<![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, liza minnelli]]> http://tags.gawker.com/assets/base/img/thumbs140x140/gawker.com.png <![CDATA[Gawker: defamer, liza minnelli]]> http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/lizaminnelli http://gawker.com/tag/defamer/lizaminnelli <![CDATA[Ooooh! Now There Are Gay Sex Spoilers!]]> Spoilers come in many shapes, sizes and colors. And the latest Sex and the City leaks are decidedly lavender. That means gay.

MSNBC entertainment sleuth Courtney Hazlett has spent days tracking down sources, rummaging through trash and breaking legs to come up with the latest spoilers from the series-turned-movie sequel. And, no, they don't concern Samantha's hormone therapy. Thank god.

No, this one involves real testosterone: the ladies and their nameless friends — seriously, these broads rarely talk to anyone else but each other — will allegedly head to Connecticut to watch their homo friends Stanford and Anthony get gay married. Everyone will wear crazy outfits and toss out a string of double entendres and generally have a fabulous time.

Life & Style is reporting that the shooting schedule calls for a wedding scene to take place at a Connecticut Inn, and the guest list includes Carrie, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda, plus Carrie's pal Stanford Blatch and his mother and father.

"All signs point to a gay union between Stanford and Anthony Marentino, who's required to wear a black tuxedo in the scene," according to the magazine. "Slated as the entertainment: Liza Minnelli."

Other plot details include a trip to Morocco (Dubai's authorities disapproved of all the sexy talk, we suppose) and perhaps a Miley Cyrus citing, which would dampen our gay spirits. Why is she everywhere?!

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<![CDATA[10 Things You May Have Missed On TV This Week]]> This week's multimedia compilation of pop culture crap features a sneak preview of Oprah's interview with Whitney Houston, plus Ryan Jenkins' sister, pure glamour, and Hailey Glassman blurred out of an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8.



1.) Whitney!


2.) Where do broken hearts go?
Harpo Studios, Chicago.


3.) Was Hailey Glassman on Monday's episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8?
While Kate was away shooting guns, Jon was playing dress up with his daughters, pulling from a bag of women's clothes that definitely were not his soon-to-be-ex-wife's. A girl in the background, with her face blurred out, was lending a helping hand.


Jon filled out his dress, nicely.


I love how one of the little girls ended up looking like Mary-Kate Olsen.


4.) David Rothenberg, grown up
When I was younger, I was obsessed with this TV movie David, starring Bernadette Peters.


It was based on the true story of David Rothenberg, who was only 6-years-old when his father tried to murder him by setting him on fire, and causing severe burns to over 90% of David's body.

The real David whom the movie was based on was befriended by Michael Jackson. David, now in his 30s, has lived a really private life (and changed his name to Dave Dave), but resurfaced this week when he attended—and spoke at—MJ's burial.


He also debunked rumors on Larry King Live.


5.) He's not angry, he's mad.
In other MJ news, Joe Jackson speaks out for the first time since the other times he spoke out.


6.) The poor girl's brother just died!
Alena Jenkins, the 19-year-old sister of Ryan Jenkins, was interviewed today on Good Morning America. Alena is the one who most likely drove her brother to the motel where he subsequently hung himself. While trying to be a hard-nosed journalist, this GMA reporter just ended up coming off like an insensitive ass.


7.) Maureen McCormick is losing weight for publicity…again.


She's also losing her mind.


8.) Who wants an Alter-Ego?


9.) "Her future ambition is to be a successful woman."
Crawl before you walk, bitch. God!


10.) "Limousines, Parties"
Did you know that the Daytime Emmy Awards is the most glamorous night in television?


Pure glamour!


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<![CDATA[Book: Michael Jackson Was Gay, A Bottom, And Had Progressive Views On Porn]]> While on vacation, I read Unmasked: The Final Years of Michael Jackson. Like any corny piece of crap, it contains some golden kernels (e.g. Liza Minnelli smoking pot, Mark Ronson's personal anecdotes, and interviews with Jackson's supposed gay lovers).

The book went to press within 48 hours after the King of Pop's death, and rocketed to number one on the New York Times bestseller list last week. Hastily thrown together, Unmasked is rife with typos and questionable "anonymous sources." Shoddy, shady, and sleazy, I think I read it almost as quickly as author Ian Halperin typed it up.

Halperin claims that he started the project a while back because he was out to prove, once and for all, that Michael Jackson was a pedophile, but in his research, discovered that he was not. (The resulting work is pretty biased, but some evidence presented makes for some decent-albeit comparatively crude-rebuttals to Maureen Orth's thorough and persuasive reporting on Michael Jackson for Vanity Fair.)

