The incredible hunk

By Brian D. Johnson - Friday, January 7, 2011 at 9:00 AM - 4 Comments

Bardem with Penélope Cruz at the Cannes film festival in May 2010, Bardem unleashes the most powerful performance of his career in ‘Biutiful’ | Yves Herman/Reuters, Everett Collection

Hollywood is thick with fine actors and glamorous stars, but there’s one thing that’s even rarer than a good original script: the kind of strong leading man who takes your breath away. One contender after another has proved lacking. Tom Cruise has become a freak, a machine-like movie star whose vanity overrides his sex appeal. Johnny Depp is adorable, but seems content to play a pirate for life, and when given a shot at cracking Angelina Jolie’s cool in The Tourist, he looked like he couldn’t wait to get back to his ship. Jolie’s mate, Brad Pitt, seems strangely neutered. Canada’s Ryan Reynolds inherited the title of Sexiest Man Alive, but he has yet to prove it onscreen, and now even Scarlett Johansson isn’t buying it. Leonardo DiCaprio shook off his stigma as Titanic’s teen heartthrob, and matured into a formidable actor, but he seems allergic to romantic roles. Same deal with George Clooney. For a while, he appeared to be the Great White Hope, so boldly debonair and adult, until we began to notice that his career was virtually devoid of love scenes.

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Mitchel Raphael on the Tory who helped Helena Guergis

By Mitchel Raphael - Thursday, December 16, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 1 Comment

Ignatieff on his eyebrows
A fire alarm during question period had MPs rushing out of the Commons. Conservative MP James Lunney helped a very pregnant former Conservative-now-Independent MP Helena Guergis (due date: Dec. 15) down the stairs and out of the building as they talked about contractions. Lunney is a chiropractor trained to deliver babies. Once outside, MPs kept dry from the rain under the wood shelters attached to the building (thank goodness for smokers, one MP joked). Liberal MP Martha Hall Findlay took the opportunity to thank her leader, Michael Ignatieff, for not growing a moustache as part of the Movember prostate cancer awareness campaign. “I thought you were growing your eyebrows,” Scott Brison piped in. Ignatieff laughed and joked, “No. I shave those every day.”

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Ready to wrap

By macleans.ca - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 4:40 PM - 1 Comment

James Cameron; Céline Dion; Ryan Reynolds | Roger Kisby/Christopher Polk/Matt Carr/Getty Images

Céline Dion
The new mom of twins gets two Metro Babycotpod cribs ($595), a “Bandit” Doll ($65) from Vancouver’s the Cross (ships across Canada) and a Hudson’s Bay blanket, to keep her Canuck roots strong. For René Jr., the start of a broader musical education: “Bob Dylan: The Original Mono Recordings” (Columbia/Legacy, $130).

Naomi Campbell
Infamous for her blood diamonds, compliments of former Liberian dictator Charles Taylor, the supermodel could use some conflict-free bling: ethically sourced sapphires and Canadian diamonds from Brilliant Earth ($1,150).

Glenn Beck
A tea kettle, of course. How about this Michael Graves design from Alessi, along with a sample of soothing herbal brews? As for all those righteous tears, Beck could use a fresh pile of Paul Smith handkerchiefs ($42), all 100 per cent woven cotton. This striped one is nice, though he might also like the white one that says: “Bless You.”

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Second life

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Jennifer Grey, Fidel Castro, Betty White | Alberto E. Rodriguez/Sven Creutzmann/Mambo Photo/Getty Images

ELIOT SPITZER
Spitzer’s political career collapsed in 2008 when he resigned the governorship of New York after a prostitution scandal. But even bad publicity was good publicity for the struggling CNN, which seized on his name value and hired him to co-host a show with columnist Kathleen Parker. Parker Spitzer debuted to terrible ratings, but that’s CNN’s disgrace, not Spitzer’s.

GORDON LIGHTFOOT
When a media outlet reported that singer-songwriter Gordon Lightfoot had died, there was an outpouring of grief on blogs and Twitter. It turned out that the report was based on a hoax; when reached for comment, Lightfoot said that he was “quite surprised to hear it” and that his death had caused his music to be played much more often on the radio.

GEORGE WASHINGTON’S LIBRARY BOOK
In 1789, George Washington took out the book The Law of Nations from the New York Society Library and never returned it. In 2010, after the library confirmed the book was still missing, the caretakers of Washington’s home sent over “a copy of the same edition” to replace it. But they said nothing about paying 221 years’ worth of overdue fees.

