking Carrie Bradshaw think again - she's much more haphazard and far less glamorous. One of the essays is a classic first job plus bad boss story that ends with 9/11 as her final day at a job with which she's developed a love/hate relationship.

The character, since it is Crosley herself, is really touching and human in a way the glitzy women of SaTC weren't - it's more Larry David's New York, where there are cupcakes but not so much shopping.

I'm very much looking forward to seeing this series and highly recommend the book.

Arrrrr So Much Britney News!

Page Six are speculating about a Britney/Justin duet happening on her new album! It was supposed to happen last album around but Britney was too strung out on drugs that shiesty Sam Lufti was giving her and passed. Timbaland was P.O.ed for awhile so let's see if he even gets involved in this one or if Justin helms it himself.

Justin & Britney almost ran into each other last week! They were both at a Robin Thicke show but then Justin didn't see her and she didn't go say hi so it didn't happen. Boo.

Funny or Die has an iso vocal track of Britney's vocals from her HBO special in Las Vegas. It's bad. It's very, very bad. Listen and confirm she can't sing but bear in mind she's essentially doing a hardcore work out while singing. I'd suck a lot too.

New to TeeVee Gossip

The Rachel Zoe Project, which I am awaiting with baited breath, comes to Bravo in September but there's a 30 minute preview running now that I strongly urge you to catch. If you didn't believe food deprevation makes people irritable it looks like this show is going to confirm it. And yet Zoe maintains at the end of the special that her lifestyle is amazing and glamorous. Umhm.

Debuting tonight on VH1 is The Cho Show, Korean comedianne and gay icon Margaret Cho's eponimous television debut. You can preview the whole first episode on VH1.com today and so naturally I indulged. The first pay off is after all these years you get to see her mom, who she's always making fun of in her routine. Turns out her parents are every bit as overbearing (in a nice way) as she claims. And she has a midget (I think?) assistant so I guess that whole Chelsea Handler love for midgets thing is catching on?

Finally, let's talk 90210. Who can keep up with the drama around this show? Tori Spelling's out (for now), Jennie Garth is urging fans to created a "Donna Martin returns!" protest and getting along with Shannen Doherty, production are declining to send the press screeners leading to speculation that the show is awful (it probably is) and I just realized that the show runner for the new 90210 is none other than Veronica Mars' Rob Thomas! So maybe it won't suck? Oh gee, this means I'm going to have to watch. My poor, poor DVR.

Get a little sneak peek at the set of the new 90210 - photos from the new/old Peach Pit!

Rachel & Ryan: Love Again

Happy news of the day: adorabelles couple Rachel McAdams and Ryan Gosling are reportedly back together (granted the reportedly comes from Perez Hilton and so it pains us a tiny bit)!

There were rumors a month or so ago when Rachel went to Ryan's DJ night in L.A. but I didn't dare hope...

Isn't it funny how seeing people together in a sappy movie like "The Notebook" can make you root for them in their real lives? Who could forget that amazing moment on the MTV Movie Awards that year when they won best kiss and...le sigh. Congrats kids!

The Hills Boys: Not Bromantic

Bromance: dumbest word ever. Also, thing that is seriously cooling down between "The Hills" castmates and former BFFs Brody Jenner and Spencer Pratt. The two were assumed to have reconciled after their big on-camera tiff (with some speculating there was no real fight to begin with, rather it was all drama faked for fake TV) in the show's second season but E! is reporting that after Monday night's "Hills" season 4 launch party in Malibu Brody & Spencer got into it again at the after party. Naturally it started with Spencer talking some smack. Like almost every fight involving "The Hills" cast.

Good thing Brody's out to find a new "Bromance" - he'll get his own reality show with MTV this fall that's a cross between "Entourage" and "The Bachelor." Hilarity ensues?

Beckham: The Musical

What would you say to a musical? About soccer star David Beckham?

My first question is who's playing him and my second question is for how much of the play will his shirt be off?

Apparently a British playwright named Mark Archer is attempting to make the dream a reality on London's West End. Archer tells The Telegraph, "Beckham’s story is a modern-day fairytale of heroes, villains, love, Manchester United and what it means to lead your country. His rise from obscurity to international stardom, his universally acknowledged gifts as a supreme sportsman, and his Hollywood lifestyle all have the elements of an aspirational fable."

