In a summer that's been largely bereft of tantalizing television moments (The Two Coreys notwithstanding), the premiere of Vh1's I Love Money has been shining like a beacon of bad taste on our horizons for some time. Conceived as the network's version of the now stagnant Real World / Road Rules Challenge franchise, I Love Money puts some of our favorite former contestants of dating shows like Flavor Of Love and I Love New York together in a villa to find out what happens when people stop being polite and start getting real ... real drunk, that is. The show's first episode aired as a 90-minute special last night and, as expected, it blew our collective minds in the way it unabashedly celebrates the lowest of lowbrow culture.

After more than four months of hype, it's getting to feel like there's increasingly less to discover about The Dark Knight except whether or not it's good. Variety pretty much took care of that on Sunday, overriding David Letterman's early, spoilerrific review with a bit more textural rave. That was preceded in the LA Times by more Heath Ledger superlatives and requisite bleakness reinforcement from director Chris Nolan. But Anne Thompson has an even better showing at her blog, featuring expansive Nolan quotes from a recent screening/discussion and, far more impressively, a look at Michael Bay's little-known original stab at the Dark Knight screenplay:

Click to viewboomp3.com

After last week's harrowing episode of The Two Coreys, in which fallen teen angel Corey Haim was led to the Defamer comments section like a sacrificial, desperately-seeking-series-regular-work lamb, we stumbled upon a comment of interest. (Yes, this was a commenter commenting upon a clip of Haim reading our comments: sort of the post-cultural equivalent of staring into one of those fabulous '70s infinity mirrors.)

It's time to break out your SAG vs AFTRA Celebrity Turf War Map™ for an update, albeit a bit of a confusing one: Robert De Niro is the latest star to come out in opposition of a SAG strike, asserting during a press conference Saturday at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival that Hollywood has suffered enough bloodshed this year in the bargaining trenches to implode once more over residuals:

Brendan Fraser, star of the upcoming Journey To The Center Of The Earth, noticed a mysterious wet spot appearing on his designer t-shirt after posing with a child. Fraser gave the child a glare and asked him to explain the stain, but the child said that the wet spot was there when Fraser picked him up.

Did you stuff your face with enough beef over the holiday weekend? If not, Matthew McConaughey is gonna be mighty pissed off. Check out the new radio spot he recorded for the National Cattleman's Beef Association. You know, the dudes who came up with that "Beef, it's what's for dinner" slogan? Well, they got themselves a brand new golden-haired, A-list pitchman and the results have become a bit of an obsession here in the Defamer offices. Why does it fascinate so? Maybe it's because McConaughey plays up his every vocal tic for maximum effect, like he's trying to lure a small child into a windowless van with some candy. Or maybe it's because their new tagline, "Discover the power of protein in the land of lean beef," is so impossibly vomit inducing (and also a little homoerotic). Or perhaps it's because at the end of the day, Matthew delivers his most convincing performance since A Time To Kill. Whatever the reason, it totally works. I ate like 15 burgers this weekend and couldn't be happier. Listen to the ad after the jump.

The Hollywood rumor about rivalry between two Condé Nast editors-passed along by former New York Times reporter, Sharon Waxman-sounds incredible. Why would Graydon Carter, the behemoth of Vanity Fair, bother to ice out his colleagues at Joanne Lipman's Portfolio?

When it comes to interviewing the most despicable, deplorable and disingenuous Z-listers, there is no better (or worse) rag than Britain's News Of The World. After all, this is the publication that has paid the likes of Riley Giles (best known for being LiLo's post-hab snowboarding BF) and Blake "Incarcerated" Fielder-Civil (Amy Winehouse's jailed husband) to spill the most sordid details of the times they did drugs with famous people, had sex with famous people and did drugs while having sex with famous people. So, it came as no surprise to us when we saw that Ranae Shrider, aka the girl in the Mini-Me Sex Tape, had decided to grant the shame of Fleet Street an interview over the weekend to discuss her on-camera (and sans jimmy hat) romps with Verne Troyer:

If you're falling increasingly behind at the office because your assistant mysteriously disappeared after lunch, you might consider checking the bathroom: It appears that the Newsroom Cafe is now dishing up its glamorous vegetarian treats in C-rated style after a city health inspection discovered a fridge storing food at a less-than-optimal temperature. One report places the cost of squaring it away at around $40,000, but we're with the intrepid critic at Yelp who recently saluted the starry-eyed mecca's sense of germological adventure:

