Gossip

Horror blogger, (and quite good filmmaker, we were pleased to find out!) Aleata Illusion, who recently called for Heidi Martinuzzi, editor of Pretty/Scary, to be 'punched in the face' because she didn't support one of the horror blog nominees for the Rondo Awards, has officially announced that there is a 'Heidi' Situation, and we want the world to know. We would also like to offer our gratitude to Aleata for letting everyone know of this important situation, and for declaring that she will further abstain from drama.

We would like to take the time to offer our grammar-correcting services to Aleata, and also let you know of her important statement at the same time...

British supermodel Naomi Campbell may be changing the way we look at women as violent offenders in crime.

Today, Campbell was in New York City when she punched and slapped her limo driver from the back seat, and then fled. Police are now attempting to locate her, according to the Associated Press.

Campbell has been arrested 6 times previously for assault against her housekeepers, policemen, and various assistants.

Chuck Conroy (writer of zombiesdontrun.blogspot.com) was nice enough to name-drop us in his announcement of the Mr. Horror Blogger Contest that he just made up.

With an emotionally daring lapse of commas and grammar, Chuck writes, "Also as I said before, I myself will NOT be in this contest because lets face it, if I was and I somehow won with the contest being on MY blog you just know someone would get all Super Heidi on me and we don't want that now do we?"

Chuck, I guess, is assuming we'd be upset that he was having a male writing/looks pageant. We want Chuck to know that we give him our blessing. So he can go ahead without fear. After all, we require all Scary Studs to provide pictures, right? We do this to parody the ridiculousness of many interview layouts in Maxim Magazine, Playboy, and the like. In fact, I am hoping he requires at least 5 pictures from each blogger who enters, preferably shirtless, for my sexist perusal...

Toyota U.S. COO and President Jim Lentz testified in front of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce today that the two recalls Toyota has issued for floor mats and sticking accelerator pedals in 5.6 million vehicles will 'not totally' solve problems of unintended acceleration. Because they are haunted by the unhappy ghosts of Japanese women and children.

Fascination with Fear is a blog by Christine Hadden, who was interviewed at Fatally-Yours.com about being a woman in horror for, well, Women in Horror month. Hadden was one of the entrants into a contest a few months back called the Miss Horror Blogger Contest to which we objected slightly for a few minor reasons: 1) The women had to submit pictures of themselves in order to be rated on their writing ability and 2) It pitted women against each other for a made-up award that was basically a popularity contest won by having your friends vote for you. It wasn't a contest that really measured anyone's talents...

Helene Hegemann, of Berlin, just wrote her first novel which has become a finalist for a major book prize. At the tender age of 17. Her dystopian vision of Berlin's drug culture and club scene, through the eyes of her 16-year-old protagonist, is called Axolotl Roadkill, and is No. 5 on the magazine Spiegel’s hardcover best-seller list. So why aren't we celebrating?

Because Helene has plagiarized from the almost unknown novel Strobo by blogger Airen published last year by SuKuLTuR, a small publishing house in Berlin, to the tune of entire unchanged pages...

iVillage.com has this neat little editorial by staff writer Jackie Garfinkel about how her love of the Buffy the Vampire Slayer TV series actually ended two of her romantic relationships.

"Well, about 30 minutes into the episode -- I kid you not -- the phone rang. And, yes, it was my boyfriend, Chris. And yes, my heart sank as I realized he was calling to break up. Sitting on my couch, with my TV on mute, I watched Riley and Buffy end their relationship yet again, while simultaneously listening to a guy end a relationship with me. Yet again."

It gets funnier. Enjoy the article.

A 13-year-old Saudi schoolgirl is to be given 90 lashes in front of her classmates after she was caught with a mobile camera phone, according to U.K. Daily Mail. The unnamed minor girl was also sentenced to two months in jail by a court in the eastern city of Jubail.

Ok, this sounds bad, but she allegedly 'assaulted' her headmistress after being caught with the gadget which is banned in girl schools, claims Al-Watan, a Saudi newspaper. Or DID she? What constitutes 'assualt'? Grabbing your phone back? Frankly, I'm not sure what a girl who lives in a country where she can't be alone with an unrelated man or see a movie or go to a concert uses an effing cell phone for...

Yesterday, Dec 29th, actress Zelda Rubinstein was taken off of life support at Cedar Sinai. The 76-year-old star has spent more than a month at Los Angeles' Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, where her liver and kidneys failed. A friend told Radaronline.com, "It's only a matter of time now - she doesn't have long to live."

Rubinstein played the high-voiced psychic Tangina in all three Poltergeist films, as well as Madame Serena in the campy Teen Witch. She also appeared on a number of TV shows and horror movies, her last role as the Narrator on the reality series The Scariest Places on Earth. We'll all miss Zelda and her funny, campy, creepy roles.

Actress Brittany Murphy died Sunday morning in Los Angeles, California of 'cardiac arrest', but no one is clear why. Most suspect drug abuse. The 32-year-old star of horror films like Dead Line, Something Wicked, and the low-budget Aslum disaster flick Megafault was found unconscious in the shower by her mother.

No one can deny that since her 1995 role as a cute brunette in the teen comedy Clueless, her appearance drastically changed to a stick-thin blond with a vacant stare...