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Web Log Archives: January 04, 2004 - January 10, 2004

Thursday, January 8, 2004

Carly has posted the results of the First Annual Pornblography Awards.

Catherine Keenan browses the succinct, quirky personals in the London Review of Books, the New York Review of Books and other highbrow publications. "In many ways, the form is particularly suited to writers, academics and intellectuals, who often display themselves to their best advantage on the page, where dress sense and dashing good looks don't count for as much as cleverness and an ease of expression."

LA Weekly interviews Hawaiian-born artist Tracy Nakayama, who paints erotic watercolors with a 70s free-love vibe. Her exhibition "Free but Not Easy" runs through February at the Acuna-Hansen Gallery. (Her first solo show, also at Acuna-Hansen, was called "Cause Everyone Wants to Feel Good".)

In today’s “porn by the pound” world, Tracy Nakayama’s artwork is a welcome return to a more natural way of viewing human sexuality. One can practically taste the Boone’s Farm and Kona bud as Nakayama’s multihued, single-ink couples fondle and explore one another in compositions that include ornate tapestries, feathers, babies and even animals. The cumulative effect of Nakayama’s feelin’-groovy sensibility recalls the immensity and innocence of the first time.

I have no idea what "a more natural way of viewing human sexuality" might mean, but "feelin’-groovy sensibility" is an apt description. Groovy without irony. This Tracy Nakayama fan page (I'm not sure what else to call it) has a good collection of links to her work online. Check out "Wet" to start.

Wednesday, January 7, 2004

Following the lead of Snoop Dogg, Ice-T and several lesser-known rappers, 50 Cent has signed to make a porn video.

Digital Sin will host superstar rapper 50 Cent at its booth this Saturday at the AVN Adult Entertainment Expo in Las Vegas, where it will officially announce he has signed an exclusive deal to create an interactive sex DVD bearing his name.

Digital Sin will collaborate with 50 Cent and G-Unit Adult Films to produce Groupie Luv, which will take viewers inside his X-rated lifestyle.

Jeff Mullen, director of marketing and media for Digital Sin, told AVN.com the DVD would provide an all-access look at 50 Cent and the G-Unit as they travel the country doing concerts. He indicated that 50 Cent would not be the person having sex, but will be the center of attention and directing the party.

"You're banging their girls backstage at the concerts and hanging with them on the tour bus," Mullen said. "The viewer will be able to choose which girls have sex and where the sex will take place."

(Link snagged from Fleshbot.)

The Alphaville Herald, a webzine devoted to The Sims Online, runs an interview with Mistress Maria LaVeaux and her slave Toy. "They discuss their pre-Alpha careers as cyber-escorts in other TSO cities, their arrival in Alpha, and their introduction when Lady Julianna called Mistress LaVeaux to mediate a dispute between two Doms in the Alphaville BDSM community. They discuss the practice of Gor, its culture, history and language (as well as the fictional/literary origins of Gor), and explain the ways in which it differs from other forms of BDSM. They explain how Gor is a projection of their inner selves and is not inherently wedded to any set of doctrines and they reject the claims of some vocal Alphaville residents that they are a BDSM cult." (Link snagged from Boing Boing.)

XXX in a Tom Clancy game? In the latest Rainbow Six videogame (confusingly titled Rainbow Six 3), players pass through a garage with posters on the wall. The posters display a URL, but game publisher UbiSoft didn't bother registering the URL. Can you guess what happened a few days after the game's release? "Texan Tony Ashcraft was one of the early buyers of the game and noted the URL as he played. Thinking the link might feature ancillary information on the game, he told me he typed it into his browser, only to find no one owned the domain. On Nov. 22, he bought it and immediately filled it with porn links."

Tuesday, January 6, 2004

The barriers between the mainsteam and adult entertainment industries continue to break down. Universal Music Group and Vivid Entertainment Group are teaming up to develop a new cable network.

The channel would feature uncut music videos and original music-flavored programming. Backers believe it could fill a void for those seeking "raw" lyrics and images, creating what one called "more of a free-expression place" than traditional TV outlets. [...]

In a nod to the proposed channel's uncensored content, it is called 1 AM, short for the 1st Amendment. Uncut videos and live concerts and complete song lyrics will distinguish the channel from MTV, which edits language and graphic content.

