And here's something for those Mathew McConaughey fans (a.k.a. me)!!
Sunday, February 18, 2007
One for the ladies...
This if for my friend who's in love with McDreamy. Yes you. (*click McDreamy for a little surprise*)
And here's something for those Mathew McConaughey fans (a.k.a. me)!!
And here's something for those Mathew McConaughey fans (a.k.a. me)!!
♥ Becks & Posh ♥
Is anyone else counting down the days til Becks and Posh step onto US soil for good? Just me? :(
They're so stylish. I was watching one of those entertainment news shows the other night, either Access Hollywood or Extra, and they showed a clip of Victoria Beckham saying this: "I think Americans think that the British are most sophisticated, and we are."
I ♥ Posh. At least she can back up her words with style. The coat, the skirt, the shirt, the heels.
Sophisticated darling, sophisticated. I love her style. I can't wait for her clothing line. You just know it's going to be hot. She's got a great sense of style. You can check out her guest editor work for Harper's Bazaar. I'm not sure which month it is, but Katie Holmes is on the cover.
Just for 'Sexy' Kicks
On AOL's music site, there's a feature about the 69 sexiest songs. I was more interested in the failed 'sexy' songs (Sisqo's "Thong Song" being one of them). Here's another:
And Justin pauses during his Grammy performance to wonder why that is.
As do Carson Kressley, Petra Nemcova, and Carmen Electra.
And Justin pauses during his Grammy performance to wonder why that is.
As do Carson Kressley, Petra Nemcova, and Carmen Electra.
Carnival Jump Up
So it's 82 degrees in sexy Rio de Janeiro, and I'm trapped in 27 degree New York. Yay! :o Maybe this article about carnival will warm me up.
At carnival, samba is serious business
By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
Armies of shirtless men pushed opulent floats toward Rio's samba stadium Sunday for the centerpiece of Brazil's carnival celebrations, a hard-fought samba dance competition.
The parades last all night Sunday and Monday, featuring women wearing impossibly high heels and glittering body paint shaking their stuff alongside bare-chested men. Thousands of elaborately costumed dancers and hundreds of drummers escort the floats, keeping up an earsplitting rhythm.
But it's much more than pure spectacle. The groups spend upward of a million dollars to mount 80-minute-long spectacles in the Sambadrome — a 60,000-seat venue built exclusively for the parades — featuring as many 4,500 dancers, all in an attempt to impress a panel of judges made up of folklorists, musicologists and carnival scholars.
The 13 competing dance groups come from the city's shantytowns, and their showdown is a welcome distraction from the gunfights between drug traffickers, militias and police that have left at least 15 dead over the past week alone in the hills around downtown Rio. Adoring fans follow the live broadcasts with a passion usually reserved for the World Cup.
This year organizers have change the rules to wrap up the parade at an earlier hour. In the past, the Samba parade dragged on well past dawn, ending as late as 9:30 a.m., with revelers often struggling under the weight of heavy costumes under the punishing tropical sun.
The schools are judged in 10 different categories including music, the quality of their dancing and floats, their parade theme, and crowd reaction. A less than perfect score can dash a school's chances of victory.
The featured dancers — especially the female flag bearers and their male counterparts — practice all year to perfect their steps, which are actually closer to minuet than samba.
"Being a flag bearer is almost like being a ballet dancer, it's not just samba, not everyone can do it. For me it's a way of life," said Selma Sorriso, flag bearer for the Beija Flor carnival group.
Being relegated to the second division — which gets much less television exposure — means losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships.
It's long been an open secret that funding for the parade comes from an illegal numbers game but legitimate sponsors, such as corporations and Brazilian states, also have emerged in recent years.
The winners and losers are the subject of much squabbling among Brazilians, who frequently accuse judges of bias when their favorite schools achieve less than a perfect score.
But such rivalries are of little consequence to the more than 200,000 foreign tourists watching the show.
"I expect there will be a lot of color and fun," said Hayley Purvrick, a 23-year-old student from Australia, while sipping a caipirinha, Brazil's national drink, on Copacabana beach.
---
God I got to get my behind to Brazil one of these days. If not for the beautiful people and culture, for the weather and the beach. Oh who am I kidding, I wanna see some hotties!! ;-)
At carnival, samba is serious business
By MICHAEL ASTOR, Associated Press Writer
Armies of shirtless men pushed opulent floats toward Rio's samba stadium Sunday for the centerpiece of Brazil's carnival celebrations, a hard-fought samba dance competition.The parades last all night Sunday and Monday, featuring women wearing impossibly high heels and glittering body paint shaking their stuff alongside bare-chested men. Thousands of elaborately costumed dancers and hundreds of drummers escort the floats, keeping up an earsplitting rhythm.
