This past week Nine Inch Nails played their final French concert ever to close out Le Festival de Nîmes in Nîmes, France in front of a sold out house as part of their Wave Goodbye Tour. NIN have only a handful of dates left in the Eastern part of the world to play before they return to the US to play their final shows in NYC, Chicago and LA at the end of August/early September. Here are a few pics of NIN doing their thang in France earlier this week:

I cannot EVEN tell you how seeing these photos have me all excited for the NIN shows to come at the end of this month. I’ll be at the 4 NYC shows and the 4 LA shows. While I’m very bummed that these will be the last NIN shows ever, I’m so very much looking forward to seeing the band in action 8 more times!!! Nine Inch Nails plays the Sonisphere Festival in Knebworth, England tomorrow night and then they head off to do shows in the Philippines, Japan, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea. Time is running out to see NIN live … but as much as I’m dreading the end of Live NIN Road, I am very much looking forward to their return home in a few weeks.

[Photo credit: Splash News]

Hold the phone, y’all!! Could it be that the reason that former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin decided to quit her job and step down as governor before she even completed one full term in office is because she and hubby Todd Palin are getting divorced?! A new report going around today claims that the couple are headed for splitsville and that there have been extramarital affairs on both sides! Honestly, it makes sense that Palin would want to resign her governorship before announcing to the world that she is divorcing the former “First Dude” of Alaska. Could it really be? Could the Palins really be dunzo?!

AlaskaReport has learned this morning that Todd Palin and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin are to divorce. Multiple sources in Wasilla and Anchorage have confirmed the news. A National Enquirer story exposing previous affairs on both sides led to a deterioration of their marriage and the stress from that led to Palin’s resignation as governor of Alaska. The Palins were noticeably not speaking to each other at last Sunday’s resignation speech in Fairbanks. Sarah ditched Todd right after the speech and left without him. Sarah removed her wedding ring a couple of weeks ago. Sarah has recently purchased land in Montana and is considering moving the family there. Sarah Palin is originally from Idaho. Todd Palin told Fox News last week that he was heading back to his job in the oil fields of Alaska, yet Sarah recently signed a book deal reportedly worth $11 million. Breaking story, we’ll post more when we get it….

Editor’s note: AlaskaReport was the first website to report that Sarah Palin was running for governor of Alaska and the first website to report that Sarah was picked as John McCain’s VP candidate.

Click HERE to read the MSNBC report on how Sarah ditched Todd after her speech last weekend. Wowzers!! It’s amazing how those who purport to be in the “moral majority” are the ones with the most “immoral” sins hiding in the closet. First it was unplanned teenage pregnancy and now divorce … I mean, these sins alone make the Palins sound like human beings and not the flawless bastions of Christian perfection they like to claim they are. At this point, I’m not sure if I totally believe this divorce report but, really, would it be all that shocking if it turns out to be true?

UPDATE: A spokesperson for Sarah Palin has posted an official statement on her official Facebook page to deny this report of the Palin divorce:

Yet again, some so-called journalists have decided to make up a story. There is no truth to the recent “story” (and story is the correct term for this type of fiction) that the Palins are divorcing. The Palins remain married, committed to each other and their family, and have not purchased land in Montana (last week it was reported to be Long Island). Less than one week ago, Governor Palin asked the media to “quit making things up.” We appreciate that the more professional journalists decided to question this story before repeating it.

HMMM … I dunno … where there’s smoke, there’s usually fire … especially when it comes to politicians. I’m very curious to see where these allegations go from here. I bet it would make for a great BOOK deal ;)

[Source, Source]

Yesterday afternoon, David and I caught a matinee showing of the new horror film The Collector at the Beverly Center. The movie was written by the guys who wrote SAW IV, V and VI … but we went to see it anyways. Not only did former Nine Inch Nails drummer Jerome Dillon do the music for the film, it looked like a fun gory SAW-type movie worth seeing:

The film is pretty much what you’d expect from the SAW writers. It’s pretty gross, full of suspense and inventive ways to maim and kill people. If you like the SAW films, you’ll like this one too. From the way it ended, it’s bound to be it’s own franchise. I have to give the film high marks for the fun use of the Bauhaus song Bella Lugosi’s Dead … and for the inventive use of bear traps. To be honest, I’m surprised there haven’t been any other SAW-like films in recent years … but, I guess since Horror Porn has kinda gone out of style, it makes sense.

