Now this is what we call dedication to the craft: “To back his upcoming interview antics in Bruno, Sacha Baron Cohen created 30 or more fake companies, complete with detailed artificial websites, several of which have just vanished from the Internet.” According to MTV Movies Blog, four of the faux film production companies have been deleted, but no matter — Bruno was such a sweeping success when that teaser screened at SXSW that an intense viral marketing campaign could prove totally unnecessary.
Can the man who brought us Rush Hour save publishing? Defamer would vote no: “[Brett] Ratner’s launched a new book imprint, Rat Press. It seems to be transferring Ratner’s reputation for cutting originality from cinema to publishing.” Ouch. As Ratner told the LA Times , his intentions are nothing but name dropping noble. “If I wasn’t a publisher, I’d still be handing out copies to my friends anyway. I gave a copy of the Toback book to the Hughes brothers, because they’re really interested in Jim Brown. I’ve given copies of the Brando book to Warren Beatty and Jeff Berg. To me, these are stories from some of the great characters who helped me understand the movie business. The whole idea is to have a series of books that makes a part of Hollywood history available to everyone.”
Maybe he’d be interested in publishing this book on cheese: The New York Times reports that a book called “The 2009-2014 World Outlook for 60-Milligram Containers of Fromage Frais” has won Bookseller magazine’s Bookseller/Diagram Prize for Oddest Book Title of the Year. While we love cheese, we were secretly rooting for another title on the shortlist — “Strip and Knit With Style.”
Artist paints herself having sex with presidents: Yes, you read that correctly. Per our friends at Boing Boing, “Artist Justine Lai’s new project is a set of oil paintings of her having sex with every president of the USA, in order.” There’s a pretty racy piece of her going down on Abraham Lincoln over on her Web site, where she explains: “I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives.”
T.I. to be sentenced on federal weapons charges: And Billboard has the scoop, “The 28-year-old rapper, whose real name is Clifford Harris, will have between 30 and 60 days to report to prison after his sentencing. He is supposed to have completed 1,000 hours of community service, including talking to youth groups about the pitfalls of violence, guns, drugs and the value of an education.”