MetaFilter posts tagged with celebrities

@samantharonson are you picking me up or not? annabelle should of gotten me with you.

pwally — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:50:25 -0800

"Twits": dramatic readings of our most prized celebrities twitter feeds. @iamdiddy @sevinNyne6126 @brookehogan @officialTila @courtneylover79 @jessicasimpson

This Much I Know

goodnewsfortheinsane — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 11:33:24 -0800

In The Guardian's This Much I Know, celebrities share the lessons they have learned in life. Sometimes they get a bit silly or self-absorbed, but among them are a few insightful -- or at least amusing -- nuggets. It's worth trawling the archives; but as it spans 21 pages, here's a taste: -------- Every child born on this earth starts by being interested in the natural world. You have only got to turn over a stone and see a worm or earwig underneath and the child is fascinated. Sir David Attenborough, Naturalist, 81, Surrey When I hear really fabulous music by somebody else, I can feel as small as the dot in the 'i' in nit. Brian Wilson, musician, 66, London As a joke I asked my four-year-old daughter Martha, 'What do you want to do with your life?' She thought for a moment and said: 'Keep it.' That stopped me in my tracks. Jeremy Vine, broadcaster, 45, London My earliest memory is slipping out of my mother's thighs and looking at surgical instruments on a table in an operating theatre. Many people do remember their births, but they deny it. Yoko Ono, artist, 76, London I'm out of the restaurant business now, but the secret, apart from your choice of chef, is having great bread and coffee. The bread's the first thing they taste and the coffee the last. Michael Caine, actor, 76, London What makes me laugh? I like people falling over. Never fails. Matt Lucas, comedian, 35, London I spent 10 days in a pathology lab at a medical examiner's office. I thought it would allow me to accept my own mortality, but it taught me was that everyone I love is going to die. David Sedaris, humourist, 51, London Paradigms change one funeral at a time. Deepak Chopra, guru, 61, Dublin I'm not going to space. No way, are you crazy? One little tile burns and you drop to your death? William Shatner, Actor, 75, Los Angeles A lot of guys say that they have to treat a woman like shit in order to get her to like them. I don't know if that's so true. It has served me to try and understand men rather than try to kill them. They're a little more complicated than I would have given them credit for! Alanis Morissette, musician, 31, London The US-British relationship resembles a divorced couple who still fancy each other. America's gone off and married Latino and Britain's gone off and married Europe, but they still recognise a fantastic connection. Then there are the post-divorce custody battles: who owns freedom, who owns Shakespeare, who owns culture? Simon Schama, historian, 60, London One of the great con tricks that life can pull on the conventional and the obedient is that rewards so often seem to go to those who choose other paths than those which are laid down. Stephen Fry, writer and actor, 47, London When you're given yak-butter tea - or, as our cameraman called it, liquid gorgonzola - take little sips and smile a lot. Michael Palin, broadcaster, 61, London I'm not what you call superstitious. I'm not worried about ladders or umbrellas or any of that shit. But I know you should never get a blowjob before you go on stage. Slash, guitarist, 38, Los Angeles -------- Ages given are at the time of original publication.

Celebrities and MS

Oriole Adams — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 17:07:41 -0800

One recent celebrity death that most likely fell under the U.S. radar was that of Terry Black, who in the early 1960s was Canada's answer to Fabian. Growing up listening to CKLW, I remember Terry Black for "Goin' Down (The Road to L.A.)", recorded with his wife, Laurel Ward. Black had been diagnosed with multiple sclerosis just a year ago, and apparently died from complications of the disease. MS, like many autoimmune diseases, affects more females than males. Whites are twice as likely as other races to develop the disease; but, oddly enough, folks living in Africa and Japan rarely get MS, yet it's not unusual for African- and Japanese-Americans to be diagnosed with the disease. A short list of other celebrity MS patients includes Exene Cervenka, former lead singer of the New Wave band X, Annete Funicello, Montel Williams, Alan Osmond, and David "Squiggy" Lander.

It's Commencement Season; Controversy Ensues

etaoin — Sat, 11 Apr 2009 09:55:52 -0800

To Degree or Not to Degree? President Obama will get an honorary degree from Notre Dame but not Arizona State University during commencement ceremonies this year. ASU finds the first black American president's "body of work" insufficient. The East Valley Tribune disagrees. And some enterprising ASU students have found a way to profit from Obama's appearance at their commencement. Of course, lots of celebrities have been given honorary degrees over the years, some more worthy than others.