Unlike MTV, which is carried as part of advertising-supported basic cable packages, 1 AM would be available only as a commercial-free premium channel, similar to HBO.

Universal is pitching the new channel as a joint venture with the Endeavor talent agency, along with the adult-video entrepreneurs behind Vivid Entertainment Group, and Shady Records, the Universal-financed label run by rap superstar Eminem. Sources close to the deal said the ownership structure has not been set in stone, but one idea under discussion has Universal and the Vivid partners each owning 45% of the channel, while Endeavor and Shady would own 5% stakes.

They're negotiating with DirecTV to carry the channel and shooting for a summer 2004 debut. More.

Britney wedding update: The Smoking Gun posts Spears' complaint for annulment and the court's decree of annulment.

New York Post: Sweetie Jason Heartbroken.

Jason Allen Alexander may be saying his brief marriage to Britney Spears was just a lark - but pals say the Southern stud is secretly crushed the pop tart didn't take it seriously.

Sources close to the groom say the pair - hometown pals since childhood - have been dating on the sly and that to him, the wedding vows were real.

"No one gets married as a joke, that would be stupid," said Jared Prescott, Alexander's best friend.

Can't argue with that.

"It was just crazy, man," Alexander told "Access Hollywood." "And we were just looking at each other and said, 'Let's do something wild, crazy. Let's go get married, just for the hell of it.'"

Alexander told "Inside Edition" that neither he nor Spears was drunk when they wed and they got the idea in her suite at the Palms Casino Hotel.

"We had just got through watching 'The Texas Chain Saw Massacre,'" Alexander said. "We were just chilling in the room, about 3:30 a.m., and we had so much fun, just looking out at the city and the lights."

From another Post story:

While Alexander and sources close to Spears swear no alcohol played a part in their marriage, sources say Spears was spotted handing a homeless person a bottle of Jack Daniels on her way out of the chapel the morning she was wed.

Another lucky groom at the Little White Wedding Chapel that morning managed to snap a photo of Spears and Alexander, then sold the photo rights for $200,000. The photo will probably be on the cover of next week's Us Weekly.

LEGAL ISSUE: Lincoln Plawg asks, Why didn't Britney cite non-consummation as grounds for the annulment?

UP CLOSE AND PERSONAL: Britney's Quickie Hubby Described As A Good Kid Who Likes To Party.

Monday, January 5, 2004

More secret celebrity marriage rumors. . . . Tacked onto the bottom of the Las Vegas Review-Journal story about Britney's quickie marriage is this tidbit:

It was a wedding chapel owner's dream: Walking through the door at the Las Vegas Boulevard chapel were Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez.

And they weren't impersonators.

Gus Gallo, owner of the Wedding Bells Chapel, across from the Stardust, immediately knew what was going on last Tuesday.

"My friend from Boston knows Ben and brought 'em over to help me get some business. They looked around, and they left right away," said Gallo.

Remember, a few months ago, when Ben and J-Lo scouting wedding chapels would have been huge gossip news in its own right? They milked it too long, their moment has passed. . . . Meanwhile, the Toronto Star passes along vague rumors that Justin Timberlake and Cameron Diaz got married last week.

Sunday, January 4, 2004

Britney Spears got married at a quickie marriage chapel in Las Vegas around 5 am Saturday morning. The groom is one Jason Allen Alexander, a childhood friend of Britney's. (None of the stories have photos of this guy. He's not in Google. But it's only a matter of time before he's on a reality TV show.) The Las Vegas Review-Journal prints a copy of their marriage license. She has reportedly already started the process of getting an annulment.

Asked to confirm that the ceremony occurred, a woman at the front desk of the Little White Wedding Chapel politely said she "can't say anything about it." She then zipped her lips.

Spears, in Las Vegas to celebrate New Year's Eve while staying in the "Real World" suite at the Palms, was seen dining at N9NE, the Palms' steakhouse, on Saturday night with Alexander, her brother Brian, manager Larry Rudolph, Palms owner George Maloof and friends.

More from the People magazine story (available only to AOL subscribers, so I won't link to it here).

