Gwyneth Paltrow hated the Met Ball.
“I’m never going again,” she told USA Today. “It was so un-fun. It was boiling. It was too crowded. I did not enjoy it at all.”
Did Beyonce’s enormous train take up too much space? Was Marc Jacob’s suit too shiny? Were there too many plebs gawking from the sidelines? Who knows.
Nevertheless, the actress vowed never again, after walking down the red carpet in a hot pink Valentino gown. We accepted it, and moved on.
But in case you were curious about what it takes to look that good at a party you hate, Gwynnie described the process of choosing and fitting her Valentino gown with stylist Elizabeth Saltzman in this week’s GOOP newsletter. Every sketch, stitch, styling, and agonizing shoe-decision is meticulously documented, and despite her declaration that “we’re all a little too old to dress up punk,” Paltrow didn’t have a single bad word to say about the whole thing.
“The Met Ball, at NYC’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, is always the year’s most elaborate display of incredible fashion and this year was no different,” the post reads. “The theme was ‘Punk: Chaos to Couture’ and when the house of Valentino’s Pierpaolo Piccioli and Maria Grazia Chiuri asked me to join them, I was thrilled to see what they would create with my right fashion hand, Elizabeth Saltzman.”
“We got all inspired in the goop office about punk making a comeback through subtle influence and thus, we asked one of my absolute favorite websites, the most excellently curated SSENSE, to show us how we could work it into our spring/summer wardrobes,” she added.
Maybe hanging out with the bright and beautiful wasn’t so bad after all.
A contestant on Wednesday night’s “College Jeopardy” is probably hiding in a cave somewhere to keep from being hunted down by Steven Spielberg, after she giving an alarming answer to the following question: “Spielberg made a great film about this man’s list.”
Oops.
On Monday, TMZ photographed Farrah Abraham buying a pregnancy test.
The reality TV teen mom turned porn star was apparently worried that her antics with James Deen might have caused an unforeseen mishap.
Sources close to Farrah told TMZ that the former “Teen Mom” star hadn’t had sex with anyone other than Deen in over a year, and that the duo had not worn condoms during the shoot, despite Abraham not being on birth control. Smart.
Unsurprisingly, this turned out to be a publicity stunt to sell copies of “Farrah Superstar: Backdoor Teen Mom.”
Needless to say, sex-tape co-star James Deen was not happy.
“To say you’re potentially pregnant is not something to joke about,” Deen told Celebuzz. “When you knowingly involve another human being and a publicity stunt around that, a child is not something to be taken lightly. It’s not a game anymore and it’s really not cool.
“This is a type of publicity I do not agree with and I do not want to participate in,” he added. “Joking or lying or using pregnancy to get attention and media is not cool. It involves three people’s lives including the potential unborn child. It is not a subject to just throw around.”
Deen, who implied that the nature of the sexual act performed on the tape makes pregnancy a long shot, is conducting his own investigation into the matter.
“I spoke to the clinic where we both got tested before our scene along with my personal medical doctor regarding the subject. However, I am more concerned about the fact that Vivid told me she was on birth control. Had I known she was not taking preventive measures I would have never accepted the scene.”
Ultimately though Deen dimissed the whole thing as a list ditch attempt to squeeze out a couple more seconds of fame. “I personally think it is more hype and in time it will disappear,” he said.
The piano was tuned, the vodka was flowing and world renowned pianist Evgeny Kissin posed for photos with noshers and nibblers at the pre-concert reception of the YIVO Institute for Yiddish Research’s 12th Annual Heritage Gala at the Center for Jewish History on May 7. “Just as there is love at first sight, there is friendship at first sight,” said Elie Wiesel as he recalled his first meeting with Russian-born Kissin, the evening’s honoree. Recalling the cultural oppression of what he once dubbed, “The Jews of Silence,” a smiling Wiesel told the festive crowd that there is currently “ a million-strong Russian diaspora in America…in Israel. How can you not believe in miracles?”
