Instead of getting your mom a bottle of wine for Mother’s Day, spend five times the money and give her 100 times the work with her very own wine blending kit!
“Following the recent trend of wine-blending, Fusebox combines entertainment, education and great wine in a 15-pound box. The Fusebox blending kit is currently available exclusively at Just Grapes for $120.”
We know that not everybody gets his news from the BBC. If that’s the case with you, you may have missed this story:
PLAYBOY CUSHION ROBBERY IN FRANCE A goods train in southern France has been attacked by robbers who made off with cushions bearing the Playboy logo. The attack happened in the northern suburbs of Marseille, the regional newspaper La Provence reports.
It says the thieves blocked the track with sleepers, causing the 700m (760-yard) train to screech to a halt, and forced open a number of containers.
Apart from the Playboy cushions, police said it was not clear what else was taken. The train driver was not harmed. The car used in the robbery was later found burnt.
(Note: the cushion in the accompanying photo was not the item actually purloined.)
Playboy’s roving intern Ben Conniff has been map-reading:
Apparently the leagues of women at the Mansion are still not sufficient to balance out the rampant Y chromosomes in California. The Boston Globe recently printed this map created by Richard Florida that shows which cities in America have a surplus of single women, and which have a surplus of single men. Looks like we in the New York editorial office know where the action is: the New York metropolitan area is home to 210,820 more single women than men. L.A.? 89,459 more single men. But then what do you expect in a place where one guy can take three women off the market?
Just when you thought that all the good ideas for blogs had been taken, along comes Stuff White People Like, proving that when you don’t care about selling ads or getting hate mail, political incorrectness can be pretty damn funny.
Here are some examples of Stuff White People Like: Indie Music Apple Products Public Radio Threatening to Move to Canada Standing Still at Concerts Divorce Expensive Sandwiches Knowing What’s Best for Poor People
Check out the comments section while you’re there. Apparently writing really cranky comments is another thing white people like.
Blood-soaked drama, abusive power, abominable brutality--terms synonymous with Shakespeare's Macbeth. Rupert Goold's dark production, which debuted in New York on February 12th at the Brooklyn Academy of Music's Harvey Theater, comprises all of these frightening elements with a modernized interpretation that is positively chilling. Coming off of a wildly successful run in Britain, all shows for the five week American debut sold out within a week of going on sale, and Patrick Stewart's celebrated return to his Shakespearian roots in the title role undoubtedly has lured audiences in.
In a press conference held earlier this month, Stewart waxed passionately about the role. It was at the very young age of fourteen (!) when he first memorized Macbeth's lengthy speeches and colorful soliloquies, and relearning them at his current age of 67 was a pleasure for him. He read everything he could about Joseph Stalin, since Goold's production has a distinct Soviet-era feel and style. When questioned about his age as it relates to Macbeth, Stewart thought it created a fantastic dynamic: As an older man with a much younger and beautiful wife in Lady Macbeth, it provides the character with more inspiration to commit his heinous deeds, as if to say, "It ain't enough.I want everything."
Playing Lady Macbeth is Kate Fleetwood, the stunning British actress and wife of director Goold. Stewart jokingly claimed that her role should have come with a warning label because of all the "manhandling" his character does. Fleetwood did not study Stalin to prepare, but paid close attention to the sexual mannerisms of Nigella Lawson, Britain's sexpot TV star, chef and author. She also read "Women Who Kill" and confessed to being perversely fascinated by people with a similar history to Macbeth. Fleetwood and Stewart share a wonderful chemistry with each other that carries the audience throughout the epic, three-hour production.
What about those few over-zealous Star Trek fans showing up in full costume to view Stewart's stage performances? When asked about the phenomenon of his celebrity, Stewart takes great pride when he sees television fans convert to classical live theater. Although he wishes they'd leave the uniforms at home, he does feel single-handedly responsible for creating new audience members for his stage productions and derives great satisfaction from that.
Playboy interviewed Patrick for our November 1992 issue in which he talks about his experience working on Star Trek and his most coveted Shakespearian role that we have yet to see him play. The interview is available in its entirety online and can be read here.
“A Las Vegas man plans to unveil on Wednesday what he says is a rare photo of Marilyn Monroe posing as a nude hitchhiker. A 1 p.m. news conference has been scheduled at The Orleans. Former service station owner Lawrence Nicastro, said to be in his 70s, says he found the photo last year while going through storage items at his home in Las Vegas, according to publicist Chris Harris. If the photo is authentic, look for a bidding war in the multi-millions. Nicastro was running a service station in the Bronx when a man dropped off a car for repairs on New Year's Eve 1962. When the man didn't return to pick up his car, a 1962 Ford Sunliner convertible, Nicastro opened the trunk and placed the contents in storage.”
