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Katy Perry Allegedly Vows to RUIN Taylor Swift with Super Bowl Jab

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Katy Perry Allegedly Vows to RUIN Taylor Swift with Super Bowl Jab

Taylor Swift and Katy Perry hate each other. On her album 1989, Taylor Swift calls out Katy Perry for stabbing her in the back, the scars from which she bears to this day. Will Katy Perry retaliate during her Super Bowl performance? Hollywood Life says yes.

Claims a Hollywood Life insider:

"Katy will be doing something on stage during her performance that will be directed towards Taylor. She is working on it to be a visual or a lyric related jab," our insider says.

Tearing a photo of Taylor Swift in half; changing her lyrics to, "'Cause I'm coming at you like a dark horse, Taylor Swift, because I dislike for professional reasons"; lighting New York City on fire: all possibilities for Perry's Super Bowl performance.

Finally, a reason to be excited for this year's halftime show.

[image via Getty]


Alan Dershowitz Denies Underage Sex Allegations by "Serial Prostitute"

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Alan Dershowitz Denies Underage Sex Allegations by "Serial Prostitute"

Famous attorney and former Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz categorically denied allegations that he had sex with an underage prostitute Monday, calling the woman a "serial liar, serial prostitute."

"I never met this woman, I never touched her, I was never massaged by her, there was no contact," Dershowitz said on CNN Monday.

Dershowitz—who isn't being sued—was responding to new allegations made about Jeffrey Epstein, a wealthy Palm Beach financier accused of keeping underaged girls as sex slaves. Epstein was ultimately sentenced to 18 months in jail as part of a legendary plea bargain that saw him admit to one count of soliciting an underaged prostitute.

New filings in a civil action against Epstein claim the businessman forced one girl—"Jane Doe No. 3"--to sleep with Prince Andrew in a potential blackmail scheme. The woman also claims she slept with Dershowitz while she was underaged.

During a media tour Monday, Dershowitz dared the woman to speak about the allegations publicly so he could file a defamation against her and offered to waive the criminal statute of limitations.

"Remember that this woman—who I haven't identified, you have—is a prostitute. She is a liar. She has charged Bill Clinton with having sex with her on the island, when Secret Service records will obviously show he was never on the island. She claimed to meet the Queen. Buckingham records will show that isn't true," Dershowitz said. "How does a lawyer rely on the statement of a woman who is a serial perjurer, serial liar, serial prostitute, and bring charges against somebody with an unscathed reputation like me without even checking?"

Dershowitz's wife also joined the media offensive Monday, telling Inside Edition her husband was on vacation with her on the dates alleged in the lawsuit.

"I was ... with Alan. Our daughter was there. Our friends met us for dinner. We were together the whole time," she reportedly told the television show in an interview set to air Monday.

[image via AP]

Saved By the Bell's Screech Is Going to Trial for Stabbing a Dude

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Saved By the Bell's Screech Is Going to Trial for Stabbing a Dude

Dustin Diamond posted bail, but he's not going very far—a judge ruled Monday that he'll have to stand trial after allegedly stabbing a man with a switchblade over the holidays.

Cops arrested Diamond—best known for his roles on the seminal television show Saved By the Bell and the seminal sex tape Saved by the Smell [Ed. note—not a joke title]—after he and his fiancée began "tussling" with two other patrons at a Milwaukee bar on Dec 26.

Diamond later told cops he stabbed the man accidentally while defending his fiancée.

He's reportedly been charged second-degree recklessly endangering safety, disorderly conduct and carrying a concealed weapon and could face jail time.

[image via AP]

Ga. Police Chief's Wife Says She Thinks Her Husband Shot Her By Accident

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Ga. Police Chief's Wife Says She Thinks Her Husband Shot Her By Accident

Margaret McCollom, the hospitalized wife of Peachtree City police chief William McCollom, recovered enough to speak with investigators Monday, saying that although she was asleep when her husband shot her, she believes it was an accident.

Margaret was hospitalized in critical condition early Thursday morning after McCollom called 911, calmly telling the operator he had accidentally shot her while moving a handgun. At the time, McCollom said two shots were fired; investigators say it was only one.