Touting Kissin as “one of the greatest pianists in the world today who loves Yiddish,” Wiesel urged:“Listen to his poetry… What it meant to be a Jew in Soviet Russia!”
Following a dazzling performance of M. Milner’s “Farn Opsheyd” (Before Separation), Kissin, elegant in a tuxedo, stood in front of a background projection of a roster of Yiddish poets and their poems in English translation. In beautifully measured and articulated Yiddish, Kissin recited — from memory — ten love poems, ”each dedicated to a language—Yiddish.” The translated titles included Moyshe Kulbak’s “I Saw Yiddish Words,” Moyshe Nadir’s “Mother-tongue,” Itzik Fefer’s “Yidish,” Avrom Sutzkever “Yidish,” Binem Heler’s “In the Wonderful Language” and Evgeny Kissin’s own creation “Bobe-loshn” (Grandmother’s Tongue) and Forvert editor Boris Sandler’s “Moshl-kaposhl-shprakh” (Moshl-Kaposh Language).”
Addressing the assemblage, YIVO executive director Jonathan Brent, recognized a roster of local political personalities as well as guests from Israel, Los Angeles, Chicago, Boston, Poland, Russia and guests from ”as far away as New Jersey and Brighton Beach.” He described YIVO’s breadth and multi-faceted range, informing that its heritage “is in many languages: Yiddish, Russian, Polish, Ukrainian, Rumanian, English — from Hassidism to Bundism, from psychoanalysis to phenomenology, from nigunim (melodies) to jazz. A single document can be in three or four languages, this is the texture and context of our world.”
“We honor Evgeny Kissin this evening because he embodies so much of this great heritage, so many dimensions of this invisible world, and [he] is living proof of its vitality and creative strength.”
The evening’s sponsors, noted Brent, were “The Russian Tearoom and Stolichnaya [vodka].”
Ah, Jews and the ’80s. Clearly a winning combination.
ABC’s fall lineup includes a time machine to society’s most amusing (or made-fun-of) decade, via “The Goldbergs.” There’s the typical Jewish mother Beverly (Wendi McLendon-Covey — whose bright purple eyeshadow is thickly painted on), gruff dad Murray (Jeff Garlin), crimp-iron abusing oldest sister Erica (Hayley Orrantia), awkward pasty middle child Barry (Troy Gentile — who really looks like a Barry) and wacky grandpa Al (George Segal).
Every loving (read: harsh and guilt-ridden) word is captured on videotape (it’s the ’80s after all) by aspiring director Adam (Sean Giambrone), who’s adult narrator voice sounds an awful lot like Patton Oswalt.
The show will provide Tuesday night comic relief from 9 p.m. to 10, airing right after the long-awaited “Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.”
From what we can see in the trailer, it’ll either be incredibly amusing, offensive, or a combination of both, so long as the “Flava Flav” references are kept to a minimum.
What do you think? Watch the trailer below:
LOS ANGELES - Actor Zachary Quinto has transitioned swiftly from a television villain into an unlikely action film star in J.J Abrams’ rebooted “Star Trek” franchise, playing the series’ most recognizable half-Vulcan, Spock.
The 35-year-old actor, who gained fame as super-villain Sylar in sci-fi television series “Heroes,” will reprise his role as the pointy-eared first officer of the starship Enterprise in “Star Trek Into Darkness,” which will be released in theaters on Friday.
The actor spoke about the challenges of playing Spock and why he chose to go public about being gay.
Q: “Star Trek Into Darkness” has more action, set pieces and destinations than the 2009 reboot. Is that right?
A: You’re right. It’s a larger scale version of the “Star Trek” story. The first one was about re-conceiving people’s perceptions of “Star Trek,” and trying to infuse it with new energy. The self-contained and more intimate nature of that film made sense. Now, people are more familiar with us as these characters so this movie builds on that and expands on it.
Q: What is Spock struggling with in this film?
A: I think he’s learning how to be accountable and responsible to the people he loves and cares about. He is learning to embody and live the qualities of what it means to be a friend and what it means to be responsible to other people emotionally, because that’s not the place from which he leads. He needs to learn how to integrate that part of himself and honor the feelings he has for the people he loves.
