This 2001 clip of Robin Williams on Inside the Actor's Studio is making the rounds today, for obvious reasons. In it, James Lipton asks Williams, "If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?"
James Gandolfini turns 48 today. Lance Armstrong is turning 38. Jada Pinkett Smith is 38 today, too. Designer Karim Rashid is 49. Comic actor Fred Willard is turning 70. Actor James Marsden is 36. The Brazilian soccer star Ronaldo is turning 33. The rapper Xzibit is turning 35. Senator Bob Bennett of Utah is 75. Actress and former Talk Soup host Aisha Tyler is 39. Singer Frankie Avalon is turning 69. Actress Holly Robinson Peete is 45 today. And Robert Blake, the former Baretta star who was acquitted of murder in 2005, turns 76 today. You'll find weekend birthdays listed below.
• A recent Elle photoshoot with Britney Spears turned out to be a bit messier than expected. [P6]
• A photographer has filed suit against Chris Brown. He's claiming the singer's bodyguards beat him up when he tried to take pics of Brown in March. [Us]
• Is Anthony Weiner engaged to Huma Abedin? [P6]
• Jay-Z is supposedly in talks with Lyor Cohen to set up a new record label at Warner Music. [NYDN]
• Chace Crawford may be having a fling with 19-year-old Sports Illustrated swimsuit model Esti Ginzburg. [P6]
• Jane Fonda knows how to travel. She pretends she's injured so she can cruise through security in a wheelchair, apparently. [NYDN]
• Get ready: Prince Harry arrives in NYC tomorrow. [NYDN]
Look into the eyes of Inside the Actors Studio host James Lipton, and what do you see? A wild sycophancy that has led the man to the edge of a nervous breakdown, perhaps?
Now that footage of Daniel Radcliffe's nude performance in Equus has hit the interwebs, audiences everywhere have discovered that what the young wizard lacks in wand, he certainly makes up for in sheer balls. It's for precisely that reason that while appearing on Inside the Actor's Studio this week, Radcliffe gave James Lipton a surprising answer to the self-posed question, "Are you ever worried about getting an erection onstage?"Quite the opposite, said Radcliffe, who explained that it would at least add some inches to his much-scrutinized manhood. Take heart, Dan — at least that shrinkage brings you ever closer to your long-held dream of playing Hermione!
Dave Chappelle's most recent AWOL streak ends Monday on Bravo, when he will appear on the 200th episode of Inside the Actors Studio. Except, in a clever twist we're presuming occurred only because Diana Ross was unavailable, Chappelle will interview Lipton for the whole show.Today we got a glimpse of the comic delivering the episode's customary windy introduction, which comes as close as we've been to a Chappelle performance in years — properly reverential of Lipton's mile-long resume (even the "literary perennial An Exaltation of Larks," a title no one can read with a straight face) while dropping random bursts of profanity and invective when necessary. The only thing that likely would have improved this would have been a Chappelle-esque three-hour wait for Lipton's arrival, followed by a chain-smoking binge of payback from their last tilt in 2005. Or maybe that comes later in the episode. Either way, congrats, Jim! [Bravo]
It will probably be a fun weekend for Lydia Hearst: the heiress turns 24 today. Others blowing out candles today: Jimmy Fallon is 34. Soledad O'Brien of CNN is 42. Richie Akiva is 32, although the invite to his birthday party said it was his 30th. James Lipton is 82. Former HarperCollins chief Jane Friedman is 63. Defense attorney Barry Scheck is turning 59. And model Victoria Silvstedt is 34. On Saturday: Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein (pictured here with Lydia, a first we imagine) will be 54. Financier Joseph Perella will be 67. Sophia Loren will turn 74. Ad exec Scott Goodson will celebrate his 45th. Interior designer Geoffrey Bradfield will be 62. And Jossip's David Hauslaib will turn 25. On Sunday: Jane Rosenthal will be 52. Stephen King will be 61. Bill Murray will celebrate his 58th. Jerry Bruckheimer will be 63. Book publisher Geoff Kloske will turn 39. Natural History museum president Ellen Futter will be 59. Nicole Richie will be 27. Cheryl Hines will turn 43. Luke Wilson will be 37. And filmmaker Ethan Coen will be celebrating his 51st.
1) A screening of Bottle Shock, a dramedy about when California beat France in a wine taste test, was hosted by Michael Dunbar of Domaine Chandon and Newton Vineyard on Sunday night at the Southampton Cinema. The film's stars Alan Rickman, Eliza Dushku, and Bill Pullman, along with Bronson van Wyck, Andrew Fry, Devorah Rose, Elizabeth Lindemann, Jill, John, and Whitney Fairchild, Jeanne Greenberg and Nick Rohatyn, and Bettina Zilkha, watched the film followed by food and wine at Savanna's. [PMc]
Lipton is known for his endlessly fawning interviews with celebs on Inside the Actors Studio.
In case you're wondering, the world's most pretentious sycophant king, "Inside the Actor's Studio" host James Lipton, will be having dinner at Alison Restaurant in Bridgehampton at 7 p.m. this Friday. $37 for 3 courses—which seems like a deal until you realize you'll have to eat those courses next to James Lipton, which means no amount of foie gras can undo the permanent psychic damage of his proximity.
