Gawker
foreigners
-
The Gays
Time for Manhunt To Admit Straights
As we learned from the lawsuit filed to open Christian dating site eHarmony to homosexuals, everyone wants to take advantage of Neil Clark Warren's methodology that pairs compatible couples. Per the terms of this week's settlement between the dating site and the state of New Jersey, eHarmony will create Compatible Partners, a separate but equal branch of the popular dating site. Congrats to the gays, but those on the straighter side don't really care who uses eHarmony: they just want the unfair barrier to insanely popular gay dating side Manhunt eradicated. New Jersey, tear down that wall! More » -
open caption
Give That Ponytail An Oscar Nom
[Al Pacino desperately searching his phone for his stylist's number, image from X17, click for the big version] -
Review
Campy Twilight Makes You Laugh While It Takes Your Money
Teen vampire romance Twilight is finally yours to enjoy in theaters, and one day later, it's already the best debut for a female director ever. The first numbers indicate the film has made $32.7 million so far, and online ticket purchases haven't been this hot since The Dark Knight. The film will have doubled its miniscule budget by the time the weekend is over, but if you're not a fan of the books, is it worth getting good with Twilight? We review the most important film of this or any other generation: More » -
Douchebag zone
Express Train To Douchebaggery
With recent MTA budget cuts and fare increases across the board to come next year, soon riding the New York City subway will be a privilege reserved for the few that can afford it. Somewhere along the way, the city's travelers will transfer from whatever line they're riding on to an express train as vast as space and as timeless as infinity. It lies between the pit of man's fear and the summit of his knowledge. Via the seminal Tofutti Break, those passengers will be riding the subway known as The Douchebag Express. Click here to ride it.
-
recount
Minnesotans Find Voting For Al Franken or Norm Coleman Very Difficult
Sixty-four percent of the way through Minnesota's recount in the Senate race between Republican Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, the conservative remains ahead by 120 votes, about half his original lead. Unlike the hateful and anxious conflict over Florida's recount in 2000, this Minnesota recount is nothing more than a pleasure, with fun disputed ballots and two candidates willing to humiliate themselves to get any vote counted. Minnesota Public Radio has more disputed ballots for you to weigh in on, and while they can't top the classic Lizard People write-in vote, they demand your democratic attention: More » -
The Office
Investing Wisely, Office-Style
Adults don't have Sesame Street, they just have Suze Orman and James Cramer and other financial wizards to turn to for life advice. We're forced to look in other places for common-sense tips during tough economic times, like magazines, prositutes, and of course sitcoms. The most recent episode of The Office presented an instructive example: Dunder Mifflin salesman Jim Halpert bought a house for his new bride Pam Beasley. Did he make the right call in investing in the Scranton real estate market, and what did he probably pay to make his parents' former residence stay in the Halpert family? Plus, deleted scenes from this week's episode: More » -
-
-
Week in Review
The Week We Went to San Francisco
- Hot dog! We have a wiener! And it's Hillary Clinton, who may or may not have been offered and may or may not accept the job of Secretary of State. Whee!
- A famous blogger is in trouble with the law!
- Happy TV Christmas and Thanksgiving everyone!
- Ashley Dupre is back! She's on TV and everything! We have advice for her.
- Al-Qaeda called our new president names and a douchebag sued over getting called a douchebag.
- Another week, another opportunity to just write PUPPIES!
- Next week, Bill O'Reilly will take on beatniks. Did you know they listen to jazz?
- Katie Couric tried some more GOTCHA JOURNALISM with Dave.
- Soon Anna Wintour may be out of job! But, like, maybe voluntarily. Unlike you and everyone else in the nation. There's always Dubai.
Illustration: Shamoononon -
deathwatch
Sharks Circling, the Weinstein Co. Starts to Shrink
Whenever he's had a glaring problem in his business, Harvey Weinstein — legendary manipulator of the press — has always been a master at deflecting attention away: No Oscars recently? Just look at how much money the lowbrow genre films his brother Bob have been raking in! No big genre successes? Well, look at our home video business! The home video business is struggling? Well, we've got an Oscar film coming up! The cycle can be repeated over and over, but financial facts always trump spin. And today, the Weinstein Co. laid off 24 of its employees, 11% of its total staff, according to the New York Post, in what will only provide more chum in the water for those not-so-quietly rooting for the final downfall of the Weinsteins. More » -
Births, deaths, and marriages
Births, Deaths, and Marriages
Births, Deaths, and Marriages is a column about what's happening to persons of interest in Gawker society. Send us your tips about breakups, hookups, knock-ups, and everything else that completes the circle of media-life. Today: one oddly-named celeb infant, one knockup, one breakup, and rabid right-wingers in luv: More » -
online advertising
The death of conversational marketing
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: An unproar in the world of tech blogs is uncovering a broader fault line between writers and advertisers. Om Malik's GigaOm and his other blogs have dropped their outside ad-sales firm, Federated Media, a startup run by John Battelle. More » -
kreepie kats
Kreepie Kats in "We've All Been Named Special Assistants to the Undersecretary of the Department of Fucking Your Mom"
[Jim Behrle's Kartoon Kats have been reading The Economist lately, and it has made them sad. Luckily: there are pirates!! Everyone loves pirates!! Klick thru for high seas adventure!] More » -
Media
Reports: HuffPo Maybe, Coulda Raised $15 Million
According to some reports, the Huffington Post has raised $15 million in a new round of investment. But nobody really knows for sure whether that's true, yet! Let us say right up front that if it is true—and the Times UK says it is—this will be the coup of the media meltdown. Raising cash like that in this economic environment is impressive, and we would have to tip our hats to HuffPo, and acknowledge that we have wildly underestimated them. Here are all of the details from various reports on Arianna's maybe-triumph: More » -
