• LA Times columnist Joel Stein to co-teach an oral sex workshop later this month because he feels “it’s time to give back after taking so much.” Ew?
• YouTube to co-sponsor Democratic presidential debate with CNN. The debate is scheduled to take place on July 23 in South Carolina, but organizers promise that the candidates’ awkward verbal gaffs will be available on YouTube for perpetuity.
• Angelina Jolie instructed publicists to ban Fox News from the red carpet of her A Mighty Heart premiere.
• Sixteen years after inventing the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee finally gets his achievement recognized by the Queen of England.
• Wall Street Journal to raise its weekday newsstand price from $1 to $1.50, outraging rich stock broker/hedge fund owners everywhere.
• Slate’s Jack Shafer did not like Tony Blair’s critique of the media. He did not like it at all.
From LAT columnist Joel Stein’s Jan. 2 column:
Have something to say? I don’t care
Don’t bother sending anything to that e-mail address below — because I don’t care.
From today’s LAT live chat:
Chat live with Joel Stein
The Times Op-Ed columnist will take your questions live Tuesday, Jan. 23 at 2 p.m.
Because product placement isn’t prevalent enough in movies and novels, Svedka vodka is buying off some talent to help further blur the lines between literature and advertising. Nerve.com is sponsoring “a series of articles” that will pop up both online and in a book. Which book? We have no fucking clue.
The project is indicative of how the road between advertising and entertainment is increasingly becoming more of a two-way street. The campaign, from a New York agency named Amalgamated, carries the theme “the future of adult entertainment” and features a character known as the “Svedka_Grl,” a female robot by the Stan Winston special-effects studio. The ads presents the fembot puckishly commenting on contemporary mores by positing outlandish outcomes for life in 2033, when cigarettes will cost $450 a pack, couples are parents to “stem cell baby boomers” and celebrity worship is “the fastest-growing religion.”
The story of Svedka_Grl will be written by 16 writers, including Joel Stein, Jay McInerney, Will Self, and Ana Marie Cox. But, these folks feel totally justified taking part in this project. For one, it’s not journalism, it’s just fiction. And also, there is absolutely no mention of the product or the company. (Except, you know, when they mention Svedka_Grl.)
The photos on the site are all futuristic fembots with teeny waists and huge boobs covered with pasties … which is indicative of how there will still be sexism in advertising in 2033.
A little sneak peak at a portion of Joel Stein’s story, after the jump.
CONTINUED »
Joel Stein.
Really, he never ceases to amaze us. Despite writing an over all un-amazing column most weeks, every now and again he will spit something out that gets us logging onto the LA Times after we’d sworn it off for the 100th time that month.
This week, Joel teaches us how Hollywood people do humor when he takes a producer to lunch at The American Girl cafe. And like the awesome teen sex scene that Joel just couldn’t help but watch, the medialites could not pass up the chance to dine with a half Asian doll.
As we entered the cafe, our hostess, Nicole, asked us if we’d brought our dolls. We had not, so she offered us a choice of tablemates. We chose Jess, who is half-Asian, which, Swanson pointed out, he is too. “Her story is all about friendship and making friends,” Nicole explained. “Mine too,” said Swanson. Hitting on the American Girl cafe hostess is a major power move.
We can only imagine what kind of nonsense these two would have gotten into had the doll been dressed as a geisha and her story was all about dancing and pouring sake.
All dolled up [Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times]
It’s been awhile since we’ve tackled the column of Los Angeles Times opinionist Joel Stein. But when the pop culture talking head turned columnist contemplates the media, and throws in kiddie porn analysis to boot, we are so there.
(Ok, fine, we’re three days late, but we’re there now.) This week, Stein responds to the Federal Communications Commission fine of $3.6 million, which they slapped on CBS for airing an episode of “Without A Trace” which showed teens getting it on orgy style.
Stein “immediately became interested in seeing the show,” and got CBS to send him the DVD copy from Dec. 31, 2004. He then “immediately put it on.” (Is it just us, or does he seem just a tad over anxious to check out this underage romp?)
And even though the moral of the “Without a Trace” episode was that kids shouldn’t get involved in teen sex orgies or someone will get murdered by the local sheriff, the slick-looking Jerry Bruckheimer production made the shockingly long, 56-second sex scene look awesome, all blue-lighted and threesome-filled and zit-free. Snoop doesn’t have these kinds of parties. Nothing like this would ever happen to teenagers even if they were attending Hugh Hefner High. There’s even foreplay. You’re really bending the believability of your story in order to titillate when you pretend boys in high school engage in foreplay.
Stein does eventually conclude that despite its awesomeness, “sexualizing children is creepy.” And we conclude that Joel probably didn’t get laid that often in high school.
