Slog

News & Arts

The Stranger Suggests

Critics' Best Bets
Music Arts & Food


Line Out

Music & the City
at Night

Celeb

Friday, May 24, 2013

The Pleasures of Twitter

Posted by on Fri, May 24, 2013 at 9:08 AM

Do you want more?


Tuesday, May 21, 2013

What It Feels Like to Visit Nicolas Cage's Estate Sale

Posted by on Tue, May 21, 2013 at 2:39 PM

Alison Agosti expected to see some weird shit when she attended Nicolas Cage's estate sale. Turns out the first weird and awful thing she saw—a dog peeing blood—turned out to be just about the only weird and awful thing she saw. But the whole report, which just went up at HitFix, is worth reading anyway:

My friend and I walked in, really just prepared for anything. At the very least, a sex dungeon, a secret tea room, SWORDS (I was expecting a lot of swords), but we were greeted only by a small foyer with a lone Egyptian-themed chair and some cardboard boxes. I was already wondering If I should have stayed outside for the conclusion of the blood peeing dog saga. Forward was an expansive living room, and to our right was a small weight room. We chose to go into the weight room first. I want you to know that it smelled exactly like a recently emptied canister of Pringles. Not original either, maybe pizza? Or cheddar? None of the equipment was any newer that maybe the late-80s. An old stationary bike, weights, and a menagerie of boxing gloves (including several pairs with flames, which would be a theme throughout the house). I began to feel a sinking suspicion that while this may have been a house that Cage owned, he certainly didn’t spend much time here.

Go read the whole thing, and then spend the rest of the afternoon daydreaming about the wonders Agosti would have found in a just world.

Advertisement

Friday, April 26, 2013

Gold Star Comments of the Day

Posted by on Fri, Apr 26, 2013 at 3:34 PM

I loved these two comments on Anna Minard's post about Senator Mike Hewitt's (R-Walla Wall) proposal to basically institute gay farming gulags in Eastern Washington, provided that his bill passes allowing righteous Christians to stop selling food to the gays. The first gold-star comment goes to wisepunk:

Screen_shot_2013-04-26_at_3.29.26_PM.png

Then MacCrocodile deftly responds:

Screen_shot_2013-04-26_at_3.29.41_PM.png

Thanks for being smart smartasses—my favorite asses!—guys.

Monday, April 22, 2013

Reese Witherspoon Pulls a Lindsay Lohan

Posted by on Mon, Apr 22, 2013 at 8:07 AM

Reese shouts "Do you know my name?" at the cops arresting her husband for a DUI, promptly gets arrested herself.

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

Notes From the Nearly Famous: The Time Eric's Clothes Were Stolen From the Playboy Mansion

Posted by on Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 3:03 PM

1365571270-playmates1a.jpg
  • DEREK ERDMAN
Please enjoy the following story from Jacob James' vast collection of wonderful stories about celebs from his brush with fame while playing with the Lashes!

As our band was getting more popular, our record label booked us a series of high profile shows in the effort to show off that we were, in fact, the next cool thing. These shows made money but never scored us the kind of cool points they were supposed to. Something always went awry. Three shows stand out in my mind: The Time We Played NASCAR in Florida (we played right before a staged wet t-shirt contest), The Time We Opened For Trey Anistasio from Phish on a Moored Boat in New York City (aquatic puns welcome), and The Time Eric's Clothes Were Stolen From the Playboy Mansion.

We were asked to play the Playboy Mansion through our successful and well-connected A&R guy, when such a thing existed. He had an assistant who had a sister who worked as a publicist for some part of Hugh Hefner's empire, and she would do us the favor and book us and then we'd be famous and make everyone lots of money and rule the world. Then we got the contract.

Continue reading »

Advertisement

Wesley Snipes Has Paid His Debt to Society

Posted by on Wed, Apr 10, 2013 at 7:43 AM

He is now almost a free man...

Hollywood star Wesley Snipes has been released from prison in the US after serving time for not paying his taxes.

The 50-year-old actor was jailed in Pennsylvania in 2010 for failing to file income tax returns.

He'll now remain under house arrest for the next four months in order to complete the three-year sentence he was handed.

Snipes has starred in dozens of films but is most famous for the Blade trilogy about a vampire hunter.


He also had a steamy scene with Nastassja Kinski in One Night Stand:

Those were the days...