I was supposed to go over to Darion’s place last night for game night but I really wasn’t feeling very well. I ended up staying home to read. I mentioned previously that I was going to read the unauthorized sequel to The Catcher in the Rye titled 60 Years Later: Coming through the Rye by a Swedish author called J.D. California. Unfortch, the book is kinda unreadable. The plot line of this new “sequel” tracks Holden Caufield‘s adventures as he escapes from a nursing home. Yeah, no thanks. Instead, I started re-reading Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone for the first time since 1999:

I’m really anxious to re-read the entire Harry Potter series again so … you gotta start at the beginning. I’m already a few chapters in (Harry done already bought all his school supplies at Diagon Alley) and I just marvel at how much of an amazing writer J.K. Rowling is. She’s really talented … I hope she writes more tales in her future.

I was supposed to go to the cemetery screening of Some Like It Hot at the Hollywood Forever cemetery here in Hollywood tonight but I’m still not feeling too hot. I may just do something low key with friends … or not leave the house at all. Blah. I hate feeling sick in the Summer :(

• Marky Mark Wahlberg is reportedly gettin’ hitched this weekend.
• Chris Brown pulls a Rihanna and tries his hand at tattooing.
• Kanye West is NOT the King of Pop.
• College student Joel Tenenbaum gets fined $675,000 for illegally downloading 30 songs.
• Dave Grohl of Foo Fighters gets his own street.
• Nudity in The Twilight Saga: New Moon?
• HBO renews True Blood, Hung and Entourage for more seasons.
• Ashley Parker Angel (O-Town) is 28, Tempestt Bledsoe (The Cosby Show) is 36, Coolio is 46 and Chuck D of Public Enemy is 49 years old today. Click HERE to see who else is celebrating a birthday today.
• Are you ready for Eating Out 3: All You Can Eat?

Here is this week’s batch of photos sent in by Pink is the new Blog readers — Amber sends in an adorable photo of little Connor enjoying some corn on the cob at a church festival — BFFs Ross and Carrie from Houston, TX send in a cute pic from a costume party they attended last Spring — Tin Yuen spent some time traveling in Shanghai, China for two months recently and sends in fun with with a bunch her travel mates — JeniLee sends in a cute pic that she snapped after she met Sophia Bush — Tiam and Sierra send in pics they snapped with Tori Amos at a Meet & Greet at her Grand Prairie, TX show last week:

What a great bunch of photos, y’all!! Thank you so much for sending them in! But please, keep ‘em coming!! I really do enjoy seeing these photos as they make their way to my inbox week after week. All y’all are just so damn cute ;) xoxox

In a new interview with the tabloid news show The Insider, crappy designer Christian Audigier reveals some of the costumes he co-designed with the late Michael Jackson which he was supposed to wear on stage during his comeback This Is It Tour. Additionally, Audigier reveals some of the concert merchandise t-shirts that he claims he designed for sale at the shows. Here are a few screencaps from this new interview:

Not only are Audigier‘s designs truly fugly but “his design” of the Beat It jacket t-shirt is a straight RIP OFF of a t-shirt that was created and is already available for sale at Threadless.com. Funny enough, I own this t-shirt and I was WEARING it yesterday when I first saw this interview (I’m still wearing it now because I slept in it — it is the EXACT same design as the one that Audigier claims he created):

Christian Audigier is a hack and a thief. Click HERE to see and order your own Michael Jackson Beat It t-shirt right now!! After the jump, check out this Insider interview in full …

Um … ok … so there’s a new art exhibit on display in a San Francisco, CA gallery called Modernism that is titled Hunted and Gathered (July 9 – August 29) which features “anonymous photos” from the private collection of curator Robert Flynn Johnson. Among the photographs on display in this exhibit is a photo of baseball great (who was briefly married to the iconic Marilyn Monroe) Joe DiMaggio in all his glory … or lack thereof. That’s right folks, you can make your way to the Modernism gallery and feast your eyes on a photo of Joltin’ Joe and his private biz … or you can just click below and see it for yourselves right here:

