Gilliam stunned by lack of interest in Johnny Depp vs. Robin Williams in the battle of good and evil

VS.
From Imdb
Movie maverick Terry Gilliam is amazed that a planned movie starring Johnny Depp and Robin Williams is still on the shelf - because American investors can't raise $15 million. The former Monty Python member was thrilled when international money men offered him $45 million to make the film Good Omens with Depp as a demon and Williams as an angel. But he was shocked to discover that Americans didn't have the same sort of faith in the project, and they failed to raise the extra cash he needed to start work on the project - an adaptation of fantasy writers Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman's book. Gilliam tells US magazine Entertainment Weekly, "I couldn't get 15 with Johnny and Robin... These two guys, who would have been brilliant were not worth $15 million in America. That was the moment where I went, 'I don't understand this game. I don't understand this town (Hollywood). I don't understand any of the rules. All I know is I don't like it.'" Gilliam's last project with Depp, the ill-fated Quixote, became one of the biggest movie-making disasters in history when illness and storm-wrecked sets prompted financiers of the film to pull the plug as costs soared. The film, which was never completed, was turned into hit disaster documentary Lost in La Mancha. Gilliam hopes to complete his Don Quixote epic with Depp next year.

Eddie Izzard's next film

'Ex' Marks the Spot for Faris, Izzard

LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com)- Eddie Izzard and Anna Faris are joining Regency Enterprises' comedy "Super Ex."

The Ivan Reitman-directed project stars Uma Thurman and Owen Wilson.

Wilson stars as a normal guy who breaks up with his girlfriend (Thurman) after he discovers that she's really a superhero, or perhaps after she becomes too controlling and neurotic. She decides to use her powers for evil and not for good, at least so far as it involves getting revenge on him.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Faris ("Scary Movie") will play a love interest for Wilson's character, while Izzard will play the film's main villain, a baddie named Professor Bedlam. Don Payne ("The Simpsons") is writing the script.

In addition to her lead roles in the "Scary Movie" films, Faris' credits include a supporting part in the indie hit "Lost in Translation" and an guest starring arc in the final season of NBC's "Friends."

Izzard won two Emmys for his 1999 television special "Eddie Izzard: Dress to Kill." He's been seen on the big screen in films like "The Cat's Meow," "Ocean's Twelve" and the upcoming "Romance & Cigarettes."

Ashley Judd credits yoga for helping her conquer depression

The Kiss the Girls actress was diagnosed bipolar a decade ago and found her interest in yoga and all that comes with it was more helpful to her than pills she was prescribed.

She said: "My mat is a safe place. I'll go into Child's pose or I'll simply sit on it and cry. It's my rock.

"I haven't been depressed in a while, but it's something I know how to look for in my life. Yoga has made a big difference there. because when I feel that slippery slope, instead of just monitoring it and being fearful, now I give thanks for my struggles.

"I try to remember that true happiness is not dependant on circumstances and conditions.

"That said, there might be a time in my life when medication is appropriate for me again. There are periods when your brain chemistry is off-kilter enough that it doesn't matter what you do until you get that synaptic shit worked out."
from iol

be cool, angie, be cool

MATT Damon's girlfriend, Luciana Barroso, was rushed to the hospital Sunday after she suffered a bad case of food poisoning. Our spy spotted Damon (above) comforting a tearful Barroso in the St. Vincent's emergency room. A spokeswoman for Damon — in town shooting the Robert De Niro-helmed "The Good Shepherd" opposite Angelina Jolie — confirmed that Barroso was sickened by something she ate. "She had food poisoning and got really dehydrated because of that," the rep told us.
from pagesix

best wishes?

From Cindy Adams and the NYPost

August 31, 2005 -- NOW, listen. A huge, large hotshot celebrity wedding may take place within the next few minutes. In Italy. Just a scrapbook away from George Clooney's Lake Como villa. At the church in Bellaggio. Who it is, even I — the eyes, ears and mouth of the world — do not know. The thing's an even bigger secret than Where's Waldo or Osama. I only know that monsignors and bishoplets are running around acting important and hinting and winking. But saying nothing other than "It's a big American actor."

my guess? LEO & GISELE

I was once said hey to Suge Knight

MIAMI BEACH - The MTV Video Music Awards escaped the drama and damage of Hurricane Katrina. Now they face being overshadowed by another dangerous name — Suge Knight.

