ETP wasn't looking, but somehow he found us: Bond, James Bond, aka Daniel Craig, our new favorite human ever to have lived, ever. Ever. Er, we mean, early buzz on Casino Royale is strong and so far it's beating out the penguin movie.
from buzzfeed.com
Two sites/services have launched this week that seek to help the discerning reader sift through the morass of content out there and find the gems that are worth their scarce, valuable time: BuzzFeed, an attempt to capture water-cooler conversation virtually with targeted web crawl technology and "human tastemakers" which help to "distinguish what is actually interesting from what is merely hyped" and Very Short List, which sends email recommendations daily about excellent new (and sometimes vintage) entertainment, media, and cultural things you may not know about because they haven't been hyped to within an inch of their lives." (So expect to see a lot of VSL items crop up on Buzzfeed.)
What's interesting about these sites is that they reflect a trend* of net-savvy but time-pressed users buckling under the weight of the exploding online destinations. Whereas three years ago you could look 
forward to reading Gawker to get the quick and dirty on what was in the papers, now there are ten other websites that similarly aggregate, recommend, analyze, interpret, goof on and sift through content, obviously creating more in so doing. At what point does value-add reach saturation? BuzzFeed and VSL suggest this point.
The other interesting thing about these sites is who is behind them: In both cases, they are the creation of active members of their respective communities, people who were behind the creation of the first wave of content that has been joined so overwhelmingly that they now have to step one level up in order to keep ahead of it. HuffPo's own Jonah Peretti is behind BuzzFeed, who has his finger in many successful Internet pies and is is usually at the forefront of what's evolving, and VSL's rarefied panel of high-powered hot-palated tastemakers: Kurt Andersen, Simon Dumenco, Michael Jackson, Moshe Koyfman, Bonnie Siegler, Emily Oberman, Tim Nolan, Ben Leventhal, and/or Scott Kraft, backed by Barry Diller. That both of these sites come from the top is interesting; it reflects the fact that modern tastes are evolving, and that awareness and interest is trickling downward, or, pushing upward, from the masses. If this trend continues, look for an even more rarefied list in a year or so, promising to cull only the very best from all the rarefied sources of highly cultivated recommendations that tend to make short lists long.
*We'll just pretend there's three of them.
This seemed like just a bit much to us: Saying that "abortion" was on a "Liberal Wish List." Thanks for providing nuance to your listings, CNN, but technically speaking, Liberals/Democrats want abortion rights. See the difference? I don't believe there is a liberal alive who thinks an abortion is fun like toys and puppies and lollipops. But the right to end an unwanted pregnancy, now that's a different story — that is to say, a different story than CNN is advertising.
Then again, perhaps it's too much to expect nuance from the site that enthusiastically trumpets "Watch It Now!" video clips with heds like "Man dismembers woman's body," "Teen raped his mother" and "Marine recruiter sought 'comfort' raping girl."
Oh well, at least we can be assured that Bush learned the lessons of Vietnam.
Top Stories [CNN]
from men.style.com
There is a terrific, terrific interview with Al Gore in the upcoming December GQ, long and with lots of juicy quotes, but as between his excoriation of George Bush, his musings on global warming, or his revelations about what keeps Tipper a-smilin', it's a no-brainer what we're gonna go with for the headline. Still, Lisa DePaulo's interview is deserving not only of excerpt, but of the click over online to read the extended version. In the meantime, here are some bits, including what, exactly, it means to ride the mighty moonworm:
Gore's full, indignant, angry commentary on the Bush administration's failure to heed 9/11 warnings are included after the jump; for now, we just want to note that Terry Richardson's use of white space is really unappealing and his use of dirty-seeming filters makes for really, really drab photography. That said, we're grateful he didn't dress Gore in shorty-shorts and pose him spread-eagled on a messy mattress.