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Star turns

By Charlie Gillis - Thursday, December 9, 2010 at 11:20 AM - 0 Comments

James Devaney/Jason Kempin/Getty Images; Aaron Vincent Elkaim/CP

Justin Timberlake
Always deeper than his image let on, the 29-year-old has officially completed the loop from tween heartthrob to serious acting talent, wowing critics this fall with his turn in the Facebook movie, The Social Network. Timberlake’s take on Napster inventor Sean Parker combined innocence and calculation, conveying evil beneath a sheen of effeminate whimsy. Not bad for a guy who got his start warbling country tunes on Star Search.

Caroline Wozniacki
Serena Williams’s outfits might steal the show at most tennis tournaments, but these days Wozniacki supplies the substance. The 20-year-old Dane won an amazing six tour events in 2010, including the Rogers Cup in Montreal, to claim the No. 1 rank in the world. She’s no slouch in the looks department, either, but with her crashing serve and her relentless work ethic, her opponents had best keep their eyes on the ball.

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Justin Bieber: A very sweet sixteen

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Wednesday, December 8, 2010 at 9:40 AM - 1 Comment

Photography by KC Armstrong

There are surely a lot of weird things about being a global teen idol. Obsessive fans. The lack of privacy. Growing up in a media hothouse. But the omnipresence of your own mug must rank high among the discomforts. Enter Justin Bieber’s name into a Google image search and you get 19 million pictures. His YouTube postings—everything from shaky home movies to big-budget music videos—have been collectively viewed more than a billion times. His signature bangs and toothy grin adorn posters, books, CDs, T-shirts, key chains, pyjamas, and practically everything else that can conceivably be sold to preteen girls (or their parents). Small wonder that the 16-year-old no longer enjoys having his picture taken.

“I really don’t really like photo shoots,” the Stratford, Ont., native admitted to Maclean’s during a backstage discussion about the perils of fame this past summer. “I hate when I’m standing there for hours at a time just looking at the camera.” Of course, there was a photographer in the room. These days there always is. Bieber is still new enough to the game that he can’t afford to appear sulky, however. Seconds later, the skinny teen was on his feet striking his “best” pose; mouth drawn into a pout, chin down, staring into the lens. “My sex face,” he declared, then quickly corrected himself. “My sexy face.”

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In conversation with Glee’s Cory Monteith

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Monday, November 15, 2010 at 12:20 PM - 4 Comments

Splash News/GQ, Ture Lillegraven/Corbis Outline, Jason Kempin/Getty Images

The first time Cory Monteith ever sang for a live audience was at the White House last Easter. The second occasion was later that same week on Oprah. By the time he and his cast mates from the Fox TV hit Glee completed a live tour with five sold-out performances at New York’s Radio City Music Hall in late May, it was becoming old hat.

Less so, the kind of teenybopper adulation that saw the 28-year-old Victoria native get chased down Fifth Avenue. Or the buzz-name status that convinces tabloid editors to turn a night out bowling in L.A. with a group including the singer Taylor Swift into cover stories about their “romance.” But that’s the kind of thing that happens when you’re one of the stars of the hottest thing on television. A multi-platform commercial juggernaut that draws 12 million viewers a week, Glee has spawned more charting singles on Billboard’s Hot 100 than the Beatles, sold five million albums, 13 million digital downloads, and launched a clothing line at Macy’s. It’s a campy satire about a high school choir that has improbably convinced millions of teens worldwide that singing show tunes and classic rock ballads is cool. A show that is only six episodes into its second season and is already a certified cultural phenomenon.

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Desperately seeking the next Pavarotti

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, November 11, 2010 at 4:00 PM - 4 Comments

Mary Altaffer/AP

On Oct. 17, Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo made his Metropolitan Opera debut in La Bohème, and you’d have thought it was the opera event of the year instead of a 30-year-old production. The New York Times ran a long story calling him “the great tenor hope.” Sony, which is releasing Grigolo’s first album (unimaginatively titled The Italian Tenor), put out many press releases touting his good looks and his background—he used to be a “popera” singer and briefly was part of Simon Cowell’s group Il Divo. But Grigolo is only the latest in a long line of recent tenors who have received the same kind of publicity build-up, and it rarely works. “It’s always ‘the next Pavarotti,’ ” says Zachary Woolfe, music critic for the New York Observer. “The expectations are a bit unfair.”

