Chaos reigned this afternoon when hackers took over the Huffington Post's Twitter feed, sending out a series of racist, homophobic, and anti-English tweets to their 1.5 million followers. And they seem to be fans of the New York Post, writing, "Sup bitches? Hacked by: New York Post" and "New York Post rules!!!" Huff Post were able to quickly take their account back and delete all the offensive tweets, but you can see them all lovingly preserved below. And in a cruel twist of fate, Ashton Kutcher's Twitter account was also hacked around the same time. Is this what the Mayans have been going on about for centuries?
Lame NY Post Poseurs Hack Huffington Post Twitter Account
Huff Post Blogger Actually Does The Tampon-Vodka Thing, For Journalism
By now, the entire internet knows about that vodka-soaked tampon insertion thing that teenage girls (and, uh, guys) are supposedly doing to get drunk without actually drinking. Even Stephen Colbert is warning parents about it! And while the internet has never cared about "proof" before, suddenly, one Huffington Post blogger (who is not a teenager) has decided, for reasons entirely unknown, that the world deserves to know what really happens when you shove a vodka-soaked tampon into the darkest abyss of the female anatomy. Talk about inserting yourself into the story! Or... vice versa. Spoiler alert: it burns.
Bethenny Frankel Gives HuffPo The Smackdown
Bethenny Frankel: Not an $8 million woman! The former Real Housewife of New York is fighting back against Huffington Post, who erroneously accused the star of lying about her $120 million worth. Puh-leeze, people! Skinnygirl doesn't get kicked out of Whole Foods for a measly eight mil.
In Other News, NY Post Goes Tasteless With Troy Davis Tweet
We love the NY Post for their priceless headlines as well as the fact that they let comedians write their news columns. But then they send out things like the above tweet, and it really makes us question our devotion to grabbing a free tattered copy of the rag from the garbage every day.
City Commish Writes Stupid, Questionable Post on HuffPo
Betsy Perry is a marketing consultant, but her byline on the Huffington Post notes that she's a "New York Commissioner for Women's Issues, appointed by Mayor Bloomberg." Her post today, titled, "Montezuma's Revenge: Can The Best Thing About Mexico Really Be Beverly Hills Chihuahua?" opines, "Nowadays the best PR Mexico has is the movie 'Beverly Hills Chihuahua.' Between the guns, drugs, kidnappings and swine flu, this poor country can't catch a break and, maybe it shouldn't." Which was pretty poorly received by readers (one comment: "Wow. Really? Someone with such a lofty title actually wrote this?") and the mayor himself; City Room reports that Bloomberg said, "Inappropriate would be the word that came to mind... I don’t know what she was thinking about." Perry told CityRoom she was embarrassed, "That’s the way I write. I have a sense of humor that obviously wasn’t funny. I’m appalled at myself. I couldn’t possibly insult anybody... I’m sorry that in any way I reflected badly in this wonderful mayor. I hope that I am forgiven." Still, Perry couldn't quite explain why Beverly Hills Chihuahua was great for Mexico since the movie takes place in...California (where Beverly Hills is).
SNL Returns, Fred Armisen is Barack Obama
Saturday Night Live is back! Wasting no time digging into primary season, the opening skit was a debate between Hillary and Barack, immediately answering the big question posed this week: who will be our Fauxbama? The answer: Fred Armisen! The Huffington Post raises the controversial points of this decision, given the previously-noted lack of minority players on the show (Armisen is not black - he's Venezuelan and Japanese - but has played Prince on SNL) and the whole "Is Obama black enough?" debate. As for the sketch itself, it was about the media's infatuation with Obama - and it even included Obama Girl!
Bloomberg Brushes Up On Foreign Policy
Mayor Bloomberg may deny any desire to run for president in 2008, but his non-NYC homework seems to suggest otherwise. According to the Huffington Post, he has regular foreign policy briefing session "on a wide variety of topics...from non-proliferation to the defense budget, with a specific focus on the war in Iraq." Who has been briefing him? Former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations and an adviser during the Clinton administration Nancy Soderberg: "One source...
Striking SNL Cast Strikes Back with an Off-Air Show
Saturday night viewers of NBC didn't get a new episode of Saturday Night Live, but 150 audience members at the UCB Theater did! Live and un-aired, the show was to help raise money for crew members affected by the strike. Amy Poehler, who organized the event, made this statement:"The Upright Citizens Brigade Theater is a second home to a lot of these performers and writers. We are doing this to raise spirits, raise awareness, and...
