New parents Beyoncé and Jay-Z haven't yet showed off their daughter, Blue Ivy, to the public (friends say she's "so beautiful"), but they have announced her godparents. Or rather, a source has done it for them. And it's a real "Aha Moment!" more ›

Great American Stoner Novelist Jonathan Franzen confirmed yesterday that he is indeed adapting his 2001 National Book Award-winner The Corrections into an HBO series. He told a packed session at the New Yorker Festival that the story of the complicated lives of the Lambert family would be a full four-year television series. He also confirmed that indie filmmaker Noah Baumbach is involved with the project, ostensibly as director. Watch Franzen discuss the show with New Yorker editor David Remnick below: more ›

Michael Douglas told Oprah today that his wife Catherine Zeta-Jones was "outed" in her struggle with bipolar II disorder. Zeta-Jones's story has been big news lately, landing the star on the cover of People and inspiring encouraging responses from everyone from ABC News to Jezebel, but Douglas's interview implies that not all of the attention is welcome. more ›

You didn't think Oprah Winfrey was going to end her long-running television show and not have a plan, did you? Turns out the talk show host has set a new goal for herself: dominate the Broadway stage. On her show Friday, she told Chris Rock (currently on Broadway in Motherfu*ker With The Hat), "It’s the one thing I want to do... It’s my dream." more ›

Beloved spectacles enthusiast Tina Fey has had a busy month, between the release of her book Bossypants and reassuring people about the future of 30 Rock. But online, the biggest headlines have involved her two kids: Fey announced on Oprah this week that she was pregnant with her second child, and told Dave Letterman last night that the kid will be financially supported by Oprah the rest of her life, and will probably turn out to be a lesbian paleontologist. Check the video below: more ›

Yesterday, the trial of Raj Rajaratnam, a hedge fund founder accused of a huge insider trading ring (how huge? well, he's out on $100 million bail), began yesterday, The federal prosecutor declared, "Greed and corruption — that’s what this case is all about," while Rajaratnam's defense said, "The government has it wrong." But who are the people who have to listen to dense financial jargon for weeks, if not months? Well, you can bet at least some are Oprah Winfrey fans. more ›

So what did the producers of Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark think of yesterday's critical pile-on? They were very disappointed. The idea that those selfish scribes wouldn't keep their mouths shut, even after they were asked nicely, is just not fair. “Changes are still being made, and any review that runs before the show is frozen is totally invalid,” a spokesman whined to the Post. more ›

Oprah may be launching her new network from Los Angeles, but it looks like she's eyeing the East Coast for a new permanent home. According to the NY Post, she was house-hunting yesterday along the banks of the Hudson, and amongst the homes she viewed was a $68 million mansion in Alpine, New Jersey (that's about a 30 minute drive into the city)—on the grounds of the old Frick estate. more ›

Like many people confronted with the cruel reality of homelessness on a night out in the Meatpacking District, Oprah Winfrey reportedly thought she could fake that her purse was empty (really, Oprah?) and have panhandler Julio Bazan be on his way. But that was before she heard his killer material! He joked, "Hey, Oprah, why is it good to date a homeless man? [Because] when you're finished, you can drop him off anywhere!" The joke was so good that Oprah reportedly handed him five $20s through the window of her limo. Bazan says he spent it on booze, underwear and a steak dinner. What, you can think of something better on which to spend it? more ›

Yesterday, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced that he would be donating $100 million to the Newark on the most important political stage, The Oprah Winfrey Show. Excuse us if we're skeptical, but we wondered why Zuckerberg chose Newark when he was born in White Plains, went to Harvard, and really has nothing to do with New Jersey whatsoever. He cleared it up on the show, saying, "Newark is really just 'cause I believe in these guys," speaking of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Newark Mayor Cory Booker. It also turns out that Zuckerberg originally wanted the donation to be anonymous. Right! more ›

Jay Leno is doing some damage control after his role in the Great Late Night War of 2010. He went on Oprah today to talk about taking back the The Tonight Show from Conan O'Brien, saying he doesn't regret anything, because the decisions made weren't his. He told the daytime host, "Anything they did would have been better. If they had come in and shot everybody, it would have been, ‘Oh, the people were murdered.’ But it would have been a two day story.” more ›