The tenor voice, the high yet masculine sound that usually sings the hero’s music, has been the currency of operatic stardom since the 19th century. But since Pavarotti’s death and Placido Domingo’s shift into baritone parts, the music business hasn’t found anyone who can cross over into full-fledged popular stardom the way those tenors did. Most successful tenors today are relatively small-voiced lyric tenors who can sing Mozart or Rossini, but not the heavy parts (in Verdi, Puccini and Wagner) that feature the things that make big stars: loud singing and, above all, high Cs like the big one in the tenor aria from La Bohème.

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Even Nigella Lawson has bad days

By Elio Iannacci - Friday, November 5, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

www.lisparsonsphotography.co.uk

In Nigella Lawson’s new book, Kitchen: Recipes From the Heart of the Home, the preface to a beer-braised pork-knuckle recipe reveals a fierce side to the usually amiable British cooking show star. Lawson writes of the humiliation she felt when a German talk show interviewer introduced her with a joke about how the English have a reputation for being the worst cooks in the world. Instead of laughing at the condescending jab, Lawson decided to give her bully a serving of piping hot honesty and replied in a self-described “graceless” manner.

“I told him that as far as the world was concerned, German cooking didn’t accord much respect either,” she says on the phone from her home in London. The program’s live audience went dead silent. Still, Lawson, who has been communicating about food on TV and in magazines and books for more than two decades, refused to smile for the cameras. “I’d heard that bad quip over and over again,” she says. “I’m not one to lash out or confront, but it was a direct insult and a very outdated opinion.”

Lawson’s opinions—which have helped her amass a $25-million empire since writing her bestselling first book, How to Eat: Pleasures and Principles of Good Food, in 1998—have proven to be nothing to laugh at. Now 50, she’s the author of nine bestselling cookbooks. On top of her literary achievements, Lawson has starred in and co-produced nine world-syndicated television series, and has designed her own line of cookware to boot.

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'Everyone I know has had fair warning!'

By Elio Iannacci - Monday, November 1, 2010 at 10:00 AM - 0 Comments

Graham Denholm/WireImage/Getty Images

If President Barack Obama ever considered adding the job of director of celebrity relations to his staff list, Taylor Swift would be a shoo-in. The girl is a vault. Chatting with her via phone from Nashville about her recently released third album, Speak Now, and her ascent into the charts and hearts of America, she communicates with the professional grace of a media-trained politician: it’s hard to believe she’s only 20 years old.

Asked about the famous names that might have inspired the songs on Speak Now—a subject that is making headlines on both gossip blogs and global news sites—a confident Swift says, “I’ve never, ever been shy about the fact that I write songs about people in my life—no matter who they are. Everyone I know has had fair warning! I’ve always written about who is spending time with me, so if they get into any kind of relationship with me, they know what they are getting into.” Jake Gyllenhaal—reported to have been spotted holding hands with Swift in New York last Sunday—might want to take note.

One of the most talked-about rumours is an obvious allusion to 33-year-old John Mayer—reportedly Swift’s former flame—in a track called Dear John. The song’s finale ends with the lyrics, “You’ll add my name to your long list of traitors who don’t understand and I’ll look back in regret I ignored what they said”—suggesting Swift could have been pre-warned by Jessica Simpson to keep from becoming another of Mayer’s locker-room anecdotes. Swift, who refuses to confirm or deny Mayer’s inspiration, shrewdly offers a cryptic explanation. “I can never tell if these songs will come back to haunt me, since my personal life and this album are so intertwined,” she says. “I do know one thing: you should never regret honesty.”

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Blame it on those DVD commentaries

By Jaime Weinman - Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 2:40 PM - 0 Comments

Getty Images; NBC; Photo Illustration by Bradley Reinhardt

Who’s starring in this fall’s TV series? Who cares? The real stars are the “show runners”: head writers who, according to The Shield creator Shawn Ryan, “have final say over the hiring of writers, actors and directors.”

Two new shows with unknown actors, Undercovers and Mike & Molly, have tried to build ratings by publicizing their high-profile writers, J.J. Abrams of Lost and Chuck Lorre of Two and a Half Men. Today, the creator of a show has to be prepared to be its public face: Dan Harmon, creator of the comedy Community (whose second season recently started on Citytv), says he’s not getting stopped in supermarkets yet, but “the group of people who know who I am has gotten larger.”

