'Pretty Woman' sequel wins 5 Oscars

Oscars 2025: The surprising (and boring Conan) moments everyone’s talking about! |⭐OSSA

Conan O' Brien's opening monologue at 97th Oscars, Hollywood's night to praise Hollywood

If "sex sells," who's buying? Young audiences.

Hollywood loves a sequel. Anora took home five, beating everyone else. Hollywood (the mainstream media dream machine) conditions us what to want and aspire to:

• I'm a man. I want to be rich and find a wh*re with a heart of gold.
• I'm a wh*re. I want to get me a rich man with a trunk of gold.
• I'm a they. I don't know what I want, other than all of it. Is that available?
• This is Hollywood. We'll imagineer it for you all!

"How can we milk more money out of Pretty Woman if Julia Roberts isn't pulling in ticket sales like she used to?"

"I know! Let's dump Buddhist Dick Gere and Hindu Julie Roberts and replace them with like a really rich Russian, who's too young to have that much money and handsome. But here's the twist, he's nice, too!"

"How's that a twist? Richard Gere was the nicest John ever, and Roberts was a ditz."

"Yeah, a sexy ditz. We'll make the protagonist smart, a shark in this version, and -- get this -- they're the victims, like of the Mafia. The women will eat it up, eat their hearts out, and their daughters will push ticket sales like it's all new material."

"Brilliant! What do we call it?"

"Hmm, we'll ask the Numerology Department to come up with something esoteric like, 'A whore huh?'"

"'A bore huh?'"?

"No, neither nor nor bore, wait, that's it! A nor 'uh!!"

"I like it! What's her last name?"

"Like 'Cher,' just Anoruh?"

"But that's 1+5+6+9+3+8=32=5. We need a 3. Let's try 1+5+6+1=3. That checks out!"

"The department suggests Mikheeva as her surname, which adds up."

"Get the psychics in here, we got ourselves a sequel!"

LOL, Pres. Trump gets wrecked at the Oscars...teased twice

Conan O'Brien's Oscars 2025 opening monologue

(ABC) March 2, 2025: Host Conan O'Brien kicks off the 97th Oscars with his opening monologue. See more highlights from Oscars 2025 on Oscars.com.

Julia Roberts on Spielberg and Epstein

Julia Roberts confirms EXACTLY what Steven Spielberg did with Epstein

(Hollywood Whisperer) July 6, 2024: Me, Too! continues. Julia Roberts confirms exactly what Steven Spielberg did with murdered child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein. Ariana has resigned from acting to run away from the purported years of mistreatment at the hands of gatekeepers who should’ve known and acted better. One such gatekeeper was Polish film director and convicted child molester Roman Polanski, who is, interestingly, a good buddy of Steven Spielberg.

Now, this isn’t a guilt-by-association witch hunt, but we can’t also rule out the fact that birds of a feather flock together. Polanski, like Spielberg, has a storied history of inappropriately touching and forcing himself on [raping] on young girls.

His first victim was the then-13-year-old model Samantha Gailey, who had modeled for Vogue in 1977. 

Hollywood Whisperer is all about the latest spill in Hollywood! Rest assured that HW brings all the muck to the surface, all the latest celebrity drama and gossip especially concerning the world's favorite actors. HW also makes sure to keep everyone updated on the newest movie updates and releases – so if anyone is interested in anything that happens in Hollywood, make sure to stay tuned or subscribe 🎬 https://bit.ly/3kzplQd. Johnny Depp officially rehired

DISCLAIMER: Content might be gossip, rumors, exaggerated, or indirectly besides the truth. Viewer advised to do own research before forming an opinion. Content might be opinionated. #JuliaRoberts #StevenSpielberg #Epstein #HollywoodWhisperer

Hating TV's Jennifer Aniston and "Friends"

Zack Sharf (Variety, 3/29/23); Crystal Q., Seth Auberon, CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

 

Friends is offensive comedy to snowflake kids

I'm not gay. Can I be on Fast Times at R High?

Jennifer Aniston has been starring in comedies for nearly 30 years, from the launch of NBC’s Friends in 1994 to the upcoming release of her latest Netflix movie Murder Mystery 2 [which is getting horrible reviews as unfunny garbage], which means she’s had a front row seat to watching comedy tastes change over three decades.

Aniston recently told France's AFP (via Yahoo News) that “comedy has [d]evolved” so much that it’s a bit tricky these days to be funny. 

• Fast Times at Ridgemont High offends us, too, Jen!
  

