Adnan Ghalib and Kathy Griffin went shopping at Victoria’s Secret on Rodeo Drive yesterday. If you can’t tell it’s a set-up, then you are beyond hope.
While Ashton Kutcher might think he’s punking the celebrity press with spam-happy Pop Fiction, most celebrity weekly editors say his stunts are fooling them.
After all, the tabloids have eyes and ears everywhere; you think J. Lo goes on vacation without her handlers first checking with Larry Hackett to see if it’s okay?
So while they might run photos of Paris Hilton and her “shaman,” they also report that the whole thing is a stunt. Luckily those celebrity blogs don’t have the resources of an always-accurate tabloid.
Is E!’s new Ashton Kutcher vehicle Pop Fiction so desperate for viewers its taken to spamming blogs? At least one victim, the fantastic Celebitchy, found someone with the same IP address posting not-so-transparent plugs for the new series in its comments section.
“Hahaha!! It was all a prank on the paparazzi!! Its that new show on E! Pop Fiction. Its freakn awsome. The celebrities play pranks on the pap. What a genies idea. Paris Hiltons one was great all the paparazzi bit right into it. Shes not religious come on people. I love this show. Heres the link you wanted. Tell me what you think.”
You see how misspelling “genius” and extra exclamation points make it seem like a real tween posted that? CONTINUED »
Might Ashton Kutcher’s latest punk’d project be a rip-off of an Anna Nicole Smith idea? Back in ‘04, the now-deceased Playmate and attorney Howard K. Stern pitched E! execs on Celebrities Bite Back, which carried the very premise of Kutcher’s Pop Fiction. This week, Ashton’s show aired, making it the perfect publicity opportunity for Stern to begin threatening legal action.
Yet-to-be notable Canadian blogger Zach Taylor – not to be confused with Perez sex chat scandal blogger Jonathan Jaxson – is pleased to report he totally got punk’d by Ashton Kutcher’s new show. Humiliation is the new flattery!
E!’s Pop Fiction, where Kutcher and his celeb friends get the press to publish their fake antics, told Taylor after the fact that they used him to push a story that fellow Canadian Avril Lavigne was pregnant. A friend of her fiance Deryck Whibley, of Sum 41, contacted Taylor with the faux story. He reported it, the grab-at-anything tabloid press picked it up, and Avril did her part to fuel speculation by denying the rumors and then go publicly shopping for baby clothes.
After the jump, a clip from the show featuring Paris Hilton and her fake spiritual adviser, punking the paparazzi. CONTINUED »
Ashton Kutcher’s job as Professional Boyfriend is to make Demi Moore swoon. Is it okay that he makes us swoon, too? More accurately, it’s his new Punk’d-esque project giving us the tingles.
His new 8-episode show on E!, Pop Fiction, punks the media who bend over backward, then forward and to the side, to participate in the celebrity machine. As is his M.O., Kutcher enlists fellow celebs to pull of his pranks: Tricking gullible media – eager for the slightest of C-list nuggets – into reporting their fabrications.
Most recently, Paris Hilton was spotted dining with a shaman who offered her spirtual advice. “”He’s really changed my life,” Hilton told a pack of paparazzi. TMZ, the New York Daily News, and even E!’s own website picked up the item as a legitimate news story. (Well, insomuch as a Paris Hilton spotting is considered legitimate news.) But it was all part of the new show; the “shaman” was bit part actor Maxie Santillan Jr.
All told, there are some 20 celebs in on the pranks, though Kutcher’s camp, of course, won’t name who, nor will they hint at which stories made it into the press that were completely made up.
Maybe it was Rumer Willis being named Miss Golden Globe? Or that everyone at Ashton’s birthday party at Socialista was potentially exposed to Hepatitis?
Ashton Kutcher and Tyra Banks (photo “composite”) are teaming up for a new reality TV project for ABC. The show, which of course will have a twist, will involve contestants competing in a beauty pageant. Ashton comes to the space with Beauty and the Geek under his belt, where loser nerds competed for the love of a hot lady, as well as Punk’d, where he made celebrities look foolish. Tyra comes to the table having taken her clothes off a lot on her talk show. [THR]
Your daily dose of schadenfreude: A bartender at Socialista, the bar Ashton Kutchner had his 30th birthday, has hepatitis A.