This kind of fame for writers is unknown in Canada, where TV writers have much less control over shows (which has been suggested as one reason why our TV isn’t as good). But for many years, it was also unknown in the U.S. Shows would become huge hits without anyone but insiders knowing the creators’ names. “I grew up in the ’80s when you thought you were watching the Dukes of Hazzard make the decision to drive around in the car,” Harmon says. “You never knew or cared that anything was written.” The fact that Star Trek fans knew about the show’s creator, Gene Roddenberry, was seen as a sign of how geeky those fans were. But when Lost went off the air, Jimmy Kimmel Live did segments with the show’s co-creators, Damon Lindelof and Carlton Cuse, and the jokes assumed that the audience knew who they were. We’re all geeks now.

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Margaret Trudeau's last breakdown

By Anne Kingston - Friday, October 8, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Peter Bregg/CP/ Reuters/ Photograph by Jane Heller

Margaret Trudeau is sitting in the living room of her Montreal apartment, chatting about the Prime Minister and marijuana. No, the former flower-child chatelaine of 24 Sussex isn’t time-travelling back to her days married to prime minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the ’70s, smoking spliffs under the noses of her Mountie detail. She’s vibrantly in the here and now as conversation veers to the government’s stance on medical marijuana. “I think Mr. Harper has told us we could grow four [plants],” she says. “I’m tempted to grow four.” She’s joking—or seems to be. Trudeau’s pot-smoking days are behind her—mostly.

Now a mental-health advocate, Trudeau is more interested in the role marijuana use played in her bipolar disorder, a condition she made public in 2006. A little grass gave her focus, she says: “some light and joy and delight.” Too much triggered manic episodes. She still indulges—occasionally. “I fall off now and then, but very, very seldom,” she says. “I’m too cautious now.”

“Cautious” was never a word used to describe Margaret Trudeau, who arrived on the national stage in 1971 as the ravishing 22-year-old bride of a debonair 51-year-old PM. Their unlikely union, which produced Justin, Alexandre (known as Sacha) and Michel, ended in 1977 amidst lurid headlines that the PM’s erratic wife had bolted to photograph the Rolling Stones. Margaret filled in the details in Beyond Reason, her 1979 tell-a-lot, which revealed her “long tunnel of darkness” during her marriage and her affair with an unnamed man later identified as senator Edward Kennedy. In 1982, a second memoir, Consequences, detailed dalliances with the likes of Jack Nicholson and Ryan O’Neal as she flitted between continents seeking her own fame.

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Jeanne Beker has that magic something

By Kate Lunau - Wednesday, October 6, 2010 at 10:40 AM - 0 Comments

Reflections of Life Photography/ Jessica Blaine Smith Manley is a spokesperson for Herbal Magic; Beker has a clothing line at the Bay

At the recent 25th anniversary party for Fashion Television, Jeanne Beker was the centre of attention. (The “Jane Goodall of fashion,” as National Post gossip columnist Shinan Govani calls her, has hosted the show since it began.) But instead of talking about FT or Beker’s new clothing line at the Bay, everybody was talking about how thin she looked, and rumours she was on Herbal Magic. Beker later confirmed she’d been using the Canadian weight-loss product, a program that can include meal plans and supplements, and taken off 20 lb. “She was skinnier than some of the models,” gushed Fashion magazine editor Bernadette Mora on Twitter. Beker “certainly looks a lot better than poor Elizabeth Manley,” the product’s official spokesperson, journalist Karen von Hahn wrote on her blog.

Manley, an Olympic medallist in figure skating, has been pitching for Herbal Magic since last year and, after losing almost 30 lb., she looks fit and trim. But who makes a better spokesperson for the company is an open question. Canadians have seen Beker at countless fashion events over the years, but can picture Manley barbecuing in the backyard. On the Herbal Magic site, Manley wears a sweater and jeans; Beker is a high-fashion icon. Even so, von Hahn seemed to suggest that Beker (who isn’t an official Herbal Magic spokesperson) might provide some stiff competition for Manley.

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Will Jennifer Lopez be good for American Idol?

