Remember back in 2010 when 33 Chilean miners spent 69 days trapped just a few yards above Hell in a caved-in desert mine, sacrificing their health and sanity so that the world might have hilarious topical Halloween costumes? What's the first thing you think of when you think of that incident? JLo? That's the first thing JLo thinks of too.
Awards shows are compelling because they're occasions for the rich, famous, and beautiful to go above and beyond to the apogee of glamor. The Golden Globes, however—mostly due to the mass quantities of alcohol and other substances in close proximity—are often the occasion for the glamorous to become beastlike in the blink of an eye. (Except Kate Winslet. She is never not absolutely fabulous.)
Last night marked the start of the Cannes Film Festival, Hollywood's paid vacation to the south of France. So, who's currently caught up in the collision of blockbusters and indies? Oh, just about every star on earth. Here are just a few.
Fashion survivor Betsey Johnson turns 67 today. Real estate developer Harry Macklowe is turning 72. Actress Angie Harmon is 37. Author, political commentator and blogger Andrew Sullivan is turning 46. Model/actress Devon Aoki is turning 27. Rosanna Arquette is 50. Times art critic Roberta Smith is turning 62. Legendary federal judge Jack Weinstein is 88. Harriet Miers, who served as White House counsel under George W. Bush, is 64. Actor Justin Theroux turns 38. And Antonio Banderas celebrates his 49th birthday today.
• Michelle Obama started digging up part of the South Lawn of the White House today to plant a vegetable garden. In case you ever have to prepare a salad for the president, be advised that Barack is not down beets. [NYT]
• It's official: Per Se is introducing an à la carte menu on Wednesday. [NYT]
• Pichet Ong is closing P'ong and Batch in the West Village. [Eater, GS]
• Trends Frank Bruni has noticed: trotters, little fried birds, cheap wine. [NYT]
• One trend Grub Street has seen all over the place: bone marrow. [GS]
• A few tips on how to handle a really bad waiter. [Bon Appétit]
• The world's oldest bottle of champagne was opened this week. [TimesUK]
• The Journal has a peek inside JGV's weekend home in Westchester. [WSJ]
• Good news: Antonio Banderas is now producing wine. [Decanter]
An Abu Dhabi-based developer, Hydra Properties, has reportedly offered Paris Hilton $2 million to lend her name to a set of apartment buildings in Dubai. (Naturally, the buildings will be named "Paris Hilton Towers" if she agrees to the deal.) This is the same company, we should point out, that tapped Antonio Banderas as a company pitchman a few months ago, which suggests either real estate developers in the Gulf are getting very desperate or there's a rich sheikh out there looking to get lucky. [Gulf News via Curbed]
Click to viewBoomp3.com Ballistic: Ecks VS Sever star Antonio Banderas sought a small dash of spiritual guidance before receiving an award at the annual San Sebastian Film Festival. Banderas gave a dry run of his acceptance speech. The only counsel God gave was to thank Him first and multiple times through out the speech. “Don’t you think that one mention at the beginning is justified?" Banderas replied. "I won’t come off as how do you say…needy?” God shrugged. “Look, dude, it’s your speech," he said. "Say whatever you want. I’m just trying to offer some constructive notes.” [Photo Credit: Getty Images] *A Call To The Bullpen is a work of fiction. Although the pictures we use are most certainly real, Defamer does not purport that any of the incidents or quotations you see in this piece actually happened. Lighten up, people ... it's a joke.
As many loyal Defamer readers must know by now, our favorite blind items tend to include three elements: closeted actors, drug-addicted actresses, and those rare but joyous items that include the quote “Do you want to fuck my wife?” And kudos to the NY Daily News for providing us with the gruesomely enjoyable trifecta all in one sordid little piece today:
Ballistic: Ecks Vs Sever star Antonio Banderas introduced his new fragrance, Blue Seduction, in New York City on Thursday afternoon. Banderas described Blue Seduction as smelling like a Sunday morning after a hot and passionate and steamy Saturday night. Or, as Banderas lovingly said, "Like every night and day at my home." \Then Banderas launched a diatribe about how, if women use his fragrance, it will awaken the lost passion in their relationships. Besides, he said, "I know a thing or two about the way a man would want his woman to smell." Banderas then paused for a breath of air and woefully admitted that he really had no clue as to how the perfume smells, it was just that Melanie was spending more money than she was allotted and he thought this would be an easy way to clear his Capital One balance.
PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often! Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put "sighting" or "PrivacyWatch" in the subject line so we don't lose them) and tell everyone about the time you saw Frodo Baggins overwhelmed with pre-Christmas shopping bags on the 3rd St. Promenade.
· Speculation about which antagonist will be invited to the White House Correspondent's Dinner on April 26th: Matt Drudge reports that several media outlets are considering documentarian Michael Moore, most recently famous for his anti-Bush tirade during the Oscars. [Page Six]
· President Bush's favorite painting of himself was done by a former gay porn star. [Page Six]
· FHM's 50 Most Eligible Bachelorettes include Lauren Bush (1), Pia Getty (6), the Hilton sisters (19), Charlotte Ronson (23), and J-Lo's sister (41). [Page Six]
· One of actress Melanie Griffith's most prized possessions is a bronze replica of husband Antonio Banderas's phallus that she keeps in their bedroom. [Page Six]
· Yoko Ono on John Lennon: "He would never say: 'Let's go dancing,' It's kind of a woman thing, I guess." [NY Daily News]
· Martin Sheen raged against the Warner Brothers PR machine at an international press junket last Tuesday, giving a "very passionate speech about how the p.r. man should not dictate what questions the journalists were allowed to ask, what he was allowed to discuss, and how this was a good example of why he felt the need to speak his mind." [Page Six]
· Stephen Sondheim is (inexplicably) doing a musical version of Bill Murray's Groundhog Day. [Page Six]
· Rapper 50 Cent bought his six-year-old son a kiddie-sized tailor-made bulletproof vest. [Page Six]
· Antonio Banderas on LA: "I don't like living in California. I like Spain. People in Los Angeles are fake." [Cindy Adams]
· Liz Smith points out that Brian Tolle and Brian Clynecreators of the critically acclaimed Irish Hunger Memorial in Battery Park Citywill not be allowed to march in the St. Patrick's Day Parade because they are gay. [Liz Smith]
· Security guards at the Jean Paul Gautier show covered PETA protesters in fur coats as they hauled them away. [NY Daily News]
· Liza Minnelli and David Gest's anniversary party was nearly cancelled because Gest wanted to book the Regent Wall Street hotel for next to nothing. [Page Six]
· Sarah Jessica Parker and Matthew Broderick say they're not sending their son to an uptown private school because "In some parts of New York, you get a really narrow slice of life, and they turn out like Little Lord Fauntleroys. We wouldn't send him to a school like that." [Page Six]
· Antonio Banderas tells wife Melanie Griffith "no more cosmetic surgery." [Cindy Adams]
· When real estate queen Barbara Corcoran was still a waitress, she complained to her mother that "the ones with the big breasts were the ones getting the big tips." Her mother responded, "So, in the absence of big breasts, wear pigtails and put ribbons on them." It worked. [Cindy Adams]
· Norman Mailer (unsurprisingly) snapped at his audience at Barnes & Noble on Tuesday; Tina Brown's party for Arianna Huffington ended with Princeton professor Sean Wilentz falling asleep in Tina and Harry's bed which Tina says "hasn't happened since [she] was an undergraduate"; and rumors are still circulating that Billy Joel was drinking before his car accident last weekend. [NY Daily News]
