Ivanka Trump

Ivanka Trump and her husband Jared Kushner are expecting a baby girl, but the mom-to-be isn't expecting her dad, Donald Trump, to show up on diaper duty.
"He'll be wonderful, but not as a classic, hands-on, 'Let me take the child for the weekend' type," Ivanka told Harper's Bazaar. "He won't be that kind of grandfather."

And what kind of mother will she be? "I do have a bit of first-time-mom syndrome," she told the mag, which features her styled up, baby bump and all, as a sort of Playboy bunny. "I'm already on what I should be doing when she is 3 and when I should introduce new languages." (Hint: French and Mandarin Chinese are under consideration.)
The baby is due July 14, in line with Ivanka and Jared's plan to "to wait one year and just enjoy being newlyweds." The two were married in October 2009.
Note to the parents-to-be: Make sure you have your hands on that birth certificate before introducing the family's littlest member to her grandpa.

Chris Medina

Many American Idol 2011 fans will remember Chris Medina. He was the incredible singer who told the story of his girlfriend, Juliana Ramos, and the car crash that left her clinging for her life. Chris’ story touched the judges and the viewers and many thought he would go really far in the competition.
That wasn’t the case.

Chris didn’t make the Top 24 and he was understandably disappointed. Since his elimination, Chris has done well. He released a single and has been performing across the US. Fans of the show thought there was a great possibility their favorite contestant would be performing on the finale special. That’s not the case either. In fact, Chris didn’t even receive an invitation to attend the finale show – not even a seat in the audience.
What did Chris have to say about the snub?
“Just found out I will not be at the finale for #AmericanIdol sad and disappointed.”
When a follower asked Chris why he would not be attending, he replied with “Not asked. Then I asked for tickets and I was told they can’t. No Harsh feelings.”
He finished with “It was my ego that was a little hurt. It’s things like that, that keep me grounded. Make me work harder.”
Do you think Chris Medina should have been invited to the American Idol Finale?

One Tree Hill Season 9

The "One Tree Hill" season 9 announcement was finally made, and that should please Spokane CW fans. The great "One Tree Hill" season 9 news came on Tuesday night (May 17), and Entertainment Weekly was there to reveal the green light.
There has been some buzz that "One Tree Hill" will receive a limited number of episodes in the 2011-12 television season, with just 13 new ones ordered by CW. That news has not yet been confirmed, so there might be a small wait before those facts can be revealed.

For those that tuned in to the May 17 season finale of "One Tree Hill," this news could now have come at a better time. CW had really been delaying the announcement of renewal, maybe to simply make sure that the shows could retain a strong audience. Normally the network is one of the first to reveal which shows are going to be canceled or renewed for the next year.
In other CW news, it looks like "Nikita" will also be brought back, but that first-year show "Hellcats" might have just received a cancellation notice. "Gossip Girl" will definitely be back, as will "90210," with "Smallville" obviously heading off into the sunset after its tenth season finale.
The announcement of what date will serve as the fall 2011 premiere for "One Tree Hill" will probably come at a later date. For Spokane fans of "One Tree Hill," that will leave some time to watch older episodes on Soap all through the summer.

Oprah Winfrey

The crowd wanted tears and, of course, they got them. An hour into the filming of Surprise Oprah! A Farewell Spectacularin Chicago, the talk show queen's mascara was dribbling down her cheeks. Between the tears, screeches, hugs and ''oh my Gooooouuurds,'' celebrities declared their passion for Oprah Winfrey. Some said it with words (''She has balls,'' gushed Madonna) and others with song. Rosie O'Donnell, flanked by dancers, sang Fever with Oprahfied lyrics. Winfrey's enduring message to her fans is that nothing heals emotional wounds like airing them before a salivating crowd. Maria Shriver learnt the lesson well, sponging up the sympathy of the 13,000-strong crowd one day after her husband Arnold Schwarzenegger announced he had fathered an illegitimate child. For all the hysteria, there is one more episode to go after the farewell special airs over May 23 and 24 in the US.
IN THE NAME OF A LABOR SCANDAL

There was a time when the NSW Labor Party confected its own scandals. A time when ministers sought out their own internet porn, and slept with their own mistresses, and allegedly cavorted in their own underwear on their own Chesterfields in their own offices. And so it was with a little nostalgia yesterday that The Diary received a dirt sheet on the opposition spokeswoman on this and that, Cherie Burton. It was like the good old days when she lost her licence and embarrassed the then premier after refusing to take a breath test when stopped for drink-driving. It appeared from the carefully highlighted photocopy that she had again been stopped by police. An officer detected the ''strong odour of an alcoholic beverage'' before giving Ms Burton a sobriety test. And, like old times, she failed. Except the Ms Burton in question was from Richmond Hills, New York, which is nowhere near the seat of Kogarah. And she was a 46-year-old African-American woman. ''I've got no knowledge of that,'' a spokesman for the Premier, Barry O'Farrell, said of the documents. ''I can't really comment on it. The Labor Party have been known to do these things against their own. It's not necessarily come from us.'' The real Cherie Burton did not return the Herald'scalls. No blood sample was requested.
QANTAS IN THE GUN
Ordinarily when an airline misplaces a passenger's luggage it supplies a pair of emergency knickers and an oversized T-shirt. There was no such courtesy for the champion Australian shooters Russell and Lauryn Mark when Qantas lost their $30,000 worth of guns and 150 rounds of ammunition. Flying from Melbourne to Serbia to compete in the European Grand Prix, the pair told Qantas that European regulations required them to recheck their weapons when changing planes in Frankfurt. Airline staff confidently assured them this was not the case and checked them all the way through. At last report, the guns and ammunition were somewhere in Frankfurt airport - perhaps. ''Three hours ago they got in touch to ask what colour bags they were in,'' Russell Mark told us yesterday. ''That's three days after we reported they were lost.'' While a couple of guns floating around an airport might seem a security concern, Mark has more pressing matters to mind. Unless the guns arrive soon he will miss his competitions - Olympic qualifying events. ''Lauryn is already out of her competition,'' he said. ''When we fly home on Saturday, they'd better upgrade me to the pointy end of the plane.'' Qantas, a long-term sponsor of the Australian Olympic team, released an apologetic - perhaps even sheepish - statement last night. ''Our staff will be working through the night to find the baggage,'' a spokesman said. ''The correct baggage procedures were followed by Qantas staff.''
BY THE BOOK
If not for the cunning of about 500 Sydney University students, such titles as Catalogue of Vases in the British Museumand the 1972 Calcutta-produced Unpublished Records of the Government might have been lost to storage or destroyed. With undercover library staff, the students have staged a mass book-borrowing event in response to the university's plan to remove half of the stack in a library renovation. The university librarian, John Shipp, had said a ''dust test'' showed that not only were 58 per cent of monographs not borrowed, most were unread. Books neglected for five years would go first. Armed with dusters and library cards, book lovers converged on the sandstone's main library to thwart the removal process. An organiser, Jo Ball, said post-colonialist magazines from Papua New Guinea, titles on deer stalking, Bedouin justice and old copies of Lesbians on the Loose were hastily plucked from the shelves. ''One woman brought a shopping trolley into the library and filled it up. She said to me, 'I went and dusted half of level four, down the back.' '' While Shipp diligently handed out information pamphlets outside, Ball said his staff inside declared themselves subversives. ''The whole foyer was filled up with people lining up and those who were reading. We're not being dictated to by the bureaucracy.''
A BOOK, A GLASS AND IF THAT FAILS, A LAUGH
IT IS a common malaise for the black-skivvied crowd at literary festivals. A few days in, the bag of new books begins to drag at the elbow and the names of speaking authors begin to blur.
Was that Fatima Bhutto we saw on opening night? Or was it Ingrid Betancourt?