On Monday, Margaret's status was upgraded to good and she was able to speak with agents from the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, according to a press release:

GBI agents interviewed Margaret McCollom this afternoon in her hospital room at the Atlanta Medical Center. Ms. McCollom was shot by Peachtree City Police Chief William McCollom in their home at 103 Autumn Leaf in Peachtree City. During the interview, Ms. McCollom stated she was asleep when the shooting occurred and could provide no information about the shooting however she believes the shooting was an accident.

[image via CBS]

Cameron Diaz Will Not Die an Unmarried Old Crone

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Cameron Diaz Will Not Die an Unmarried Old Crone

It finally happened—Sk8er boi Benji Madden made an honest woman out of unmarried celebrity Cameron Diaz Monday night in a tent full of of other married and previously-married celebrities like Drew Barrymore, Nicole Richie and Gwyneth Paltrow.

Already some of the breathless details have slipped out; the couple reportedly secured RSVPs from guests like Reese Witherspoon, Samantha Ronson and Robin Antin with promises of a Golden Globes pre-party at Cam's house and then bam: bait-and-switch, a wedding!


Benji's nephew, Joel Madden and Nicole Richie's son, Sparrow served as the ring bearer. Joining Diaz as her bridesmaids were her BFFs Richie, Drew Barrymore, her sister Chimene and assistant Jesse Lutz.

E! reports "didn't have the look of an 11th-hour affair" but US Weekly notes Cameron didn't, like, exactly try very hard either.

The event was orchestrated by wedding planners Yifat Oren and Stefanie Cove and featured flowers from The Velvet Garden — all companies used by Diaz's longtime pal and Charlie's Angels costar Barrymore in her June 2012 wedding to Will Kopelman.

Omg Cameron, are you going to take this seriously or what. Are they even going on a honeymoon?? Probably not!

Sad Dog Abandoned at Train Station With Suitcase Full of His Stuff

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Sad Dog Abandoned at Train Station With Suitcase Full of His Stuff

An adorable, sad little Shar-pei mix named Kai was found tied to a railing inside a Scottish train station last Friday, along with a suitcase packed with all his worldly possessions: A pillow, a toy, and a food bowl with some food. The Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals is searching for the owner who abandoned him.

Using Kai's microchip, the SPCA tracked down his last known owner. That's where the trail went cold, though, because that person had sold the dog on Gumtree, the U.K. equivalent of Craigslist, back in 2013.

"Regardless of the fact Kai was left with his belongings, this was still a cruel incident and we are keen to identify the person responsible. If anyone can help we would ask them to get in touch as soon as possible," said SPCA Inspector Stewart Taylor.

Kai, who is two to three years old and "a lovely dog with a nice nature," will live with the SPCA until they can find him a new home. If his former owner is ever found, they could be charged under Scotland's Animal Health and Welfare Act and hit with a lifetime ban on keeping pets.

[h/t KSDK, Photo: Scottish SPCA]

Haruki Murakami Will Give You Advice Now

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Haruki Murakami Will Give You Advice Now

Haruki Murakami, possibly Japan's most celebrated living writer, is a fairly private person who's confident that most people, if they met him, would not like him very much. But the author of 1Q84 and The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle places a high value on his "conceptual" relationship with his fans, and has thus proposed to solve their life's problems, as best he can, on his website.

In an "agony uncle" advice column called "Mr. Murakami's Place," he will tackle "questions of any kind," his publisher announced Tuesday. In addition to solving your problems, the 65-year-old writer is also happy to take questions about his well-known fondness for cats and about his favorite baseball team, the Yakult Swallows.

"After so long, I want to exchange emails with readers," Murakami said, although this project isn't much of a departure for him. He's emailed privately with his fans for years, once claiming to read around 100 messages a day from readers, responding to 10 or 20.

"Ten or 20 years ago, I had to look to the media to see the readers," he said in 2002, "But we don't need media anymore. We just make conversations with the readers, directly. It could be dangerous, I guess. But if you're smart and you take time, it helps."

As for the advice you'll get from a master of the surreal, whose warped versions of reality draw frequent comparisons to Lewis Carroll's Wonderland, it's likely to be more sensible and grounded in reality than you'd expect from reading him. Murakami rises at 4 a.m. and sleeps at 9 p.m., and keeps a daily routine that includes swimming and running, a regimen he finds necessary for the business of writing novels.

However weird or mundane Mr. Murakami's advice turns out to be, you can count on this: If you're in your late twenties, he'll probably be kind. The overwhelming uncertainly of that age is a recurring theme for him.

