Hurricane Irene has reached New York City and is expected to hang around here until the afternoon before heading north into New England. Though she's still causing flooding, power outages, and heavy winds, she's been downgraded to a tropical storm—raging at only 65 mph, instead of yesterday's hurricaney highs. As we did yesterday, we'll keep you posted throughout the day—so keep checking back here for updates.
Shia LaBeouf has a public spitting problem, Chelsea Handler was booted from a bathroom stall, Sofia Coppola got married, Simon Cowell and Muammar Qaddafi have a lot in common, and the cast of Jersey Shore barely escaped Hurricane Irene. Sunday gossip has made landfall.
Below is a video of WTTG's Tucker Barnes casually giving a live report on Hurricane Irene today from Ocean City, Maryland while drenched in what he described as "organic matter" that "doesn't taste great." I wonder why it didn't taste great?
If you don't live in New York City, you might be wondering what the place might look like and/or how it might change while being pummeled by a raging monster-cane. Thanks to a live-cam, you can find out ever so conveniently!
Sandbags, plywood, police tape, bottled water, and unbending courage: These are the survival tools of the disaster-prepared New Yorker. Check out our photo gallery to see how NYC has prepared itself for the soggy, windy Irene-ing to come.
The New York City's Department of Corrections' failure to develop an Irene-related evacuation plan for all the prisoners trapped inside Rikers Island has pissed off people who still remember what happened to prisoners during Katrina, and also those people who oppose drowning. There are still many such people in America (they're all on Twitter).
Richard Branson's sprawling home on his private island in the Caribbean tragically burned to the ground this week after it was struck by lightning caused by Hurricane Irene. Fortunately no one was injured, thanks in part to actress Kate Winslet, who was vacationing on the island and carried Branson's 90-year-old mother to safety.
While Weather Channel reporter Eric Fisher braved ferocious winds and rainy Irene-ness to bring us live reports from Virginia Beach (look at those fluttering pant legs!), a bunch of college-aged looking yahoos ran behind him, jumping up and down like their team had just won the Super Bowl. And then one guy NSFW-ishly pulled down his pants. Did I mention that this was live?
After having four children, thoughtful British lady Mandy Davies took stock of her brood, her age, and her family's finances, and underwent a sterilization procedure. So imagine how surprised she might have been to discover that she became pregnant anyway.
Yoga is a beautiful, ancient tradition that helpfully reduces stress and probably benefits your internal organs and soul and whatever else people are made out of. Unfortunately, Lululemonheads like these two have ruined it for the next several decades.
Maybe you were out preparing for Hurricane Irene and you couldn't check your favorite Gawker Media sites. Or maybe you're in need of a distraction right now, so you don't have to think about the impending storm. Whatever the case, we've got you covered. Here are some of the most amusing and entertaining videos we watched during the week that was.
So maybe those tear-jerking pictures of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs looking withered and skeletal were not real after all? A skeptic over at Reddit posted this annotated image as "proof" that the pics of Jobs, who stepped down as CEO earlier this week, were manipulated to make him look worse off than he might appear in real life. [Update below]
This morning the "eye wall" of Hurricane Irene reached land just east of Cape Lookout in North Carolina—sweeping away dunes, flooding beaches, destroying a pier in kinda-nearby Atlantic Beach, and causing power outages. The old girl's not as strong as we thought she'd be, though! The latest, with updates below.
Mel Gibson and Oksana Grigorieva reach a custody settlement, Minka Kelly might be moving on, Jennifer Aniston just moved, Brad Pitt saved a life, and Kim Kardashian has returned from her honeymoon. Saturday Gossip is weathering the storm.
Those of you not spending your weekend cowering in your houses while some mean lady named Irene roars around outside might just want to go see a movie. This weekend there's an idiot brother, creepy house monsters, and a butt-kicking babe.