The festival offers a cure for the mid-festival droop: alcohol. A drink or two at the Festival Cafe at Pier 2/3 should put some life into listless book lovers. This year is the first time the festival has hosted free after-work social events.
Tonight, the Festival Cafe transforms into a cyber lounge called the Dissident Cafe, where the audience can quiz writers in Egypt and elsewhere. Waleed Aly, Anna Perera, Farid Farid and chairwoman Sara Haghdoosti will lead the Twitter feed.
When that ends, stay where you are, have another drink, and watch The Chaser team encourage belly laughing among guest authors.
By then you should be light enough on your feet to stroll down to the Quayside wine bar where a bunch of bards - Toby Fitch, Kim Cheng Boey and Kate Lilley - put voice to verse in a session curated by poetry promoter The Red Room Company.
Don't forget that bag of books.

STAY IN TOUCH . . .

WITH LEAVE IT TO BEAVER
SEEMINGLY more dog than beaver, Mel Gibson's hand-puppet rich comeback film has had a difficult few weeks. Wittily titled The Beaver, and based on a mentally ill Gibson communicating through a toy mammal, it pulled about $US100,000 ($94,000) in its US opening weekend. Based on The Diary's rough calculations, that means not even all of Mel's kids turned up to see it. There was some promise when it opened in Cannes this week, with Reuters reporting a warm crowd. ''An audience of critics … laughed loudly several times during a screening and applauded at the end,'' the wire service wrote, ''with one spectator even whooping in delight.'' But by morning, the view was less rosy. In The Guardian, Peter Bradshaw managed a single star for the ''rodent'' of a film. ''To paraphrase the old saying: career-death is easy but comedy is hard,'' he began, continuing: ''The Beaver might have been interesting if it was boldly, defiantly, autobiographical - with Gibson holding a toy Adolf Hitler puppet. Or if it was about a stressed beaver with a Gibson puppet.'' In The Independent, Geoffrey Macnab gave it two. But the review's flavour was remarkably similar: ''Gibson and his co-stars upstaged by a puppet.'' It's a shame, but it sounds like a film most people would never watch through to the credits. And so we may never know if tape-happy ex-girlfriend Oksana Grigorieva - or, as Gibson once called her, that ''f---ing pig in heat'' - was responsible for the sound engineering.
WITH SMELL OF SCIENCE
FROM the innovators who gave the world clogs, comes smell. Researchers at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands have been developing odours to enhance dancing and improve the mood of clubbers. They were apparently inspired by the need to cover the smell of sweaty bodies and spilled beer that was once masked by the (now banned) cigarette smoke in nightclubs. Instead of reproducing the smell of smoke, the scientists, led by Dr Hendrik Schifferstein, tested orange, peppermint and neutral seawater and found each scent increased the levels of dancing. The various smells also improved how subjects rated their evening and the quality of music played, but the similarities with ecstasy ended there.
GOT A TIP?

Delhi Belly Songs

Imran Khan plays the lead role in Delhi Belly and also features in the just-released promotional song "Bhag D K Bose", but for the item number that is to be added to the adult comedy, he wants Katrina Kaif. The video, launched on Wednesday, also features Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor, who play important roles in the film, directed by well-know ad-filmmaker Abhinay Deo and produced by Imran's uncle Aamir Khan.

Following the trend, Aamir has decided to add an item number in the film, but he hasn't decided on whom it will be picturised.

When reporters asked Imran who his choice would be, he promptly replied: "My vote is for Katrina Kaif. I have told Aamir mamu that he should consider her for the item number."

What's so special about Katrina? Imran smiled and said: "For her jawani."

Imran has made it clear that "Bhag D K Bose" is not to get one up on Ranbir Kapoor, whose Rockstarwould release just after Delhi Belly, which is releasing on July 1.

"There was an article on Tuesday, which says we wanted to play trumps on Rockstar, but this is really not the case. The song was meant to be like that, so we made that video," he said.

The song was actually the brainchild of the film's writer Akshat Verma and later Amitabh Bhattacharya penned it and Ram Sampath composed and sang the song, said Imran.

"It's a theme of our film. I feel it's the anthem that would come many times in the film," said the actor, who plays a journalist in the movie.

"I play a journalist in the film. Kunal plays a photographer and the two of us work together. Vir plays a cartoonist. We sometimes get stuck in situations because of our jobs," he said.

Imran Khan plays the lead role in Delhi Belly and also features in the just-released promotional song "Bhag D K Bose", but for the item number that is to be added to the adult comedy, he wants Katrina Kaif. The video, launched on Wednesday, also features Vir Das and Kunal Roy Kapoor, who play important roles in the film, directed by well-know ad-filmmaker Abhinay Deo and produced by Imran's uncle Aamir Khan.

Following the trend, Aamir has decided to add an item number in the film, but he hasn't decided on whom it will be picturised.

When reporters asked Imran who his choice would be, he promptly replied: "My vote is for Katrina Kaif. I have told Aamir mamu that he should consider her for the item number."

What's so special about Katrina? Imran smiled and said: "For her jawani."

Imran has made it clear that "Bhag D K Bose" is not to get one up on Ranbir Kapoor, whose Rockstarwould release just after Delhi Belly, which is releasing on July 1.

"There was an article on Tuesday, which says we wanted to play trumps on Rockstar, but this is really not the case. The song was meant to be like that, so we made that video," he said.

The song was actually the brainchild of the film's writer Akshat Verma and later Amitabh Bhattacharya penned it and Ram Sampath composed and sang the song, said Imran.

"It's a theme of our film. I feel it's the anthem that would come many times in the film," said the actor, who plays a journalist in the movie.

"I play a journalist in the film. Kunal plays a photographer and the two of us work together. Vir plays a cartoonist. We sometimes get stuck in situations because of our jobs," he said.

Dead Island

Set at the once luxurious Palms Resort on the fictional island of Banoi in Papua New Guinea, Dead Islandfocuses on the lives of four very different characters who suddenly find themselves in a very similar (and sticky) situation. I played my demo as Xian Mei, a stereotypically Asian staff member of the resort with a penchant for knives.

