Idol Chatter

The New York Times House & Home section yesterday took an oddly spiritual leap with a feature about a house they bill as “death-defying.” The house, being built for a mysterious set of owners in the Hamptons, on Long Island, is indeed worthy of a circus acrobat: the concrete floors are wildly uneven, climbing halfway…

In the movie “The Visitor,” opening this weekend, a depressed college professor (Richard Jenkins) discovers that a young immigrant couple has illegally moved into his New York City apartment. Rather than turn them away, he befriends them, a decision that will ultimately impact all of their lives forever. embedVideo(1483831219);

Though I have a few friends and acquaintances who are die-hard fans of “Battlestar Galatica”, I have stubbornly refused to believe the show is as good as they say. They wax poetic about the writing, the acting, the deep spiritual themes of the show. But I have remained a devout Doubting Thomas. I don’t appreciate…

Which is more draining, world-class athletic training or rigorous spiritual and intellectual learning? Ask Yuri Foreman, a fighter who will defend his light middleweight boxing title tonight, and who is studying to become an Orthodox rabbi. The 27-year-old was born in Belarus and grew up in Israel, but didn’t become religious until he met (at…

In the upcoming documentary, “Lord Save Us From Your Followers,” releasing June 13, 2008 (the book version was released in March), writer/producer/director Dan Merchant, a Christian, “explores the collision of faith and culture in America.” Specifically, he wants to learn why Christianity–or the Gospel of Love–is dividing the country. In this clip from the movie,…

I’m pretty gullible, so for me the problem with April Fool’s Day is that I suspect everything with a date of April 1. Back in the days when I wrote memos, I would actually pre or post-date them so that no one would think I was kidding. But I wasn’t sure what to think on…

If you’re tired of the same cheerleader stereotypes–Jaime Pressly, Kirsten Dunst and Hayden Panettiere, I’m looking at you–then you’ll want to catch a ticket to see the Florida Marlins’ new cheerleading squad, the Manatees. If that doesn’t sound like the normal sexy band of blondes in short skirts, it’s because this squad is bringing it…

With the much anticipated, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe” sequel “Prince Caspian” hitting theaters May 16, we thought you might want to start getting into the Narnia spirit of things. We have two books to give away—”The Chronicles of Narnia: The Original Novels by C.S. Lewis” (movie tie-in edition) and “Narnia Chronology: From…

Oh, celebrities! What won’t they do for beauty and youth? If they’re willing to inject their faces with botulism or get lipo’d during a lunch hour or wear red strings/study Kabbalah, why should anything as natural as a good leeching make our skin crawl?Because it’s gross. And hearing Demi Moore talk about her recent leeching…

It’s no secret that I’m not a huge fan of secretive, esoteric, spiritual communities that charge loads of money to reach higher levels of enlightenment (unless of course they involve cool decoder rings), so what I’m about to say is a bit uncharacteristic: Scientology, please help Jeff Conaway and Pete Doherty. Now, I don’t say…

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