There's reportedly even a song planned about the famed Becks/Posh first meeting and another about English life in the 90s.

Sounds just awful enough to be secretly good.

Lily Allen's A Real Bruiser

Last night outspoken musician Lily Allen got into a fist fight with some random French girl who was insulting her. There are amazing photos of her attempting to punch the chick while the girl is laughing at her and of course TMZ has it on video to make it that much tackier.

This on the heels of Allen's own posting to her MySpace blog that her newest album is complete but EMI haven't scheduled it for their 2009 release calendar yet - raising speculation about the quality of her record label more than the quality of Allen's material. EMI have been hemmoraging money and are actually suing her former label-mate Jared Leto's band for $30 million at the moment.

The real question here isn't how drunk was Allen to start the fight or when is her album coming out - it's who's the cute boy on her arm?

Lulz @ The Hills

You can read my live blog of The Hills every week on How's That Working Out? - my entertainment blog, devised for my own entertainment.

How Do You Like Your Sherlock Holmes?

Sherlock Holmes: better straight up or with a twist?

It seems there are two Holmes movies in production that will paint wildly different pictures of the famous detective. One movie will co-star Will Ferrell and Sacha Baron Cohen ("Borat") and being penned and directed by comedy screenwriting duo the Cohen brothers ("O Brother, Where Art Tho?", "The Big Lebowski") while the other is set to start Robert Downey, Jr. and be directed by Guy Ritchie.

If it sounds like we can expect one comedy take on Sherlock, although Ethan Cohen promises he aims "to do a giant comedy but at the same time try to be true to the mechanics of a Sherlock Holmes story like using the Victorian forensics that Conan Doyle used." So, the accurate but hilarious Holmes.

Whereas Joel Silver, who's producing the Downey/Ritchie version tells MTV, "Nobody ever did the 'Sherlock Holmes' story as an action movie, and he really was an action guy. [Ours] is a big, wild action movie."So like Holmes with devices and fun bombs.

Gosh, I don't know which Sherlock Holmes to root for!

Who's Going to the DNC?

All of Hollywood are booking their flights to Denver - are you planning to attend the Democratic National Convention in September?

Celebs who've expressed interest in attending are starting to pile up into a massive list including Scarlett Johansson, Ben Affleck, Kanye West, Quentin Tarantino, Spike Lee, George Clooney, Madonna, Wyclef Jean and whoever else decides to turn up.

The RNC, on the other hand, are reportedly having such a hard time getting celeb attendees that they've engaged the William Morris Talent Agency to help them book. Other than country star Gretchen Wilson no boldface names are confirmed and the Repubs are rumored to be worried about how that might play out compared to the potentially star-studded DNC on TV.

Brad Pitt + Kihels = Enviro Friendly

Brad Pitt, dreamiest man alive, and Kihels, dreamiest moisturizer alive, are teaming up according to NY Mag (via WWD) to offer "Aloe Vera Biodegradable Liquid Body Cleanser — made of 100 percent biodegradable ingredients — 100 percent of profits are going to the charity, which is expected to raise more than $1 million."

Is it wrong to want to slather both of them all over yourself?

The charity in question is called JPF Eco Systems and is a joint venture between Pitt and Kiehls. A quick internet search turned up zero on what exactly this charity is set to do - earthy green things?

At any rate, you won't see Pitt in a Kiehls commercial or even on in-store photos promoting the product - he's no spokesmodel. Apparently. Unlike his roles for Japan's Edwin Jeans, Tag Heauer, and Toyota in the Asian market. Hmm.

Is Jennifer Aniston the New Marie Antoinette?

I have a theory that Jennifer Aniston is the modern day Marie Antoinette. People are absolutely obsessed with every facet of Aniston's love live in a much more in-depth way than most female stars. Clearly documenting her alleged journey to have babies generates page views and sells magazines considering the exhaustive and never ending coverage it gets.

It seems fairly obvious to me that women are obsessed with Jennifer Aniston's love life because they view it like a romantic comedy. I mean, she was married to Brad Pitt and part of a golden couple but then cheated on and dumped. Normal women are, by method of transference, waiting to see her bounce back as proof that there is hope for their own happy endings. If someone as beautiful as her can't manage it then how could we?