The game’s opening cutscene shows you drunkenly stumbling through the crowd at a hip-hop performance by rapper Sam B, who bears an odd resemblance to Flava Flav and later reappears as one of the four playable characters. You notice out of the corner of your eye strange activities are afoot. You stumble into the bathroom to find a woman lying dead on the floor, moments before passing out.
You awaken the next morning to a zombie-infested island with no recollection of how the outbreak started. As one of the few remaining humans on the island, it becomes your duty to find other survivors and work together to call for assistance. To protect yourself, you’ll need weapons, which you can find in various areas on the island. You can also purchase them from merchants hoping to cash out before help arrives.

I was given access to two different areas of the game during my demo, the resort area and the city area. Scattered throughout the shacks and buildings around these areas are blueprints and workbenches, both of which you’ll need to combine weapons for increased damage and awesomeness. Much like in Dead Rising 2, you have the option to combine a baseball bat with a box of nails to create a nail-studded bat. Of course, all of the weapons you find will be in varying shape, so repairing and upgrading them is crucial to doing damage on your opponents. It will cost you cash, though.
When you venture out onto the island, there are several things you will immediately notice. The first is that there is a lot of bobbing and wobbling when you walk. It can actually make it difficult to control on the game at times, so I really hope this is something that becomes less apparent the more skilled you become. Speaking to that, you will also notice that you’re awful at handling weapons. Wielding a weapon is tricky at first, but your character learns quickly. If you notice you're missing swings, you’re most likely exhausted. As you level up, you’ll begin to see your stamina increasing with every zombie you kill. You’ll also gain skill points which can be assigned to one of your three skill trees, each of which contains both active and passive skills.

Practically every aspect of your character’s physical and mental abilities improve as you advance. Even the one-line quips muttered by Xian Mei after making a kill progressed from anxious and disturbed in the beginning (“There’s no end to them!”) to hilariously confident by the end of the demo (featuring such gems as, “I kill you!” and “Dead FOREVER!”) Expect to hear a lot of heavy panting as well, as it's also a sign of exhaustion. These small, realistic touches are what gives the game an extra polished feel.
The first quest I did was a favor for a survivor I stumbled upon named Dominic. He and his crew have been trying to call for help, but have no reception. My task? Find an amplifier at a nearby lighthouse to cut through the static. When I arrived at the lighthouse, I discovered another group of survivors. After talking to them, I learned that the two groups had a difference of opinion on how to escape from the island - the first group of survivors wanted to stay and wait for military assistance, while the second group was trying to get off the island as soon as possible.

After speaking to some of the survivors there, I accepted a second quest from a guy named Trevor who asked me to travel to a cave on a nearby beach and look for any signal flares that may have washed ashore in a recent shipwreck. I reached the cave and there stood a group of eight or ten zombies of various classes ready to rip me apart. Two things became immediately evident as I entered my final moments. First, I really, really hate caves. Secondly, the lighting in this game is very well done. It’s apparent that a great deal of effort was put into making the game’s dimly lit areas appear scary and treacherous and, indeed, I am told there are many dark areas you'll be exploring in the game.

Of course, the gameplay wouldn’t be nearly as exciting if there weren’t several classes of zombies ready to pop out from beneath the shadows and make you damn near sh*t your pants. The majority of zombies are called Vessels - slow moving, probably obese, and probably wearing a Hawaiian shirt. The ones you need to worry about are the Aggressive Zombies that run at you from several meters away. Those are best dealt with by chopping off their legs and then beating them to death. Then there are the Ram Zombies, massive straightjacket-wearing beasts that charge at you from a distance and knock you down. There are even Suicidal Zombies that explode when they get close to you.
In addition to making the game more challenging, the various classes of zombies elicit a more strategic reaction from the player than what is typically accomplished with simple hacking and slashing. Instead, it becomes a delicate balance of striking, dodging and maneuvering.

Although Dead Island is being marketed as a heavily melee-focused game, there are a number of ways to go about killing zombies, not all of which involve melee combat. Pulling the left trigger automatically places a target on the nearest zombie. If you’re approaching a group of them, pressing B will activate a special one-time-only skill that does extra damage to mobs. You can throw a weapon at a Suicidal Zombie to kill it before it has a chance to explode near you. Or if you’re like me, you can approach a zombie in the water, pull a bitch move and kick it with the left bumper to give it drowning damage. What’s neat is that the game features manual controls that allow you to slice and dice as you please. The default is automatic, which shows your standard two-second cutscene of a zombie’s head falling off or something equally as gory.

So, after shamelessly beating those repulsive cave zombies to death with a wooden boat paddle, I headed over to the city. It’s not until a few hours into the game you arrive at the city, so you can already tell it’s visibly more devastated than the island. Everything has been ravaged and the sunshine and salty sea breeze have been replaced by grey clouds and pouring rain.

I arrived at a church after receiving a tip that there were people trapped inside. Waiting for me in the courtyard outside the church was a Ram Zombie. The tactic for defeating these is a little more complex. You have to let them charge at you, dodge them at the last second, and then attack them from behind while they’re still disoriented. Fun fact: I died four times while trying to take down this guy. I can’t decide if this is a testament to how challenging the game is or to just how much I suck at video games, but for the sake of my dignity, let’s assume the former. It should be noted here that Medkits are found all around the island or can be purchased from a vendor and quickly administered with the touch of a button.
Upon entering the church, I find a nun. She tells me that one of their own has become possessed by a demon and has locked himself in the bell tower. He repeatedly rings the bell, a cry for help which only attracts the zombies more. “Please help me silence these bells,” pleads the nun. “They are calling to the devil’s disciples.” These are typical of the kinds of quests you will complete in Dead Island. Fetching items you’ll need in order to get off the island, rescuing survivors, and staving off zombies will make up the bulk of your time spent playing, and completing missions for others will earn you XP, items and, sometimes, cash.

Although the game is open world, the entire island is infested with zombies so you obviously won’t want to linger in any unsafe area for too long. Zombies also randomly respawn in areas you have already been, so the only way to truly save yourself is by getting off the island. From start to finish, it should reasonably take about 20 hours. With all of the side quests, it’s more like 25-30.

Overall, I think Dead Island shows promise. Though I was slightly underwhelmed by the clunky controls, I think the game visually looks great and the full storyline (which publishers are keeping under wraps for now) is deep enough to keep you coming back for more. I wasn’t able to demo online co-op mode just yet (the game has no local co-op), but I was told the gameplay would be very similar to that of Left 4 Dead, allowing up to four players, each with their own unique abilities.

Destructoid is scheduled to get some hands-on time with the co-op mode at E3 next month, along with an official release date for the game. Stay tuned in the coming weeks for more coverage.

Hawaii Five O

This was an explosive season finale - literally.  It also looks like "Off The Map" is off the air for good.  Bummer, I really liked that show.


I'll put forth the best dialogue, so that no one will inadvertently see the spoilerish material

Steve and Danno were tracking down a suspect to interrogate and found him at an Army surplus store/warehouse.  As they were walking through the place, the following conversation ensured:

Danno: Hope you like it, this is what it's going to look like when you die.  This is your heaven. You want anything while we're here? New ammo belt? Night vision goggles?  Whoa, whoa...powdered eggs!

Steve: Let me tell you something. I'd take powdered eggs over your eggs any day!

D: My eggs? You love my eggs.

S: Terrible, Danny.