Remember how last week a reporter told Levi Johnston, the father of Sarah Palin's grandson, that Palin had declined to "trash" him during her interview taping with Oprah Winfrey? And Johnston remarked, "She's being smart. She knows what I got on her."? Well, that interview finally aired today, and it turns out Palin totally did trash him! So can we please get what he has on her now? more ›

On tomorrow's episode of Oprah, the woman who was severely mauled by a 200-pound chimp will appear and discuss "how she's adjusting, how she maintains her spirit, and what the future holds." Charlas Nash has been recovering at the Cleveland Clinic ever since the March incident where she "lost her nose, lips, eyelids, hands and bone structure in her mid-face and suffered significant brain, eye and tissue injuries in the attack." Back in June, her brothers said she was staying strong; more recently, her family has sued the chimp's owner and is planning on suing the state of Connecticut. more ›

Oprah filmed her show in Central Park today (it's not her first time going live from New York), getting visits from Mayor Bloomberg, Mariah Carey, Hugh Jackman, Regis & Kelly, and more. Plus, she was all decked out in her Mad Men-era clothing (side effect of having Don Draper and his missus appear on your show, we suppose). The episode from uptown airs today at 4 p.m. (but you're at work, right? So you'll have to catch the re-run at 1 a.m.); the Mad Men episode airs Monday. And for all you subway readers, she picked Say You're One of Them by Uwem Akpan as her next book club book, though it sounds a little too intense for a commute. more ›

Newsweek's cover story this week is about Oprah Winfrey and "Why Health Advice on Oprah Could Make You Sick." Ouch! The first example mentions how actress Suzanne Somers was on the show, explaining her hormone therapy regime ("She smears progesterone on her other arm two weeks a month. And once a day, she uses a syringe to inject estrogen directly into her vagina"), prompting Oprah to say, "Many people write Suzanne off as a quackadoo. But she just might be a pioneer." While Oprah did have critics present, they weren't given the prominence Somers had; Albert Einstein College of Medicine director of endocrinology tells Newsweek that Somers "simply repackag[ed] the old, discredited idea that menopause is some kind of hormone-deficiency disease, and that restoring them will bring back youth." While many of Oprah's medical endorsements are taken to task, Newsweek does give props for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the Columbia Presbyterian cardiac surgeon: "On one show, 'Everybody Poops,' Oz conducted a genuinely fascinating seminar on what comes out the other end. (It should be shaped like an S and 'hit the water like a diver from Acapulco.' Who knew?)" more ›

If the demand for the free grilled chicken combo meal continues at its current pace, KFC could run out of chicken by Saturday. An anonymous source explains why to Business Insider: "The stores cannot cook the product fast enough, sales were up 25-35% BEFORE this. A franchisee today told me KFC is projected to strip their entire supply chain of bird by Saturday. I am not making that up. They are scrambling to source more chicken before Sunday. By Sunday, because it's Mothers Day, one of their busiest days of the year. It's possible they could be out of chicken on Mothers Day." more ›

[UPDATE BELOW] Yesterday Oprah Winfrey thought she'd be nice and arrange for free KFC grilled chicken for everybody. Big mistake. The demand for free fowl has been so overwhelming that many people are having a dickens of a time getting their chickens because the website can't handle all the coupon downloads. This morning Grub Street compiled some of the more "heart wrenching" comments from thwarted KFC consumers on Oprah's site, such as "I'M MELTING CAN'T GET THE COUPONS PLEASE IS THERE ANOTHER WAY OF GETTING THEM ???? HUNGRY FOR THE CHIICKEN" and "Nice gesture since I am unemployed and a free dinner would have been nice. I could not download the coupon." more ›

Tina Fey has been making her 30 Rock promo rounds (the season premiere airs tomorrow) and appeared on Conan last night, where the first segment was all about that other show: SNL. (She says her recent stints at her old gig have been akin to "moving back in with your parents.") more ›

