Pseudo-Celebrity Ego-Searches

I've been toying with Google Analytics today a little bit. Excellent tool. You can drill down onto any specific stat you can imagine with that. Definitely recommended to anyone.

At any rate, the number of pseudo-celebrities who have been ego searching and popping up on Rizzn.com lately are interesting. I'll list them here and my connection to them.

Robin Kish: did an investigative report on me one time on CBS4 in Miami. It was completely incorrect, and they hacked the crap out of my interview to make me look like a moron. The video is somewhere here on the website. On the upside, she is quite attractive. I still have her business card around here somewhere... every once in a while I come across it and think back to that non-fact-finding, vapid, and attractive blonde reporter from CBS4. (see also: Robin Kish - factchecker extraordinare, CBS4)

Bill Redpath: I quoted a letter from him not long ago. He's the LP national committee chairman. Several hits with his general locale reporting back on the IP address have shown up lately. Hey guy! What's up!

Mara Buxbaum: This is Christopher Walken's publicist. I spoke with her last year regarding the rumors of whether or not Mr. Walken was running for President of the United States in 2008. As it turned out, he wasn't. Ms. Buxbaum was very cordial and pleasant to deal with over the phone. She's hit the site a number of times lately in a number of different ways, it appears, in an attempt to see what pagerank sites with her name on it get (many different ways of searching, some with her agency name on it and some without).

Suge Knight: Suge Knight is once again doing ego searches and people on the Death Row record label forums are linking to my website again. I can't tell you how nervous this makes me. This is all in regards to when I took photographs and video of the man the night he was shot/shot himself accidentally (police investigation inconclusive either way).

That's it for now. Talk atcha later.

/rizzn

Britney Spears NUDE!

Okay. I've been debating with myself over the last ten minutes or so after recieving this link whether or not to post this... I warn you, these photographs are disturbing, especially if you're like me and you remember how friggin' hot Britney Spears used to be in that first music video she made back in the day.

Well, get ready to fulfill that fantasy and finally see what is under the hood, so to speak. The backstory on this is that Paris Hilton has been partying a lot with Britney Spears these days, presumably to get her mind off of KFed, or whatever. Well, one of those evenings, they got a little too drunk a little too close to the paparazzi.

Check it out. Pictures are small - click on the links to make them bigger.

Quote of the Entry:
"Life... is like a grapefruit. It's orange and squishy, and has a few pips in it, and some folks have half a one for breakfast."
- Douglas Adams

2005 VMA Wrap-up

Well, howdy do everyone.  I feel like I’ve been in another world the last few days, not so much because covering the VMA stuff is so exciting, but because I’ve basically not slept this entire weekend.  OK, that’s not true, I slept about 10 hours since Thursday.  I can tell the folks at the office were a little upset I walked in at about 1:30pm, but hey, I gotta do what I gotta do.

Ricky got a good deal of great photos, and we’ll likely be posting them here on the site within the next few days.  I made a few really good contacts on the press line (a big howdy to Monica and Dennis if you happen to read this).

I found out something quite interesting this weekend.. being a blogger is the new uber-hip thing!  I know no one actually reads this thing, so I feel pretty safe in saying this … if you want access to celebrities at these types of events, all you have to do is tell the PR person you’re a blogger!  On Friday evening, I got an all access pass to an event hosted by Carmen Electra for free (Louis XIV played a set). It was about as boring as any other party I’ve ever been to, but the point is I got a $700 pass for free.

Journalistically, of course the highlight of the weekend was Suge getting shot (although had he not been shot, a lot of other good celebs would have shown up – OJ Simpson, Jamie Foxx and Jeremy Piven were rumored to be on their way).  I’ve got a pretty good run down of what happenned there in this blog entry, but in my sleep-deprived haze I forgot to mention that the police were launching tear-gas gimmicks into the crowd to get us to back away from Yusef when they were arresting him. 

Something about that whole evening seems really fishy, because it took about five minutes of pandemonium before anyone called the police or even the security forces over to the scene.  What’s more, the MSM (with the exception of the Herald) aren’t reporting on the arrest of Yusef at all, not to mention that AP, CNN, and a couple other wire services are getting the guest list completely wrong.  It’s pretty sad, because there were exactly four ABC Radio correspondents there as well as an actual MTV news crew, and none of them bothered to interview anyone, opting to simply flee the scene.  It was me, the house photographer, and Access Hollywood running into the fray, and that’s it!

I guess it shows I have either very weak survival instincts, or very strong journalistic ones.

I’ve got to get some work done today, so I’m done with this entry.  Hopefully we’ll get Blip’s core processes moved over to the new server today.

/rizzn

Suge Knight Shot - photos and ID

Update (8/30/2005): This should be the last little bit of Suge Knight update (because I think it’s safe to assume at this point that no more real news is going to come out of this thing)… I wouldn’t post it but it’s so damn funny (hat tip to libertyblog):

[H]ere’s the rapper David Banner on the shooting of Suge Knight at a party for the MTV awards:

“I don’t think that what happened was any different than at any other event where you have a lot of people,” said David Banner. “It’s tragic that it happened and that the media magnified this so much.”

Remind me not to be at any event where there are a lot of people when David Banner’s around, be it a Shriner’s convention, airport terminal etc.

