Philip Roth: The Friars Club Roast“Good evening, everybody! We’re here to wish a very happy birthday to Philip Roth, the man who put the putz in the Pulitzer!”
pop culture’s bravest
Year in Review: Vulture Salutes the Wangs of 2007We really wish we were classy enough not to point out that wangs were popping up everywhere this year, but, sadly, we are not — there were dicks all over the place!
company town
GE Still Hearts NBC … For NowMEDIA
• General Electric CEO Jeffrey Immelt said he’d postpone any decision on selling NBC until after the 2008 Olympics. Let’s just hope 30 Rock and Friday Night Lights last that long. [FT]
• Doris Lessing beat out Philip Roth, who was rumored as a top candidate, for this year’s Nobel Prize in literature. It probably helps that Lessing’s most recent novel doesn’t involve an old geezer fucking a “luckless goy chick” in the face. [NYT, Hitchens/Atlantic]
• FSG dominated this year’s National Book Award finalists, with five out of ten in fiction and nonfiction coming from the tweedy publisher’s lists. [NYT]
10 Fictional Characters Who Must DieLast month, fans argued about whether Tony Soprano was killed at the end of The Sopranos. This month, fans are eagerly flipping to the end of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to see whether Harry snuffs it. In honor of those two cliffhangers, Vulture presents its list of ten fictional characters we definitely want to see die.
gossipmonger
This Movie Is Innnsaaane!Danny DeVito is trying to make a movie about Crazy Eddie. One of Lindsay Lohan’s MySpace friends sold online correspondence between Lohan and Samantha Ronson to Star magazine. Philip Roth complained about showing up in “Page Six.” Jane staffers stole a lot of stuff from the fashion closet after learning the mag was folding. Former Jets QB Boomer Esiason may replace Don Imus as WFAN’s early-morning D.J. Gore Vidal is annoyed that Los Angeles Department of Water and Power tore out his solar-power system. Congressman Charlie Rangel is offering $1,000 to anyone who can prove he went on a “date.” Today show contributor Amy Jacobson was fired from her Chicago post after being caught on tape in a bikini at the house of a woman whose disappearance she was covering. Gisele and Tom Brady PDA’d at Palma on Cornelia Street. 50 Cent canoodled with Ciara.
Globes Were Golden, Leo Less SoOrlando Bloom celebrated his 30th birthday in L.A. with Penélope Cruz, and lots of celebs attended. (A lot of celebs also attended HBO’s pre–Golden Globes party.) Also at the Globes, Leonardo DiCaprio and model girlfriend Bar Rafaeli stocked up on a lot of swag, didn’t pose for promotional pics. Isaac Cohen was driving with girlfriend Britney Spears while covered with vomit, unless it was peanut butter. Renée Zellweger went on a date with Luke Perry. DreamWorks sent a cease-and-desist letter to artist Alex Hiro, whose work featured some of the studio’s animated characters participating in lewd acts. Fubu chose some suspect characters to help launch its fragrance, which may have been why it tanked. Spalding Gray’s two sons are quite the performers. Lindsay Lohan is dating Girls Gone Wild goon Joe Francis. Philip Roth ate dinner with Mia Farrow. Georgina Chapman is going to star in a movie (and no, it’s not one of hubby Harvey Weinstein’s). Liz Smith uses the Donald-Rosie feud to remind us she was once on Trump’s bad side.
