Conan O’Brien was interviewed on his very own episode of Inside the Actor’s Studio, even though he isn’t an actor. One thing I really liked was that he talked about some non-showbiz stuff that he did, including a brief stint as a Capitol Hill intern. Conan worked for a short time as an intern to his district’s congressional representative, but his main memory of the experience was “making lots of copies.” He also cops to having had a bit of an entitlement problem, admitting he didn’t want to work his way up through the ranks but rather skip straight to the top. Oh, Conan, you adorable former “Simpsons”-episode writer, you. Why people preferred watching Jay Leno to this man is an absolute mystery to me.
Monthly Archive for December, 2009
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The Wayans Brothers – Shawn, Marlon, and Keenan Ivory – have also been longtime collaborators. Their latest project isn’t a movie but a book, 101 Ways You Know You’re a Golddigger. However, Jared Edwards, who worked as an assistant to the brothers for over a decade, claims that the book was originally his idea and that his famous bosses stole it. In a lawsuit, Edwards says he originally conceived the idea for a book called You Know You’re A Golddigger When… and told the Wayanses about it. He claims that the Wayanses liked the idea a lot and offered themselves up as cowriters. Edwards then quit his assistant job to work on the project full-time.
If Edwards is telling the truth, then the Wayanses did a shitty thing and should definitely face the music. However, there’s one thing that bugs me about all of this – why is a corny-sounding book full of one-liners about golddiggers considered such a brilliant, innovative idea? And furthermore, why is it an idea you’re so proud of that you’d go to court in order to stake your claim to it? Are golddiggers about to become the new vampires? Regardless, we’ll see how the lawsuit shakes out over the next few months. I’m going to bet it gets settled out of court.
I’ve always wondered what athletes do during their off-seasons. Do they play sports every day just to stay in shape? Do they hang out with their families? Take trips? Buy expensive things? Well, one athlete does something very unusual during his time away from the sport – Pittsburgh Pirates pitcher Ross Ohlendorf spends his down time working as an intern for the US Department of Agriculture. And he doesn’t even get paid. Man, I feel like a total slacker right now compared to this guy, it’s not even funny.
Ohlendorf will be spending 20 hours a week this winter studying cattle diseases and their migration patterns. He works in a small room that he shares with another intern. “This one’s been, I’d say, the most exciting off-season I’ve had,” he said in an ABC News interview.
I’ve said it before, but I’ll say it again – be careful what you post on Facebook and other social networking sites, because you never know who’s going to look at your profile. Now that the site has changed their privacy settings, it’s even easier for people to peek at your “private” photos and information. One Canadian woman recently learned this the very hard way. Nathalie Blanchard, who was on paid leave from her job for depression, lost her government benefits because the agent in charge of her case saw Facebook photos of Nathalie on vacation and partying. When her checks stopped coming, Nathalie called her insurance agent and found out why she’d lost her coverage.
For the record, Nathalie says that going on vacation was part of her treatment – after all, a nice sunny holiday can do wonders for depression, right?
Anne Burrell hosts Secrets of a Restaurant Chef on the Food Network, and she has the skills to back it up – she was the executive chef at New York’s Centro Vinoteca restaurant. However, just because she made it to the top of her profession doesn’t mean she didn’t step on anyone to get there. Slashfood got their hands on documents relating to a lawsuit filed against Burrell by former employees:
According to the suit, rehashed in a dismissal motion, Burrell was hung up on Centro Vinoteca’s employees’ breasts; She told one employee that leaning over the bar was “slutty,” commented “repeatedly” on another employee’s cleavage and announced that a bartender had “saggy boobs,” creating a special “saggy boob” hand gesture to mock her. The complaint further states that Burrell suspended an employee for allegedly stealing a piece of cheese, claimed an employee faked an ovarian cyst and banged a pan when a manager urged her to be a better communicator.
Burrell is about to get a second Food Network show – Worst Cooks in America. Perhaps she can also get a gig appearing on a spinoff about America’s worst bosses?
Writing on the Huffington Post, Friend of STA Brooke Moreland deftly breaks down the main types of holiday party outfits, what they say about you, and what others will think of you for wearing them. Here are a couple of highlights:
- The LBD: You think it’s timeless, everyone else thinks it’s safe and predictable. They’re also all wearing LBDs themselves.
- The Party Dress: You’re the life of the party. However, that means you also run a higher risk of barfing on someone or accidentally hitting on a coworker’s spouse.
- The Business Suit: You just came from the office, which means you’re a workaholic. Your boss thinks that is a good quality, but your coworkers probably think you’re lame.
- The Cute Holiday Sweater: Um, do I even need to mention this one? You may think “festive,” everyone else thinks “loser.” Save it for Grandma’s Christmas dinner.
- The Elegant Dress: Perhaps you’re overdressed, or perhaps you’re just so good-looking that everyone else is jealous of you. Sometimes, risks are worth taking.
You can view the whole post here.
In a totally depressing article, the Daily Mail reports that one third of women in the UK claim they have experienced sexual harassment at the workplace. Some lowlights:
- 14 percent are “dreading” going to their holiday party because they’ll have to dodge a drunk and/or handsy coworker
- 20 percent say they have had to fend off a coworker’s sexual advances
- 5 percent report that they have quit a job because the office harassment was so bad
- 32 percent say that they have experienced harassment in the form of lewd “humor” or inappropriate jokes
However, that’s not the only disheartening thing about this article. The recommended reading link in the middle of the article links to something entitled “Moody, indecisive, and trying to act like a man, why ladies make truly lousy bosses.” Seriously? I have two things to say to the author of that piece: one, it’s called a colon and you should try using one, and two, shut up.
Les Moonves – head of CBS and husband of Big Brother host Julie Chen – announced today that CBS was cancelling As The World Turns, the network’s last remaining soap opera, just months after industry stalwart Guiding Light went off the air for good. Besides fans of the show, Moonves managed to tick off one very important person – CNBC’s David Faber, who was interviewing him when he dropped the cancellation news. Why might Faber be upset? Probably because his mother-in-law, Marie Masters (pictured), plays a recurring role on the show. HARSH.
At the end of the (boring) interview about ad spending and stupid business things, Faber couldn’t help but ask about the show getting dropped (do you think he could go home tonight if he didn’t?). Moonves said, “The days of the soap opera have changed very much. Guiding Light left earlier this year and As the World Turns will leave later next year. They’ve had long and distinguished runs and their days are over.” Burn! The saddest thing is, he says it with a bit of a smirk.
Nothing like telling a guy his mother-in-law is a dinosaur on live TV. Faber didn’t make much of a reaction on-air, but what he told Moonves when the cameras turned off probably depends on how he feels about his mother-in-law.
I can only imagine what their next family dinner is going to be like.
Yesterday, my high school crush, Rivers Cuomo, was hospitalized after the tour bus he, his wife and daughter, and members of his band Weezer were traveling in got into an accident outside of Albany, NY. According to New York magazine, “the vehicle slid on a patch of black ice, ran through a guardrail, and dropped about ten feet into a ditch.”
Rivers has three cracked ribs, and his assistant Sarah Kim fractured two ribs and a lower vertebrae. Although those injuries are no laughing matter, I’m glad to hear that everyone is (mostly) OK. Assistants, we should keep a vigil! Or at the very least, send poor Sarah some snacks that will taste better than that hospital food.
I think it might be time for me to go listen to Pinkerton on repeat.