But it's much more than pure spectacle. The groups spend upward of a million dollars to mount 80-minute-long spectacles in the Sambadrome — a 60,000-seat venue built exclusively for the parades — featuring as many 4,500 dancers, all in an attempt to impress a panel of judges made up of folklorists, musicologists and carnival scholars.
The 13 competing dance groups come from the city's shantytowns, and their showdown is a welcome distraction from the gunfights between drug traffickers, militias and police that have left at least 15 dead over the past week alone in the hills around downtown Rio. Adoring fans follow the live broadcasts with a passion usually reserved for the World Cup.
This year organizers have change the rules to wrap up the parade at an earlier hour. In the past, the Samba parade dragged on well past dawn, ending as late as 9:30 a.m., with revelers often struggling under the weight of heavy costumes under the punishing tropical sun.The schools are judged in 10 different categories including music, the quality of their dancing and floats, their parade theme, and crowd reaction. A less than perfect score can dash a school's chances of victory.
The featured dancers — especially the female flag bearers and their male counterparts — practice all year to perfect their steps, which are actually closer to minuet than samba.
"Being a flag bearer is almost like being a ballet dancer, it's not just samba, not everyone can do it. For me it's a way of life," said Selma Sorriso, flag bearer for the Beija Flor carnival group.
Being relegated to the second division — which gets much less television exposure — means losing hundreds of thousands of dollars in sponsorships.
It's long been an open secret that funding for the parade comes from an illegal numbers game but legitimate sponsors, such as corporations and Brazilian states, also have emerged in recent years.The winners and losers are the subject of much squabbling among Brazilians, who frequently accuse judges of bias when their favorite schools achieve less than a perfect score.
But such rivalries are of little consequence to the more than 200,000 foreign tourists watching the show.
"I expect there will be a lot of color and fun," said Hayley Purvrick, a 23-year-old student from Australia, while sipping a caipirinha, Brazil's national drink, on Copacabana beach.
---
God I got to get my behind to Brazil one of these days. If not for the beautiful people and culture, for the weather and the beach. Oh who am I kidding, I wanna see some hotties!! ;-)
California, California Here We Go
So this Thursday (February 22nd), one of the biggest teen shows (and one of my favorites) The OC, will be ending with its 92nd episode. I wish they had stuck around for 8 more so they could have made it to their hundredth. Here's a story I found on yahoo.com. Read on, read on, you know you want to.
Sun poised to set on Fox's `The O.C.'
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A moment of respectful silence, please, for Fox's departing "The O.C."
Yes, the drama wiped out in the ratings like a klutzy Southern California surfer. Yes, it lost its storytelling punch in season three and then really bummed out fans with the violent death of Marissa, played by Mischa Barton.
But credit where credit's due. "The O.C." brought dramatized adolescent angst back to TV, gave the tabloids fresh faces like Barton and Rachel Bilson and boosted pop artists by showcasing their music (the band Rooney) or just mentioning them (Death Cab for Cutie).
Set in the Orange County city of Newport Beach, the show even managed to make cultural and economic waves: Residents who knew better began referring to the county with the artificially hip "the" in front of O.C., and the postcard-perfect coastal town enjoyed a bump in tourism.
"The O.C." generated a reality TV boomlet, with MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" and Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" following in its footsteps.
Not bad for a four-season, 92-episode series about the loves and lives of rich, golden California teenagers — one even named Summer, to drive home the point — and the parents that watched over them, or not, depending on their own foibles.
"Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the run the show had," series creator Josh Schwartz said as production ended this month. Just the day before, he recounted, "we were filming on location and there were packs of teenagers screaming for autographs when the cast walked by, and crying that the show was coming to an end."
"We were 24 hours away from wrapping the show and it was surreal to have that level of emotion from our audience," Schwartz said.
The series finale airs 9 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 22, and won't leave viewers hanging, he vowed.
"We went into this season sort of assuming that it was going to be the last season," Schwartz said. "So we were able to build naturally to this final episode and do the finale the way we always planned."
The conclusion will focus on the show's core — the affluent Cohen family of Newport Beach and the needy young man, Ryan, they took in, he said. The hope is that fans will find it fun, emotional and "really satisfying," Schwartz said.
Will Marissa, killed in a car crash in last season's finale, manage to reappear?
"All of the characters of the show will be touched on in some way," Schwartz said. He's carefully guarding the final plot twists, including the romantic fates of couples Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and Taylor (Autumn Reeser) and Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (Bilson).
All that, and an earthquake hit the fictional Newport Beach in the Feb. 8 episode, imperiling pregnant Kirsten Cohen (Kelly Rowan) and others.
"The O.C." itself rattled the TV landscape when it debuted in summer 2003. It was a ratings phenom in its first year, ranking as the top-rated drama among advertiser-favored young adults and attracting a total audience of nearly 10 million.