Don't say I'm a man; that would make Ross gay!

“Now it’s a little tricky because you have to be very careful, which makes it really hard for comedians, because the beauty of comedy is that we make fun of ourselves, make fun of life,” Aniston said.

“[In the past] you could joke about a bigot and have a laugh: that was hysterical. And it was about educating people on how ridiculous people were. And now we’re not allowed to do that.”

“There’s a whole generation of people, kids, who are now going back to episodes of ‘Friends’ and find them offensive,” Aniston added.

“There were things that were never intentional and others…well, we should have thought it through — but I don’t think there was a sensitivity like there is now.” More: variety.com

Ohio train crash: Erin Brockovich is on it

Erin Brockovich, WBNS 10TV, 3/2/23; Jim Dore; Crystal Q., CC Liu (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Erin Brockovich answers every question about Erin Brockovich (vulture.com)

• Another train derails in Ohio, month after East Palestine wreck
• East Palestine train derailment mirrors Clark County train derailment
• VIDEO: Norfolk Southern train derails in Springfield, Ohio today

Erin Brockovich in East Palestine, Ohio: "Something is not right here"

Erin Brockovich (2000)

(WBNS 10TV) Activist Erin "Distracting Boobs" Brockovich says she is upset after speaking with residents in East Palestine, Ohio. Where's Julia Roberts to make another movie about the series of train crashes and toxic chemical releases in the Rust Belt/Frost Belt of old-time train lines? Well water is polluted, the air is polluted, fish and land animals are dead, people are suffering, and the government is mostly looking the other way. Pete Buttigieg wouldn't come until he was shamed into showing up. The train companies were afraid to go anywhere near the toxic crash site.

(ABC News) There was a real-life Erin played by Best Actress Julia Roberts

COMMENTARY

Capitalism is the best form of destroying the environment. "Who will pay for it?" we ask. Lawsuits will make sure someone profits. The "forever chemicals" ensure that life on the surface of the planet will suffer. What if we inject the contaminated water deep into the ground?! That way it will affect people we'll never meet, generations from now. It's not like we're Buddhists or Native Americans worried about people seven generations out.

Who's Erin Brockovich?

Celebrities call in (Jimmy Dore Comedy)

Mike MacRae, J. Dore, Ben Glieb (TJDS); Pfc. Sandoval, Ashley Wells (eds.), Wisdom Quarterly

Roberts: "My daughter wants to live in India"

Roshmila Bhattachraya (Hindustan Times, July 3, 2011)

BOMBAY, India - Last year, Julia Roberts was in India to film "Eat Pray Love." She converted to Hinduism. Now back in the US, the pretty woman admits that Hinduism has always intrigued her.

Along with husband, Danny Moder, and their three children -- twins Phinnaeus and Hazel and four-year-old Henry -- she often visits temples to chant, pray, and celebrate.

“My children love it. Hazel says that when she grows up, she’s going to live in India. To be in India is to experience it. You don’t have to go looking for India, it’s all right there. For me, visiting the country was an unforgettable experience,” Julia asserts.

Eat, Pray, Love [the book, not the movie] is memorable for other reasons too. Tom Hanks and Roberts had met at clubs and conversed,] “Hi! I’m famous, you’re famous, and there’s a camera on us now!” before being paired in Charlie Wilson’s War five years ago.

Then, when Julia was in Rome shooting "Eat Pray Love," Tom sent her a script with the message, “Tell me what you think of it.”

She couldn’t stop smiling as she went through it. “It says, ‘You can lose your job and your way and still rescue yourself.’ It creates a self-excavated Utopia and I love the message... More

"Flying Yoga" and Julia Roberts

AntiGravity Yoga "Wings" class at Crunch Gym in West Hollywood, CA (crunchwatch)

We needed a break. So we left campus and headed east, past the ritzy Hollywood night club scene to trendy Crunch Gym. We were drawn by a new kind of flying yoga called "Wings." Most of us have been wanting to be able to levitate and fly for a long time. (The others prefer the power of invisibility). What we found was that hanging upside down like a bat in a stretchy cocoon of high tensile cloth is fantastic.

Crunch describes the future trend: "Stretch further and hold challenging postures longer using a flowing fabric hammock as your only prop. With the fabric as a soft trapeze, you'll learn simple suspension techniques to move into seemingly impossible inverted poses to relieve compressed joints and align the body from head to toe." Close your eyes and fly. Then go downstairs and take a regular yoga class to get grounded again. More>>

Why did we go? Julia Roberts isn't the only "Hindu." We're all Veda-reading India-loving yogis now (with or without knowing it), and as Buddhists we've gone even beyond that.