The Death Row Records founder, who has been at the center of some of hip-hop's most violent moments, was shot in the leg early Sunday morning at a party thrown by Kanye West and attended by stars including
Jessica Alba,
Eddie Murphy,
Paris Hilton, the Game and The Black Eyed Peas.
Read More

A word of warning for World of Warcrafters!

Gamer's Death Sparks Concern in S.Korea

SEOUL, South Korea -- Keyboard and mouse in hand, he battled until nearly his last breath. The death of Lee, a 28-year-old man identified only by his last name who passed away earlier this month after nearly 50 straight hours of playing online computer games, has South Korea concerned about the health of the millions of gamers in the world's most wired country.

Many of South Korea's 17 million gamers regularly stroll into Internet cafes, the $1-per-hour hangout popular among young South Koreans, and camp out in front of monitors to play for hours - and even sometimes days or longer.

"I've seen people who play games for months, just briefly going home for a change of clothing, taking care of all their eating and sleeping here," said Jun Mung-gyu, 27, who runs an Internet cafe in southeastern Seoul.

More than 70 percent of South Korea's population of 48 million uses the Internet, and the country has the highest per-capita rate of broadband connections in the world. With all that access has come the rising problem of Internet addiction.
Story from REDNOVA NEWS:
http://www.rednova.com/news/display/?id=219539

GLAD MY 1991 GEO GETS BTWN 35-42 MPG (freeway)!

New Perils at the Pump
Detroit thought rising gas prices wouldn't affect consumers till the needle hit $3 a gallon. It was wrong.
By Keith Naughton
Newsweek

Aug. 29-Sept. 5, 2005 issue - Hummer drivers, welcome to the era of the $100 fill-up. No matter what you drive, the new normal is monthly gas bills that look like car payments. After a year of $2-a-gallon gas, we worry that it could pass $3 and approach the inflation-adjusted record. Analysts blame a combustible mix of Mideast instability, Chinese demand and overtaxed refineries. The result: accelerating inflation.

The effect is most dire in Detroit, which still derives most of its profits from SUVs and pickups. The national average for a tank of gas is about $2.55. The Big Three always viewed $3-a-gallon gas as the threshold that would drive car buyers out of their guzzlers and into gas misers. But consumers have already started changing their habits. Even before this summer, sales of big SUVs were off significantly.
Read more...

Synth pioneer Robert Moog dies at 71

Inventor turned current into sound, reshaped modern music
The Associated Press
Updated: 10:43 a.m. ET Aug. 22, 2005

RALEIGH, N.C. - Robert A. Moog, whose self-named synthesizers turned electric currents into sound and opened the musical wave that became electronica, has died. He was 71.

Moog died Sunday at his home in Asheville, according to his company’s Web site. He had suffered from an inoperable brain tumor, detected in April.

A childhood interest in the theremin, one of the first electronic musical instruments, would lead Moog to a create a career and business that tied the name Moog as tightly to synthesizers as the name Les Paul is to electric guitars.

Despite traveling in circles that included jet-setting rockers, he always considered himself a technician.

“I’m an engineer. I see myself as a toolmaker and the musicians are my customers,” he said in 2000. “They use the tools.”

As a Ph.D. student in engineering physics at Cornell University, Moog — rhymes with vogue — in 1964 developed his first voltage-controlled synthesizer modules with composer Herbert Deutsch. By the end of that year, R.A. Moog Co. marketed the first commercial modular synthesizer.

The instrument allowed musicians, first in a studio and later on stage, to generate a range of sounds that could mimic nature or seem otherworldly by flipping a switch, twisting a dial, or sliding a knob. Other synthesizers were already on the market in 1964, but Moog’s stood out for being small, light and versatile.

