Bloggin The Rock

Shia LaBeouf was not drunk when he was involved in a collision that resulted in his truck flipping upside down on Sunday morning according to the actor’s boss, “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” director, Michael Bay.

In a new interview with Access Hollywood’s Billy Bush airing on Access August 1 and “The Billy Bush Show,” Bay claimed LaBeouf was not under the influence when his green Ford F-150 truck collided with another car in the early hours of Sunday morning. While authorities have claimed in the media that officers believed the actor was drunk when they reached the scene of the accident, Bay said LaBeouf’s arrest on suspicion of driving under the influence will not stick.

“You’re gonna see — that’s gonna go away,” Bay said. “That’s fresh news… He was not drunk. He was drinking hours and hours before.”

In the hours leading up to the crash at the intersection of Fountain and LaBrea, LaBeouf attended a concert at the Los Angeles Troubadour music venue with his “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” co-star Isabel Lucas. A source claimed in Us Weekly the actor was drinking at the event.

“He was dancing around and acting really crazy,” the source claimed to Us. “He kept doing shots of whiskey.”

Shortly before 2:30 AM, another driver ran a red light, according to authorities who confirmed LaBeouf is now not being investigated for causing the crash.

Following the incident, the actor was taken to an area hospital where he was cited, arrested and booked on suspicion of DUI shortly before undergoing hand surgery at around 5:30 AM Sunday, the injury a result of the crash. The actor’s current condition might even be written into the “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen” script according to Bay.

“I spoke to him yesterday in the hospital,” Bay said. “His two fingers are pretty mashed, but we’re figuring out a way to shoot around it, kind of write it in the story.”

In a strange twist, Bay said he had a conversation with the 22-year-old actor about safety, days before his crash.

“We had a little heart to heart the week before when he bought a brand new motorcycle and I [said] ‘Dude! You cannot ride that motorcycle! If you crash, you put 1,500 people out of work,’” the director recounted. “He said, ‘Ok, I won’t ride it, I won’t ride it, I’ll just drive my truck.’”

Despite the incident on Sunday, Bay said LaBeouf has his head on his shoulders.

“The kid really has his head together and you know, he’s only 22,” Bay said. “He’s doing a great job on this movie. He’s really matured since the last one and I love working with him.”

MOSCOW — A rare total solar eclipse will pass just west of Russia’s third-largest city Friday, but crowds of tourists in Novosibirsk to witness the event may find their view of the event obscured by clouds and rain.

The eclipse _ the moon passing in front of the sun _ will begin in Arctic Canada around 0945 GMT, sweep across Greenland, pass through western Siberia, Mongolia and end in central China more than an hour and a half later.

AccuScore has run more than 10,000 simulations for the 2008 Major League Baseball Season, calculating how each…

AP - Passengers aboard a Canadian bus fled in horror as a fellow traveler viciously attacked his seat mate, repeatedly stabbing him and then severing his head, witnesses said Thursday.

John Mayer made a public plea on Thursday for the Los Angeles City Council to begin regulating the paparazzi.

The singer appeared during a hearing at LA City Hall, where officials were discussing imposing restrictions on overzealous shutterbugs.

“I don’t sit before you today to ask that you ban the paparazzi,” Mayer, 30, said in his testimony. “I’m asking you to regulate it. Officialize it. Tax it. Legitimize it.”

Following the hearing, the singer’s testimony was posted on his Web site.

Mayer certainly knows a thing or two about being a paparazzi target and spoke about some of his run-ins with aggressive photographers. And while he understands an abundance of attention comes as a price of fame, some of the tactics used by the paparazzi are putting people in danger, according to the singer.

“I don’t want to beg the city of Los Angeles to give me 1987 back,” he told those in attendance. “I love being a famous musician in 2008… This is about safety.”

Among the measures Mayer suggested enforcing were requiring a “an acceptable distance” between the photographers and the object of their attention.

“A law governing an acceptable filming distance from an unwilling subject keeps everybody safe and misbehavior becomes accountable,” Mayer testified. “Without know who is following you, you do not know why you are being followed, which
brings about a very really possibility of suffering harm.”

In addition, Mayer recommended a “big white P on a yellow license plate [that] says the driver works for an accredited photo agency,” as well as “press credentials worn in plain sight.”

Nevertheless, Mayer understands no matter what rules are put into place, it won’t make the problem go away.

“Regulating the paparazzi won’t bring an end to modern-day media coverage, just as the newly enforced hands-free law hasn’t stopped people from talking on cell phones while they drive,” he concluded. “It’s only an adaptive measure put in place to respond to some of the ways that living in a technological free-market can compromise personal safety.”

Mayer wasn’t the only celebrity in attendance at Thursday’s hearing. Actors Eric Roberts and Milo Ventimiglia were also on hand to talk about their paparazzi encounters.

Prior to the hearing, LAPD chief William Bratton seemed to dismiss the need for paparazzi regulation, citing the recent actions of three of the most famed paparazzi targets.

