Today's Blind Items - Kindness

This is a great story. It is all the more so because the person involved didn't want any credit for what he did. A former MVP winning NFL player recently paid to have 70 underprivileged children and their families flown to Walt Disney World for a vacation. He picked up the entire cost for everything with no sponsor help and no publicity for himself.

Random Photos Part One - With Lots Of Reader Photos

Anniversaries make the top spot today. Last night was a party celebrating the 20th anniversary of Do The Right Thing.
And the 25th anniversary of Stay Hungry.
Shiloh at 3 and Angelina Jolie at 7.
Bruce Willis and his doubles on the set of his new movie.
Emilie de Ravin and Robert Pattinson taking a break from filming their new movie.
It's Fashion Week time. Uh huh. Then he showed the other eunuchs to their quarters.
While this one started singing, "Do you really want to hurt me?"
Gossip Girl started filming again yesterday.
Halle Berry at Seaworld.
Hayden P doing press for her new movie. It looks like a drivers license photo.
Yes, this is from the same event as yesterday, but are you going to complain?
Long time no see for Keira Knightly and Rupert Friend.
Kathie Lee Gifford hosted an event last night which is pretty cool.
The first ever High School National Theatre Awards. Great idea.
Lady Gaga actually makes sense with this wig and what she is doing.
The first photo of Matthew Broderick, Sarah Jessica Parker and the twins.
Mariah Carey taking a dig at Eminem on her new video.
An all day tribute to Michael Jackson at The Apollo.
Pabst. The winner of this year's ugliest dog contest.
Pink riding a bike in Australia. It seems like she has been there forever.
I think this might be a first time appearance for Pharell Williams.
Rachel McAdams gets into character in her new movie.
Reader Photo #1
Reader Photo #2
Reader Photo #3
Reader Photo #4

Jeff Goldblum Back From The Dead On The Colbert Report

Of all the fake death rumors last week and over the weekend, the one that got the most traction was the Jeff Goldblum rumor. Jeff was on The Colbert Report last night and this is definitely worth five minutes of your time. Hell, Jeff is worth any amount of time.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Jeff Goldblum Will Be Missed
www.colbertnation.com
Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Jeff Goldblum

Karen Mulder Arrested For Threatening Her Plastic Surgeon

Do you remember Karen Mulder? She was one of the supermodels of the 1990's. She used to earn almost $20,000 a day at her peak. Today she is sitting in a French jail for repeatedly calling the office of her plastic surgeon and wanting some procedure reversed. According to French police, Mulder allegedly called and "was screaming and shouting about the operation and became extremely threatening. There were repeated calls to the female surgeon who was extremely scared. The suspect is being interviewed."

Mulder, who is 39 has long suffered from depression. In fact according to the Daily Telegraph, Mulder "attended a psychiatric hospital in 2001 suffering from chronic depression, blaming it on drug addiction during her modeling days."

She has also attempted suicide at least once since she retired from modeling.

Daily Mirror Blind Item

Which rocker put a padlock on her portaloo, dubbing it the 'Glastonbury powder room'?

She gave only her pals the code so they could use the cabin to chop-up and inhale several grams of marching powder...

$144M For Being A Judge On American Idol

The NY Post is reporting that salary figures for Simon Cowell's renewal of his American Idol contract are leaking. This past year he made $36M for his five months of work being a judge on Idol. For his next contract he would like a raise to the tune of $144M for his five months on the show. Umm, that is a ridiculous f**king amount of money for someone who speaks about 6 minutes for every hour he is on the air. To be fair, lets say there are about 25 episodes of Idol. In addition to those there are the audition cities where Simon has to put in almost an 8 hour day four or five times with only cigarette breaks, lunch breaks, coffee breaks and whatever breaks he wants.

Then there are the Hollywood days and then the show itself. Lets see if we can get a total for all of this.

We will be very conservative.

10 audition days at 8 hours a day equals 80 hours.
4 Hollywood days at 8 hours a day equals 32 hours.
25 shows at 4 hours a show equals 100 hours.
Promotions, press for the show equals 20 hours.

Total hours on the show 232 hours over the course of five months. Salary $144M which equals about $620,000 an hour. Minimum wage varies in the United States from state to state, but in California it is $8 an hour unless you work in San Francisco.