Hindu Julia Roberts models for Boticelli (who painted the "Birth of Venus") in a British commercial. Now housewives do yoga on Wii and buy icons of Shiva the Destroyer at Pier 1 Imports and T-shirts from Target emblazoned with the “OM” symbol.

From yoga to Julia Roberts, Hinduism goes mainstream
Brett Buckner (The Star Anniston Star, Jan. 29, 2011)
Julia Roberts shouldn’t be the icon conjured up when envisioning humanity’s oldest living religion. And yet the star of "Eat, Pray, Love" [the terrible movie, not the great book], about a woman’s spiritual journey through India and other places, became just that when she revealed that she, her husband, and their three children were Hindu.

Not since George Harrison [of the Beatles] introduced the world to Indian mysticism in the 1960s has the 6,000-year-old faith experienced such headlines.

Henry David Thoreau, Ralph Waldo Emerson, J.D Salinger [author of The Catcher in the Rye], pop star Katy Perry, and NFL running back Rickie Williams all practiced some form of Hinduism. Britney Spears had her 4-month-old son blessed in a Hindu temple. It was Gandhi who transformed the Hindu ideal of ahimsa, nonviolence toward all living beings, into a political and social movement that later inspired Martin Luther King Jr. More>>

• Hollow Earth Entrance (2) in Antarctica
• Documented UFO sighting at Crest...

Actress Julia Roberts becomes a Hindu

Religion is a private and personal affair

Vir Sanghvi (Express Buzz)
Julia Roberts has become a Hindu. In an interview given to promote her new movie "Eat Pray Love," the actress declared that she discovered the Hindu faith and adopted it while filming. (Part of the story was inspired by author Elizabeth Gilbert’s experiences at the Muktanand Ashram in Ganeshpuri).

• Glenn Beck angry at Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert

• Julia Roberts Hindu? Who knew?

Why the surprise when famous people become Hindus? Those who subscribe to cults are not regarded as being particularly Hindu. For instance, the Beatle George Harrison was an early convert of the Hare Krishna movement and had an on-off relationship with Maharishi Mahesh Yogi. But Hindus regard Hare Krishnas as weird, not representative of mainstream Hinduism; Mahesh Yogi was a jet-set guru, not much of an advertisement for mainstream Hinduism.

Like Buddhism, Hinduism is a non-proselytizing, pluralistic faith. It does not seek "converts" nor does anyone need to join formally to practice. There are countless examples of prominent people in the West who have drawn inspiration from Eastern philosophy.

Hindus can deal with cultists and guru-worshippers since they do not follow mainstream Hinduism. But it is rare to find somebody who adopts mainstream Hinduism with its beguiling mixture of simplicity and complexity, ancient purity and latter-day practicality.

Hinduism may well be the oldest religion to come out of India but it is not the only one. Jainism is less well known outside of India. But Buddhism is probably better-known abroad than it is in India even though the Buddha was Indian.

The contrasts between Hinduism and Buddhism are interesting. Buddhism only became a global religion after King Ashoka converted to it after the conquest of Kalinga (around 273 BCE). Ashoka spread Buddhism throughout India and sent emissaries abroad to spread the Buddha’s teachings. It took a few centuries, but eventually Buddhism held sway in much of Asia: China, Japan, Thailand, and even Sri Lanka. Tibetan Buddhism took on a different form from Indian Buddhism and eventually Buddhist monks came to rule Tibet. (It is this tradition that the Dalai Lama is descended from.)

For some centuries Buddhism held sway in India till gradually Hinduism re-asserted itself and virtually pushed Buddhism out. (In contrast, Jainism which never spread globally retained its small and committed following within India.)

Vaguely conscious of this background, Hindus are not particularly surprised by the fervor with which Hollywood stars adopt Buddhism. Richard Gere is one of the Western world’s most famous Buddhists, and Uma Thurman was born into a family of Tibetan Buddhists. Buddhism welcomes converts and is more instantly appealing to followers of other religions.

