Where can you spy Paul McCartney and his late wife Linda making silly faces, a brunette Madonna playing hide-and-seek, and Rob Lowe rocking adorably geeky glasses? At the Hollywood parties, art openings, and clubs of the late-‘80s and early-‘90s, of course! Photographer Stephen Jerome covered the underground social gatherings and lavish soirees Tinseltown had to offer during that era, immortalizing movie stars, musicians, and fashion designers as they drank cocktails and schmoozed with other famous party-goers. Click through the jump to see some of our favorite photos from his collection and visit Jerome’s site for more old-school celebrity party shots. Read More »

There’s always that girl — the one in the songs, the one in the photographs, the one in the memoirs. The one who walks into a room and sets it aglow. She’ll tear up a rock ‘n’ roller’s heart, put it back together, and inspire the hell out of him, leaving her lasting mark on both his discography and biography. Yes, we’re talking muses, but not just any ol’ muses; we’re noting those who graduated from their tumultuous lives as expert inspirers to become successful in their own right. Check out some professors, artists, and cake shop proprietors after the jump.

Read More »

This week saw the release of the music video for “Otis,” Kanye West and Jay-Z’s Otis Redding-sampling single from their new album Watch the Throne, and all their jocular tomfoolery got us to thinking about the other gents we know who have teamed up to bring us great duets, bro-on-bro style. Because after all, no girl will ever love you as well as your homeboy, right? Right. From the wonderfully cheesy to the just plain wonderful, we’ve collected some of our favorite all-man duets in music history here (you can also check out our feature on classic lady-on-lady musical collaborations, if we’ve gotten you in the mood). Click through to take a listen to our picks, and let us know which of your favorites we’ve missed after the jump!

Read More »

1. George Clooney’s The Ides of March, an adaptation of Beau Williams’s play Farragut North, which was inspired by events in Howard Dean’s 2004 Presidential primary campaign, will open the Venice Film Festival on August 31st. The film’s all-star cast features Ryan Gosling, Paul Giamatti, Marisa Tomei, Jeffrey Wright, Max Minghella, and Evan Rachel Wood. [via Slashfilm]

2. Jon Stewart explained to his Daily Show viewers last night that producers at Fox edited his interview with Chris Wallace to make him come across as emotional and erratic. “I suggest you look at the unedited version online where my emotional states don’t seem to change so arbitrarily,” he says. “The arguments are a little clearer and a little less like a scene from woman on the verge of a nervous breakdown.” [via The Daily Beast]

3. Jackass’s Bam Margera has responded to Roger Ebert’s controversial tweets about his co-star Ryan Dunn’s death in a car accident yesterday, writing, “I just lost my best friend, I have been crying hysterical for a full day and piece of sh*t roger ebert has the gall to put in his 2 cents … About a jackass drunk driving and his is one, f*ck you! Millions of people are crying right now, shut your fat f*cking mouth!” [via Vulture]

4. We’re not sure how we feel about this: The final season of Weeds will jump three years into the future, with Nancy Botwin entering into the witness protection program in New York City. Watch a behind-the-scenes preview clip here.

5. NPR is streaming the Buddy Holly tribute album, which features contributions from Paul McCartney, Lou Reed, The Black Keys, Julian Casablancas, Cee Lo Green, and Florence and the Machine, among others. [via Pop Candy]

Bonus link: Check out some “top quality giant robot porn.”

Linda McCartney was the first woman to land the coveted Rolling Stone cover with her portrait of Eric Clapton. Her photographs captured the Beatles kicking it at Brian Epstein’s house, Mick Jagger hanging back with Brian Wilson and everyone from Hendrix to Twiggy, completely unguarded. Over 200,000 photos by accomplished music photographer and Paul McCartney’s late wife were sorted to compile the 288-page Taschen tome Linda McCartney: Life in Photographs. Those photographs are now on view at New York City’s Bonni Benrubi Gallery through the end of July. See a selection of the images here, including personal, revealing shots of the McCartney family.

Read More »

Another week, another bunch of album preview streaming on the internet. If, like us, you were out a little too late last night celebrating the Mavs beating the Heat, then you’ll most likely be in the market for the gentle sounds of the new Bon Iver album (although perhaps not for his Bruce Hornsby moment). There’s also a Deerhunter live album, a killer full-length debut from Com Truise, and new records from Sons and Daughters and Jill Scott to be heard. And a bonus for Beatles fans. Click through to get a piece of the the action.