Spoilers after the jump.

The body count- five  Laura Hills,  Dale O' Reilly (the Army surplus guy) and two cops escorting him, plus (shocker) Governor Jameson.

The episode starts harmlessly enough, with Danny having a romantic morning after moment with his ex-wife, Rachel.  At the end of the show, Danny fails to show up for a flight back to the mainland, and Rachel, with Grace get on the plane.

That is of course because Danny is going to have to pick up the remnants of Five-O, while figuring how to get McGarrett and Kono out of jail.

Steve has been framed for the Governor's murder, and Kono set up as the fall guy for the money taken from the police storage locker.

This tangled web of deceit apparently unraveled after the gov's assistant Laura Hills is found to be the one sending McGarrett the items from his father's toolbox.

The governor ordered the hit, and covered it up well, but Steve saw the antique desk, and broke in (what was he thinking?) to the executive mansion, and peeked in her desk.

Like every action hero, Steve goes to confront Jameson, but oops, WoFat is there too, to tazer McGarrett and plant the gun, so it looks like he fired it.

So Steve is in custody, arrested by Chin Ho, and Danny has to deal with not only this mess, but a pregnant ex-wife.

I can't say I saw that one coming, I now we have to wait all off season to see how this unravels.  It was certainly one of the best episodes of the season.  A perfect cliffhanger for a great freshman effort for the team that produces this show.

Steve, all I can say, is get a good lawyer.  

Danielle Staub

Although Danielle Staub is absent from the third season of “The Real Housewives of New Jersey,” the 48-year old mother of two is keeping busy.
Penning a memoir?
Doing volunteer work?
Nope.
She's working the pole at Scores Gentlemen’s Club in New York City.
TMZ.com reports that the former “Housewives” star has signed a three-year deal with the strip club to do one live appearance and occasionally appear on ScoresLive.com.
This isn’t Staub’s first venture with nude entertainment. She worked as a stripper in Miami during the 1980s.
"She was like a gymnast! She could do anything,” raved Staub’s ex, Kevin Maher, to Star Magazine about her pole dancing skills . “One time, on her birthday, she came home with $6,000."

But that was a loooooong time ago.
In addition to her career as an adult entertainer, Staub is also filming a new reality series for VH1 with Heidi Montag of “The Hills” and Jake Pavelka of “The Bachelor,” in which the trio join other reality stars to revamp “a restaurant from the ground up."

Teresa Giudice

Ladies, this is NO JOKE! Last night’s premier episode of RHNJ featured a full-on rock ‘em, sock ‘em fist fight between Teresa and Melissa’s husbands, in front of all of their very young children.

In fact, the violent brawl occurred at new cast member Melissa’s Christening party for her new baby Joey. Could it be a more inappropriate place for ANY kind of nasty family drama let alone name-calling and violence?  NO – it could not!
Apparently anger and resentment has been brewing for years between Teresa and her once-close brother Joey Gorgaever since he married his highly competitive wife Melissa. Both Melissa and her two catty sisters have stoked the flames between Teresa and her bro, Joe. Now Joe feels that Teresa has been avoiding him and his wife and kids for years, while Teresa has felt pushed out of the relationship with her brother.
But that was no excuse for Joe to call his sister “garbage” and then yell at her to “walk away” when she came to congratulate Joe and Melissa ontheir baby. That was disgusting!
But then Teresa’s meathead bankruptcy-challenged husband Joe Guidice dumbly swung into action, lunging at his nasty brother-in-law with his fists. The whole place erupted in a violent melee with no regard to the babies, young kids and elderly folks in the room, including Joe and Teresa’s dad, who we were told has had two heart surgeries. It was a  terrifying scene on television – it had to be much worse to be there. Yes, this is a television show but that doesn’t excuse the stupidity of Teresa, Melissa, and their two husbands called Joe. A child could easily have been hurt. The family patriarch could have had a heart attack and in any case, all the children, were scared to death.
Teresa’s brother Joe is godfather to her oldest daughter, Gia. How are they going to explain to a scared and confused Gia why her daddy and godfather were hitting each other?
Please – Teresa, Melissa and the two Joes, you have  have a lot of explaining to do. And a lot of self questioning. Are TV ratings so important that you would endanger your babies and children both physically and emotionally?
Melissa Gorga ask yourself – why do you have such pent up hatred for your sister-in-law? Your snipping was really petty and nasty. And your sisters were just as vile, egging you on.

And Teresa- your husband need to stop creating a rift between your father and your brother, which apparently he’s doing.
The RHNJ has just taken dysfunction to a whole new level this season. Danielle Staub was nothing compared to this!

Jon Stewart Bill O Reilly

The new "Adventures of Tintin: The Secret of the Unicorn" teaser still keeps its hero in the shadows, but it's given the world a glimpse at what director Steven Spielberg and producerPeter Jackson have put together. A few tweeters feel like it may have jumped a little too far into the uncanny valley, though.
Meanwhile, Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly's debate last night attracted a few responses as well. Reactions to that, news of an up-and-coming Marvel trivia champion and Simon Pegg's new fight to raise awareness are each on the record after the jump.
I'm @brianwarmoth, and this is the Twitter Report for May 17, 2011.
@BRIANMBENDIS my daughter is schooling @axelalonsomarv and @TomBrevoort in marvel trivia. painful to watch!!
-Brian Michael Bendis, Writer ("New Avengers," "Ultimate Spider-Man")
@maguirekevin Wow! Jon Stewart pelted Bill O'Reilly with facts that would have made any sane man say "I was wrong" and O'Reilly remained impervious!
-Kevin Maguire, Artist ("Justice League," "Defenders")
@Southworth Can we give Jon Stewart and Bill O'Reilly a show together? You can have all my money.
-Paul Southworth, Writer/Artist ("Ugly Hill")
Tintin pt. 1: @JhonenV 'Bout time somebody took all that style out of Tin Tin. Love the scene with the monster at the end. Oh, that's Tintin. youtube.com/watch?v=f3Xwta…
-Jhonen Vasquez, Writer/Artist ("Johnny the Homicidal Maniac," "Invader Zim")

Tin Tin pt. 2: @boxbrown Ugh, Tin Tin, couldn't it just have been 2D ligne clare? I'm not really down with these Uncanny Valley characters
-Box Brown, Writer/Artist ("Bellen!")
Tin Tin pt. 3: @smuu That final shot of Tintin in the movie teaser will be in my nightmares tonight. A hyperrealistic face with that cartoon hair? Shudder.
-Faith Erin Hicks, Writer/Artist ("Zombies Calling," "The War at Ellsmere")
@petergkrause Something I inked yesterday that I liked--Modeusbot. #IRREDEEMABLE http://twitpic.com/4yv7iq
-Peter Krause, Artist ("Irredeemable," "Power of Shazam")
@simonpegg I've decided not to tweet for two weeks to raise awareness of the importance of lowering awareness of oneself in the social media universe.