Schwartz, then only 26 and a recent University of Southern California grad, said the show's young actors became stars "very, very quickly, within two months of the show airing. It was nuts."
"To have had the experience and see those kids be in an airport and walk by a magazine stand and the magazine covers are the cast of your show — it's exciting," Schwartz said. So was the fact "that we all were able to work together for this time and kind of grow together. I mean, we all really did grow up together. I feel like I did. This is like college."
Newport Beach got a few lessons in the power of TV, according to the town's mayor.
"I think there were some people in town not too pleased about how Newport Beach was portrayed in the series. But I think everybody understands that TV distorts reality," Mayor Steven Rosansky said, a truth known to anybody who used to watch the `80s serial "Dallas."
But while some grumbled about the show's satiric depiction of a hedonistic and shallow Newport, the city gained a higher profile and an influx of visitors, said Rosansky.
The local visitors' bureau capitalized on the attention with a map of locations referred to in the series — although production mostly took place in Los Angeles — and by recording the hand- and footprints of some cast members in concrete, he said.
But the show proved unable to hold its audience, slipping to about 7 million weekly viewers during 2004-05 and then to fewer than 6 million last season. Returning last November after Fox wrapped postseason baseball coverage, "The O.C." has averaged about 4 million viewers.
A time-slot change, to the highly competitive 9 p.m. EST Thursday period opposite CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and then ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," contributed to the slump and probably hastened the defection of fickle young viewers.
Does Schwartz long for a different ending, with more seasons still ahead?
"Coulda, woulda, shoulda, I guess," he says, the verbal equivalent of a shrug. He called four seasons "a pretty damn good run. Especially for a show like this, where the audience we're speaking to is younger and moves on faster."
"I'd never worked on a television series in any capacity before it began, so it was learn as you go and I certainly learned a lot," he said. "But to be able to learn on a show that had the impact on its audience this show had is a really incredible gift."
Schwartz already is looking ahead to new projects, including adapting the book "Looking for Alaska" for film and producing two television pilots.
But what about the future of Newport Beach? Will it miss basking in its fake counterpart's limelight?
"It ran its course and we'll wait for the next show. ... I'm sure some creative television person will create another show," Mayor Rosanksy said.
Sun poised to set on Fox's `The O.C.'
By LYNN ELBER, AP Television Writer
NEWPORT BEACH, Calif. - A moment of respectful silence, please, for Fox's departing "The O.C."
Yes, the drama wiped out in the ratings like a klutzy Southern California surfer. Yes, it lost its storytelling punch in season three and then really bummed out fans with the violent death of Marissa, played by Mischa Barton.
But credit where credit's due. "The O.C." brought dramatized adolescent angst back to TV, gave the tabloids fresh faces like Barton and Rachel Bilson and boosted pop artists by showcasing their music (the band Rooney) or just mentioning them (Death Cab for Cutie).
Set in the Orange County city of Newport Beach, the show even managed to make cultural and economic waves: Residents who knew better began referring to the county with the artificially hip "the" in front of O.C., and the postcard-perfect coastal town enjoyed a bump in tourism.
"The O.C." generated a reality TV boomlet, with MTV's "Laguna Beach: The Real Orange County" and Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Orange County" following in its footsteps.
Not bad for a four-season, 92-episode series about the loves and lives of rich, golden California teenagers — one even named Summer, to drive home the point — and the parents that watched over them, or not, depending on their own foibles.
"Overall, I'm incredibly proud of the run the show had," series creator Josh Schwartz said as production ended this month. Just the day before, he recounted, "we were filming on location and there were packs of teenagers screaming for autographs when the cast walked by, and crying that the show was coming to an end."
"We were 24 hours away from wrapping the show and it was surreal to have that level of emotion from our audience," Schwartz said.
The series finale airs 9 p.m. EST Thursday, Feb. 22, and won't leave viewers hanging, he vowed.
"We went into this season sort of assuming that it was going to be the last season," Schwartz said. "So we were able to build naturally to this final episode and do the finale the way we always planned."
The conclusion will focus on the show's core — the affluent Cohen family of Newport Beach and the needy young man, Ryan, they took in, he said. The hope is that fans will find it fun, emotional and "really satisfying," Schwartz said.
Will Marissa, killed in a car crash in last season's finale, manage to reappear?
"All of the characters of the show will be touched on in some way," Schwartz said. He's carefully guarding the final plot twists, including the romantic fates of couples Ryan (Benjamin McKenzie) and Taylor (Autumn Reeser) and Seth (Adam Brody) and Summer (Bilson).
All that, and an earthquake hit the fictional Newport Beach in the Feb. 8 episode, imperiling pregnant Kirsten Cohen (Kelly Rowan) and others.