At $8 an hour, it would take a worker 77,500 hours just to make what Simon is going to make for one hour working on American Idol. The average number of hours worked in a year for most people is 2,000.

What this means is that if you are a minimum wage earner in California and work 40 hours a week for 39 years you will earn what Simon Cowell earns for one hour of judging American Idol. This doesn't sound very fair does it? And remember my estimates were conservative. Plus, the work that minimum wage earner is performing is much harder than saying, "I didn't like it." Oh, and the minimum wage earner probably doesn't have health insurance either and probably can't afford to go anywhere on their two weeks of vacation each year, if they even get any vacation.

Drea de Matteo Joins Desperate Housewives

According to Entertainment Weekly, Drea de Matteo is set to join the cast of Desperate Housewives. Guess what? Drea is going to play an Italian housewife. I know, I know, the stretch on her acting talent is going to be tough. Now, she is going to play the matriarch of her family which is more than she did on The Sopranos, but I wish they would have let her play someone besides an Italian housewife. I have seen her do that already. Not the married part so much, but the rest of it.

When I first read she was cast, I was hoping they would show some creativity and imagination. I think she is a great casting choice because she can cause trouble and be tough and at the same time be sexy. But, the imagination that led to the casting didn't stretch far enough to see her as anything other than what she has already played for years. Does Drea want to play the same roles for the rest of her career? She is too good of an actress to keep getting stereotyped like this. I will say that I am going to watch the first episode of the season. Do you think maybe she could order a hit on Eva's character?

Where Was Enrique? Anna Kournikova Gets In A Bar Fight

Back in the day when Anna Kournikova was relevant, this would have been a really cool story. You really don't see very many female celebrities take part in bar fights. I use the term celebrity really loosely here. I will say that she at least earned her celebrity. People always trashed her tennis playing and said she only cared about her looks and modeling and sucked at tennis. I'm too lazy to look, but I would guess she got about as high as 20th in the world. Last I checked there were about 2.5 billion women on the planet which she was better than all but 19 of them in tennis. And she could probably beat over 99.5% of the men also. So, to me anyway, she deserves the status of celebrity much more than any celebutante or tard. That isn't to say I like I her, because I don't. But I do respect her for what she accomplished.

Anyway, as the story goes, Anna and her assistant were sitting inside Lavo nightclub in Vegas. They were in the VIP section because all assistants deserve the VIP section. They do. Especially if they work for Anna or for the actor who will be revealed on Saturday during reveal day. You like that plug? Just threaded it in right there.

So, a woman walks by Anna and her assistant and says something and some words are exchanged, but that is the end of it. Then, at the end of the night, the woman walks by again, but this time throws a drink in Anna's face. At this point Paris would have been crying in a corner screaming, "I'm melting," and petting her monkeys. Anna on the other hand got up and the next thing you know the two women were pushing and shoving each other while at the same time singing, "Bailamos." Both of the women ended up with cuts and scratches and the one not named Anna ended up being kicked out of the place.

Jon & Kate Crack Me Up

I know lots of you can't decide which team you are on in this debacle, and I think that is part of the fun. I go back and forth everyday depending on what happens or who said something idiotic. Yesterday though, both of them said something idiotic. In a statement from the couple released on TLC which last I checked is part of the media, the couple said, "During this very difficult time we will be working to focus solely on the needs of our family. This includes no longer commenting publicly or reacting to media stories and speculation. Our goal is to do the very best for our children and that will be done as privately as possible. We appreciate the understanding, support and well wishes from so many. Thank you."

So, basically what this means is they are going into lock down to build up for their August 3rd show. Of course between now and then, TLC will need to shoot some video and do interviews and the cameras will be all over the place, but they are going to focus solely on the needs of their family. Fine. If you want to focus solely on the needs of your family, then do it. Send TLC out the door. Tell them to never return. Once they are out the door, then live your lives. The world is a 24 hour news cycle and I figure it will take us a few weeks to forget about you and you can live a relatively normal life. Sure, once in awhile someone will want to do an article or an interview, but you can have a relatively normal life. The thing is they won't. They are addicted to the attention and the money and fame and won't give it up for their kids.

