Salon.com > Celebrity http://www.salon.com Mon, 28 May 2012 00:30:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Travolta’s florid lawsuit http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/travoltas_florid_lawsuit/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/travoltas_florid_lawsuit/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12916725 On the spectrum of Hollywood bombshells, the news Monday that John Travolta has been slapped with a lawsuit involving an alleged gay sexual overture ranks about as shocking as Lindsay Lohan getting picked up for violating parole. Whether or not the allegations can be proven true, the suit is just the most public acknowledgment of rumors that have floated around Travolta for years. So persistent and pervasive are the stories about his proclivities that back in 2009, Carrie Fisher famously boasted that "We don’t really care that John Travolta is gay." But it turns out the most surprising thing about the whole dust-up is how fantastic a document the lawsuit itself is.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/travoltas_florid_lawsuit/feed/ 32 When Lindsay Lohan moved in http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/when_lindsay_lohan_moved_in/ http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/when_lindsay_lohan_moved_in/#comments Tue, 08 May 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12916275 When Lindsay Lohan moved two doors down from me last year, I had briefly fantasized about some sort of feel-good neighborly encounter between us. This happened on the night when I spotted the first of many satellite vans that would defiantly park in the red zone in front of my house. The van, coupled with the all-male paparazzi contingent prowling the alley behind my garage with an abundance of video equipment, provided me with a fresh understanding of what it means to live under siege.

And so, hunkered down inside my house, I had imagined the following scenario: The actress, fleeing down the alley from these men and unable to enter her own home, would accept my offer of temporary shelter. I’d quickly usher her into my living room where I’d offer her a non-alcoholic beverage. My cats, who normally hate strangers, would allow her to pet them and she would feel inspired to reveal some shard of a more authentic self that existed beneath her celebrity train wreck veneer. She would confide her secret fears, gripes and vulnerabilities and I would nod with empathy.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/05/08/when_lindsay_lohan_moved_in/feed/ 13 Ryan Seacrest’s bland ambition http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/seacrest_nation/ http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/seacrest_nation/#comments Tue, 24 Apr 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12908254 Imagine, for a moment, that Dick Clark had died in 2002 instead of 2012. How would his obituaries have been different? In most ways, there would have been little change. In the last decade, Clark has continued with the ventures he'd been known for, hosting and producing a New Year's Eve broadcast, various radio programs, game shows and TV specials. But there would have been two big differences. The first thing was Clark's 2004 stroke, and his courageous return to public life despite a speech impediment modulating his famous voice.

And the second? The second is Ryan Seacrest.

Seacrest appears in Clark’s obits like the Boswell to Clark's Samuel Johnson, quoted instead of family members as the apparent authority on Clark's life and legacy. His tribute to Clark on “Idol” the night after his death became a news story in and of itself. For years, Seacrest had been slowly positioning himself as the new Dick Clark, taking over as the host of the New Year's broadcast when Clark was ill, and modeling his career after Clark's by taking ownership stakes in radio shows and TV ventures. Seacrest has become so entwined with Clark's story that when news of the death broke, it was hard not to picture Seacrest kneeling in some dark rite, screaming to the heavens as Clark's power possessed him, “Highlander”-style.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/04/24/seacrest_nation/feed/ 13 Hollywood’s new era of ensemble http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/hollywoods_new_era_of_ensemble/ http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/hollywoods_new_era_of_ensemble/#comments Tue, 06 Mar 2012 17:09:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12517651 We are living in a cinematic golden age. Exhibit A: that new Megan Fox movie.

The history of film is strewn with enterprising multi-hyphenates who knew how to rock a repertory. Orson Welles had pulled together a formidable troupe of regulars by the time he'd barely cut his wisdom teeth. Fellini and Hitchcock were known for their stock companies of familiar faces. But in recent years, strengthened by the talent pools of ensembles like the Groundlings and Upright Citizens Brigade, the power posse has become the norm -- and it's changing movies and television for the better.

