VictoriaAfterDark

Friday · Music round-up: The Bird and the Bee at the Echoplex; Kinky at the El Rey; Cloud Cult at the Knitting Factory; The Jane Doe”s at the Roxy. · Time for another festival! And if you”re on the east side, this one couldn”t be more convenient, as the Silver Lake Film Festival is screening in venues including the Los Feliz 3 and at the Barnsdall theater. More info here. · Dave “Of MTV Fame” Holmes hosts the Friday 40 at iO West, in which contestants are forced to pound forty-ouncers while being interrogated about the events of the previous week. Binge Drinking + Trivia = Fun + Probable Vomiting! Saturday ·More music: Minus the Bear at the Echoplex; Frog Eyes at Spaceland, Dios (Malos) at RecCenter Studio. · The Egyptian screens The Hawk is Dying, the story of a Florida auto upholsterer”s mid-life crisis. And: the always-awesome Paul Giamatti”s in it, as we”re sure you were waiting for the hook. A discussion follows with the director. Sunday · Bright Eyes plays the Walt Disney Concert Hall. You will be moved. · Gather in a backyard in Brentwood for the Sasster Blaster party (music! an art auction!) to benefit the SASSAS. [via flavorpill]

PrivacyWatch celebrity sightings are submitted by our readers, and are posted several times a week, so send them in often. Submit yours to tips[AT]defamer.com (please put “sighting” or “PrivacyWatch” in the subject line) and tell everyone about how you”re still recovering from catching a glimpse of Courtney Love“s midriff on a Hollywood sidewalk.

In today”s episode: Sean Penn; Mark Wahlberg; Ben Affleck; Ralph Fiennes; James Woods; Jessica Biel; Courtney Love; Randy Johnson; Jessica Simpson and Jewel; Stanley Tucci and Maura Tierney; Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan; Paula Abdul and Tony Schiena; Danny Bonaduce; Scott Speedman; Johnny Knoxville; Jesse Bradford; Paul Mazursky; George Lopez; Monica Lewinsky and Emily Bergl. In San Francisco: Owen Wilson.

· Sean Penn driving East on Santa Monica Blvd. on 5/1 about 6pm by Trader Vics in a grey Audi RS4, looking very tan. Nice ride.

· Friday 7:30ish walking home from early drinks at Ketchup (fun place) was with a friend from out of town and we came around the corner on sherbourne just above sunset on our way up to our street and walked right by Mark Wahlberg sitting in his black Mercedes SUV talking to some guy and signing something. It must have been business because i think he has offices right on the corner………….My friend was thrilled wanted to run up to him and tell him how much she loved his brother lol!!!

· 1:15pm today, saw ben affleck at rock island wraps in old town pasadena. he was alone, reading the paper and desperately needs to shave the scruff. that”s all.

· Thursday, 5/3: Runyon Canyon – Spotted a shirtless Ralph Fiennes trekking up the main road, closer to the top of the park. He was with a tall brunette gal and gleaming with sweat, but had no dog. He”s quite tall. And pale. Which makes sense, since he”s Voldemort. Also spotted Eddie Jemison (Livingston Dell from the Ocean”s Eleven movies)–he seemed very sweet. He was with another guy, who was walking a puggle.

· I just saw Ralph Fiennes in front of the Hermitage BH. He was talking to an industry “type” who was saying: “It”s a great story about . . .” I kept walking on very coolly. But was sort of stoked! He was wearing a floaty shirt right out of the English Patient and khaki pants. He looked pretty cute.

· Tuesday 5/1, 11:15a, Old Town Pasadena: – while walking down Colorado Blvd. saw Celine Dion carrying a ginormous Tiffany”s parcel, headed toward/ chatting to someone who looked like her assistant.

· I just saw James Woods and his teenage girlfriend and their little doggy getting into a grey Jeep Cherokee in front of the Hermitage, BH. People keep telling me he”s hung like a horse. Is that true? Should I stop and ask him next time?

· Enjoying a leisurely Sunday (4/29) afternoon shopping trip at Ritual Adornments (DIY jewelry shop on Main Street in Santa Monica) when I noticed Jessica Biel shopping with her friends too. They were picking out beads and getting something made. She”s shorter than I thought — but aren”t they all. Looked very LA-ish in that I”m a celebrity but look oh.so. Bohemian chic kinda of way — if that makes any sense.