Q: What do you learn from Spock on a personal level?
A: I have an inherent understanding to his nature, which is one of duality - the head versus the heart. That is certainly something I can relate to. As someone who has been considered pretty intellectual and wordy, I also have a deep well of emotional life. I understand what it means to be in constant relationship to both of those aspects of myself.
Q: Which of Spock’s qualities do you aspire for yourself?
A: The equanimity with which he deals with every situation in front of him, and the thoughtfulness and care he gives to measure his reactions. Sometimes I can be a little extreme in my reaction to something. I respect his reservedness and pensive consideration, which is an aspect of me but outweighed by my instinctual or impulsive reactions to things sometimes.
“Late Night” just got a little more Jewish. A quarter Jewish, to be exact.
NBC has announced that “Saturday Night Live” writer-performer Seth Meyers will be taking over the show next year after current host Jimmy Fallon moves over to “The Tonight Show.”
“I am aware of the history,” Mr. Meyers told The New York Times before hosting “SNL” on Saturday. “Each chapter of my life has sort of been spent enjoying each of the guys who had the job. Letterman was sort of my first introduction to late-night television. And Conan was all through college and postcollege years. Jimmy, obviously, I think, does it as well as anyone could ever do it.”
Meyers, 39, will be working with SNL producer Lorne Michaels, who will also be executive producer to “The Tonight Show,” CNN reported. All three shows will be reunited at NBC’s headquarters at 30 Rockefeller Plaza, a first since Johnny Carson moved “Tonight” to Burbank, California in the 1970s.
In an NBC press release, Meyers joked: “I only have to work for Lorne for five more years before I pay him back for the time I totaled his car. 12:30 on NBC has long been incredible real estate. I hope I can do it justice.”
When you think Sidney Poitier, many things come to mind: “In the Heat of the Night,” first black actor to win an Oscar, legend…
“Jewish” isn’t one of those things. And yet surprisingly, the main character in his debut novel, “Montaro Caine,” is Jewish, as are many of the characters.
What’s more, in an interview with CBS’s Leslie Stahl on Sunday, Sidney Poitier revealed an unlikely connection to the Tribe: the man who taught him to read.
Poitier described how sent from his home in the Bahamas to live with his older brother in Miami at the age of 15, he made his way to New York City, where he started dabbling in acting. Managing on only two years of school, the legendary actor struggled to read the scripts.
Until one day, working as a dishwasher to make ends meet, he met his Jewish mentor. That chance encounter, Poitier told Stahl, changed his life.
“There was one of the waiters, a Jewish guy, elderly man, and he looked over at me and was looking at me for quite awhile. I had a newspaper, it was called Journal American. And he walked over to me, and he said, ‘What’s new in the paper?’ And I looked up at this man. I said to him, ‘I can’t tell you what’s in the paper, because I can’t read very well.’ He said, ‘Let me ask you something, would you like me to read with you?’ I said to him, ‘Yes, if you like.’
“Now let me tell you something: That man, every night, the place is closed, everyone’s gone, and he sat there with me week after week after week. And he told me about punctuations. He told me where dots were and what the dots mean here between these two words, all of that stuff.”
He took you through high school,” Stahl replied.
“Yes, he did,” said Poitier. “And it wasn’t for long. I learned a lot. And then things began to happen.”
Read the full interview here.
No Woody Allen glasses for you!
An Orthodox Brooklyn yeshiva has decreed that thick, hipster-like frames are too trendy and modern and banned the students from wearing them, the New York Post reported.
Borough Park’s Bobover Yeshiva B’Nei Zion explained its reasoning behind the ban, in a recent letter written in Yiddish issued to parents of students. “We are asking that everyone buy simple glasses,” the letter read. “What we have to commit ourselves to is we have to stand on top of this and not tolerate the new modernism.”