"You are 27 or 28, right?" he once told an interviewer, "It is very tough to live at that age. When nothing is sure. I have sympathy with you."

[Image via]

The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

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The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

As someone who likes to bake and doesn't own a car, I have schlepped a lot of cakes on a lot of trains. I've maneuvered pies over subway turnstiles and Tupperwares between strangers' elbows. What was unusual about this one lemon cake was that I wasn't carrying it—and that's where this experiment was born.

My husband and I were going to our friends' house for dinner, two trains and a bus ride away. I had volunteered to bring dessert and now I foisted it off on him for the long trip. As we changed trains at a crowded platform in downtown Boston, all eyes seemed to be on Doug and the lemon cake. He ducked his head and hurried past the stares until we reached the farthest, emptiest part of the subway platform, where we stopped. He said, "Is this what it's like to be an attractive woman?"

I laughed but I also started wondering: is it? Sometimes it seems like he and I walk around in two different worlds. By simply toting something delicious-looking, can men get a taste of the constant public observation that women experience?

I began recruiting my subjects.


The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

This experiment would not be scientific. There would be no control group and no statistics. But I did have a hypothesis. I also had five subjects, local male friends who are good sports (and who would get to eat the baked goods afterward). I chose men with female significant others, so that they could offer their own perspectives on a woman's experience in public.

I whipped up some treats: chocolate cupcakes, lemon squares, a giant batch of iced pumpkin cookies, and of course the inspirational lemon cake. After packing them in Saran wrap or a clear plastic carrier, I dropped the goods off with my subjects. I asked them to spend some time carrying their treats on public transit or on their daily commutes—and to pay attention.

All my subjects live in Cambridge. Some carried their treats on the bus or the train, and others walked, either in the morning or the evening. A few of the men made trips out of their way to give the experiment extra time.

For some perspective on the question of people in the public eye, I called Sarah Gervais, a psychologist at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, who studies dynamics of power and prejudice between men and women. She's especially interested in staring, or what she calls the "objectifying gaze." In one recent study, for example, she used eye-tracking technology to learn how men look at women with different body types.

"What we know about this kind of public gazing is that it has really negative consequences for women," Gervais told me.

Being stared at is distracting, for one thing. It can also lead to increased anxiety or shame about your appearance, as well as worries about safety. Women who report more experience being objectified and harassed score higher on measures of "self-objectification," or thinking a lot about their own appearance and comparing it to an ideal.

An objectifying gaze can affect women's behavior and even their cognition. In one study, women spent less time talking about themselves when they thought a man in another room was watching a video feed of their bodies, compared to women who thought the observer was another woman (or was watching their faces). In one of Gervais's studies, women who received an objectifying gaze from a man performed worse on a math test.

Gervais was enthusiastic about my experiment, despite its lack of scientific rigor. She thought having men carry around "something that is desirable in the eyes of others" might be a good way to attract an objectifying gaze.

"So," she said, "what did you find?"


The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

The first thing I found was that my subjects really wanted people to look at them. Most of them told me afterward that they'd hoped for a lot of gawking, for the sake of the experiment. They acknowledged that this probably wasn't much like a woman's experience. "I wanted people to inappropriately stare at me," Martin said. "That's the opposite of what I'm supposed to be feeling at this moment."

Although all the men seemed to expect more stares than they actually got, they and their baked goods did get checked out.

Chris described a man ogling his plate of cookies as he walked past, and admits he may have accidentally stared at some people while waiting for them to look at his pumpkin cookies. Arvil and his cupcakes received some lingering glances—more when he was walking than on the train, he said, and more from women than men. (He tried holding his cupcakes at different heights to see if he got more reactions, and results were inconclusive.) Martin's cookies got some "sideways glances" on his commute and outright stares when he carried them into a restaurant. At one point, he ran into his graduate-school advisor, who asked about the cookies, and when Martin explained they were part of an experiment and offered him one, his advisor declined. Martin's wife, Alex, saw some men give them "judgy eyes" outside the subway station.

Jamie said the hardest thing about this experiment was keeping his balance on the subway while holding the plate. He noticed a few looks at his lemon squares on the train and got comments from coworkers on his office elevator. Peter, who carried the lemon cake, didn't attract much attention on the bus. But he got several conspicuous stares when he took the cake on the train at night—including from a "group of drunk bros," one of whom told Peter the cake looked delicious. Peter said thank you. "I felt good," he told me. "Even though I didn't make it."