Ten years ago, Jennifer Westfeldt co-wrote and played the title character in the entertaining little bi-curious romance "Kissing Jessica Stein." Now she's the writer, director and producer of one of the better anticipated movies of the spring – the reproductive comedy "Friends with Kids" -- with a cast that includes the ubiquitous Adam Scott, Kristen Wiig, Maya Rudolph and Chris O'Dowd, as well as the aforementioned chick from those "Transformers" movies. It certainly sweetens Westfeldt's marquee appeal that her partner – and a co-star of the film -- is none other than Don Draper himself, Jon Hamm. But what will likely draw butts into theaters for "Friends with Kids" isn't one star in particular, but the sum of its comic pieces. We've already seen Wiig, Rudolph, and Hamm score with "Bridesmaids." Scott's a reliably funny presence on the often pitch-perfect "Parks and Recreation," and has shown his ensemble chops in "Our Idiot Brother" (with fellow workhorses Elizabeth Banks and Paul Rudd) and in memorable bits for the biggest, loosest comedy troupe in the world right now – Funny or Die.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/03/06/hollywoods_new_era_of_ensemble/feed/ 3 My tryst with Spencer Tracy http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/my_gay_affair_with_spencer_tracy/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/my_gay_affair_with_spencer_tracy/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 04:59:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12306971 By the mid-fifties, Los Angeles was changing. Its population had reached two million, making it the fourth largest city in the nation after New York, Chicago, and Detroit. Mike Romanoff had opened his fancy new Romanoff ’s restaurant on Rodeo Drive. Rob­insons had launched its flagship department store at the corner of Wilshire and Santa Monica boulevards. The gigantic new CBS Televi­sion City was under construction in Hollywood, intended primarily for the development and production of color television program­ming. After being temporarily closed down for financial reasons, the Hollywood Bowl reopened and celebrated its thirty-third season of music and entertainment under the stars.

My daughter Donna had grown into a beautiful little girl with sparkling blue eyes and long brown hair. She was a good student, attending a grammar school on the corner of Beachwood Drive and Tamarind Avenue in Hollywood, not too far from our small apart­ment. Even though I did not see much of her due to my vagabond lifestyle, I adored her.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/16/my_gay_affair_with_spencer_tracy/feed/ 106 A voice that touched us all http://www.salon.com/2012/02/12/a_voice_that_touched_us_all/ http://www.salon.com/2012/02/12/a_voice_that_touched_us_all/#comments Sun, 12 Feb 2012 13:54:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12343231 On Thursday night, Whitney Houston appeared at the Kelly Price & Friends Unplugged: For The Love of R&B pre-Grammys event. Amateur YouTube footage of the singer’s performance hinted at hysteria: Audience members screamed her name and flashbulbs exploded as she crooned the Christian hymn “Jesus Loves Me” in a sultry lower register as a duet with Price. The version of the song was gentle and tempered, although Houston’s beatific looks and animated gestures imbued it with quiet jubilance.

The performance feels sickeningly eerie on the heels of Houston's death Saturday at 48. Both the song and her duet partner were links to the singer’s decorated past: Price featured on her Grammy-nominated 1999 single “Heartbreak Hotel” and a studio version of “Jesus Loves Me” appeared on the soundtrack of "The Bodyguard," the 1992 album which made Houston a megastar. What’s more, she looked healthy and sounded strong; there were no warning signs that the brief appearance would be her last. (Though the photos of her returning to the Beverly Hills Hotel on Friday night tell a different story.) Houston, whose reputation was marred by a turbulent marriage to R&B star Bobby Brown (and a disastrous reality show about their lives together) and well-publicized struggles with addiction, finally seemed well enough to reboot her singing career.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/02/12/a_voice_that_touched_us_all/feed/ 40 Why shouldn’t Demi Moore be “stressed”? http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/why_shouldnt_demi_moore_be_stressed/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/why_shouldnt_demi_moore_be_stressed/#comments Wed, 25 Jan 2012 16:58:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=12235731 At 10:49 Monday night, a 911 call summoned an ambulance to the home of actress and producer Demi Moore. Within half an hour, a team was on the scene, had assessed her condition, and taken her to a local hospital. That's about double the amount of time it took for Internet critics to take aim at her.