The arrival of the synthesizer came as just as the Beatles and other musicians started seeking ways to fuse psychedelic-drug experiences with their art. The Beatles used a Moog synthesizer on their 1969 album, “Abbey Road”; a Moog was used to create an eerie sound on the soundtrack to the 1971 film “A Clockwork Orange”.

For more...

NOSTALGIA JOE VS. 'ARISTOCRATS'

TALK show pioneer Joe Franklin — whose campy chatfest ran for 40 consecutive years on local TV— says he might file a lawsuit against the makers of the ultra-raunchy documentary "The Aristocrats," in which comic Sarah Silverman jokes that 79-year-old Franklin raped her.

After Silverman's deadpan telling of the tall tale in the movie — which features 100 comedians including George Carlin, Robin Williams and Chris Rock telling their versions of "the world's filthiest joke" — Franklin is shown as the end credits are rolling praising Silverman.

"They told me to say, 'Keep an eye out for Sarah Silverman,' " a fuming Franklin told us. "They were setting me up to have a wisecrack at my expense. I've never heard of Sarah Silverman. I've never even met her. I was definitely duped. If I wanted to, I could file a major, major lawsuit. I still haven't decided about that."

Silverman, who dates Jimmy Kimmel, had one of the best lines at the recent Comedy Central Roast of Pam Anderson. "Some say Pam would be nobody without her breasts. That's just not true," Silverman cracked — "She'd be Paris Hilton."

Franklin told PAGE SIX that several months ago, while introducing "The Aristocrats" at a press screening, the movie's director, Paul Provenza, thanked him for "being a good sport."

"If I decide to pursue a lawsuit, he'll see what a good sport I am," Franklin said. "I didn't like the nature of that wisecrack. Even though some people tell me I should be flattered and honored to be in that film, I just didn't like the nature of that wisecrack."

But Franklin, who has dubbed himself "The King of Nostalgia" and "The Wizard of Was," also allowed that maybe the exposure in "The Aristocrats" wasn't all that bad.

"It's added to my cult status, my icon status," said Franklin, who played himself in "Ghostbusters" and the Woody Allen flicks "Manhattan" and "Broadway Danny Rose."

"It makes me more contemporary . . . When Billy Crystal used to do me on 'Saturday Night Live,' I was upset about that. He did me for four years. But it increased my club date fee. The things that annoy me now tend later on not to be all that bad."

Provenza could not be reached.

GOOD LUCK EM!

EMINEM IN DRUG REHAB!


Troubled rapper Eminem checked into a Michigan rehab center for drug treatment on Aug. 16.

Eminem entered Brighton Hospital, about 30 miles west of Detroit, the same day his record company announced he was canceling the European leg of his current Anger Management Tour, citing "exhaustion, complicated by other medical issues."

"Eminem is in the hospital under doctors' care. He is being treated for dependency on sleep medication," his label, Interscope Records, said Aug. 18 in a statement to Star. While the statement did not name the drug, reports identified it as Ambien, a widely-used prescription sleep aid.

The 32-year-old rapper (real name: Marshall B. Mathers III) checked into the hospital, about 5:30 p.m. on Aug. 16, sources tell Star. He came in with two burly bodyguards, who never left his side.

"He looked really rough. He was all drugged-out, weak and tired out," the source says. "He looked like hell."

Family insiders tell Star the pressure of his tour, legal actions against him — including a suit filed a week earlier by an aunt and uncle over his alleged attempt to evict them from a home he bought for them — and his renewed relationship with ex-wife Kim Mathers contributed to his current troubles.

The rapper had been scheduled to perform 10 shows in Europe beginning Sept. 1 in Hamburg, Germany, and ending Sept. 17 in Dublin, Ireland.

Eminem has long been linked to drug culture. He sports a tattoo touting the sometimes-abused prescription painkiller Vicodin on his left arm. He has also appeared to take drugs such as Ecstasy on stage and encouraged his audience to do the same, although he has said the drugs were actually dried-up pieces of chewing gum. Author Anthony Bozza, in a 2003 biography, told of observing Eminem on Ecstasy.

check this guy out

yummy, basic life skills!

