Hopefully everyone had a good Valentine's Day. I would have posted this bloody thing last night, but I had other matters to attend to, and this celebrity news "term paper" wasn't quite finished. So without further ado, my little insomnia driven late-night diversion.
The standard warning for those of you who've never seen one of these before: If you would like to see some of the latest entertainment news, celebrity gossip and odd crap making the rounds, keep reading. However, if you are easily offended by half-nude men & women or other such things, you might want to stop right now.
You've been warned.
► [Chris Brown's Attack On Rihanna]
Chris Brown has finally made a public statement about his alleged attack on Rihanna, in which he "sorta" apologizes for his actions.
"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired. I am seeking the counseling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person. Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong. While I would like to be able to talk about this more, until the legal issues are resolved, this is all I can say except that I have not written any messages or made any posts to Facebook, on blogs or any place else. Those posts or writing under my name are frauds."
As some of the gossip blogs have pointed out, talking to a licensed therapist with experience in domestic violence cases might be a better idea than his pastor & Mom.
For those that unaware of this incident, it occurred the Saturday evening before the Grammys. There have been lots of rumors about what did & did not happen, but here's the best I can do at cobbling together a tic-toc of events. After leaving Clive Davis' pre-Grammy party around midnight, Brown & Rihanna started arguing while in Brown's rented Lamborghini Gallardo. This argument is rumored to have been about Rihanna discovering a text message from a woman who wrote about hooking up with Brown later. The argument escalated to where Brown pulled the car over to the side of a street in L.A.'s Hancock Park neighborhood, and started hitting Rihanna. She then told Brown to drive her home and "faked a call" to someone, saying things like, "He's dropping me off. Make sure the cops are there." Allegedly this enraged Brown, with reports saying he told Rihanna something to the effect of: "You are really fu**ed up now. I'm going to kill you."
According to E!'s sources, at some point thereafter Rihanna grabbed the car keys & threw 'em out one of the Lamborghini's windows. Brown got out of the car to search for the keys, but upon returning he put his hands around Rihanna's neck and did his best Ike Turner impression. She was beaten so badly that she lost consciousness, as well as suffered a blackened right-eye & hand prints on her arms. According to TMZ.com, Rihanna was also bitten by Brown.
Law enforcement sources have now gotten specific with us... police took pictures of Rihanna's injuries and they are "horrific."
As we reported, the photos show major contusions on both sides of the singer's face -- there is serious swelling and bruising. Her lip is split and her nose bloody. We have now confirmed there are bite marks on one of her arms and on several fingers.
And we now know this... Rihanna claims Brown struck her with his fists and that's what did the damage.
It was not Rihanna who called the cops. According to TMZ, a person in the area heard Rihanna screaming and called police. When the cops arrived, Brown had fled the scene & Rihanna tried to refuse treatment, before agreeing to go to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center.
Chris Brown was arrested & booked for making "criminal threats" and posted a $50,000 bail. The Los Angeles County District Attorney is now in the process of considering the charges.
According to both TMZ.com & US Weekly, this is not the first time Brown has hit Rihanna. She's reported to have told police that it "was an ongoing and escalating abusive relationship."
A Rihanna confidant adds that bruises were clearly visible on the singer's neck in early December. Alarmed, "I asked is everything was OK with her and Chris," says the pal. "She told me, 'We broke up again.' I didn't pursue the issue further."
Meanwhile, Brown's sister, Lytrell "Tootie" Bundy, says the singer, 19, is "doing good" in light of his latest altercation with Rihanna. "He's coping," she told Extra on Wednesday. "He's doing ... [as well] as to be expected."
► [Music News]
Who Made The Most In 2008? According to Billboard, the conventional wisdom that money is made in the music business by going on tour is validated by the figures below. The top 5 are the five that made the most money on the road, in exactly the same order.
The Top 20.....
