Subject: Celebrity News

• Best Films of 2008

  Looking back at Che, The Dark Knight, Milk, Slumdog Millionaire, Wall-E and many others, and looking ahead to 2009

  December 25, 2008

• Steroids, Baseball and Roger Clemens: Rocket and Brian McNamee Appear Before Congress Today

  February 13, 2008

• Miss Pop Rocks Loves (the First Half of) the Oscars

  February 24, 2008

• Seven Deadly Sins: Celebrity Edition

  March 26, 2008

• I Must Know Immediately If Beyonce and Jay-Z Are Married!

  April 7, 2008

• Episcopal and Cinco Ranch Win Big at Tommy Tune Awards

  April 24, 2008

• The Blog of Lists: 25 Vegan Musicians

  April 25, 2008

• Get Lit: Always By My Side: A Father’s Grace and a Sports Journey Unlike Any Other, by Jim Nantz

  May 3, 2008

• An Open Letter to Fans of Miguel Tejada

  May 20, 2008

• The 2008 MTV Movie Awards Turn Back the Clock

  June 2, 2008

• We Now Present... Steroids, The Musical

  June 4, 2008

• What I’d Like To Do to Dina Lohan and Denise Richards

  June 17, 2008

• Ten Performers Besides Bruce Springsteen Who Were Considered for the Super Bowl

  October 2, 2008

• Welcome Back, Beyonce

  October 8, 2008

• Ten Other Instances of "Sloppy Seconds"

  Sean Avery of the NHL's Dallas Stars was suspended for an indefinite period by the NHL on Tuesday for comments he made in Calgary on Tuesday. Speaking to reporters, he made a comment about several players dating his "sloppy seconds." And I know most of you in Houston would rather talk high school football than hockey, so you probably wouldn't know that Avery's "sloppy seconds" include Kim Bauer and Stacy's Mom, who's got it going on. And that got me to thinking. Lots of athletes date beautiful

  December 4, 2008

• Turning the Screw: T-Pain & Friends, Pimp C, Asher Roth, Kanye vs. Colbert, Q-Tip, Suge Knight, Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, Young Jeezy, Paul Wall and More

  Welcome back to Turning the Screw, Rocks Off's weekly rap post. It probably won't rhyme, at least most of the time. E-mail tips to introducingliston@gmail.com. Thanks, homies.   Single of the Week: "Chopped and Screwed" Lil' O, T-Pain and Ludacris Wire To Wire Matt Sonzala et al. paid tribute to the late Pimp C last week on KPFT's "Damage Control." If you didn't hear it, download it here. As Mr. Sonzala is fond of saying, "It went down, mayne." Arrest warrant issued for DMX. In related ne

  December 8, 2008

• Barry Bonds Might Not Go to Jail

  As far as I'm concerned, the big news is that Barry Bonds might be getting off. Yep, that's right. Barry Bonds might not be going to jail. For those who don't know all of the details, but do know that Bonds is going on trial in March, know this. He's not going on trial for using steroids. He's going on trial for perjury, for supposedly lying to a Federal grand jury about whether he ever used steroids. Bonds stated that he never used steroids. The Feds, having possession of his records, k

  January 16, 2009

• The Bush Twins' Real Letter to the Obama Girls

  Did you hear how the Bush twins, Jenna and Barbara, recently sent an open letter to the Obama girls, offering up advice for surviving life in The White House? Now, to be honest, I thought their original letter was a truly sweet and lovely gesture, and I actually think the Bush twins have turned out to be quite mature and generous young women, but dang if the pop culture whore in me can't get snarky about this, too. I had to wonder what a more private letter - not posted in The Wall Street J

  January 27, 2009

• Most. Boring. Oscars. Ever.