ThisLoveHasAlwaysExisted

ThisLoveHasAlwaysExisted

(originally written for the black community, from an African-american queer)

Once was a dude named Saul, in the Bible look him up under Paul. Raised Jew, he made it his business to pursue Christians right after Christ died and left for the sky, he even stood by and watched Stephen, the first "official" martyr die.

But one day on the way to Damascus came a light and the Lord, and he fell to his knees.

Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?!!!
I am not a threat to the Jews, I fulfill all you hold true.

And Saul was struck blind, yet Paul's sight was restored!

"... I have no command of the Lord, but I give my opinion as one who by the Lord's mercy has been found trustworthy."

Jotted down by the apostle who wrote to Rome and told them to stop sleeping with their own sons, it's a favorite moment of mine, a time tested version of ultimate conversion, a point I hope will illuminate a true existence of love, finding a way to stop the hate.

For who can say that gay people today are not by the Lord's mercy, trustworthy?

Police profiling, infighting, lack of community kindness, straight people's license to kill, corporate ill will, crystal meth, a new black death…Many of us have LOVED without even picking up the phone to call home. We have wished we would be asked to tell and survived.

Now, before you get up from your seats and wander away, take a second to consider what change means today, we have internet, millions of books and time to look—seen past sinners become saints: divorcees, Joan of Arc, haters and interracial daters.
Didn't know that's an abomination to? According to the Bible only 7 or 8 exist...Interracial marriage was one tossed into the mix, women wearing gold jewelry or men's clothing, check. And now we come to… gay sex.

THAT sex is SO NASTY you say...funny, last time I checked isn't all sex that way? Wasn't your first time a mess of wetness, slapping sounds a mix of pleasure and pain? Isn't all sex the same? Love IS TOO and here we find the righteous and true course. When one loves but cannot say, hey that's my wife after 30 years and many tears... something's gone horribly wrong, hear?!!! To not be able to say goodbye before you die? To never feel safe and comfortable in school, to be a lil black boy who's breaking all the rules?

I'm telling you, you know who we are. You seen us as kids, see the parents desperately trying to put back the lid, boys a lil too "sweet" or girls too sour...now you see us behind makeup counters shouting "girl power", we're the women on softball teams with 10 up, the drag kings holding court, we've also got soldiers in every fort! Some of us even become actors, but please believe that being closeted and queer is totally a factor.

This Love exists.

The past knows this truth, who knows how well, as Brother Huey of the Black Panther Party so eloquently put it, "Quite the contrary, perhaps a homosexual could be the most, revolutionary". They are now never alone as they wait for you: Bayard Rustin who led the March for the Dream with Martin Luther King, Langston Hughes still perched on a crystal stair waiting for YOU to know what it's like to be really disappeared. James Baldwin, up in Giovanni's room listening to Billie sang bi blues...they turn to tell you this love has always existed.

All the way back to African times, where there were women warriors and boy wives before Christ came and was battered into our brains. Don't get me twisted, I'm not dissing Christ or saying we should give 'em up. I'm just wondering why no one is listening to the son of god crying out to us from our communion cup?

Love one another! Love one another! Love one another!
It's never been a riddle, ain't no missin jot or tittle.
He said, "I am the vine and you are the branches", so stop leaving your fruit on the tree!

So sad, that for some black folk an invisible closet has instead been key. And I'm finally here on the other side, finding it locked, kicking it down, and letting you have it; opening your ears to the tragic w\ word magic.

So speak to your pastors and wonder aloud…ask yourself what to do now. Do it before your son or daughter starts showing the trait and before "your best friend" asks for a date. We can all be delivered if you vote to turn the tide against hate, your voice has much weight so use it and tell others for we are your sons and mothers, brothers and daughters, baby's mamas, sisters, father's brothers, grandmothers, your baby boys and girls. We are the love that exists.

