A Little of the Old In and Out



(image via gawker via nikola tamindzic)

In: Arianna Apologizes. Arianna Huffington got into some controversy at the beginning of the week after putting up a George Clooney "post" on HuffingtonPost without prefacing that it was in fact embroidered together from several interviews she did with the Oscar winner. (Averted Gaze) George Clooney, who clearly is a favorite of the goddess Fortuna, called her on it. Clooney knows what a blog is -- he used to do one before being disheartened by the Bush win in 2004.

And then things got hazy. Arianna got into . Jeff Jarvis and public opinion in the comments section on her blog ran decidedly against Arianna.

Today Arianna finally apologized. From the blog post entitled "Lesson Learned":

"Dear HuffPost Readers, Commenters and Bloggers :

"I've read all your insightful feedback over the last few days and realized something I did not see right away but should have.

"At the beginning of the week, I was so focused on making it crystal clear that we did indeed have permission to run the Clooney blog that I was blinded to another extremely important issue: that a blog, where the source of the material is not clear, diminishes the amazing work of bloggers who day in and day out put their hearts and souls into writing their blogs.

"I can't thank our commenters enough for, in different ways, driving this point home.

"I now realize that I made a big mistake in posting a blog without clearly identifying that the material in it didn't originate as a blog post but was pieced together from previous interviews.

"I'm sorry I didn't see this earlier. But I see it now .."

It couldn't have been easy, but it preserved her integrity. The full blog post here.



(image via galleon)

Out: Asia Argento. We cannot say that we were ever fans of the creepy "abandoned child" vibe that Asia Argento gives off not unlike a cheap perfume. Frankly, we'd rather she got some therapy. At least that is private. Self-destructive and unfortunately public behavior such as appearing as Vin Diesel's love interest will only fuck a person up all-the-more. Someone else, it seems, shares our general distaste for Argento's purported cinematic "offerings" (made all the more sad considering her lineage) According to Cinematical:

"I saw The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things a year ago, at the 2005 SXSW Film Festival; by that point, it had already been on the festival circuit for almost a year. It was picked up by Palm Pictures for North American distribution at Cannes in 2005, exactly one year after its world premiere. At some point, it was possibly worth asking why writer/director/shameless showboat Asia Argento had so much trouble getting her splashily filmed, star-studded translation of name-brand memoirist J.T. Leroy's short stories into theaters.

"At this point, now that Leroy has been unmasked as the brainchild of three middle-aged wannabes, it's easy to close the case with a two-part answer: 1) the film is terrible, and 2) it is, in fact, so bad, that without a New York Times-endorsed scandal for Palm to latch its marketing campaign on to, its release would be damn near impossible. Oddly, now that it's able to hide behind the mask of Leroy's unmasking, The Heart is Deceitful Above All Things gets to wear a certain kind of cachet; a literary scandal has a funny way of making what's actually been burned onto the celluloid seem a little less unconscionable.

"So let's talk about that scandal. It's much more interesting than anything in Argento's film."

Oh no he didn't! The full monte here.



(image via wireimage)

In: SXSW. Good times. So far, Chrissie Hyndes of The Pretenders hinted that she may never record again. And, according to David Menconi of Newsobserver:

"In the rhythm of SXSW, Friday is when a measure of burnout sets in. You're still having a great time, but weariness becomes a factor. So you pick your spots and maybe look for a few things that are less mobbed.

"I started the day at one of the panel discussions, 'What's Next for the Download Market?,' in which various industry luminaries tried to predict what lies ahead for the online music industry. The short answer would be that no one really knows, but you'd better be flexible if you want to survive. That would probably summarize just about every panel down here.

"Shortly after that, I walked into a tent several blocks away and heard a young woman's voice onstage singing at the party sponsored by the ubur-hip Pitchfork Media. Then I took a look at the stage and realized it was actually a man. That was Death Vessel, real name Joel Thibodeau, a profoundly odd and hugely androgynous singer/songwriter. Afterward, master of ceremonies Patton Oswalt cracked, 'You are the second dude I�ve hit on in my life.' It was like something out of 'The Crying Game.'"



South Carolina's 5th district. (image via lauramanning)

Out: Representative Ralph Norman. State Representative Ralph Norman is not yet ready for prime time. How a Republican in South Carolina -- arguably the most conservative state in the union -- with party support can shoot themselves in the foot against a Democrat is unimaginable. Yesterday the Vice President went down to support him, but it may all be for naught. According to the perfect Dickensian villain Robert Novak:

"Rep. Rahm Emanuel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, is ecstatic over a blooper made by the Republican candidate challenging 12-term Democratic Rep. John Spratt in South Carolina.

"State Rep. Ralph Norman, a real estate developer new to national politics, reacted to the politically unpopular Dubai Ports World deal by saying he would depend on President Bush's judgment. Later, he said he did not know enough to make a judgment. Since then, Republican strategists have played down the deal.

"Spratt, ranking Democrat on the House Budget Committee, had no Republican opponent in 2002 and won with 63 percent in 2004. The National Republican Congressional Committee has targeted him for 2006, contending that he campaigns as a conservative in South Carolina while voting with Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi in the House. Spratt had a 90 percent liberal voting record in 2005, as measured by the Americans for Democratic Action."