30 Rock is pulling in the big names for their upcoming season (which begins October 30th). Jennifer Aniston was just shooting an episode (pictured), Will Arnett is also reprising his Devin Banks role, and now word is coming in that Oprah Winfrey herself will even be making an appearance. E! reports that the episode "is tentatively set to air Nov. 6. According to reliable insiders, the initial plan (subject to change) is that she will be playing herself, with all of her scenes opposite Tina Fey's fabulous Liz Lemon." Earlier this year Fey said, "I still want Oprah to play my best friend. I want to spend time with Oprah. And I don't know what I need to do to make that happen." She also said, "We would love to work with Britney. I worked with her twice on 'SNL' and she was very professional and nice." more ›

Long Island Lolita Amy Fisher has been happy to talk about her sex tape, her DJ-ing career, and her current life to pretty much any and all press. But throw in a question from the daughter of Joey and Mary Jo Buttafuoco, you don't get Amy. more ›

continues to embarrass the book publishing industry. Writer Margaret Jones, who told her publisher she was a half-white, half-Native American raised by a black foster family in South Central L.A. and former Bloods gang member, was exposed as Margaret Seltzer, white private school graduate from Sherman Oaks, California. more ›

Quest for the Lost Ark (Sunday, 8:00 p.m., History Channel) Tudor Parfitt looks more like Jeremy Clarkson than Harrison Ford, but he is a real life Indiana Jones. This History Channel documentary special traces his search for the Ark of the Covenant – the same thing the fictional Indy searched for in Raiders of the Lost Ark. more ›

• Today on the Gothamist Newsmap: an injured police officer at Floyd Bennet Field in Brooklyn, a gas leak on South 8th St. and Wythe Ave. in Brooklyn, and a bank robbery at the North Fork branch on 87th St. and Broadway in Manhattan.
  
• The FDNY will be stationing a battalion chief at the Deutsche Bank building until it is fully dismantled.
  
• Someone in the Clinton campaign said that there's a 5% chance that in the event of a deadlock between Obama and Clinton at the Democrats' national convention, Al Gore may arise as a compromise candidate.
  
• Plans for a Veselka on the Bowery may be on the rocks, as a liquor license for the Avalon building location looks unlikely.
  
• The 69-year-old man, who was killed after being sideswiped by a cab and then run over by a bus on West 57th St. yesterday, was on his way to deliver candy to Oprah's best pal Gayle King.
  
• A 500 lb. man is suing the FDNY for $5 million after ten firefighters, who were trying to take him to the hospital using a pulley-and-platform rig to get the man out the building, dropped him down a flight of stairs.
  
• Patty Hearst's French bulldog won Best of Opposite Sex in the breed's category (a male won Best of Breed) at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.
  
• City Council Speaker Christine Quinn proposed a citywide network of water-borne mass transit, where boats could ferry New Yorkers from stop to stop all over the city's five boroughs.
  

Okay people, time for your morning update on The Ledge – come on, you know you want it. Even Daniel Day Lewis says there’s nothing else to talk about. (Scroll down.) more ›

Missy Chase Lapine, the children’s cookbook author who claims Jessica Seinfeld – the comedian’s wife (pictured) – “brazenly plagiarized” her work is now taking it up a notch by slapping both Jessica and Jerry with lawsuits. She’s accusing Jerry of defamation because when the scandal made headlines back in October, Jerry went on TV and talked some trash that was as arrogant as it was stupid. more ›

A week and a half ago, former NJ Governor James McGreevey and his ex-wife Dina Matos McGreevey were fighting over a birthday party McGreevey and his partner were planning for 6-year-old daughter Jacqueline, another public spat in their contentious divorce. In spite of a judge's repeated requests for the McGreeveys to settle their differences for the sake of their daughter, we know a lot about their squabbling. The Post runs down the greatest hits. Matos... more ›

Oprah Winfrey introduced one of her favorite things people at what the NY Times called "the largest spectacle of the campaign cycle" - the Oprah for Barack Obama rally in Des Moines, Iowa. Winfrey said, "For the very first time in my life, I feel compelled to stand up and to speak out for the man who I believe has a new vision for America," and told the audience of 15,000 said, "I am... more ›