“If you notice, since Britney started wearing clothes and behaving; Paris is out of town not bothering anybody anymore, thank God; and evidently, Lindsay Lohan has gone gay, we don’t seem to have much of an issue,” Bratton told KNBC. “So as far as all this grandstanding and foolishness, waste of city time on this issue — and the fact that I felt aggravated enough about it to interrupt my workout to come over and set the record straight, LAPD has no intention of participating in this farce.”

Elizabeth Taylor has been hospitalized, Access Hollywood has confirmed.

Taylor, 76, was admitted to an undisclosed Los Angeles hosptial on Tuesday, a source told Access.

On Thursday, a spokesperson for Taylor released the following statement to Access:

“Ms. Taylor is fine. The rumors which began in England about her health are dramatic, overstated and untrue. Her hospital visit was precautionary. She will be returning home shortly. At present, she is surrounded by family, friends and fabulous jewels.”

According to a previous report in the National Enquirer, Taylor had suffered congestive heart failure stemming from a bout with pneumonia and had been put on life support.

“The doctors thought they were going to lose her. She’s still very sick, but she’s past the crisis,” a source reportedly told The Enquirer.

A source confirmed to Access that Taylor’s condition has stabilized.

Reuters - U.S. and Israeli officials discussed diplomatic efforts and financial sanctions to keep Iran from developing nuclear weapons, the State Department said on Thursday.

Jessica Simpson claims she suffered abuse in a relationship, according to a new interview with the new country singer.

On 28-year-old Simpson’s upcoming debut country album, “Do You Know,” the singer recorded a song, “Remember That,” which offers advice to abused women. Sample lyrics of the song include, “With his hands or with his words/you don’t deserve it,” - lyrics Simpson told Elle magazine’s September issue she could relate to.

“I know that I sing it with experience,” Simpson told the mag.

When asked by the magazine’s reporter if, in addition to mental abuse, she has experienced physical abuse, Simpson responded cautiously.

“I don’t want to talk about it, but I have definitely experienced abuse in a way that I would tell people to take their heart and run,” Simpson said.

In the article, Simpson also opened up about her public persona and said she is battling back against tabloid headlines.

“So many people want to bring me down, and I can’t wait to prove them wrong,” she said.

She claims many people have given her a difficult time because of tabloid reports.

“If [people] believe what they read about me, they automatically persecute and torment me,” she claimed.

And in regards to one recent headline, which suggested her father, Joe Simpson, interfered with her relationship with boyfriend Tony Romo, the singer stood up in defense of her dad.

“That’s ludicrous,” she said. “He just wants me to be happy. Our whole family gets beaten, but that just brings us closer. So people are really doing themselves a disservice.”

During the interview, Simpson also opened up about her romance last year with singer John Mayer, the current love interest of Jennifer Aniston.

“John believed in the Jessica Simpson that’s within,” she said in the third person. “He cherished our love. He helped make me the woman I am today. John is going to be an amazing man for someone, but I know that I was supposed to be with someone else.”

I’m not sure how he continues to be regarded as a very serious Washington pundit given his obvious history of race-baiting, but somehow he skulks his way onto MSNBC almost every day. Pat Buchanan on Hardball Monday night wondered out loud about Senator Obama: “Is he one of us?”

If by “one of us” he means a cranky, elitist, white, corporate media, man-shaped bunion who fashioned his career by demonizing brown people, the answer is a certain ‘no’. But we know what Buchanan meant by this. Is Senator Obama with “us” or is he with the uppity blacks? Is he a real American like Senator McCain or is he a Muslim terrorist like those e-mails suggest? Is he too European (GAY!)? Is he like us: white, wealthy, conservative, elite?

During this dark ride of the Bush years, it’s no longer surprising or shocking to hear such a bottomless cup of awfulness. This line of questioning has become the dominant theme in the corporate media’s political narrative. “Us” has become a baseline which liberals — regardless of race or gender — will never achieve because the experiment is stacked against anyone who isn’t centrist, moderate, right of center or conservative.

In scientific terms, the left has been tagged by the corporate media as the “experimental group” while the right is the “control group.” The Republicans are the Awesome Republicans no matter what. They’re constant. They set the tone of the debate. The corporate media accepts their terms, their rules and their frames as a given and the Democrats are expected to jump and dash and explain themselves based upon those givens, irrespective of how ludicrous they happen to be.

Prove to us that you’re one of us. Prove to us that you support the troops. Prove to us that you’re patriotic. Prove to us that you’re not an effete snob. Prove to us that you can talk to a gathering of bumpkins in a diner like a plainspoken Republican can. Prove to us that you’re not the enemy. Prove to us that you’re not presumptuous.

And the experiment goes on and on with the Democrats (or liberals or progressives) poked and dissected and injected with false arguments, specious claims and disproved quotes (see Dana Milbank’s recent column) often manufactured by the right and invariably parroted by the corporate media.

Instead of disregarding high pitched cranks like Buchanan and asking, “What Pat? Seriously — why are you such a fringe psychonaut?” and discounting such a ridiculous question as beneath reason and credibility, the corporate media instead takes the “one of us” question seriously and more often than not wraps an entire debate around it.