It was by the Lord's Mercy that I was found trustworthy...and hence suffered and suffered, like Paul I was once even beheaded and put back together…all because one day on the way to Damascus came a light and the Lord, and I fell to my knees. I am not a threat to you, I only fulfill all you hold true. I am the love that has always existed.

You Can HIT Me ANYTIME, Russell!

London's Daily Mail is reporting that Russell Crowe will pay $11 million to Nestor Estrada, the New York City hotel clerk who he allegedly hit with a telephone in June. If Estrada accepts the settlement, he will forego news interviews and drop the charges again the Cinderella Man actor. The Manhattan District Attorney's Robert Morgenthau said they would most likely drop the case.

Snagged from the NE

from CL

True MATRIX and TERMINATOR'S author collect$

---

Reply to: see below
Date: 2005-08-15, 9:26PM PDT


The MATRIX and TERMINATOR'S original author Sophia Stewart

INVITES ALL WRITERS TO COME OUT AND SUPPORT HER IN LOS ANGELES on September 26, 2005. IF SHE WINS HER LAWSUIT WE ALL WIN - BECAUSE HOLLYWOOD WON'T BE STEALING OUR STORIES ANYMORE UNLE$$ THEY REALLY WANT TO PAY:


THE EVENTS OF HER CASE AND HER TRUE STORY ARE BEING SUSPRESSED BY BIG MEDIA FOR OBVIOUS REASONS!!! IF SHE GETS PAID WE ALL CAN FINALLY GET PAID!!! MANY OF US HAVE BEEN RIPPED OFF OUTRIGHT AND PROVABLE.

IF SHE COLLECTS ITS OUR TURN NEXT!!!


Sophia Stewart is ready for the hearing September 26, 2005. “Be there!” challenges Stewart. It does not matter whether you are a journalist or a witness. ‘Everyone is welcome to come to the courts, to witness for themselves’ invites Stewart. Sophia Stewart is inviting everyone to join her at a press conference she is conducting in front of the court building at 8:00 a.m., before the hearing which is at 10:00 a.m.

Stewart, who fired her lawyers end of June, says she fired her lawyers except for Michael Stoller because the lawyers sold out on her. Stewart, who discovered that her former lawyers did not pay careful attention to her case and took the lawsuit easily and naturally disregarding some of the most important evidence, was angry when she found out the truth about the lawyers. Some of the evidence the lawyers disregarded where Stewart’s three letters of access from: Fox and Warner Brothers which confirmed that in 1984 the defendants did distribute the first “Terminator” movie, on the German market.

Furthermore, evidence that confirmed that the “Terminator” movie was released in 1984 by Orion Pictures founded in 1978 as a joint venture between Warner Brothers and three other former top-level executives of the United Artists was also withheld from the courts. And that the introduction part which was cut out at the beginning of the first “Matrix” movie, which was Stewart’s copyrighted Epic introduction, were among the evidence that were not entered into the federal court system by Stewart’s lawyers. Six weeks is the time given so the judge may go through the case carefully and once more in detail; especially on Stewart's special effects.

"Are the defendants ready? The defendants who have never brought any evidence to court to prove they are the real owners of their works; the defendants who have failed to come up with any evidence, says Stewart. They know they took my copyrighted works by intention. They are going to jail for their crimes. We shall hear about the defendants status September 26th" says Stewart. "The lawsuit must be settled within the coming two months." Adds Stewart who is very excited about the good news!

Stewart’s lawsuit, which has generated a lot of heated debates on the Internet, awaits the mainstream media to cover the story. And watch out this July, Stewart will be in the big media; to mention a few the Black Enterprise. Also CNN News and LA Times July 31st 2005. Stewart, a New Yorker who has resided in Salt Lake City for the past five years, will recover damages from the films, The Matrix I, II and III, as well as The Terminator and its sequels. She will soon receive one of the biggest payoffs in the history of Hollywood, as the gross receipts of both films and their sequels total over 2.5 billion dollars. Stewart filed her case in 1999, after viewing the Matrix, which she felt had been based on her manuscript, "The Third Eye," copyrighted in 1981.