Oh, the creepy media are at it again, opening yet another pop superstar’s private life to public inspection. This time the person exposed is San Francisco’s greatest baseball player. No, not The Freak. And not Barry Bonds, nor Willie Mays. It’s Joe DiMaggio. But it turns out the exposure is in the name of art, not titillation and trashification. A full-frontal nude photograph of Joltin’ Joe hangs in the gallery Modernism (685 Market St., Suite 290, through Aug. 29). The exhibit is “Hunted and Gathered,” anonymous photos from the collection of Robert Flynn Johnson, curator emeritus of the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco. The photo shows DiMaggio in a postgame shower, wearing a happy grin. It’s early in Joe’s career, circa 1940. From the neck down it is Michelangelo’s statue of David. Neck up, it’s Huck Finn with a goofy smile. Asked how he obtained the photo, Johnson joked, “I have friends in low places.” DiMag would be appalled. He was a private and guarded fellow with a carefully cultivated image of cool sophistication, a hermit prince. This photo is fascinating because it is Joe’s alter ego. “Celebrities have a mask,” Johnson said, “and when you pull out a camera, they put on the mask. Here you see Joe as a kid, with a slightly goofy grin. As he gets older he takes on a more severe, distinguished look. (The photo) is a kid, showing joy, and his guard’s down.” Added Johnson, “It’s a Rorschach test for people’s perceptions. Some will only see a Joe DiMaggio, see only frontal nudity. To others, you or I, this is an athlete in his prime, showing happiness, and it’s as simple as that. … I don’t find it titillating at all, it’s a marvelous photo.” A photo of DiMaggio and Marilyn Monroe on the verge of a kiss sold for $2,250. The nude Joe is not for sale. “It’s too interesting a photo,” Johnson says.

Nor do I find this photo “titillating” … but, I must agree, it’s “too interesting a photo” not to want to share. If any of y’all are interested in checking out the full-size, uncensored NSFW image then check it out after the jump …

As you may recall, on Thursday we learned that Jude Law is going to be the father of his 4th child after he inadvertently got a young actress/model pregs after he enjoyed a fling with her in NYC early this year while he was filming Sherlock Holmes in NYC. On Friday we learned that Jude‘s babymama is a Florida woman named Samantha Burke and, apparently, she had to go thru Jude‘s publicist to inform him of the happy news of their unplanned baby (we learned this, of course, after Burke‘s legal representative reached to to TMZ to ensure that news of her identity was disseminated to the Internets appropriately). Last night, Jude Law greeted his fans in London after he emerged from the West End theater where he is currently starring in a production of Hamlet … and he was lookin’ decidedly more sweaty than usual:

Could it be that news of his new baby is givin’ him the sweats? Could be … after all, the woman he is now saddled with sounds like she was lookin’ to get as close to Jude as possible, being the big fan that she is. If you consider how quickly she jumped on the media bandwagon to ENSURE that everyone learn her identity as Jude‘s babymama … well, I’d say Mr. Law has quite the cause to sweat:

The news that a 24-year-old model and aspiring actress from Florida is seven months pregnant by actor Jude Law came as a bolt out of the blue. Samantha Burke, who is due to give birth in October, will soon be the mother of the British star’s fourth child. She had a brief fling with Jude last Christmas during the filming of the new Guy Ritchie movie, Sherlock Holmes. Her lawyers have confirmed that the 36-year-old actor, who has three children with ex-wife Sadie Frost, is the father of the model’s unborn baby. In a statement, Jude has pledged to ‘fully support’ his new offspring however the actress’s family are said to be horrified, and have instructed their lawyer to prepare an action to ensure mother and baby are looked after financially for the rest of their lives. But the actor is also frightened that intimate photos taken by Miss Burke will leak out. Jude is said to be ‘ashed with anxiety’ over the photos which keen amateur photographer Miss Burke took during their time together in New York. He is worried they will embarrass Sadie and their three children. A source told The Sun: ‘Samantha was totally smitten with Jude and enjoyed photographing him hugely. It was a passionate fling and there was a real animal attraction. ‘He’s been ashen with anxiety, especially because he’s putting his loved ones through more stress.’ … The woman in question fits his usual type. [Samantha Burke] is a young wannabe model and actress … The pair had a short fling when Jude and two of his children were living in New York during the filming of Sherlock Holmes last December. The 24-year-old brunette is due to give birth to a baby girl, whom she plans to name Sophia, on October 6, which coincidentally is also the birthday of Jude’s oldest son Rafferty. There is already a registered gift list at infant retail emporium Babies R Us. Samantha has a profile on their website which says she is planning to decorate the nursery in ‘safari dècor’ with a ‘splash of deep red’ … A source in the U.S. told media that Samantha, who has had to move back home to Pensacola, Florida, struggled to get in touch with her former lover. ‘Samantha was trying to reach Jude to tell him she was having his child, but she couldn’t get hold of him,’ a source said. ‘He had given her a mobile phone number, but it was no longer working and Jude was working on a film. Finally she contacted Jude through his publicist. She had to go through his PR person to inform him she was pregnant with his child.’ But earlier this year, Miss Burke gushed about her pregnancy to a friend on the website Model Mayhem. ‘My tummy is growing!’ she wrote excitedly on the friend’s profile page. ‘October is when I am due, so maybe you’ll get to meet the little girly.’