Monday, April 8, 2013

Annette Funicello

Posted by on Mon, Apr 8, 2013 at 10:17 AM

The former Mousketeer has died at age 70.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Check Your Cookbook Privilege, Gwyneth

Posted by on Wed, Apr 3, 2013 at 7:11 AM

I know the internet likes to pick on Gwyneth Paltrow, but sometimes Gwyneth Paltrow deserves it. Case in point: Beth Greenfield learns that one day's worth of meals made exclusively from recipes found in Paltrow's cookbook could cost as much as $300.

Advertisement

Tuesday, April 2, 2013

Ladies and Gentlemen, Jinkx Monsoon

Posted by on Tue, Apr 2, 2013 at 1:44 PM

I've been hearing about this video since Sunday, but only now got around to watching it: Jinkx Monsoon at NYC's Gramercy Theater, performing Les Miserables' "I Dreamed a Dream" in the guise of Grey Gardens' Little Edie.


A-plus concept, amazing (if slightly pitchy) delivery, total star.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

Looks Like You Could Honestly Describe Lynn Shelton's Next Movie as "Star-Studded"

Posted by on Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 3:38 PM

The Stranger film Genius is lining up the cast for her next movie, and it looks like this one could break big:

Anne Hathaway, Chloe Moretz and Sam Rockwell are all deep in negotiations to join Laggies. The Lynn Shelton-directed dark comedy chronicles perpetual adolescent and late-twentysomething Megan (Hathaway) who, freaked out by her boyfriend’s marriage proposal, pretends to go on a career retreat but actually hides out for a week with 16-year-old Annika (Moretz), her new best friend.

Hopefully, Deadline Hollywood didn't jinx anything by publishing this scoop. Of course, we have another Lynn Shelton film, Touchy Feely, to enjoy before Laggies comes out, too, which means we are living in a golden age of Sheltoniana.

Ashley Judd Is Not Running for Senate

Posted by on Wed, Mar 27, 2013 at 2:44 PM

Thank God. You can read her whole statement over on her Twitter page.

Advertisement

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Johnny Depp Is in Megan Griffiths's New Movie

Posted by on Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 3:56 PM

This has been rumored for quite a while now, but it looks like it's confirmed, according to E Online:

Johnny Depp is currently filming the upcoming flick Lucky Them in the Seattle area, and he surprised small-town fans when he serenaded locals in the town of Carnation while taking a break from work.

Congratulations to Lucky Them director Megan Griffiths for landing Depp for her movie. I'd like to think Griffiths's Stranger Genius award helped make this possible, although I have no idea how that could possibly be.

Woman-Hating Taylor Swift Says Women Who Don't Support Other Women Will Burn in Hell

Posted by on Tue, Mar 5, 2013 at 2:07 PM

TaylorSwift2013.jpg
  • Georges Biard/Wikimedia Commons
Inventor of the color red Taylor Swift was recently interviewed for Vanity Fair and she was, of course, asked about how people can’t stop talking about who she’s dating. I think it’s annoying, too. She’s 22, gorgeous, successful—if she weren’t dating people, the gossip rags would instead print bullshit about how she's a lonely spinster. Or if she were in a long-term relationship, they'd claim she's too young to settle down. When it comes to what she does with her personal life, she can't win, and I'm sure that fucking sucks.

But instead of taking it in stride (unfortunately being the butt of jokes is part of the job of being a mega-superstar), Swift addressed the comments Tina Fey and Amy Poehler made at the Golden Globes (about how Swift should or shouldn't date Michael J. Fox's son after having just broken up with rumored boyfriend Harry "One Direction" Styles) by saying:

You know, Katie Couric is one of my favorite people, because she said to me she had heard a quote that she loved, that said, “There’s a special place in hell for women who don’t help other women.

I agree! I mean, if Hell existed I would agree. But yes, the sentiment is true. Women who go out of their way to be against other women are lame. And I'd totally be on Team Taylor here, if only she hasn't built a career on singing about how awful women are. Swift's catalog is filled with tales about women who are standing in the way of her and her dreams. They're keeping her from her perfect man or otherwise threatening her happiness.

Continue reading »

Friday, March 1, 2013

"Jinkx Monsoon is the only gal qualified to call herself a queen."