In a cryptic statement Tuesday, a spokesman for Moore announced, "Because of the stresses in her life right now, Demi has chosen to seek professional assistance to treat her exhaustion and improve her overall health. She looks forward to getting well and is grateful for the support of her family and friends." She has since dropped out of the biopic "Lovelace," where she was set to play Gloria Steinem.

You don't have to be wearing a tinfoil hat to suspect there's more to the story than "exhaustion." Exhaustion doesn't usually merit a 911 call. And an anonymous source who claims to have seen the incident report told E! Tuesday that Moore was "shaking" and otherwise "acting like she was suffering from a seizure," which certainly sounds like something serious went down – and may have been part of a larger problem.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/25/why_shouldnt_demi_moore_be_stressed/feed/ 244 The death of the celebrity memoir http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/the_death_of_the_celebrity_memoir/ http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/the_death_of_the_celebrity_memoir/#comments Fri, 06 Jan 2012 00:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=11911031 In a recent essay for the Daily Beast, Michael Korda, the storied former editor in chief of Simon & Schuster, warned the public to stay away from celebrity memoirs, decrying the majority of these books as "dull, homogenized, bland and sanitized." He ought to know, for as he goes on to explain, he spent much of his professional life trying to persuade movie stars to write their autobiographies. (One of the ironies here is that Korda, while a celebrity only in the book world -- which means not much of a celebrity at all -- is famous for writing divertingly about almost any topic, including himself. This piece is no exception.)

A growing awareness of this truth might explain why sales of celebrity memoirs have fallen off of late. According to the Guardian newspaper in Britain, a whole raft of celebrity-authored books tanked in the U.K. last year. In the U.S., as well, there have been several notable failures, particularly by cast members from the reality TV show "Jersey Shore." Could the public finally be wising up?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2012/01/06/the_death_of_the_celebrity_memoir/feed/ 21 How to sell furniture to celebrities http://www.salon.com/2011/12/13/how_to_sell_furniture_to_celebrities/ http://www.salon.com/2011/12/13/how_to_sell_furniture_to_celebrities/#comments Tue, 13 Dec 2011 01:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10303160 I spent the first eight months of 2004 in Los Angeles selling expensive furniture to rich people. In the center of the store sat a colossal white sofa, extremely uncomfortable, which could be purchased for $8,000. No one bought it. A full set of silverware would set you back something like $15,000. No takers. A mink throw – $7,500 – also did not sell. Another mink throw, available for $5,000, actually did sell. In fact, I sold it. My single biggest commission. A frosty rich lady once bought an entire set of handcrafted Italian dishes: my second biggest commission. On the whole, though, I wasn’t a very good salesman. I sold lots of tablecloths. Glasses, too. I sold a lot of glasses.

One thing I learned: Rich people like a little pushback. They enter a store acutely aware of their wealth and what it means in this context, and this knowledge, by definition, is tied up with their sense of self-worth, for better or worse. They want you to be serious and professional with them, but they also want you to be able to slap their hand when they go astray. Mostly, they want you to care, even if they’re talking about decorative pillows. They want you, in short, to be like Jeeves, or Bruce Wayne’s Alfred. They’re the boss, sure, but if you’re not in control, they’ll eat you alive.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/12/13/how_to_sell_furniture_to_celebrities/feed/ 24 Attention celebrities: Just stop with the Hitler references http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/attention_celebrities_just_stop_with_the_hitler_references/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/attention_celebrities_just_stop_with_the_hitler_references/#comments Thu, 10 Nov 2011 21:03:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10191987 Celebrity chef Mario Batali can get away with flamboyancies like wearing his coveted orange Crocs and riding his Vespa around the West Village. But what he can't pull off is haphazardly comparing Wall Street executives to Hitler, as he did Tuesday at a Time magazine panel.