Hooray
Obama Selects Money-Fixer
Barack Obama's Treasury Secretary pick made the stocks jump! We're all saved! Drudge calls New York Fed President Tim Geithner "The Man Who Can Save Economy?" (Family Love Geithner!) Geithner worked, obviously, at the Treasury Department that helped create this mess, in the Bob Rubin and Larry Summers days. His background is solid "didn't foresee this in retrospect obvious problem" economist, what with his IMF and Group of Thirty stints, just like everyone else considered for the job. Woman-hater Larry Summers will still probably do something in an Obama administration. Meanwhile comical New Mexico governor Bill Richardson will be our Commerce Secretary, because he's clearly bored in New Mexico. Hillary Clinton is still dithering about her job offer, and Obama will apparently finally announce that whole thing after Thanksgiving. -
The Commies
CodePink's Iron Curtain Call
Every so often one commenter serves the public body in singularly superb fashion. These comrades deserve recognition individually—a chance to come forward and take a bow. Today we honor commenter CodePink, who in her weird, warm, wise, and always funny way makes the days tick by just a little faster. Enjoy five of her best comments this week after the jump. Nobody does it better. More » -
Artists
Poster Boy, Live In Action
Anonymous subway-based ad remix artist and minor obsession of ours Poster Boy has been caught on film! All we had before to identify him was this photo(shop). Animal NY's vandal-in-chief Bucky Turco spent a nice evening with PB in a Brooklyn subway station, just cold maxing and relaxing and shooting the breeze while carving up ads with an X-acto knife and attacking trains. We now have a definitive description of Poster Boy: a male wearing a hat, doing art. If you see anyone matching that description, call police immediately. (Not really, snitches!). Watch the full clip below: More » -
watchmen
Easter Eggs In Zack Snyder's Insanely OCD Watchmen Trailer
FROM io9.COM: The second Watchmen trailer arrived last week, and we're blown away by the crazy OCD detail that goes into every scene. There have been plenty of comics-to-screen comparisons, but the footage is also littered with Easter eggs and little clues as to the direction of the movie. More » -
Merchandise
Now You Can Smell Like Barack Obama
Yesterday we introduced you to the tiniest Obama keepsakes, and today we come across the smelliest Obama-related merchandise (but not the plateiest). Barack Obama perfume, spotted at 30th and 6th. Radosh points out, though, that this is not an original idea: 1. 2. 3. Click for larger picture. -
Jackpot
Is the great Facebook stock sale over?
FROM VALLEYWAG.COM: Through the golden heart of every world-changing startup pulses an avaricious get-rich-quick scheme. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the billionaire-boy cofounders of Google, established this doing-well-by-doing-good myth. More » -
Recessionomics
Your Predictions For The New York Times Co.
When the NYT Company slashed its dividend and announced ominous October revenues yesterday, we asked you, our kindly readers: Might this company go into bankruptcy? If so, when? And if not, what should they do? Many of you answered! And virtually every viable option for the company was suggested at least once. The Sulzberger family should just read the following list of your responses and pick one, depending on how optimistic they're feeling today: More » -
fameballs
Seriously, Why Even Bothering Profiling Julia Allison?
It's funny and meta to watch Julia Allison get profiled. Since she's already done all the work for us in real time—chronicling her thoughts and moods and outfits on her blog—a profile seems beside the point and out of date by the time it goes to print—we've already seen those outfits and photos, and we already know what events she's been to. Journalists are usually left baffled upon their first introduction to the JA force of nature—when we've been collectively getting her IMs for years! Australia is just now catching on to this Internet fameball/oversharing thing, putting Allison on the cover of a magazine—and including her close personal friend, and also our former editor, Emily Gould. (At this point, Em seems like she wants to erase the Internet and spend a month in a sensory-deprivation chamber.) The profile is very similar to Allison's Wired cover story, except for perhaps the journalist's outright dislike for her subjects. More » -
Internal memos
People Editor Calls Times Allegations 'Totally Bogus'
High profile press fight! People magazine editor Larry Hackett just sent out an internal memo blasting the page one New York Times story today about People's alleged shady dealings with Angelina Jolie. Specifically, the Times cited two anonymous sources "with knowledge of the bidding" for the photos of Jolie and Brad Pitt's most recent newborns—which cost People $14 million—who said that there was an formal agreement that "obliged" the magazine to offer only positive coverage. Of course, as Hackett acknowledges, their coverage was positive; but he strongly asserts that the magazine would never "purposely slant coverage as condition for acquiring pictures." And indeed, the Times may have oversold that angle in their story. There's certainly a difference between what Jolie asks for, and what a magazine would explicitly "promise" to do. Read his full memo below: More » -
Cat Fight!
Anna Wintour To New York Magazine: 'Just Go Away'
NY mag's fashion blog The Cut ran into the Vogue editrix Wintour at the National Book Awards this week. They politely (we assume!) asked her about the rumors that she might retire. They are (sort of) substantive rumors and it's a question about her job, not her personal life, so you'd think that she'd respond as courteously as she could. Except, no she didn't. She gave 'em the ol' heave-ho: More » -
Public relations
Populist GM Executives Will Muddle Through With Only Three Jets
General Motors caught a leeetle bit of flack this week for flying its executives to Washington on a private jet in order to beg for a taxpayer bailout. "Hey," said politicians, the media, and the general public, "you have less than zero money. Should you really have spent thousands on a private jet?" We would also add, "Shouldn't you have driven a car?" Later GM and its fellow broke automakers left Washington with no money, making this one of the colossal PR fuckups of 2008, and possibly of the preceding decade as well. But everything is different now, because GM is going to have somewhat fewer private jets. So please give them some multiple of billions of dollars okay? More »