Celeb magazine editors and gossip bloggers, however, don't all seem to grasp this idea and several of them paint her as a shrew who's desperate for a sperm donor to give her babies. This is very much a la Marie Antoinette and the sensationalistic reports that would run about her in libelles, a French gossip rag that often printed inaccurate things about the royal family as part of a political power game.

Below is a smattering list of reasons I've seen reported that Aniston and John Mayer recently broke up:

* John dumped because Jen was too clingy

* The pair broke up after a trail separation

* Jen did not want kids but did want a time table for their future

* John tells Ok! he broke up with her because he didn't want to waste her time or lie to her

* They are in different places in their lives but might reconcile

* John cheated and Jen wasn't having it and broke up with him

* John just wanted to be alone

* Jennifer's already (not) dating someone new in L.A.

* Her Saturn was challenging his sun sign and therefore entire sense of self and their Jupiters are not in alignment

Putting Jennifer Aniston's love life under a constant microscope is a sure fire way to tank it and is the equivalent of "let them eat cake," sealing her fate for the worse.

Secret Agent Julia Child

Amazing: celeb chef Julia Child was a WWII era spy! Previously classified documents were released on Thursday that named Child and all sorts of other notable people as being part of a covert spy network under the Office of Strategic Services, a precurser agency to the modern day CIA.

Childs, along with Supreme Court Justice Arthur Goldberg, Chicago White Sox catcher Moe Berg, Miles Copeland (father to Police drummer Stewart Copeland), John Hemingway (son of Ernest), former CIA director William Casey and some 35,000 others were identified in the documents of applicants for the OSS.

Childs was in the OSS decades before her celebrity chef career began. In fact, the notables in this group of 24,000 revealed agents makes me wonder if there wasn't some sort of Skull & Bones secret society for advancement after you spent your time in the OSS.

One confirmation of secret goverment dealings leads to one more conspiracy theory.

In related gossip news - Meryl Streep is slated to play Julia Childs in the forthcoming movie "Julie & Julia," in a screenplay adapted by Norah Ephron ("Sleepless In Seattle," "When Harry Met Sally") that's scheduled to start shooting in 2008.

Trump Does Something Altruistic?

Hold on a minute - it's not altruistic if you release a press statement about it.

Just the same, real estate mogule Donald Trump has, very nicely, agreed to purchase Ed McMahon's home so the latter can continue living there under a lease.

McMahon has had a series of financial crisises lately, including foreclosure on his house, after s neck injury left him unable to work for 18 months.

The two don't know each other outside of Trump being a fan of McMahon's work as Johnny Carson's sidekick on The Tonight Show.

While Trump still stands to gain plenty by investing in this piece of Beverly Hills real estate and the positive press exposure from the move I've gotta admit - I'm fairly surprised Trump would do something so nice. McMahon is looking so fragile these days - he is 85 now.

Do you think Trump has a conscience or just sees a good investment opportunity?

Alanis Song Mystery Solved

Full House's Dave Coulier finally confirmed, over a decade after the fact, that he is the mystery man in Alanis Morissette's breakout hit song "You Oughta Know".

Amazing! Now if I could just find out who Carly Simon penned "You're So Vain" about then my curiosity would be completely satiated.

Coulier tells the Calgary Herald in Vancouver, "I listened to the song over and over again, and I said, 'I think I have really hurt this person.' I tried to contact her and I finally got a hold of her. And at the same time, the press was calling and saying, 'You want to comment on this song?'"

Can you imagine? Uncle Joey really was the basis for so much 90s female teen angst, to most women's unwitting surprise. Guess the heart wants what it wants.

Batman Free of All Charges

Christian Bale has been cleared of all those nasty assault charges in the UK against his mother and sister, the BBC is reporting.

What I learned throughout this ordeal is that in the UK simply talking in a loud voice to someone can lead to assault charges and they don't go in so much for that whole "innocent until proven guilty" thing. Bale was placed under arrest on the night of the arguement with his family because in the UK they arrest and question you for suspicion of a crime on spot, even if charges are not pressed which is customary in U.S. assault cases.

