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A once-popular tradition the holiday TV special is all but lost

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 16:35:26 +0000

LOS ANGELES — Roll over Bing Crosby, and tell Perry Como the news: Christmas variety specials on TV are getting a lump of coal from viewers.

Once a holiday staple – the same week in 1973, easy-listening stars Como and Andy Williams each drew more than 40 percent of the TV audience with their respective Christmas shows – the format has lately proved about as popular as sour eggnog. That’s true even when a huge star is on the marquee. ABC’s “A Very Gaga Thanksgiving,” a vehicle for pop diva Lady Gaga, last month produced very un-Gaga-like ratings. NBC’s “Michael Buble Christmas,” starring the popular retro crooner, spread cheer to just 7.1 million viewers – and was beaten by a repeat of “NCIS.”

But lackluster ratings aren’t the only factor – celebrities and networks alike seem to be taking a holiday from the genre, although one TV executive says that may soon change. The season’s schedules nowadays are more likely to be filled with old animated fare like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” the 1964 stop-motion classic from Rankin/Bass that last month delivered 12.6 million viewers for CBS – making it this year’s No. 1 Christmas special.

So what’s the problem with variety shows? Today’s would-be Bob Hopes have a lot of competition, experts say.

“There was no MTV or Nickelodeon to run to,” television historian Tim Brooks said of the Christmas variety specials’ golden era during the 1960s and 1970s.

The growth of cable television, coupled with the emergence of new musical forms that appeal to ever-narrower niches, has made it nearly impossible to create a one-size-fits-all special.

“Because of this fragmentation we haven’t been able to develop stars with extremely broad appeal who could carry a Christmas special,” Brooks said.

It’s all a long way from 40 years ago, when cozy specials featuring cardigan-wearing hosts sipping hot chocolate and fondling yuletide props became as ubiquitous as “Silent Night.”

An early leader in the category was Crosby, the smooth pop crooner who became synonymous with the holidays due to his recording of “White Christmas,” often cited as the bestselling record of all-time.

Reviewing Crosby’s TV special in 1963, Cecil Smith of the Los Angeles Times wrote: “As Bing’s voice was the voice of America to many of us during the war (Tokyo Rose graciously played Crosby records by the stack) his voice is now the voice of Christmas to me.”

Hope, Crosby’s sometime movie partner who began doing Christmas shows for the U.S. military in 1942, turned them into a perennial event (although because they were taped overseas, NBC would air them in January, well after the holidays were over). In 1980, NBC’s “Bob Hope Christmas Special” drew more than 27 million viewers, according to Nielsen.

The holly-and-ivy market grew so crowded that song-and-dance woman Mitzi Gaynor had to reassure the Times in 1967 that “our show is different – really.” By the late 1970s, even entertainers such as singer John Davidson and magician Doug Henning had Christmas specials. Most were forgotten as quickly as last year’s stocking stuffers, although some bits have survived: An unlikely mash-up with David Bowie from 1977′s “Bing Crosby’s Merrie Olde Christmas” has remained popular, with more than 1 million YouTube hits.

Such holiday fare conformed to the notion of “least objectionable programming” that then held sway at ABC, CBS and NBC, according to Robert J. Thompson, founding director of the Bleier Center for Television and Popular Culture at Syracuse University. The performers tended to be white, middle-of-the-road entertainers, often out of step with the rock and soul revolutions then seizing the music industry. But in a three-channel universe, TV programmers felt constrained to aim as broadly as possible.

“It was during the network era, when you didn’t expect any demographic to really love it,” Thompson said of the Christmas shows. “But every demographic could tolerate it.”

As the old generation faded away, younger pop performers have tried to pick up the garland. In 2003, VH1 aired “A Kid Rock Christmas” – whose host is not typically associated with the holidays. That same year, MTV trotted out a special starring Ozzy Osbourne and his brood at the height of their reality show’s popularity. But lately the specials have slowed to a trickle, with Gaga and Buble virtually alone among stars trying to make a go of it.