Real Housewives Of New Jersey

The Subtext Translator is currently on break after the last exhausting Housewives run. Not to worry, because judging by the season premiere of Real Housewives of New Jersey, all subtext has taken a break too!
The season opens with the Giudices arriving at a reception venue called the Manor, florid signage and all. Baby Audriana has so many feathers on her headpiece, it’s like somebody told that poor kid she was going to the royal wedding instead of her cousin Joey’s Christening. For the first time, we meet Melissa Gorga, mother of Joey and Teresa’s estranged sister-in-law, and I totally respect her for squeezing in her baby’s baptism before a huge night at the slots, which is the only logical explanation for her wearing a hot-pink mini-toga with bedazzled neckline and chainwork to this event.
Teresa comes over to her brother Joe’s table to congratulate him on this holiest of days, and you can already see trouble brewing in Joe Gorga’s eyes. And by trouble, I mean a lot of alcohol. It’s like his eyeballs are submarine windows and you can actually see them lowering into an ocean of alcohol. When Joe hears the word “congratulations,” it’s as if Teresa has hit upon a deep Clockwork Orange trigger that someone implanted in his subconscious, and immediately he’s shaking as he orders Teresa to “just walk away. Go.” She doesn’t back off, so he takes that Gorga intensity up a notch by growling at her that she’s “garbage,” and when even that doesn’t do the job, he goes ahead and violently pounds the table with both fists. I’m bracing for a full-on table flipping when Teresa’s husband, Joe Giudice, decides that he wants to get up in the mix. And then it’s Joe (!!) on Joe (!!) as …
the show cuts to a title card reading “One Week Earlier.”
I’m guessing this 500 Days of Summer approach is supposed to create procedural suspense by taking us back through the clues of what Teresa did to bring on Joe’s double-fisted game of Whac-A-Mole, but it also makes the rest of the story lines feel completely inconsequential. Once I’ve seen the baptism party, I’ve just got to get back there. And it doesn’t help that the other women’s story lines are extremely quiet this week, so let’s get them out of the way.
Caroline Manzo’s grown boys, Albie and Chris, are finally moving out into their own apartment, and it’s incredibly refreshing to see cheap carpeting and vertical blinds on this show, because the eye needs a rest every once in a while from marble and gilding. Caroline starts to cry about Chris being “her baby,” and those words are like my own “congratulations” trigger because I also have a mom who thinks I’m 12-months-old, but just weirdly articulate and mobile for my age. I love Caroline and she’s looking fantastic, but it’s time to let your grown men go and masturbate into their own towels, you know?
Back at the Manzo mansion, the whole family’s making a southern dinner, dissing southerners by accusing them of doing pasta sauce from the jar, but I didn’t see anyone around that kitchen island hand-cutting lard for those biscuits! Chris decides to really turn the knife in his mom’s back about his future absence by pulling out a “Cajun” accent that totally slays her, but the accent is pretty much just a bad Popeye crossed with Sling Blade. Caroline brings up Chris’s “wit” as evidence that he’s going to do great in the world, and that right there is a portrait of a mother’s love: It’s blinder and deafer than the family’s aging dog.
Over dinner, Caroline decides to press her daughter Lauren’s boyfriend Vito about when he’s going to Zales, and Vito is about as romantic as an Excel spreadsheet because he “has a timeframe.” It must make Lauren swoon to know that Vito’s kind of like a toaster and someday he’s just going to ding with a proposal. Jacqueline and Caroline’s brother Christopher are also at this dinner, and their whole story line this week is about how Jacqueline’s daughter Ashley continues to be clueless and entitled, except now she’s got Lizzie Grubman to mentor her.
Earlier in the episode, Jacqueline went to visit Ashley at her Grubman internship and gave her a public dressing-down because Ashley suggested that her mom should fund a move to Manhattan, even though Ashley is making a little under zero dollars per hour. I say a “little under” because Lizzie is chemical peeling her way to subcutaneous tissue, and having to see that every morning is like a wage deduction. When Ashley starts crying, Lizzie rushes to hug her while squealing, “Why are you crying? Noooooo,” which tells me that there is no chance for Ashley to undergo any amount of personal growth at that company. The best thing anybody could do for her at this point would be to laugh in her face every time she demands something without earning it. Jacqueline is starting to understand this, but there’s also the sense that it’s just too late — that instead of giving Ashley an SUV for doing kiiiiiind of average in summer school, they should have tried to get her cast on Survivor.
And now, at last, we can get back to Teresa Giudice and the satellite players in the Saga of the Christening Congratulations. Before returning to the big-ticket action, the show brings us up to date on what’s been going on with Teresa during the hiatus (bankruptcy) and gives a more lengthy introduction to Melissa Gorga and cousin Kathy. All you need to know is that Juicy Joe’s been working at the pizza shop while Teresa makes bank selling her Skinny Italianbooks. Gia shows up to her mom’s signing with a fresh blowout, and walks around the table smiling and cheating out like Vanna White going to turn a letter. Joe’s there wearing a shirt with denim side panels like he came over from an apparel class at Jo-Ann Fabrics & Crafts.
We meet Melissa next, and she’s wearing a purple-fur jacket, which is not the last of purple that you’re going to see from her over the course of this season, I can promise you that. Homegirl loves purple. You can tell she’s one of those people who thinks purple means something. She’s married to Teresa’s brother Joe and they live in a Hugh Hefner–esque 15,000-square-foot home, and I realize that they’re perfect for each other when she describes his “work ethnic” and he, in a totally separate interview, describes her “worth ethic.” Melissa has a habit of making a super-bouncy sign of the cross and throwing kisses to heaven, but she also likes to give regular shout-outs to Jesus, whose name she says like he’s a baby up in heaven. Like she’s just saying, “Jesus,” but somehow there’s a silent coochy-coo in her pronunciation.
There’s also cousin Kathy, but the most notable things about her so far are that she can open her eyes wider than Teresa and she’s married to a Lebanese Jon Lovitz. Honestly, I’m more interested in her teenage kids, who both have mysterious whispers of danger about them. Sixteen-year-old Victoria has glamour shots on her wall in which she’s wearing, alternately, leather and a masquerade mask, and her mom casually remarks that you “don’t mess with her.” Then there’s cute little Joseph, who has “so many friends” and “is such a sweetheart,” but we meet him unsheathing a knife as he relaxes in bed.
In preparation for a return to the baptism reception, the following is my CSI “assembling the clues” montage about why there’s bad blood between the Giudice’s and the Gorgas:
1. Teresa and her brother Joe used to be close, but she feels that his marriage to Melissa pushed her away. He feels that she stopped making an effort to be there for family.
2. (Because both men are Joe G’s, I’m going to go with “Teresa’s Joe” and “Melissa’s Joe” to keep them straight.) Melissa’s Joe is under the belief that Teresa’s Joe has curried the Gorga father’s favor and somehow torn down that relationship.
3. Teresa didn’t invite Melissa and Joe to some book reading/signing. (Believe me, Melissa and Joe, this was a gift. Do you understand how boring book readings are?? I spend so much effort trying to get out of them!)
4. Teresa didn’t tell Melissa that her home was beautiful.
5. Teresa didn’t come to the hospital when baby Joey was born.
6. Teresa threw away some Christmas cookies that Melissa brought over.
These preexisting bad feelings get amplified the day of the Christening when Teresa shows up late to the church and Joe’s not with her. He’s home with a case of diarrhea, and later at the reception, when Melissa’s Joe gets insulted that Teresa’s Joe doesn’t want to slam back shots with him, I’m saying to myself, “Just tell him you had diarrhea! This will all be resolved if you just tell him you had diarrhea!” In my life, I’ve found that people are incredibly sympathetic when you tell them you’ve been on the toilet all morning, and I feel like this would have been the perfect ice breaker for the two Joes. But Teresa’s Joe just keeps that stiff, sweaty upper lip, and everything goes downhill from there.
The kids are in purple vests, purple outfits. There’s so much purple eyeshadow. Melissa’s Joe has got on a purple-silk shirt. There are a lot of purple dresses. Melissa’s in the aforementioned hot-pink number, but I’m guessing it has more lilac in it than what’s reading on-camera. You’ve got your cross ice sculpture, standard. You’ve got your translucent crosses hanging from the branches in the centerpieces like cross-shaped dew. You’ve got the huge diamond cross dangling from Melissa-Joe’s neck.