Posted by on Fri, Mar 1, 2013 at 9:42 AM

J. Bryan Lowder at Slate unpacks the problem with this season's Drag Race—and showers praise on Seattle's own Jinkx Monsoon:

But in Season 5, it appears we’re back to glamour-land, with a slate of queens who, with a few execptions, seem to value being “fishy”—i.e., as convincing in their imitation of women as possible—above all else. I challenge you to find a five-minute block of any episode that doesn’t contain that word flopping around on deck. But fishy has its limits, and they were never more apparent than in this week’s episode, which featured the Snatch Game, a fan-favorite over the past few seasons. Styled on the 1960s hit Match Game, the contest begins with Ru asking an innuendo-laden question of a duo of guest “celebrities.” The queens, who are all meant to be impersonating specific celebrities (Cher, Madonna, and so on) record their answers on cards. Ru then compares the celebrity answers with the queens’ to see if there is a match. This rarely happens; the point of the exercise is comedy, not points.

As you might expect, much of that comedy comes from the impersonation skills of the queens themselves. They not only need to look like their star, but also must channel that figure’s idiosyncrasies, clichés, and neuroses to humorous effect—they need to be, in a word, campy. Unfortunately, Monday’s edition of the Snatch Game revealed almost all of this season’s contestants as fish out of water. Alaska and Roxxxy Andrews were passably funny as Lady Bunny and Tamar Braxton, respectively, but the clear winner of the night—partially because she had no competition—was Jinkx Monsoon as Little Edie, the troubled and transcendent cousin of Jackie Kennedy featured in the canonical camp documentary, Grey Gardens.

Jinkx’s interpretation of Little Edie was excellent, and she deserved to win. But, based on the admittedly edited version of events that we saw, none, not one, of Jinkx’s peers seemed to know what Grey Gardens even was. And worse than that cringe-worthy ignorance was the embarrassing gall some of the queens displayed in making fun of Jinkx for her camp knowledge. When Coco Montrese, until now a favorite of mine, tried to “read” (that is, artfully insult) Jinkx during the Snatch Game by asking Ru who Little Edie was, I almost felt pity for how stupid she looked. Almost.

Go read the whole thing.

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Zombie Audrey Hepburn Stars in Awful Candy Bar Commercial

Posted by on Thu, Feb 28, 2013 at 3:02 PM

The Verge explains how a candy company hired some very smart people to build a phony-looking simulacrum of a long-dead movie star to hawk their wares in a terrible commercial:

Everyone involved in the making of this thing should feel ashamed.

Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Our Long National Nightmare Is Over

Posted by on Tue, Feb 26, 2013 at 1:44 PM


Thank God. I feel like some part of me is still watching the Oscars, somehow. I wish I could kill that part of me, just to give it a kind of relief.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Didn't Make It to the Grammys This Year?

Posted by on Thu, Feb 14, 2013 at 1:26 PM

Well... Justin Beiber didn't attend because he felt sad! Large grown men were carried out of hotel parties after too much champagne! No one cheered for Chris Brown! John Mayer was dressed like a game-show host! Taylor Swift's perfomance included dancing clowns!

For more red hot gossip, check out Bree McKenna's 2013 Grammy synopsis RIGHT OVER HERE!

Monday, February 11, 2013

Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis

Posted by on Mon, Feb 11, 2013 at 9:46 AM

Two things. 1) I thought the Oscars already happened but apparently that was the Grammys. 2) Jennifer Lawrence is a doll.

Bonus thing: The only convincing fake drunks are real-life alcoholics. Everyone else should just stop trying or start method acting.

Wednesday, February 6, 2013

Chris Brown Says He Deserves Respect, but What He Really Deserves Is...

Posted by on Wed, Feb 6, 2013 at 3:04 PM

Sigh. Chris Brown vented some feelings on Instagram last night, making it clear he was frustrated with his not-so-great reputation. MTV News has a screengrab of the rant, should you want to read it in full.

Here's an excerpt:

Im a human being and I honestly think I deserve respect im sick of being accused... Im Tired yall just don't understand I've been going through this shit since I was 19 years old.. you cant sit here and tell me to calm down, when am I gonna get a positive outcome out of anything I do? when can I get that feed back? Im TIRED do you read me im tired!!!!!! Im not gonna sit here and play victim, Im just tired of this shit... I pray every day and night for a new outcome... and just when everything seems to be going good some new shit happens..

New shit like... you get in another fight with Drake or Frank Ocean or a window?

Continue reading »

Monday, January 21, 2013

Look Who Was in Seattle Over the Weekend...

Posted by on Mon, Jan 21, 2013 at 9:01 AM

... spotted in grocery stores in West Seattle, Queen Anne, Kirkland, and Magnolia! He has powders! He also will pet your baby OR your stuffed beaver.

I'M NOT EVEN JOKING! Beaver pic after the jump...