“The ways the bankers have kind of toppled the way money is distributed and taken most of it into their hands is as good as Stalin or Hitler and the evil guys,” Batali said. The ritual post-Hitler reference apology followed soon thereafter: “It was never my intention to equate our banking industry with Hitler and Stalin, two of the most evil, brutal dictators in modern history.”

So why is the Hitler reference so hard for public figures to avoid? You'd think it would be the first rule of celebrityhood, handed to all dreamers as they get off the bus in New York or Hollywood: Whatever you say, leave Hitler out of it. (Unless  you're making one of those Internet viral videos of Hitler reacting to pop culture news.)

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/10/attention_celebrities_just_stop_with_the_hitler_references/feed/ 47 Scarlett Johansson has no regrets over nude pics http://www.salon.com/2011/11/02/scarlett_johansson_has_no_regrets_over_nude_pics/ http://www.salon.com/2011/11/02/scarlett_johansson_has_no_regrets_over_nude_pics/#comments Wed, 02 Nov 2011 17:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10160679 Scarlett Johansson is not ashamed. In a new Vanity Fair cover story, the 26-year-old bombshell professes no regrets about those nude cellphone photos that were splashed all over the Web in September. "They were sent to my husband," she says, referring to her ex, Ryan Reynolds. "There’s nothing wrong with that. It’s not like I was shooting a porno. Although there’s nothing wrong with that either."

Last spring, news emerged that authorities were investigating a hacker who lifted nude images of Johansson, along with other celebrities like Mila Kunis, from their phones. But it wasn't until September that the image of a woman resembling the "Avengers" star, cleverly employing two mirrors to flaunt a butt that goes on for days, hit the Web. The photo inspired such a tidal wave of copycat poses that the phrase "ScarlettJohanssoning" promptly entered the lexicon. "I know my best angles," she says now.

Johansson's accused hacker, Christopher Chaney, has since pleaded not guilty of breaking into the emails and cellphones of more than 50 people – including a 13-year-old. Chaney has been indicted on multiple counts of computer hacking, aggravated identify theft and illegal wiretapping. He faces up to 121 years in prison.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/11/02/scarlett_johansson_has_no_regrets_over_nude_pics/feed/ 17 Get out of Jessica Simpson’s womb! http://www.salon.com/2011/10/26/get_out_of_jessica_simpsons_womb/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/26/get_out_of_jessica_simpsons_womb/#comments Wed, 26 Oct 2011 16:00:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10146836 So far this week, a very not-pregnant Jennifer Aniston has had to explain that she's merely "gained a couple of pounds" since quitting smoking, while an increasingly big-bellied Jessica Simpson remains conspicuously silent about her obvious midsection girth. We are living in strange times indeed, celebrity womb-wise.

We've come a long way from the days when Lucille Ball's pregnancy was so discreetly managed, that she couldn't even use the word "pregnant" on her own television show, and since Shirley Jones quietly plowed through her work in "The Music Man" while costume designers diligently let out her dresses. Then in August 1991, celebrity fecundity jumped the shark when Demi Moore appeared nude and ready to drop on the cover of Vanity Fair. In the 20 years since then, tabloid culture has eagerly made a mountain out of every muffin top, turning every C-lister's bout of bloat into a possible baby bump. And when a woman does go public with her status, she's still subject to intense -- nay, crackpot -- scrutiny. Witness the obsessive attention Beyonce's abdomen area has been getting of late, and rumors that she's faking the whole thing. Note to everybody: Real life rarely resembles a plot point on "Glee."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/26/get_out_of_jessica_simpsons_womb/feed/ 6 Why are we still rubbernecking Lindsay Lohan? http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/why_are_we_still_rubbernecking_lindsay_lohan/ http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/why_are_we_still_rubbernecking_lindsay_lohan/#comments Fri, 21 Oct 2011 15:30:00 +0000 http://www.origin.railrode.net/?p=10133374 Of all the places you'd expect Lindsay Lohan to be turned away from, you wouldn't expect the county morgue to be one of them. Yet this week, the frequently SCRAM bracelet-accessorized, self-described "artist of many things :)"  bombed out on her community service obligation by showing up 40 minutes tardy. Dear Lindsay, there is no "fashionably late" for court-appointed service.