Much has been made of Jackson's infamous sleepovers with young boys at his Neverland Ranch, and Mark Ronson, along with his friend Sean Lennon, participated in some of them. One anecdote of Ronson's - which he originally told on a British TV show - appears in the book:

We used to watch the porn channel because we were like, ten, and, 'Oh my God, tits!' So Michael was in bed. And me and Sean said, 'Michael, do you want to see something cool?' We turned the dial to the porn channel and there were strippers shaking their tits around. We were like, 'Michael, Michael, how cool is this?' We turned around and he was cringing, saying, 'Ooh, stop it, stop it, ooh, it's so silly.' We were like, 'Michael, you have to look, maybe you're not seeing it right, it's naked girls!' He was not down with the program whatsoever! I think he had really strong feminist views on porn.

He's cute. Anyway, while the story doesn't prove that Michael always behaved appropriately around his young guests, it does kind of point to something that I always thought: He was probably gay. Halperin thinks so, too. In fact, in his book, Halperin actually claims that Michael hit on him at a pizza parlor (more on that in sec).

Halperin claimed to have spoken to two of Michael's "gay lovers." (Redundant term!) One was a "Hollywood waiter, the other an aspiring actor." He claims to have seen photos "corroborating" the relationships. The best bit comes from "Lawrence," the actor:

He was very shy, but when he started to have sex, he was insatiable. He was a bottom, but he was so thin, I worried that I would break him. The very first time he blew me, he said, 'The King of Pop's going to lick your lollipop.' I still laugh thinking about that.

Me too.

One of Halperin's sources was supposedly someone who worked in Jackson's camp. The source tipped him off that Jackson and his children were going to a Hollywood pizza parlor, so Halperin "got in [his] hairdresser's disguise" and sped over there. Of the encounter Halperin said:

We talked about old Hollywood movies and hairstyles, which I had researched for months before I took on this undercover persona. Michael went on and on about the Hollywood hairstyles of the silver screen during the forties and fifties. 'No one has come along with such class and style since Deborah Kerr, Dorothy Lamour, and Susan Hayward,' he said…At one point during our conversation at the pizza joint, Jackson put his hand over mine. I then wondered if the singer was hitting on me. After staring at me for over a minute in complete silence, he told me my blue eyes reminded him of Frank Sinatra…It was one of the most intense moments I have ever experienced looking into another man's eyes.

This was also good:

I had been trying to persuade [Jackson] to change his look to a platinum blond wig with a streak of ocean-blue down the middle.

But my absolute favorite passage was in regards to Liza Minnelli. After failing to score an interview with Jackson's best friend Elizabeth Taylor, Halperin, again, went undercover as a gay hairdresser, and hung out at a dance rehearsal studio he knew Liza frequented, cornered her, and told her he had been Ava Gardner's hair and makeup artist before she died. That was the clincher, and Liza invited him to hang out with her in the back room of the studio, where she shared a joint with him and some other dancers. Despite the fact that she was stoned, Liza didn't really give up any of the goods on Jackson, but she still sounds like a fun hang:

I told her that Ava was a huge fan of Jackson and used to practice some of his dance moves. At that, she let out a trademark Liza Minnelli laugh. It proved to be infectious…especially after Liza stood up and did an impression of Ava Gardner attempting to moonwalk.

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<![CDATA['Rosie Live' to Treat Viewers to Spectacular Liza Minnelli / NeYo / Kathy Griffin Collision]]> NBC began teasing Rosie Live in prime-time over the weekend, alerting viewers to Rosie O'Donnell's Nov. 26 variety-show experiment by touting a slate of America's most well-recognized holiday-season talent. Alanis Morissette! Kathy Griffin! Ne-Yo! Acrobats! And, in a booking coup loaded with potential for grandeur, onstage collapse and/or both, Liza Minnelli, herself the host of one of TV's all-time great variety specials and a showstopping Rosie idol from way, way back. What to expect? O'Donnell defies you to wait and see:

Will Ms. O’Donnell perform a duet with Ms. Minnelli, whose 1972 variety/concert special Liza With a Z won multiple Emmy Awards?

“Of course! What, are you kidding me?” Ms. O’Donnell laughed. “This is the dream for every girl from Long Island who ever sang in the mirror to Cabaret. This is as good as it gets for me.” [...]

Ms. O’Donnell is keeping specifics of the musical number under wraps for now, though she hinted that Ms. Minnelli will sing “a song you haven’t heard her perform in over 30 years.”

