rants

100 Seconds That Symbolize Just How Far The 'Real World' Has Fallen

It's hard to pinpoint the exact moment at which The Real World lost its cultural relevance, but if you were to press us for an answer, we'd have to say it was when the greedy producers at MTV killed their golden goose by launching Real World: Philadelphia less than six weeks after the finale of Real World: San Diego aired. In retrospect, the grand successes of the last truly great RW season were a unfortunate harbinger of things to come for the series as a whole; while the arrests of Brad and Robin made for undeniably great television, it also established a dangerous precedent for the series by making the act of running afoul of the law something for future housemates to aspire to. But we digress — we could talk about this for hours, but we won't. Our point was mainly to say that we haven't watched the Real World in years, and while The Reunion Special / Roast that aired last night had its moments, there was a moment that occured just minutes into the show that, for us, symbolized the de-evolution of the series from a (dare we say) noble social experiment into something that more closely resembles a frat party for community college dropouts. More »

For those of you deflated by yesterday's devastating news that the annual Vanity Fair Oscars party had been canceled, in deference to the striking writers and the $250,000 worth of crabcake canapés that risked going uneaten if they weren't able to iron out their differences in time, some encouraging news: We bring you the (mildly stale) news that Wolfgang Puck unveiled the full 2008 Governor's Ball menu to a gathering of reporters last week, where they were free to photograph the smorgasbord of Oscar-themed noshes to be served after the hopefully star-intact ceremony. (Any attempt at sampling, however, was quickly met with a swift, stinging swat from the celebrity chef's rubber spatula.) Javier Bardem, life-sized and in chopped liver, after the jump!

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hepwatch

Hollywood Hepatitis ScareWatch: Bullock, Barrymore At Risk!

It's been a tense couple of weeks since Hollywood event catering watchdog group TMZ.com has made any headway in its selfless crusade to inform the entertainment industry's party-going populace about their potential risk of a Hepatitis A infection from partaking of the delicious hors d'oureves served at 14 ultra-secret Wolfgang Puck-catered events staffed by a Hep-afflicted cook. More »

wolfgang puck

Hollywood Hepatitis ScareWatch: A-List Directors At Risk!

Hollywood event-catering watchdog group TMZ.com is all over the Wolfgang Puck Hepatitis A scare story like yellow on the jaundice-afflicted eyeball of a party guest who unknowingly gobbled down a tainted tuna roll, pledging that they will reveal the list of all 13 Puck-catered events reportedly worked by his infected employee (luckily, not the Governor's Ball at the Oscars) in a selfless quest to inform all potential victims of their possible exposure to the disease. More »

short ends

Short Ends: Wolfgang Puck Hep Scare!

· Yes, there's a hepatitis A scare related to a Wolfgang Puck event, but it's for the Sports illustrated swimsuit issue party at the Pacific Design Center back on February 14th, not the Puck-catered Governor's Ball following the Oscars. Any Academy member experiencing the symptoms of jaundice, fatigue, fever, abdominal pain, vomiting, or diarrhea since Sunday night probably should just place an angry call to their coke dealer about the poor quality of their celebratory Oscar eightball rather than waste the time of public health officials trying to provide immune globulin shots to the potentially infected.
· Gary Sinise as Bones? Yeah, that kind of makes sense to us. He can probably pull off the "Dammit, Jim, I'm a doctor, not a [name of occupation for which the physician is not qualified]" lines with no problem.
· 12-year-olds are always at their most adorable while getting a lapdance.
· Even back in 1970, people still sounded ridiculous trying to take the Oscars seriously.
· Want to fill up with righteous indignation about Children of Men's total Oscar fuckage once again? Go watch this.