clips

MSNBC's Keith Olbermann weighs in on Wikipedia

Owen Thomas · 08/17/07 10:20AM


Keith Olbermann, host of MSNBC's "Countdown," looks at the Wikipedia Scanner episode, in which a website made it vastly easier to trace edits made to the online encyclopedia back to the organizations that made them. He notes that two News Corp.-owned media properties — the Times of London and Fox News — reported on the scandal without noting their own, er, contributions to Wikipedia. Fair enough. But, then again, did Olbermann note any edits made by his colleagues at NBC?

Billy Joel And Kate Lee Joel Are Like Seconds Away From Divorce

Emily Gould · 08/16/07 12:20PM


Billy Joel on his child-bride Katie Lee Joel's singing abilities: "I just nod my head. I'm glad she's a good cook." After the cutaway: "Yeah, she's no Alexa Ray Joel, my daughter who's about her age!," Billy continued, and then Katie whispered the word "prenup" really softly under her breath through a taut uber-whitened smile, and then he rubbed the small of her back nervously and shut up. Thanks, "Extra"!

Reality TV's Stale Bounty Hunting Genre Gets Estrogen Injection It So Desperately Needed

mark · 08/16/07 10:49AM


Every time we attempted to watch more than 30 seconds of Dog the Bounty Hunter, we always found ourselves wishing that someone would replace the pro-wrestler-looking guy with the ass-length mullet with a bunch of
chicks who would occasionally type on laptops, roundhouse-kick heavy bags, and say things like, "We're gonna have to Tazer this guy!" or "I'm gonna bring him out with my big, sexy, luuurrring ways." A thank you, then, is owed to Court TV for so thoroughly meeting all our bounty hunting show needs, as demonstrated in this Today clip. We might finally have something else to check out on the network after we're done watching freakishly thin Star Jones learn to live with the decreased capacity of her walnut-sized stomach.

Brokeback Brian

mark · 08/15/07 03:14PM

Fortunately for us all, this unexpected house-cleaning turned out to be just a false alarm: Atene has already returned, shirtless and brandishing a bottle of Sam Adams (has he signed a product placement deal?), and reassuring his fans that not only hasn't he gone away ("I'm STILL here. I'M STILL HERE, I'mstillhere"), but that he's on the verge of a prolific period in his creative development. Enjoy his public workshopping of a Brokeback Mountain piece that we're confident will shame the original Heath Ledger performance once he's had a little more time to run through its tricky, bittersweet rhythms.

O.J. Simpson's Sister-In-Law Not Thrilled About Book Publication

abalk · 08/15/07 03:05PM


This morning's "Today Show" featured a spirited discussion between Denise Brown—sister of slain trophy-wife Nicole Brown Simpson—and Eric Kampmann, the publisher who is publishing O.J. Simpson's metafictional narrative I Sliced That Bitch Up. Also Her Friend Ron Goldman. against the wishes of the Brown family. Brown tears into Kampmann pretty much the same way O.J. tore into Nicole. You know, if he did it.

Yahoo's recruitin' rapper

Tim Faulkner · 08/15/07 02:57PM

To the beat of the played-out Mims single "This is Why I'm Hot," the happy worker attempt to flow:

Someone get Google's users a waaaahmbulance

Owen Thomas · 08/15/07 11:06AM


CNBC reporter Julia Boorstin chatted me up about Google's drop in the customer-satisfaction rankings, amid a host of complaints about Gmail, Google News's new comments experiment, and other bad moves. My assertion: Yes, Google's got a valuable brand, but its users don't have a deep emotional connection with that brand, and it's ultimately a fragile relationship. How fragile? Check out the eyebrow action! You know a company's in trouble when a pundit deploys the dreaded raised eyebrow.

Powerset's secrets revealed on video!

Video by Sarah Meyers · 08/14/07 06:34PM


At last week's Lunch 2.0, Sarah Meyers interviewed Powerset CEO Barney Pell to get the elevator speech on his company, which is doing something incredibly boring innovative! innovative! with natural-language search, whatever that means. I haven't reviewed the clip myself, and Meyers told me there were a few wee audio glitches, but I'm sure it's going to be as fascinating as any Silicon Valley startup pitch.

Pick Up Artist And Pals Will Not See Contestant Fail

abalk · 08/14/07 01:22PM


For whatever reason, we are unable to stop watching VH1's new pickup artist instructional program L'ecole Des Douches. Here's a particularly poignant clip from last night's episode, where douche-aspirant "Spoon" attempts to walk into a club and pester some women who would rather not be bothered. Spoon's fear overcomes him, and he returns to the warm embrace of Mystery and the Wingmen, who reassure their timid charge. They feel him. Maybe this kid might learn to be a full-fledged douche after all!

Meet Delphine Cauce

abalk · 08/14/07 12:50PM


This week's tableau of New York fashion (not New York fashion) finds Richard Blakeley discussing the merits of American style with a Frenchwoman in Williamsburg. You know what we love about the French? Their comical accents. Enjoy!