There is an unmistakable grandeur to this photo and we are not sure at first if — but, of course, it is – a man.

It is titled Barcelona, most likely because that was the name this arresting creature went by. Certainly the photographer, Christer Stromholm, was associated with the sleazy-chic lowlights of Paris, circa 1960, and Madame Barcelona may have been one of the twilight demimondes on parade.

How she does gaze at us! The world-weary hauteur of it.

And while this picture certainly speaks one thousand — if not one million — words, Ian Jeffrey, the gifted blurb writer for The Photo Book, where it appears, manged to add a few devastating words of his own: (more…)

Why am I not surprised? We are, after all, still living in the reign of George II, King of the Second-Rates. American Idol’s two best vocalists — Elliott Yamin and Paris Bennett — hit the bottom two last night. So let’s see, that leaves the show’s next best vocalist Katharine McPhee lodged in the number three slot with the Monotone Maven (Chris Daughtery) and Gray Charles (Taylor Hicks) in the top two.

Let’s skip the psychics and decode Idol’s new “official” photo (right) which was released this morning. The tableau tells us exactly how the next four weeks will play out. Photo’s often reveal more than we dare hope for, and this one … well, this one’s got me crying in my beer.

Elliott, smushed to the edge and with the lowest height, will be the next Idolette to follow little Paris down the chute.

Nerves did him in during Tuesday’s opener, a notoriously bad placement on the show. There’s a reason long-time viewers of Idol call it the Death Spot. (more…)

He didn’t mention gay marriage. But comedian Stephen Colbert confronted George W. Bush with nearly every twist of public lying, pious hypocrisy and war ineptitude in his calamitous presidency. Not all of it was funny, but all of it was true.

It happened over the weekend at the White House Correspondents Dinner, usually a genial event where the President pokes gentle fun at himself, and even gentler fun at the press, who sit in their tuxedos and gowns happily liquored up.

Comics are invited to take the President on from the podium — easy going punsters not known for social commentary, like Ray Romano or Drew Carey — and everyone leaves with the sense that the President is a swell guy, after all.

As an example of what usually passes for humor, last year Cedric the Entertainer — who? — was so lame he was overshadowed by the mock-critique First Lady Laura Bush gave her husband from the stage. Typical of the sugar-coated zingers deemed quotable the next day by a sobered press: (more…)