Update (8/29/2005): If you’re coming in from an external link (thank’s National Ledger and the scads of Hip Hop mags that linked me), you should check out my generalized VMA wrap up, with more Suge shooting details. 

Update (8/29/2005): The man arrested is alleged to be named spoken word artist Malik Yusef. He was part of the Game’s entourage, undoubtably, as there were about 40 people who entered with him.

Given that he’s a spoken word artist, and P. D.. ‘scuse me, Diddy has strong ties to Def Poetry and Bad Boys of Comedy, it gives credence to the whole conspiracy angle of his involvement in perhaps motivating someone to retaliate for Biggie’s Death (Biggie Smalls, of course, a friend of Diddy (then Puff Daddy, I think), who was suspected of being killed by someone hired by Suge – but that’s all rumor, and I would never suggest that Suge had anything to do with it (without taking my personal information off the website first)).

Slightly less conspiracy theory-esque, about two months ago, a rapper named Game got into a fight with members of Suge’s entourage.  Peep this quote from hiphopdx.com from back in June:

Later on at the Sunset room, Game reportedly crossed paths with Suge and that’s where details become sketchy. Many rumors state that Game and his crew ran into Suge and his entourage and after a few words were exchanged, a member out of Suge’s camp to a swing at Game. They say that after Game dodged a few punches, his crew yanked him away from the situation before it got out of hand. Nobody got hurt but the question remains “Why?” More on this as it unfolds.

The Game was in attendence that night (this photo is from his appearance on the red carpet.  As a side note, CNN reported that The Black Eyed Peas, Paris Hilton, and Eddie Murphy were there or had attended the party.  That is pure fiction.  Paris was a no show to every party this year, the Black Eyed Peas were only staying in that hotel, but were in fact performing down the road at the Mansion, and Eddie Murphy only went to one party, which was at the Prive the night before.

---

Breaking news from the VMA pre-parties, circa midnight Saturday/Sunday... Owner of Death Row Records, Suge Knight, has just been shot in the thigh by an unknown assailant while coming out of the Shore Club in South Beach. Suge was attending Kanye West's MTV VMA Pre-Party.

I was working the red carpet line just videoing other people's interviews with people and I happenned to MTV Netherland's interview with Suge (video uploaded). Some time after Suge arrived, there was quite a commotion inside the party tent, and hundreds of people came streaming out. From watching my Def Comedy Jam, I'm well aware that when a herd of African-Americans go running in one direction, danger is surely in the opposite direction. Being an intrepid reporter (and someone who has no fear of losing life nor limb), I ran right into the action.

Suge's sidekick quickly booted me out of the area. Forcefully. In the video, you can see me being shoved out of the way by the way the camera gyrates.

I then snuck around the side of the building to see what I could find, and sure enough, a group of fans had already congregated out there where the ambulance was being pulled up. I arrived just after Suge was put into the ambulance, but in time to buy a couple of pictures off some guys from Brooklyn to sell to our agency (we think we have the exclusive on that). I was lucky not to get roughed up by Suge's cohorts, as they stomped on a couple people's cameras that were taking pictures out the side.

There wasn't much action around the side, so I went back around to the front just in time to see someone from someone's entourage being hauled out in handcuffs (I'm not sure who this person is, but if you can identify him for me please, I'd love to get a name before the MSM). The rest of the night was spent captioning and editing photos and videos, so not much else to report but the specifics that I know:

Suge was shot in the upper thigh, on the outside part. He's in good condition. This all took place at the Shore Club in South Beach. There was a mad dash for the door. The publicists were crying. In fact, a lot of people were crying. Suge's cohorts are jerks.

These are captures from my video. I've already got people who are buying it, so no worries there. It should show up on Access Hollywood or something, I'm told.

(Just so you know, I’ve been up for 36 hours, so if this makes no sense, I’ll go back and correct it later – stay tuned for updates).

/rizzn

Imagine my embarrassment. No, wait, imagine HER embarrassment ...

My life is so far removed from pop culture that I actually thought THE Jason Alexander married Britney Spears. As it turns out, it's this Jason Alexander. I keep saying this, but maybe its true -- perhaps I should broaden my news filters a little bit.

Britney Spears to annul marriage to Jason Alexander

Pop princess Britney Spears will be single again on Monday after a madcap marriage over the weekend, US media reported.

Spears and childhood friend Jason Alexander, both 22, filed for an annulment on Sunday after tying the knot before dawn on Saturday in Las Vegas, Nevada.

The couple "took a joke too far by getting married", said a statement issued on Sunday by the singer's recording label, Jive Records, according to USA Today.

"Ms Spears and Mr Alexander have filed for an annulment, which will become official on Monday," the statement said.

The two apparently decided to marry while partying at the Palms Casino Hotel on Friday night, and did so at a get-hitched-quick joint on the Las Vegas Strip, after stopping by a courthouse for a marriage license.

Spears reportedly wore torn jeans and a baseball cap and was escorted down the aisle by a hotel bellman.

She was not drunk at the time, Palms Casino owner and Britney pal George Maloof insisted.

"None of those reports were accurate," Maloof told Entertainment Tonight. "She was just having a good time."

The groom was back in Kentwood, Louisiana, on Sunday, which is also Spears' hometown.

"He'd been through a lot. We picked him up in New Orleans coming back and he didn't have much to say," his grandfather told Entertainment Tonight.