Their entire statement is designed only to build up interest in their return to television. When they announce they are quitting the show, then I will believe that statement. Not until then.

In other news, Kate's book publisher wants to hold off on releasing her next book. It was due in November, but as The NY Post put so eloquently "Suddenly, the book jacket promise -- "an inside look at one of America's most close-knit families" -- doesn't have the same ring it used to."

Agreed. Plus she won't want to talk to the media to promote the book. You know because of family and the kids.

Michael Jackson Not The Father Of His Kids? Shocker!

When I saw the report on TMZ today saying that Michael Jackson was not the father of his children, it wasn't exactly the greatest shock ever. Did anyone really think they were his kids or his sperm? Seriously? I don't know what the big fuss is. What did shock me was that someone did come forward and admit that two of the children were his. According to Arnold Klein, he is not only Debbie Rowe's former boss but also the father of Michael's children. Klein always said he would never reveal that he was the parent and that lasted all of about four days after Michael died. From what I understand though, Klein says Debbie Rowe is the mother and that is not true according to the TMZ reports. From what I understand is that no one knows who the father of Blanket is, and only know the name of the mother.

I think over the course of the next few months we will find out some very interesting things about the life of Michael Jackson. Then after about a year there will be a rash of books which will make some truly outrageous claims. Whether they can be believed or not will be an open question. Think about how how many family members who would love to write a book or sell some rights to a movie and make some money. Lots and lots of books will be written.

Antiques Road Show Hits $1M Mark

For the first time ever the US version of Antiques Roadshow hit the $1M mark in an appraisal. Yesterday the producers of the show said that a woman brought some jade to the Antiques Roadshow in North Carolina on Saturday.

The jade consisted of four pieces of Chinese carved jade and celadon from the Chien Lung Dynasty (1736-1795), including a large bowl crafted for the Emperor. I guess the for the Emperor thing was what put it over the top. It was valued at about $1.07M.

The woman inherited the items from her father who bought them in China back in the 1930's. The previous high amount on the show was $500K. The US still has a long way to go to catch the UK version of the show. Their top estimate so far is almost $2M which was for a scale model of Anthony Gormley's artwork, "The Angel of the North." (pictured above)

NY Daily News Blind Item

Which former boy bander looked oh-so-strung-out over the weekend? His diet of booze and nose candy certainly isn’t helping his skin-and-bones appearance.

Today's Blind Items

This foreign born C+/B- list mostly movie actor with one very famous television role loves using the "N" word because he thinks it makes him look cool. This lasted about ten minutes on the set of of one of his very recent movies. Upon hearing it, his co-star and fellow C+/B- list mostly movie actor punched our foreign born actor and knocked him out cold. He didn't use the term again the entire movie.

Random Photos Part One - With Lots Of Reader Photos

Michael Jackson's last show rehearsal, June 23, 2009.
Alicia Keys looking really nice last night at the BET Awards.
Ashley Olsen and Justin Bartha walking the streets of Paris which is better than walking the streets with Paris because then shots would be needed.
I'm really tiring of Beyonce. Is it just me?
Britney Spears and her new brunette hair color.
The one and only Chaka Khan. Sing it. You know you are.
I love the concentration on Lola's face.
Gabrielle Reece is very, very tall. She must have 18 inches on Sheryl Crow.
I have not seen Olive in a long time. She is getting so big.
Johnny Depp in London.
And so is Marion Cotillard.
Jamie Foxx - Los Angeles
A really good picture of James Marsden.
Lily Allen - Glastonbury Festival
I love this photo. I imagine Mercy making Madonna do this for about an hour in front of the cameras and love it.
Mariah Carey on the set of her new video.
This almost made the top because I can't remember the last photo I saw of Natalie Portman where she wasn't accompanied by her dog.
Run for your lives.
It's still Fashion Week in Paris and I'm still laughing.


Real Housewives New York and New Jersey. Love it.
Reader Photo #1
Reader Photo #2 (with Billy Black from Twilight)
Reader Photo #3
Reader Photo #4
Ray - J on the red carpet last night.
People in Sydney having some fun with the Bruno poster.

Have you ever heard the expression pole stuck up your ass. Notice where Tyra is standing.
Right now I would say it's a tossup as to who weighs more. Tori or Stella.