At long last, The Bachelorette—that epic, six-week-long search for eternal love in which inarticulate Mediterranean beauty DeAnna Pappas is made to choose a suitable lifemate from a man-harem of 25—reaches its chilling conclusion tonight on ABC. Stopping by the GMA studios to show off her sparkly new hardware for a visibly envious Chris Cuomo, Pappas explained the difficult-to-grasp concept of having to choose between "two totally different people. You got one guy on one hand, and another guy on another hand, and I'm two totally different people with each guy." This suggests that Pappas is the relationship equivalent of tofu, her spongy personality absorbing the flavors of any man with which she comes in contact. Somewhere, Brad Womack is breathing a sigh of relief that he ditched this chick at the Fantasy Proposal Gazebo, and chose instead to hold out for some hot, Serbian supermodel ass like his tire-fortune-heir predecessor.

Get Smart star Anne Hathaway implemented a Garanimals style system to help with her co-star Steve Carell's hand placement during a photo call in Rome. Hathaway had noticed at prior press conferences and premieres that Carell seemed unsure as to where he should put his hands, so Hathaway purchased this dress to help him out. Carell appreciated what he called the "hand squares on the dress" and thanked Hathaway for being so conscientious.

For the first time in our country's history, the epicenter of America's commemorative period of fireworks and independence appears to have shifted to Miami. There, we've learned, the intercoital clusterfuck of Madonna, Alex Rodriguez, Lenny Kravitz and Guy Ritchie has reached its nadir with a Rodriguez divorce now officially on the way — freeing the Yankees slugger to (allegedly) pursue whatever pop paramour his heart desires. Except Madonna and Ritchie are still in matrimonial business — literally — and apparently will be for a while.

Can't wait until May 15, 2009 to learn what Sacha Baron Cohen has cooked up for Bruno, only the latest swarthy foreigner from the comedian's repertoire to star in a feature-length film? The internet is teeming with sightings detailing the fictional Austrian TV personality's exploiten and vëreabouts. Some you may have spotted in our very own PrivacyWatch; but the latest comes to us via The Jewish Daily Forward, where recent dupee Yossi Alpher—an Israeli political blogger—describes his run in with Eurofashion greatness in Jerusalem:

Wanting to reduce their carbon footprint on the world, some members of the paparazzi rented out a Star Line tour van to track popular actress Lindsay Lohan and good friend Samantha Ronson on Sunday afternoon. One of the photographers felt it only made sense for them to share a ride since they planned on taking pictures of the same subject. The photographer added, "I don't think that this whole caring for the environment thing is going away any time soon. So, here we are in the van hoping that we all get a great shot while doing our part for the environment." Another photographer felt the tourist angle provided them with a bit of cover, but they quickly blew their own cover when they leaped out of the van to go in for a closer shot; "We're going to be a bit more subtle about it the next time around."

While visitors to NBC/Universal can still smell the singed flesh from Jeff Zucker's recent experiment in self-immolating sitcom introductions, the bloom of Tom Rothman's ongoing cable-hosting gig apparently has yet to wear off for viewers of the Fox Movie Channel. Or so notes today's New York Times, which positions the Fox co-chairman's introductions somewhere on the viability spectrum between Rod Serling and Milton Berle:

Like every other celebrity, Everybody Loves Raymond star Ray Romano spent his Fourth of July weekend in Malibu, California. However, the TV funny man decided to catch some sweet waves instead of partying. Romano felt it'd be more beneficial to his overall well-being to go into the ocean as opposed to having to make small talk with Nicole Richie at a beach party.

Has clicking your mouse become something of a chore ever since you lost your thumb and forefinger in a spectacular illegal-fireworks demonstration on your front lawn? Fret not: Thanks to TetraMouse—the "lowest priced mouth-operated mouse on the market," access to your weekend box office numbers is just a glottal stop away:

"I'm in it to win it."/"I came here to win."
Uttered by bull-terrier wide-shouldered ladies and lilting, wispy gays alike, reality competitors love to remind themselves and the cameras that they are, in fact, competing for something.

We're happy to see today that the winged gatekeeper budget-monkeys on the set of Michael Mann's Public Enemies — who so scandalously sought to exclude scores of part-timers from the film's recent wrap party in Chicago — ultimately came around to relaxing their admission standards to the point where even Stephen Dorff was welcome. That would have been a good enough concession for the justice crusaders over here at Defamer HQ — but for Dorff's infamous urinal-queue archnemesis Jeremy Piven to show up as well? Jesus Christ, will they just let anybody into this place?