By Jaime Weinman - Tuesday, September 28, 2010 at 12:00 PM - 0 Comments

Everett Collection/ CP/ Eric Thayer/Lucas Jackson/Reuters

When asked what he thinks of Jennifer Lopez replacing him on American Idol, Simon Cowell said, “I got to know her quite well,” damning with faint praise as usual. We’ve all gotten to know Lopez quite well over the past decade, but is that a good or bad thing for the world’s most popular competition show? With the departure of superstar judge Cowell and failed judges Ellen DeGeneres and Kara DioGuardi, Idol has seemingly turned to Lopez as its last best hope: TMZ and other publications reported that Fox is giving her a one-year, $12-million contract to sit and listen to young people who can’t sing. Fans of the show are already skeptical of Lopez’s ability to hold our interest: “I doubt Jennifer will be an entertaining character,” says Dave Della Terza, whose website Votefortheworst.com is dedicated to whipping up votes for bad but entertaining Idol candidates. “I’ve been saying they need a judging panel of Kanye West, Whitney Houston, and Howard Stern.” But there might be one hope for Lopez, and the show: Idol needs someone who can be as hated as Cowell was. And if anyone can generate that level of animosity, she can.

Of course, many people are comparing Lopez not to Cowell, but to the much-missed Paula Abdul. Like Abdul, Lopez started as a dancer (she performed on In Living Color on Idol’s own network, Fox). Also like Abdul, her work in the music business isn’t behind-the-scenes like Cowell, but a series of hit records and videos. And now her career is more or less where Abdul’s was in 2001—not completely gone, but not where it was at her peak of popularity. We’re a long way from the days when Lopez and Ben Affleck were the most famous couple in the world of celebrity gossip, or when she was giving well-regarded performances in movies like Steven Soderbergh’s Out of Sight. Even her fashion choices don’t seem to matter much; it’s not like it was at the 2000 Grammys, when her famously revealing Versace dress made her a role model for women who wanted to be sexy without being skinny.

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Lindsay Lohan tests positive for cocaine

By macleans.ca - Saturday, September 18, 2010 at 11:30 AM - 0 Comments

Despite promises to friends that she’s “getting her life together,” 24-year-old actress Lindsay Lohan failed a court-mandated drug test last week. Sources close to the actress told TMZ that she tested positive for cocaine. “Regrettably, I did in fact fail my most recent drug test and if I am asked, I am prepared to appear before judge Fox next week as a result,” Lohan tweeted late Friday night. “Substance abuse is a disease, which unfortunately doesn’t go away over night. I am working hard to overcome it and am taking positive steps forward every day. I am testing every single day and doing what I must do to prevent any mishaps in the future. ”

MTV

TMZ

Mel Gibson's failed disguise

By macleans.ca - Thursday, September 16, 2010 at 1:41 PM - 0 Comments

On a recent outing, Mel Gibson attempted to hide behind a disguise—baseball cap, glasses, and fake moustache and nose—but he couldn’t fool the paparazzi. Instead, the actor (who is currently embroiled in a custody battle with ex Oksana Grigorieva) drew attention for his poor costume, and after a tantrum, removed his cover and fled.

Daily Mail

Michael Douglas reveals his throat cancer has spread

By macleans.ca - Wednesday, September 1, 2010 at 5:11 PM - 0 Comments

In a TV interview with David Letterman, Oscar-winner Michael Douglas revealed that his throat cancer has spread beyond its original tumour and that his illness is more advanced than was first feared. He also said his throat had been bothering him for several months before the cancer was diagnosed following his summer vacation. “It’s a stage four [cancer], which is intense,” Douglas said. “You want to be at stage one.” Stage four refers to cancers that have metastasised and can be fatal. The 65-year-old actor also said that his illness was probably caused by a lifetime of drinking and smoking. He is currently undergoing chemotherapy and said his odds of survival are around 80 per cent.

Guardian

Angelina Jolie: a biographer’s nightmare

By Kate Fillion - Wednesday, August 11, 2010 at 9:00 AM - 0 Comments

Bob Scott/Fotos International/ Mark Boster/Los Angeles Times/Contour/ Getty Images/ AP

Angelina Jolie would seem to be a biographer’s nightmare. What else could there possibly be to say about the actress who has, in the tabloid press, played man-eating Veronica to Jennifer Aniston’s jilted Betty for the better part of a decade? To make matters even more daunting for an author looking to tell all, Jolie, apparently, already has.

Over the years, she’s regaled reporters with tales of her drug use, love of knives, sexual exploits with men and women—and even the story of how, feeling suicidal, she hired a hit man who subsequently backed out, counselling her to wait a month or two and see if she still required his services.

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Can Mel Gibson’s career bounce back?