As previously mentioned, Melissa’s Joe is getting wasted. He has just welcomed his son to God’s kingdom, and you’ve got to wash that down with something. Teresa and her Joe have the nerve to slow dance with Baby Joey (thank God in his kingdom for that "y"), and once they do that, there is no turning back. Some lady comes and rips that baby out of their arms like she’s from Child Services and they were injecting Joey with Botox, but the damage is done. It’s all coming together, like Memento. I just wait to catch up in time.
And then I am back at the pounding of the table, and there’s Teresa’s weakened dad, who is doing his very, very best to ignore the situation and eat his dinner, but his plate is jumping beneath his fork. Melissa’s sister begins screaming “One side! One side!” indicating that even though she and Teresa have done some phone chatting in the past, she is now drawing the line, and Teresa is out there on her own. Except she isn’t. There’s Juicy Joe coming in, swinging at Teresa’s brother for calling his wife a piece of garbage, and he’s got a lot of fight in him for someone who’s probably extremely dehydrated from diarrhea! Once Joe’s got a punch in, suddenly there’s a huge crowd of guys in suits rushing forward in a circle. Being a Jew, the only party reference I have for this is that it looks like the Hora, minus the people up on chairs.
Everybody’s going nuts. Some guy in a blue shirt whom I’ve never seen before is flailing and convulsing with anger while other guys hold him back, and I have no clue what his problem is, but boy, is he scrappy. Women are kicking. Kids are crying. A guttural screech goes up through the Manor ballroom like in Clue: The Movie. The fight has at least three lives because the uproar keeps waxing and waning, and it’s almost comedic, except it’s also psychotic. One of the Bravo cameramen does a spectacular job, continuing to film even after he’s apparently knocked to the floor, and I also appreciate the fine touch of the Bravo editor who inter-cuts a shot of a cross sparkling in a centerpiece.
The episode closes on Melissa’s Joe, his head tipping like a boxer in the last round after a devastating head injury, as he wails at his sick father in Italian out in the lobby. He wants approval. He wants his father to favor him over Teresa’s Joe. He wants love, and he wants to believe in the utmost importance of blood. “You’re my father!” he cries. “My father!” He wails from the bottom of his soul, and the pathos of this scene holds its own against anything that The Sopranos ever submitted for Emmy consideration.
My dog just threw up on the bed next to me, so with that, I’ll see you next week.

Pearl Jam

Pearl Jam will be packing their bags for a Canadian tour this summer.
The Seattle band has announced a nine-city cross-country tour beginning Sept. 7 at Montreal's Bell Centre.
Eddie Vedder and co. will wind through seven provinces total during the trek, set to wrap at Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum on Sept. 25.
The band is also commemorating its 20th anniversary with a book and new documentary.
"Pearl Jam Twenty," directed by Cameron Crowe, was culled from over 1,200 hours of archive footage plus another 24 hours of recently shot interviews and live clips.

The group's most recent collection of new material was 2009's "Backspacer," which was certified platinum in Canada.

Tree Of Life

When director Terrence Malick makes a long-awaited, 138-minute epic about the nature of life, death and religion — a film called “The Tree of Life” that stars Brad Pitt and first screened for critics at the Cannes Film Festival earlier today — one has to expect the reviews to feature a bit of overinflated, occasionally convoluted prose.
Indeed, if the response to “Life” is mixed, one thing seems consistent: reviewers have a hard time explaining the movie without writing some decidedly wordy sentences. If you didn’t know what “Tree of Life” was about before, the reviews may not necessarily clarify matters.
Take this four-star assessment from the Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw, whose first sentence is a doozy: “Terrence Malick’s mad and magnificent film descends slowly, like some sort of prototypical spaceship: it's a cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions, a rebuke to realism, a disavowal of irony and comedy, a meditation on memory, and a gasp of horror and awe at the mysterious inevitability of loving, and losing those we love.”
“A cosmic-interior epic of vainglorious proportions” — I mean, isn’t that the same phrase everyone used to describe “Fast Five”?
Wait, let’s not dwell on that. Instead, let’s focus on macrocosms. (By the way, it may be best to listen to the appropriately swelling and introspective sounds of Sia’s “Breathe Me” while reading these various reviews. Just a suggestion.)


After all, Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly does, briefly, in her “Tree of Life” review: “What this pro-Malick, 7:30 a.m. queue participant saw: A (typically) fascinating but confounding jumble of two works in one. Under the circumstances, I’ll call them the microcosmic and the macrocosmic. Or maybe the luminously precise and the woo-woo spiritual-lite.”
If you’re short on time, I’ll go ahead and let you know that Schwarzbaum is a fan of the film. And, to her credit, she conveys that succintly in just six paragraphs.
Tom McCarthy of The Hollywood Reporter says that Malick’s latest will likely polarize viewers, but also notes that it features one of Brad Pitt’s finest performances. He also adds:
“Treeis destined to be endlessly likened to 2001: A Space Odyssey,due to the spacy imagery of undefinable celestial lights and formations as well as because of its presentation of key hypothetical moments in the evolution of life on this planet,” he writes. “There are also equivalent long stretches of silence and semi-boredom designed, perhaps, to provide some time to muse about matters rarely raised in conventional narrative films.”
Ah, long stretches of silence and semi-boredom: It’s what most Americans can get at work for free without paying for the price of a movie ticket.