Crown Prosecution Service released a statement that "insufficient evidence to afford a realistic prospect of conviction," and "the police have been advised that no further action should be taken against Mr Bale".

Note that the police say it is due to insufficient evidence - could that mean his family declined to persue the matter? That it was a false claim?

Neither Bale nor his mother have commented on the arguement other than to say it's "deeply personal" and "a family matter."

"In Search of a Midnight Kiss"

If you're looking for an off the beaten path romantic comedy this summer then I strongly recommend you see "In Search of A Midnight Kiss". It's the charming story of two L.A. hipsters meeting on Craigslist, spending an afternoon together, then agreeing to spend New Years Eve together and ultimately falling in love.

There are no stars of note in the movie, the producer worked on "Before Sunset" and "Dazed and Confused" (both Richard Linklater films) and it's been released by IFC Films. If it's not showing in your local theater it might be available as a movie on demand on your cable system - they're doing this great thing on Time Warner where you can watch current IFC theatrical releases on demand when they are released. Check your system - it might be available for half the price of seeing it in a movie theater.

The film just had it's L.A. premiere at the first annual Downtown Film Festival and I assure you it will charm the pants right off you. Watch the trailer and grab your Kleenex.

Cusack and Cruise Stalker Competent For Trial

A homeless woman stands accused of stalking both Tom Cruise and John Cusack, since 2005 and 2006 respectively. Emily Leatherman has been arrested at both of their houses in the past, but she tells TMZ in a video interview that her attempts to contact the stars were specifically to enlist their help getting a media platform so she could get justice for her previous entrapment in a sex trafficking ring and subesquent rapes.

Wow, right? Wow. She's a little convinced, in the interview, that Cusack had her arrested in order to help her get media attention. Cusack, in official statements, maintains that she was "showing unusual interest by stalking, throwing long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside... and listing my address as her own."

Leatherman maintains she is not in love with or stalking Cusack and that she sent similar letters to Friends stars David Schwimmer, Jennifer Aniston and Paul McCartney.

Sounds like a woman in need of extensive therapy, right? Well Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Susan M. Speer ruled today that Leatherman was competent to stand trail for her most recent stalking charges filed by Cusack, based on a psychiatrist's evaluation. Although the psychiatrists also described Leatherman as "delusional" and "paranoid".

It's sort of shocking, but as you can see in the TMZ video interview she appears lucid and aware of her crimes and the only way a person is declared incompetent to stand trial is if they are unable to understand the proceedings or assist their council.

Do you think Leatherman should be charged or sent to therapy?

Obama vs. McCain: The iPod Battle

The two presidential hopefuls provided a 10 song playlist to Blender magazine and boy do they have different taste in music! Other than both picking a Frank Sinatra song they're on different musical planets - Obama leaning more urban and overall with more "edgy" picks, McCain with a surprise pick of not one but two ABBA songs.

Commentater and musician Randy Newman points out that neither candidate includes anything from The Beatles (Obama does include their music debate antagonists The Rolling Stones). Also no Bob Dylan, but Obama does include Black Eyed Pea will.I.am's song about...himself? I'd really love to see McCain singing along to "Sweet Caroline" at the next town meeting.

How much do the possibly presidential picks tell you about each candidate?

BARACK OBAMA
1. Ready or Not Fugees
2. What's Going On Marvin Gaye
3. I'm On Fire Bruce Spingsteen
4. Gimme Shelter Rolling Stones
5. Sinnerman Nina Simone
6. Touch the Sky Kanye West
7. You'd Be So Easy to Love Frank Sinatra
8. Think Aretha Franklin
9. City of Blinding Lights U2
10. Yes We Can  will.i.am

JOHN McCAIN
1. Dancing Queen ABBA
2. Blue Bayou Roy Orbison
3. Take a Chance On Me ABBA
4. If We MakeIt Through December Merle Haggard
5. As Time Goes By Dooley Wilson
6. Good Vibrations The Beach Boys
7. What A Wonderful World Louis Armstrong
8. I've Got You Under My Skin Frank Sinatra
9. Sweet Caroline Neil Diamond
10. Smoke Gets In Your Eyes The Platters

Winehouse Threatens to Complete Bond Theme

Amy Winehouse was all set to record the newest Bond theme song for "Quantum of Solace" - but someone laid down the edict that she had to be drug free before they'd ink the deal. You know a person must be in a horrible place for that to happen. Winehouse had begun recording the song with producer Mark Ronson, but then backed out of the recordings, had a falling out with Ronson who issued the statement that she is ''not ready to record any music,'' and the taking of many drugs resumed.

