“No topic was off limits. No question went unanswered.” That’s how MTV’s new one-hour documentary special Britney: For The Record — a “film” directed by Phil Griffin that the star says she decided to make because she wasn’t being seen in the light that she wanted to be seen in — opens. Shot over the 60 days following the MTV 2008 Video Music Awards, it plays out more like a very special episode of The Hills than VH1’s Behind the Music.
While we went in skeptical — it was presented by Britney’s fragrance and her manager Larry Rudolph was an executive producer for chrissake — we left rooting for the pop star’s impending comeback. Did we get snowed by some slick editing or is there a chance that Britney is not all that bad?
Some highlights from the show after the jump.
Hadid, Foster on list to renovate Mecca: Mecca, aka Islam’s holiest city is seeking a face lift, and authorities are considering hot-right-now architects Zaha Hadid and Norman Foster for the job. They are among 16 contenders to create a new structure surrounding the Al Haram mosque, taking its capacity from 900,000 to 3 million, which would make it the highest capacity building in the world. Hadid has also been asked for input on upgrading “the whole area of the central district” of the city. [The National]
Records! And family and friends, of course. - Axel Anderson
My Technics headphones; peanut butter, hummus & jelly open-faced sandwiches (Shut up! They’re
fantastic!); DVR; Diet Coke; a rad boyfriend and an awesome (and supportive) family; Barack Obama; The Big Lebowski; NYC bars staying open past 2 a.m. - Leah Taylor
In no particular order: red velvet cake; the miracles of modern medicine; Google Maps; rain showers at midnight; second chances. Oh — and also I’m thankful for Russell Brand. - Shana Nys Dambrot
Bon Iver, The Shaky Hands, and The Blow; Pinkberry; McNally Jackson Books; Ariel by Sylvia Plath and I Was Told There’d Be Cake by Sloane Crosely… and lots of other corny things that I’ll just keep to myself. - Angelina Venezia
I’m thankful for Sacha Baron Cohen’s antics in Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa — totally rescued me from the abyss that is “family entertainment.” - Ashwin Sodhi
Lykke Li; AKA Potion Cafe and its open mic nights; Nelson’s Bicycle Shop; the School of Visual Arts and the model registry; William Esper Studio and Terry Knickerbocker; Gmail; the Northeast Kingdom; the Living Room and its awesome no-cover shows; Vamoose bus service. - Natalya Krimgold
Scrabble; cheap jukeboxes; Target Fridays at the MoMA; all Wes Anderson, early Judd Apatow and ’80s John Hughes; Ikea; Heroes, Chuck, Gossip Girl, 30 Rock and Life on Mars; George Saunders, Augusten Burroughs, David Sedaris, Lorrie Moore, Jonathan Lethem; Michael Cera; Y: The Last Man; the Beach Boys, Dolly Parton, Bruce Springsteen and various other oldies but goodies; emerging artists like Alyson Fox, Susie Ghahremani and Caroline Hwang; and all of you guys for reading us for the past month! - Caroline Stanley
Today at Flavorpill when we were supposed to be busy working, which is really hard the day before a major holiday… we chortled at this creepy New York Times interview with Karl Rove; we felt strangely excited by news that the Fat Boys are reuniting; we contemplated Jack Handley’s brilliantly hilarious plan; we cranked our favorite new office rap courtesy of the Sniper Twins; we donned our monocles to discuss the future of the city; we scratched our heads over the trailer for the upcoming Ace Venture Jr. movie; we played a few invigorating rounds of Super Obama World; we enjoyed poking a little harmless fun at a few photoshop disasters; and finally, we found new evidence that suggests that Dakota Fanning is most certainly an actor robot.
Lori Drew, aka, the mom who went on to MySpace pretending to be a teenage boy and then harassed a 13-year-old girl, ultimately resulting in her suicide, has been convicted of three misdemeanor counts of accessing a computer without authorization. She faces a maximum of five years in prison for each charge.
The jury opted not to pursue more serious felony charges for accessing a computer without authorization to inflict emotional distress.
Our question for you:
If you allowed yourself to wallow in the cesspool that is Bravo reality TV last night, then you enjoyed a double shot of Housewives madness. While there is much to discuss from The Real Housewives of Atlanta Reunion (Kim’s wig, Dwight’s toolbox and NeNe’s and Anderson Cooper’s love affair), we’re here to talk design, and that leads us to the botoxed grandmother of Housewives, The Real Housewives of Orange County.
Last night the ladies of the O.C. taught us a lot about welcoming new neighbors, marrying old farts — and most importantly, what not to do when decorating your abode. While the horrendous tropical inspired mural in the entryway of new gal Gretchen’s house deserves chiding, let’s focus on the myriad don’ts in real-estate mogul (term used loosely) Jeana Keough’s palace. Jeana decided it was time to give her home a face lift, and by God was she right.
After the jump, the main offenders that we spotted.
Chris Brown likes music, but he doesn’t like to sing. In college, he played guitar and keyboards in an indie pop group — but he never did vocals. “I only sang when I really, really had to,” he explains.
These days, Chris Brown has less time for jamming. His life in Chicago is full of responsibilities — his job as a hedge fund software engineer, and his duties as a father; he and his wife, Katey, have three boys all under the age of four.
Despite how busy he is, Chris doesn’t seem to mind the extra chaos his name adds to his life. It’s a common name, and he’s used to it (in college, his financial aid got switched with a different Chris Brown’s. Another time, he received an irate call from a girl who’d been stood up by a Chris Brown. “It wasn’t me, though,” he assures.) On occasion, after showing his ID in a security line, or handing over his credit card, he’ll get an excited reaction from a Chris Brown fan. Sometimes, they ask him to do a dance or request an autograph. “I haven’t given one,” he admits. “I always sort of politely offer, but then they realize…” He trails off.
According to this interesting list of books that Penguin authors will be giving and receiving over the holidays, Khaled Hosseini, author of The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns, is slightly obsessed with Junot Díaz.
Under his “give” list you’ll find The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, which he calls, “Hilarious, engaging, and profoundly moving and sad. A feast of language.” Under Hosseini’s “get” list is Drown — yet another book by Díaz.
“Loved Oscar Wao,” he explains. “This older selection, which I shamefully have not as yet read, will be my Díaz fix until the next one.” Easy there, boy.
Díaz also got shout outs from Laura Dave, author of The Divorce Party and Michael Pollan, author of In Defense of Food.
Pigs filled the sky this week, as Guns N’ Roses finally released the ridiculously long-awaited Chinese Democracy. In addition to costing Dr. Pepper a boatload of free soda, Axl Rose has revealed that what he’s spent the last decade and a half working on may have been (mostly) worth the wait.
To help celebrate, and to put things in perspective, after the jump, a short list of some things that have happened since the release of the last original GNR albums, 1991’s Use Your Illusion 1 and 2.
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