CELEBRITIES

10 Famous Actors Who Started Out in Commercials

Actors' relationships with TV jingles are sort of like that old riddle: What walks on four legs in the morning, two at noon and three at dawn? (Or maybe more like how we start in Pampers and end up in Depends.) Lots of well-known actors wind up paying the

5 Fascinating Facts About Vladimir Nabokov

Vladimir Nabokov, the author of such masterpieces as 'Lolita' and 'Pale Fire,' was also an expert on butterflies who inadvertently helped give Luciano Pavarotti a career boost.

6 Famous Folk Who Once Drove Taxis

In some cities, driving a taxi is considered an important, valued, even elevated vocation. Sometimes those cabbies become famous.

7 TV Celebrities Your Parents Loved

The trailer for the new movie Julie & Julia brings back fond memories. Julia Child was the first voice impression I perfected as a teenager. My kids have no idea who she was. At the same time, they know who Billy Mays was and I didn't until his recent dea

John Hodgman on His Daughter, Hodgmina

Author/minor celebrity/hobothusiast John Hodgman is a man of many talents. He's an author, actor, and even Resident Expert on The Daily Show. I'll admit, I'm kind of a fan. Today I'd like to share Hodgman's essay Hodgmina from 2003, about his then-just

Brunswick Records, Public Domain, Wikimedia Commons

February 3, 1959: The Day the Music Died

On February 3, 1959, a plane crashed shortly after taking off from Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all four people aboard: pilot Roger Peterson and musicians Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. "The Big Bopper" Richardson. The date became known as The Day the

Another Immense Time-Waster: MTV Music Posts Tons of Videos

In a stunning move, MTV has returned to its roots: actual music videos. But don't look for the videos on TV -- now they're online. MTV announced today that they've posted over 16,000 videos, "Unplugged" sessions, and concerts to their new MTV Music sit

How We Work

Yesterday we looked at writers' rooms -- now let's turn to a related topic: how the actual work gets done. Rod McLaren has been posting tidbits on the creative process since 2004, collecting over one hundred fascinating entries in How We Work. It's a t

What's Your Fantasy?

This weekend I'll be competing for the championship in my fantasy football league. I don't want to brag, but I'll just say that I'm favored to win and it'll be my second championship in a row. That said, I've grown tired of my fantasy sports leagues, so I

5 Surprising Divinity School Dropouts

From Hollywood superstars to adulterous dilettantes, several seminary dropouts have managed to find success in the secular world. Here's a sampling of the finest in almost-clergy.

7 Pampered Celebrities and their Ridiculous Pre-show Demands

Everyone knows rock and roll is about thrills and excess—we just didn't realize that spirit was supposed to extend to the greenroom buffet. The following are seven very pampered acts that made sure their laundry list of demands got tacked onto their

5 Celebs Who Suffer from Aviophobia (and 1 who used to)

I used to love flying when I was a kid and even told people I wanted to be a pilot when I grew up. But something happened during college that seriously damaged my love of the skies: a friend's father took me up in his single-engine four-seat Cessna and wi

A Disturbingly Long List of Celebrity Motorbike Crash-ups

While I've never had any real interest in riding a motorcycle (I feel a heck of a lot safer in my van!), all the recent press over George Clooney's accident made me wonder how many celebs haveÂ experienced motorbike crashes. The results were kind of astou

8 Surprising College Roommates

As incoming freshman pack up their stuff and head to college, one of their many anxieties is the roommate. Will they throw parties in the room all the time? Will they take my Pop Tarts? Will they smell? To remove some of the fear about being forced to liv

Finger length predicts SAT scores?

According to LiveScience, new research is suggesting that finger length can tell whether you'll score higher on the math or verbal section of your SATs. Here's the key: If your ring finger is longer than your index, apparently you're math-minded. If it's

People I didn't expect to have tattoos

Thomas Edison: Sure, he had over 1000 patents to his name, and rarely slept. But according to his insurance inspection with Mutual Life, the bad boy inventor also sported a strange tattoo. While no one knows what it meant, Tommy had 5 dots tattooed onto h

8 Smooches That (sort-of) Shook the World

Considering how much fuss Richard Gere has gotten over his "obscene" attempts to plant an unwanted Hollywood-style kiss on Bollywood star Shilpa Shetty (Indian extremists have been salivating over the images and calling for Gere's arrest), we figured we'

I'll Have What Her Majesty's Having (famous folk and their drinks of choice)

The sad truth is, we can't choose a brand of jeans unless a celebrity endorses them. Just can't do it. Nor can we pick a rental car service until we know some sort of professional athlete is comfortable shilling for their brand. That's why we're forgoing

The wit and wisdom of Prince Philip

So I finally got around to seeing "The Queen," and although most of the performances were spot-on, I felt like the guy playing Prince Philip must have caricatured him a bit. Nobody could be that brash, could they? ... Could they? It seems they could. Her

Angelina Jolie: the new royalty?

I don't know about where you all live, but here in LA, more and more tattoo removal parlors are opening up around town. Which might make you think ink is passÃ©, right? Well, not for celebs. In fact, Heather Locklear, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie all emer