- Madonna: $242,176,466
- Bon Jovi: $157,177,766
- Bruce Springsteen: $156,327,964
- The Police: $109,976,894
- Celine Dion: $99,171,237
- Kenny Chesney: $90,823,990
- Neil Diamond: $82,174,000
- Rascall Flatts: $63,522,160
- Jonas Brothers: $62,638,814
- Coldplay: $62,175,555
- The Eagles: $61,132,213
- Lil Wayne: $57,441,334
- AC/DC: $56,505,296
- Michael Buble: $50,257,364
- Miley Cyrus: $48,920,806
- Taylor Swift: $45,588,730
- Journey: $44,787,328
- Billy Joel: $44,581,010
- Mary J. Blige: $43,472,850
- Kanye West: $42,552,402
Even more remarkably, the top Moneymaker -- Madonna -- only had the 50th-best-selling album in the country. She ranked 14th on the list of digital track sellers and didn't place on the ringmasters chart. Her place on Moneymakers, like her $242,176,466 income, comes from the highest-earning tour that took place in 2008.
Charts: Through the magic of , you can click on any of the song titles below & hear that particular track.
The top 10 songs on Billboard's Hot 100 are.....
- Eminem - "Crack A Bottle"
- Kanye West - "Heartless"
- Lady GaGa Featuring Colby O'Donis - "Just Dance"
- Kelly Clarkson - "My Life Would Suck Without You"
- Beyonce - "Single Ladies" (Put A Ring On It)
- The All-American Rejects - "Gives You Hell"
- Taylor Swift - "Love Story"
- The Fray - "You Found Me"
- T.I. Featuring Justin Timberlake - "Dead And Gone"
- Jason Mraz - "I'm Yours"
The Top 10 Songs in the United States at the iTunes Store are.....
- Flo Rida - "Right Round"
- Eminem - "Crack A Bottle"
- T.I. Featuring Justin Timberlake - "Dead And Gone"
- Lady Gaga - "Poker Face"
- The All-American Rejects - "Gives You Hell"
- Kelly Clarkson - "My Life Would Suck Without You"
- Kanye West - "Heartless"
- Lady GaGa Featuring Colby O'Donis - "Just Dance"
- Coldplay - "Viva La Vida"
- ADELE - "Chasing Pavements"
The Top 10 songs on Billboard's Hot 100, forty years ago this week, in 1969.....
- Sly & The Family Stone - "Everyday People"
- Tommy James - "Crimson And Clover"
- The Foundations - "Build Me Up Buttercup"
- The Doors - "Touch Me"
- Tyrone Davis - "Can I Change My Mind"
- Brooklyn Bridge - "Worst That Could Happen"
- The Turtles - "You Showed Me"
- Jay & The Americans - "This Magic Moment"
- Creedence Clearwater Revival - "Proud Mary"
- The Supremes - "I'm Livin' In Shame"
Other music news working its way around the series of tubes.....
- DRM's demise clears way for home audio innovation
- Paisley, Newfield Lead Academy of Country Music Awards Nominations
- Simon And Garfunkel Reunite In New York
- Will Chris Brown's Music Career Survive Arrest?
- Sirius XM Reportedly Preparing To File For Bankruptcy
- Alison Krauss and Robert Plant cleaned up at the 51st Grammys, winning Album of the Year, Record of the Year and 2 others. Radiohead won Best Alternative Album, Lil Wayne won Best Rap Album, and Coldplay won 3 Grammys, including for Best Rock Album and Best Song
- Velvet Revolver "Weeks" From Announcing Singer
- Ozzfest will not take place this year
- Peter Gabriel Refuses to Sing Butchered 'WALL-E' Song at Oscars
- U2 Playing Five Nights On "Letterman"
- Auto-Tune: Why Pop Music Sounds "Perfect"
- Ben Harper Gets Heavy With Relentless7 on "White Lies for Dark Times"
- For the lonely: 150 songs for sobbing on Valentine's Day
- Slipknot Still Angry Over Battle With Game for Number One: "This Was Our Time"
- Google's New Killer App? Why Are Music Bloggers' Posts Disappearing, and Who Is Deleting Them?
► [Movie & Television News]
Romance: In honor of this time of year, the good people over at Premiere have created a list of "The 65 Most Romantic Movie Couples" ever. You can see the entire list of 65 by clicking on the link, but here are the Top 15.
