Two of America's straightest men had a nice hang the other day. Also today: Leo cozies up to even more models, Bree Olson quits the game, Prince Harry eats a burger, and Melanie Griffith eats a hotdog.
The underutilized actress has much to offer, but is not offered much. Also today: the continued employment of Courtney Thorne-Smith, AMC has a bad idea, and Showtime is getting into the Stephen King business.
Ethan Hawke turns 39 today. Mike Nichols, the film director and husband of Diane Sawyer, is turning 78. Gossip Girl's Kelly Rutherford is 41. The First Lady of California, Maria Shriver, is 54. Sally Field is turning 62. Writer Michael Cunningham is 57. Rebecca Romijn (formerly Rebecca Romijn-Stamos) turns 37 today. Thandie Newton is turning 37. Taryn Manning is 31. Actress Emma Stone is 21. TV host Catherine Crier is turning 55. Former Manhattan Borough President Ruth Messinger is turning 69. Joe Wilson, the former diplomat and husband of Valerie Plame, is 60 And Lamar Odom, the NBA star and poor soul now married to Khloe Kardashian, is 30. A few weekend birthdays after the jump.
Filmmaker Morgan Spurlock is 38 today. Joni Mitchell is 65. Reverend Billy Graham is 90. General David Petraeus is turning 56. Former Brady Bunch star Christopher Knight turns 51. Lost star Yunjin Kim is 35. Interior designer John Barman is 59. And twin actors Jeremy and Jason London are 36. Weekend birthdays after the jump.
Hey! Our book is out! Today's the big day when this website joins the ranks of published authors such as Jose Canseco, Courtney Thorne-Smith, and Robert Olen Butler! To celebrate The Gawker Guide To Conquering All Media, we're gonna run three contests, because we got corporate to cough up some actual dough for prizes. We'll kick off with a quick and dirty yet secretly difficult contest. On October 19th, we'll randomly choose someone who correctly named all the people on the cover of the book and they will win an iPod video nano. You have to use our handy-dandy submission form—and naturally, the usual contest rules apply. Fair warning: Our upcoming contests will actually require you to, you know, have read the book.
So Courtney Thorne-Smith, who you might recall as the author of The Greatest Celebrity Novel of Our Time, has granted an interview in which she vows that the heroine of her book, Kate Keyes-Morgan, is no mere analog for Courtney Thorne-Smith. "'I know people are going to think it's autobiographical,' Thorne-Smith said. But the cad is not her ex-husband and the dreadful mother is 'so comically not my mom. My mom would crawl over hot coals to have lunch with me.'" Um, okay! We want to believe Courtney, we really do. But it's hard to believe anything in an article that also contains the words, "Looking barely older than when she played Alison Parker on "Melrose Place" in the 1990s ..."
Great American Celebrity Novel 'Outside In' seems to be mostly about our heroine Kate Keyes-Morgan's terrible relationship with her husband-manager Hamilton. Courtney Thorne-Smith used to be married to a different guy than the guy she is currently married to. Huh!
According to IMDB, the author of Great American Celebrity Novel Courtney Thorne-Smith "once considered herself overly busty with a 32DD measurement but eschewed reduction surgery in favor of yoga which she says reshaped her figure of a C cup. 'My body fat got redistributed, and my breasts got smaller.'" That's crazy!
As we continue to enjoy the unghostwritten literary debut of one of America's most beloved television actresses, we learn a lot about pain and human nature and our heroine, Kate Keyes-Morgan. One of the things we learn is that her controlling husband has basically forced her to have an eating disorder. Fun times!
We continue to be impressed by "Outside In," the unghostwritten debut of one of America's most beloved television actresses, albeit in the same way that we were impressed when we realized that the dog we're currently dogsitting for had taken a massive dump indoors—but had managed to figure out that she should take said massive dump in the shower. Lower your standards and join us on page 15, where washed-up movie star turned T.V. diva Sapphire Rose is having one of her characteristic meltdowns.
"It was the best of times, it was the worst of times." "Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins." "Happy families are all alike; every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." "It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife." "It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen." And now, unaided (her publisher claims) by a ghostwriter, one of America's most beloved television actresses has contributed to that list the following:
"Fall," which now begins in late summer, has traditionally been the season when publishers bring out their heavy hitters. For Random House imprint Broadway, this fall's lead title is one of the most exciting they've ever published. It's by "one of America's most beloved television actresses" who "has had roles on (among other shows) 'Melrose Place' and 'According to Jim.'" Yes, we are talking about the debut novel of none other than Courtney Thorne-Smith, who, according to industry insiders, actually wrote the entire thing all by her own self. We don't yet have an advance reader's copy, so the book's description from Amazon will have to be what helps you determine where Thorne-Smith fits on the Paulina Porizkova-Ethan Hawke continuum.
Normally, any development in an According to Jim cast member's love-life short of a Belushi-related murder-suicide wouldn't rate a mention, but taken with yesterday's news that Hilary Swank is finally owning up to her relationship with a member of the ten-percent-taking caste, we think we're seeing the beginnings of a troubling trend; should an actress form an emotional attachment to someone she should merely be screwing for the career benefits, she should keep that shameful fact to herself, and not further erode the accepted social order by trumpeting her misguided, taboo-defying love to the press.