Super fans!
  • Kelly O
  • Superfans!

Continue reading »

Thursday, January 17, 2013

Pauline "Dear Abby" Phillips

Posted by on Thu, Jan 17, 2013 at 12:11 PM

Dead.

Pauline Phillips, a California housewife who nearly 60 years ago, seeking something more meaningful than mah-jongg, transformed herself into the syndicated columnist Dear Abby—and in so doing became a trusted, tart-tongued adviser to tens of millions—died on Wednesday in Minneapolis. She was 94.

Phillips, who had Alzheimers disease, passed her column to her daughter more than a decade ago. So Phillips's column will survive her. (It's hard to imagine my straight snowboardin' son taking over "Savage Love" someday, but... anything is possible, I guess.) Phillips was the twin sister and, for many years, the bitter rival of Eppie "Ann Landers" Lederer.

In 1955, Mrs. Phillips’s twin, now Eppie Lederer, took over the Ann Landers column for The Chicago Sun-Times. A rank beginner soon swamped by a flood of mail, she began sending batches of letters to her sister—for advice, as it were. “I provided the sharp answers,” Mrs. Phillips told The Ladies’ Home Journal in 1981. “I’d say, ‘You’re writing too long (she still does), and this is the way I’d say it.’ ” She added, “My stuff was published—and it looked awfully good in print.” So good that when The Sun-Times later forbade Mrs. Lederer to send letters out of the office, Mrs. Phillips, by this time living in the Bay Area, vowed to find a column of her own.

And so she did—and Pauline and Eppie didn't speak for years.

There was a time when most cities had more than one newspaper. One paper would run Ann Landers, another would run Dear Abby. People tended to prefer one columnist or the other, their preferences shaped by which paper their families read. My family subscribed to all of Chicago's daily papers—Chicago had four dailies when I was a kid (a really little kid)—and I grew up reading both Ann in the Sun-Times and Abby in the Chicago Tribune. But I strongly preferred Ann. I'm actually sitting at Ann Lander's desk, which I bought at auction after her death, as I write this post. Ann's IBM Correcting Selectric III is sitting on the desk and a Saks Fifth Avenue receipt for a dress that Lander's purchased for $30 in 1974 is in the top drawer. (Fun fact: After Rupert Murdoch bought the Sun-Times in 1984, Ann quit the paper and moved her column to the Tribune, which then ran both Ann and Abby until Lander's died in 2002.)

So, yeah, you could call me more of an Ann Lander's fan. But I must say I have a newfound appreciation for Abby after reading Margolit Fox's terrific obit in the New York Times. Fox quotes a few of Abby's pithier-than-Ann responses to her readers. Here's a good one:

Dear Abby: Our son married a girl when he was in the service. They were married in February and she had an 8 1/2-pound baby girl in August. She said the baby was premature. Can an 8 1/2-pound baby be this premature?—Wanting to Know

Dear Wanting: The baby was on time. The wedding was late. Forget it.

And Fox's obit ends with the most famous three-word response in the whole, sordid history of the advice-column racket:

Dear Abby: Two men who claim to be father and adopted son just bought an old mansion across the street and fixed it up. We notice a very suspicious mixture of company coming and going at all hours—blacks, whites, Orientals, women who look like men and men who look like women. This has always been considered one of the finest sections of San Francisco, and these weirdos are giving it a bad name. How can we improve the neighborhood? — Nob Hill Residents

Dear Residents: You could move.

Phillips wrote that decades ago—back when adult gay men often resorted to adopting their adult partners because it was the only way to secure any legal protections for their relationships—and people are still quoting it today. I don't think anyone working in this genre will ever top it.

My sympathies to Jeanne Phillips, Pauline's daughter and the current author of "Dear Abby."

Wednesday, January 16, 2013

Monday, January 14, 2013

The Only Pro in the Picture

Posted by on Mon, Jan 14, 2013 at 7:34 AM

7363246.bin_-1024x660-e1358053728836-590x266.jpeg

Gay porn director Jasum Mark reacts to Stephen Rodrick's “This Is What Happens When You Cast Lindsay Lohan in Your Movie" in a blistering, profane, and NSFW post at Gay Daily Hot:

I got such a huge kick out of this story.

Not because I think it was funny, anyone who’s tried their hand at the cat-herding, producer-pleasing and budget-meeting clusterfuck of trying to shoot a movie of any kind knows the hell of having your most important link also be your weakest. So I kinda feel for Paul Schrader, especially since he’s a guy who brought us some of the most iconic movies in history and has since become a washed up foot note....