Read More »

Over at Letters of Note, our very favorite source for vintage celebrity correspondence, we discovered this letter from an extremely disgruntled John Lennon (we especially like his handwritten exclamation points at the end) in response to a letter from Linda McCartney in which, it seems, she had many complaints about his behavior, including that he had not notified anyone that he was leaving The Beatles. This letter is an artifact of a time period of great strife for the band, especially for the Paul and John and their respective wives. The correspondence reflects an ongoing relationship of bitter sniping – obviously what Lennon perceives as Paul and Linda’s passive aggressive failure to recognize Yoko is still a hot button issue, and it’s clear that Lennon is taking the celebrity high road and kind of accusing Paul of being a fame whore, not for the first time. If nothing else, we were struck by reading one man write to the other “Of course, we changed the world” and it being true.  Click through to read the whole letter.

Read More »

When one of our favorite book blogs, the Millions, tipped us off to this great photo gallery of writers with their dogs, we thought about all the famous furry companions in other disciplines and realized how many of our favorite musicians have secret odes to their dogs. Okay, okay, so the whole story about “Mandy” being Barry Manilow’s dog is an urban legend, but we’re of the opinion that every hardworking musician needs a furry bellwarmer for the cold nights.  Plus, we all know that the internet is mostly for looking at cute pictures of animals, so how could we resist? Click through to see ten musicians with their best furry friends.

Read More »

1. Evidently craving some controversy, last night Kanye West tweeted the following: “an abortion can cost a ballin’ nigga up to 50gs maybe a 100. Gold diggin’ bitches be getting pregnant on purpose. #STRAPUP my niggas!… It ain’t happen to me but I know people.” [via Vulture]

2. Earlier today a British court ordered Wikileaks founder Julian Assange to be extradited to Sweden to face accusations of sexual abuse; his lawyers have seven days to appeal the ruling. [via NYT]

3. The dowdy old Oscar envelope is getting a much-needed makeover courtesy of Marc Friedland: “Taking cues from old Hollywood, it’s done up like a gilded picture frame, which features the award category in sleek charcoal ink. Images of the Oscar statuette in satin gold leaf adorn a red-lacquered lining. As for the winner’s name: It’ll appear on a heavyweight ecru card decorated with even more gold… then mounted on a red lacquer frame. The whole thing will be sealed with a ribbon featuring PwC’s logo.” [via Gawker]

4. In honor of his one-year anniversary on Twitter, Conan O’Brien is holding a contest to rewrite his bio on the site. The winner will receive an original painting of the Conan Pale Whale painted by Twitter fail whale artist Yiying Lu. [via Geek Sugar]

5. Paul McCartney has collaborated with the New York City Ballet to compose the score for their new production Ocean’s Kingdom, which is set to debut in September. [via NME]

Bonus link: The 50 Greatest Opening Title Sequences of All Time

1. In response to Sports Illustrated’s annual swimsuit issue, Tyler Green of Modern Art Notes has decided to compile his own swimsuit publication. We don’t know about you, but we think that Picasso looks kind of airbrushed… [via Kottke]

2. For some reason Rush Limbaugh spent part of yesterday’s show implying that Michelle Obama is fat — or at least eats to much fatty food: “The problem is — and dare I say this — it doesn’t look like Michelle Obama follows her own nutritionary, dietary advice. And then we hear that she’s out eating ribs at 1,500 calories a serving with 141 grams of fat per serving, yeah it does — what do you mean, what do I mean?” [via Gawker]

3. Is Radiohead planning to release a companion album to The King of Limbs in the not-so-distant future? More importantly, how many of us would really care at this point? [via NME]

4. Last week, Detroit’s RoboCop statue reached its goal of $50,000 in fully crowd-sourced funding thanks to Kickstarter. Now io9 gives you a first look at what it could look like.

5. Paramount has decided to release a 40-minute longer Director’s Fan Cut of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never for an exclusive one-week run beginning this Friday, February 25, only in 3D. Slashfilm explains why even non-fans should care.

Bonus link: Sir Paul McCartney dancing at a Lady Gaga concert