Is Radar looking to be the next Portfolio? The resurrected mag's talent poaching continues as it confirms two new hires. Sarah Horne will join the staff as a contributing writer, joining former Gawker intern-cum-correspondent and Thrillist contributor Neel Shah who recently came aboard as an assistant editor. Horne, a former senior writer at Fashion Week Daily and editor at large for Hampton Style who has covered celebrities for Us Weekly and Elle, is the third woman to grace the editorial staff, the first two being managing editor Leigh Ann Boutwell and editorial assistant Rachel Syme. A whopping three women! Hey, it's progress. 
Horne will join editors Chris Tennant and Tyler Gray, senior writers John Cook and Jeff Bercovici, and contributing writer Matt Haber in writing the website's Fresh Intelligence section, and will also be contributing fashion and style features for print - not that Greg Gutfeld isn't an expert or anything.
Disclosure: Melissa Lafsky has been friends with Sarah Horne since childhood. At ETP, the scoops come to us. Factual accuracy is doubly guaranteed by Lafsky's possession of photo evidence from seventh-grade birthday parties.
from joshwolf.net
Freelance journalist, videographer and blogger Josh Wolf was denied a request for a rehearing yesterday by a federal court of appeal, and refused to accept any more filings in the case. This means that Wolf, 24, could be kept in prison until the expiration of the grand jury in July. Wolf, who was jailed for refusing to turn over raw footage shot at a protest in San Francisco in July 2005 and testify about its contents, has already served 88 days in jail. Wolf was subpoenaed by federal prosecutors investigating charges of vandalism at the event.
Wolf was sentenced and imprisoned in August, was released on bail in September, and then was sent back to jail when his bail was revoked by a panel of the Ninth Circuit Court. A hearing by the full court was requested by his lawyer, which is the request denied yesterday. The motion to reinstate bail was "denied as moot." Thank goodness the courts are protecting society from this very, very dangerous 24 year old kid.
from GQ.com
GQ has come out with their year-end issue which celebrates all sorts of "Men Of The Year" like Leo di Caprio, Jay-Z and Will Ferrell who tie for the 3-cover-shot honor, plus honorees like Spike Lee for Inside Man and When The Levees Broke ("Visionary"), Ben Affleck for "Comeback" (Hollywoodland), the Men of "The Office" (B.J. Novak, Rainn Wilson and John Krasinski) as "Coworkers of the Year" (not to be confused with YouTube's Steve Chen and Chad Hurley, aka "Fast Company." Congratulations, honorees, but you don't get your own pull-out poster — that honor goes to the 20-year old actress who ranks as the 2006 Obsession of the Year: Lindsay Lohan. And she doesn't seem to particularly care for Us Weekly.
American Apparel photog Terry Richardson shoots young Lindsay on a bare mattress surrounded by tabloid fare, but she doesn't care because she's got on funky satiny wedges and eensy jeanshorts. There's a short accompanying interview, set up uber-ironically with Lindz giving arch, fake answers; not very revealing, unless you count the fact that 36-year old interviewer Jason Gay asked his 20-year old interviewee "Can we tell people we're doing this interview in the men's room at Yankee Stadium?" Classy.
Tina Fey was on Howard Stern yesterday, dishing about former SNL hosts and throwing a little hatin' Paris Hilton's way because apparently the woman is as much of a vapid nightmare as you'd expect. Cityrag transcribed a few nuggets, which we picked up via Best Week Ever, so we know that Hilton asked if she could play Jessica Simpson "because I hate her" "she's fat", shedded her "Barbie hair" all over the place, and never bothered to ask any of the cast a single question about themselves (i.e. "how are you"). We have a tidbit to add to this, one that we forgot to include in our roundup of SNL factoids a few weeks back: According to my SNL-insider source, when Hilton hosted, she toted her dog Tinkerbell with her the whole time. And one day during the week, little Tinkerbell took a little doggie crap on the floor of the Talent Office, just outside of where Lorne Michaels' office is. To her credit, Paris got some paper towel and cleaned it up herself. She then proceeded to be an exceptionally boring, untalented host.
Related in NBC Entertainment News: BWE has a clip of "The Office" featuring the "Lazy Scranton" orientation video, and, more importantly, the faceoff: Are you Team Pam Or Team Karen? Jeff Zucker doesn't care, he's just really, really relieved.