The disease is spread through food and water, which means A-listers like Bruce Willis, Gwyneth Paltrow, Madonna, Kutcher and Demi Moore could have been exposed to the A-version of the hepatitis.
After a vaccine, everyone should be okay. And after this small scare, they can go back to their carefree life of adoration and riches.
[Photo]
A Star Is Porn: A friend of the Jossip family is evidently up for several AVN’s (that’s “Adult Video News” awards, to you) for helping to create a pornographic film whose title, Spunk’d is a clever(?) takeoff of Ashton Kutcher’s shortlived MTV reality series. As for the quality of programming? We haven’t seen it personally but, according to a recent writeup, the movie was an instant success! As a completely NSFW site puts it, “Featuring character names like Gashton Cootcher, Lindsay Blowhan, Hairless Hilton, Mary-Kate and Ashley Holesen, and Wilmer Balled-yer-mama, it is safe to say that Spunk’d is aimed at people disappointed by movies like the Britney Rears series.” Needless to say, we’ll be keeping our fingers crossed for him come AVN night, January 12th.
… and starts installing closets. [Glamour]
We’ve always loved Madonna. From the controversial “black Jesus” video to the fledgling movie career to the middle aged love affair with her obviously gay trainer yoga, Madge has always been chock full of surprises.
Like the time she managed to dance up a storm with Shakira and Demi Moore and ignore Janet Jackson while simultaneously heading home before midnight with Jackson in tow.
• Sometimes, when Demi and Ashton are feeling really crazy, they sit down to play a three hour long game of Mexican dominoes. Ole!
• A tipsy Paula Abdul slurs out an explanation for yesterday’s nose-breaking tumble
• Sharon Stone is the wine-guzzling, fake-titted mother you never had—or particularly wanted.
• Jennifer Garner continues to be outshined by her frightfully cute baby daughter.
• Meanwhile, Cameron Diaz discovers that everyone looks more attractive next to a giant, green ogre.
• Cameron Diaz showed a flash of originality aureola on Ellen earlier this week.
• Britney Spears refused to talk to her mother on “Mama’s Day.”
• These photos prove beyond all reasonable doubt that Jessica Alba is much, much hotter than you.
• Fergie’s “Big Girls Don’t Cry” video (ironically!) made us tear up.
• Ashton Kutcher selfishly covers The Hotness by donning a Unibomber beard.
• Breaking: Scarlett Johansson, the celeb you thought had reasonably normal eating habnits, refuses to watch other people ingest food.
• Whitney Houston to auction off remnants of her life with Bobby Brown; used crack pipe expected to go for “at least $50.”
• Justin and Cameron are officially over; Timberlake free to pursue Britney Spears look-alikes while ignoring his real-life ex.
• Mira Sorvino’s kids wanna party like Britney Spears when they grow up.
• Demi Moore and Ashton refrain from doing The Graduate on Broadway out of fear that it will become known as the Gigli of the stage-world.
• Jessica Simpson had to tug at John Mayer’s (grungy) pants for a NYE kiss, while ex-hubby Nick Lachey scored an impromptu lapdance.
• The father of Madonna’s new adopted boy just realized she’s got an unlisted number.
• Renee Zellweger resolves to be a spinster in 2007; plans to spend more time with her cats, less time with her hairbrush.
