Sites Take Bets on Tony's Life

What will we still be talking about next decade? Britney, for one

(NEWSER) - The ‘00s were full of important contributions to culture, but which ones will we still be talking about in another decade? Here are some of New York ’s picks:

• TV: The Sopranos for inventing quality cable, American Idol for changing the music industry, and of course all things Oprah Winfrey.
• Books: The Da Vinci Code for singlehandedly sustaining the book industry, and The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay for blazing the trail of combining geek lit with high lit.

The Wire , The Sopranos , Six Feet Under , Mad Men —get the picture?

(NEWSER) - For television, the past decade has been “as the sixties are to music and the seventies to movies”—some of the worst content ever was produced, but the cream of the crop rose to the level of art, Emily Nussbaum writes. Sure, “you could easily memorialize the aughts as the Decade of Reality TV,” but then you’d be leaving out The Sopranos, Mad Men, and, most important, The Wire. The best of the best dared audiences to take them seriously and didn’t have time for those who wouldn’t. More»

Actor Costelloe played a gay mobster's lover

(NEWSER) - The actor who played Johnny Cakes on The Sopranos is dead, the New York Post reports. John Costelloe, 47, shot himself in the head in Brooklyn last week, police and friends said. The former firefighter served a brief but pivotal role as the gay lover of a closeted mobster in the HBO series. Costelloe was currently getting rave reviews in an off-off-Broadway play. More»

O'Donnell dishes as she buries hatchet with Howard Stern

(NEWSER) - Shoot-from-the-lip comedian Rosie O'Donnell had plenty to say about her acrimonious last days on The View when she called up Howard Stern to bury the hatchet with the shock jock, MSNBC reports. O'Donnell told Stern that producers threatened to sue when she told them she was leaving. But ABC insiders denied O'Donnell's take on events. More»

'Low-info' voters, soft-pedaling hosts want personal details

(NEWSER) - You know where they stand on gas prices, but what about pantsuits and family pets? Hillary Clinton, John McCain, and Barack Obama are making the rounds of daytime talk shows and celebrity gossipfests, courting "low-info" voters—those mostly white, working class, and undecided folks who haven't been paying much attention to the campaign. And besides pulling in millions more viewers than Jon Stewart or Stephen Colbert, softer shows also go easier on guests, reports Newsweek. More»