Quote of the Day: Fifty Shades of Oy Vey
“I don’t want to be tied up unless I’m being held hostage.” — Joy Behar Winner winner chicken dinner! Coming in at a close second was Whoopi Goldberg’s 2 cents. “At my age I don’t want to be tied up. What if I have to go to the bathroom. Then what?”
“Where the Wild Things Are” author Maurice Sendak dead at 83
(Reuters) – American writer and illustrator Maurice Sendak, whose children’s book “Where the Wild Things Are” has been a standard bedtime story for at least three generations, has died at the age of 83. “We are terribly saddened at the passing of Maurice Sendak. He was a glorious author and illustrator, an amazingly gifted designer, a blisteringly funny raconteur, a fierce and opinionated wit, and a loyal friend to those who knew him. His talent is legendary; his mind and breadth of knowledge equally so,” Susan Katz, the president and publisher of HarperCollins Children’s Books, which published his books, said…
Florida library: Fifty Shades of Dumb?
A Florida county library has banned E.L. James’ Fifty Shades of Grey because of its highly erotic content. County spokesman Don Walker — who has not read the book — said, “We don’t put pornography on our bookshelves,” branding the book “mommy porn” before admitting, “I’m not sure what that is.” Tropic of Capricorn and Lolita remain on the same library’s shelves because they are “classics.” Seems to me this wildly popular book just became that much more popular.
When everything came up corpses for Gypsy’s mama
People can’t seem to get enough of Rose Hovick, the dependably ruthless mother of Gypsy Rose Lee (Louise Hovick) in the Jule Styne/Stephen Sondheim/Arthur Laurents musical Gypsy. Ever since Ethel Merman’s original portrayal of the character in 1959, musical-theatre actresses have scrambled to give Rose a turn—the latest, of course, being Barbra Streisand, who is planning a new film of the property, with a screenplay by Julian Fellowes. I think there’s a general awareness that the musical Gypsy was based on Lee’s 1957 published memoirs. And some people also know that Lee wrote a mystery novel called The G-String Murders…
Breaking: Amanda Knox inks $4 Million deal for book
HarperCollins has purchased the rights to publish the memoir of Amanda Knox, the American college student who was convicted of murdering her British roommate Meredith Kercher in Italy and then freed four months ago, the publisher announced today. The still-untitled book will be published in 2013, THR reports. Knox was so inarticulate and inconsistent every time she spoke, so…what exactly will we learn in this new book? Exactly.
Peggy Pope: Reflections of a working actor [VIDEO]
The title of Peggy Pope’s memoir, atta girl: Tales from a Life in the Trenches of Show Business, comes from the movie for which Pope is best known: 1980’s Nine to Five. In that classic comedy, the actress played Margaret Foster, the office lush who quietly and repeatedly encourages the budding feminism of the beleaguered office workers played by Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, and Dolly Parton. Between sips from her flask, Margaret cheers the trio on with rousing cries of “Atta girl!” In the film’s closing scenes, Margaret has sobered up, thanks in part to the workplace innovations that the…
Cupid to the closeted: Scotty Bowers dishes older-than-dirt dirt
The stars about whom Scotty Bowers will spill the gay beans are all, it seems, safely dead, though they still thrive in people’s memories and in the motion-picture artifacts they’ve left behind. Bowers, now 88, claims to have been a male prostitute and procurer for gay/bi/questioning men (and women) in the heyday of studio-controlled Hollywood. His book—Full Service: My Adventures in Hollywood and the Secret Sex Lives of the Stars—comes out (so to speak) on Feb. 14. Happy Valentine’s Day, Turner Classic Movie fans! In a short profile by Brooks Barnes, published in the Fashion & Style section (???) of…
Was Richard Nixon Gay? “Nixon’s Darkest Secrets” author alleges so
Based on rather thin evidence, the new book Nixon’s Darkest Secrets by Don Fulsom alleges that President Richard Nixon had a gay relationship with his pal Bebe Rebozo. Certainly Nixon spent a lot of time on Rebozo’s boat down in Florida and there were many jokes about it. But the only evidence seems to be that a reporter saw a drunk Nixon wrap his arm around Bebe like they were on a prom date, and another reporter claims he once saw them holding hands under a table. More credible is the charge that Nixon was a drunk. According to the…
Please don’t pray for Christopher Hitchens [VIDEO]
Every Christopher Hitchens fan has been dreading the day cancer would “win.” When Hitchens announced his diagnosis of esophageal cancer in June of 2010 and canceled his book tour for his memoir, “Hitch-22,” to undergo treatment, I hoped he would “Hitch-slap” that tumor and take it down as he took down anybody who challenged him to debate. Nobody could defeat him in a debate. If you thought you could outwit, outthink or outsmart Christopher Hitchens, he would leave you stammering—even if he was coming off an all-night drunken bender, from what I hear. His effortless command of language and facts,…
