The weirdness of a very weird world

[Alaskan Rover]

Spinning through the radio dial this early morning, needing to wake up but trying to remain asleep while doing so, I came across a replay of a recent Brad Pitt interview by Terry Gross on NPR...must have been originally aired this past week.

Brad Pitt in my book is a VERY cool dude....the coolest of the cool, really. Our generation's Cary Grant, maybe.

So he and Terry are droning on in the background of my still sleepy mind....photos...yada yada...People Magazine...yada yada...Angelina Jolie...yada yada...

And then I hear: "So People Magazine paid you 4.1 million dollars for first photos of Angelina and your new daughter?" "Yes."

I literally SNAPPED awake. BAMMM.

$4.1 million for first pix of a celebrity baby???????????

My God. And that turns out to pretty close to the going rate now for celebrity 'first photos" paid to paparazzi. The magazine paid Brad Pitt the same 'bounty' for those pix that they would have paid a paparazzi photographer.

Now Brad Pitt, being the cool dude that he is...donated 100% of that money to a good charity...but still, it seems like accepting such absurd amounts for a set of photos just reinforces that craziness.

But what kind of a wierd, crazy world are we living in when some celebrity mag shells out $4.1 million for a set of baby photos and it is the "going rate".

It's a weird weird world, and it's getting weirder by the day.

I'm going out for a morning walk in the woods and try to cleanse my ears and mind of the utter weirdness of the entertainment world....as I'm awake now.

[carvedog]

first world problems dude. if you let celebrity bs knock you off your center must not have been much there to begin with. just saying.

[Downbound Train]

first world problems dude. if you let celebrity bs knock you off your center must not have been much there to begin with. just saying.

AK's a notorious drama queen. It is nuts though. Who buys that shit? Who cares. I can not believe there's a market that big. I can not think of something I care less about than a celebs baby pictures.

Hey, I was channel surfing last night and ran into "20 Most Shocking". Chads Gap "I BROKE MY ANKLES!!!" No names used though.

[Mott the Hoople]

Sounds like you've had quite a day. Better lie down for awhile.

[spook]

nobody with half a brain who has watched any cary grant would ever suggest brad "watch me chew" pitt is anything remotely comparable.

[iceman]

Besides, everybody knows George Clooney is this generation's Cary Grant. Clooney has a spread in this week's Parade, I wonder how much he got for that.

[Chainsaw_Willie]

Besides, everybody knows George Clooney is this generation's Cary Grant. Clooney has a spread in this week's Parade, I wonder how much he got for that.

Really? Hey, I'm not going to compare either to CG, but IMO Pitt is a much better actor than Clooney.

[spook]

Besides, everybody knows George Clooney is this generation's Cary Grant. Clooney has a spread in this week's Parade, I wonder how much he got for that.

funny. i had you pegged as more of a patrick swayze type.

[iceman]

Really? Hey, I'm not going to compare either to CG, but IMO Pitt is a much better actor than Clooney.

Cary Grant wasn't a very good actor either, he just played Cary Grant in everything he did. Spook, I thought you were going for the Val Kilmer card. I never really saw much with Swayze in it, I guess he seemed like an okay guy but not particularly smooth like Grant and to a lesser extent Clooney. I trust you weren't going for some obscure cancer reference.

[Benny Profane]

Really? Hey, I'm not going to compare either to CG, but IMO Pitt is a much better actor than Clooney.

Yeah, but Cary Grant wasn't really a great actor. He was a very quick witted comedian out of burlesque who made his name in film in very fast edited manic movies. Think North by Northwest and early stuff with Hepburn.

btw, it's a tossup who's cooler. The fact that Cary Grant looked like he did the day he died and did acid while fucking Dyan Cannon, 33 years his junior, is pretty admirable stuff. I'll bet Anjolie is starting to crack around the edges in Brad's eyes. And she sucks at acting.

btw2, People magazine is THE cash cow of Time Inc., a company I worked for for a long time. The justification for that money is complex, distributed out over deals involving 7 magazines in high circulation. It works, believe it or not. What that magazine needs, more than anything, is another Princess Diane. Now, that, was a cash cow.

[splat]

AK's a notorious drama queen. It is nuts though. Who buys that shit? Who cares. I can not believe there's a market that big. I can not think of something I care less about than a celebs baby pictures.

Hey, I was channel surfing last night and ran into "20 Most Shocking". Chads Gap "I BROKE MY ANKLES!!!" No names used though.

Oh, c'mon.....you gotta admit that the GOP has all these dirt poor Bubbas believing that the taxes on billionaires might impact them cause they just might hit the lottery or start a multinational corporation. Ordinary people love to identify themselves with the rich and famous. No matter how delusional it is.

[BeanDip4All]

George Clooney is way WAY more do-able than Brad Pitt, imho....

but maybe we should have some analysis:







yah... still going with george!

[Jer]

AKRove - give it up already.


Cary Grant was rad. I couldn't care less if he wasn't the greatest actor - he was the greatest Cary Grant.

Clooney is way hotter in every way to Brad Pitt. I never could see what anybody sees in either Pitt or Angelina Jolie.