- Sam Baldwin (Tom Hanks) and Annie Reed (Meg Ryan) in 'Sleepless In Seattle' (1993)
- Edward Lewis (Richard Gere) and Vivian Ward (Julia Roberts) in 'Pretty Woman' (1990)
- Clarence Worley (Christian Slater) and Alabama Whitman (Patricia Arquette) in 'True Romance' (1993)
- Lloyd Dobler (John Cusack) and Diane Court (Ione Skye) in 'Say Anything' (1989)
- Lady and Tramp in 'Lady and the Tramp' (1955)
- Robbie (Adam Sandler) and Julia (Drew Barrymore) in 'The Wedding Singer' (1998)
- Robert Kincaid (Clint Eastwood) and Francesca Johnson (Meryl Streep) in 'Bridges of Madison County' (1995)
- Marcee Tidwell (Regina King) and Rod Tidwell (Cuba Gooding Jr.) in 'Jerry Maguire' (1996)
- Harold (Bud Cort) and Maude (Ruth Gordon) in 'Harold and Maude' (1971)
- Sam Wheat (Patrick Swayze) and Molly Jensen (Demi Moore) in 'Ghost' (1990)
- Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling) and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams) in 'The Notebook' (2004)
- Jack Dawson (Leonardo DiCaprio) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (Kate Winslet) in 'Titanic' (1997)
- Adrian (Talia Shire) and Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) in 'Rocky/Rocky II' (1976/79)
- WALL•E (voice) (Ben Burtt) and EVE (voice) (Elissa Knight) in 'WALL-E' (2008)
- Buttercup/The Princess Bride (Robin Wright Penn) and Westley (Cary Elwes) in 'The Princess Bride' (1987)
Over at the A.V. Club, they decided to list "Romance minus the schmaltz: 29 falling-in-love movies we actually believe in." For example, number 28; 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind' (2004).
As the J. Geils Band adroitly noted, love stinks, especially when it dies a spectacular death after a promising beginning. Michel Gondry’s crushingly bittersweet science-fiction romance Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind nails how our best romantic memories can be turned sour by the dark places relationships inevitably travel. When someone breaks your heart, it’s natural to wish you never met them, even if that person made you unbelievably happy for a precious, ephemeral period. But as Jim Carrey learns as he races through his memories of girlfriend Kate Winslet as they’re being erased, the manic rush and spiritual satisfaction of falling in love really is worth all the screaming matches and broken promises to come.
You can see the enitre list of 29, as well as the reasoning behind the picks, by clicking on the link, but here are the Top 10.
- 'Barcelona' (1994)
- 'Holiday' (1938)
- 'A Perfect Couple' (1979)
- 'It Happened One Night' (1934)
- 'Roman Holiday' (1953)
- 'Before Sunrise' (1995)
- 'West Side Story' (1961)
- 'Romeo & Juliet' (1968)
- 'Say Anything...' (1989)
- 'Trouble In Paradise' (1932)
Movie Trailers: If you have problems with the embedded players below, or want to see other recently released teasers & trailers, click here.
- The Taking of Pelham 1 2 3
Other stories making the rounds.....
- Could The New Freddy Kruger Be.... Watchmen's Rorschach????
- 2009 Academy Awards Odds: Slumdog, Rourke, Winslet, Cruz Are Favorites
- Ratings for "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" plummet 27% and the series premiere of Joss Whedon's "Dollhouse" was seen by 4.7 million viewers Friday night and garnered a 2.0 preliminary adults 18-49 rating and 6 share. It was beaten in the 9 p.m. hour by ABC's "Supernanny" (6.1 million viewers, 2.2/7) and is the lowest-rated scripted series premiere on a major broadcast network this season aside from NBC's now-defunct "Crusoe."
- Bruce Campbell says he's through with playing Ash: "I mean, did anyone really want Indiana Jones 4?"
- Christopher Nolan has set up his next project with Warner Bros., an original screenplay he wrote called 'Inception'
- Comedy Central's "Important Things With Demetri Martin" was the network's most-watched series premiere since "Chappelle’s Show" in 2003
- The New Main Title Sequence For "The Simpsons"
- SNL: Alec Baldwin shows how playing Nintendo Wii is like ... you know
- Many TV stations to still end analog broadcasts on Feb. 17
- 16 Unique and Impressive On-Screen Transformations
- The Wachowski Brothers to Direct Superman Reboot?