Buble’s special had fewer viewers this year than old animated hits such as “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” and “A Charlie Brown Christmas.” Yet NBC nevertheless saw it as a path back to the holiday specials business.

“We saw that as sort of a dipping our toe back in the water, and one that we’re extremely pleased with the result from a ratings point of view and just general critical reception,” said Paul Telegdy, president of alternative and late-night programming for NBC. “Michael is an artist that actually has a surprisingly broad and deep reach.”

That means that even if Christmas specials have waved goodbye for now, a la Frosty the Snowman, they’ll be back someday.

“I think we have the talent contacts and the talent on our own air to pull something like this together,” Telegdy said. “There’s something about the nostalgia.”

Macon Telegraph: TV – Wire

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Dining in a winter wonderland

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 14:35:22 +0000

By GREGORY E. MILLER

If you?ve got a little free time during the holidays, wallow in the festive spirit while you still can by visiting these restaurants with over-the-top holiday decorations. Rolf?s German restaurant in Gramercy is often the go-to place for Christmas lights gone mad, but it?s crazy crowded as well, so check out these spots for an abundance of seasonal joy with tasteful decor and tastier eats.

DINING IN A WINTER WONDERLAND

*Dream Downtown (355 W. 16th St.; 212-229-2559; dreamdowntown.com)

For the holidays, the Dream?s lobby has been transformed. But this wonderland isn?t full of cheesy snowmen. Instead, it?s an enchanted forest filled with magical animals including a giant (formerly live) polar bear.

Marble Lane, the steak joint and bar, provides great views.While you dine, the polar bear keeps watch along with his stuffed winter-weather friends: a caribou, an owl and a white peacock. Faux snow abounds.

?The property?s owner was tired of being underwhelmed and overcharged by designers,? says Michael Lindenbaum, the hotel?s managing director. So for the holidays, the staff took over ? to the delight of visitors who come in from the cold to check out the vignettes.

?We get a lot of offers from guests to buy the polar bear,? laughs Lindenbaum. But if the bear ever leaves the hotel, Lindenbaum gets first dibs. ?I actually want to put it in my house,? he says.

DON?T MISS: The Dream got the 9-foot bear from TaxidermyMuseum.com. The plan was to rent it just for the holiday season, but due to its overwhelming popularity, the hotel is currently deciding on a place to display it year-round.

An adult male polar bear can weigh from 900 to 1,500 pounds alive, but postmortem and preserved, he comes in at 350. And don?t worry ? this polar bear lived a rich, fulfilling life in the Arctic before he died peacefully in his sleep of natural causes.

TREAT YOURSELF: While you stroll through the scenery, sip on Marble Lane?s signature holiday cocktail, the ?Holly & Ivy,? a blend of Belvedere grapefruit, Grand Marnier, POM juice and rosemary syrup, created by beverage director William Ward ($ 14). If all those animals are making you hungry for meat, sit down with the carne asada, a New York strip steak with poblano, cippolini onion and pico de gallo ($ 48).

FELIZ NAVIDAD

*Mamajuana Cafe and Wine Bar (247 Dyckman St.; 212-304-1217; mamajuana-cafe.com)

Mamajuana?s combo of Taino Indian tradition and Old World Spanish vibe gives the place a flair you won?t find at your typical rice-and-beans joint. Outside, owner Susana Osorio spent $ 32,000 to light six trees (with 20,000 bulbs!) on her block and a neighboring one. ?All of the businesses here have appreciated the decorations,? says manager Emmanuel Salazar.

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9/11 drama puts director Stephen Daldry to the test

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 12:35:23 +0000

When British director Stephen Daldry first met his cast for “Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close,” he did not start by asking their thoughts about 9/11, the precipitating event in Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel on which the movie is based. He skipped a presentation about how he planned to depict Asperger’s syndrome, the disorder affecting 11-year-old protagonist Oskar Schell, or how he intended to shoot New York City, as much a character in the film as anyone in the story.

Rather, he asked Tom Hanks, Sandra Bullock and newcomer Thomas Horn to cook lunch.