Apparently the fourth through 12 graders and the older rabbinical students had taken a shine to the thick brightly colored plastic frames favored by their secular Williamsburg neighbors. Though school officials admitted to the Post that regulating glasses is difficult because of constantly evolving trends, they all agreed that these particular frames “give the child a very coarse look.”
“The good deed that accompanied the Jews in Egypt was that they didn’t change their names and clothes, and this same strength is still accompanying us and maintaining us in exile — in all generations,” the letter, posted by the blog Failed Messiah, reads.
The school forbids any child wearing these types of glasses to attend classes, and demands that parents force their kids to exchange the offending eyewear for simpler frames.
According to the Post, two Borough Park stores, Lumiere Eyewear and MS Optical, have already obliged. An employee of the latter shop told the Post that officials from the school had recently inspected the premises to make sure that the simple, acceptable glasses were displayed separately from the bold plastic ones.
“They basically said these are the Hasidic ones — and those are not,” the employee said.
This fashion advice is somewhat contrary to the one given given in Israel last year when Ultra-Orthodox entrepreneurs started selling extra-thick lensed glasses to blur out immodest women who might be wandering around the neighborhood.
Nerds, beware.
Amid the panicked phone calls to cops, topless pictures and alarming tweets, it’s easy to forget that Amanda Bynes’ troubles started with a series of arrests for reckless driving last fall.
The 27-year-old finally pleaded no contest to driving on a suspended license. Bynes was absent from the L.A. court proceedings, but her lawyer, Richard Hutton, entered her plea for her, TMZ reported.
Bynes received a three-year probation sentence, during which not one of her pretty little toes can step out of line. Given her current state of mind, this may prove to be a challenge. She must also pay a $300 fine, and was warned not to drive without a valid license again.
Charges were filed against the actress after she was pulled over in Burbank in September, driving despite her license being suspended two weeks earlier because of two outstanding hit-and-run charges.
Though this plea puts her most recent legal troubles to rest, let’s not forget that DUI charge still pending.
Safe to say, Bynes should stay away from moving vehicles for a while.
Ashton Kutcher and Mila Kunis will be jetting off to the Holy Land next week, the Times Of Israel reported.
This isn’t Kutcher’s first trip. The “Two And A Half Men” star’s most recent Israel sighting was with ex-wife and fellow Kabbalah enthusiast Demi Moore in 2010.
This time however, Kutcher will be promoting high tech initiatives rather than tying a red string around his girlfriend’s wrist. According to Haaretz, Rabbi Eyal Reiss, leader of a Kabbalah center in Safed (headquarters of Jewish mysticism) said he was unaware of the couple’s upcoming visit.
Apparently, Mila isn’t a big fan.
Move over #humpday, and make room for #WhackWednesdays!
Raunchy comedy boy-band The Lonely Planet is releasing a new video every week until their new album, aptly named “The Whack Album,” is released on June 11. That’s six long-awaited opportunities for mid-week laughs.
The first such gem, “Spring Break Anthem” features Zach Galifianakis interviewing James Franco in for “Between Two Ferns,” before jumping off to a rap about, you guessed it, spring break.
Thanks, Andy Samberg, Akiva Schaffer and Jorma Taccon. See you next Wednesday.
Despite the reported confusion and last-minute panic caused by this year’s theme (the rich and famous apparently missed the boat on CBGB), the Met Gala red carpet was all glitz and glam for “Punk: Chaos to Couture.”
From Sarah Jessica Parker’s mohawk headdress, to Madonna’s (granted, not Jewish, but would like to be) ACDC-like schoolboy outfit, we’ve rounded up some of the best looks of the evening.
Amanda Bynes has had a nose job. How do we know? Why, how do we know anything about Amanda Bynes? Through Twitter, of course.
The retired actress tweeted the news out on Saturday:
“Intouch used a photo from years ago on their cover and I hate it! The reason I’ve asked all magazines and blogs to stop using old photos of me is I don’t look like that anymore! I had a nose job to remove skin that was like a webbing in between my eyes. I wasn’t going to tell anyone, but I look so much prettier in my new photos that I don’t want old photos used anymore! I’m so sick of magazines and blogs using old photos! When will they stop? I will never look like that again! Having surgery was the most amazing thing for my confidence!”