The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

When they did get stares, the guys weren't sure whether it was because people were attracted to the pastries, or just surprised to see a man carrying homemade food. Jamie thought it was the latter. Martin, who cooks and bakes often, has experience schlepping food on public transit. He thought the cookies I gave him were too subtle. "Wandering around with a cake, people will stare at you," he said. (He suspects people are waiting to see him drop it.)

The men were all hoping for attention, and didn't report feeling uncomfortable when they got it. In this way, they probably didn't get a good sense of what it's like to be female. Being stared at is "a pretty novel experience for men in this situation," Gervais said. "And that does not really map onto women's experiences, because we know that women's bodies are scrutinized and evaluated very, very frequently."

My male subjects apologized to me, thinking the experiment had failed. They hadn't found themselves trapped in a gauntlet of unwanted attention, even though they were waiting for it.

And here comes the twist that I would like to tell you I planned all along, but in reality snuck up on me—the unexpected growth in the Petri dish that turns out to be the most interesting result.

While they carried their pastries, all the men had become hyper-aware of the people around them, watching for anyone who might be staring. "You're already changing your behavior on the assumption that people might be looking at you," Chris's wife, Katie, pointed out to him. "You're kind of seeing what it does feel like to be a woman on the street."

The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

All of the men described being distracted, watchful, on alert. "A hundred percent," Arvil said when I asked whether he felt self-conscious. According to their significant others, they were on the right track.

"Once you're established and you're on your own as a woman, you're taught to be more aware of things," said Sophie, Jamie's girlfriend. Safety is always a consideration, conscious or not. "I sort of trained myself to be more aware of my surroundings because of times when I felt vulnerable, and I just do it constantly now," Sophie said. Peter's girlfriend, Kayla, said she usually walks in the middle of the sidewalk because she doesn't like to be too close to the cars or to the buildings.

Discomfort is another factor. Especially on the train, "I'll definitely be aware of whether people are looking at me or not," said Eva, Arvil's girlfriend. "I don't like people looking at me if I don't know they're looking at me—that's kind of a creepy thought."

Gervais says that scientific research agrees with my friends' observations. "Women come to expect and sort of internalize that gaze," she said. "And in the end they don't actually have to have someone looking at them to experience the negative consequences"—the self-objectification, the stress, the distraction.

"Even if no one ever harasses me on the street again, I already have changed things that I do. And I already changed ways that I am," Katie said. "The self-policing, I think, becomes the more powerful thing."

The Lemon Cake Male Objectification Experiment

The men all described their everyday, cake-free experiences in public as anonymous and unseen. They don't expect anyone to watch or notice them. "Being looked at is not something I think about," Jamie said.

"I am not aware of who's looking at me," Arvil agreed. (Eva replied, "Really?")

During the experiment, the men left that anonymous feeling behind. "Perhaps it sort of gives men a sense of what it might be like" to be a woman, Gervais said. They didn't exactly walk in women's shoes, but for part of a day they carried some of the watchfulness that women do.

Now all the cakes and cookies are eaten, and the men have gone back to traveling the city in their usual way: unobserved.

"I wouldn't give it up," Peter said.

Elizabeth Preston is a science writer in Massachusetts. Her blog, Inkfish, is published by Discover. Follow her on Twitter @Inkfish.

Illustration by Tara Jacoby


Nicholas Sparks, Novelist of Everlasting Love, Splits From Wife

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Nicholas Sparks, Novelist of Everlasting Love, Splits From Wife

Nicholas Sparks once wrote, "I love you. I am who I am because of you. You are every reason, every hope, and every dream I've ever had, and no matter what happens to us in the future, everyday we are together is the greatest day of my life. I will always be yours," but that was in a book. In real life, he and his wife of 25 years have separated.

Sparks, 49, told People that he and his wife, Cathy, are separated but that it was "not a decision we've made lightly." The author, who has published seventeen novels that all center on the impenetrable framework for everlasting love, says he and Cathy remain close friends, confirming that love is not forever, no matter what fools read about in books.

In an interview in 2012 with dating website eHarmony, where many people go to find the love that Sparks has written about in The Notebook, The Lucky One, and The Last Song, the writer said, "You know, all of the female characters I create have many elements of my wife." Perhaps one of those qualities was the desire to no longer be married to Nicholas Sparks.