Lohan's apparently pathological inability to get her act together has made for reliable tabloid fodder for the better part of the last decade. What's amazing – and by amazing, I mean horrible – is that the interest in her exploits refuses to die down. It's been ages since she's been in an even vaguely acclaimed movie (even "Bobby" was five years ago); her music career is nonexistent; she doesn't even have a train-wreck reality show. Unlike the late Amy Winehouse, she doesn't possess a tragic genius, a talent that burns so brightly it makes her struggles with demons frustratingly poignant. It's hard to imagine a television studio full of fans dressed up like Lindsay Lohan because her work was so meaningful. Instead, the sideshow of a once promising, effervescent and undeniably beautiful woman deteriorating in public holds a different kind of allure – the morbid "How bad can it get?" kind.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/10/21/why_are_we_still_rubbernecking_lindsay_lohan/feed/ 29 Ryan Gosling regrets NYC street fight cameo http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/ryan_gosling_street_fight/ http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/ryan_gosling_street_fight/#comments Thu, 08 Sep 2011 13:09:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/feature/2011/09/08/ryan_gosling_street_fight You may remember that all-around superstar Ryan Gosling -- who has two highly anticipated films coming out this fall -- made a surprise appearance in an off-screen street fight (to enthusiastic cries of "That's the guy from 'The Notebook'!" and "Oh my God, it is!") in New York City a couple of weeks ago.

Discussing the event with MTV this week, Gosling said he is "embarrassed" that he got involved at all; despite the fact that his intervention attempt was widely admired, the star says that "nobody won" -- and his appearance just "[made] it weirder."

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/09/08/ryan_gosling_street_fight/feed/ 2 Hollywood, right-wing powerhouse http://www.salon.com/2011/08/31/hollywood_left_and_right/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/31/hollywood_left_and_right/#comments Wed, 31 Aug 2011 19:30:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/movies/2011/08/31/hollywood_left_and_right Political Hollywood started much earlier than most people realize. In 1918, FBI leaders William J. Burns and J. Edgar Hoover were so worried about the power of movie stars to affect the political consciousness of a nation that they ordered secret agents to maintain close surveillance over suspected Hollywood radicals. Four years later, Bureau agents confirmed their worst fears. "Numerous movie stars," they reported, were taking "an active part in the Red movement in this country" and were hatching a plan to circulate "Communist propaganda  ... via the movies."

The Cold War politicians who launched the Red Scare's infamous House Un-American Activities Committee in the late 1940s also feared the power of movie stars to alter the way people thought and acted. They understood that movie audiences were also voters, and they asked themselves: Who would people be more likely to listen to: drab politicians or glamorous stars? What if left-leaning celebrities such as Charlie Chaplin, Humphrey Bogart, Katharine Hepburn, and Edward G. Robinson used their star appeal to promote radical causes, especially Communist causes?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/31/hollywood_left_and_right/feed/ 28 Is Ryan Gosling the perfect guy? http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/ryan_gosling_2/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/ryan_gosling_2/#comments Tue, 23 Aug 2011 14:10:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//feature/2011/08/23/ryan_gosling I met Ryan Gosling by doing something I never imagined I would do -- waiting outside a stage door like a groupie. It gets worse: I was surrounded by a gaggle of teenage girls, all of whom reminded me of myself at 13, when I'd spend evenings with my face coated in Clearasil working on my Leonardo DiCaprio web site and daily email newsletter.

But I'm not the only woman who's found herself suddenly transported back to teenage giddiness by Gosling, as I've been reminded with alarming frequency as of late. It seems that not a day goes by without a video of his charming talk-show antics going viral or a friend sending me a photo of him with his dog, a baby or some such "aww"-inducing accessory. Just yesterday everyone was abuzz over a video of him randomly breaking up a fight on the streets of his new home of New York. To paraphrase the words of gossip blog Dlisted: OK, we get it! You're perfect.

