Kevin Jonas, the oldest member of Disney pop trio The Jonas Brothers, announced his engagement to longtime girlfriend Danielle Deleasa on Wednesday
21-year-old Kevin Jonas announces engagement
By Matthew B. Zeidman
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 7/2/09 – One of the Jonas Brothers will soon be trading in his purity ring for family life. Kevin Jonas told People magazine on Wednesday that he had proposed to longtime girlfriend Danielle Deleasa earlier in the day and that she eagerly accepted.
“She said yes, yes, yes like 500 times super fast in a row,” Jonas, 21, told People of his 22-year-old fiancé. The bride-to-be told the publication the pair met while on family vacations in the Bahamas in 2007 and that Jonas pursued her tirelessly.
Jonas and his brothers, Joe (19) and Nick (16), rose to fame as a pop trio after signing with Columbia Records in 2005 and later Hollywood Records in 2007. They currently star on “JONAS,” a sitcom on the Disney Channel that premiered in May, and are in the midst of an international tour.
‘I Bring What I Love’ documentary explores the music and life of Grammy-winner Youssou N’Dour *** 3 stars
By Jennifer Huber
Youssou N
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/28/2009 - ”I could have never predicted the controversy surrounding ‘Egypt’,” says ‘I Bring What I Love’ director Chai Vasarhelyi. “Maybe best known as the man who sang with Peter Gabriel on In Your Eyes, N’Dour is a man on a mission and that mission is to bring about change and hope through music.”
Youssou N’Dour is the highest-selling African pop musician of all time and has released more than 30 albums. Time magazine named him one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World” in 2007. The film, while exploring bits of N’Dour’s history and family life, mostly centers around the release of his 2005 Grammy-winning album Egypt. Released with great resistance from his people in his homeland of Senegal due to his music’s religious content, it garnered praise and success in Europe and the United States.
Billy Mays, the gregarious TV spokesman for products, such as OxiClean, passed away Sunday morning at the age of 50
Autopsy scheduled to determine cause of death
By Matthew B. Zeidman
TAMPA, Fla. (Hollywood Today) 6/28/09 – In a week already rife with untimely celebrity deaths, home-product hawkman and reality TV star Billy Mays, who had been a national advertising fixture for the past decade, passed away in his Florida home Sunday morning at the age of 50.
“Although Billy lived a public life, we don’t anticipate making any public statements over the next couple of days. Our family asks that you respect our privacy during these difficult times,” Mays’ wife, Deborah, told the Associated Press.
Tampa police told the AP that Mays’ spouse found him unresponsive in bed and that first responders pronounced the Pennsylvania-born salesman dead at 7:45 a.m. Police did not suspect foul play.
It was unclear if Mays suffered from any preexisting medical conditions, but an autopsy is scheduled to be conducted within the next 24 hours to determine the cause of death.
Mays was best known for his gregarious and enthusiastic style of promoting cleaning supplies and other home-based products during TV commercials and infomercials, including “miracle” detergent OxiClean.
On April 15, the Discovery Channel reality show “Pitchmen” premiered, which featured Mays and fellow infomercial spokesperson Anthony Sullivan. The most recent episode, “Crunch Time,” aired Wednesday. The network has not yet announced its plans for the series in light of Mays’ death.
Director Michael Bay’s summer blockbuster: maximum explosions and Megan Fox running in a tank top *** three stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
Biker-chick superhero Megan Fox
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/23/2009 - “I didn’t know I was the lead female in the movie until we were almost done wrapping,” says Transformers 2 star Megan Fox. “I thought, ‘I’ve worked twice as many days as I was supposed to’. I got a lot more screen time than I was prepared for. I didn’t expect the attention I’ve received. It’s a blessing and I appreciate it, but at the same time it scares the crap out of me.”