· Sometime last week, Courtney Love taking a purposeful walk down Hollywood Blvd at Ivar. She had on a low-slung cowboy hat, and made an unfortunate decision to bare her newly-tightened midriff (which looked like Jared Leto”s arm in “Requiem For A Dream”). Sports might not count to many people here, but on Tuesday (5/1), couldn”t avoid noticing Diamondbacks pitcher Randy Johnson at Amoeba. He was in the used section and had someone there helping him look for something I overheard was “UK only” that “doesn”t come in often”. Famous hockey hair and dirt “stash were cut pretty tight. 6 foot 10 in person is even more disconcerting than you would expect. Everyone was double-taking at the sheer height.

· Tuesday, 5/1, Dresden Room (again): A group with that certain protected scent of sycophant/privilege walked in all laughs and smiles. I recognized nobody, so didn”t think much about it but then Elayne asked me did I see Jessica Simpson was there? I looked over, but the blonde looked nothing like Jessica–turns out Jess has brown hair now and Jewel was the blonde. It was open mic night and they were both good sports enough to sing. Jewel was great, if a little too pleased with herself, and told the horn section to shut up which made more than a few people happy (except the horns). Jessica did “These Boots Are Made for Walkin”,” kind of. She claimed shyness, said she didn”t want to disrespect Nancy Sinatra and then just sang the chorus while Elayne sang the verses. She gave it the usual Jessica over-the-top talent show star treatment, of which I am a fan. Anyway…I don”t know what they were doing on the East side, as there”s nothing here.

· At the Elvis Costello concert last night (5-2) at the House of Blues I spotted Stanley Tucci and Maura Tierney (”ER”) together. Not sure if they”re friends or a couple, but they were wandering the floor together. She looked good, he looked bald.

· 5-2 Don”t know if it counts when you see celebs “working”, not hanging out with the plebes, but here ya go:

Patrick Dempsey and Michelle Monaghan walking Vermont Blvd in Los Feliz while filming tentatively-titled (according to signs up everywhere warning that you”d be filmed if you walked thru) Made of Honor. Much more exciting than seeing them, however, was the set design turning Vermont/Melbourne into a NYC street corner, steaming manhole cover and all.

· Saw Paula Abdul early this morning at the Burbank airport dropping off her boyfriend, Tony Schiena (Thanks Google) They arrived, with him driving, in a large white Range Rover. She was wearing sweats, sneakers, and a pony tail. He was HOT, if you like the tall, sexy, rugged type. He gave her quite a nice kiss before heading off to the ticket counter. I was also there dropping off my boyfriend and came to 3 conclusions– Paula looks better then I do with no make-up, she has a nicer car, and a better boyfriend–she sucks. Also saw Danny Bonaduce at Starbucks looking like you think he would look.

· (5/1) In the parking lot of the Coffee Bean on Sunset and Fairfax this afternoon I literally almost broke my neck checking out some scruffy guy with aviators. My friend and I walk into the store, moments later the guy walks into the store and takes off his glasses, low and behold it is none other then Scott Speedman (Ben from Felcity, Van Helsing for the boys). And let me tell you, there must be something in the water in Canada, because he was even more gorgeous in person.

· O-M-G just took a swing down to Amoeba records on my lunch break and came face to face with Johnny Knoxville loudly giving another shopper a rundown on the folk music section. I think I was more stunned by the fact that his behavior (abrasive) and appearance (scruffy) exactly matched my expectations of a Knoxville encounter than the fact that I saw him in person. He is pretty hot, though.

· Saw Jesse Bradford at Orso on Monday night (4/30), early dinner…seriously besides him, me and my sister, everyone could have qualified for the early bird special. He looked beyond hot in a white buttondown and was with another guy, not sure what kind of dinner (business? friend? date?)…but don”t want to start any rumors so we”ll just leave it at that.

· Paul Mazursky parading by Frida”s on Beverly Drive yesterday, saw him twice, at least. (5/2)

And George Lopez getting his own coffee at Coffee Bean on Riverside in Toluca Lake (5/3)? Don”t these people have nameless assistants for this kind of thing???