The troubled star has posted regularly about her appearance in the last few weeks, discussing her (alarming) wish to lose weight, recent hair troubles, and trips to the gym — along with a topless picture, or two.
About to put on makeup! I weigh 135, I’ve gained weight! I need to be 100 lbs! twitpic.com/cn7gtx
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 30, 2013
I buzzed half my head like @cassie! No more old photos! This is the new me! I love it! twitpic.com/clx36u
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 25, 2013
At the gym! Rawr!twitpic.com/cmqvtl
ampmdash; Amanda Bynes (@AmandaBynes) April 29, 2013
“There is nothing on my calendar that we have to do that does not involve the JCRC, Ido Aharoni, Israel’s consul general in New York, told the guests at the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York at its April 30 Gala at The Pierre.
A Jewish event that ran like clockwork, the evening honored New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg with JCRC’s Visionary Leadership Award; Silvercup Studios’ CEO Alan Suna and his brother, Studio president Stuart Match Suna received JCRC’s Community Builders Award. Adena Friedman, CFO and Managing Director of The Carlysle Group was given JCRC’s Corporate Leader Award.
Among the networking, glad-handing, and photo-opping politicians, guests and communal leaders were former NYC mayor David Dinkins, and mayoral wanabees NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn, NYC public advocate Bill de Blasio, New York City Comptroller John Liu, the city’s former comptroller William Thomson, CEO and president of Red Apple Group, John Catsimatidis, and helping everyone feel safe, NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Accepting the award from JCRC Executive and CEO Michael Miller, Bloomberg joked: “You should watch yourself age twelve years in four minutes,” a reference to a video overview of his years in office. “JCRC is the kind of group that pulls New York City together, “ said the mayor. “When I was a young man, studying for my bar mitzvah, if I told my rabbi that one day I would be receiving a Visionary Leadership Award from one of the most important Jewish organizations in the world, he would have said I was a meshugener.”
Lamenting that “245 days from now I will be unemployed,” he petitioned: “Anybody got any ideas? I work for $1 a year.”
Then, soberly reflecting on “The Boston Tragedy and 9/11,” Bloomberg cautioned: “ We have a responsibility as Americans and particularly, I think, as Jews, to help everyone. And if we don’t help others and give them the right to practice their religion, then someday, somebody will come along and take away our right to practice our religion. God help us all if we ever forget that message.”
Touting the Suna Brothers’ philanthropic involvement, award presenter and event co-chair Jeffrey Levine chairman, Levine Builders & Douglaston Developers, said: “Alan is board chairman of the Queens Museum of Art which has doubled in size under his leadership, chairperson of the Children’s Tumor Foundation and founder of The Hamptons Film Festival.”
Levine noted that he has been friends with the Suna Brothers — at whose studios “The Sopranos,” “Sex and the City,” “30 Rock,” “When Harry Met Sally,” “The Devil Wears Prada” were filmed — for so long that “I am their brother from another mother.”
At the event: JCRC president Alan Jaffe, past JCRC president Martin Begun, dinner vice chair Howard Rubenstein, president, Rubenstein and Associates, Jerry Levin, President, UJA-Federation of New York, Bob Greifeld, CEO, The Nasdaq OMX Group, Inc., JCRC-NY Board Members Amy Rubenstein, Jeffrey Wiesenfeld.
Mila Kunis is one sexy lady.
After being named Esquire’s “Sexiest Women Alive” in October and Detail’s “Most F**kable Celebrity” in April, the star of “Oz: The Great and Powerful” has now raked in FHM’s “Sexiest Woman in the World 2013” title.
Why, you ask? (Though, do you really have to?)
FHM lists her laugh “that makes you forget all your problems,” her honesty, her eyes, and the interview she did with British rookie journalist Chris Stark in March as some of the 15 reasons behind their pick.
