Just when you start to feel sorry for motherless Kanye West, he has to go off on another one of his deranged tangents about things of no importance whatsoever. This time around, his anger is directed at the MTV Video Music Awards — one of the most legitimate and respected musical events of the year. Except, you know, not.
You see, Kanye thinks these awards shows — both in America and Europe — are "fixed," and he's not OK with the winners of this year's crop:
While Justin Timberlake massaged his ego at the ESPY Awards, guests were more eager about the goodies inside their gift bags. Among their rewards for attending:
• Ancestry.com Annual World Deluxe, DNA Ancestry Kit & Family Tree Maker 2008 Software
• Johnston & Murphy leather toiletry sets including personal care items and J & M fragrance
• Rosetta Stone, Gift Certificate for a Level 1 CD Rom and a 3 Month Online Language Subscription
• Gift card valid at any Subway location in the U.S.
• Under Armour Large Gym Bag and Sunglasses
• Zirh Platinum drenched moisturizer
Jealous!
Possible winners of those television award-y things were announced yesterday, and all your cable favs are up for collective backslapping. There's Mad Men, Breaking Bad, Damages, Dexter, and Weeds. Oh, plus some network fare too, like The Office, The New Adventures of Old Christine, Samantha Who?, and Pushing Daises. And the show with the homosexual title whose mass appeal we still don't understand, Two and a Half Men.
Katie Couric's CBS Evening News just won the Edward R. Murrow Award for, ahem, Best Newscast. [RTNDA]
Underdog Xanadu continues its Tony Awards campaign with its latest YouTube clip, this one featuring Nathan Lane and the semi-naked boys of the show, including star Cheyenne Jackson. You see, producers are worried that the show is too gay. A musical. Based on a movie Olivia Newton-John starred in. Too gay. Hard to believe, yes. So they're doing everything they can to shoot down those rumors. Or, at least, and with the help of Nathan Lane, make the issue appear so overblown, Tony's voters won't feel like they have to bow to public pressure and give the award to someone else.
Last night's Bravo A-List Awards, hosted by Kathy Griffin and whose subway station ads have been defiled all over town, was worth watching for Lauren Hutton's acceptance speech alone. But it's online! Right here on your screen! So, um, no need to watch the actual broadcast. Like the reason for this awards show, Ms. Hutton, who claims to have gone without sleep for 46 hours, does not make any sense.
The CFDA Fashion Awards, held last night at the New York Public Library, honored excellence in fashion design but also served as a venue for Victoria Beckham to crash as many photo opportunities as possible.
After the jump: How many Poshes can you find?
At last night's Fifi Awards: New York Rangers hockey player Sean Avery walked the red carpet with Vera Wang (who didn’t speak to reporters), but nobody seemed to recognize him except for me. I called him over to talk about his new internship at Vogue, which he just started last week. He claims he’s done his share of photocopies and is not intimidated by Anna Wintour.
Perhaps you've heard the Tony nominations were announced this week, and Xanadu is up for a few awards, including Best Musical and Best Actress. Far be it for producers to just let their chances of winning rest on whim, or, lord help us, merit, they're launching a marketing campaign to try to snag the award. And it's trying to viral! It's all Web 2.awesome! Well, it stars a little boy, "Cubby Bernstein," in a suit. And no, Cheyenne Jackson is not in it. At least not this clip.
The GLAAD Media Awards may be causing some residual drama.
Cable channel Bravo paid an unspecified sum to air the entire event next month, but a reader speculated that queer-centric Logo, an MTV property, decided to play a little game of “gotcha” with the awards.
The Daytime Emmys, which exists as a chance for Days of Our Lives to excuse its existence, is also not good enough for Martha Stewart. The domestic queen didn't bother submitting her show for any awards this year because, as MSLO broadcasting chief Sheraton Kalouria puts it, "There was no current category that addresses the unique hybrid format of our series." Somehow Rachael Ray figured it out, but alas, Stewart's decision isn't without precedent. Oprah stopped submitting her show for Daytime Emmys, because she always won. But even Stewart can't carry that excuse; she hasn't won since 2005. And that award was just a sympathy "welcome home from jail" trinket.
