Morning Briefing:
Pam and Kid Rock getting hitched redux: Sure, they've been engaged before, but Pamela Anderson and Kid Rock are apparently going to give it another try. On her Web site on Tuesday, Anderson wrote, "I'm finally getting remarried ... it's been a whirlwind ... spontaneous but well thought through. Feels like I've been stuck in a time warp." She didn't actually name Kid Rock in her breathless announcement, but they've been spending a lot of time together in St-Tropez recently, and a source tells People they plan to tie the knot there on July 29. (People, PamelaAnderson.com)
Camille on camp: The Australian gay culture and porn site Outrate has just put up a long interview with Salon fave Camille Paglia, which covers everything from "Brokeback Mountain" -- "far too long, soggy and monotonous" -- to gay aesthetics -- "the official house style for gay men is now driven by politics: gravitas is in -- an odd accessory indeed in the metrosexual toilet kit." And, of course, Paglia's latest take on Madonna: "I just saw the first of Madonna's two concerts in Philadelphia, and I wasn't thrilled with it. I simply wanted to see her -- not be assaulted by an avalanche of pretentious, irrelevant images dizzily winking on giant screens ... The lugubrious montage of doleful African orphans framing a glammed up Madonna as she reclined on her sparkly disco crucifix was too much by twenty miles." (Outrate.net)
Bourdain's Beirut dispatch: Anthony Bourdain, who found himself trapped in Beirut, Lebanon, after heading there to film segments for his Travel Channel show just days before fighting broke out, may have made a joke out of it last week -- he told Page Six, "I just wanna hang out and drink at the bar. The mojitos here are great" -- but his tune has changed as the situation there has grown increasingly grave. "Initially, many Beirutis were still going strong at nightclubs as jets flew low and menacingly overhead," he wrote in the foodie forum at eGullet. "Even that proud, famously world-weary attitude quickly changed, however, as circumstances here became even more appalling," he writes. "We, unlike most Lebanese, have been (relatively) safe and secure during this. Trapped, yes -- but trapped by a freaking swimming pool, not under the rubble of our homes." (Off the Broiler)
Also:
With his debut album coming out soon, Kevin Federline is apparently "totally preoccupied" with Justin Timberlake's musical career, a source tells Star: "Kevin even told a friend that he's going to 'pulverize' Justin on the charts. He says he's got the hottest producers in the business and that he can write killer rhymes -- and that all Justin has is a silly falsetto and a bad haircut." (Star via Lowdown) ... The National Enquirer is saying "Sorry!" to Britney Spears, running an apology to her on Wednesday (in the U.K. only) for a story that her marriage to Federline was over, saying it "now accept[s] that their marriage is not over and they are not getting divorced ... We apologize for any distress caused." (Associated Press) ... Despite the record-crushingly huge success of its summer blockbuster "Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest," Disney has announced it's cutting 650 film jobs globally and will be scaling back from 18 movies a year to 12, apparently to focus on fare for kids and families. Mogul Nina Jacobson, president of production at Disney, was fired on Tuesday. (BBC News) ... Fox, hoping to take advantage the stormy waters of morning TV -- with Katie Couric leaving "Today" and Charlie Gibson departing "Good Morning America" -- plans to launch its own as-yet-unnamed morning show in January. (Associated Press) ... John Cusack was granted a three-year restraining order on Tuesday against a woman in Los Angeles he says has been stalking him for the past year and a half -- in his court filing, he claimed she "is showing unusual interest by stalking, throwing long letters of interest over my fence in bags with rocks and screwdrivers inside, making unannounced visits to offices of people I work with in an attempt to meet with me and listing my address as her own during a recent arrest." (E! Online) ... The top 20 pop albums of last week, combined, managed to sell just 738,211 copies. (Fox 411)
Money Quote:
Mustachioed film critic Joel Siegel, storming out of a preview of Kevin Smith's "Clerks II": "Time to go! ... This is the first movie I've walked out of in 30 fucking years!" (Page Six)
Smith's response on his MySpace blog, with an entry titled "A Dick in a Mustache Is Still Just a Dick": "As Paul Thomas Anderson once said of the man, getting a bad review from Siegel is like a badge of honor. This is the guy who stole his mustachioed critic shtick from Gene Shalit years ago, and still refuses to give it back. This is a guy who seemingly prides himself on being 'punny' -- that is, he likes to add his own nyuk-nyuk wordplay into the reviews he writes/gives. For 'Pirates 2,' he made us all titter with 'Yo, Ho, Ho and a Bottle of Fun' ... Can you believe he somehow not only made us laugh, but also think, when he challenged our perception with '"X-Men" Fails to X-cite'?" (MySpace via Page Six)
-- Scott Lamb
Turn On:
The Emmy-nominated Tom Cruise episode of "South Park" (Comedy Central, 10 p.m. EDT) airs, and TNT runs two new episodes of "Nightmares & Dreamscapes: From the Stories of Stephen King" (9 p.m. EDT), starring William H. Macy in Part 3 and Ron Livingston in Part 4. Also, PBS debuts its "American Masters" special "Marilyn Monroe: Still Life" (check local listings), with material contributed by Gloria Steinem, Hugh Hefner and Norman Mailer.
On the Talk Shows:
Larry King (CNN, 9 p.m. EDT): Jon Bon Jovi
Charlie Rose (PBS, check local listings): Paul Giamatti, Francis Collins
David Letterman (CBS, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Uma Thurman, Morgan Spurlock
Jay Leno (NBC, 11:35 p.m. EDT): Wanda Sykes, Kevin Connolly, the Fray
Conan O'Brien (NBC, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Luke Wilson, Bryce Dallas Howard, Los Lonely Boys
Craig Ferguson (CBS, 12:35 a.m. EDT): Jesse James, Paul Dinello, She Wants Revenge (repeat)
Jimmy Kimmel (ABC, 12:05 a.m. EDT): Charles Gibson, Anna Faris, Rhymefest
Jon Stewart (Comedy Central, 11 p.m. EDT): James Maguire
Stephen Colbert (Comedy Central, 11:30 p.m. EDT): Joe Scarborough
-- Lamar Clarkson
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