BY AMY Z. QUINN Ah, the old pumpkin-in-the-bra trick. That always kills. Cutting the legs out from under her still-anonymous blackmailer, Miss NJ Amy Polumbo took to the “Today” show to release the supposedly scandalous photos herself, hours before pageant officials were set to review her case and possibly strip her of her crown — but don’t look for that to happen, unless there are more, and dirtier, photos of Polumbo out there. Because right now, it sounds like the snapshots fall squarely under the “Two Dorks And a SixPack” category. (If you’re especially impatient, the first photo comes at […]
FLYERS MAKEOVER: Pretty In Pink?
Flyers fans desperate to eradicate the painful memories of last season and see nine new players who weren’t on the roster at midseason will have to wait until mid-October. That’s because the Flyers are headed to western Canada for a week when the 2007-08 season opens and won’t make their Wachovia Center debut until Oct. 13 against the New York Islanders, who could be the worst team in the Atlantic Division this season.The first chance fans here will get to see general manager Paul Holmgren’s remade cast in person — dressed in the team’s new, skin-tight Reebok sweaters (NOT pictured) […]
KILLADELPHIA: Where The Money Go At?
Ever since President Bush took office, there has been $2 billion worth of federal funding cuts to state and local law enforcement agencies. Wait a minute. PC assumed that the Bush administration was big on national security and making Americans feel safe at home. So what’s up with Washington pulling money away from first-responders? Aren’t these the same first-responders hailed during the 2004 election season, when it seemed that every other Republican stump speech was tied to 9-11? Then we read this from the NYT: Many criminologists and law enforcement officials are debating whether the violent-crime data signal a significant […]
PERVY: Lehigh U. Vice-Provost Busted In Pedo Sting
Steven J. Devlin, 49, a vice provost at Lehigh University, was arraigned yesterday and charged with criminal attempt to commit rape and related offenses, authorities said. He was incarcerated for several hours at the George W. Hill Correctional Center before posting 10 percent of his $250,000 bail late yesterday afternoon, according to prison records. “Lehigh University has placed Devlin on administrative leave and is cooperating fully with law enforcement,” the university said in a statement. Authorities said Devlin, who used the screen name Phillyguy5, began an AOL relationship in May with a female county detective posing as a 32-year-old woman […]
Disgraced GOP Senator Urged Clinton Impeachment
LET YOUR FINGERS DO THE WALKING: Senator David Vitter (R-LA) demonstrating his ‘drop it like it’s hot’ move. BY JONATHAN VALANIA Insisting the President no longer had the “moral fitness” to lead the country, David Vitter, then a firebrand redmeat conservative state senator from Louisiana, urged Congress to impeach William Jefferson Clinton over the Lewinsky affair in an October 29, 1998 opinion piece for the New Orleans Times-Picayune: Some current polls may suggest that people are turned off by the whole Clinton mess and don’t care — because the stock market is good, the Clinton spin machine is even better […]
FIREFIGHTERS: The 9/11 Emperor Has No Clothes
FORBES: Relatives of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center in 2001 reproached Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani in a video Wednesday, pairing footage of the falling twin towers with charges that the city’s former mayor was woefully unprepared for Sept. 11, causing needless firefighter deaths. The parents and siblings of some of the 343 firefighters killed in the terrorist attacks released the video with the International Association of Fire Fighters, which opposes Giuliani’s candidacy.
GAYBO ALERT: DJ Lady Miss Kier
Yup, Lady Miss Kier of Deee-Lite fame steps it up to DJ the opening night festivities of the 13th Annual Gay & Lesbian Film Festival on Thursday. Here’s info from the press release — hope to see you there!! xo, Tommy Zane The 13th Philadelphia International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival gets underway with a sensational screening of A Four Letter Word, a romantic comedy, at The Prince Music Theater followed by an in-person Q&A with featured cast and crew including director Casper Andreas (Slutty Summer) and star Charlie David (“Dante’s Cove”). Then, grab your spot on the bus (one-way […]
NEWS CLUES: It’s Like Adderall For Your Eyeballs
BREAKING: Lady Bird Johnson Dead At 94 AUSTIN, Texas — Lady Bird Johnson, the former first lady who championed conservation and worked tenaciously for the political career of her husband, Lyndon B. Johnson, died Wednesday, a family spokeswoman said. She was 94. As first lady, she was perhaps best known as the determined environmentalist who wanted roadside billboards and junkyards replaced with trees and wildflowers. She raised hundreds of thousands of dollars to beautify Washington. The $320 million Highway Beautification Bill, passed in 1965, was known as “The Lady Bird Bill,” and she made speeches and lobbied Congress to win […]
RIP: Pulitzer-Winning Cartoonist Doug Marlette
NEW YORK TIMES OBIT: Doug Marlette, the Pulitzer Prize winning editorial cartoonist who also created “Kudzu,” the popular syndicated strip, died yesterday in a car accident in Mississippi. He was 57. A cartoonist who was unafraid to offend, Mr. Marlette was known for shocking his audiences with his pointed work. “His cartoons would make you stand up when you were reading the paper,” said Mike Peters, a friend and fellow cartoonist best known for the “Mother Goose & Grimm” comic strip. And offend he did. In 2002, when he drew a cartoon showing a man in Arab headdress driving a […]
The Super Plastic Fantastic All-Star Home Run Derby
BY MIKE WOLVERTON SPORTS GUY I’ll admit I haven’t watched the All-Star Home Run Derby in a couple years. It’s kinda boring. But I sat through it last night as a service to you, and because everyone knows that reading about the All-Star Home Run Derby is even MORE fun than watching it, I wrote up this running account. You’re welcome. And here’s what happened: Hosted this year at Candlestick Park AT&T Park in San Francisco, the Derby started with a live performance from (Lord have mercy) Counting Crows, singing their marginal hit “Accidentally in Love.” Sorta undermines the notion […]
KILLADELPHIA: Council To Sue State For Insanity
Philadelphia City Council members Darrell L. Clarke and Donna Reed Miller, stonewalled by the Pennsylvania legislature’s continued apathy on gun control, said they would sue the state today for Philadelphia’s right to enforce its own, stricter firearms laws. In what has been regarded as a legal long shot, the lawsuit will seek to force the state House and Senate to do what they have refused to do: allow the city to force owners to immediately report stolen guns and to set monthly limits for firearms purchases, among other things. INQUIRER: Court-Ordered Common Sense?
GUVNER: Rendell Calls Critic Crazy As A Cannibal
“I think [Rendell] believes he has a mandate to pillage, but he won 61 percent of the vote against an empty suit last year and he didn’t have a clear agenda until June 30,” added Eric Epstein, a Holocaust scholar, nuclear power watchdog and founder of the public interest group Rock the Capital. The comments set Rendell off. He called an Inquirer reporter fuming that the paper gave Epstein any ink at all. “Eric Epstein,” boiled Rendell, “is about as mentally stable as that guy who ate all those people.” It was unclear whether the governor was referring to Jeffrey […]