lily allen opens up
  In Los Angeles, if you want to feel like you're not in Los Angeles, stay at the Chateau Marmont. It's the kind of place, hidden as it is off an elbow of the Sunset Strip, where you imagine homesick Europeans holed up between screen tests, drawn to its provincial layout and shadowy bungalows. On this summer day, it's the Saturday Night Live cast members doing the holing up. Amy Poehler is sitting alone, and minutes later Bill Hader arrives -- you know, the guy who isn't Andy Samberg -- not t

Random Notes: Bob Dylan, Metallica, Billy Joel and Amy Winehouse: Radiohead, Marilyn Manson, Eric Clapton and the Week in Rock
Radiohead, Marilyn Manson, Eric Clapton and the Week in Rock

Random Notes: Madonna, Anthony Kiedis, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen: The Jonas Brothers, Rod Stewart, Paramore and the Week in Rock
The Jonas Brothers, Rod Stewart, Paramore and the Week in Rock

Random Notes: Paramore, Anthony Kiedis, Madonna and the Week in Rock
The Material Girl crosses the half-century mark (officially making her a Material Matron), the Chili Pepper takes the mound at Dodger Stadium and Hayley Williams grins her way through a radio performance. Plus Zac Efron chilling with Dave Navarro (no, we don’t know why), Lily Allen getting punchy with a fellow club-goer and more photos of the week in rock in Random Notes. • Random Notes: Madonna, Anthony Kiedis, Amy Winehouse and Lily Allen Rolling Stone Share Email

Celebs News: Britney Spears, Jay Z, Sienna Miller and more in Mirror.co.uk’s Friday gossip round-up
The land of celebrity is going baby crazy. Spice Girl Mel C has just announced she’s expecting her first child, Matt Damon has had another baby girl, Gwen Stefani’s given birth to her second son as has Kirstie Allsop and old snake hips Ricky Martin is the proud father of twins, thanks to a surrogate mother – ask no questions. But of course, the best thing about stars reproducing is the weird and wonderful names they conjure up for their new additions. Gwen and husband Gavin have come

Hiding Your Listening Habits On Social-Networking Sites? You Should Be Ashamed! [Somethin 4 The Weekend]
Today I ran across a neat page on Last.fm outlining the songs and artists that are most likely to be deleted from users' musical histories on the site, which charts its users' listening habits to come up with a bunch of charts that constitute a musical profile that's then shared with the world. While the No. 1 artist who's been deleted from peoples' listening habits isn't all that surprising—"[unknown]," who comes up when people don't fill out their ID3 tags properly before giving songs a spin—a

The Decemberists Ready “Singles Series,”“Conan” Appearance
Starting October 14th, the Decemberists will begin releasing their three-volume Always The Bridesmaid: A Singles Series. The first installment, available both digitally and on 10′’ vinyl, will feature “O New England” and “Valerie Plame,” an ode to the former CIA operative that was outed by Dick Cheney’s Chief of Staff “Scooter” Libby. Additionally, the band will hit Late Night with Conan O’Brien the eve of Election Day and the other two volumes in

"Variety" Goes Behind The Music (In The Movie Trailer) [In A World...]
Variety launched a package called Music for Screens yesterday, and it's full of pieces that are apparently designed to appeal to people who like music, but prefer it in 45-second clips—you know, when it airs during movie trailers or crucial scenes on Gossip Girl. I was particularly interested in the trade pub's look at people who compose music for movie trailers. In today's movie business, the movie trailer carries almost as much importance and buzz as the movie it precedes, and like any good

Breaking the Spell: As we mentioned last ... [Regrets]
Breaking the Spell: As we mentioned last week, the soul-shattering news that Warner Bros. planned to bump Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince to Summer 2009 was met with instant derision, scorn and boycott petitions in the global Potter fan community. In between counting his Dark Knight cash and stuffing it in envelopes addressed to Fox, however, studio boss Alan Horn drafted a memo to assuage a billion broken hearts: "Many of you have written to me to express your disappointment," he begins. "Please be