City Puts $5 Million Towards Improving Middle Schools
While the jury is still out on whether Mayor Bloomberg's improvements to the public school system have really worked, he, along with City Council Speaker Christine Quinn and School Chancellor Joel Klein, announced new initiatives to help middle schools improve academic performance and provide better resources for students, parents, and teachers alike - plus $5 million to fund them. The money will go to the 50 lowest-performing middle schools, so they can staff up with guidance counselors, offer mentoring programs to less experienced supervisors, and offer Regents-level classes.
Nine Months Till NH, Democrats Debate
Last night, eight Democratic candidates met in the first debate of the already very long road to the 2008 presidential election. And the debate, which included Senators Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd, and Joseph Biden, as well as former Senator John Edwards and Mike Gravel, Representative Dennis Kucinich, and New Mexico Bill Richardson, was more an opportunity to criticize President Bush's policies, versus each other. With eight candidates vying to make the most of the time, it was a somewhat underwhelming debate.
Jon Benjamin, Actor and Comedian
Jon Benjamin started performing in Boston in the early 90's with comedian Sam Seder before getting involved with the David Cross lead Cross Comedy. Since then, he's been a fixture of comedy in all mediums. Home Movies, Wet Hot American Summer, and the popular live revue Tinkle are amongst his many credits. Gothamist sat down with Benjamin to find out more about this highly saught after comedic talent.
Pencil This In
THEATER: John Fugelsang, the son of an ex-nun and a former monk, declares war on right-wing evildoers in his one man comedy All the Wrong Reasons. Targets include sex, politics, Klansmen, stem cells and the drug war (which Fugelsang recently skewered on the Huffington Post.) Theater blogger What’s Good/What Blows raves: “…once he settles in to tell the story of trying to get through Orlando airport with an 1/8th of weed in his sock and another 1/8th in his girlfriend's bra, you're pretty much on the edge of your seat till the end. He even throws in some touching realizations. This is a great evening to take a date to.” - John Del Signore
Bye Bye Blum
Things were getting a little quiet over at The Village Voice, but now they've gone and started a racket again by firing their new editor, David Blum. At first watching the decline of the paper was somewhat amusing, but now it's just getting sad.
New School Student Apologizes to McCain
The New School's student speaker who spoke out against Senator John McCain during commencement exercises last Friday says she apologized to McCain afterwards. Jean Sara Rohe, whose speech about McCain drew a standing ovation, has been been in a pissing match on the Huffington Post with one of the McCain aides who wrote the senator's speech. Apparently McCain himself said he understood why Rohe had to make her remarks, and New School president Bob Kerrey noted both McCain's and Rohe's bravery for their speeches at the ceremony. What's funny is that Kerrey makes fun of McCain's friendship with President Bush in this month's Vogue (thank goodness Maureen Dowd is reading Men's Vogue to let us know that).
Graffiti Goes Electric at Eyebeam
Oooooh! This is so cool. The guys at Eyebeam, the techno-art atelier in Chelsea, have cooked up a way to electrify graffiti with LEDs:
Celebs to Form Group Blog That'll Give Other Bloggers Much to Blog About
Just what the world was waiting for! The NY Times reports that Arianna Huffington is starting a celebrity group blog with people like "Walter Cronkite, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Warren Beatty, James Fallows, Vernon E. Jordan Jr., Maggie Gyllenhaal, Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr., Diane Keaton, Norman Mailer and Mortimer B. Zuckerman." Huh. Did Huffington read the Businessweek article about blogs changing business and decide, "It's on"? It'll be called Huffington Post, the NY Times article positions it as a competitor to The Drudge Report, but it seems less that than a celebrity vanity project like, oh, we don't know...maybe like an episode of The Love Boat with more street cred and an ability for readers to comments. Huffington says it's "an affirmation of [blogs'/the blogosphere's] success and will only enrich and strengthen its impact on the national conversation," but Sure, it'll be cool to read what Walter Cronkite thinks, but we fear he'll get bogged down with despamming the system. And don't get us started on wondering if certain celebrities are actually posting or making a minion post for them.

