Senator Barack Obama held a press conference today in Jordan after his visits to Iraq and Afghanistan. The Washington Post has the transcript.(Elsewhere, Haaretz columnist Bradley Burston offers Obama ten MIdeast traps to avoid.)
The date is set for Jay Leno’s forced retirement from The Tonight Show. His last day will be May 29th, 2009, and he’ll be replaced three days later by Conan O’Brien.
The Times of London offers up a list of eBay’s “10 most bizarre bits of political memorabilia.” Included are six snippets of graying hair from Lyndon Johnson (“comes with a notarized affidavit from the family of Steve Martini, White House barber”) and the coffee-stained to-do list of Jacqueline Kennedy.The stain is artfully described as being “perhaps from Mrs. Kennedy herself.”
Wow: Frances Bean Cobain, the daughter of Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love, is 15 and posing for Harper’s Bazaar.The fashion magazine also has a rather breathless story.
Cheerful Hollywood parents give their kids inventive names like Knox and Sunday Rose. What about our gloomier celebs? A half-dozen ideas:Felicity AnginaEnnui BlueCreosoteMonday MorningMaginot LineBupkesAny other suggestions, commenters?
The Associated Press reports that “blissful newlywed” Greg Norman shot a surprising 70 on day one of the British Open, cheered on by his wife, Chris Evert.Wait, what? Chris Evert and Greg Norman are married?Apparently so. They married last month in the Bahamas. Both split recently from their previous spouses — Laura Andrassy for him, skiier Andy Mill for her.
South African leader Nelson Mandela is 90 years old today.
Not that it has much to do with biography (though we do have a profile of the corporate namesake), but we found it rather fascinating that Starbucks has released a complete list of the 600 stores it plans to close.We salute their transparency.
Weird tale of the day: The Joker, leering arch-enemy of Batman, is based on an actor from the movie Casablanca. No, not Ingrid Bergman.
Billy Joel is playing the last two concerts in New York’s Shea Stadium. It’s being torn down in a few months. Joel gets rave reviews in today’s Newsday and New York Times.