November 20
The Queen of Talk to Step Down
Oprah has announced that after 25 years on the air, she will end her talk show on September 9, 2011. (We know, it’s unthinkable.) The AP reports that Oprah will address her decision on her show today, telling the audience, “Twenty-five years feels right in my bones and feels right in my spirit . . . I certainly never could have imagined the yellow brick road of blessings that would have led me to this moment.” Meantime, other stars have spoken out about the O-MG news: People reports that after hearing the decision from Oprah just before a taping, Ellen DeGenerous told her audience, "I don't think I could be here without her. I think she has blazed a trail ... She is an amazing woman." Martha Stewart was sure to point out that Oprah was not retiring. "She's evolving. She's fabulous." Gayle King, Oprah’s close friend and editor-at-large for O, The Oprah Magazine, said, "We don't need to worry about her filling her time, I promise you that! Life is good for her."
Our Last Sarah Palin Item for the Week
The stylist hired to swank up Palin and her family for the campaign trail last year has come forward to correct a few "misperceptions" about her work. In an interview with the New York Times, Lisa A. Kline (not to be confused with the L.A. boutique owner Lisa Kline, she says) explains how she racked up a bill of $75,000 at Nieman Marcus on the eve of the Republican convention, as well as a fee of nearly $55,000. The details are dishy, including this about Palin herself: Kline "described the candidate as a size 4 or 6 and very attractive, with beautiful skin, if a bit dowdy before the transformation. 'She was very, very sweet,' Ms. Kline said. 'I felt comfortable right away with her. She definitely had an opinion about the clothes, but it was a gentle opinion. If she didn’t like something, it was, "Oh, I don’t think so.’ ’ ”
Tina Fey Bites the Hand That Feeds Her
Not since David Letterman regularly ribbed the "weasels" at NBC has one of the network's stars been so vocal about its shortcomings. At an Ad Council event in New York this week, Page Six reports, 30 Rock star Tina Fey noted its fourth-place status ("ninth place if you count the radio stations ahead of us right now") and wondered whether, if Philly-based Comcast were to buy a controlling interest in the network, they'd have to rename her show "Industrial Park on the Schuylkill River." We're sure the network brass had a good chuckle over that.
J.Lo’s New Single Hits the Web
The actress-singer will be performing her new single, Louboutins, at the American Music Awards on ABC this Sunday, but if you want to get a preview of what you’re in for, the song is available for a listen on Perezhilton.com. We think it's sorta synthy and fun . . . what do you think?
Uma Thurman to Make Twilight Fans Very Jealous
The Kill Bill actress will star alongside teen sensation (and cougar fantasy) Robert Pattinson in an adaptation of Guy de Maupassant's short story Bel Ami, says The Hollywood Reporter. Pattinson will play journalist George Duroy, who went from rags to riches by manipulating and sleeping with some of Paris’s most influential women—one of them played by Thurman. Kristin Scott Thomas also joins the cast as a socialite who becomes infatuated with Duroy.
J.K. Rowling: The People’s Billionaire
Harry Potter scribe J.K. Rowling is being heralded as the face of the British Labour party in a new video, according to the Daily Star. The 44-year-old scribe was evidently selected for her “Brit Grit.” Although Rowling’s recent spot on Forbes’ billionaires list makes us think she doesn’t have much in common with the working class, it’s her pre-fame beginnings that the campaign is trying to evoke: Once upon a time, Rowling was “opening rejection letters from her bedsit in Edinburgh."
“The Gates” Artist Dies
The woman who helped create the billowing orange curtains that mesmerized Central Park strollers in 2005 passed away Wednesday, reports Fox. Jean-Claude, 74, created “The Gates” with her husband and fellow artist Christos. The installation consisted of more than 7,500 gates and is thought to have attracted four million visitors, generating an estimated $254 million. She died in New York from complications with a brain aneurism.
