The domestic release of Spider-Man 3 is two weeks away but already there’s all sorts of brouhaha surrounding the  future of the lucrative movie franchise. According to Entertainment Weekly, director Sam Raimi is seriously interested in the possibility of helming New Line’s upcoming adaptation of The Hobbit, which supposedly could seriously interfere with a potential Spider-Man 4.

No doubt there are diehard Lord of the Rings fans who’ll hurl arrows and crossbow bolts at any proposed director who isn’t named Peter Jackson, but if he’s not doing it — and given legal wrangles with the powers that be, it doesn’t look like he is — there are far worse choices than Raimi.

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It’s with extreme sadness that Shaking Through marks the passing of Kurt Vonnegut, inarguably one of the greatest writers in American literature. He died yesterday of brain injuries related to a recent fall.

There’s such a thing as damning someone with great praise, since phrases like “one of the greatest writers in American literature” often conjure images of “important” (i.e., stuffy) works.  There’s writing that calls attention to itself via its high-minded prose and academic meditations. There’s tweed-jacketed New England writing consumed with the idea of older men being attracted to younger women and fornicating like Rabbits outside the marriage bed (imagine that).

And then there’s Vonnegut’s writing, which was almost anti-”writing”: (more…)

Damn — and we were so sure that Zsa Zsa Gabor’s husband Frederic Prinz von Anhalt was Dannielynn’s father! But it turns out that Gabor’s creepy sixty-something caretaker is not the baby-daddy, despite his claim to a decade-long affair with Anna Nicole Smith. That honor goes to Larry Birkhead, to the disappointment of Smith’s lawyer Howard K. Stern.

But aren’t we all Dannielynn’s daddy? We’ve all spent an inordinate amount of time clucking over the paternity of the late model’s infant child. (more…)

I’m not a fan of Don Imus. I was always a Howard Stern guy, back when I lived in a city that carried Stern’s terrestrial radio show, and being a Stern fan pretty much made being an Imus guy impossible. I’ve had occasion to catch bits and pieces of Imus’ show as it’s simulcast on MSNBC, and have seen nothing to make me change my opinion. (To be fair, watching radio on TV just doesn’t work — it certainly didn’t do Stern any favors.)

That said, Imus absolutely, positively should not resign his post, as the Rev. Al Sharpton demands. Is Imus a good guy, as he says? Probably so. Is he sincere in his contrition? Again, probably so. Was what he did — calling the Rutgers women’s basketball team a bunch of “nappy-headed hos” — stupid, racist, insensitive, horrible, even unconscionable? Absolutely. Should he bow to pressure from Sharpton and quit? No way, José. (more…)

 Johnny Hart, the cartoonist behind the incredibly long-running strip B.C., died Saturday. Shaking Through has long adhered to an unofficial policy of not speaking ill of the departed, so I won’t bash Hart here for the religious proselytizing that drove me from the strip years ago. (The steady decline in quality certainly helped — to be sure, the strip seemed funnier, and not coincidentally less offensive, decades ago.)  (more…)

I was out of pocket the last couple of days, so I wasn’t able to comment yesterday on the NME interview in which Keith Richards claimed he once snorted some of his dad’s ashes with some cocaine. It’s already old news, and the spin control has already started, with Kurt Loder of MTV News dismissing the whole thing as “totally untrue.” Kurt’s ironclad source? Richards’ manager, Jane Rose, who says the comment was made “in jest” and she “can’t believe anyone took [it] seriously.”

Oh, well, then — if Keith Richards’ longtime manager says it’s not true, that’s good enough for me!  (more…)

So the producer-entertainer-mogul-brand currently known as “Diddy” is gunning for Sting’s title as the music world’s reigning marathon man. The onetime “Puffy” reportedly told the London Mirror that during a visit to Paris, he and his girlfriend Kim Porter “had tantric sex for at least 30 hours, ordering up whipped cream and strawberries while we were at it.”

At least? You’re telling me that once you went beyond the 24-hour mark, you didn’t bother to keep track anymore?  (more…)

Eddie Griffin — actor, comedian, Man of the Square Table — environmental activist? Apparently so. The Undercover Brother thespian did his little part to reduce fuel emissions yesterday when he wrecked a Ferrari Enzo yesterday. Griffin was practicing for a charity race to promote the upcoming film Redline when he careened it off of a concrete barrier. The car, valued at $1.5 million, belonged to Daniel Sadek, who is producing the film. Sadek told the Associated Press that the Enzo was beyond repair. “Undercover Brother’s good at karate and all the rest of that, but the brother can’t drive,” Griffin said.

It’s worth noting that only 400 Enzos were ever made: (more…)

 So Dallas Austin has apologized, sort of, to Christina Aguilera and Joss Stone for comments made in a video clip that’s been circulating around the Internet. Or has he?

In the video (which has since been pulled from YouTube), he discusses having sex with Aguilera and asserts that she and Stone sleep with producers in exchange for music for their songs. In a statement released to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, however, he doesn’t refute those claims. He also rather churlishly defends his comments, stating that he “felt justified” in talking about them in this way and that his comments “were purely an act of retaliation, not of malice or cruel intent.”

Oh, well, then — that clears everything right up! You were retaliating — but you didn’t intend to be cruel or malicious! Well, of course! After all, retribution — especially the kind that could cause serious harm to a person’s reputation regardless of its veracity — is perfectly okay! I mean, what’s more human than taking revenge on a singer by going on at length about a young woman’s sexual proclivities, implying that she’s a slut or a ho — while simultaneously propping yourself up as a stud for having partaken of her wares? After all, you weren’t acting out of malice or anything. Seriously, Dallas, who’s your publicist? Because you need to fire them for letting you make even more of an ass out of yourself.

C’mon, dude, man up. If you’re going to apologize, then say you’re sorry and leave it at that. Don’t pull this passive-aggressive B.S. where you’re apologizing out of one side of your mouth and saying “Yeah, but they deserved it” out of the other.

Read Dallas’ non-apology after the jump.  (more…)

 … at least according to hitmaking producer (and all-around class act) Dallas Austin, as revealed in this appearance on something called Rowdy TV. (Editor’s note: The video has been pulled from YouTube since this was originally posted.) In it, he also claims that Aguilera and Joss Stone have sex with producers in exchange for music for their songs.

So the inference here is that it’s skanky to sleep with producers for tracks (and to sleep with their friends) — but it’s perfectly okay to avail yourself of a pop singer willing to trade sex for tracks. Nice double standard there, D.A. 

If this guy didn’t have friends in high places, with any luck he’d still be wasting away in a posh Dubai detention facility. Wonder how Sen. Orrin Hatch, Lionel Richie and Quincy Jones feel now about having pulled strings to get Austin out of there. Great work, fellas!