What a mess … but, you reap what you sow. It’s unfortunate that things like this tend to happen but … they do happen. This is why it’s very important to practice safe sex, y’all. I’m still of the mind that it was the Jude’stache that got Jude in trubs with this girl. You can’t just go around rockin’ a sexy porn’stache and not expect to get into some sort of trouble. My guess is that Ms. Burke will be flaunting this baby bump all over the place. This surely is not the last we’ve heard from her.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin; Source]

Now that the back and forth feud between ex-Twilight actress Rachelle Lefevre and Summit Entertainment has quieted down a bit (at least in public), I guess Bryce Dallas Howard feels comfortable enough to show her face in public. As you may recall, BDH was hired by Summit to take over the role of evil vampire Victoria (formerly portrayed by Lefevre) in The Twilight Saga: Eclipse earlier this week … but she has pretty much stayed out of the public eye since news broke of her casting in the film. But yesterday, Bryce stepped out here in SoCal to show off her vampy red hair perhaps in an effort to show fans that she can make a good Victoria in the upcoming film:

Well, if merely having red hair makes you Victoria then Bryce should have nothing to worry about. BUT, I personally quite liked Lefevre‘s portrayal of Victoria in Twilight and I’m not really a big fan of Bryce Dallas Howard. She failed to impress me in The Village, Lady in the Water, Spider-Man 3 or Terminator: Salvation. I’m sure she’s been in more films but those are the ones I’ve seen and did not particularly care for. Considering some of the other acting performances that were featured in Twilight, I’m sure Howard will do a fine job in comparison but … I can’t say I’m looking forward to seeing her in the film. I guess we’ll see if she’s up to the task … I’m not holding my breath tho.

[Photo credit: Bauer-Griffin]

Birthday Lurve goes out to Music Television today as the once all-music channel celebrates its 28th year in existence. At 12:00 AM on August 1, 1981 MTV was born … and 28 years later, you can barely recognize it as the same cable music channel that revolutionized the world. In June, MTV lost one of its biggest stars — Michael Jackson — and in tribute to his death, MTV is airing a series of MJ tribute shows all day long today as part of its birthday celebration:

Saturday is MTV’s 28th birthday, but Michael Jackson fans are getting the presents. All day long, MTV will be honoring the late King of Pop with special programming. The party starts at noon with the world premiere of Michael Jackson’s Human Nature, a half-hour special featuring candid stories from Michael Jackson’s friends. Next up, a top 10 countdown show of MJ’s most popular videos. Artists like Justin Timberlake and Usher will also share stories of how Jackson influenced their careers. It’s all followed by a special edition of America’s Best Dance Crew, featuring the music of Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Truth be told, I still have much love for MTV and everything about it (I really do, deep down) … but I cannot and will not forget how much more truly EPIC it was back in the 80′s when all it did was air music videos 24 hours a day. Now that YouTube.com has killed the video star, MTV has been putting all of its eggs in the basket of reality TV … which will prolly bear fruit for many years to come. But watching the newest ep of The Real World (arguable the world’s first reality TV show ever) last week and seeing what it has become (a banal piece of garbage where making fun of the practice of cutting was the ep plot point), I’ve really come to mourn the loss of what was once great about the channel. To be honest, I listen to 80′s on 8 on SiriusXM almost daily and hear the original MTV VJs (Nina Blackwood, Mark Goodman, Alan Hunter and Martha Quinn — now DJs again) do their radio shows and kinda pretend that it’s like listening to MTV back in the day (which, I now realize, is kinda sad now that I think about it). In any event, it’s MTV‘s birthday and far be it for me to rain on their parade … still, as a big fan of she network I cannot help but miss those happy, happy days when MTV ruled the world. Sigh.

[Source]