What I DID find funny, however, was the way the mainstream industry so clearly looks down on porn and dismissed the script as “pornography.” They got all high and mighty about even working with a porn star but then the article paints a picture of a bunch of narcissistic, over-rated, fading producers, a drunken, irresponsible, manipulative actress and a very reliable porn star.

Yes… James Deen was the only responsible adult, it appears, amongst a group of under-talented, under-funded and unsupervised brats.

Deen’s one “irresponsible” moment wasn’t showing up drunk, showing up late, being difficult, playing sick, throwing fits or being an asshole. It was taking a day to actually go work somewhere else (which, when you’re a porn star being paid $100 a day and $0 on the days you don’t and you’re NOT a millionaire like Lindsay or the rest of them, was probably more motivated by a need to pay rent and eat).

Rodrick concludes:

So can we PLEASE drop this absurd notion that porn stars are lazy, hooked on drugs and irresponsible? Because while that may occasionally be the case, it’s clearly a lot more common in “real” movies.

Sunday, January 13, 2013

Fuck the Golden Globes

Posted by on Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 7:03 PM

If you want more celebrity bullshit posts, post 'em. And please note that the two Seahawks posts were by regular actual employees of The Stranger, and one of them was so disdainful as to actually constitute a Golden Globes post.

And the Seahawks game was more important: There's a Golden Globes every year. The Seahawks do not make the post-season every year.

Two Posts About a Football Game? And Not a Single Post About the Golden Globes?

Posted by on Sun, Jan 13, 2013 at 6:12 PM

It's like I hardly know you anymore, Slog. It's like you're a different blog now.

Friday, January 4, 2013

Patrick Dempsey Buys Tully's Coffee? Ohhh-kay....

Posted by on Fri, Jan 4, 2013 at 10:55 AM

For some reason, this fascinates me. Actor Patrick Dempsey—best known for his role as Dr. McDreamy in Grey's Anatomy, and as an adorable nerd in the 1987 teen movie Can't Buy Me Love (SQUEEEEEEEEE!!!)—claims he has beat out Starbucks to buy the Seattle-based Tully's Coffee chain. WHAT.

The coffee chain was part of a bankruptcy auction, and Dempsey's company (Global Baristas, LLC) made the presumably winning bid of $9,150,000 to beat out Starbucks and others, including Baristas Coffee, which runs a chain of drive-throughs featuring employees in skimpy outfits. WHAT.

Here's Dempsey's enthusiastic response to his victory (which actually isn't final until the deal gets the okay from the bankruptcy judge next week), via the New York Post:

"I'm thrilled that we won and I'm even more excited about saving Tully's Coffee and its hundreds of jobs," he said. "Tully's is a great company with committed employees, and with its base in Seattle, one of the world's greatest cities, I'm confident we will be able to successfully build the brand and help grow the economy. "

RAHHHHHHH!!! (I'll take one grande soy Mocha McSteamy, half caff, with a squirt of whipped cream... FOR OBVIOUS REASONS.)

Tullys: A swarthy seduction in every cup.

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Fontella Bass

Posted by on Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 10:32 PM

Dead.

Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Charles Durning

Posted by on Tue, Dec 25, 2012 at 3:18 PM

Dead.

Thursday, December 20, 2012

I'm Not a Fan of Madonna's Music

Posted by on Thu, Dec 20, 2012 at 4:07 PM

But I loved this performance:

Via Towleroad.

Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Read

15comments

Friday, November 30, 2012

Read

15comments

Monday, November 26, 2012

Read

6comments

Overheard in the Office

Posted by at 2:11 PM in

Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Read

26comments

Adios, Chevy

Posted by at 5:05 PM in

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Read

15comments

Monday, November 12, 2012

Read

5comments

Friday, October 19, 2012

Read

15comments

Thursday, October 18, 2012

Read

23comments

Wednesday, October 17, 2012

Read

7comments

Friday, October 12, 2012

Read

22comments

Monday, October 8, 2012

Read

15comments

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Read

8comments

Thursday, September 13, 2012

Read

15comments

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Read

21comments

Read

25comments

Heather Artena Hughes

Posted by at 10:37 AM in

Monday, September 10, 2012

 

Want great deals and a chance to win tickets to the best shows in Seattle? Join The Stranger Presents email list!


All contents © Index Newspapers, LLC
1535 11th Ave (Third Floor), Seattle, WA 98122
Contact Info | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use | Takedown Policy