But my favorite review so far comes from Stephanie Zacharek of MovieLine, who does an excellent, straight-forward job of expressing her feelings about “Tree of Life.” First, she notes some details that should excite movie fans who live for scenes involving primordial ooze: “Here is where Malick takes a breather to ponder the origins of life: It begins, apparently, with a shiny, glowing, translucent pinky-blue light-up mussel floating in black space. Next, there are some bubbles of primordial ooze and some jellyfish. Dinosaurs appear (and they arepretty good dinosaurs, the one thing in Tree of Lifethat impart a genuine sense of wonder).”
Then she concludes with a blunt assessment free of flowery prose: ”I can already hear the chorus of dissenters: But you just don’t understand! Tree of Life [is] a tone poem made by a genius! You need to see it again, or at least think about it a lot more! Admittedly, in this particular case, deadline constraints demanded some pretty rapid processing. But I don’t think I’d find much more beneath the surface ofTree of Life if I thought about it for 12 more hours or 12 more days.”
I am not sure that I will agree with Zacharek; I’ll have to see “Tree of Life” for myself to decide, something I look forward to doing. But I respect her ability to put the epic in perspective on a very tight deadline, even with all that primordial ooze in the way.

Survivor Redemption Island

Matt Elrod was the second person voted out of Redemption Island, and yet he still made it all the way to the finale. His journey came to an end in the final duel as he admired some pretty trees and oh-so-briefly lost his concentration, allowing his vase to tip over and fall. He called into EW.com today to discuss his unique experience on the show, why he signed up in the first place, and whether or not he is actually dating Andrea. Read on after the jump for the complete interview.
Matt, by my calculations you spent 672 days at Redemption Island. Or at least it seemed like it.  Was it as much of an emotional roller coaster as it seemed to be for you?
It absolutely was. It was probably even more of an emotional roller coaster than they showed. In the mornings I’d wake up and be miserable and cold and hungry, and then by the afternoon I’d normally kind of lighten up and be in better spirits, but it was a day-to-day thing and I was all over the place for sure.
What was harder: Bring blindsided twice by your own tribe, or then having to watch yourself get blindsided twice by your own tribe on TV?
Well, the second time I got blindsided on the show it was actually kind of funny because I was like “Who does that?” But then watching it on TV, it was a little bit harder to watch because you’re seeing what everybody is saying. At the same time, I kind of like the way everything panned out for me. I’m pretty happy with it, so I can’t really complain too much either way.
You had some strong words for the final three at that last Tribal. How do you feel now about the concept of separating the game from life in terms of one’s actions?
I love the game. I respect the game a lot. I respect Rob as a person and as a Survivor player. And that’s one of the reasons that he’s so good because he can distinguish between the two. I think it’s doable. I don’t think there’s any problem with playing the game — it’s just not where my heart was going into it. And really the only reason I didn’t play is it wasn’t my true motivation for going to play the game of Survivor, I guess.
What was your true motivation for going to play Survivor then?
I guess, really, I wanted to glorify God and get his name out there and try to encourage anyone I could. I felt like I had been given a platform and I wanted to use it just the best way that I could. I don’t know if people saw a weak, crying kid struggling to put one foot in front of the other or a broken man trusting in something much greater than himself and trying to show the love and joy and peace that he felt.
I think we saw both!
[Laughing] Probably so.
Would you have been able to lie and backstab and tell people they were going to the end with you even if they weren’t, like Rob did?

This was Rob’s fourth time playing the game. Obviously he’s got a little bit of an advantage and quite the skill set for sure. My first go round, had I wanted to go that route I really don’t think I could have played that game as well as he did. But if I were to go back and play it again, I could play it that way. I’m not sure.
So after all the misery you were put through, you would go back and play Survivor again if asked?
You know, I’m about 50-50 on this one. Some of me wants to go back and some of me just wants to stay so I’m not really certain.
C’mon, you guys always go back. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve talked to people and they’re like “I’m not going back” and there they are again.
I don’t know. I guess we’ll find out in the future when we’re doing an interview.
We will, and I’ll say, “See, I told you!” Now let’s say Andrea had made it to the final three. Would you have voted for her to win?
I think I absolutely would have voted for her to win. I mean Rob played a perfect game, but to be honest with you, I was looking for a reason to not vote for him. And Andrea was a hard, hard worker. She’s great in challenges. She’s tough as nails. I think I would have voted for her for sure.
I know you were pretty upset with her when she first got to Redemption. So did that pass quickly?
I was being cordial with her. I just wasn’t being overly nice to her and she came out and started saying I was giving her evil eyes and started attacking me and that’s where things kinda went south. But she did what she had to do, and I’ve got to respect that. I can’t tell anyone how to play the game, and she’s a good gal. So there was no bad blood there, and if there was, it didn’t last long.
What about if Mike had made it back into the game and into the final three? I’m guessing he would have gotten your vote also.
Oh, goodness, yeah. Mike would have gotten two of my votes if that were possible.
That whole exchange with Probst at the reunion about whether you and Andrea are dating was really awkward, so let’s make you awkward again and follow up on that. What’s the deal there? I still can’t figure out what’s going on.
I mean, I don’t know. We’ve talked a lot since we got back from the show. I think we’re just at different places in our lives right now and maybe want two different things out of life. I look forward to being a great friend in the future but I can’t say for certain what I’m doing tomorrow let alone a year from now. As of right now, we’re just friends.

CBS Survivor

CBS Survivor

The season finale of Survivor gave CBS the win on a heavily competitive Sunday night. Most shows held steady or showed improvement week-to-week. Family Guy was the top scripted show for the second week in a row.

CBS took command of Sunday night. 60 Minutes was the second most-watched show, behind Survivor, with over 12 million viewers, though its ratings dipped to 1.7 (-0.6). The finale of Survivor: Redemption Island hit a season high of 4.0 for the two-hour episode – about even with last Fall's finale. The reunion scored 3.5, however the winner was announced well after 10pm so that rating may adjust downward.

ABC took second place and had an up night all-around. America's Funniest Home Videosscored 1.8 (+0.1) and the season finale of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition rose to 2.2 (+0.1). The two-hour season finale of Desperate Housewivesaveraged 3.0 (+0.1) and had just under 10 million viewers.

Fox also had a steady night and landed in third place. American Dad was up to 1.7 (+0.1). The Simpsons held steady at 2.5 while Bob's Burgers rose to 2.2 (+0.2). Family Guy was the top scripted show of the night with a score of 3.3 and The Cleveland Show ticked up to 2.3 (+0.1).

Fourth place NBC had a mixed bag Sunday evening. Dateline bounced up to 1.1 (+0.3), butMinute to Win It slid to 0.9. The Celebrity Apprentice averaged 2.4, which is flat with last week but is still the low water mark for the season.

Survivor Winner

It took four trips and 117 days of playing "Survivor," but "Boston Rob" finally outplayed, outwitted and outlasted everyone. And in the show that aired Sunday night, he was crowned the winner of "Survivor: Redemption Island."

Rob Mariano received his $1 million check on "The Early Show" Monday.

He won an additional $100,000 for being voted the fan favorite.

But Mariano is no stranger to "Survivor" winnings. His wife, Amber Brkich Mariano, also won $1 million on the show, in 2004.
So with all those winnings, it's no surprise that Mariano arrived on "The Early Show" with a smile.

But he did have his doubts when he left the game in Nicaragua.

"That final tribal council I had a good feeling, but with everything in 'Survivor,' you don't want to get overconfident," he said.
But Mariano's did say his experience on the show helped him on his fourth go-round.
"I used what I brought to the game from my past experiences, was able to get my foot in the door, and the people were responsive to that," he said.