[Image via AP]

'Dozens' of School Buses Crash in D.C. Area After Schools Snub Snow Day

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'Dozens' of School Buses Crash in D.C. Area After Schools Snub Snow Day

There were 'dozens' of school bus accidents in the Washington D.C. area this morning as a result of school districts making the bad decision to open schools on time despite a thick coating of snow on area roads. As usual, officials are blaming weather forecasters instead of taking responsibility for their actions.

'Dozens' of School Buses Crash in D.C. Area After Schools Snub Snow Day

The D.C. metro area is often called the "DMV" because it comprises of the District itself and a couple of counties on either side of D.C. in Maryland and Virginia. On the Virginia side of the equation, we have Fairfax, Prince William, and Loudoun Counties, all of which are at the peak of a 30-year population explosion thanks to government employees flocking to the area. Every day, hundreds of thousands of people commute into and out of the city, packing area roads—from streets to interstates—to their breaking point.

A light snowfall was forecast to blanket the area this morning, with one to two inches south of the District and accumulations approaching three or more inches to the north. Snowfall amounts wound up on the higher end of the equation, with a widespread two to four inch snowfall from Prince William County and north.

'Dozens' of School Buses Crash in D.C. Area After Schools Snub Snow Day

School districts usually make the decision to cancel classes by 4:00 AM or sooner, as that's the time that bus drivers and facility employees begin to arrive for work. When heavy snowstorms are forecast, districts in the D.C. area will often cancel classes the night before, making the situation easy for parents and staff alike. However, during events like this, they wait until the last minute to make the call.

Fairfax, Loudoun, and Prince William all decided to open schools on time this morning, despite forecasts that show snowfall accumulations beyond what area residents can handle on roadways.

Up to this point, many of our northern readers have likely tuned out and gone down to the comments to voice their snowy superiority and how they used to walk fifteen miles in six feet of snow uphill both ways and how kids today are coddled and officials are wusses and blah blah blah. That's a bunch of crap. The Washington D.C. metro area is the perfect storm when it comes to its inability to handle even light snowfall accumulations. Don't get me wrong, area residents should be able to handle modest snows, but the way the region is set up doesn't allow for a graceful snowfall. The metro area is home to millions of people, almost all of whom leave their homes in the morning and travel a fair distance in order to go to work or school. Traffic is bad as it is—on a clear morning with pristine road conditions, you can expect one accident every couple of miles, and inexplicable backups and jams as far as the eye can see.

If you add a light dusting of snow to those roadways, you still have the same volume of traffic (remember: come hell or high water, employers expect you to arrive on time), but now that hot traffic is sitting on top of a fresh coating of snow. The compacted snow melts under the heat of the cars and roads become ice skating rinks. Now you have hundreds of thousands of people who can't drive on a sunny day suddenly trying to control their cars and SUVs on solid ice. It doesn't work. Not only do you have regular commuters, but you also have thousands of school buses that have to traverse narrow, hilly, untreated residential streets, and school buses move about as gracefully on ice as a blimp in a hurricane.

I grew up in Woodbridge, Virginia. I went to Prince William County Public Schools from kindergarten until I graduated high school. Trust me when I say that school officials have absolutely no idea what the hell they are doing when it comes to making a decision to close or delay schools due to winter weather. There's no rhyme or rhythm to it. It's the same officials making the decisions year after year, but if you give them the same forecast of one to three inches of snow falling during rush hour with temperatures in the 20s, one day they'll call off classes at nine o'clock the night before, and others (like today) they'll try to open on time. There's no consistency, and because officials are afraid of parents freaking out when they call off school and it doesn't snow, they err on the side of danger.

In Prince William County, for instance, the only announcement they made on their Facebook page this morning seemed to pass the buck to parents:

There seems to be some confusion over the excused absence policy. Please refer to the Inclement Weather Letter sent home in September and posted to pwcs.edu.

The policy states that parents are allowed to keep their children home from school if they feel that road and sidewalk conditions are unsafe for kids to go to school. It gives the school district cover to open schools when roads are an icy death match like they were this morning, while giving parents the option to veto the district's boneheaded decision if conditions are too unsafe for Jack or Jill to walk to school on icy sidewalks right beside traffic that treats icy roads like the Autobahn.

