Wednesday, June 17, 2009

Blind items

I'm a fan of the new tabloid craze-- blind items. I don't know how long they've been appearing online or in periodicals such as the New York Post and the Daily News, but they work like this-- a juicy tidbit of celebrity gossip is published, but without the name of the celebrity. Then the great unwashed, people like you and me, are invited to guess in the comment threads who the mystery celebrity is. It's great fun to play, but be forewarned, it can be very frustrating. (Here's a collection of "blind items" from Defamer.com, where a new batch appear each day.) Sometimes the celebrity description will contain specific clues. For example, "This Oscar winner was not behaving very "kingly" when he was caught groping a waitress at a N.Y.C. nightclub recently." It could be Ben KINGsley. It could be Forrest Whitaker, who starred in "The Last King of Scotland." It could be... oh, who are we kidding? It's one of those two guys.

I want to start my own "Blind Items" feature on this blog, but such an initiative requires spies. So keep your eyes open when you're out exploring the social scene in your local communities, and get back to me.

---

Editors at the satirical website The Onion-- which was just awarded a Peabody last month-- aren't letting up on the Palin children these days.

The site also drew attention from The Des Moines Register this week for a video piece about Olympic gymnast, dancing star, and West Des Moinesian Shawn Johnson, another underage girl who has sought the public limelight. My guess is that Johnson has a good sense of humor about it.

---

It turns out there are a lot of courageous freedom-seekers in Iran. Maybe it's a good thing we didn't bombed them.

---

Tony LaRussa and Joe Torre have both been selected now as National League coaches for next month's All-Star Game, hosted by the Cardinals in St. Louis. Now if they can find a way to add Whitey Herzog and Red Schoendienst, Cards managers will basically be covered back to 1965.

---

Quote of the day: Slogan written on a sign at the sizable counter-protest outside the Ed Sullivan Theater in New York Tuesday, "Sarah needs a life/Bristol needs a spouse/I can see idiots from my house."

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home