Strollerderby : Kevin Bacon

Morning News – Drunken Jokers With Bionic Limbs And Flying Cars

Brett Singer — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 14:00:00 GMT

Happy Friday, everyone!

Comments on yesterday's Morning News got pretty heated. I considered doing nothing but stories about puppies, rainbows and sunshine today, but decided that was no fun. And as it turns out, the "Crossfire"-esque commenting has morphed into an interesting back and forth between persons of differing political persuasions. Thank you to everyone from both sides of the aisle who weighed in; check out the debate here.

Diane Sawyer appeared to be drunk during the Inauguration coverage on ABC. Was she celebrating Obama's victory? Is she a McCain voter trying to forget? No one knows. While it's not completely certain that she was nipping at the sauce, this video makes a darn good case for it.

Caroline Kennedy (Schlossberg) did indeed bail on her quest to be a Senator without the hassle of actually winning an election. The New York Times is reporting that "Problems involving taxes and a household employee" were uncovered during the vetting process, so she bowed out. Whenever information like this is "suddenly" discovered, I always wonder how it is that nobody knew about it until it was too late. As in, Ms. Kennedy (Schlossberg) must have known that she had a tax issue, right? Also, it's still unclear if New York Governor David Paterson would have picked Kennedy (Schlossberg) or not. Um, it kind of doesn't matter anymore, folks. Let it go. Paterson will reportedly announce his choice today; convention wisdom says Andrew "HUD? What's a HUD?" Cuomo will get Hillary Clinton's old seat. (Hillary is now officially Secretary of State, by the way – she started work yesterday.) UPDATE: I was wrong, wrong, wrong -- the Times is reporting that Governor Paterson has selected Kirsten Gillibrand as Hillary Clinton's replacement in the Senate. Ms. Gillibrand is a congresswoman from upstate NY who is mother to two young children and has been endorsed by the National Rifle Association, according to the Times. I'm mentioning the mom thing because this is a parenting web site, and the NRA endorsement because that makes her a potentially controversial choice, since most Democrats aren't big NRA folks. (Gillibrand's official bio page is getting jammed with web traffic, but here's Google's cached version.)

Interesting tidbit about the Roberts Oath Flub (Flubgate, anyone?) – a certain Senator Barack Obama voted against the Chief Justice's confirmation in 2005.

In business news, the Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the "conflicting reports" regarding Steve Jobs health. First he said he wasn't that sick, then he said he was leaving for six months, blah blah blah. Personally, I thought "hormone imbalance" sounded pretty serious when it was first announced. If only the SEC had been equally diligent about Bernie Madoff, poor Kevin Bacon wouldn't be reading the script for "Footloose 2". (I'm only joking about "Footloose 2." I hope. Kevin is looking for work though, so if you hear of anything, give him a ring.)

A very cool medical story from England: 19-year-old British college student Evan Reynolds now has a bionic hand. Reynolds lost his appendage three years ago, and can operate his new prosthetic limb by thought. ''It's so sensitive I can grip a bottle of water or a paper cup without crushing it and even swing a racket," he says. ''All I have to do is imagine picking something up or gripping it and the fingers and thumb move automatically." Like I said: very cool.

Oh, and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced the nominations for the 81st Academy Awards. Some were surprised that Heath Ledger got a Best Supporting Actor nod for his performance as The Joker in "The Dark Knight", but the real surprise to me was Robert Downey Jr.'s nomination for "Tropic Thunder." Not only is it a comedy, it was also a controversial one as I recall (that whole "retard" thing). Personally, I think Ledger will win. If he does, it won't be undeserved -- he gave an incredible performance. Brad Brevet says that Kate Winslet's nomination for "The Reader" is "fishy"; I admit that I couldn't read the full post, which actually quotes Academy voting rules. I was surprised that Clint Eastwood didn't get some love for "Gran Torino," but hey, you can't win 'em all.

The mother who named one of her children Adolf Hitler wants her kids back. "The parents insist they're not racists and want only to honor the heritage of the Third Reich," says the Daily News. What can one say to that?

Finally, someone has actually made a flying car! Terrafugia, the company that makes the vehicle (called the "Transition") calls it a "roadable aircraft," which doesn't exactly trip off the tongue. It goes 500 miles on a full tank of regular unleaded gasoline, and features folding wings. Bottom line: IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. It also costs $194,000 and probably requires a good-sized garage with access to a ready supply of fuel. So it's not exactly ready for mass consumption. However, IT IS A CAR THAT FLIES. Did I mention that?

Have a great weekend!