  Ugh! The only interesting thing about the whole damn show was the realization that Goldie Hawn looks like Mickey Rourke. Stop with the work, lady! Seriously. God love Hugh Jackman, but this is not the Tonys. Could that Beyonce "Best of the Musicals" number been any more cheese ball? I have expected Brad Pitt to jump up from his front row seat and start in on "When You're a Jet." Bleh. Speaking of, crazy about Jennifer Aniston and Earth Mother sitting right near each other. Was I the on

  February 23, 2009

• Chart Check: Texans on Billboard

  A periodic look at how Lone Star natives are faring in the national music biz...Hot 100 (singles) 10. Kelly Clarkson, "My Life Would Suck Without You" 12. Jamie Foxx feat. T-Pain, "Blame It" 16. Beyonce, "Single Ladies (Put a Ring On It)" 21. Beyonce, "Diva" 41. Beyonce, "Halo" Billboard 200 (albums) 6. Beyonce, I Am... Sasha Fierce 9. Jamie Foxx, Intuition 87. Miranda Lambert, Crazy Ex-Girlfriend 100. Willie Nelson & Asleep at the Wheel, Willie and the Wheel

  March 11, 2009

• Barry Bonds Might Not Go to Jail

  As far as I'm concerned, the big news is that Barry Bonds might be getting off. Yep, that's right. Barry Bonds might not be going to jail. For those who don't know all of the details, but do know that Bonds is going on trial in March, know this. He's not going on trial for using steroids. He's going on trial for perjury, for supposedly lying to a Federal grand jury about whether he ever used steroids. Bonds stated that he never used steroids. The Feds, having possession of his records, k

  January 16, 2009

• Recent Super Bowl Halftime Highlights and Lowlights

  January 29, 2009

• Akon: Freedom

  January 1, 2009

• Beyoncé: I Am...Sasha Fierce

  December 11, 2008

• Beyoncé's Back

  November 20, 2008

• Superproducer Pharrell Williams is at Home in N.E.R.D.

  The Nose Knows

  September 4, 2008

• Apocalypse Whatever: Tropic Thunder

  Ben Stiller's Hollywood send-up lacks firepower

  August 14, 2008

• Shine a Light, The Stones and Scorsese

  This film is a treat for movie and music fans alike

  August 7, 2008

• Bayousphere

  July 17, 2008

• Kanye, Jay-Z, Mary J. and Rihanna Clamor for Diva Status

  May 1, 2008

• Remaking Michael Jackson

  April 3, 2008

• Marilyn Manson's celebrity dating club

  Mechanical Animals

  February 28, 2008

• The improbable redemption of Ashlee Simpson

  "La La" Love You

  February 14, 2008

• Rock Star Resolutions

  Who vows to stay off the sauce this year?

  January 10, 2008

• Top 10 Most Hated Rappers

  Who made the shit list

  January 10, 2008

• Idol Beat: The Top Three Results

  Photos by Frank Micelotta/ Fox Homeward Bound: Danny Gokey's exit didn't prompt a whole lot of tears."I think we've had enough suspense, enough commercials - let's just get to it." This is what Danny Gokey told Ryan Seacrest, and, by proxy, America. We were in agreeance - Wednesday night's show was almost over, and at the point Gokey said the above, Katy Perry's appearance was the last roadblock standing in the way of everybody on Earth discovering whether the Idol axe would fall on MOR

  May 14, 2009

• Ciara: Fantasy Ride

  May 21, 2009

• Summer of Salvation

  May 21, 2009

• Remembering 1969, Part 3: The Beginning of the End for the Beatles

  Note: see Part 1 here and Part 2 here. For most of 1969, the Beatles were pretty much comatose - after the disastrous Get Back sessions (which would later spawn the Phil Spector-produced Let It Be), they reconvened to the studio that spring to record the music for what would become their final recorded opus, Abbey Road. But the soon-to-be former members of the band were not in any way inactive. On September 13, John Lennon and Yoko Ono assembled a pick-up band formed by Eric Clapton, Klaus Voor

  June 15, 2009

• Ben Kweller Remembers Michael Jackson at House of Blues

  Rocks Off just found this video of Dallas-born, Austin-dwelling indie-cum-roots-rocker Ben Kweller dedicating a melancholy piano ballad to the late King of Pop at Thursday night's House of Blues show. Those of you who cheered when Kweller announced "Michael Jackson is gone" can rest assured you're bound for the same circle of hell as the wingnuts who keep posting Michael Jackson jokes in our comments section.