Since then the track was offered to Alicia Keys and Jack White to collaborate on creating. It seems Winehouse got word of this and has threatened to complete work on her own Bond song to prove to the movie's producers that they were wrong to take the opportunity elsewhere.

Winehouse told NME, "I guess they are going for clean-cut and boring. When I do release mine - and I am tempted to do it on the same day - this would be the bigger hit. If they change their minds, I'm waiting!"

Ronson and Winehouse seem to have patched up their differences, with Ronson telling Harper's Bazaar in a recent interview, "At the time, it was hard to get some work done, but she's been in the clinic. I've been to visit a few times, and she just looks amazing."

Do you think Winehouse will have the presence of mind to finish her single before the movie's November 7 release and put it out to compete with the official theme song? I have a hard time imagining her buckling down.

Mary Louise Parker to Play Hedda Gabler

Weeds star Mary Louise Parker will tackle a feminist icon in the eponymous role of Hedda Gabler. This is far from her first Broadway role - she's known for taking to the stage on breaks from her series and tackling complex female roles.

This play is set for a January 25 debut at the American Airlines Theater in New York City. It is reportedly a new adaption by Christopher Shinn who has written several successful plays but not previously adapted.

If you are unfamiliar with the Hedda Gabler character she is profoundly neurotic, a proto-feminist and the archetype of the Freudian woman in Victorian society, although his work followed the penning of Gabler by a decade.

In the course of the play Hedda Gabler emasculates her husband, is coerced into a love triangle, sabotages a rival to her husband, attempts to orchestrate that same man's death and then shoots herself. That'll be complex to perform every night.

Andrian Grenier Preps for Entourage, Films Doc

Life is in the fast lane for Entourage star Andrian Grenier who, in addition to prepping for season 5 of the wildly successful HBO show in which he stars, is releasing a new documentary about kid paparazzi Austin Visschedyk.

Grenier had a really good idea with this one - he investigates the life of a kid pap, as well as the kid's own relationship to him as a star. In addition to following Visschedyk while he shoots celebrities like Paris Hilton, Alec Baldwin and Eva Longoria, Grenier interviews Noam Chomsky, Martin Landau and the Daily Show's Lewis Black about the culture of fame.

If you missed Grenier's first documentary, "Shot In the Dark", in which he tries to develop a relationship with his birth fater and grasp the position of fathers in society today in relation to his life without one.

When he's not meta saving the world with high brow entertainment, Grenier is meta entertaining us with some low brow on HBO - the new season of Entourage rolls out on HBO September 7. The HBO site behind the scenes trailer gave me some good guest appearance spoilers. You can expect to see Giovanni Ribisi, Lukas Haas, Martin Landau (answering the question of how they knew each other), Tony Bennet, Kevin Pollak, Fran Drescher and exec producer Mark Wahlberg making only his second appearance in the series.

The Absolute Disaster of Courtney Love

Watching Courtney Love implode only grows more addictive as she and I get older. Sometimes she comes across as such a disaster who makes you wonder how celebrities become so out of touch with the real world everyone else faces.

At any rate, Nylon magazine has a new interview with her up on their YouTube channel that is just a heartbreaker if you were ever a Hole fan and probably a sigh of relief if you weren't - Courtney says after she's done making her current record that's it for her music career. However she does plan to go into film & TV production, clothing design, possibly managing Francis Bean Cobain?

The one thing Courtney Love, Miley Cyrus and Lily Allen have in common is their enjoyment of communicating directly with their fans via the Internet. While I'm sure it feels gratifying for them at the time it has also lead to more than one embarassing MySpace post or YouTube video.

I'm just saying, perhaps it's better to issue press releases after all.

2007's Hottest Man Says We Should Travel More

"I think many of our problems as a country would be solved if people had thick passports," Matt Damon tells Conte Nast Traveler in an interview for their September issue. The article addresses Damon's recent travels to Zambia in Africa - apparently it was so impactful that he's entered the Bono sphere of talkative activism.