We Can’t Wait for ‘FBI Art Squad,’ the Movie
Today's Wall Street Journal offers an option-ready profile of Robert Wittman, a Pennsylvania-based FBI agent who goes undercover to find art thieves and ferret them out. Thanks to his efforts, over $225 million in missing art has been recovered, including an original copy of the Bill of Rights and the Rembrandt self-portrait on the left. Apparently art thieves are no longer engaging in fun Thomas Crown Affair bullshit but instead just steal paintings at gunpoint now. So there's everything you need for a mov

Earlier, we parsed the spurious infanticide ... [How To Win Friends And Influence People]
Earlier, we parsed the spurious infanticide charges leveled at Barack Obama by, among others, this woman — Jill Stanek. Jill's a big anti-abortion, anti-birth-control, pro-"purity" and anti-reality activist who got the infanticide ball rolling with the help of some people in the media that take her somewhat seriously despite her use of the word "baby-killer" to describe pro-choice lawmakers. Media Matters, however, points out that Stancek also promotes domestic violence as an acceptable reaction to a

Milo Ventimiglia Asks, ‘Want To Play A Game?’
The teaser trailer for “Game” won’t be out until the holidays — since the film was just delayed until next year — but co-star Milo Ventimiglia (”Heroes”) said it’ll be worth the wait. The game in “Game” — from “Crank” and “Pathology” creators Mark Neveldine and Brian Taylor — is a futuristic multiplayer in which you can control other people. Gerard Butler’s, John Leguizamo’s, and Ventimiglia’s

Too Many Details About Knight Rider, Chuck, Torchwood and Lost! [Morning Spoilers]
The spoiler onslaught continues. We have a trippy explanation of what Vin Diesel's Babylon A.D. is really about. We got a ton of script pages from upcoming episodes of Knight Rider and Chuck — and the deranged Knight Rider storyline must be read to be believed. (There's some super high-level computer science mixed in with that car-wrangling!) There are also new photos from the filming of Torchwood season three, and some Heroes promo pix. Plus details on some new Lost guest stars. It's all part of our ongo

A Pennsylvania woman can go ahead and sue ... [Lawsuits]
A Pennsylvania woman can go ahead and sue Universal Music Corp. for making YouTube take down a 29-second clip of her baby dancing to Prince's "Let's Go Crazy," according to a judge in San Jose, Calif. The judge said that Universal, which controls the publishing rights to the Purple One's catalog, needs to decide whether or not the snippet fell under the "fair use" guidelines, although given the company's past history of negotiating with the Internet I'm going to guess their stance is "the only fair use is u

We Will Beam Electricity Directly Into Your Brain -- No Wires Needed [Mad Engineering]
If you're sick of your laptop and mobile running out of power, fret no more. Researchers have invented a system of "wireless electricity" that powers up your devices without having to plug them in. Yesterday the CTO of Intel, Justin Rattner, wowed a crowd of journalists with the prototype for this wireless electricity system. Using an emitter device, Rattner beamed power to a lamp on stage, powering up the bulb from a distance. Sounds convenient, but many questions remain. Is it safe to wander through an en

Eclectic mix of contestants for ‘Amazing Race’
An ex-NFL player and his estranged wife, a former Dallas Cowboys cheerleader and her actor brother, recent divorcees, a pair of Southern belles and fraternity brothers are among the 11 two-person teams hurrying for the finish line — and the $1 million grand prize — on the upcoming 13th edition of CBS' "The Amazing Race.""I love the fraternity brothers because they're so young and such a contrasting team," host Phil Keoghan recently told The Associated Press. "One takes his time to think things out. The

‘Sex and the City’ Leads Weekend Box Office
The film has earned an estimated $55.7 million since Thursday, making it an unconventional summer hit.