Portraits of luminaries of the arts - 1930s-'60s

madamjujujive — Sun, 22 Mar 2009 08:08:36 -0800

Extravagant Crowd - Carl Van Vechten’s Portraits of Women and Photos of African Americans. Previous post by ND¢: Creative Americans: Portraits by Carl Van Vechten 1932-1964. Also, public domain works from Wikimedia Commons. Van Vechten was an influential critic, novelist, photographer, and promoter of the arts. He was an early patron of the Harlem Renaissance - but sparked a huge controversy with his unfortunately titled novel, Nigger Heaven. Despite this controversy, his interest in and high regard for African American arts was not in dispute. The Index and Introduction to the Portraits of Women collection is quite good, but for those who may not want to wade through all 96 pages of his African American collection, here is a selection I particularly liked: Eartha Kitt, 1954 Billy Dee Williams, 1963 James Earl Jones, 1961 Dizzie Gillespie, 1955, 2 James Baldwin, 1955 Ralph Bunche, 1951 Harry Belafonte, 1954 Billie Holiday, 1949, another, and with Mister Pearl Bailey, 1946 Leontyne Price, 1951, and as Bess Ossie Davis, 1951 Joyce Bryant, 1953 Diahann Carroll, 1955

The Plot Sickens

bardic — Sun, 15 Mar 2009 06:20:23 -0800

South Korea has one of the world's highest suicide rates (previously). The phenomenon has been acute in the entertainment world. In the past two years, over ten Korean celebrities (mostly actors, actresses, and singers) have taken their own lives. Most of them were under 30. The latest death was that of 26 year-old actress Jang Ja-yeon, star of the popular comedy-drama "Boys Over Flowers." Initial reports stated that Jang's death was yet another in a tragic line of Korean celebrities succumbing to depression due to the pressures of stardom and (according to one foreign commenter) the inability to "admit that there is a lot of intense depression and mental illness in Korea." But there's also an emerging twist in Jang's death. Her suicide note has been found, and it turns out that her death wasn't due to relative intangibles of depression and mental illness. In fact, she was allegedly being beaten and raped by various higher-ups in the Korean entertainment business, and the names of the guilty are beginning to come out (one of whom has apparently fled to Japan).

You're that guy! You're famous!

Navelgazer — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 17:31:13 -0800

Tim Gunn on an airplane, Tommy Lee at a restaurant, Mike Tyson at the Waldorf, and other Brushes with Fame.

Who cares?

OverlappingElvis — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 10:38:32 -0800

Don't vote.

...and that little boy's smile... with that slow southern style

premiumpolar — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:42:44 -0800

With black velvet paintings of George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Jack Abramoff, Phil Spector, Jon Benet Ramsey, Jesus and a Big Rig, Erik Estrada, Charles Nelson Reilly, Wil Wheaton as Wesley Crusher, and everyone's favorite physicist, Stephen Hawking, velvet paintings aren't just of Elvis, Unicorns, and Aztec Indians anymore.

Back Dat Ass Up

Stynxno — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 10:27:50 -0800

Sick and tired of sitting at home, eating a pint of ice cream, watching Keeping Up With The Kardashians and wondering why you can't have the success that Kim Kardashian has had? Have you always wondered if you could take her in a fight? Do you need to prove that your butt can take her butt? Well, now you can. Facebreaker is the newest game from EA Sports that allows you to create your own cartoon boxers. To show this, EA sports used D-List celebrity Kim Kardashian to take on EA's president Peter Moore. Created players will be uploaded to the EA servers and be available for download.

Hollywood Muppets

HotPatatta — Fri, 11 Jul 2008 09:12:26 -0800

It's been proven that people tend to look like their dogs, but startling new findings reveal a freakish resemblance between Hollywood celebrities and Sesame Street puppets.

least awful use of tag clouds ever

wendell — Sun, 11 May 2008 16:43:20 -0800

Brand Tags Tag a brand/logo and see what others have tagged it. Because "whatever it is they say a brand is, is what it is", depending on what your meaning of is is, I guess. Or play the reverse tag game and identify brands by their tags. And now, there's Celeb Tags! This will not wendell. Disclosure: I'm posting this here now because I think it would be interesting to see what effect the MetaFilter community has on the tag cloud before the Diggers, Farkers, etc. get to it.

Best Story Ever

cog_nate — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 07:58:21 -0800

Best Story Ever is a series of clips featuring various celebrities -- Henry Rollins, Lewis Black, Dee Snider, Chuck D, Ron Jeremy, Bret "The Hitman" Hart, and many more -- telling their best stories. Some are lame, some are funny. But hey, what's your best story ever? (It can't be lamer than Alan Thicke's, can it?)

The agony of the feet

Rumple — Tue, 18 Mar 2008 10:09:44 -0800

Reading celebrity toes.

Meta Meta Meta

Stynxno — Wed, 05 Mar 2008 10:41:23 -0800

Bert Stern took pictures of Marilyn Monroe over 3 sessions [nsfw] in 1962. They're called the Last Sitting as she died of an apparent overdose 6 weeks later. In February 2008, he recreates the shoot using Lindsay Lohan [nsfw]. Not willing to let a good opportunity to spoof celebrities fly by, Village Voice's Michael Musto recreates Lindsay Lohan's photo session [nsfw].

Signifier Signed

Partial Law — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 12:40:23 -0800

Excuse me, Ms. Ono, Mr. Gehry, Sen. Wellstone—pardon me Mr. Chomsky, Mr. Castellanetta, Gov. Ventura—would you mind signing this paper?
Oh no, don't sign your name. Sign mine.