Uhhh… it’s not Marilyn Monroe circa 1962. It’s Madonna circa 1992, and we’re hard pressed to see how Monroe “expert” (as he was identified in other articles) Chris Harris could have made the mistake.
Decide for yourself: Does this really look like Marilyn Monroe?
Copy editor Joe Westerfield has been controlling his appetites recently. Here is his encouraging report:
Last year about this time I went in for my annual physical. Since this was my first post-50 physical I was expecting all of the fun new tests and scopies that come with the territory. I was not expecting a jump in my cholesterol of 130 points to 242.
Of course the doctor prescribed Lipitor. That’s what doctors do. Still, mine doesn’t prescribe drugs in a knee-jerk fashion. So I was pretty concerned.
I don’t like drugs. There are drugs that can treat everything, but not many that cure anything. I know too many people who go on drugs who don’t go off them. They just adjust the dosage or move on to bigger and better drugs. Chances are if you go on a drug, especially one like Lipitor, you won’t come off, at least not anytime soon.
So when it came to Lipitor I decided to throw caution to the wind and ignore doctor’s orders. After all, I was at 242, and 240 was the beginning of the danger zone. I should be able to get it down three points without signing my life over to Pfizer just yet.
Copy Editor Joe Westerfield recently came across a practitioner of a dying art. His report:
At a friend's party recently, there was a knock at the door. In walked a woman about four-foot-ten in a blonde wig. After a few whispers she ran over to the guest of honor and sang in her breathiest Marilyn Monroe voice “Happy Birthday, Mr. President.” That my friend was nothing like a president of anything nor that the woman was not a professional singer didn't matter. The point was the novelty, and the singing telegram was the hit of the evening.
Everyone was surprised to find that there was still such a thing as a singing telegram. My knowledge of singing telegrams seems to begin and end with “The Hardship of Miles Standish,” in which Elmer Fudd tries to sing “You Must Have Been a Beautiful Baby” to Edna May Oliver. I can't even recall another scene in a movie with a singing telegram, and no one I knew ever got one. Yet somehow or other they just seeped into my unconscious.
I've since found out that Western Union offered them from 1933 to 1974. Since then several independent companies have been doing so.
Mini Marilyn, as she is known professionally, also plays several other characters. She works for Big Apple Singing Telegrams, the brainchild of Jon Shipley, which employs more than a dozen performers, mostly in the New York area, who sing at offices, parties, bars and restaurants. Other characters include a Mini Elvis, assorted chickens, belly dancers, gorillas and clowns. No Playmates? No Bunnies? Not quite but…
Our crack Copy Editor Joseph Westerfield went wandering Off-Broadway last night to see a new production of a stage version of Slaughterhouse-Five. Here's his review:
And for those who can’t get enough of Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five (and who can't wait for the April issue of Playboy, which contains an early essay Vonnegut wrote about the Dresden bombing called “Wailing Shall Be in All the Streets”) should head to the 59E59 Theater in New York for a theatrical adaptation by Eric Simonson.
Now I know what most of you are thinking: Even more than a sitcom on the WB, non-Broadway theater is the quickest way to oblivion. But such anonymity affords these companies the opportunity to take chances. That is the case with this production.
We knew the writers’ strike was having a big impact, but now the slowdown has begun to affect some awfully big stars. On Monday, a hidden camera caught the formerly productive comedian Eddie Murphy at his new place of employ:
Though the economy has been mangled by the housing crisis, one Wall Streeter has cleaned up big. As reported by the Wall Street Journal on Tuesday, hedge fund manager John Paulson had not only the foresight to anticipate the loan crunch, he also had the expertise to create a surrogate commodities market for homes. His estimated windfall: oh, three or four billion. Again, that’s billion, with a “b.”
Instead of getting your mom a bottle of wine for Mother’s Day, spend five times the money and give her 100 times the work with her very own wine blending kit!
We know that not everybody gets his news from the BBC. If that’s the case with you, you may have missed 
Playboy’s roving intern Ben Conniff has been map-reading:
Just when you thought that all the good ideas for blogs had been taken, along comes 
Blood-soaked drama, abusive power, abominable brutality--terms synonymous with Shakespeare's Macbeth. Rupert Goold's dark production, which debuted in New York on February 12th at the 
From yesterday’s news, here’s 
Copy editor Joe Westerfield has been controlling his appetites recently. Here is his encouraging report:
Copy Editor Joe Westerfield recently came across a practitioner of a dying art. His report:
Our crack Copy Editor Joseph Westerfield went wandering Off-Broadway last night to see a new production of a stage version of Slaughterhouse-Five. Here's his review: 
Though the economy has been mangled by the housing crisis, one Wall Streeter has cleaned up big. As reported by the