Image: Times Online

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Sarah Palin Says Leave My Kids Alone

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Sasha and Malia Beanie Baby Dolls

Best of FameCrawler: Week of January 16th

Whit Honea — Fri, 16 Jan 2009 21:00:00 GMT

Mr. Roarke Dead; Gen-Xer In Mourning

Golden Globe 2009 - List of Winners

Britney in Sex and the City Sequel?

Kate Hudson is a Hussy

Update! Jen & Ben Reveal Daughter's Name!!

Are Ashanti and Nelly Expecting a Baby Together?

Take a Number: Lance Armstrong Will Fall in Love With You Next

Heath Ledger Wins Golden Globe

Guess Who's Getting Married In April?

Oprah French Kisses Kate Winslet's Breasts!

You Just Got Bacon'd!

WTF, Brad And Angie? Srsly.

Six Rock-Solid Celebrity Marriages

Jen Chaney — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 21:02:00 GMT

As I read about the sad death of Bernie Mac over the weekend, I took note that the "King of Comedy" and his wife Rhonda maintained a healthy marriage for 30 years. That's admirable under any circumstances, but the fact that they stayed together despite the pressures and pleasures of Bernie's fame is doubly impressive.

While many of us gnaw on any gossip we can find about Hollywood marriages that have hit snags or deteriorated, some celebrities continue to stay happily married and raise seemingly stable families. Today -- as many send their sympathies to Bernie's grieving wife Rhonda -- we at Strollerderby salute six more of the most rock-solid famous couples ever.

1. Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward: They've been married for 50 years, they have three daughters together and they've co-starred in plays and films multiple times. Theirs' might be the quintessential rock-solid Hollywood marriage and one that, sadly, we may be hearing more about in the near future. Newman, who suffers from cancer, reportedly has just weeks to live. Here's hoping he stays by his wife's side as long as he can.

2. Billy and Janice Crystal: The "When Harry Met Sally..." star has claimed that Janice, his wife of 38 years, is the only woman he's ever dated. Whether or not that's true, it's clear that he was with her before he got "Soap," "Saturday Night Live" or "City Slickers" and he's still with her today. They have two daughters together.

3. Denzel and Pauletta Washington: How easy would it be for Denzel to leave his wife for, oh, pretty much any woman on the planet who would happily hang on his arm? But he hasn't. He and wife Pauletta wed in 1983, are still married and have raised four children together. The Washingtons have got game, not to mention class.

4. Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara: Together, they were the comedy team of Stiller and Meara in the 1950s. But Jerry Stiller and Anne Meara later found fame on their own, in movies, on stage and, most recently, on TV shows like "Seinfeld" and "Sex and the City." Through it all, they have been husband and wife for 54 years and boast two children who also found success in Hollywood: Amy Stiller and some guy named Ben Stiller.

5. Kevin Bacon and Kyra Sedgwick: Next month the star of "Footloose" and the star of "The Closer" will celebrate 20 years of marriage. Somehow they have nurtured busy careers while also nurturing two grown children. And I do mean busy: Sedgwick currently spends half of the year in L.A. filming "The Closer" and, as we all know, Bacon has starred in a movie with almost every working actor in the business.

6. Steven Spielberg and Kate Capshaw: The director of "E.T." got a costly divorce from Amy Irving before he finally settled down with Capshaw. But once they tied the knot, it stayed tied. The couple has been married for almost 17 years and has five kids together, plus two more, one from each of their respective previous marriages. The second time at the altar seems to have been the charm for both.

5 Totally Unrealistic Birth Scenes

editors — Tue, 13 May 2008 16:37:00 GMT

None of us need a repeat of the crowning glory that was Knocked Up, but hopefully KU will inspire future filmmakers to at least make the birth scene less contrived, if not anatomically correct. Five that represent the extreme of the silver screen - April Peveteaux

1. Look Who’s Talking, 1989

Highlight of birth scene: weird plastic doll sees tracers after mom is dosed with pain meds. But somehow watching the whole thing in French makes it more palpable…

2. She’s Having a Baby, 1988

Apparently in 1988 breech babies were life-threatening and husbands were still getting kicked out of the delivery room.

3. Rosemary’s Baby, 1968

One would just think it might be much more painful spawning the son of Satan.

4. Freddy Got Fingered, 2001

Tom Green delivers a baby in thirty-eight seconds then bites off the umbilical cord. A lack of hilarity ensues.

5. Nine Months, 1995

In which we witness the "full moon" factor, video camera antics by husbands behaving badly and synchronized cervix dilation.