In the mid-eighties Stewart had submitted her manuscript to an ad placed by the Wachowski Brothers, requesting new sci-fi works. According to court documentation, an FBI investigation discovered that more than thirty minutes had been edited from the original film, in attempt to avoid penalties for copyright infringement. The investigation also stated that "credible witnesses employed at Warner Brothers came forward, claiming that the executives and lawyers had full knowledge that the work in question did not belong to the Wachowski Brothers." These witnesses claimed to have seen Stewart's original work and that it had been "often used during preparation of the motion pictures."The defendants tried, on several occasions, to have Stewart's case dismissed, without success. Stewart has confronted skepticism on all sides, much of which comes from Matrix fans, who are strangely loyal to the Wachowski Brothers. One on-line forum, entitled Matrix Explained has an entire section devoted to Stewart. Some who have researched her history and writings are open to her story. Others are suspicious and mocking. "It doesn't bother me," said Stewart in a phone interview last week, "I always knew what was true."Continued...

Visit Sophia Stewarts Website http://www.sophiaoracle.com/index.php

Grieving Mother's War Protest Draws Notice

"I felt compelled to come and tell her I support her," said Delaney, a self-described hippie from Sly Park, Calif. "The way they were bad-mouthing a mother whose son was killed in the war is un-American."

Guess she won't be running against Hilary after all...

ONE-NOTE SONG A LOSING TUNE
By FREDRIC U. DICKER

August 9, 2005 -- ANALYSIS

ALBANY — If the best Jeanine Pirro can do right now is say that Hillary Clinton should be defeated because she may run for president in 2008, Republicans can pack it in and go home, political insiders agreed yesterday.

But Westchester County District Attorney Pirro's initial frontal attack on Clinton was just that yesterday, as she hammered the former first lady for — horror of horrors! — not pledging to serve a full six-year term.

Pirro said virtually nothing about how she differs with Clinton on key issues: the war in Iraq, the fight against terrorism, New York's high taxes and the disastrous upstate economy, which is supposed to be dear to the heart of Elmira native Pirro.

Instead, Pirro repeatedly charged Clinton with using New Yorkers as a "doormat" because she won't vow to serve a second full term in office — something that several recent public opinion polls suggest many New Yorkers would like her to do.

"That's not enough to win on," said Marist College polling director Dr. Lee Miringoff.

"If she runs with that as her main theme, she runs the risk of becoming a one-note song the way Rick Lazio did in 2000, when he ran against Mrs. Clinton, calling her a carpetbagger for moving into New York to run," Miringoff continued.

Former state Republican Party Executive Director Brendan Quinn agreed, saying, "You need to have more substance than just saying, 'Serve six full years,' to convince the people to vote for you."

Meanwhile, Pirro came under attack, for allegedly not holding strong Republican positions, from would-be GOP primary rival Edward Cox, son-in-law of the late President Nixon.

"Ms. Pirro's limited record and her positions on the issues will prevent her from motivating Republican and Conservative voters," Cox said.

"That is simply a recipe for a resounding defeat," he added.

Also, state Conservative Party Chairman Mike Long said some of Pirro's generally liberal social positions were troubling to conservatives.

"She's entitled to do what she wants to do, but I've been on record saying that I thought she would be an easier fit for our party's nomination if she ran for attorney general," said Long.

Mayor Bloomberg, a Democrat-turned-Republican, also refused to say he'd back Pirro in the Senate race.

"I've got a race with 95 odds days left to go . . . I'll worry about other elections after that time," Bloomberg told reporters.

Rescued!

