Wingnuts

(Newser) - Eliot Spitzer's reported involvement with a pricey call-girl ring has left, well, everyone scratching their heads, the AP reports. What makes a public figure show such jaw-dropping disregard for the consequences of private actions? One analyst calls it "the psychology of the exception. People in power sometimes feel they can do things that us, mere mortals, are forbidden to do. There's a sense, as with adolescents, that 'I won't get caught.'" More »

(Newser) - It's tempting to chalk up the popularity of singer Amy Winehouse to her headline-grabbing bent for self-destruction, writes Sasha Frere-Jones in the New Yorker . But that would be a mistake. He takes a closer look at Back to Black , with its "perfect" single "Rehab," and finds much to treasure. What might initially come off as mere imitation of classic soul and R&B is actually a novel evolution, he argues. More »

(Newser) - In year-old video just now resurfacing, best-actress Oscar winner Marion Cotillard says she doesn't believe the "official story" of  the 9/11 attacks—and she's not sure the moon landing was real, either, the Telegraph reports. In a TV interview, the French star of La Vie en Rose speculates that the World Trade Center towers were so outdated that their destruction was engineered and passed off as a terrorist attack, since it would be cheaper than trying to renovate. More »

(Newser) - A best-selling Holocaust memoir, which follows a 7-year-old Jewish girl who lived with wolves after losing her parents to the Nazis, is mostly fictional, its author confesses—in particular, the parts about the wolves and her being Jewish, Reuters reports. Misha Defonseca says she "always felt Jewish," but, instead of skinning rabbits as she trekked across Europe, lived in Brussels with her grandparents. More »

(Newser) - Inspiring melodies and tongue-twisting rhymes may issue from their pipes, but for some rockers the sound passes through a terrifying portal. Blender inspects the 10 worst sets of teeth in music, starting with the bottom of the barrel. Pogues frontman Shane McGowan's utterly decomposed dents Amy Winehouse's missing canine Young David Bowie, pre-American makeover Trick Daddy's gold grill; more like precious dentures More »

(Newser) - Amy Winehouse is about to release a line of clothing and makeup for the many, many people who want to look like her, the Sun reports. Prepare for Winehouse-brand leopard-print headscarves, hairspray, and, of course, liquid eyeliner. “I think this stuff would sell very well,” said a fashion industry source. “She has become a fashion icon despite not always looking too fresh.” More »

(Newser) - While many states have responded to recent college shootings by debating whether firearms should be allowed on campus, Utah is the only one with such a law on the books—and students at its public universities are taking advantage, CNN reports. Predictably, while some students say they feel safer with their guns on hand, others say it makes classrooms even scarier. More »

(Newser) - Stick with the sex and rock 'n' roll, but skip the drugs, say the Rolling Stones to the next generation of musicians. In particular, the 64-year-old front men warn pal Amy Winehouse that she can't always get what she wants. "She should get her act together," says Keith Richards, and Sir Mick Jagger is "worried she might die," reports the Daily Telegraph . More »

(Newser) - There's a clear gender disparity in the obsessive media coverage of celebrity meltdowns, writes the New York Times. Just compare the relative restraint Entertainment Tonight exercised in holding back a video of Heath Ledger doing drugs with the news outlet gusto that greets the latest Amy Winehouse or Lindsay Lohan misbehavior. Or compare Kiefer Sutherland's jail stint to Paris Hilton's. More »

(Newser) - When they tried to make her tone down her body art for the Grammys, Amy Winehouse, for once, didn't say no, no, no. The British pop star played it prudent in her satellite performance, covering the usually bare chest of a pinup tattoo on her arm with black eyeliner to give it a makeshift strapless bra, Page Six reports. More »

(Newser) - Troubled Brit Amy Winehouse was the big winner at last night's Grammys, taking five awards for her album Rehab and beaming in to perform via satellite from Britain, where she's in rehab. The upset of the night was 67-year-old Herbie Hancock's win for best album. More »

(Newser) - A huge fire has devastated the popular market area of Camden Town, a tourist attraction in north London that was filled with weekend revelers when the blaze broke out, the Guardian reports. No casualties were reported; the fire took 3-plus hours to put down. The site, which mixes open-air markets, wooden stalls, bars, and restaurants, generally draws some 300,000 people on weekends. More »

(Newser) - If Amy Winehouse wanted peace and quiet after her rehab stint, she may have miscalculated. The troubled diva will move into a guest cottage at the Osbournes' mansion, home to the famously quirky Black Sabbath rocker and his reality-TV-star family, the Daily Mirror reports. Kelly Osbourne is well qualified to help her troubled friend, says a source: "She has been there before with her dad." More »

(Newser) - A recent trip to rehab hasn't made the US government a bigger fan of singer Amy Winehouse. Her bid for a visa to perform at the Grammy Awards on Sunday in Los Angeles has been denied by the American embassy in London, the AP reports. She won't be a total no-show, however—producers have finagled a live performance via satellite. More »

(Newser) - Right-wing pit bull Rush Limbaugh laid into newly anointed GOP frontrunner John McCain yesterday in a mock "non-concession" speech, in which he said McCain is not acceptable to conservatives and blamed the Republican party's "fractured" base for failing to produce a more palatable contender. "All the candidates on our side are uninspiring or worse," groused Limbaugh. More »

(Newser) - Though her hit song may deny it, Amy Winehouse is going to rehab, E! reports. The Grammy-nominated singer today checked herself into an undisclosed drug-treatment facility a day after police began investigating a video in which she inhales from a smoking glass pipe. No word yet whether Winehouse, 24, will still perform at the Grammys in Los Angeles next month. More »

(Newser) - The Associated Press decision to prepare an obituary for 26-year-old troubled pop star Britney Spears has triggered a debate about the extent the news media should anticipate the early deaths of celebrities like Spears, actress Lindsay Lohan and singer Amy Winehouse, who are clearly living risky lives. The AP had no obituary ready when actor Brad Renfro, 25, or former playmate Anna Nicole Smith, 39, died, which was a "wake-up call," said an AP editor. More »

(Newser) - The latest Tom Cruise thriller is a Scientology testimonial video circulating online in which the weirdly intense actor promotes the faith as the way to save the world, and urges fellow Scientologists to "educate to bring a new reality" to non-believers. "When you drive past an accident," Cruise says, with the Mission: Impossible theme throbbing in the background, "you have to do something because you know you're the only one that can really help." More »