The request wasn’t a contrivance to find out how much bossing the actors would take from the three-time Oscar nominee behind “Billy Elliot,” “The Hours” and “The Reader.” Daldry wanted to see what kind of family these performers could construct, before the film’s plot would tear them apart.

“We weren’t rehearsing the movie,” Hanks said of their impromptu cooking at the home of screenwriter Eric Roth, “but the relationships in the movie.”

The making and breaking of connections are at the heart of Foer’s novel, which follows an emotionally troubled boy’s quest for the lock that a mysterious key might open after his father dies in the World Trade Center. And for Daldry, his producers, cast and crew, turning the time-shifting tale into a film was a wrenching journey, with professional ties formed and severed, ideas embraced and discarded, as they struggled to bring the narratively and emotionally thorny story to the screen.

Working with producer Scott Rudin and Daldry, Roth revised the film’s screenplay as many as 50 times. Along the way, a subplot involving Oskar’s mother’s budding romance was filmed and discarded after test audiences objected, meaning James Gandolfini’s part was excised entirely. Composer Nico Muhly (who wrote the music for Daldry’s “The Hours”) was replaced so late in the game by Alexandre Desplat that Desplat had only four weeks to compose and record a new score, finishing it just days before the “Extremely Loud” prints needed to be made.

Yet along the path of production, any number of wonders helped carry the movie forward, such as Rudin finding his leading boy on a teen version of “Jeopardy!” and the remarkable associations unearthed by the film’s inclusion of an actual 9/11 victim’s photograph.

“Extremely Loud” will open in theaters on Christmas Day, but the last-minute changes meant that the filmmakers had little time to screen the movie for critics groups, Hollywood award voters and other tastemakers whose endorsements can persuade multiplex-goers to take a risk on a film with such difficult subject matter and an unusual protagonist.

Despite largely favorable reviews, audiences did not particularly flock to the 9/11-themed films “United 93″ by Paul Greengrass or “World Trade Center” by Oliver Stone. And while “Extremely Loud” focuses on the aftermath much more than the terrorist attacks themselves, make no mistake: The movie is psychologically wrenching.

“Love and grief on the most serious day of our lives ? that’s not an easy thing to bottle up,” said Hanks. “It’s like marbles on the floor ? you’re slipping and sliding all the time.”

Daldry and his filmmaking team, though, are convinced that this tale of individual and collective grief is ultimately optimistic and life-affirming, with a hopeful coda tied to a secret message and the reconciliation of an estranged couple ? two elements that are not in the book. And even if the story’s family is ripped apart by the attacks, the film ultimately is focused on its reconciliation.

“The story has to be the child finding a way back to his mother as much as the mother finding a way back to the child,” Daldry said. “He now knows he can live without his father. And he didn’t know that was actually going to be possible.”

Seen from a distance, the film’s six-year path to theaters echoes a sentiment shared by Oskar and his father: “If things were easy to find, they wouldn’t be worth finding.”

Harnessing the novel

Rudin and Daldry were together in London on Sept. 11, 2001, working on “The Hours,” and the experience of sharing the shock and sorrow of the attacks cemented their friendship. Years later, Rudin ? a fan of Foer’s 2003 debut novel, the World War II story “Everything Is Illuminated” ? encountered Foer’s manuscript for “Extremely Loud.” Rudin pictured it as a movie, with Daldry at the helm: “I thought he would understand it,” the producer said.

Rudin enlisted Roth to adapt the story. It was no easy task. The 368-page novel is essentially two separate but eventually intersecting stories.

The primary plot focuses on Oskar. While Foer never tells readers exactly what he suffers from, it’s clear Oskar is on the autistic spectrum ? wearing only white, constantly tapping on a tambourine, his mind racing with strange thoughts and utterances. After his father, Thomas, a jeweler, is killed in the terrorist attacks, Oskar finds in the family home a key in an envelope labeled “Black.” The boy decides, even though he struggles at being intimate with anyone, to locate every adult surnamed Black in New York City to see if he or she knew his father (played by Hanks) or what the key might open.