· Wed nite May 2nd. Zipping around Sherman Oaks Fashion Square with a girlfriend. She wanted to go to Firefly (too much attitude for the San Fernando Valley) I opted for a quiet drink & salad at Cafe Marmalade. We hit the place about 8:45. Overheard a waitress chatting w/2 NY”ers about something banal when I heard “on Barbara Walters……..” which piqued my interest. I headed toward the loo when I noticed a nice looking female brunette (we locked eyes for a brief second) sitting with this fat, nebbish looking fellow. Looked like Monica Lewinsky? I stopped our waitress and yes she wasn”t sure either. About 9pm in walks the parents; I immediately recognize Dr. Lewinsky as the oncologist who was written up in a local magazine as he is some sort of part time artist. Same article failed to mention his lovely daughter. As we left Momma Lewinsky (she is very very loud-typical SFV Jew momma) blabbed on about nothing. The next day 8 different friends asked if me ML had on a navy dress……..

· saw EMILY BERGL (yes…i imdb”d it), Annie the cute red-headed girl on Men In Trees, earlier today 5/2. what??! so i”ve watched it a few times. she was standing at the corner of Sunset + Cahuenga, waiting for the light to change. she was alone, looking lost and confused, but she was wearing a really cute hat.

Bay Area Butterscotch Stallion Edition:

· I almost feel guilty writing this in, but I was in SF this weekend, enjoying my Salted Caramel ice cream from Bi Rite Creamery & heading down from Delores Park when the Butterscotch Stallion (Owen Wilson) himself strolled on by, alone & fairly inconspicuous- well as inconspicuous as a Kate Hudson-loving man can be in the Bay Area…OK, I don”t feel all that guilty anymore….

This weekend will be all about Spider-Man 3“s inevitable march to the all-time opening weekend box office record (we”re still waiting for reports about how audiences at the Thursday midnight screenings volunteered to pay triple if that helped beloved Sony get to $140 million), but that”s not going to stop competing studios with their own summer products to overhype from trying to steal some of Spidey”s thunder. As we speak, motorists stalled in traffic on Sunset Boulevard are enjoying the spectacle of witnessing one of the Strip”s most famous buildings wrapped in the largest pulsating, promotional prophylactic ever attempted by mortals:

Sunset Blvd. Transformed HOLLYWOOD, Calif., May 4 /PRNewswire/ — Towering above all of Movieland, Optimus Prime and Megatron are busting out of Hollywood”s most famous tower in a battle between good and evil. With pulsating eyes and glimmering effects, Transformers have taken over the Sunset Strip. Paramount/DreamWorks enlisted the help of SkyTag, the innovators of Tall Wall spectaculars, to produce the world”s largest printed construction wrap enveloping the building at 6290 Sunset Blvd. This mammoth structure is 300 ft high and took over 100,000 sq. ft. of vinyl to complete.

DreamWorks can only hope that this latest act of movie-pimping hubris doesn”t meet with the same fate as their previous skyscraper-bagging effort (pictured above), and that God (a Spider-Man fan, we”re sure) doesn”t once again call forth his righteous winds to strip the graven images of Michael Bay”s blockbuster abomination from the building, covering the cars below in the shredded ambitions of a publicity executive who dreamed a little too big.

[If you happen to be in the area and have a camera, by all means, send us a photo.]

• Sunset Blvd. Transformed [PR Newsire]
• Previously: Billboardtron Blown Away [Defamer]

In the grand tradition of Lindsay Lohan”s Gore-entreating, fully adequite call to arms, and Courtney Love”s 53 New Year”s Resolutions Towards a Less Demon-Plagued Me, comes yet another worthy addition to the canon of incomprehensible celebrity manifestos. This time, the author is Lost casualty and repeat DUI offender Michelle Rodriguez, who responds on her website forum to lesbian magazine Curve for outing her based on “their own suspicions.” Well, despite Kristanna Loken”s unsubtle hints in the past that the two had been shacking up, it”s simply not so, says Rodriguez. We think:

Whatever, I”m not insulted, I have a big lesbian following, and for whatever reasons they show me love I”m never going to shun, disrespect or neglect anybody who shows me genuine non-psychotic Love. […]

If I were Ellen I may get away with: ” The I”m Gay” level of exposure, but I”m not a comedian, I like men; ( real One”s Anyway) and I”ve only bin in this business for 7 years not 20. Years of recognition can give a person lots of leverage especially if you have many years of positive recognition under your belt. There are certain things that can close doors between a celebrity and certain audiences. Especially in a world where walls are constantly being put up by people seeking comfort and groups to belong to. There is so much out there, over-saturation of music, media, Agenda News, war, political drama, high school prom drama, image drama, religion drama, Bully drama. All this drama is caused by one thing, not understanding the true meaning of communication and the real power behind it. It”s tough to learn, I”m working on it myself, but when people come out of nowhere and put words in my mouth or call me Gay, they should really think for one second How they could truly affect my life by doing such things. You don”t know what producer, director, would be husband or future audience member may be influenced by these opinions and media content.