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Monday, August 9, 2010 at 11:06 AM - 0 Comments

David Gray/Reuters

A decade ago, Mel Gibson was a chauvinist pig. The type of man who used and abused women, caring little for their thoughts, feelings or affections. Then, he accidently dropped a hair dryer in a bathtub and instead of meeting a shocking end, was magically transformed, imbued with the power to read the female mind. “Finally . . . a man who’s listening,” went the slightly witty tag line from the 2000 film What Women Want. Gibson’s character, Nick Marshall, followed a predictable arc, at first using his great gift for advantage in affairs of the heart and business. But by the romantic comedy’s end, he had learned valuable lessons about respect and love, fairly swooning when co-star Helen Hunt agreed to save him from himself.

Released just before Christmas, when audiences are often in a giving mood, the fluffy fantasy went on to gross US$183 million in the United States, and a further $191 million worldwide. It still ranks as the number two all-time earner in the date-movie genre, trailing only My Big Fat Greek Wedding. And until recently at least, you could often find it playing late at night on cable’s upper tier—an artifact of an era when dinosaurs roamed the Earth, and Mel Gibson was Hollywood’s most bankable star.

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Justin Bieber on Oprah, Kobe Bryant and his own fame

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Wednesday, July 21, 2010 at 3:00 PM - 0 Comments

Dana Romanoff/GETTY IMAGES/ KC Armstrong/ Lucas Jackson/Reuters

The sign on the door says “Mozart,” but it’s a safe bet that Wolfgang Amadeus never had a dressing room equipped with leather recliners, a super-sized flat-screen TV and an Xbox console. Nor, presumably, did his tour rider call for loaves of Wonder Bread, Cool Ranch Doritos, Fruit Roll-Ups and candy Swedish Fish.

Still, something is missing. Justin Bieber’s mom, Pattie Mallette, looks at the choice of Pop Tarts—strawberry and apple strudel—and clucks, “Where are the grape ones?” before scurrying off down the hall. The day has enough complications already. Pop’s reigning prodigy is suffering greatly from Denver’s thin mountain air. Dizzy with a splitting headache, the Stratford, Ont., teen has been snarling at anyone brave enough to enter his darkened tour bus, pull back the Spider-Man bedsheets, and try to wake him for a scheduled 2:30 p.m. interview.

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Another vitriolic Mel Gibson tape leaked

By macleans.ca - Tuesday, July 13, 2010 at 1:02 PM - 0 Comments

RadarOnline.com, a celebrity news site, has released another audio clip that reveals Mel Gibson arguing with his ex girlfriend and child’s mother, Oksana Grigorieva. In the recording, he calls her a “wetback” and then launches into a stream of profanities. The latest audio file, follows weeks of back and forth between Grigorieva and Gibson. It caught the media’s attention when Grigorieva filed a restraining order against Gibson on June 21. The latest tape was recorded by Grigorieva who says that she recorded it, and the earlier July 9 tape, when she was scared for her life. She later turned them over to use as evidence for Gibson’s criminal domestic violence investigation.

Radar Online

Mel Gibson calls Latinos 'wetbacks'

By macleans.ca - Thursday, July 8, 2010 at 5:39 PM - 0 Comments

Apparently Mel Gibson doesn’t like anybody. Radar Online, which broke the story of his racially-charged comments, has now posted a follow-up story with another excerpt from the tapes of his former girlfriend Oksana
Grigorieva. This story claims that one of the tapes has Gibson saying that he will report a worker “to the f-ing people that take f-ing money from the wetbacks.”

Radar Online

Drake: more than famous

By Jonathon Gatehouse - Monday, June 21, 2010 at 8:24 AM - 10 Comments

Alex Hoerner/Icon International

The trappings of fame aren’t that hard to get used to. Aubrey Drake Graham was driving a leased Rolls-Royce around Toronto even before he signed one of the richest first-record contracts in music history. For more than two years now, he’s been hanging out with sports icons like LeBron James, partying with Jay-Z, Kanye West and other rap royalty, and making the gossip rags for his “romances” with Hollywood starlets (rumoured) and pop divas like Rihanna (confirmed).

There’s been a No. 1 single, a couple of nominations and an on-stage performance at the 2009 Grammys, and the inevitable deal to shill for a soft drink. It’s a heady life, but to hear the 23-year-old tell it, it’s only now that he’s realizing what it means to be a global celebrity.

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Soccer's significant others

By James Doyle - Monday, June 7, 2010 at 11:40 AM - 0 Comments

When it comes to soccer, the athletes aren’t the only ones earning fame and fortune. Increasingly, it’s the athletes’ wives and girlfriends who are stealing the spotlight from their famous beaus.
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