Megan Fox is as sexy as ever and not afraid to jump in and fight when there’s trouble. In Transformers 2, Megan Fox realizes a larger role and reaches the warrior-level confidence of Tomb Raider or Xena. Fox does a lot of running in slow motion as everything around her is consumed by big beautiful explosions. A biker-chick superhero, Fox has the presence of mind to Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
A sex tape was made available for sale online Friday, allegedly featuring "Gossip Girl" fan favorite Leighton Meester
‘Gossip Girl’ star has not confirmed authenticity of video
By Matthew B. Zeidman
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 6/19/09 – Leighton Meester, the brunette co-star of “Gossip Girl” and arguably the heart of the popular CW franchise, has been blindsided by the online dissemination of a sex tape allegedly featuring the transplanted New Yorker and her ex-boyfriend.
The video in question was released Friday by Celeb-hotline.com, a Web site specializing in the sale of nude and other controversial clips featuring high-profile celebrities, such as Paris Hilton, Angelina Jolie and Lindsay Lohan.
While the site merely suggests that a sex tape featuring a woman resembling singer Britney Spears may be real, telling subscribers to “decide for yourself,” it insists the material purportedly featuring the 23-year-old “Gossip Girl” actress is “100% the REAL Leighton Meester.”
Los Angeles broadcaster KTLA has estimated the video, if authentic, was filmed 5 years ago. Neither Meester nor her reps have spoken publicly regarding the film, though the site’s owners’ would be leaving themselves open to a costly libel lawsuit if it were proven Meester was not the subject of the tape, making it less likely to be a phony.
It was not immediately clear who owned the site, which was registered through an online proxy service, or who solicited the video. Celebrity tabloid Web site TMZ quoted company spokesman Kevin Blatt early Friday as saying Celeb-hotline.com was eager to complete the then-pending sale.
Blatt, who has billed himself online as a publicist and “celebrity sex tape broker,” has previously brokered the sale of sex tapes featuring Hilton and “Austin Powers” co-star Verne Troyer. He and TMZ were among those sued by Troyer last year, who alleged his tape was stolen (TMZ posted clips of the video online). After Troyer’s ex-girlfriend admitted she had been the one who leaked the sex tape online, both sides reached a settlement limiting further promotion without Troyer’s permission.
Meester is best known for her “Gossip Girl” portrayal of cunning queen bee Blair Waldorf, a high school senior at a posh prep school on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. Earlier in the decade, she also appeared on a number of other television dramas, including “24,” “House” and “Veronica Mars.”
Film IFC acquired at Sundance treats Iraq war with humor, like Mash did with the Korean war *** 3 stars
By Jennifer Huber
In the Loop star Chris Addison
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 6/19/2009 - “The stakes are very high because it’s about a war,” says In the Loop star Chris Addison. “The horrifying things is that you think this couldn’t possibly happen. And then the longer you go on, the more you realize that this is probably exactly what happened. People teetering on the edge of sanity. People using false information in the lead up to the war for their own purposes.”
In the Loop is a movie with a war subject that feels more like an episode of The Office than any of the war themed movies we have seen of late. There is more laughter than drama and more bumbling politicians than heroic soldiers. Done in a pseudo-documentary style, the film centers on the decision to invade Iraq from the perspective of both the British and American governments.
‘For many of my generation in the US, the Saturday Night Live generation, the truth was always to be found in improvisation,” says In the Loop star Mimi Kennedy. “Then we got swept into Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced Tuesday that David Letterman's apology was a victory for free speech and exploited young women, but this writer believes it is in fact an affront to the U.S. Constitution
Comedian’s apology to former VP candidate sets terrible precedent
By Matthew B. Zeidman
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 6/17/09 – When the much-hyped feud between late-night host David Letterman and former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin began last week, it appeared to simply highlight how the Alaskan governor couldn’t grasp the concept of satire or understand that political celebrities needed to take comedians’ barbs and move on. It struck a great blow to free speech this week, however, when Letterman caved to public pressure and Palin’s unrelenting accusations that he was making light of pedophilia and retracted his quip on the air.
Letterman’s controversial Top Ten list, which jokingly suggested that Palin’s daughter was “knocked up” by checkered Yankees luminary Alex Rodriguez during a trip to Yankee Stadium, was obviously aimed at 18-year-old Bristol Palin, who gave birth to her boyfriend’s child earlier this year, and not 14-year-old Willow Palin.