"Early Show" co-anchor Chris Wragge said Jeff Probst, host of the show, said Mariano played as close to a perfect game as anyone in the entire 22 seasons of the series.

Mariano called the comment from Probst a "huge compliment."

"(He's) someone that's seen every season of the show play out from beginning to end," Mariano said. "I think it could have gone either way from the beginning this time around."

Wragge said, "When you got down to the final three, though, anybody who's watched 'Survivor' knows it's all about making sure you're the strongest one left there at the end. And you had two, with all due respect ... you had two relatively weaker contestants there with you at the very end. Was that the play all along?"

"Of course, yeah," Mariano said. "I mean, that's part of the game plan -- to sit with someone who you think you can beat at the end."

Mariano lost to his wife - then fiancee -- in the 2004 all-stars game of "Survivor." They now have two daughters. Wragge asked if Mariano thought the vote would go against him because his wife had already won.

Mariano joked, "Listen, I'm glad they haven't. Because for the past seven years, I've had to hear it in my own house, OK? It wasn't so much about the money. She's getting the check anyway. But now, I'm at least on a level playing field with my wife when it comes to winners in the 'Survivor' household!"

In fact, Mariano said he kept it secret that he was even in the final round.

He said, "You know what was great? Was that we finished filming this back in September, and I didn't tell Amber the end-result. I actually led her to believe that I was voted off at the final four. So it was a great surprise for her last night. And you know, I had to keep it a secret for a long time. But I was happy to be able to do that for her."

During the show, Mariano, Wragge said, forged a relationship with Natalie Tenerelli, another contestant. Was Mariano's wife jealous of that bond at all?

"Natalie was like a little sister to me," Mariano said. "She really was. She was very sweet. And you know what? At her age -- 19 years old -- it was a true testament to, you know, a real coming-of-age story. So I was happy that Natalie, you know, was able to go as far as she did with me."

As for his life after "Survivor," Mariano said he plans to begin a project with the History Channel and top independent producer Thom Beers.

Mariano said he likely won't come back to the CBS hit show again.

"At this point, there would be no point," he said. "I've accomplished everything I wanted to ever accomplish with 'Survivor,' so I'm happy with my legacy the way it stands."

Cali Swag District

Early Monday (May 16) morning hip-hop fans were stunned by the news that Cali Swag District member M-Bone died Sunday night, the victim of a drive-by shooting.
Bone, born Montae Talbert, was one-fourth of the group that rose to fame with their 2010 single "Teach Me How to Dougie." Cali Swag frontman C-Smoove tweeted, "Ma life changed drastically in the blink of an eye. rip mbone," early Monday morning.
Inglewood Police Department Homicide Sgt. Brian Spencer confirmed to MTV News that the 22-year-old Bone died of two gunshot wounds to the head in his hometown of Inglewood, California.
M-Bone's life in photos.

At about 10:30 p.m. PT Sunday night, police were called to the 400 block of North La Brea in Inglewood. When police arrived on the scene, they found Talbert seated in the driver's seat of a black unspecified vehicle with at least two gunshot wounds to the head. Paramedics then took him to a local hospital where Talbert eventually succumbed to his injuries.
Witness accounts confirm that the rapper was seated in his car when the gunmen pulled alongside him in a separate vehicle and let off at least two rounds. The suspects fled northbound on La Brea.
Signed to Capitol Records, Cali Swag District made their name with the platinum dance hit "Teach Me How to Dougie," an ode to the dance popularized by hip-hop legend Doug E. Fresh. The record's remix featured Jermaine Dupri, B.o.B, Bow Wow and Red Cafe, and their debut album,The Kickback, is slated for a 2011 release.

Survivor Redemption Island Winner

fter 39 days, challenges, duels, and arguments over both rice and race, Survivor: Redemption Islandfinally has its winner. My full recap will be up later (UPDATE: Click here to see Dalton’s full Survivor: Redemption Island finale recap) , but if you can’t wait to sound off on what happened and who won, then read on after the jump for more [SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched the finale of Survivor: Redemption Island.]

The fourth time was the charm for Boston Rob Mariano, as he finally won a season ofSurvivor, beating Natalie and Phillip in the final three of Survivor: Redemption Island. The episode began with Andrea reentering the game after beating Matt, Mike, and Grant in the final duel at Redemption Island. And then she was promptly voted out again as the women once again refused to make a move against Boston Rob (although it would have been futile since he played his Hidden Immunity Idol). Rob then won the final immunity challenge, guaranteeing his victory since he was the only person in his alliance that did one lick of strategizing. Ashley was sent home next, setting up Rob’s inevitable march to the title and the money. In fact, the most shocking thing about the finale was the absence of the Fallen Comrades montage.
My full recap will be up soon. Did the right person win? And did Natalie and Ashley’s refusal to make a move frustrate the heck out of you? Hit the message boards and let us know. And for more Survivor news and views all year round.

Rebecca Black

Rebecca Black, the teenager who has scored more than 120 million YouTube hits with her track Friday, has revealed she is working on a number of new songs.
It has been confirmed that the schoolgirl is recording a five track mini-album in California.
The 13-year-old whose track was labelled by some as ‘the worst song ever’ has been writing at a studio belonging to producer Charlton Pettus.
Pettus has previously worked with artists including Hilary Duff.
‘Performing artist’
“I don’t want to be known as the `Friday’ girl,” the teenager, from Anaheim, California told AP.
“Hopefully, I can be known as Rebecca Black and not the ‘Friday’ girl. I want to be a performing artist. That’s what I’ve always wanted to do.”
The singer’s mother, Georgina Kelly, has confirmed her daughter will continue to study despite her new found stardom. She is currently unsigned without a recording label.
“I’m definitely not some normal 13-year-old girl that barely anyone knows around school anymore,” said Black.

“I was bullied all the time in school. I don’t know what was so different about me that made people want to pick on me. I thank those people because if it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here right now. I would probably still be sitting at home crying.
“I’ve dealt with that my whole life. I’ve learned to have a thick skin. I laugh at them now.”
Last week police revealed they were investigating two death threats made against the singer (20 April).
Black herself has said she is prepared for any criticism.
“I want to see everyone’s opinion of my actual voice. I don’t care if they love it. I don’t care if they hate it.”
“Well, I’d like it if they loved it, but I just want to hear their opinion.”

Ragini MMS Movie

Ragini MMS Movie

As predicted, Ragini MMS Movie took off to a flying start on its first day, bringing rainfall to a parched box office.

The widely acclaimed sex-horror bonanza, which saw a midnight premiere on Thursday, opened on 600+ screens taking an incredible 1.82 cr (approx.) at the domestic box office (Hindi & Telugu versions). The spook-fest, which opened to a modest occupancy in the morning shows, witnessed a dramatic pick-up in the evening and night shows across single screens and multiplexes, following exceptional reviews and word of mouth.

Ragini MMS Movie recorded the highest opening (by a substantial margin) among all the films released this weekend. Its opening has also surpassed that of Balaji’s previous hit, Love Sex Aur Dhokha. The weekend is expected to take 7cr.