All you Bonnie Raitt boomer babes -- make room for Beyoncé. This year's Grammy Award nominations are all about hip-hop. Sure, there were nominations to be had for the older set (if they were sick or dead like Luther Vandross or Warren Zevon), but most of the nom nods went to the likes of OutKast, 50 Cent, Eminem and Jay-Z. The awards will be handed out in February in L.A. Is it still OK to listen to Nat King Cole? (E!Online)
Speaking of old rockers, not even the Boss could save the Bottom Line, it seems. The New York club, where many of the country's best acts started out, is going to close just shy of its 30th birthday unless NYU changes its mind and decides it can live with a profit-making venue on its nonprofit campus. Bruce Springsteen and others offered to pay the back rent, but a judge said the school has the upper hand so unless it change its mind, there will be classrooms instead of club chairs on West 4th. (Rolling Stone)
Hip-hop fans may not remember David Hemmings, except perhaps from his recent role in "Gladiator," but the man was a 1960s art-house icon -- partly because of his role in Michelangelo Antonioni's "Blowup." Hemmings died on a movie set yesterday at the age of 62. And no, he didn't always have omni-directional eyebrow syndrome (see photo in BBC story). He used to be the cutest thing in England.
The best part of the fact that rocker Alice Cooper got a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame isn't that it happened, but that he's sitting right there between Hugh Hefner and Gene Autry. Wonder if you get to choose your spot? (NME)
Fowl play? Two shocking stories about that impressive-looking turkey President Bush was photographed offering the soldiers in Baghdad on Thanksgiving Dday. The Washington Post reports that the perfectly primped bird was actually a centerpiece, and that the soldiers were served much less attractive turkey from steam tables. And the Hill weekly (via the New York Post) reveals that the questionable Thanksgiving meal was provided by a subsidiary of Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root, the Houston oil company formerly headed by Veep Dick Cheney. Cluck, cluck!
Jackson slipping out of danger by a nose?: Santa Barbara County Sheriff's Department spokesman Sgt. Chris Pappas on the handful of calls to an anonymous hotline set up to field information about alleged Michael Jackson sexual misconduct : "At this point in time, none have clearly identified new cases for independent investigation." (N.Y. Times)
Babs loses by a nose: The findings of Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman, who threw out Barbra Streisand's $10 million privacy-invasion lawsuit against a California environmental group that published photos of her Malibu estate on its Web site: "It is not an intrusion into a private place ... nor was the intrusion made in a manner that is highly offensive to a reasonable person." (The Smoking Gun)
Best of the Rest
Page Six: Jaime Clarke, a former employee of J.D. Salinger's agent whose job included opening mail from the author to his boss, peddles book with information about the author's life, says Salinger always travels under a nom de plume using the first name Jerry and "is not sitting on a wealth of manuscripts to be published after his death"; Paris Hilton takes no questions at bash for "The Simple Life"; Britney Spears and her mother bent on making a movie version of their book, "A Mother's Gift"; "pal" of Lenny Kravitz says he's not really in love with Nicole Kidman and is just using her to enhance his own fame; Darkness lead singer Justin Hawkins held for two hours at Kennedy Airport after being confused with a wanted criminal named ... Justin Hawkins.
Lloyd Grove's Lowdown: Gwyneth Paltrow confirms pregnancy, refuses to say whether marriage to baby's father, Coldplay frontman Chris Martin, is planned, receives good wishes from her ex, Ben Affleck, who says he's "delighted" for her; David Gest is planning to talk about his marriage to Liza Minnelli on "Dateline NBC"; Allure magazine editor Linda Wells gets cheap manicure; Sen. Hillary Clinton poses for singer-photographer Bryan Adams.
--Amy Reiter
Bookmark the Fix here. To send a hot tip to the Fix, click here.
Shares