Kunis was ranked ninth on the list last year.
Other ladies who made the cut include Rihanna (No. 2), Kate Upton (No. 8), Taylor Swift (No. 12), Beyonce (No. 19), Jennifer Lawrence (No. 20), Kim Kardashian (No. 38), Lea Michele (No. 76) and Sofia Vergara (No. 100).
Click here for the full list.
Kevin Antoine Dodson, known throughout the world as “The Bed Intruder Song Guy,” is apparently “no longer into homosexuality” and has declared himself a “True Chosen Hebrew Israelite.” How the two are related remains dubious at best.
Dodson — who rose to viral Youtube fame in 2010 when a news clip of him describing a man who had broken into his sister’s house in Huntsville, Alabama, in the middle of the night was auto-tuned — posted this message to his more than 361,000 followers:
“I have to renounce myself, I’m no longer into homosexuality I want a wife and family, I want to multiply and raise and love my family that I create. I could care less about the fame and fortune, I’ve giving all that up to know the true history of the bible. For I am the True Chosen Hebrew Israelite descendant of Judah. And as True Israel I know that there are certain things we just can’t do. And I totally understand that now. I don’t need a Mercedes Benz, I don’t need a big house in Beverly Hills all I need is the Most High and my family (Israel). I have been awaken by the great and so should you. Let’s be delivered from the wickedness of the world and live the way we should. The Most High bless all and have a beautiful evening. Israel wake up and take full power of who you are. I’m ready are you?”
Though Dodson never really made it (even as the most B-list of celebrities), his second claim to fame was a Youtube video in which he defended Chick-Fil-A, saying that he would continue to eat there despite the CEO stance on gay marriage.
“Let me tell you this: I have uncles and aunties who do not approve of gay marriages, but they respect me,” he said at the time. “I don’t care about one person’s opinion or how they feel. That’s fine. Chick-fil-A makes good meals, and I eat there quite frequently. No one is going to stop me from eating there. If I’m going to have a Chick-fil-A sandwich, I’m going to have a Chick-fil-A sandwich.”
Some have suggested that this new stunt may be the work of a hacker. In any case, it’s definitely puzzling.
Imagine having Larry David perpetually scowling at you from one of your body parts. Kind of horrifying, isn’t it?
Buzzfeed has rounded up 11 of the most “haunting” Larry David tattoos — arms, legs, shoulders, you name it.
Most are blurry and look like they were done in the state you would expect one to be in when asking for Larry David’s face to be permanently inked onto your skin, but some are pretty great.
The “social assassin” strikes again.
Which is your favorite?
Calling all Beastie Boys fans: a trip to Brooklyn may be in order on Friday.
The Brooklyn Heights Blog reported that Palmetto Playground — a small park near Brooklyn Bridge Park — will be renamed for Beastie Boys founding member Adam “MCA” Yauch, who died of throat cancer on May 4, 2012.
A Brooklyn Heights native, the artist reportedly played in the park as a kid.
According to the New York Post, Beastie Boys Adam “Ad-Rock” Horovitz and Michael “Mike D” Diamond will join Borough President Marty Markowitz, Councilman Steve Levin and Parks Commissioner Veronica White at a ceremony in honor of Yauch.
“Adam Yauch Playground would be a much more fitting name since he actually hung out there, and it would be a great testament to a great leader and musician,” Levin told the Post.
The push to rename a Brooklyn park after Yauch started on the Brooklyn Heights Blog last year, and quickly gained a large Facebook following.
James Franco turned 35 on April 19, but the actor saved his birthday bash for a trip to Miami, where he received the HBO Latin America Ally Award for his “unwavering support for the LGBT community” at the Miami Gay and Lesbian Film Festival.
Sitting poolside on Tuesday, the actor tweeted a picture of his S and M-themed birthday cake — complete with a strap-on, a ball gag, a leather whip, and more — a nod to his film “Interior. Leather Bar.” a re-imagining of the deleted footage from the 1980 gay-themed film “Cruising.”
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