Despite someone trying their damnedest to keep confirmed homewrecker Rielle Hunter’s website out of the public eye, it was really only a matter of time before the proof of this woman’s weirdness surfaced. Entitled “Being Is Free,” Hunter’s site is chock-full of New Age-isms and talk of the zodiac, chakras, and spiritual healers, none of which granted Hunter enough serenity to resist the temptation of a married man with a dying wife. And while the site is offline, we got a look at the whole mess of it.CONTINUED »

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Post tags: John Edwards, Rielle Hunter

Americans are picking up magazines half as often as they once did, sez the latest ABC circulation data. This might be because magazines are a luxury, and in an economy where everyone is tightening budgets, they’re expendable. Or maybe because the $3,500 dresses, $85,000 watches and $210,000 sports cars magazines regularly feature are, for readers, no longer aspirational reminders of what’s possible, but nightmarish Post-It notes about what will never be.CONTINUED »

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Post tags: Circulation, Magazines

Feed the Animals, the pay-what-you-will second album from mash-up musician Girl Talk, samples over 300 different songs. This is quite wild, because hip-hop artists get the bajeezus sued out of them for for sampling even one song without clearance. (See: 2 Live Crew, Wyclef, Kanye, Ludacris, and, this week, Mary J. Blige)

But Girl Talk, aka Greg Gillis, has never been threatened with legal action.

Curious.CONTINUED »

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Post tags: Copyright, Fair Use, Girl Talk, Greg Gillis

Finally! A New Jersey judge today ended the drama-filled marriage of Jim McGreevey and Dina Matos. The couple, of course, gained national prominence when McGreevey came out as a "gay American." It was down hill from there.

CONTINUED »

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Post tags: Dina McGreevey, External, Jim McGreevey, Scandal

Remember how we said NBC was banking its $900 million Olympics on the back of Michael Phelps? We were wrong. There are other athletes with chiseled abs that NBC would like you to pay attention to. [NBCOlympics.com]

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Post tags: NBC, Olympics

Well, we all saw this coming, though the slow August news cycle allowed for the clever viral marketing monster to survive for way longer than it would have if anything was actually going on these days. Now let’s all buy our obligatory memorabilia and get back to Digging fairytale news items.

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Post tags: Hoaxes, Montauk Monster

Since blogs are now the only source of politics-related information that you can rely on, let us introduce you to the goods on John Edwards’ baby mama Rielle Hunter’s now defunct blog/website/crazy town “Being is Free.”

Oh wait, you can’t, because the site seems to have not only been shutdown, but has some sort of internet perma-block that prevents caching. Which you wouldn’t expect from a website designed in 1999. (Click to enlarge)CONTINUED »

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Post tags: John Edwards, National Enquirer, Rielle Hunter

Beijing Olympics time, you guys! Which means the greatest challenge facing Americans is upon us: Do we TiVo Weeds for later so we can catch the last bastion of American hope in the games — the virile Michael Phelps — go for eight gold medals in swimming, or watch it live and wait for the results to be posted online?

Growing out of 2004’s Athens Games, Phelps quickly became the U.S. poster child for athletic greatness; he appeared on, we’re guessing, 213 magazine covers, signed on to promote Visa, PowerBar, and Speedo, then virtually disappeared — only to be trumpeted out a few months ago, and have his manhood digitally erased, as the marketing machine known as American Pride began prepping for today, August 8, 2008, when everything is on the line.

Yes, everything. American bragging rights. A resurrected skirmish with Big China. And, while we’re at it, the future of NBC.CONTINUED »

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Post tags: Michael Phelps, NBC, Olympics

Somebody must have told John McCain that comparing his opponent to celebrities like Britney and Paris was, despite the media backlash and Paris Hilton’s spoof, a wise move. Because McCain’s is back with a new 30-seconder filled with imagery connecting Barack Obama to a magazine coverboy out of touch with America, which, while TOTALLY TRUE!, is increasingly the unstable and reactionary platform McCain is riding on.

Though, McCain did release the ad today of all days: 08-08-08. Supposedly the luckiest day ever, according to Chinese believers. So what could McCain’s good fortune be? That the ad will get the same free press in the media he enjoyed the last time, despite wall-to-wall coverage of something going on in Beijing.

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Post tags: Advertising, Barack Obama, John McCain

First they said the recession was hitting Hollywood hard, forcing fat cats to - gasp! - fly business class instead of first. Then they said industry profits were actually increasing. Now, they're back to saying Hollywood's screwed, despite the fact that The Dark Knight is making more money than should be legal:

CONTINUED »

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Post tags: External, Hollywood, Money, Movies, Recession