After two hours and hundreds (if not thousands) of incensed comments, emails, and telephone calls, the county somewhat reversed course and apologized for their decision, instead blaming forecasters for the snafu:

We apologize for the weather-related complications this morning. Multiple PWCS staff were on duty monitoring the weather and roads throughout the night and into the early-morning hours. Based upon this information, we decided to keep schools open. At that point in time, multiple weather forecasts only called for a small accumulation of snow—up to one inch. The national weather forecast changed at 7:01 a.m. to 2–4 inches of snow, and again at 9:03 a.m. bringing the forecast up to 4–6 inches. Unfortunately, this was logistically too late to reverse course on the decision.

In order to provide SACC services and to give the needed time to VDOT and our own PWCS crews to plow roads and parking lots, there won't be an early release. The School Division will close on-time; however, all after school and evening activities are canceled including Night School, GED, and Adult Education classes. SACC will close at 5 p.m.

Thank you for your patience. We sincerely apologize for the difficulties caused by the weather this morning.

Sure, the county got two to three inches of snow when they were only supposed to get one to two, but you're splitting hairs at that point. The county cannot handle snow like folks in New York or Michigan. Officials know this, residents know this, and hell, even people who have never lived there understand that the area falls apart under a few snowflakes. The whole "buck up" attitude shatters into a thousand pieces because every time they decide to open schools on time while it's snowing, buses crash, kids slip and get hurt, and cars pile up on major arteries.

It's not just Prince William County—the Washington Post's weather blog, the Capital Weather Gang, has more on the terrible decision (and buck-passing) made by neighboring Loudoun and Fairfax counties. In each case, officials apologize and say they were shocked—shocked!—that it snowed just a little bit more than the forecast called for.

People who agree with the districts' decision to open today will point out that "kids would have flocked to the malls anyway," which is also crap. These three school districts have a combined enrollment of more than 330,000 students. Justifying a decision that jeopardizes the safety of hundreds of thousands based on the assumed actions of, what, 100 teenagers at most?, is irresponsible and childish.

Students aren't learning today—they're sitting in gymnasiums and cafeterias because so many teachers couldn't safely make it to school. There was no point in sending kids to school today other than the ability to report to the State Board of Education that you had another "educational" day on the books. Officials blew that decision hard, and no amount of blame-shifting will change the fact that they screwed up big time.

We ask teenagers to make foolproof decisions that will map out the future course of their lives, but the officials responsible for their education have a hard time understanding that a 14-ton school bus can't climb up an icy hill. God help us all.

[Images: @TheDealMommy on Twitter, author, David Moore via Inside Nova]


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Leather-faced sad man John Boehner survived challenges from Louie Gohmert and other GOP weirdos and

Turkish Official Carried By Farmers Possibly Ariana Grande in Disguise

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Turkish Official Carried By Farmers Possibly Ariana Grande in Disguise

A Turkish official who was carried across a snowy patch in the Aegean province because he was not wearing sensible footwear has been suspended, the BBC reports, for his inability to comply with the "municipality's attitude of service, citizen relations and values." He had some local farmers carry him as to not get his feetsies wet.

Ariana, is that you? Nedim Zurnaci, who was head of a rural services department, had been visiting an area of the region that had been hit by heavy snowstorms. He did not come dressed in proper footwear, and instead was hoisted over the snow by local farmers in wellies. Who does that remind you of?

The image of Zurnaci spread through Turkish media like wildfire and now has ended up on our international doorstep, as if the news were carried over the seas by some farmers.

[Image via Hurriyet Daily News]

Did Julian Assange and Pamela Anderson Do It?

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Did Julian Assange and Pamela Anderson Do It?

There was a fun blind item revealed today on the unverifiable gossip site Crazy Days and Nights:

September 8, 2014

There is sleeping with someone for tracks, for a part, or even for money. This former A list mostly television actress turned A list celebrity and reality star for a paycheck slept with this international B list celebrity just for his endorsement. He didn't give it though.

Pamela Anderson/Julian Assange

It's difficult to gauge how much truth there is to such nuggets of gossip. However, in this case, the blind item might actually be onto something. According to the Daily Mail, a meeting between Assange and Anderson occurred last year, right around the time the original blind item was posted. As Charlotte Gill at the Mail reported:

Pamela Anderson has secretly visited Julian Assange at the Ecuadorian Embassy, I can report.