[tetzen]

Gayer than a bag full of dicks.

[spook]

Cary Grant wasn't a very good actor either, he just played Cary Grant in everything he did. Spook, I thought you were going for the Val Kilmer card. I never really saw much with Swayze in it, I guess he seemed like an okay guy but not particularly smooth like Grant and to a lesser extent Clooney. I trust you weren't going for some obscure cancer reference.

i appreciate the benefit of the doubt. cary grant could be stiff, but he's still way out of their league. swayze was intolerable and i never understood why he got as famous as he did. except for the bizarre dirty dancing cult.

[Alaskan Rover]

AKRove - give it up already.


Cary Grant was rad. I couldn't care less if he wasn't the greatest actor - he was the greatest Cary Grant.

Clooney is way hotter in every way to Brad Pitt. I never could see what anybody sees in either Pitt or Angelina Jolie.

Aggghhh AAGGHH...I wouldn't use the term "hot" nor "do-able" to describe any of them. If I were a broad, perhaps. If were a broad abroad, then definitely...unless I were a broad-ass broad abroad, then it wouldn't even be a consideration. But I'm not a broad broad, nor even an un-broad (skinny-ass) broad nor am I abroad presently, except in very broad terms, so then "no" on all accounts. I don't swing that way. I would find it hard to be attracted to someone with a sandpaper beard and no bosoms. Now, if she had bosoms, then perhaps I could forgive a little facial hair....no wait....no....absolutely not...no whiskers on my broad. Bosoms though, yes...that would be nice...no bosoms on the face though...hmmmm.....nahh. Bosoms as part of the facial anatomy would be very strange. I wonder how much People Magazine would pay for THAT picture....I guess that would be more like a Weekly World News thing though.

But in terms of babe-magnet 'coolness' that a regular guy can look up to but probably have a hard time emulating, Clooney is not even CLOSE to Pitt. Pitt still attracts the babes now...Clooney attracts the cougars.

[iceman]

Well the one chick in the thread disagrees with you.

[Jer]

I don't swing that way.

Neither do I but Clooney, Daniel Craig, Cary Grant, AC 360 - all are damn good lookin' fellas.

[My Pet Powder Goat]

Neither do I but Clooney, Daniel Craig, Cary Grant, AC 360 - all are damn good lookin' fellas.

IQ: 140
Kinsey scale: 5

[MagnificentUnicorn]

Brad Pitt peaked in Kalifornia, it's been all downhill since. George Clooney isn't his generation's Cary Grant, he's more like Clark Gable.

[Dexter Rutecki]

[carvedog]

Gayer than a bag full of dicks.

yes, yes he is.

i appreciate the benefit of the doubt. cary grant could be stiff, but he's still way out of their league. swayze was intolerable and i never understood why he got as famous as he did. except for the bizarre dirty dancing cult.

durrr.....'Red Dawn' mean anything to you? Now that was a man's movie. The girls had machine guns and got shot too. 'Point Break'? Bodi and Utah, it just doesn't get any better than that. Unless you want real acting.

Aggghhh AAGGHH...I wouldn't use the term "hot" nor "do-able" to describe any of them. If I were a broad, perhaps................

You mean you are not?

[Mustonen]

Aggghhh AAGGHH...I wouldn't use the term "hot" nor "do-able" to describe any of them. If I were a broad, perhaps. If were a broad abroad, then definitely...unless I were a broad-ass broad abroad, then it wouldn't even be a consideration. But I'm not a broad broad, nor even an un-broad (skinny-ass) broad nor am I abroad presently, except in very broad terms, so then "no" on all accounts. I don't swing that way. I would find it hard to be attracted to someone with a sandpaper beard and no bosoms. Now, if she had bosoms, then perhaps I could forgive a little facial hair....no wait....no....absolutely not...no whiskers on my broad. Bosoms though, yes...that would be nice...no bosoms on the face though...hmmmm.....nahh. Bosoms as part of the facial anatomy would be very strange. I wonder how much People Magazine would pay for THAT picture....I guess that would be more like a Weekly World News thing though.

But in terms of babe-magnet 'coolness' that a regular guy can look up to but probably have a hard time emulating, Clooney is not even CLOSE to Pitt. Pitt still attracts the babes now...Clooney attracts the cougars.

Wow, you're really insecure about this whole thing, aren't you?

I always liked Pitt's characters, and always found Clooney's forgettable. Thus, all else being equal I'm more likely to watch a movie with Pitt in it than Clooney. My analysis goes no deeper than that, and I could give a fuck who is the whoever of the whenever.

$4.1M for a baby picture is pretty insane. The money that world tosses around has always been a little incomprehensible to me - I'd like to think that if I came into a fraction of what those guys burn through in a year I'd go live a quiet life in some little mountain town on a lake and nobody but my neighbors would ever see me again.

[toast2266]

Shit, if someone was paying me $4.1 mil per kid, I'd be cranking those things out as fast as possible.

[Tippster]

With the very real exception of "O Brother" I prefer any Brad Pitt movie to any Clooney movie.

And Kalifornia was awesome. "Put your titty up, Adele..."