This present week, in particular, has been yet another high water mark for this dynamic.

Senator Obama has been accused of being presumptuous, uppity (literally), against the troops, snobbish, elitist, hubristic, European (GAY!) and, considering the array of both subtle and obvious messages in Senator McCain’s laughable Britney & Paris commercial, vacuous, frivolous, loopy, superficial, “Hollywood” and, I don’t know, he produces amateur porn videos using night vision. Of course reasonable, professional analysts with ethical guidelines and some degree of integrity would disregard such accusations as the dripping-with-flopsweat acts of a desperate, pathetic McCain campaign. But instead, these accusations are somehow validated, debated and defended by people like Pat Buchanan. Prove to us, Senator Obama, that you’re not a tabloid pop star. Prove to us that you’re not a bleached blonde heiress or a slack-jawed ex-Mouseketeer.

Thankfully, for the cause of reason and rationality, there are people like Rachel Maddow who, while occupying the unglamorous role of debunking and debating Pat Buchanan, said to Buchanan on Wednesday’s Race for the White House with Stretch:

“We have a responsibility to talk about whether [these accusations are] deserved, Pat. I think when John McCain doesn’t speak to Pat Buchanan as being presumptuous — calls himself ‘President McCain.’ But Barack Obama speaks to you as presumptuous for doing something much less damning… that says much more about you than it does the candidates.”

In the menacing world of Pat Buchanan and of the larger barbecue media, Senator Obama is, in fact, presumptuous and all the rest of it, or, if he’s not, the onus is on him to prove that he’s not. Meanwhile, Senator McCain is simply…not. Senator McCain couldn’t possibly be an elitist and out of touch with most Americans (even though he wears $520 shoes and is married to the heiress to the Anheuser-Busch fortune) because it just doesn’t fit their scientific experiment dynamic — the script, the narrative. He’s just not. Senator McCain couldn’t possibly be a “celebrity” even though he’s hosted SNL and had a movie-of-the-week made about his Vietnam experiences. He’s just not. Senator McCain couldn’t possibly be in favor of torture even though he voted against banning it. He’s just not. Senator McCain couldn’t possibly be out of his depth on foreign policy even though his lies and errors in this arena far outnumber any similar gaffes by Senator Obama. He’s just not.

Is it any wonder why the latest polls show a much tighter race? And, thusly, is it any wonder that a tight race is better for ratings? Pat Buchanan, it turns out, is good for business.

Anyone who promotes — or who doesn’t necessarily oppose — the scientific narrative is good for business regardless of whether they’re racists or homophobes or drug-addled hooples. After all, Rush Limbaugh’s contract was just reupped for $400 million while Sam Seder isn’t even allowed on corporate radio.

So irrespective of what Senator Obama might do or say or what his life story might be, as long as he has a (D) after his name, he’ll always be expected by the corporate media to explain himself. To prove himself. Why isn’t Senator Obama more like Senator McCain: white, wealthy, conservative, elite? They’ll go through this routine until the experiment is finished: either Senator Obama is experimented upon until he becomes more like Senator McCain (or another media-approved “one of us”) or he’ll lose the election and the actual Senator McCain is the next president. And the experiment continues. That is, unless we can seize the initiative redefine who “us” is. After a long history of white, wealthy, conservative elites running the lab, it’s time to shut it down and clear the way for the rest of us.

Bob Cesca’s Goddamn Awesome Blog! Go!

The late Tim Russert’s son will take up a family tradition for NBC News, helping to cover the Democratic and Republican conventions.

Luke Russert’s assignment as a convention correspondent focusing on “youth issues” is his first for NBC, the network said Thursday.

Russert, 22, a recent Boston College graduate, has been on the radio since 2006 as co-host with pundit James Carville of “60/20 Sports” on XM Satellite Radio.

“Never before in an election cycle has so much attention turned to the youth vote, and Luke will bring a unique perspective to covering it,” NBC News President Steve Capus said in a statement.

Russert said in a statement that he was “humbled and grateful” for the opportunity.

Tim Russert, the host of NBC’s “Meet the Press” and Washington bureau chief for the network. died June 13 of a heart attack at 58. He was a longtime and key part of NBC’s political coverage, with a profile as high as the anchors he worked alongside.

Luke Russert’s role was announced as NBC detailed its plans for the Democratic convention in Denver, Aug. 25-28, and the Republican meeting in St. Paul, Minn., Sept. 1-4.

“NBC Nightly News” anchorman Brian Williams will lead the network’s reporting over the four nights for each convention, with MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann and Chris Matthews anchoring cable coverage. MSNBC plans to offer 20 hours of daily live convention coverage.

Former “Nightly News” anchorman Tom Brokaw — who has covered every presidential election since 1968, NBC noted — will do reporting and analysis on both NBC and MSNBC.

“Meet the Press,” with Brokaw as moderator, will air from Denver on Sunday, Aug. 24, and from St. Paul on Sunday, Aug. 31.

CNBC, Telemundo, MSNBC.com and NBC Mobile also will be reporting on both conventions.