From time to time we here at RedEye come across celebrity news that confuses us more than the Grammy eligibility rules. Fortunately we can turn to in-house public relations guru Tab Tanner in our time of need. Plus, he always offers to pick up our carryout, and we had this wicked craving for Thai. Here now, Tab weighs in on the latest puzzlers in the entertainment world.
PUZZLER: “Dreamgirls” snubbed by Oscars
NEWS: The hit movie musical led all movies with eight Oscar nominations, it was announced Tuesday, but voters shut it out of the best picture race.
TAB’S TAKE: This is a complete travesty! An outrage! A farce! This is exactly why the Academy drives me crazy. (This and the fact that security throws me off the red carpet every year. Is that how a supposedly reputable organization treats the one-time advisor to Jimmy Fallon’s ex-girlfriend’s friend from the gym?) I’m a simple man with simple tastes, and all I ask is that I see Beyonce on stage at least three times during the ceremony.
Huh? scale
4 ?’s
PUZZLER: Kanye West teams up with Coldplay’s Chris Martin
NEWS: The Chicago rapper is working on “Graduation,” his follow-up album to “Late Registration,” and tells billboard.com the first single off the new album will likely be “Homecoming,” which features Martin of Coldplay.
TAB’S TAKE: Blazers and jeans, martinis and olives, Jack Nicholson and models young enough to be his daughter–some things just go together. (You know I love ya, Jack-O. You and I need to talk “The Shining 2: Death Lodge.”) But Kanye West and Gwyneth Paltrow’s husband? Um, lemme get back to you on that. If Kanye comes out of the studio whistling U2 songs, holding a bag of granola and looking like he hasn’t seen a bar of soap in two months, we’ll know why.
Huh? scale
2 ?’s
PUZZLER: Brad Pitt’s past life
NEWS: In a panel discussion with other Oscar contenders for Newsweek magazine, Brad Pitt revealed he once had a job chauffeuring strippers to events, and it actually set him on the path to acting.
TAB’S TAKE: So Brad Pitt romances the two sexiest women in the world AFTER escorting strippers for a living. I think I need to sit down. I just had one of those drops in blood pressure my doctor’s been telling me about.
Huh? scale
3 ?’s
Heavy hitter
Lil’ Jon is a little bit hip-hop, a little bit rock ‘n’ roll.
But will he actually cut a solo album?
The “Snap Yo Fingers” rapper says he’s still working on his first solo set, expected in stores later this year, billboard.com reports. “Snap Yo Fingers” was supposed to be the first single from it, but he had to iron out problems with his record label, TVT, before turning his attention to the album.
“It’s not a compilation,” Lil’ Jon (left) tells Billboard of the project. “But it’ll have a lot of appearances, like how Dr. Dre does his records. There’ll be a hip-hop side and a rock side.
“I won’t do a Metallica song, but I’ll take a Metallica riff and put it over a gangsta beat.”
Let the healing begin
“Grey’s Anatomy” star Isaiah Washington, under fire for using a gay slur about a co-star, met Monday with gay rights activists who said he agreed to help educate the public about the cruelty of such language. “He seemed very sincere in his interest in working with us in an ongoing basis,” said Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network.
Bottle service
It ain’t easy being a “Top Chef.” Marcel Vigneron, a bit of a villain on the Bravo show, told Las Vegas Weekly he got clocked just for being … himself. “This girl came up to me at a nightclub and asked me if I was Marcel from ‘Top Chef,’ ” he said, according to excerpts in the New York Post. “The next thing I knew, this bottle struck me, and my friends had to rush me to the hospital. I needed 30 stitches.”
Baby on board
Ani DiFranco is a proud mom. The indie rocker and boyfriend Mike Napolitano welcomed a daughter, Petah Lucia, last Friday, people.com reports. “It was a long delivery, but mom and baby are both doing very well,” a rep for DiFranco’s record label said. Petah is the couple’s first child.
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REDEYEEDITOR@TRIBUNE.COM
