Are you infuriated by the fact that rich bankers get Washington bailouts and six-figure bonuses while you’re still scraping by? You are far from alone. Tim Hunkin, an English man who runs an arcade in Southwold, Suffolk realized there was a market for people who wanted to take out their frustration on capitalist pigs - so he created “Whack a Banker,” a game based on the popular “Whack a Mole,” where little heads of men in business suits pop out of holes, and you beat the hell out of them with a mallet. Hunkin, who charges a mere 40 pence per turn, is already raking in the cash.
”It’s proving very popular. I keep having to replace worn-out mallets.”
”And, of course, the bankers never really lose. If you win the game a banker’s voice says: ‘You win. We retire. Thank you very much to the taxpayer for paying our pensions’.”
Meetings are weird things, and often they’re a breeding ground for embarrassing workplace behavior. Because of the sheer amount of boredom in the room, there’s always someone chewing on a pen, doodling, spilling coffee down the front of their shirt, or forgetting to turn their cell phone off. Well, Us Weekly has decided to share one of the most embarrassing meeting stories ever - for some reason, they deem a story about Jessica Simpson farting in a meeting to be worthy of attention on their website. I almost didn’t post about it, but I decided that it’s worth pointing out that Us Weekly is really grasping for straws. I love celebrity gossip as much as the next girl, but come on. It’s not like she pulled a Paula Abdul and answered her cell phone during a meeting. Sometimes people fart. It’s involuntary and they can’t help it. I mean, for fuck’s sake, leave the woman alone. If she says or does something, we can judge her behavior, but what’s next - an article about how she sneezed while someone was trying to ask for an autograph?
Singer Susan Boyle recently found herself in hot water when she had an outburst at a restaurant in London. Reportedly, Susan snapped and shouted at one of the employees of the restaurant. However, it turns out Susan had someone else as the target of her ire - her assistant, who apparently told Susan that she needed to go on a diet and lose some weight. Um, not cool, assistant. I’m struggling to find a reason why anyone would tell their boss to go on a diet - even if you think that, why would you ever say it to the person who has the authority to fire you? Most celebrity assistant jobs involve being a bit of a yes man or yes woman, and I find it incredibly surprising that an assistant would ever tell their celebrity boss “you need to lose weight.” Entertainment Lawyer, as usual, has a pretty good theory - that the assistant was passing along a message from a manager or agent or someone else who wanted to pressure Susan about her looks. Sadly, it’s not at all uncommon for the people responsible for managing a famous person’s career to give the celebrity unsolicited ‘advice’ about how to dress/look, even to the point where they encourage them to diet.
That said, Susan apologized for her outburst, and let’s hope this is the last we hear of it.
Oh, fashion interns. Not only does wanting to break into such a competitive industry usually mean you have to accept several unpaid or low-paid gigs in order to build up your resume, one fashion website is now pushing their free help even further. Fashionista.com, who (like many other fashion and beauty companies) relies on unpaid interns to help them cover the bases during Fashion Week, has asked their staff to go above and beyond the normal call of duty. Check out this section from a recent intern job ad they posted:
“We’ll need you at least two days a week until Fashion Week starts February 9th, during which we’ll need you more. How much more depends on your schedule, but you should be eager to skip class in favor of MILK. Our intern hours are officially 11 to 4, but again, once the week starts there’s no on/off.”
You heard that right, everybody: your unpaid job is WAY more important than your education! School is for losers! I’ll see you guys at fashion week.
As any regular STA reader knows, I’m a big Conan O’Brien fan. Even though I wish he would still go back and write episodes for “The Simpsons,” I’ve been totally grossed out by the way Jay Leno and NBC have treated Conan during his stint on “The Tonight Show.” One of the upsides of the whole late night war, though, is all the awesome television coming out of it. Conan has not pulled any punches, making fun of NBC and Leno as much as he can before leaving the network. This clip, though, was one of the best yet: a crossover with fellow NBC star Jack McBrayer in character as 30 Rock’s Kenneth the Page. And what was Kenneth doing at the Tonight Show? Giving a studio tour, of course.