The novel’s secondary narrative is anchored by the World War II bombing of Dresden, and its silent protagonist ? he communicates by writing in a notebook ? ultimately turns out to have more relevance to the modern-day story than first imagined. The novel includes inventive flourishes, including photographs, illustrations, colored highlights, overwritten typography.

“The hardest thing to do was harness the [second] story,” said Roth, the Oscar-winning writer of “Forrest Gump” and the veteran author of scripts for “The Insider,” “Munich” and “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button.” “The book is like two movies.”

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Michaele Salahi Exposed to Be a Liar, Liar, Pants on Fire

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 10:35:21 +0000

Post by Lindsay Mannering

Everyone loves to hate Michaele and Tareq Salahi. Possibly the most delusional and un-self aware people ever to grace our television screens, the White House crashers certainly kept things entertaining on The Real Housewives of D.C. But even though the cameras stopped rolling long, long ago, these certifiably crazy Salahis are still stirring up the drama.

So we all know that Michaele dumped Tareq in the middle of the night and ran off to be with some short guy from Journey. Clearly, Tareq wasn’t too happy about that. And now he’s speaking up about just how nuts Michaele really is. I mean, we all knew she was a liar and a creep, but now that her soon-to-be ex-husband is spilling about just how little truth there was behind all of Michaele’s stories, things are getting very interesting.

Tareq told the Huffington Post:

Michaele is a well-known and documented liar from ‘The Real Housewives of D.C.’ to our personal life with her other false statements such as being a Redskins cheerleader, Victoria’s Secret model, college graduate, her M.S. … Everything was a lie in our marriage … Michaele lied about her real home [when] filming the ‘Real Housewives.’ Michaele lied … about attending college. Michaele lied to her own friends, family and cast about an eating disorder. Michaele lied to the public about loving our dog Rio. In short, nearly everything told me was an apparent lie.

Obviously, if you were a fan of the show like I was, you came to your own conclusions about Michaele. I, for one, thought she had some sort of schizophrenia because it was clear to me she had no idea what was real and what wasn’t. And the lengths that she went to to facilitate these lies — remember when she went to the Redskins cheerleaders reunion and tried to fake her way through a routine?? — were just astounding.

I always thought that Tareq was pushing her, coaching her through this false life she’d made up for herself, and who knows, maybe he was, but it sounds like he’s fed up with all the lies and is finally ready to tell the truth.

And frankly, I love it. I want her to be exposed if she is indeed a liar, liar, pants on fire. I wouldn’t be surprised to know that she lied about having M.S. To use one of the most over-used phrases ever: Who does that?! Who just lies and lies and lies, especially in the age of the Internet when everyone will know you’re a deceiver and a deluder?

These people are effing out of their minds.

What do you think about Tareq’s statement? Do you think Michaele lied about pretty much everything?

Photo via bravotv.com

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Lil Wayne and Drake hook up with bevy of women for dinner

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 08:35:23 +0000

In celebration of his album Take Care going platinum, Drake had dinner Wednesday night with pal Lil Wayne at Prime 112, joined by a group of friends including some ?very good looking women.? On Thursday, Drake was seen lunching at sister restaurant Prime Italian.

Bachelor Pad contestant Gia Allemand and her beau, Orlando Magic star Ryan Anderson, were spotted Sunday at The Fontainebleau?s Bleau Bar after a day spent poolside at the hotel. The two shared drinks inside for a few hours in the late afternoon, but a snafu with Allemand?s credit card caused them to opt for cash to settle the tab.

Alex Rodriguez requested 10 cases of Vita Coco Pure coconut water this week to stock his personal fridge over the holidays. New tagline for the beverage: Blondes Must Drink More Vita Coco.

In town for his jazz concert Tuesday at the Fillmore, Woody Allen, decked out in a suit, had lunch Tuesday at Zuma with his wife Soon-Yi and cable TV heir Edward Walson. Allen, who once said ?I want my food dead ? not sick, not wounded ? dead,? had miso marinated black cod and artichoke.

NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya teamed up with Oakley on Saturday to inaugurate the opening of the new Oakley store in Pembroke Pines where NASCAR fans were able to meet with and snag Montoya?s autograph.