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal

XMLicious — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:05:27 -0800

Papa Palmérino Sorgente, the Pope of Montréal Here's more photos of him and his art and here he is on YouTube in action and also on Google Video. More photos embedded in Flash in the Made in Montréal page for him. He's a bit dour in those but here he is smiling, straight out of Pixar's Geri's Game. I met this guy in the fall of Y2K while visiting “La Ville Aux Cent Clochers” / “The City of a Hundred Belltowers”. Flatluigi's recent post reminded me of him. He's a cool, talkative, and cheerful, if not entirely there, artiste of the grassroots genre. As you can tell by the frame of that first photo the Bedazzler was made for this man. It was quite confusing to try to carry on a conversation with him in my limited French until I realized that he didn't speak that language. (Or maybe his accent was so heavy I couldn't understand him.) According to the amusing anecdote on this page (in French) Papa Palmérino is a Kosovar. Though elsewhere it shows he emigrated to Canada from Italy. The YT video doesn't really do justice to what it's like being in his little shop, Le Musée de Papa Palmérino, but the Montréal Mirror says it best:

If religious collectibles are your thing, this place may be your little slice of heaven. The place is chock-full of Jesuses--statues big and small, crucifixes, key chains, mugs. Seems Papa is quite the Jesus fan, which makes sense, considering he believes himself to be his brother. Ask him to show you framed photos of himself mounted on a cross (I didn't ask if these were for sale). Papa Palmerino sells a wide variety of other religious doo-dads including rosary beads, candles and rings he claims cure arthritis. Even if the ‘Second Coming’ isn't quite the motif you're going for in decorating your house, this place is worth visiting for the browsing and... uh... conversation.

(Not sure if that's clear, but he actually has photos of himself mock-crucified, loincloth and crown of thorns and everything.) I don't know if he's still truckin' because he was 85 years old in 2003➚. I guess his shop burned down a couple of months after I met him! This person, Jona Pelovska, seems to have made a documentary about him. Her MySpace page says “in post-production.”

And in the center ring, Britney Spears gets devoured by lions! Whee!

miss lynnster — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 00:44:07 -0800

With the success of American Gladiators and no writers in sight, tv networks are reaching into the past for ideas. You knew it would happen sooner or later. Yep... they're digging deep: Circus of the Stars is coming back. Could Battle of the Network Stars be far behind? (Kinda) special moments from circuses and "stars" past: David Soul sensitively bonds with tigers! Weird Al on the sway pole! William Katt races the Wheel of DEATH! (probably the most impressive, really) Richard Simmons as... RUBBERMAN! People I don't know and Balki on trapeze! Pernell Roberts and his lethal hands! David Janssen throws knives at Lynda Carter! Who then rides a horse in circles to the worst music you will ever hear! Dierdre Hall hangs on an elephant! The Big Ragoo pulls a Houdini as Debbie Reynolds worries! Emma Samms cheats a fiery death! Harvey Korman twists Mary Hart around! I'm just hoping the famewhores from The Hills gets violently shot out of a cannon or something. Preferably into another country.

Wow, isn't that... doing...? Wait.

goodnewsfortheinsane — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 13:44:24 -0800

Alison Jackson takes paparazzi shots of celebrity lookalikes. (NSFW) Old news I'm sure, but I hadn't seen a comprehensive post before and I thought it was worth it. Wikipedia. Guardian and BBC links are reasonably SFW (some buttocks).

Celebrity Hypocrisy

Tube — Sun, 09 Dec 2007 12:52:48 -0800

Deceiver is a blog that exposes the hypocrisy of celebrities.

Celebrity art

madamjujujive — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 05:33:01 -0800

Pop Life Art and its associated blog focus on celebrity art, heavy on the rock stars. One of my happy discoveries is Martin Mull's collection of collages, but I bemoan the lack of any wildlife art from Radar O'Reilly. If you're a pop culture junkie, here's a little advice on celebrity art collecting from an expert.

No way! Cary Grant ate toast!

miss lynnster — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 00:22:57 -0800

Ken Murray's Hollywood Without Makeup (1950) 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 Safe for work. All of the starlets back then wore underwear. Sorry, guys.

OK, Go Ahead and Call Him "Shirley"

Oriole Adams — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 09:47:21 -0800

Friday Fun Filter: Try to match the male celebrities with their decidedly feminine middle names.

It don't mean a thing if you ain't got that swing

Stynxno — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 19:50:19 -0800

G-Spot Ramplified has just received a popular endorsement. Could George be following the groundwork originally laid by 50 Cent? Are celebrities and their sex toys now an acceptable part of everyday life? Will Madame Tussaud be replaced by these guys? [links nsfw]

retro style: fab fashions from the 60s and 70s

madamjujujive — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 06:15:24 -0800

From hair styles and hotpants to bellbottoms and boots, this site has amassed a massive fashion photo collection of groovy celebrities and swingin' stars from the '60s and '70s.