- Aaron Eckhart and Oscar nominee Richard Jenkins will be hitting the sauce in "Rum Diary," the adaptation of the Hunter S. Thompson novel that stars Johnny Depp
- Test Screening Reviews: Michael Mann’s 'Public Enemies'
- Will Lost's Time Travel Ever Make Sense?
- It better... since Time -- and viewership -- keeps on slippin', slippin' on ABC's "Lost."
- Curtis Hanson is negotiating with Disney to direct 'Gemini Man,' an action thriller that will be produced by Jerry Bruckheimer.
- Three thousand years of human/Cylon history were revealed in 45 minutes during Friday's "Battlestar Galactica." Good thing someone took some frakkin' notes
- Top 10 Disastrous Letterman Interviews
"We truly believe Ledger's performance as Joker is the best an actor could ever do."
► [The 2009 Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue]
What does supermodels frolicking on beaches around the world have to do with sports? Not a Goddamn thing, but that hasn't stopped Sports Illustrated from publishing images of hot women in various states of undress for the past 45 years. Over that time, the likes of Cheryl Tiegs, Christie Brinkley, Paulina Porizkova, Elle Macpherson, Rachel Hunter, Valeria Mazza, Heidi Klum, Cindy Crawford, Stephanie Seymour, Angie Everhart, Naomi Campbell and Tyra Banks have graced the pages of Sports Illustrated in various editions.
Among the locations used for this year's shoot:
- Canouan Island, The Grenadines
- Naples, Italy
- Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
- Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo, Mexico
You can see all of the models, athletes, and NBA dancers in all kinds of bathing suits, as well as interviews & videos at the
SI.com Swimsuit site. Here's a few highlights.....
► [Gratuitous Links & Pics]
Other News & Crap
- Here's an example of everything that's wrong with the fashion industry: Top German designer Wolfgang Joop has lashed out at supermodel Heidi Klum, by saying the stunningly beautiful Klum is "too heavy" to be a runway queen.....
Now her fellow German fashion veteran Wofgang Joop has launched an extraordinary attack on the successful runway star, saying she doesn’t have what it takes to be a top model herself.
"No way," Joop told BILD. "She is no runway model! Heidi Klum is simply too heavy and has too big a bust. And she always grins so stupidly. That is not avant-garde – that is commercial!"
- See Michelle Obama's March Vogue Cover!
- What Do Men & Women Want?
- Asians Want $4 Billion From Miley Cyrus
- Whitney Houston is now dating younger man Ray J, however Ray J decided to do a "celebreality" show for VH1 to find a perfect mate and may have knocked up one of the contestants
- Drew Barrymore likes what she sees with Hugh Grant.... and then with Clive Owen
- Usher's wife, Tameka Foster, suffered a heart attack in Brazil before undergoing plastic surgery
- In BONGGATE '09 News: The bong owner wasn't even at the party at the time Michael Phelps took a hit, but he's been arrested and charged
- Japan Pledges To Halt Production Of Weirdo Porn
Acknowledging its embarrassment over worldwide outbreaks of violent, uncontrolled regurgitation, the Japanese government apologized Wednesday to the millions of viewers who have been sickened over the past three decades by the revolting depravity of the nation's pornographic exports.
The response came after leaders of the world's 20 largest economies signed an accord threatening sanctions against Japan if international distribution of the nauseating materials did not immediately cease.
"Let me tell you another thing about ... I'm doing a blog right now where I've been collecting all of the freshest stuff that's rainbows — Denver Nuggets jerseys, BAPE shoes, Nikes with rainbows on 'em — and saying, "Man I think as straight men we need to take the rainbow back because it's fresh." It looks fresh. I just think that because stereotypically gay people got such good like style that they were smart enough to take a fresh-ass logo like the rainbow and say that it's gonna be theirs. But I was like "Man I think we need to have the rainbow" — the idea of colors , life and colors and stuff, I mean how is that a gay thing? Colors? Having a lot of colors is gay?"
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