It’s 1999 again! Back before the dot-com bust, with-it companies were all about Aeron chairs, free cafeterias, in-house masseurs, and on-the-clock drinking courtesy the office bar. Now, with multiple ad agencies gloating over their top shelf staff offerings, we’ve officially got a trend on our hands. And perhaps it’s all thanks to AMC’s Mad Men, a throwback to the good old days where 10am didn’t role around without a single malt.(...)
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Post tags: Advertising, Alcohol, Mad Men, Workplace

When the writers’ strike left many in Hollywood with little to do except walk in circles holding pieces of paper above their heads, Will Ferrell and Adam McKay moved ahead with FunnyOrDie.com, the insta-hit comedy website that made his daughter a trash-talking star. With a 10 percent stake purchased by HBO, FOD.com was supposed to be a shining example of merging Hollywood comedic talent and the web, while perhaps making a buck. Sad news then: Spin-off site BlueCollarOrDie.com is shutting down after ratcheting up only 20,000 viewers per month. So the site, from Jeff Foxworthy, Larry the Cable Guy, Ron White and Bill Engvall, and originally called MyBlueCollar.com, will be put out to pasture. The Internet audience for redneck jokes? Apparently not as numerous as the Internet audience for Eliot Spitzer sex jokes. Then again, is there an Internet audience of rednecks? [THR]

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Wendy Williams will make herself a huge television star yet. She's already completed the first step in making her readers skyrocket - an ugly on-air fight with a wholly unsympathetic person. On her show yesterday, the infamous-in-NYC Williams said a few choice things about guest Omarosa during her intro, and things just went downhill from there.

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Post tags: External, Omarosa, Wendy Williams

Chris Matthews did a fine job infuriating the Hillary Clinton campaign. Now colleague Andrea Mitchell is doing her part to stink things up with Barack Obama. Not that there’s anything wrong with a reporter actually, um, reporting.

Mitchell, who booted Lee Cowan out of the way to trail Obama to the Middle East and Europe this week, made a satellite stop by Hardball last night — and in soundbite-able brevity, slammed Obama for engaging in reporter-free public relations stunts as he makes his way through Iraq and Afghanistan. (And then Matthews had to ask about black people.)(...)
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Post tags: Afghanistan, Andrea Mitchell, Barack Obama, Iraq, NBC

Some magazines get to know their readers by rifling through letters to the editor. Other magazines already know their readers as the guys who like boobies.

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Post tags: Advertising, Maxim

If TMZ’s shtick is breaking courthouse news, then FoxNews.com gossip Roger Friedman’s beat is charity scandal. More than happy to dig through the non-profit records of Scientology and Kabbalah, Friedman turns his attention to the Britney Spears Foundation, the pop star’s erstwhile attempt at doing good for humanity. But like Ms. Spears’ personal life in recent years, the foundation is suffering its own troubles. Tax filings from 2006 show the charity was nearly $200,000 in the red; some $150,000 came in as revenue, but $345,000 went out as expenses. Some red flags, in case you were looking for them: $50k was earmarked for Britney’s summer camp for kids, but that’s all but closed down; some $214,000 for grants are listed, but without any specifics for what those grants are for; and one of two people listed on the foundation’s payroll is a former cop previously embroiled in a charity scandal.(...)
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Post tags: Britney Spears, Charity, Roger Friedman

Once again using her late stepbrother as justification for her ridiculous actions, Heidi Montag announced she and boyfriend Spencer Pratt are planning a trip to the Middle East to perform for the troops. Haven't the troops suffered enough?

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Post tags: External, Heidi Montag, Iraq, John McCain, Spencer Pratt

Slapping “exclusive” on this Sun story about Christian Bale allegedly assaulting his mother and sister, TMZ says The Dark Knight star was taken into custody over the allegations made yesterday by 61-year-old mom Jenny and 40-year-old sister Sharon. This, after police allowed him to attend the premiere of the new Batman flick after the police reports were made. Because if the throng of red carpet reporters are going to struggle getting face time with Bale, it’s not like the cops could expect him to answer their questions.

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Post tags: Batman, Britain, Christian Bale, Crime

Sex kitten Rachel Kramer Bussel, who writes for publications with “Pent” and “house” in their titles, tried exploiting this whole web video thing everybody is talking about to promote the erotic book Spanked that she’s editing. So she uploaded a promo teaser to four video sharing sites: Vimeo, Flickr, YouTube, and Blip. In the clip, Bussel shows you just what to expect inside the pages of Spanked, namely, spankings — with books, rulers, hands, frat paddles, and even a copy of Spanked. If the book doesn’t move on Nielsen BookScan’s charts, at least it’ll be an example in the standards policies of each of the sites.(...)
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Post tags: Blip.tv, Books, Flickr, Porn, Rachel Kramer Bussel, Video, Vimeo, YouTube

Whew. The CW is finally ending what they’ve been calling an “experiment” — that ridiculous decision to stop streaming episodes of Gossip Girl on its website for fear of cannibalizing its television audience. After kicking off the second part of season one without free web streams, Nielsen’s numbers for the show didn’t exactly go up by anything significant. Instead, they did this.

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Post tags: Gossip Girl, Internet, The CW