All of the education Damon feels he got on his African travels lead him to participate in founding a new charity called the H2O Africa Foundation, which is a clean water initiative. "The world water crisis is one of the most important public health issues of our time," Damon tells the magazine. "Clean water can help put people on the first rung of the development ladder."

It's an interesting thought - everywhere I've got stamped on my passport is a European country, but apparently only 21% of Americans have passports at all. It is extremely hard to identifiy with the hardships of a third world developing country, let alone an entire contintent, without seeing it first hand.

Who's up for a trip to the Congo with Matt Damon and me?

The Two Coreys: My Sunday Shame

Embarrassing confession: I watch The Two Coreys every Sunday night. If you're wondering which two Coreys I could possibly be talking about, check the video to the right for a hilarious surprise.

This is the second season of their completely useless reality show on A&E and, for some reason that has yet to become apparent, the show producers drastically changed the look and feel for season 2. It's now shown in grainy film with sepia tones bled all over the Hollywood lights and their broken faces, a  la Intervention or some similarly serious show. Whereas last season found the Coreys living together like bosom buddies and cracking horrid jokes while they got in each others' way.

I suppose the hilarity of watching two people who were teen stars together and today are basically irrelevant go about their lives as if they are still huge celebrities with a legitimate shot at re-entering the acting pool is too much of a draw for me to resist. This season I find that they constantly reference terrible b-teen movies they were in together as if this was some high mark in their careers and they wonder where the respect for “Dream A Little Dream” is.

More seriously, Corey Haim keeps appearing to slip back into substance abuse at various points (it's hard to tell if he really is and what the real outcome is due to the extremely poor editing on the half-hour show) and Corey Feldman reacts to this. He reacts in their “couples” therapy. He reacts to his wife. He reacts by staging an intervention with Todd Bridges of Diff'rent Strokes and Pauly Shore.

Seriously, it's so unbelievably over the top of reality as a reality show that I come back to it every week just to see what obnoxious thing could possibly happen next.

This season of The Two Coreys is almost over, catch it on A&E Sunday nights at 10PM EST and check out a few full episodes on A&E.com.

Angelina Jolie Waffles Between Obama and McCain

Question of the day: who will Angelina Jolie vote for in the 2008 elections? Apparently it is on the minds of both of the presumptive nominees - according to Variety mag run Wilshire & Washington both camps have reached out to her for an endorsement and Jolie is waiting to hear more, saying she's like clarified positions on "issues like international justice, refugees and how to address the needs of children in crisis around the world."

Seems like a no-brainer right? Celebrities are almost all Dems and she'll pick Obama because he at least wants to get out of Iraq. Not so fast partner - Jolie did an interview with Entertainment Weekly and in response to a question about her relationship with celeb Repub Clint Eastwood said, "But I'm registered independent and I'm still undecided. So I'm looking at McCain as well as Obama."

Shocker! Oh wait a minute. Who in their right minds is waiting to hear how Angelina Jolie votes to make up their mind? This better be information simply for entertainment purposes people.

Britney Spears Considering the 2008 VMAs?

Will Britney take the MTV VMA stage for a second try? Speculation has been rife since MTV had a press conference to announce the 2008 VMAs and music group president Van Toffler said, ""I'm not sure how we top Britney opening the show. We are working on it every minute of every day."

I think we all know what they're working on is getting Britney back on the show - even if it's just as a presenter. She'd have to be crazy to come back and perform this year, right? And she's not crazy anymore...right?

If she does agree to perform, let's hope it's something NOT so typical as a cameo part with Katy Perry to "I Kissed A Girl". Yawn, so 2003.

At any rate, Britney taped promos for the 2008 VMAs with relatively unknown show host Russel Brand. He was the hilarious English not-a-boyfriend in "Forgetting Sarah Marshall" and hosted his own show on MTV UK. He's quite the huge star in England and MTV are getting props all over for asking him to host this year - everyone knows an unknown comic host = future star in the making.

The spots are expected to start airing as soon as this weekend - we'll have them for you as soon as they're available. Since they're reportedly largely ad-libbed we're expecting Brand brought the funny and hoping everyone else played along.