Ugly Betty actress Becki Newton no doubt enjoyed herself at last night’s GLAAD Media Awards. Newton and her castmates, including the ever-adorable Michael Urie, took home the prize for outstanding comedy series, while fellow ABC show, Brothers & Sisters, won in the drama category.
Ms. Jackson if you’re nasty accepted the Vanguard Award, and got a little friendly with presenter Ellen DeGeneres. Kathy Griffin won for My Life On The D-List, and shared the award with her lovely mother, just like a gay man!
FOOL'S GOLD Jack Shafer on the Webbys: About as meaningless an award as you can get. Just like the New York Times' weddings section, anyone can get in there if they grease the doorman.. [Slate]
Garden & Gun, our second favorite off-the-radar magazine that trails only Field & Stream, is one of four of Mr. Magazine's runner-ups for notable launch of 2007. Winning that honor is Conde Nast Portfolio, which, at one point, some might have speculated would be a better candidate for notable closure. [Mr. Magazine]
While newspapers took home awards, this week websites are being teased with the possibility. [Retuers]
Newspapers won awards. WaPo won more than NYT. Heck, even Bob Dylan picked one up. [E&P]
Access Hollywood is giddy to announce they've got Project Runway winner Christian Siriano on blast to cover Nickelodeon's 2008 Kids' Choice Awards. He'll be on the red orange carpet handing out Fierce Fashion Awards and says, "I think it's fabulous that I'll be on the red carpet checking to see if anyone is a hot tranny mess. Watch out - you know I'll be fierce with my comments."
Adds supervising producer Ryan Patterson: "Christian IS fierce, fabulous and ferosh and he is a pop culture catchphrase machine. He also really knows fashion - he's a style stud who will standout on the carpet with his one-of-a-kind hairdo and electric personality and most importantly, he'll be able to spot out whose fashion is a 'hot mess' and whose fashion is 'fierce.'"
Adds Jossip: Nobody should speak like this.
ABC, and its advertisers, were expecting this year's Oscars to follow the trends of years past, with ratings increasing. How else could they rationalize charging marketers $120,000 more per 30-second spot?
Well, they did charge them more: $1.82 million per ad. Except this year, ratings slid the other way. Way the other way.
Not only is Nielsen estimating (hah!) 21 percent fewer viewers this year, but the broadcast, with 14 percent fewer than 2003's worst-watched broadcast ever (33 million), is suddenly the new least-watched Oscars ever.
Looking at early data, Nielsen figures the show will earn a 21.9 rating and 33 share; final tallies will be known once more reports are in. Interestingly, ABC anticipated this, and told advertisers they should expect lower numbers.
Naturally, the pundits are going to weigh in and tell you exactly why the Oscars had fewer people tuning in.
Was it the writers strike that turned them off? Were they wasting too much time on Facebook? Do they realize they can just find out which nominee actually wins in real time online, and then visit YouTube for any worthwhile acceptance speeches or bloopers?
Or maybe it had to do with none of the worthwhile awards being revealed until after our bedtime.
At last night's Brit Awards, host Sharon Osbourne swore, and the Arctic Monkeys were so drunk they had to be cut off during their obscenity-laced acceptance speech. We're not sure what criteria these awards are given out for, but it's clear why they're televised. [Daily Mail, Mollygood]
Depending on who you ask, NBC News president Steve Capus is either a big baby, or a big baby who had to use the restroom while somebody else picked up a trophy for, effectively, making him look like an ass.
At yesterday's duPont Awards, peacock execs including Capus walked out of the ceremony when Dallas ABC affiliate WFAA won for their story "Television Justice," which exposed the relationship between Dateline's "To Catch a Predator" and the local police involved in their sting operations. This, despite NBC and MSNBC each winning an award.
Sounds like somebody needs a Shelley Ross tequila shot.
Editorial Director