A fine mess at the FCC [Joel Stein, Los Angeles Times]
Earlier: Joel Stein’s incendiary Op-Ed
• Steve-O tries to strangle himself with balloons after attending Paris Hilton’s birthday party. [Page Six]
• Give a warm welcome to Dylan Stableford, the new cross-dressing editor at Mediabistro. [Gawker]
• City Council cancels their casual Fridays — too bad it was already decided by Esquire that guys look hottest in jeans and tees. [NYP]
• LA Times columnist and rabble-rouser Joel Stein hires a coupla’ illegal immigrants. In the name of journalism, of course. [LAT]
• The Economist ends the 26 year era of Bill Emmott. He has gone on to pursue a career writing books, and unlike when Steve DeLuca’s “left” Rolling Stone, we’re pretty sure this was a real resignation. [Media Week]
• At this point, who isn’t Jessica Simpson dating? Well, other than Nick Lachey. [TMZ]
We thought a requirement of being a journalist was that you do drugs? Ok, maybe not James Frey style crack pipe drugs, but at least most writerly types tend to smoke a joint now and then. Just look at the likes of Rolling Stone, GQ, Jane, the Seattle Post-Intellegencer ??????? the list certainly goes on.
The Los Angeles Times, however, does not seem to agree with our theory. As Matt Welch, an assistant editorial page editor at LAT reveals, he was forced to pee in a cup. Just like some kind of Wal-Mart employee or something.
Yet it’s been company policy for at least 18 years that every new hire excrete on command while a rubber-gloved nurse waits outside with her ear plastered to the door. Those who test positive for illegal drugs don’t get their promised job, on grounds that someone who can’t stay off the stuff long enough to pass a one-time, advance-notice screening might have a problem. (And yes, it has happened in the newsroom a handful of times.)
But, it????????s California, you say? Isn????????t everyone there baked off their gord all the time? If not, then why the hell are they always smiling so much? So many questions, so much to ponder. The greatest of them, perhaps could be: however did Joel Stein manage to get off grass long enough to land his Op-Ed column?
His cup runneth over with annoyance [Matt Welch, NYT]
• Sandra Choi considers kicking Jimmy Choo to the curb .
• You can Sundance if you want to, but don’t leave your cigarettes behind. You’ll need something to sooth Jennifer Aniston when she’s having a bitch attack.
• Jossip tests the truthiness of traveling Trump, and decides that it’s better to be cool than rich.
• Matthew McConaughey makes his gay urban men’s magazine rounds.
• Joel Stein proves that political writing for the LA Times is almost as hard talking about Lindsay Lohan’s boobs on TV.
• Jeff Bercovici teaches us how to work at Conde Nast, without even having to go through Fairstepchild
• January 24th was the most depressing day of the year. The Daily News decided that cupcake and cigarette induced heart attacks would help that.
We’re still learning how to adjust from Joel Stein the VH1 commentator to Joel Stein the L.A. Times Op-Ed columnist.
Stein is pretty much the only reasons we keep LAT on our RSS, but this last crack made us do a double take. Like that time in Newark Airport when we swear that was him stocking up on Star mags and gum.
Anyways, we don’t usually associate the journo/hearthrob with such political controversy. But, if pissing off a bunch of red staters isn’t an Op-Ed columnist’s prerogative, than what’s the point? In Stein’s latest column: “Warriors and Wusses,” he calls those who support American troops in Iraq big freakin’ sissies.
And that made a bunch of really big Midwestern dudes and ex-patriots with guns want to come kill him.
“I don’t support what they are doing, and I don’t the see point of putting a big yellow magnet on your car if you don’t,” Stein told Reuters in an interview. “I don’t think (soldiers) are necessarily bad people. I do plenty of things that are wrong too. But I don’t agree with what they are doing so I don’t see the logic of supporting it.”
Now that’s a side of Stein we never got to see on VH1. We originally feard that that this was a transformation from his funny un-incendiary rubbish to some stuffy columnist crap. But all we had to do was keep reading (an important skill we’re still perfecting) to realize that he hasn’t lost his talent for humor writing.
His response to the 100s of hate e-mails?
“They’re telling me to leave the country, which sounded good at first because I thought they meant a vacation. But they didn’t mean a vacation,” he said.
Is that sort of like when Lindsay Lohan said she was making herself sick but she didn’t mean bulimia?
L.A. Times writer defends incendiary Iraq column [Dan Whitcomb, Reuters]
• Chicago bids a teary farewell to City News, a Chi-town staple since 1890. Well, at least they’re all brilliant journalists, who are more than qualified to write a blog. [Chicago Tribune]
• Joel Stein attempts to apologize to Maureen Dowd by agreeing that his existence is completely unnecessary. [LAT]
• When newspapers lie about Iraq, only then is the true f’d up-ness of our administration revealed. [AP News]
• We thought we were really excited about Bob Woodruff and Elizabeth Vargas finally making their appearance — but TV Newser is creeping us out a little. [TV Newser]
• In a shockingly fair gesture, Rupert Murdoch sends a “season greetings” card to his staff, thereby completely leaving Bill O’Reilly to defend Christmas on his own. [WWD]