The Worst Fake Accents From The Yanks (And Canucks) Of Science Fiction [Horrendous Accents From Scifi]
A few weeks ago we gave you the best and the worst of fake American accents from science fiction's army of Brits, who are slowly taking over the genre. But there's an even bigger problem out there: American and Canadian science fiction actors who mangle and mumble their way through a whole range of fake accents. Click through for our list of the ten biggest accent failures, with clips. This week the worst accents in scifi attempted by American and Canadian actors. Click through to find out who made it and

What To Do When You See A Poor Person Beating A Rich Child? [Badvertising]
Friday is usually a pretty inoffensive day for the Times op-ed page. (Dowd saves her punny schlockicisms for Wednesdays and Sundays, Kristol gets Mondays, and the worst administration actually made honest men out of the formerly-predictable ideologues [Krugman and Brooks!] who run the Friday shift.) But today right underneath Paul Krugman's column about how the plutocracy's geometric accumulation of wealth has caused the merely superrich to consider themselves and their own warped senses of reality somehow

Why Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale named their boy “Zuma Nesta Rock”
Last night when the news broke that Gwen Stefani had her baby and named it Zuma but the gender wasn’t known yet the first thing I did was look up the name. Since it was listed as a girl’s name, and sounded pretty feminine to me, I made up an “it’s a girl” graphic, declared it a girl and hoped to call it a night. Then People came out with the news that the Stefani-Rossdale’s had decided to name their little boy Zuma and it became the latest addition to the ever-growing lis

Darth Vader — Sith lord, dirty old man?
The latest entry into the "Star Wars" canon features a new, female character whose charms are not lost on Anakin Skywalker, the Jedi general on the brink of becoming the baddest bad guy the galaxy has ever known.Ahsoka Tano — who easily out-toughs even Princess Leia in her prime — is smart, sassy and skilled with a light saber. And despite that she's merely a teen 'toon, Ahsoka kicks up more chemistry in a few scenes with the animated Vader-in-waiting than the real-life Natalie Portman could muster over

Living The Hollywood High Life With ‘House Bunny’ Star And All-American Rejects Frontman Tyson Ritter
Being a movie star sure seems easy. Free screenings, hanging out with other celebrities and parties at the Playboy Mansion are just part of a day in the life. Well, this ascent onto the silver screen is something Tyson Ritter of The All-American Rejects is just getting used to. And let me tell you, after spending several hours on Ritter detail at the premiere of “The House Bunny” (which marks the head Reject’s film debut) I found out firsthand that superstardom does take its toll …

High Times: Sarah Silverman And The Best Of Pot Psychology [Pot Psychology]
I just got back from my Tennessee vacation yesterday morning, which was kind of a bummer because I had so much fun, but the blow of returning to reality was softened by something kind of surreal. Last night, Pot Psychology was part of a comedy event in Brooklyn that also featured Sarah Silverman! I could not have been more stoked about it. That is, until I got stoned to the bone right before I got there, which turned out to be a horrible idea because when I arrived, the tiny venue was packed, which sparked

The Olympic Hookup Scene, Continued [From The Archives]
We already told you about all the sex Olympians are having during the Games... this year. But we unearthed another variation of this delightful trend piece from the leadup to the 2000 Sydney Games. Published in Women's Sports & Fitness, it detailed the orgies of Olympics past. Not only were they handing out condoms, but from "one former Olympic swimmer who earned the nickname Plunge King, and not for his aquatic performance: 'There are the most beautiful women I've ever seen. I love the synchronized swimmer

Humans Abandon Earth, Bring Sexual Harrassment With Them [Venus Rises]
Two webseries premiered this past week, and NBC's superslick Gemini Division, starring Rosario Dawson, grabbed all the attention. But the rough-and-ready Venus Rises also launched its first episode, about ore miners in deep space. In Venus Rises, humans have abandoned the Earth, and there's a class division between the Martian overlords and the Venusian workers. Click through to find out more. The first episode, "Ikarus part 1," is actually a prequel to the main series. The series is somewhat confusingly m