Why has Hinduism — one of the world’s two oldest religions — remained an exclusively Indian religion? When Hindus are found abroad, they tend to be ethnic Indians rather than converts from other faiths. More>>

"Eat, Pray, Love" (movie trailer)

"Eat Pray Love -- Unforgettable" will be in theaters on 8/13/10

(Eat Pray Love the Movie) - Liz Gilbert (Julia Roberts) is a modern woman on a quest to marvel at and travel the world while rediscovering and reconnecting with her true inner-self in Eat Pray Love. At a crossroads after a divorce, Gilbert takes a year-long sabbatical from her job and steps uncharacteristically out of her comfort zone, risking everything to change her life. In her wondrous and exotic travels, she experiences the simple pleasure of nourishment by eating in Italy; the power of prayer in India, and, finally and unexpectedly, the inner peace and balance of love in Bali. Based on an inspiring true story, Eat Pray Love proves that there really is more than one way to let yourself go and see the world.

• Official site: LetYourselfGo.com

Julia Roberts to star in "Eat, Pray, Love"

Julia Roberts was spotted walking down a Manhattan street yesterday as she filmed Eat, Pray, Love (Cory Schwartz/Getty Images/USAToday).

The author of that best-selling book, Elizabeth Gilbert, tells The New York Times that her new book will be out in January. It's about marriage, which is known from the author's March Elle interview. But it's got a new title: Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage.

According to the Times, the publisher has announced a first print run of 1 million copies in hardcover, even though Gilbert knows it will be tough to follow the phenomenal success of Eat, Pray, Love.

“There’s something very scary about having millions of people waiting to see what you’re going to do next,” she said. “The people who love Eat, Pray, Love are very dear and are very encouraging, but they also have their expectations.” More>>

Eat, Pray, Love. Then What?

Author Elizabeth Gilbert, Gilbert with journey mates, and Julia Roberts as Gilbert.

Mr. Dorje Andersson (WQ Book Reviewer)

Elizabeth Gilbert's Eat, Pray, Love is a remarkable feel-good read -- particularly for females. Every woman around the office lavished attention on any other female holding a copy. They could not get enough, praise enough, nor (it seemed) envy one another enough. I thought, it's not for me. It's obviously not for any man. But eventually, I browsed through it. I saw her talk about it. (See short video below).

And as with all great spiritual literature, I was drawn in. There is much for a man to be put off by but far more that intrigues. Ms. Gilbert's description of meditation is spot on. Her explanation of the attendant phenomena as kundalini awakens on her trip to India is compact and fascinating. I venture to guess that her guru is a man, yet for the best she leaves her unnamed.

Starting off as a gastronomic journey in Italy, searching for love and fulfillment -- or anything to fill the void after a divorce -- she travels as she goes along a momentous internal journey so many thoughtful people embark on. It is the Heroine's (and Hero's) Journey Siddhartha Gautama is famous for successfully completing. This is a remarkable read, and readers are quickly rewarded with much to learn from this author. And now there's a follow up:

Eat, Pray, Love. Then What? Get [re-]Married.
Motoko Rich (NY Times, Aug. 20, 2009)

A year after completely scrapping a 500-page follow-up to “Eat, Pray, Love,” Elizabeth Gilbert has delivered a new book that Viking will publish in January.

Titled “Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage,” the book is a memoir of a tumultuous year that came 18 months after “Eat, Pray, Love” leaves off, as well as a meditation on wedlock.

Ms. Gilbert, 40, said the book, which recounts how she came to marry the Brazilian-born Australian lover she met in Indonesia in “Eat, Pray, Love,” was not just a straightforward memoir of what happened and how she felt about it. More>>

Elizabeth Gilbert Takes On Marriage
Catherine Strawn (Aug. 21, 2009)
Elizabeth Gilbert’s memoir, Eat, Pray, Love, was published in 2006, and her followup book was touted in the back of at least 200,000 copies of the book.

Tentatively titled Weddings and Evictions, it was described as a memoir about Gilbert’s “unexpected journey into second marriage” and was supposed to hit shelves in 2009. But Gilbert scrapped her 500-page draft of the book and told her publisher she needed more time. What she had wasn’t working.

Because Eat, Pray, Love had been such a huge success, staying in the top spot on the New York Times bestseller list for 57 weeks, Viking wanted the followup to come out as quickly as possible. But her editor gave her another year, and this second draft, now called Committed: A Skeptic Makes Peace With Marriage will be published in January.

The delay wasn’t such a bad idea, in my opinion, since “Eat, Pray, Love,” the movie version starring Julia Roberts, Billy Crudup, and Javier Bardem, is currently filming in New York City, and Gilbert is back on everyone’s minds. More>>

Global campaign marks Suu Kyi's birthday

Members of the pro-democracy leader's National League for Democracy Party release balloons during a birthday for the detained leader at partys headquarters Friday, June 19, 2009, in Yangon, Burma (AP/Khin Maung Win).