Rapper Fat Joe was spotted Saturday at STK with, says our spy, ?a pretty female companion,? sharing new chef Aaron Taylor?s surf & turf for two with truffles and sipping pinot noir. The duo was overheard discussing the state of Haiti since the 2010 earthquake. Also seen at the restaurant: rapper Lil Jon.

Miami Heat players have teamed up with FedEx to host the HEAT Holiday Hospital Visit Saturday afternoon at the Holtz Children?s Hospital where they go room to room handing out toys.

Michael Jordan was seen sipping a gin and tonic Wednesday at Segafredo on Lincoln Road with four guy pals.

Young Jeezy was seen Saturday night at Philippe, where he walked in just before closing. The chef stayed after the restaurant closed and made sure he and his huge entourage were well fed.

MiamiHerald.com: People

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Queen Elizabeth Visits Prince Philip in the Hospital

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 06:35:26 +0000

Prince Philip and Queen Elizabeth in May 2011

Oli Scarff/Getty

Queen Elizabeth visited her husband Prince Philip in hospital on Saturday morning as he recovered from emergency surgery.

The Queen, 85, was joined by her children, Prince Andrew, Princess Anne and Prince Edward, for the visit to Papworth hospital in Cambridge, where the 90-year-old Duke was airlifted by helicopter late Friday. He had been suffering from chest pains and was later found to have a blocked artery, which was treated by coronary stenting.

Early Saturday, Buckingham Palace officials issued an update, saying he had had a “good night” following his procedure and that he was in “good spirits.”

After the Queen’s visit, Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, dropped by the hospital. They had driven up from their country home, Highgrove, in Gloucestershire, and are headed to the Queen’s winter retreat of Sandringham House, where the family traditionally gathers for Christmas.

Annual Christmas Address

Poignantly, as the royals gather around the ill duke, the Queen is set to talk about the importance of family in her annual Christmas address to the U.K and Commonwealth.

“Family does not necessarily mean blood relatives but often a description of a community, organization or nation. The Commonwealth is a family of 53 nations, all with a common bond, shared beliefs, mutual values and goals,” she will say in the film that will be broadcast on Sunday morning.

It was recorded on Dec. 9, and will see the Queen look back on a year in which two of her grandchildren ? Prince William and Zara Phillips ? wed; her husband turned 90; and she visited Ireland for the first time. Next year marks her 60th on the throne.

Later on Christmas Eve, the royals are due to exchange their presents ? following a German tradition of doing so the night before Christmas Day.

But the event is undoubtedly going to overshadowed by the fact that the patriarch of the family will be missing.

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Television review: ?Doctor Who? Christmas special

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 04:35:35 +0000

Every year at this time, a terribly old yet terrifically youthful supernatural being drops in from out of the sky. I speak of course of the Doctor, as in “Doctor Who,” whose annual Christmas special premieres Sunday ? Christmas itself! ? on BBC America.

In Great Britain, this event amounts to a national tradition; but for followers here, it is no less of a calendar moment, a candle in winter coming months after the end of the last season and months before the beginning of the next, when the days are actually at their darkest.

I’ve written before of my love for the space-time-traveling Eleventh Doctor, whom current show runner Steven Moffat and actor Matt Smith have created from bits of earlier Doctors and strands of their own DNA ? the Doctor regenerates periodically, I suppose I should say, into the body of a different actor. He is new not out of all recognition but distinct enough from popular predecessor David Tennant’s swashbuckling romantic hero that some still won’t accept him.

But I like his mix of capability and childishness: 900 years old and he’s still making it up as he goes along: “Hold tight and pretend it’s a plan,” he quotably says at one rocky point in Sunday’s adventure.

This is their second Christmas together, Moffat, Smith and the Doctor. Where previous show runner Russell T. Davies, who revived the series after a 16-year hiatus, liked to get epic at year’s end ? “The Voyage of the Damned” was a full-on disaster movie, “The End of Time” was the swan song both for Tennant and for Davies himself ? Moffat keeps things intimate and domestic and dressed for the holiday. Last year’s special used “A Christmas Carol” as a model ? you could tell that from its title, “A Christmas Carol” ? and this year the writer turns toward C.S. Lewis.