Letterman did the right thing by quickly acknowledging that he did not realize the younger Willow was actually with Palin at the ballpark and not Bristol, and things should have ended there. However, they did not.
Palin, who had often complained about being bullied and misrepresented by the media, saw an opportunity to turn the screws on a public critic and went for the jugular. Instead of taking one on the chin and moving on, she decided to wage an all-out war on Letterman, continuing to insist that his comments were aimed at her now-humiliated underage daughter and that it was a tasteless joke about statutory rape and sexual exploitation.
Whether Letterman felt pressure from network big wigs who may have feared a loss of advertising revenue or was simply worn down by Palin’s PR war, the popular funnyman issued a serious apology during his broadcast Monday night, saying that he regretted the joke and was the one at fault for not realizing viewers would interpret it to be about Willow Palin.
Palin publicly accepted Letterman’s mea culpa the following day and, proving what damage the apology had done to the public’s long-established right to poke fun at public figures and their families with impunity, called it a victory for free speech, thanking members of the armed forces for fighting to protect free speech overseas and expressing her hope that “that right [would] be used to promote equality and respect.” In other words, the thin-skinned Palin believed free speech was only sensitive, politically correct speech and that forcing a public critic into retracting a satirical comment worked to preserve that free speech.
Yes, Palin and her supporters had the right to express their discontent with Letterman’s joke, just as he had the right to make the joke in the first place. However, a politician applying intense public pressure to a satirist until he retracts a negative statement is in no way a hard-won blow against the enemies of free speech. On the contrary, it is the antithesis of free speech.
Indeed, Palin is at fault for trying to advance her personal and political agendas on the back of the U.S. Constitution, but Letterman is not a blameless victim. After his initial clarification, he should have dropped the subject and let the issue blow over in the coming weeks. Instead, he took the easy way out and set the stage for subsequent tests of the First Amendment.
The next time there is a public disagreement between a critic and a public figure, be it a politician, actor, athlete or other celebrity, all that public figure need do is accuse the critic of a terrible insensitivity to pedophilia, racism, sexism or some other hot-button societal woe. One can only hope that when that happens, the critic will have enough fortitude to draw a line in the sand and say “no further.”
Miss California USA Carrie Prejean, 22, has been recalled by her pageant's organizers for failing to attend promotional appearances, despite having been given a second chance in the wake of a topless photo scandal earlier this spring
Donald Trump pulls the plug on Carrie Prejean
By Matthew B. Zeidman
LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Today) 6/10/09 – After months of scandal involving alleged homophobia, topless photos and controversial breast implants, the organizers of the Miss California USA pageant and Miss USA pageant owner Donald Trump have ordered Miss California USA Carrie Prejean to relinquish her title.
In a statement to Access Hollywood, the Miss California USA Organization claimed a “continued breach of contract issues” was behind the decision, which was a break from the pageant company’s earlier support of the 22-year-old, and said that Trump approved the action.
In a separate statement, Miss California USA Executive Director Keith Lewis said missed promotional appearances were partly behind the change in policy and that it had “become abundantly clear” that Prejean was “unwilling to fulfill her [contractual] obligations.”
Prejean faced widespread media scrutiny, following her loss at the Miss USA pageant in Las Vegas on April 19. During the ceremony, where she finished as first runner up, she was prompted by openly gay judge Perez Hilton to express her opinion regarding the legalization of same-sex marriage. She responded that she personally did not believe in the legalization of such unions—an answer which Hilton later claimed cost her the title of Miss USA.
Prejean also faced criticism regarding two topless photos leaked on the Internet, as well as her breast implants, which were paid for by the Miss California USA organization before the Miss USA pageant. In May, Trump announced that Prejean failing to disclose the racy images to pageant officials was not a serious enough offense to warrant recalling her as Miss California USA.
Adam Lambert, the runner up from this season's 'American Idol,' discussed his sexuality and wrangled with some wildlife in the latest issue of 'Rolling Stone'
Idol runner up tells ‘Rolling Stone’ he’s gay, making them the last people in America to know
By Matthew B. Zeidman
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 6/9/09 – Adam Lambert came to fame on the most recent season of Fox reality show “American Idol” with his sexuality a hot topic of discussion in the media, so it was no surprise when he decided to come out in this week’s edition of Rolling Stone.