• Page Six continues its Blood Diamonds publicity tour. [P6]
• Vincent Gallo scores at coming across as a racist and a creepy old guy preying on teens in the same breath. [P6]
• Ashton Kutcher is about to throw down on Lindsay Lohan for corrupting step-daughter Rumer Willis. Or at least Life & Style would have you believe that. [Scoop]
• An Oprah audience remembers reports on the Madonna show taping, where the pop princess confesses she’s bewildered by the media attention her adoption received. And pissed the same media attention might ruin it. [ABC News]
• Law & Order’s “ripped from the headlines” theme might’ve gone a little too far with having a character named “Elizabeth Hassenback” – quite close to View host Elisabeth Hasselback – raped and murdered. [NYP]
• Rosie O’Donnell, gossip blogger. [Planet Gossip]
• America, we have never been more proud. Dancing with the Stars and Katie Couric? Such diversity in your choice of television consumption. [AP]
• For those who were working on the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, the thought of going back to work in a really, really big tower is a little disarming. [NYT]
• We, again, can’t do math. But Mollygood can! Well, she can at least get bootleg TimesSelect articles about the possibility of celeb couples withstanding. Sorry to say, Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore don’t stand a chance. (Then again, this is the Times, not Cindy Adams.) [Mollygood]
• Fox introduces a new interactive dating show. It promises that they will match couples in the most fair and balanced way possible, as long as they are right wing, pathological liars. [Mediaweek]
• Rosie O’Donnell thinks Oprah is pretty “brilliant sexy” in her Chevy. Well, at least she isn’t talking about her “fur.” [R Blog]
What exactly does one have to do to land an article in Harper’s Bazaar? Not much — just be famous. Celebs writing for mags, while nothing new, is just another annoyance on the list of things that peeve aspiring journalists. Honestly, how does your average Brown grad stand a chance of landing a byline when the competition is Demi Moore’s boyfriend and Diddy’s best friend? As The Envelope observed last week, Ashton was doing his homework while attending the Narciso Rodriquez show.
It looked to some observers as if Ashton Kutcher was intently writing a shopping list for his lady love at the Narcisco Rodriquez (sic) runway show.
But the actor was actually working. He was taking notes for an article on fashion shows that he’s penning for Harpers Bazaar. And no, this isn’t a Punk’d prank. At least, I don’t think so.
While we do have our doubts that Ashton is actually any good, we guess we should be happy that Bazaar is at least commissioning a real celeb. Unlike, say, Glamour, who just grabs the first B-List socialite they can find and slap all over every inch of their mag.
Hollywood heads to the Big Apple for Fashion Week [Elizabeth Snead, The Envelope]
• Unlike his hot, almost always naked ex-girlfriend, Pete Doherty was charged on seven counts of drug possession. And you bet heroin and crack cocaine were in the mix. [MSNBC]
• Lindsay Lohan is trying to be a good girl now. Well, except for those four or five nights she was out this week, she’s hardly partied in front of the paparazzi at all. [Gatecrasher]
• We guess Britney Spears calling her baby “poo-poo” is better than calling him “shithead.” [Mollygood]
• Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore are so much more perfect than you. They don’t even fight about the fact that she can’t have babies. [People]
• David Hasselhoff files for divorce from his wife. What? Everyone else is doing it. [Us]
Nothing fabulous or exciting ever happens in Des Moines, Iowa. Other than Drake University pub crawls and a looking at few mid-sized buildings, Iowa is corn, cows, and a spattering of crack houses.
So, we can only imagine the fervor that occurred when Ashton Kutcher and Demi Moore walked into a Des Moines bar, ready to party down.
While on a trip to Homestead to visit Ashton’s family, power couple hit up bar in Iowa’s biggest city with Scout in tow. And there, tons of crazy newsworthy event went down. DJ AM text messaged them, Demi acted like a huge bitch to all the simple folk trying to talk to her, and Ashton tried without success to get a helicopter to take them home.
Moore and Kutcher split their time between an isolated VIP booth and the DJ booth, where Kutcher jumped around enthusiastically.
They drank Voss water, Red Bull, Heineken and Corona. And when Moore visited the restroom, the bar cleared it for her.
Moore was not friendly to those attempting to take pictures, telling them to get away. Some patrons taking pictures were asked to leave the bar.
And then those patrons went home and blogged on their MySpace about how (omg!) Ashton Kutcher had them kicked out of a bar.
Ashton Kutcher, Demi Moore party in Iowa [AP News]
• Oh, Meryl Streep. You are the best sell out celebrity ever! Even the Desperate Housewives aren’t reading children’s books for Starbucks. [AP]
• Oooh, they’re giving away free plastic surgery at Cannes now? Now we’re shocked Brad Pitt skipped out. [SMH]
• Will the Namibian governor name Brad and Angelina Jolie’s baby? We’d believe it — if only so that the press would have a really hard time printing and pronouncing it. [Scoop]
• Ashton Kutcher takes time off to try and impregnate Demi Moore. [Scoop]
• We totally need a D-List celeb who has tons of fuck buddies to run for senate. [Page Six]
Editorial Director