"The O.C." itself rattled the TV landscape when it debuted in summer 2003. It was a ratings phenom in its first year, ranking as the top-rated drama among advertiser-favored young adults and attracting a total audience of nearly 10 million.
Schwartz, then only 26 and a recent University of Southern California grad, said the show's young actors became stars "very, very quickly, within two months of the show airing. It was nuts."
"To have had the experience and see those kids be in an airport and walk by a magazine stand and the magazine covers are the cast of your show — it's exciting," Schwartz said. So was the fact "that we all were able to work together for this time and kind of grow together. I mean, we all really did grow up together. I feel like I did. This is like college."
Newport Beach got a few lessons in the power of TV, according to the town's mayor.
"I think there were some people in town not too pleased about how Newport Beach was portrayed in the series. But I think everybody understands that TV distorts reality," Mayor Steven Rosansky said, a truth known to anybody who used to watch the `80s serial "Dallas."
But while some grumbled about the show's satiric depiction of a hedonistic and shallow Newport, the city gained a higher profile and an influx of visitors, said Rosansky.
The local visitors' bureau capitalized on the attention with a map of locations referred to in the series — although production mostly took place in Los Angeles — and by recording the hand- and footprints of some cast members in concrete, he said.
But the show proved unable to hold its audience, slipping to about 7 million weekly viewers during 2004-05 and then to fewer than 6 million last season. Returning last November after Fox wrapped postseason baseball coverage, "The O.C." has averaged about 4 million viewers.
A time-slot change, to the highly competitive 9 p.m. EST Thursday period opposite CBS' "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" and then ABC's "Grey's Anatomy," contributed to the slump and probably hastened the defection of fickle young viewers.
Does Schwartz long for a different ending, with more seasons still ahead?
"Coulda, woulda, shoulda, I guess," he says, the verbal equivalent of a shrug. He called four seasons "a pretty damn good run. Especially for a show like this, where the audience we're speaking to is younger and moves on faster."
"I'd never worked on a television series in any capacity before it began, so it was learn as you go and I certainly learned a lot," he said. "But to be able to learn on a show that had the impact on its audience this show had is a really incredible gift."
Schwartz already is looking ahead to new projects, including adapting the book "Looking for Alaska" for film and producing two television pilots.
But what about the future of Newport Beach? Will it miss basking in its fake counterpart's limelight?
"It ran its course and we'll wait for the next show. ... I'm sure some creative television person will create another show," Mayor Rosanksy said.
Sting's So Hot
As my friends will tell you, I love Sting like my other friend loves Bowie (and that's saying a lot). I don't know why I do, but I just do. The funny thing is I don't really know any of his songs. The first time I remember hearing a Sting song was when he came out with Desert Rose and Brand New Day (which will forever be my favorite Sting songs, seeing as those are the only songs I know ;) ). As you probably saw on the Grammys last Sunday, Sting reuinted with his band The Police for their 30th anniversary. The performance rocked! And I learned that they're the singers of Roxanne (this song one of the contestants on my favorite summer series Rockstar Supernova, Dilana, sang and rocked out to. 
The Police will be hitting the road this summer for tour and you know it's gonna be hot so check 'em out!! If not for the music, go for Sting's charming good looks ;)
New Hair Trends for '07
Celebs are always influencing how a number of things in society -- hair being one of them. Since Cameron Diaz went darker last year, I've been noticing a new trend in hair color. More celebs are going for darker, richer hues. Take a look below.
Jessica Simpson is jumping on the new wave of celebs going darker.
And it looks like she's having fun with it too. Just look at that smile. Maybe blondes don't have all the fun after all.
Even Beyoncé and Hilary Duff gave up their trademark blonde hues to jump on the brunette bandwagon.
And this trend isn't just for the girls. Check out Owen Wilson on the set of his new movie The Darjeeling Limited with Jason Schwartzman.
Now if only someone had alerted Britney Shears, we wouldn't be looking at these disturbing photos of the pop princess shaving off her locks at a Sherman Oaks salon last Friday night. 
What will she do next?
--> so so so so scandalous
Jessica Simpson is jumping on the new wave of celebs going darker.
And it looks like she's having fun with it too. Just look at that smile. Maybe blondes don't have all the fun after all.
Even Beyoncé and Hilary Duff gave up their trademark blonde hues to jump on the brunette bandwagon.
And this trend isn't just for the girls. Check out Owen Wilson on the set of his new movie The Darjeeling Limited with Jason Schwartzman.
Now if only someone had alerted Britney Shears, we wouldn't be looking at these disturbing photos of the pop princess shaving off her locks at a Sherman Oaks salon last Friday night. 
What will she do next?
--> so so so so scandalous
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