The Who2 Blog

Best description yet of the hair of Rod Blagojevich.

Quite a story from ESPN about Julius Erving and tennis pro Alexandra Stevenson — his daughter from an affair with a sportswriter in the 1970s.

Is it Jerry Lewis’s Auschwitz tale The Day The Clown Cried? Or Sylvester Stallone’s planned biopic of Edgar Allan Poe?The Guardian adds ’em up.

Boy, this new Will Smith movie, Seven Pounds. The trailer surely is one of the more unsatisfying promos of 2008. And the title ain’t much help.Now I read the review and I still can’t tell what’s going on.

“Obama emerges as a liberal Reagan who can reunite America.” (Andrew Sullivan)”The similarities between Carter and Obama are considerable.” (NYO)”…arouses memories of a liberal Democratic president whom conservatives remember all too well — Woodrow Wilson.” (Human Events)From Bus Your Own Tray (via Wonkette).

Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer? Voiced by Canadians, filmed in Japan.So popular there, they put his nose on the flag!

Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of an American political dynasty, has decided to pursue the United States Senate seat being vacated by Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York. The decision came after a series of deeply personal and political conversations, in which Ms.

A warm-hearted revue by David Perdue.How else would we know that Charles Dickens “had more influence on the way that we celebrate Christmas today than any single individual in human history except one”? Or that Tiny Tim probably had a kidney disease that made his blood too acidic? Or that Ebenezer Scrooge has been played by both Mister Magoo and Scrooge McDuck?

Shrek the Musical.Broadway’s getting a “make-ogre.” Har.

Earlier we met the designer of the Obama campaign logo.Now here are the logo rejects.

The angel Gabriel is our newest profile, courtesy of editor Hans Holznagel. One surprising revelation: Gabriel had no trumpet.

Forget Poland — President Bush isn’t getting much love in Iraq, either.[Update: Shoe-tossin’ video from the BBC.]

Not much love for President Bush at UN climate change talks in Poland…Asked to sum up Bush’s record on the issue, France’s climate ambassador Brice Lalonde chose instead to pass on a story he had heard.A man comes to the White House asking to see Bush. “He doesn’t live here anymore,” he is told. The next two days he comes again asking the same question, and receiving the same answer.

That’s the wonderful title of a poem by Amiri Baraka, just profiled by Beat Poet Desk editor Paul Hehn.Baraka is a Marxist, an academic, the former poet laureate of New Jersey, and “has been railing against The Man his entire career, in university classrooms and in essays, poems and plays.”

Editor Paul Hehn, at the Hollywood Brunette Desk, points out our profile of Gretchen Mol, who played the late Bettie Page in the 2005 movie The Notorious Bettie Page.Here’s a shot of Mol as Paige:

“At three o’clock the following morning, on April 22, 1923, Edna gave birth to a baby girl. They named the child Betty Mae Page according to her birth certificate, but when she became old enough to write, the spelling changed to Bettie.”Notes on the birth name of pinup model Bettie Page, from Richard Foster’s 2005 book The Real Bettie Page.

Jolly old elf Santa has been ahead of steady reader favorite Shakespeare all month on our popularity list.No big surprise in late December, but Santa is showing early strength this year; normally he moves into the top five in the last week before Christmas.

Raven-haired pinup queen Bettie Page has died age age 85. Pneumonia, alas.Here’s a memorial video from the way-back machine. Good luck to you Ms. Page, wherever you are.