Lots of people who work as celebrity assistants are doing their jobs because they’re trying to break into the entertainment industry. That makes sense, since working for a celebrity is a great way to make contacts and learn about how the industry works from the inside. However, one celebrity assistant is hoping to make the jump into a slightly less related career - he participated in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ annual “Fantasy Camp.” While most of the guys who participate in the program are trying to meet famous baseball players, there was one camp participant who had a little star power of his own:
“I was doing some scouting last night for today’s draft and I was looking over everybody’s occupation,” the former D-backs All-Star outfielder said. “I saw that one guy is list as an assistant to an actor or actress and I was wondering if he would be willing to share just who that is.”
Gregg Simon slowly stood up and said, “I’m the personal assistant to Carmen Electra.”
Not surprisingly, everybody asked if Electra might make an appearance during the week to support her PA, but it didn’t happen. MLB.com blogger Steve Gilbert, who was chronicling his experiences at Fantasy Camp, asked Simon if meeting his baseball idols was as exciting as meeting Electra’s famous friends.
“Are you kidding?” he said. “No way. This is much cooler. Meeting these guys is a much bigger deal. The only thing from ‘Hollywood’ that compares to this for me was meeting Bruce Springsteen and Howard Stern. No one else is close.”
I’m really digging the new blog Please Fire Me. It’s a simple enough premise: users submit reasons why they’d like to be fired. However, the reasons are about how much their companies/bosses suck, not about something the employee did. And, as any savvy assistant knows, being fired is way better than quitting, because then you get unemployment benefits! Here are a couple of my faves below:
Please fire me. I have to share my workspace with the mistress of the boss. So she thinks she’s the queen of the company and she definitely can’t do anything wrong in the boss’s eyes. And that leaves the rest of us in the office treated like dirt. So please fire me!
Please fire me. I had no idea I’d have to spend hours every day photocopying entire textbooks because you are too cheap to buy extra copies.
Please fire me. I just spent 20 minutes on the phone with your OBGYN picking a birth control that is “better suited” to your body.
Please fire me. I think I just helped my boss cover up a drunk driving hit and run with a mailbox.
Are you infuriated by the fact that rich bankers get Washington bailouts and six-figure bonuses while you’re still scraping by? You are far from alone. Tim Hunkin, an English man who runs an arcade in Southwold, Suffolk realized there was a market for people who wanted to take out their frustration on capitalist pigs - so he created “Whack a Banker,” a game based on the popular “Whack a Mole,” where little heads of men in business suits pop out of holes, and you beat the hell out of them with a mallet. Hunkin, who charges a mere 40 pence per turn, is already raking in the cash.
Singer Susan Boyle recently found herself in hot water when she had an outburst at a restaurant in London. Reportedly, Susan snapped and shouted at one of the employees of the restaurant. However, it turns out Susan had someone else as the target of her ire - her assistant, who apparently told Susan that she needed to go on a diet and lose some weight. Um, not cool, assistant. I’m struggling to find a reason why anyone would tell their boss to go on a diet - even if you think that, why would you ever say it to the person who has the authority to fire you? Most celebrity assistant jobs involve being a bit of a yes man or yes woman, and I find it incredibly surprising that an assistant would ever tell their celebrity boss “you need to lose weight.” Entertainment Lawyer, as usual, 
Lots of people who work as celebrity assistants are doing their jobs because they’re trying to break into the entertainment industry. That makes sense, since working for a celebrity is a great way to make contacts and learn about how the industry works from the inside. However, one celebrity assistant is hoping to make the jump into a slightly less related career - he participated in the Arizona Diamondbacks’ annual “Fantasy Camp.” While most of the guys who participate in the program are trying to meet famous baseball players, there was one camp participant