Like Lewis’ “The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe,” Moffat’s “The Doctor, the Widow and the Wardrobe” ? something of a giveaway, again ? is set during World War II and concerns children evacuated to a country house, where a “dimensional portal thingy” leads to a wooded world all covered in snow. (And Lewis’ description of heaven as a place that grows larger the further in you go has always reminded me of the Tardis, the Doctor’s bigger-on-the-inside time machine.)

In the spirit of the season, its signal images are of trees and lights, and by Moffat’s usual time-twisting standards, it’s a relatively straightforward narrative, a sci-fi fairy tale catalyzed by a wish and watered with the old magic of human tears. Moffat is all about the old magic.

The episode opens, however, not with a yuletide scene but the first shot of “Star Wars,” followed by a stratospheric free fall out of the James Bond playbook. That the Doctor survives this preamble is the episode’s first bit of impossible whimsy; this Doctor is profoundly a creature of impossible whimsy. “That man’s quite ridiculous,” mother Claire Skinner tells children Holly Earl (tall, inquisitive older sister) and Maurice Cole (brave, bespectacled little brother). “You must stay away from him.”

What else may we reveal without ruining the surprise? There is “a forest in a box in a sitting room,” “naturally occurring” Christmas trees and the familiar Moffat device of a brief meeting completed after a gap of years. Comedians Bill Bailey (“Black Books”) and Arabella Weir (“The Fast Show”) turn up in scenes that summon the spirit of Douglas “Hitchhiker’s Guide” Adams ? this is a particularly funny episode of an often funny series.

But it’s moving too, as the occasion demands. The final moments turn on a question the Doctor has been asked before. I liked the answer.

robert.lloyd@latimes.com

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New NFL TV deals could hurt smaller cable channels

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 02:35:18 +0000

There has been a lot of talk lately about how the rising costs of professional sports — particularly the National Football League — will affect consumers.

After all, if the networks that carry football will all be paying roughly $ 1 billion per season (almost $ 2 billion for ESPN), then those costs will be passed on. The cable and satellite operators will be asked to pay more for those channels. The distributors will then turn to the consumers and expect them to chip in as well.

“There is no question bills will go up,” Adam Chase, a lawyer at the Washington firm Dow Lohnes who specializes in sports media, said in a recent interview.

But other cable networks that don’t carry sports or have huge audiences may also be hurt by the new NFL deals.

In a new report, Morgan Stanley analyst Benjamin Swinburne predicts that cable channels that don’t air sports will see their annual distribution fees decline.

Many wonder whether the rising cost of sports programming will lead sports channels to be in separate packages.

Swinburne doesn’t see that happening.

“To be frank, we see no easy path towards tiering or a la carte, short of a government mandate,” he wrote in a recent report.

The challenge for cable and satellite pay-TV distributors though will be negotiating with companies that own sports and entertainment channels. In New York, Time Warner Cable is locked in a battle with Madison Square Garden Co., which owns two regional sports channels and a music channel called Fuse.

Time Warner Cable wants to sign new deals for the sports channels, but not Fuse. Madison Square Garden wants a new contract that includes Fuse.

RELATED:

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New NFL deals could mean bigger bills for consumers

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– Joe Flint

Photo: Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. Credit: Rick Havner / Associated Press

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Katie Price to be a godmother to Michelle Heaton?s unborn baby

admin — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 00:35:22 +0000

By Emily Sheridan

Last updated at 11:29 AM on 24th December 2011

Katie Price is already mother to three children and hosted Michelle Heaton at her Surrey home for several months.

So its no surprise to hear former Liberty X singer Heaton has asked the model to be godmother to her unborn child.

Celebrity Big Brother star Heaton, 31, popped the question so to speak as her baby shower earlier this week.

Excitement: Michelle Heaton, pictured with a baby shower hostess this week, has asked best friend Katie Price to be godmother to her unborn daughter

With just five weeks to go before her due date, the singer and her husband Hugh Hanley asked Price if she would like the important role in her future daughter’s life.

