- There are things in life I just don’t need to see under any circumstances. The grisly reality of a murder scene, a Ricky Martin concert, Rosie O’Donnell in her bathing suit…..and Verne Troyer having sex. So I am siding with the man most famous as Mini-Me as he sues celebrity gossip website TMZ.com for posting a 25-second clip of Troyer and a former girlfriend having sex. The clip was on the site Wednesday, Thursday and part of the day Friday until Troyer and his attorneys were granted a temporary injunction blocking TMZ from having the clip up and also prevent porn companies from taking orders for the full-length video. According to Troyer, the tape was stolen from his home months ago and now he’s suing TMZ for $20 million in damages for posting a portion of it online. U.S. District Court judge Philip Gutierrez agreed with Troyer’s attorneys and granted the injunction. I also agree with Troyer, but for different reasons. I’m not so much concerned with the impact that airing the tape would have on him. I’m more focused on the damaging effects suffered by anyone who viewed the tape. We saw more than enough of Troyer’s act when he did his season on VH1’s The Surreal Life and spent most of the season with no clothes on, zipping around the house on his scooter and urinating in weird places. Seeing a midget naked and hitting it with his girlfriend…..no thanks. That’s just a disturbing sight and even if you think you’re prepared to see it and you log on to TMZ and click play, you’re not ready at all. You’d be scarred for the rest of your life with mental images that would scorch you brain. Had I been subjected to that video, I might be suing TMZ for $20 million as well for damages to my psyche. Go get ‘em, Vern, because this kind of behavior by TMZ or any like website is just a nightmare none of us needs.
- This was one of those weekends where the movie-going public got it right. Usually that happens by stupid chance rather than people actually knowing what’s good and going to see it en masse, those times when the most heavily promoted and hyped movies also happen to be the best ones out. It’s rare, but with the newest Pixar animated flick WALL-E out in front of the pack for the weekend, this is one of those times. The funny little robot raked in $62.5 million for the weekend and outdistanced Wanted, the Angelina Jolie action/assassin movie that is a good film in its own right. It earned $51.1 million to finish second, a strong take and a factor in another great weekend for movies. Either last year was more of a down year than previously thought or this year is a really good one, because for the fifth straight weekend the top 12 movies of this year have outdone their counterparts from the same weekend in 2007. The tally for this past weekend was $179.2 million for those top 12, a 22-percent increase from last year when another Pixar movie, Ratouille, was the top earner at $47 million.
- This is a new designation for an athlete being placed on the disabled list: DL - DUI. The DL is typically reserved for players with broken bones, torn ligaments, sprains, strains and concussions. This is the first time I can remember an athlete in any sport being placed on the DL after a bender. Kansas City Royals utility infielder Alberto Callaspo has been placed on the disabled list by the team for unspecified reasons, but those reasons become clearer when you know that he was arrested early Friday morning on suspicion of driving under the influence and spent seven hours in jail before making bail. Probably not the best idea, getting picked up for suspicion of DUI when you’re a backup infielder who’s appeared in only 42 games and is hitting .290 with a whopping 4 RBI. Manny Ramirez or Alex Rodriguez might get some leeway in this situation because they’re actually good players, but Alberto Callaspo isn't going to get the benefit of the doubt. Hey, at least he didn’t pull a Shawn Chacon and attack his general manager in the dining room…but seriously, athletes of all skill levels and sports need to stop driving drunk. If you drive drunk, you are a moron, no questions asked. You have a ton of options when you’re out at a bar and have too much to drink. Driving yourself home is not one of them, Alberto Callaspo….
- It’s a tough market for housing right now. Home sales are sagging with the rising cost of other necessities and selling your home is a difficult proposition. Finding the love of your life also appears to be a tough task if you look at the ever-increasing number of dating websites where desperate losers, er, those looking for love can find their “soul mate.” So how about a package deal that could take care of both birds with one stone? Meet Deven Trabosh, a Barbie-esque Florida woman who has tried unsuccessfully to sell her 2,000-square-foot home for the past year and is now trying a different tactic. Is she offering a discounted price? No. Is she going to bake cookies and offer them to people who come see here house? No again. What Trabosh is offering is the chance to buy her house and marry her, all in one fell swoop. “I figured, let’s combine the ad, because I’m looking for love and I’m looking to sell the house,” she said in a recent interview. Right now, her efforts to shop this package deal are limited to Craigslist because eBay forbids selling people or relationships on its site (a little prudish and conservative if you ask me). So should you be in search of a to--heavy, surgically enhanced woman who wanders around the house in patent leather heels and a new home as well, this is the deal for you…..
- Jack White can do it, Ben Gibbard can do it, so why not Jakob Dylan? White steps away from his primary band, the White Stripes, to front for the Raconteurs (whose new album Consolers of the Lonely is the best of 2008 if you ask me), while Gibbard takes breaks to do solo albums or work with the Postal Service, his other side project, so Dylan isn't charting new waters here. He’s spend a long time toiling as front man for the Wallflowers, one of the most recognizable faces of pretty boy rock and a band that will appear on the soundtrack for just about any movie that comes calling (seriously, check out how many soundtracks they’ve been on). But Dylan, now 38, is taking a stab at a solo career after getting inspiration from an unexpected source. Last year, his good friend T Bone Burnett (who doesn’t have a good friend named T Bone?) asked Dylan to come on tour as an opening act and the experience was an eye-opener for Bob Dylan’s son. “I was kind of confused. I didn’t want to get right back on the treadmill and write another album for the band,” he explained recently. Part of that was the deteriorating relationship he and the band had with their label, Interscope. That inspired Dylan to start writing solo material and to have a talk with Rick Rubin of Columbia Records, the same label that reps Bob Dylan. Rubin’s legendary skills in the studio have worked wonders for rockers and rap artists alike, so you have to imagine that they would also benefit Seeing Things, Jakob Dylan’s new solo album. According to J. Dylan, it focuses more on his own distinctive vocal style and acoustic guitars, so it should be interesting to see how it’s received. Regardless, props to Jakob Dylan for trying something different and go in a new direction…..
No comments:
Post a Comment