The sub surfaced at 4:26 p.m. local time Sunday, some three days after becoming entangled in 600 feet of water off the Pacific Coast on Thursday and after a series of failed attempts to drag it closer to shore or haul it closer to the surface. It was carrying six sailors and a representative of the company that manufactured it.
That must have been REALLY interesting...

just this lil piece i promise

BRAD'S MY DAD
TO add fuel to Jennifer Aniston's sad fire, there are now reports that Angelina Jolie's adopted son, Maddox (above), calls Brad Pitt "daddy." According to Us Weekly, while filming an Edwin Jeans commercial for the Japanese market in Lancaster, Calif., Maddox started crying for Pitt, yelling, "Where's my daddy?" In addition, Pitt and Jolie are serious about building a family, a source told the mag. Pitt's name was left off adoption papers for little Zahara Jolie, whom the actress recently took in from Africa, only because his divorce is not yet final, Us Weekly says.

possibly true, especially if you think of AJ and how deep she can get and how quick, of course she may have met her match, ...can't wait for the pics of brad pitt with black hair, it's not very often that he has black hair...(fondling my ball of faux pitt hair, hmmm that just didn't sound right did it)

WOO HOO, Equal Rights!

Gay Couples Have Same Rights as Married Couples, Court Rules

Aug. 1 (Bloomberg) -- The California Supreme Court said businesses must treat gay couples registered under the state's eighth-month-old domestic partner law the same as opposite-sex married couples.

In a ruling against the Bernardo Heights Country Club in San Diego, the court said a business that extends benefits to spouses it ``denies to registered domestic partners engages in impermissible marital status discrimination.''

B. Birgit Koebke and Kendall French, a lesbian couple and avid golfers, sued the country club claiming it denied them the same benefits as married couples by requiring Koebke, who is a member, to pay an extra fee for French to play a round of golf. The club allows guests of married members to play for free.

For More...

...or we could start PROTECTING OUR CHILDREN

Jermaine Dupri is urging the African-American community to support Michael Jackson. The music producer — who is dating, and some say engaged to, Janet Jackson — says prosecutors tried to frame his perhaps future brother-in-law. “It’s clear that Michael was set up,” Dupri said, reports World Entertainment News Network. “What I hate about the black community is we don't protect our own... He's the only living legend that touched all our lives." . . .

---

I won't get into the fact that all of the survivors were latino boys of the same build 'cause I'm sure it has nothing to do with rising racial tensions over the last decade. When asked on the stand if MJ did it, Chappelle said, "he made Thriller". When asked if he would let his kids stay over at MJ's...he said HELL NO!

that's the way to do it girl!

Susana Vera / Reuters
re: Kate Hudson
“She’s not exactly rude. But she acts like she clearly doesn’t want to be interviewed, but she smiles at you all the while.”

nice bit of casting

Guy Pearce is up for the role of Warhol in "Factory Girl" directed George Hickenlooper

from page six, re: sienna miller playing edie sedgwick in the titular role

Karl Rove + Karen Johnson = Lovers? That's the Gossip Folks!

Karl Rove has earned himself some gossip payback.

President Bush's deputy chief of staff and foremost fishwife is fending off whispers about his friendship with lobbyist Karen Johnson.

Rove, who stands accused of using leaks and slurs against Sen. John McCain, terrorism adviser Richard Clarke and CIA agent Valerie Plame, was mum when we called about Johnson, a never-married, fortysomething GOP loyalist from Austin, Texas.

The two are said to have become acquainted when Johnson sat on the board of then-Gov. George W. Bush's Business Council.

"Their friendship reportedly deepened after Bush appointed Johnson - a little-known spokesperson for the Texas Good Roads Association - to a seat on his Transportation Department transition team in 2000," Radaronline.com reports. "The plum appointment enabled Johnson's lobbying firm, Infrastructure Solutions, to snare such high-paying clients as Aetna and the city of Laredo."

Johnson now travels frequently between Washington, D.C., and Austin, where she often appears at Rove's side at parties, according to Radar.

"Although there is no evidence that their relationship is anything but professional, the close association between the married White House aide and the comely lobbyist has long raised eyebrows in conservative Texas circles," the mag reports.

One Longhorn journalist says, "I've heard the stories, but I would never write about Karl and Karen. If you want to keep your job as a reporter in Texas, you make believe you don't see them together."

Johnson declined to comment on the story. A White House spokesman told Radar that Rove's relationship with her was "the business of these two individuals who have personal lives."
~From the wonderful Liz Smith, yay for Bisexuals!