Lifestyles of the Fierce and Tragic

Irish wakes are good, sitting Shivah is O.K., jazz funerals are great, and ayatullah processions have their moments, but the people you really want to show up when you die are the gays. The Abbey, a gay bar in West Hollywood, is still mourning Elizabeth Taylor, who hung out there with her dog Daisy, drinking watermelon-and-apple martinis

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Obamas host Halloween at the White House

Obamas host Halloween at the White House President Barack Obama welcomed area students and children of military families Sunday to celebrate Halloween at the White House. Joined by his wife, Michelle, the president handed out treats to the gaggles of costumed children gathered on the lawn. Neither the president nor his wife dressed up. The […]

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Box Office Weekend: Destination Horror

“Doctor, I have this strange dream — that every three years there’s a movie about some guy who has a strange dream about people who die in some awful calamity — and that he acts on the dream by saving his friends, who then begin dying in grotesque ways — and that, each time, it’s really the same movie, just with a different calamity each time — and, this is the weirdest part, large numbers of moviegoers keep paying to see it! What do you think I should do?” “Buy stock in the company that produces the movies.” We wouldn’t absolutely insist on that last part — since Warner Bros., the studio in charge of the Final Destination horror films, is a corporate sibling of your favorite web site — but there’s no question that the series has been a triennial cash cow. The 2000 original earned $113 million worldwide; the 2003 sequel took in $90 million; and the third , in 2006, another $113 million. And since each is made for a thrifty $25 million, there are big profits in the FD franchise.

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Jeff Dunham, Puppet Master

For most people, being caught in an enclosed space with either a terrorist or a ventriloquist would qualify as a hostage situation. But Jeff Dunham, a ventriloquist, is perhaps the most popular stand-up comedian in the U.S. And he broke through by playing straight man to a terrorist — a fiberglass one.

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