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/23/ryan_gosling_2/feed/ 31 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/pop_five_star_trek_slash_fic/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/pop_five_star_trek_slash_fic/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 22:19:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/18/pop_five_star_trek_slash_fic 1. Slash-list of the day: "The 10 hottest pieces of 'Star Trek' Slash Fiction" on Ranker.com includes a bizarre hat-tip to Worf/Wesley Crusher stories. That's basically worse than furry porn, and as blasphemous as imagining a Khal Drogo/Bran Stark scenario. 

2. Sign that James Franco is a force of evil of the day: His "art" show, called "High/Low, Rob Lowe" apparently offended the gods so much that they deemed to destroy the Asia Society Gallery, the venue that Franco-stein had chosen to besmirch the art world.

3. Worst remake of the day: Man, and just when I thought the "Lone Ranger meets the werewolves"  was going to Bruckheimer this week into oblivion, we hear Ridley Scott is taking the helm of a "Blade Runner" do-over. OK, but will it have ghost Indians like Obi-Wan Kenobi?

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/pop_five_star_trek_slash_fic/feed/ 8 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/viral_videos_seven_minutes_in_heaven_hoda/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/viral_videos_seven_minutes_in_heaven_hoda/#comments Thu, 18 Aug 2011 21:19:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/18/viral_videos_seven_minutes_in_heaven_hoda 1. Dog walks itself:

I think there's a lot to be said for this video, and I might not be the person to say it. It's so simple, yet so profoundly sad. Why is this dog walking itself, you may ask. Where did its master go? Where is the dog planning to go next? And is it just a sad statement on our society that some kids taping this poor ole' guy on the boardwalk think it's "awesome" that this dog is forlornly carrying its own leash in its mouth?

 

2. Anderson Cooper loves that Gerard Depardieu urination story:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/18/viral_videos_seven_minutes_in_heaven_hoda/feed/ 3 Five pop culture items we missed http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/pop_five_gerard_depardieu_airplane_pee/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/pop_five_gerard_depardieu_airplane_pee/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 22:01:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/17/pop_five_gerard_depardieu_airplane_pee 1. Cause of the day: Kate Winslet founds "British Anti-Cosmetic Surgery League" (for very famous people) along with Emma Thompson and Rachel Weisz. Maybe they can be like sister suffragettes and battle the Barbie Mom!

2. Celebrity story involving airlines and urine of the day: When Gerard Depardieu wasn't allowed to use the toilet during takeoff, he peed all over fellow passengers on an Air France flight. Says Air France spokesperson: "I confirm the fact that he [Depardieu] did indeed urinate in the plane." That is all.

3. "Gwyneth Paltrow saved my life on 9/11" story of the day: Wait, really? I could almost forgive Paltrow for her multitude of sins if she acted heroically on Sept. 11. So let's check it out:

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]]> http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/pop_five_gerard_depardieu_airplane_pee/feed/ 7 Today’s must-see viral videos http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/viral_videos_cookie_monster_tom_waits/ http://www.salon.com/2011/08/17/viral_videos_cookie_monster_tom_waits/#comments Wed, 17 Aug 2011 19:18:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/entertainment/tv/feature/2011/08/17/viral_videos_cookie_monster_tom_waits 1. Tom Waits and Cookie Monster, together at last:

I never noticed it before this mashup to "God's Away on Business," but the Sesame Street character does sound an awful lot like Tom Waits. 

"The piano has been eating cookies again." "Me want whiskey!" Something about Jim Jarmusch and Jim Henson! Jokes!

2. PBS discovers "memes":

Finally, you and your mom will be able to talk about Nyan Cat without your having to go back and explain what Buzzfeed is again.

 

3. Anne Hathaway raps about the paparrazi in a really scary way:

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