Gawker Gaffe Over Schwarzenegger Love Child

There was a lot of fuss last week over the revelation that former California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger fathered an illegitimate child with a member of his domestic staff. In the repellent media race to identify the love child's mother, Gawker named and included photographs of a woman and a child who, as it turned out, were not involved in the affair.

The LA Times' entertainment blog reported the Gawker incident, including quotes from the shameless gossip blog's writer and editor. What's striking is the indifference the two Gawker employees had to relentlessly invade someone's privacy, parade their name into the public awareness, and provide a half-hearted apology when their noxious error became obvious.

Good journalism is a tough job; gossip journalism is just a dirty one. However, I wouldn't be honest if I didn't admit I read juicy stories about stupid celebrities, venal politicians, or hypocritical prelates, or arrogant attorneys. Sometimes, a little schadenfraude feels so good.

Dino DeLaurentiis

Dino DeLaurentiis passed away at age 91. The LA Times obit offers a reasonable overview of his life. The article includes a quote from Arnold Schwartzenegger, whose Conan the Barbarbian was a DeLaurentiis production.

Agostino DeLaurentiis (his original name) came from the Naples area and, like Sophia Loren and other Neapolitans, went to Rome and made it big in the movie business. DeLaurentiis had many faults and was not easy to like. However, he produced two of Italy's best post-war movies: Bitter Rice with Silvia Mangano (who later became Mrs. DeLaurentiis) and Nights of Cabiria, a Fellini picture that splendidly captures the Roman sensibility of the time.

The photograph shows Ms. Mangano in a scene from Bitter Rice. The animal is uncredited, hardly an unusual situation for performers in a DeLaurentiis production. Another Bitter Rice curiosity is that the Italian language version does not feature Mangano's voice. Lydia Simoneschi, Italy's grande dame of vocal dubbing, was the voice of Mangano's character. This vocal substitution was not unusual: Simoneschi dubbed Sophia Loren, Lea Masari, and Gina Lollobrigida, and other marquee Italian actresses in a variety of pictures.

Audition with a Vampire

Since tonight isn't my night for communicating developed story lines or thoughtful lines of reasoning, I'll let five news items do the evening's heavy lifting.

1. Anne Rice leaves Christianity. The story notes she's seen two of the movies in the Vampire series, but hasn't read any of Stephenie Meyer's books.

2. Literary agent Andrew Wylie "threatens broad digital expansion." -- A story of interest to Ms. Rice, Ms. Meyer, and authors who have signed away their e-book rights.

3. Newark municipal swimming pools kept open via corporate donation. -- Strictly personal. I did some business with the donating firm some years ago. The more intriguing part of the story is the reference to a donation from another firm. In this case, the beneficiary is Newark's collective tush, as the donation consisted of thousands of rolls of toilet paper.

4. California governor orders new round of unpaid furloughs. How much TP would the Golden State need? State and local government finance crisis will be very prominent in 2011. Where will the money come from?

5. Don't do this at home. Go to the link. The Mischa Barton photo is the story. There are some things you just can't make up.

PS. The top image is a still from The Vampire Lovers, a UK production featuring a Polish actress portraying one of film's first explicitly lesbian vampires.