YANGON, Burma – Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi shared rice and chocolate cake with her prison guards to celebrate her 64th birthday Friday, as global condemnation of her trial galvanized rallies in capitals around the world.

• Slideshow: Burma's Aung San Suu Kyi

European Union nations marked the Nobel Peace Prize laureate's birthday by warning they would step up sanctions against Myanmar's military government if she is not released. Suu Kyi, who is being held in a "guest house" at Yangon's notorious Insein Prison, faces up to five years in jail on charges of violating the terms of her house arrest after an uninvited American man swam to her tightly guarded lakeside home and stayed two days.

A pro-democracy activist holds a photograph of opposition leader during a protest in New Delhi, India on June 19, 2009. Supporters worldwide condemned her trial and called for action against the military regime (Reuters/Adnan Abidi).

Several miles from the prison, hundreds of supporters released 64 sparrows and 10 doves at the headquarters of her National League for Democracy party and sang "Happy Birthday." Suu Kyi's lawyer, Nyan Win, took cakes, orchids, and "birthday messages from her friends and the international community" to her at the prison along with 50 lunch boxes of rice to share with the prison staff.

"She really appreciates the efforts and said she was sorry she wasn't able to thank everyone individually," he said. Suu Kyi has now spent 14 birthdays in detention. Friday's birthday stirred an outpouring of support from Hollywood stars including Brad Pitt and Julia Roberts, celebrities Madonna and David Beckham, and many Western governments. More>>

A member of the National League for Democracy hangs portrait of detained leader before a birthday celebration at party headquarters today (AP/Khin Maung Win).

Celebrities tweet for Suu Kyi

BANGKOK, Thailand (AP) -- Hollywood star Julia Roberts and detained Chinese acti-vists are among celebrities and political prisoners tweet-ing and signing petitions for the release of Burma's dem-ocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi, organizers said today.

Suu Kyi will spend her 64th birthday — her 14th spent in detention — Friday in Yangon's notorious Insein prison, facing charges of violating terms of her house arrest by harboring an American who swam uninvited to her lakeside home.

The ruling military dictatorship or junta is widely expected to deliver a guilty verdict, which could put the Nobel Peace Prize laureate in prison for up to five years. She has already spent more than 13 of the last 19 years under house arrest.

"We must not stand by as she is silenced again. Now is the time for the international community to speak with one voice," Roberts wrote as part of a campaign — "64 words for Aung San Suu Kyi" — organized by a coalition of human rights and activist groups.

The campaign, launched May 27, asks Suu Kyi's supporters to tweet, write text messages, or send video and photos to its Web site:

• 64forsuu.org

Similar campaigns on Suu Kyi's past birthdays and other milestones generated some global publicity for her cause but have failed to change the military junta's harsh attacks on all signs of dissent. Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been dominated by the military since 1962.

"Burma's generals [particularly Than Shwe] think they can act with impunity. We'll have to wait until after the trial verdict to see if this time will be any different," said Mark Farmaner of Burma Campaign UK, one of the organizers.

Actress Demi Moore, actor Kevin Spacey, artist Yoko Ono, and British Prime Minister Gordon Brown were among the contributors to the Web site. James Cameron, director of "Titanic" and "The Terminator," wrote, "While my heroes are fictional, Aung San Suu Kyi is a real-life hero and she needs help from you."

In a parallel campaign, the organizers have to date gathered the signatures of 107 former or current political prisoners from over 20 countries calling for the release of political prisoners in Burma and calling on the U.N. Security Council to impose a global arms embargo on the Southeast Asian nation.

"The continued denial of your freedom unacceptably attacks the human rights of all 2,156 political prisoners in Myanmar. As those also incarcerated for our political beliefs, we share the world's outrage," the 64-word message said.

The signatories include Kim Dae-jung, a former South Korean president and Nobel Peace Prize laureate; Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights campaigner who also won the prize; former Czech President Vaclav Havel; and two female Chinese activists currently under house arrest, Yuan Weijing and Zeng Jinyan.

"Aung San Suu Kyi's continued detention shames Asia," wrote Kim.

Anwar Ibrahim, former deputy prime minister of Malaysia, urged the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN) to lift its policy of nonintervention in Myanmar, which is a member of the 10-nation bloc.

Organizers of the campaign include Human Rights Watch, the U.S. Campaign for Burma, Burma Info Japan, Open Society Institute, France's Info Birmanie, and Amnesty International.