That narrows it down — we haven't actually heard Minnelli perform any song besides "New York, New York" in over 30 years. And frankly, if the show is to have any chance at cultural traction, it would be wiser to trade Minelli's stagy, Oscar-caliber musical theatrics for a revival of her more spontaneous talk-show performance art that so captivated our hearts in recent years. O'Donnell may have Long Island, but the rest of us will always have Larry King.

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<![CDATA[Which Recent Makeout Session Tops List Of Legendary Stomach-Turning Celebrity Hookups?]]>

We rarely like to take a mental walk down memory lane when it comes to the Most Nauseating Celebrity Hookups of all time, but news of the latest addition has unfortunately led us to revisit the grotesque list. We’ve already seen Liza Minelli and Phantom Of The Plastic Surgery Ward David Gest exchange saliva, Star Jones give Al an awkward lap dance and guiltily pleasured ourselves by witnessing wrinkly charmer Hugh Hefner and his thin lips attach themselves to the Girls Next Door. But after reading about one beach yoga-practicing, SUV-abandoning actor known for generally annoying everyone in Hollywood, and one scratchy-voiced “punk” rock chick known for generally hating everyone in Hollywood playing tongue twister in LA this past Tuesday, we may have a winner. The canoodlers in question, and just how far they went, after the jump:


Yes, sadly but truly, none other than the Pivster and recently divorced singer Pink (whose name makes absolutely no sense anymore considering she is currently Jet Black) were reportedly seen getting "hot and heavy on the dance floor" this week, according to the NY Post. As a source put it, they were "all over each other and dancing really close," which really gives an entirely new meaning to "Hug It Out, Bitch," no?

[Photo credits: Getty, Wireimage]

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<![CDATA[Your post-5 p.m. cavalcade of weep-inducing...]]> liza-perform.jpgYour post-5 p.m. cavalcade of weep-inducing good news continues with these five little life-changing words: "Liza Minnelli will sing again." After collapsing during a performance in Sweden, the performer's lawyer, Allen Arrow, wouldn't elaborate on her condition, only to offer a reassuring, "Not to worry," when asked if she was to continue with her current tour. There's still tickets for her next area dates, February 23 and 24 at the "Frank Sinatra Countrywide Celebrity Golf Tournament" in Indian Wells! Catch the legend while you still* can!

*By that we of course meant while tickets are still available, not while Minnelli is still cognizant and/or breathing, which we're certain will be the case for many, many more years to come. [Yahoo News]

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<![CDATA[When David Became Liza]]> gest-liza.jpg· Why doesn't this surprise us: As his ex-wife recovers from a fainting spell, David Gest is standing in the wings, ready to take her place.
· One winner claims The Price is Right is giving away lemons.
· Alec Baldwin pledges to hold the Golden Globes at his place this year, with a deli spread to rival anything those fancypants Wolfgang Puck-types could come up with at the Beverly Hilton.
· "Sources: George Clooney Looking Good"
· Katie Holmes spills all of Tom Cruise's turn-ons to In Style, including the platinum Harry Winston ankle-shackles he had specially made for the couple's first anniversary.

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<![CDATA[Liza With A Z Collapses With A C On Swedish Stage]]> liza.jpgHaving given, and given, and given again until she could give no more, Last of the Self-Destructive Showtune Belters Liza Minnelli has collapsed four songs into a performance in Sweden last night:

Minnelli, 61, was performing in Gothenburg on Wednesday night in a concert called "A Classic Christmas Night," said Zlatko Nedanovski, who works for the company organizing the show. He said Minnelli felt unwell and nauseous before the concert but decided to perform anyway.
"She performed four songs, which was about half her set," Nedanovski said. "She felt unwell, walked towards the stairs behind the stage, took her first step off the stage, became unconscious, and fell into the arms of someone walking with her."

He said the audience saw Minnelli collapse.

"She remained unconscious for about five seconds. She seemed very dizzy afterwards," he said. [...]

[Nedanovski] said he suspected Minnelli may have been upset that her European agent, Mustafa Metin, was jailed after allegedly assaulting a photographer Dec. 8, and upset at poor reviews for her Tuesday show.

A statement from noted diva-wrangler Liz Rosenberg on Minnelli's official site offers counterpoint to the show organizer's rather stingy and meanspirited claims that the episode was brought on by bad-review-related stress: Calling the tour "triumphant and critically acclaimed," Rosen writes the singer "became very ill" after the show began and was rushed back to New York for "further medical evaluation." Our prayers are of course with her, but we're pretty certain she'll make a full recovery, especially once she's greeted at her Mr. Sinai hospital bed by the smiling faces of Rufus Wainwright, David Geffen, Hugh Jackman, and David Gest, dressed as Dorothy, Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and Cowardly Lion, respectively.

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