The excited entrepreneur took to her Twitter page: ‘I’m sooooo happy and over the moon that @wonderwomanshel and @hughhanley have asked me to be a godmother to there (sic) baby. Woo forever friends.’

Heaton and Price have been friends for many years, with the singer being a bridesmaid at the model’s first marriage to Peter Andre.

Honoured: Katie tweeted her excitement at being offered the ‘job’ of godmother

She also introduced Price to second husband Alex Reid at her 30th birthday party.

Heaton hosted her baby shower at her new home this week, which she finally moved into this month.

Over the past six months, Heaton and her fitness trainer husband have been staying at various friends’ houses – including Price’s – while their new home was being set up.

Writing on her Twitter after the bash, she said: ‘@MissKatiePrice @hughhanley love u and thank u for the littles ones presents. Spoilt already. Luv ya x.

Party girl: Price went out for Christmas drinks at the May Fair Hotel after Heaton’s baby shower on Wednesday night

‘Thank u to everyone who made our baby shower so special… @Sianwelby @laurahamiltontv @VenetiaKhosla @David_Flynn @danhinchliffe

‘CRYSTALROX @larasfashion @MissKatiePrice and all my family. Love u all. Xxx And @TaraSinnott and honey for my presents too! Love u x.’

The mother-to-be hired baby shower experts BeforeBaby to help her with the shower.

And with the couple expecting a girl, the theme of the event was predictably pink.

Starting a family: The little girl will be the first child for Heaton and second husband Hugh Hanley

Meanwhile, it appears Heaton is starting to tire of the ill effects of pregnancy and is counting down the days until she meets her child.

She tweeted recently: ‘Before u all yell at me… I know it’s all worth it! But… My back ache, sciatica, and emotions running wild, this is not fun anymore!!’

The couple, who wed in August 2010, announced in July they were expecting their first child together in January 2012.

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Kris Jenner?s Scary Music Video Reveals So Much About the Kardashians (VIDEO)

admin — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 22:35:25 +0000

Post by Maressa Brown

Kris Jenner may think she was fooling us by being an open book in Kris Jenner … and All Things Kardashian, but there’s a lot more going on behind the scenes with reality TV’s kookiest mom-ager. At least, that’s the blatantly obvious conclusion to draw from this bizarre music video from 1985 that’s surfaced on YouTube.

Looks like back when her last name was Kardashian, Kris had then hubby Robert help her make a Rebecca Black-esque video to celebrate her 30th birthday. Set to the tune of Randy Newman’s “I Love L.A.,” Kris sings, “I love my friends!” while walking pantsless on a treadmill. She then has lots of random L.A./Beverly Hills types (including O.J. Simpson) chime in, “She loves you!”

Yes, it is as terrifying as it sounds.

Check it out for yourself (and pay special attention around 3:29 for Kourt, Kim, and Khloe as kiddos!).

See this video on The Stir by CafeMom.

Ahhhhh!!!! Sooooo frightening, soooo awful, right?! I know the ’80s — especially in fancypants areas of Hell-Ay — were a whole different ball game, but seriously, what … the … HELL!

As wacko as it is, I have to say … this video is a HUGE watershed in “all things Kardashian.” It just says so much about this woman. She’s not just a wee bit of a megalomaniac with a taste for fame. Oh, no. It goes well beyond that. When you think about it — and especially after watching this video — you kind of have to admit … she’s a mad genius!

Her appetite for the spotlight was rampant back then, so you can pretty much only imagine how crazed it must have been by the time the girls were old enough to get into show biz.

What’s more, she probably passed this fame-crave gene on to her girls, so they’re just like mama now … except in addition to making cheesy music videos, they also do nonstop reality TV, design leopard-printed clothes, “write” books, get paid to tweet and marry basketball players, etc. Whoo boy! Clearly, the psychology behind the Kardashian Machine is just all kinds of twisted madness. I think this video gives us even more reason to be very, very afraid.

What do you make of this video?

Image via YouTube

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