Morning Briefing:
'Til punk'd do us part: A new day brings another new theory on the Demi Moore-Ashton Kutcher "wedding" over the weekend. As many major news outlets are still waiting to take the quotes off the word "wedding," the whole event still has an air of suspicion around it. Perhaps it is all a very large, elaborate joke on the American public? So says John B. Meyers, a guy whose name also happens to be on the registration for AshtonHacked.com, a Web site that purports to have snagged a bunch of Kutcher's voice mail. Meyers sent around an e-mail to gossip wags, hoping to sell his fantastic story to the highest bidder: "I wanted to let you know that the Us "exclusive" about Ashton and Demi getting married is WRONG. Ashton Kutcher is pulling a series of elaborate pranks on the news media for the premiere of his MTV show Punk'd. I have inside information on this." Something tells us there will be more developments on this again tomorrow. (Jossip)
Courtney Love's mom has a new tell-all, hardly shocking: Linda Carroll, mother to the troubled bad girl, has a memoir coming out in January, "Her Mother's Daughter." It apparently spells out the none-too-surprising series of traumas that turned Love into the publicly self-destructive figure she is today. Highlights: "Courtney started in therapy when she was 6 years old. She was caught reading porn magazines in an adult bookstore at age 9 and was kicked out of every school she attended She took an early stab at alcoholism at 12. One Christmas Eve, she guzzled wine until she vomited, then ran out into a field and started cutting herself." But this kind of says everything you need to know: "When she was 4 years old, her father, Hank, would dose her with "magic pills" and draw psychedelic squiggles all over her naked body." But Love has never been the type to need others to speak for her. Some choice quotes from a recent interview with Spin: "I think if you commit suicide -- the minute it happens you're like, 'What the fuck did I just do?' That's what's stopped me over the years I'm the kind of girl you wanna fuck, but then you don't want to tell your friends." (Page Six, Spin)
But friends don't let friends do drugs: Naomi Campbell took advantage of a press conference in Bogotá, Colombia -- ostensibly as part of a U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime program about human trafficking -- to stand up for her friend and fellow model/drug addict Kate Moss. "Kate Moss is my friend ... I think it's like everybody is being bad to her," Campbell put it. "It's not the first time it has happened in the world ... it's really like a vendetta." Moss' London modeling agency is also finally speaking up on her behalf. "I feel compelled to speak out in defense of Kate Moss following recent days of speculation and, in many cases, ill-informed and inaccurate stories," said Sarah Doukas, director of the Storm agency. "I know Kate, and I have represented her for the last 18 years. Over this time she has consistently demonstrated herself to be a professional and exceptional model and a loyal, special and dear friend to me and countless others." (AP)
Also:
The Donald's people have announced that Trump and his new wife, 35-year-old Yugoslav model Melania Knauss, are going to have a baby. No word yet on the baby's gender or possible names. Trump, who's closing in on 60, has progeny that span generations -- his oldest, Donald Jr., is already 27 ... A new book of photographs on rocker and Kate Moss ruiner Pete Doherty reportedly shows the singer's hidden "other side" -- that is to say, the side not always on drugs or punching people. In "London: Birth of a Cult," Christian Dior fashion designer Hedi Slimane documents the rise of the new Brit-rock scene, with Doherty at the forefront People waiting for D'Angelo to finally finish his follow-up to his 2000 soul masterpiece "Voodoo" were almost out of luck when the singer crashed his Hummer last week and went flying through the windshield. Somehow, he emerged largely unscathed, and is now promising to get back in the studio and finish recording After standing trial for the second time -- the first trial ended in a deadlocked jury -- rapper Beanie Sigel was acquitted of attempted murder on Monday for the shooting of a man in Philadelphia in 2003. Sigel only recently finished a 10-month stint in prison for illegal gun possession. Next up for him: a trial over his allegedly breaking someone's eye socket during a fight, also in 2003 Don Adams, the actor who played Maxwell Smart on the '60s TV series "Get Smart," died on Sunday in Los Angeles at age 82. Interesting fact: He had seven children, according to the AP.
Money Quote:
George Clooney, after a recent VIP screening of his new film, "Good Night, and Good Luck," on the unfair comparisons some are making between Sen. Joseph McCarthy and Fox's Bill O'Reilly: "Unlike McCarthy, O'Reilly was never elected to public office. What's more, Joe McCarthy was never accused of telling one of his female staff members she should use a vibrator." (N.Y. Daily News)
Turn On:
Geena Davis stars as the new president in the premiere of "Commander in Chief" (ABC, 9 p.m. EDT). Also, it's the season opener of Emmy-hog "Boston Legal" (ABC, 10 p.m. EDT).
-- Scott Lamb
Get more of The Fix here.
To send a hot tip to The Fix, click here.
Shares