The meeting was arranged by fashion designer Dame Vivienne Westwood, a friend of them both.

Somewhat surprisingly, the Baywatch actress, right, was trying to encourage the Wikileaks founder to back her new foundation, which supports women who are victims of sexual abuse, among other causes.

Westwood later told Gill that Assange and Anderson "got on very well."

The Mail's report curiously lines up with CDAN's supposition. And given what we know about Assange's sexual proclivities, well... who watches the Baywatchers?

[Photo via AP, photo illustration by Jim Cooke]

Charlie Sheen Explodes On Kim K's "Giggly Bag of Funk"

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Charlie Sheen Explodes On Kim K's "Giggly Bag of Funk"

Charlie Sheen, a blinding sun of rage that consumes all in its ambit (starting with booze and Taco Bell) has exploded and collapsed on itself once again, this time in the general direction of Kim Kardashian and her "giggly" ass.

Sheen, who has put himself in charge of defining the right and wrong ways to be a celebrity—Do! Get fired from the most popular shitty comedy on TV after a colossal meltdown. Don't! Refuse to let Charlie Sheen's wife interrupt your meal—took offense when Kim K. declined to sign an autograph for a six-year-old girl and handed down this grim sentence: "Go f yourself!"

In a now-deleted Twitter rant, Sheen wrote:

She cries about it every night before she goes to sleep.

you are lucky that ANYONE cares about your gross and giggly [sic] bag of funk you dare call an ass.

your public loves u. give something back or go f yourself. My apologies to your hubby, great guy I'm sure, I hope his vision returns one day.

Kim did not respond, and went right on living her life as someone people under the age of 30 have heard of.

And, for his information, she has given back more than enough for a lifetime.

[h/t Perez, Photo: Getty Images]

Which Male Senators Liked to Swim Naked in the Senate Pool?

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Which Male Senators Liked to Swim Naked in the Senate Pool?

The latest Politico magazine features a long read by Liza Mundy on "The Secret History of Women in the Senate." While the whole article is surely fascinating, I'd like to focus for a moment on the tantalizing anecdote laid out in its first two paragraphs.

Kay Hagan just wanted to swim. It was late 2008, and the Democrat was newly arrived on Capitol Hill as North Carolina's junior senator-elect. But Hagan was told that the Senate pool was males-only. Why? Because some of the male senators liked to swim naked.

It took an intervention by Senator Chuck Schumer, head of the Rules Committee, to put a stop to the practice, but even then "it was a fight," remembers pollster Celinda Lake, who heard about the incident when the pool revolt was the talk among Washington women.

The story isn't exactly brand-new: Hagan spoke about it—apparently minus the nude swimming bit—at a "pro-choicewomen's luncheon" in 2009 shortly after her election, according to the Raleigh News & Observer. Architect of the Capitol spokeswoman Eva Malecki told the Observer at the time that Hagan was mistaken—"There are no rules prohibiting women senators from using the pool"—so if it existed, the boys-only policy may have been de facto, not de jure.

The awfulness of powerful men who feel threatened by powerful women knows no limit, so let's assume for a moment that an unspoken rule did exist. Who are these garbage boys who were so intent on swimming in the nude with their fellow garbage boys that they fought to keep women senators out entirely?

Have you purified yourself in the waters of the swimming pool at the Senate gymnasium, or do you know someone who has? Leave your baseless gossip and innuendo in the comments, or email me at andy@gawker.com.

[Image via Photo Love/Shutterstock]


Farrah Abraham Fucked Up Her Face and She Loves It

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Farrah Abraham Fucked Up Her Face and She Loves It

Did Farrah Abraham have an allergic reaction to a lip-implant procedure or is her new ledge of an upper lip just a sneaky bid to get on the popular E! fix-her-up series Botched? The answer is probably a little from Column A, a little from Column Dammmmmmmmn That's a Fucked-Up Lip.

Abraham reportedly received a lip implant that did a number on her mug reminiscent to the self-administered face-stretching Geena Davis and Alec Baldwin underwent in that scene in Beetlejuice. Then she tweeted the results (with a #BOTCHED tag):

Own that awful plastic surgery, girl.

An hour later, she tweeted a side-by-side comparison of herself with Futurama's Turanga Leela that was captioned "Gotta love my new look":

Learning to love your newly fucked-up lip is the greatest love of all.