“I’m proud of my sexuality. I embrace it. It’s just another part of me,” the 27-year-old alterna-rocker and most famous runner up in America told the music magazine, stating that he didn’t think “it should be a surprise for anyone to hear that I’m gay.”
Lambert said he was tempted to talk to reporters right after the “American Idol” finale, but was afraid of a tabloid firestorm, like the one that faced former runner up Clay Aiken, and wanted to explain himself “in context.” The California resident is featured on the cover clad in all black, complete with a live snake crawling up his leg.
During “American Idol,” Lambert gained a reputation for unconventional performances of classic songs in a variety of genres and was favored to win by judges Paula Abdul, Simon Cowell, Kara DioGuardi and Randy Jackson. Pop superstar Katy Perry even wore a cape during a promotional on-air performance embroidered with Lambert’s name, but underdog Kris Allen garnered the most viewer votes following the final night of competition.
David Carradine was best known for his role in 1970s TV series 'Kung Fu,' in which he played a Shaolin monk
72-year-old celebrity allegedly found hanged
By Matthew B. Zeidman
BANGKOK, Thailand (Hollywood Today) 6/4/09 – Acting veteran David Carradine was found dead in a Bangkok hotel Thursday, allegedly by his own hand. Investigating police officer Teerapop Luanseng told the Associated Press that the 72-year-old former star of “Kung Fu” apparently hanged himself late Wednesday or early Thursday and that foul play was not suspected.
The “Kill Bill” actor was in the country filming an undisclosed project. According to the Associated Press, an autopsy would be conducted Friday.
Carradine most recently appeared in action sequel “Crank: High Voltage” earlier this year and did voiceover work in 2008 for “Death Race,” the remake of the 1975 film in which he co-starred, “Death Race 2000.” He was part of an acting legacy, which included father John Carradine, half-brother Robert Carradine and niece Martha Plimpton.
Angelina Jolie and husband Brad Pitt took two spots in Forbes' annual Celebrity 100, this year, including first
Controversial movie star tops Celebrity 100
By Matthew B. Zeidman
NEW YORK (Hollywood Today) 6/3/09 – A high-profile pregnancy, a string of blockbuster films and an equally famous husband gave Angelina Jolie the edge over media mogul Oprah Winfrey at Forbes magazine this year. The business publication named the 33-year-old actress the pinnacle of celebrity influence in its annual Celebrity 100.
Winfrey, who came in first last year, earned an estimated $275 million over the past 12 months, compared to $27 million earned by Jolie. Entertainer Madonna, who ranked third, reportedly took in $110 million, while Brad Pitt, Jolie’s 45-year-old spouse, ranked ninth, earning $28 million.
Forbes combined two factors, namely earnings and public awareness, to formulate this year’s Celebrity 100. Other big names that made the 2009 list included President Barack Obama, country-music darling Taylor Swift and Los Angeles Lakers luminary Kobe Bryant.
In this Lifetime Network four-hour mini-series premiering Saturday, May 30th, bossy socialite Sarah Chalke finds getting married more difficult than she thought *** 3 Stars
By Gabrielle Pantera
Maneater star Sarah Chalke
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today) 5/29/2009 - “I’m up there in these fishnets and these ridiculously tiny tap shorts in front of 300 people,” says Lifetime Network’s Maneater star Sarah Chalke. “And, I’m supposed to be nine months pregnant. So, I’m feeling a little bit vulnerable singing and tapping anyway. Then I lift my arms up and the way that the pregnancy belly was holding onto the shorts, my pants fell down. So, now I’m standing there with my pants around my ankles, just tapping and singing with no pants on. It was one of those moments where you go, wow, is this really happening, or am I in a dream?”
Clarissa Alpertp, is a shallow Hollywood socialite who’s says she’s 28 but is actually turning 32. When she realizes she might end up old and alone because she’s played around too much, she makes a snap decision. She’s getting married! And, Clarissa always gets what she wants. The groom is Read the rest of this Hollywood Today story »