The wedding plan was apparently hatched Friday night while Spears and Alexander were partying at Ghostbar, the hip club in the Palms Casino Hotel. The club's bouncers got word that Spears wanted a limo. One of the hotel's lime-green limos was provided, being driven by a hotel bellman, who shuttled the couple to the Little White Wedding Chapel, a famous quick-hitch place where everybody from Dixie Chick Natalie Maines to Bruce and Demi have tied the knot.

Chapel staff told the couple that they couldn't get married without a license, so the pair was taken by the limo to the Clark County Marriage Bureau office in the downtown Las Vegas courthouse at some point after 12:30 a.m. on Saturday. They applied for and were granted the marriage license, then rode back to the chapel, where they were married.

Spears wore jeans and a baseball cap. Alexander had on a casual shirt. The bellman walked Spears down the aisle. There were no friends or family in attendance.

The whole thing was videotaped by the chapel, and Spears has been showing the world's craziest wedding video to friends.

"I don't even know if she loves him," says a source.

The honeymoon, such as it was, took place back at a luxury suite at the Palms immediately after the wedding. Then, Saturday night, Spears dined with her manager, her brother, Palms owner George Maloof and a couple of friends at a hotel steakhouse.

Little is known about Alexander. A source says that he and Spears were childhood friends who recently hooked up -- then hitched up. They had spent New Year's Eve together at the hotel's Rain nightclub, then retired to the suite.

Note #1: Damn, when I hooked up with Britney she just laughed off my quickie marriage proposal. Gotta work on my technique. Note #2: The People and Review-Journal stories disagree on whether Alexander attended the Saturday night dinner with Britney. Note #3: the Las Vegas courthouse is open for business in the middle of the night?!?

RELATED: The New York Daily News reports on Britney's New Years Eve partying at the Palms. "When the meal was over she and her friends went to the Ghost Bar, which is at the top of the hotel, to see in the New Year. She wanted to see all the fireworks. Basketball star Kobe Bryant and the Hilton sisters were in the bar, too. Afterwards she went to Rain, which is also in the hotel, and carried on partying with her friends. She must have drunk at least three bottles of champagne."

BIG QUESTION: Will she be changing her name to Britney Alexander?

UPDATE: News of the World thinks this photo shows Britney with new husband Jason Allen Alexander, but they're not positive. The article also notes that Michael Jordan and Joan Collins got married at the Little White Wedding Chapel, though not to each other.

WOW: Want to get married just like the stars? Check out the Little White Wedding Chapel website! Cheapskates can get the drive-thru ceremony for only $40. "Our Drive Thru Tunnel Of Vows has recently been expanded to include a romantic ceiling with cherubs and starlights. Perfect for a unique, yet romantic ceremony." Or you can order the Michael Jordan Special for $479, or the Joan Collins Special for $579 (the extra $100 gets you a few extra boutonnieres, corsages and candles).

CATTY: Britney's bad hair day. More.

UPDATE: Associated Press reports that Spears and Alexander have already prepared the annulment papers. "The two arranged an annulment yesterday afternoon in the presence of several people, including a Las Vegas lawyer, said a source close to Spears who spoke on condition of anonymity. The signed annulment will be official when the courts open tomorrow morning, the source said."

HUMOR: Photoshopped wedding photo at Low Culture.

MONDAY UPDATE: The New York Post talks to folks back home in Jason and Britney's hometown of Kentwood, Louisiana.

"We were all like, 'Oh, my god!' " said Sonic server Michael Edwards, 16.

The article also has reaction from the fathers of the bride and groom.

Alexander's father said he wouldn't be surprised if Spears yearned for his studly son.

"He takes real good care of himself because he's a sportsman, and I guess the girls like that," Dennis Alexander said.

Spears' dad, Jamie, was less forthcoming about his thoughts on the wedding - going so far as to even refuse to acknowledge there had been one.

Peppered with questions from reporters outside his home, a visibly annoyed Spears spat chewing tobacco on the ground and sniffed, "There was no wedding."

Meanwhile, the Jerusalem Post says Kabbala may have led Britney to marry.

PUNDITRY: Kieran Healy writes, "If Britney Spears were gay, I suppose this would be an excellent example of the kind of thing that’s ruining the institution of marriage."