Amanda Bynes Had a Bad Night
Today in celebrity news: Amanda Bynes was arrested last night, Leo's space trip earns millions, and Prince William receives a gift.
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So, yes, the big gossip news Thursday night and Friday morning was that Amanda Bynes, teen star turned worrisome adult, was arrested in New York for marijuana possession and throwing a bong out a window. Everyone's talking about it and that is understandable. It's a crazy story and a sad story, and that intersection, between silly and depressing, is where the celebrity news industrial complex burns brightest. On the sad hand we've got a young woman clearly in the throes of some sort of mental collapse and/or serious drug problem (not the weed, something else) and seemingly no one has come to help her except for ghoulish professional hangers-on who of course aren't actually helping at all. That's a lonely, tough spot for someone to be in, and it's sad. But of course on the crazy side we've got a former teen star wearing weird wigs and tossing bongs out of windows in front of police and all the strange tweets and photos and it's hard not to get caught up in the whole wild drama of it. So we are torn, between faraway concern and, well, cruel amusement. That's the situation we are in. As for Bynes, she was given a psych evaluation before being booked and as of Friday morning was awaiting an arraignment hearing. What a mess, huh? [TMZ]
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Leonardo DiCaprio has found his space companions. Last night he auctioned off two seats on one of Richard Branson's metal space coffins at the amfAR charity gala at Cannes, the special perk being that DiCaprio will escort the civilian astronauts/doomed souls on the ill-fated voyage himself. The item went for around $4 million, with two people bidding about $2 million each. Two million dollars! Just to tragically die in space with Leonardo DiCaprio. What a strange world we live in. Someone else paid $1.5 million to go to next year's big Oscar parties and the Wolf of Wall Street premiere with DiCaprio. So basically this guy is going to spend his last time on Earth hanging out with people who paid to be with him and then will rocket into space with two strangers and never be seen again. I mean there is no way those Branson space flights are going to end in anything but outright disaster and tragedy, right? It seems more than inevitable. But hey, at least some money was raised to help fight AIDS. That is important. At the event Harvey Weinstein joked that people would like to see him sent to space, "but only on a one-way ticket." Hm. I mean in some ways, yes, people would like that, because it would be an interesting story. "Remember the time Harvey Weinstein went to space and never came back?" But no one wants you actually dead, Harvey. Sheesh. [Page Six]
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Prince William, the Duke of Cambridge, was given a special gift by the president of the Union of European Football Associations after speaking at a meeting of theirs in London. The gift was a small soccer ball, presumably for the little one to play with once he or she is born. (Oh, right, William's wife, party supply heiress Duchess Kate, is pregnant and due in two months.) Which is a cute gift, some thoughtful administrative employee came up with that one, but there's one problem. It's in a glass case. In the photo of the UEFA president giving William the present, the ball is in what appears to be a thick glass case. Maybe that's just plastic, maybe I'm wrong, but it looks heavy duty. So the ball will be hard to get at for the kid to play with. And isn't that just like William's life? Everything fun and practical made formal and fancy and thus unusable? That little football in its glass case is a metaphor for the remove of William's royalty, of the strange life his kid will lead. Either that or it is just a plastic box and I'm a dope and whatever, enjoy the ball, you little prince or princess. [People]
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One Direction's resident Irish rogue Niall Horan has some impressive text game. It seems he wooed British reality star Louise Thompson, from Made in Chelsea, over to his house simply by sending her some cheeky messages. (And a phone call or two.) And she's got a boyfriend and everything! But she spent the night at Niall's house last week nonetheless, Niall sending a car for her like a smooth dude, like a pimply Jay Gatsby waiting, waiting, waiting in his North London mansion. Louise supposedly had such a grand time that she stayed well into the next day, doing god knows what. Anyway, this is big news in England, guys. Big news. Here it's "boy band member has reality star over to house," but there it's "Justin Bieber texts Lauren Conrad and she spends the night." Or something of that ilk. Big stuff. [The Sun]