  June 26, 2009

• Gossip Girls

  June 18, 2009

• This Week In Beyonce: BET Awards, Remembering Jacko, Michelle Obama in Crowd and More

  Queen B: Rocks Off usually loves your style, but this just equals two words: Ask somebody. From one superstar to another: Beyonce pays tribute to Michael Jackson at her concert. "He taught me everything I know," she told the crowd at Philadelphia's Wachovia Center last week. Tyra vs. Beyonce: Who'd win?

  June 29, 2009

• Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

  July 2, 2009

• Oh, The Lakers Will Learn All About Ron Artest

  On the way to his fourth championship, Kobe Bryant was guarded by Mickael Pietrus, Hedo Turkoglu, Courtney Lee, Dahntay Jones, Carmelo Anthony, Shane Battier, and all of the Jazz players whose names Jerry Sloan could remember. None of them had the combination of speed, size, and advanced weaponry needed to stop the league's best scorer. Based on these confrontations, there is no reason to believe that anybody would ever have figured out how to stop Kobe. As soon as Dwight Howard shanked those tw

  July 7, 2009

• Beyonce Scheduled to Perform at Michael Jackson Memorial

  Daniel Kramer ABC News is reporting that Beyonce, who sang tributes to Michael Jackson at her Toyota Center concert and at New Orleans' Essence Music Festival over the weekend, will perform at Jackson's funeral in Los Angeles this afternoon. Also expected to attend are Justin Timberlake, P Diddy, Smokey Robinson, Akon and Jennifer Hudson, while previously confirmed guests include Motown Records' Berry Gordy, Stevie Wonder, Mariah Carey and Usher. "You're talking about the A-list of all A-lists,"

  July 7, 2009

• The Onion, Under New Chinese Management, Analyzes Yao Ming

   Ever since the shocking news came that The Onion had sold itself to a Chinese company that also sells fish by-products, we've been waiting for it. The Yao Ming story.Today it came. The entire world population confirmed Friday that Houston Rockets center Yao Ming is the greatest athlete in the history of sports and a glowing symbol of what hardworking citizens may become if they remain loyal to their government.Yao Ming officially averages 84 points per basketball game and has a shooting pe

  July 23, 2009

• 25 Reasons You Can't Talk Enough About Brett Favre Tonight

  ​It's always nice when the local pro sports squad gets national TV attention. Tonight, for instance, the Houston Texans are taking on the Minnesota Vikings on ESPN's Monday Night Football. Sure, the game doesn't really count for anything, but it's nice to get a little attention.So I've done a little checking, and have discovered the 25 major topics that ESPN will discuss during tonight's game.1. Brett Favre.2. Brett Favre.3. Is there a schism in the Vikings locker room as the result of Fa

  August 31, 2009

• All Falls Down: Kanye West's Six - Well, Seven Now - Douchiest Moments

  ​If you're aware of Kanye West's - whom Pollstar is reporting stops at Toyota Center with Lady GaGa January 22; good luck selling tickets for that one now, kiddo - past behavior at all, then you're probably surprised this article isn't longer. His habit of blurting out inappropriate, nonsensical non sequiturs, his tendency to throw a tantrum at the tiniest provocation, his love of blogging in all caps - you'd normally expect this kind of behavior from a 12-year-old Xbox Live player in Ritalin

  September 14, 2009

• Pop Rocks: New Blood For Hollywood. Please

  ​I used to review movies (over here, if you care), an endeavor I had to quit for a variety of reasons: my hectic neurosurgery rotation, for one, as well as the increasing physical demands of the new Mrs. Vonder Haar, Carla Gugino. But among the non-imaginary factors influencing my decision was the way all those movies were starting to blur together. I attended, at most, three screenings a week, so it wasn't oversaturation. Early onset dementia? An attention span whittled to nothing by decades

  October 22, 2009

• Game Time: Woke Up This Morning, Got Myself LeBron

  ​Those of you who listen to my show know that I am fond of placing the "occasional" friendly wager. While handicapping the day-to-day and week-to-week ebb and flow of a football, basketball, or (if you're really sick) baseball season can be enjoyable and, at times, lucrative (especially when betting against the bottom ten QB's in the NFL has turned into an ATM), where I have had the most success the last few years has been placing futures wagers on the over/under for total wins in a season. An

  October 27, 2009