2008: Year of the Vampire

Everywhere I turn in pop culture, there’s another vampire.

First of all you’ve got the massive storm that is “Twilight” coming out in December. And the newest in the Twlight book series, 'Breaking Dawn', just out this past weekend.

All over my neighborhood there are posters, advertising some blood-based sports drink for vampires, of the viral campaign for HBO’s forthcoming series True Blood.

And today I stumbled upon the trailer for the very long awaited (for Bret Easton Ellis fans like me) movie adaptation of his short story collection "The Informers." One of the characters is a “morally challenged” vampire from L.A. in 1983.

Interestingly, almost all of these vampires serve as a moral guide post – either as an example of how to be better as a human or a what not to do example. I find the synchronicity of all these vampire appearances pretty fascinating too. Did everyone writing a script come to a similar conclusion of some sort about humanity in the last 3 years?

"Pineapple Express" Breaks Records, Accidentally Terrorists?

This week's big movie news is all about “Pineapple Express” opening with a large Wednesday August box office total at $12.15 million – but the real story is the tone of shock at the news from both Hollywood execs and entertainment reporters. Hi, did you all really not realize this summer has been a total comedy graveyard of flops (“Get Smart”, “Zohan”, “Step Brothers” and “Love Guru” I'm looking in your direction) that have made 'Pineapple” all the more anticipated?

Something that might have tipped them off is the amazing rise in interest around the M.I.A. track that's featured in the “Pineapple” trailer. With nothing at all going on except placement in the movie trailer the track has shot up in digital sales and radio play – a stunning 8+ months after it's initial release as a single. So, of course, all the interest in this track lead to a interesting q&a session from E! Online's Answer Bitch (yes, really) in which an alleged reader wrote in to inquire about M.I.A.'s terrorist leanings (of which there really are none, other than perhaps some fashion nods for artistic effect).

Between “Pineapple's” pro-drug message and M.I.A.'s terrorist history this is either the most American or least American movie of the summer. Right?

Is Miley Cyrus Punking Us?

ZOMG! Teen alert! In the new issue of Seventeen magazine Miley Cyrus finally ends they "did they or didn't they" debate about her relationship with Nick Jonas of the Jonas Brothers.

If you weren't clued in to this hot teen issue already here's a quick summary: both the kids are Disney stars; Miley's a devout Christian; the two have coyly declined to say they were more than friends; thousands of YouTube videos with "evidence" that they're a couple are created by their crazy rabid fans.

Seventeen doesn't have anything on the web but an invitation to subscribe (uh, no thanks?) but E! have posted some juicy quotes from the article, like: "I was like, I want to make my hair black now—I don’t want to look pretty; I want to look hard core," Miley remembers. "I was rebelling against everything Nick wanted me to be."

We totally buy that break-up angst is propelling her professionally - on her appearance on FNMTV last week she lauded Ashlee Simpson's rocker girl aesthetic and backstage gossip indicated she couldn't wait to talk to Pink. There's also a backstage video of her and Pete Wentz that might strike you as a little...flirty? Is a rock rebellion in the teen star's cards?

Final interesting item to note here, this gossip news happens to hit on the week before the Jonas Brothers' new album is released. What are the chances everyone's being punk'd?

The Rachel Zoe Project Previews Hit Bravo

Oh Rachel Zoe, known for styling clients like Paris Hilton, Nicole Richie, Lindsay Lohan and Mischa Barton. Also known for duplicating her own wafish look to all these girls, often rumored to be the source of Nicole's pre-baby eating disorder, often rumored to be kind of a bitch.

Reality TV gives everyone a chance to even the score (or dig their own grave in Denise Richards' case), even a stylist to the stars, and Zoe's project will debut on Bravo starting September 8th and the promos have hit the air. See one that actually makes Zoe look likable (because her female assistant's a raging loon and her male assistant's a crybaby) on Jezebel and a somewhat baffling one alluding to her dislike of Perez Hilton on Bravo's website.

Zoe tells Fancast, "I want viewers to gain an understanding of what it is that I do. I think there's a lot of misconception about not only my life and what I do but also about me personally. So, I think it's really getting an understanding of my world and what's involved in it."

Interesting. I will absolutely be watching. And judging.