TMZ filled in some details:

We're told Farrah was getting a new procedure, where the doctor puts an implant in the patient's lip...which in theory is cost effective because you don't have to maintain the work with fillers.

Farrah says she researched the doctor and the procedure and decided it was a safe bet. She was wrong. She says the doctors injected her with an anesthetic before the procedure...and believes she had a MAJOR allergic reaction.

Sharks Are Eating the Internet But Not Fucking Fast Enough

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It'd be great if furious animals could destroy all the things that make us unhappy: imagine crows picking apart our texts from mom, or a giraffe stomping on bad cops. Luckily, it looks like sharks are devouring the underwater cables that make the internet possible.

The Stack reports that Vietnam recently suffered a major internet outage after one of the fat underwater cables that carries all our whining and googling was damaged:

Vietnam's branch of the Asia-America Gateway (AAG) cable system has today suffered the latest in a series of physical ruptures that have plagued the country over the last year. AAG report that the breakage occurred in the S1H section of the cable, not far from the shores of Ba Ria at the coastal city of Vung Tau.

The connection is one of only five pipes serving a country of 93 million people, and is the network entry point for local providers VNPT, Viettel, SPT and FPT Telecom. The branch of AAG leading to Vietnam is a blind spoke, so neighbouring regions and countries are unaffected. Other recent breakages in the 12,000 mile (20,000 km) trans-Pacific cable have been responsible for similar network blackouts or slow-downs in Asian locations including Hong Kong, the Philippines, Brunei, Singapore and Thailand, as well as Vietnam, in one case requiring 20 days to repair.

The site notes that it could be some run of the mill underwater accident (all sorts of heavy, sharp shit floating around down there), or it could be the work of a shark with a hunger for more than human flesh (a video of said shark can be seen up top):

As AAG's trans-Pacific enemy is thought by some to be the dangerous but fairly apolitical shark, attracted by the electromagnetic field that the cable generates

Wow. We can only pray this shark keeps chomping, bringing us back to a simpler time, when we worked the land instead of content mills, and sharks ruled the seas, instead of warships.

Shark video via The Daily Dot

Ex-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

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Ex-Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell Sentenced to Two Years in Prison

Four months after he was found guilty of 11 counts of corruption, former Virginia governor Bob McDonnell was sentenced to just two years in federal prison today. The sentence was far lower than the six and half years sought by prosecutors.

From the Washington Post:

U.S. District Judge James R. Spencer said he was moved by the outpouring of support for McDonnell, the governor's military service, and the facts of the case, though he could not ignore the jury's verdict.

"A price must be paid," Spencer said. "Unlike Pontius Pilate, I can't wash my hands of it all. A meaningful sentence must be imposed."

McDonnell, who is expected to appeal, was ordered to report to prison on February 9.

[Image via AP]

Did John Warner Insist on Swimming Naked in the Senate Pool?

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Did John Warner Insist on Swimming Naked in the Senate Pool?

A tipster writes that a "widely accepted" rumor points to the Republican former senator from Virginia, who retired in January 2009.

Angry Student Hacks County's Website to Apologize for Snow Day 'Fuckery'

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Angry Student Hacks County's Website to Apologize for Snow Day 'Fuckery'

Say you're a student in a northern Virginia school district that just robbed you of a snow day and forced you to go to school on icy roads, a decision that caused numerous school bus accidents. How do you get back at them? Hack their site, of course.

As seen in a Snapchat emailed to The Vane by an astute reader, someone—assuming it's an angry student is a likely bet—hacked the Prince William County Public Schools website this afternoon after the school district started classes on-time despite treacherous road conditions, only to publicly apologize for the decision a few hours later (by blaming meteorologists, naturally).

For a brief time on Tuesday afternoon, the banner at the top of the county's website read:

On Tuesday, January 6th all Prince William County Public Schools will be realsing students early due to inclement weather. We have realized we are bitch niggas and apologize for the fuckery.

Angry Student Hacks County's Website to Apologize for Snow Day 'Fuckery'

The alteration was quickly removed and replaced with the original announcement that after school and evening activities are cancelled. No school districts in the D.C. area have announced their intentions for class tomorrow morning—temperatures will stay well below freezing until Friday afternoon.

[Images: a tipster—thanks!, PWCS]


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