The troubled actress”s stream-of-insanity ramblings at first left us at a complete loss as to her salient point: She”s not a cuddly lesbian talk show host, but if she had bin one, she”d be more comfortable admitting it? After several readings, however, what began to emerge was the familiar concern voiced time and again by prominent gay actors worried openness will lead to typecasting. We”d therefore love to distill her message and pass it on: Michelle Rodriguez likes men, everybody. All kinds of men–from producers to directors, to directors she might consider marrying, to guys watching her movies who want to know they at least have an infinitesimal chance of getting in her pants. We look forward to seeing Rodriguez waving from the back seat of a convertible Cadillac as she grand marshals this year”s Actors Who Conveniently Skirt and/or Flat-Out Deny the Issue in the Name of Advancing One”s Career Pride parade.

• [Michelle-Forum.com via Towleroad]

Here’s some candids of Jessica Alba at the Melbourne, Australia screening of Fantastic Four: The Silver Surfer. The picture above doesn’t look too bad, but take a look at the close up below. That’s some serious camera red-eye; it almost looks like it’s naturally red. It’s not quite the Alba everyone thinks of in their minds. But her cleavage makes up for that.

Hayden Panettiere was thrown a surprise high-school graduation ceremony at the recent Heroes wrap party. Mike Walker of the National Enquirer has the story:

Everybody bawled like babies at the “Heroes” wrap party when cast and crew staged a real-life super-surprise for indestructible cheerleader HAYDEN PANETTIERE – a high school graduation ceremony, complete with cap and gown! The home-schooled 17-year-old, who never had a formal graduation, totally weeped-out when warm-hearted colleagues presented her with her “official” diploma! (Source)

I remember the last time a girl “weeped-out” in front of me. It happened a few weeks ago on the bus after I gave an impromptu Puppetry of the Penis performance. “Oh my god,” she cried, “It looks like a baby’s arm holding an apple!” My mom can be so sensitive sometimes! By the way, my next “show” will be tomorrow on the Number 42 heading downtown. Front-row seats still available. Wear a raincoat.

As far as rumors go of me coming out, I guess curve magazine took it upon themselves to out me on the premise of their own suspicions. Whatever, I'm not insulted, I have a big lesbian following, and for whatever reasons they show me love I'm never going to shun, disrespect or neglect anybody who shows me genuine non-psychotic Love.

 

If I were Ellen I may get away with: ' The I'm Gay' level of exposure, but I'm not a comedian, I like men; ( real One's Anyway) and I've only bin in this business for 7 years not 20. Years of recognition can give a person lots of leverage especially if you have many years of positive recognition under your belt. There are certain things that can close doors between a celebrity and certain audiences. Especially in a world where walls are constantly being put up by people seeking comfort and groups to belong to. There is so much out there, over-saturation of music, media, Agenda News, war, political drama, high school prom drama, image drama, religion drama, Bully drama. All this drama is caused by one thing, not understanding the true meaning of communication and the real power behind it. It's tough to learn, I'm working on it myself, but when people come out of nowhere and put words in my mouth or call me Gay, they should really think for one second How they could truly affect my life by doing such things. You don't know what producer, director, would be husband or future audience member may be influenced by these opinions and media content.

Please join us in passionately embracing this week”s sponsors, who would never leak our drunken, “cry for help” videos to the media to get back at us after our love affair had run its natural course. If you”d like to advertise on Defamer and kick off a sure-to-be torrid affair, see this page.

· American Apparel · Canon · Crunch · Grey Gardens · The Hip Hop Project · Crazy Love from Magnolia Pictures · MIKA · Mini · MSNBC · Nokia · Reyka Vodka · Sprint · Waitress from Fox Searchlight Pictures