We've thrown a lot of Emmy attendees at you in the past few days, and we know you must have thoughts about which one of them shone the brightest, and which one lagged in the deepest depths of tragic fuggery....

At first glance, nothing about this party — which is Sydney's ACP Magazine's launch of '30 Days of Fashion and Beauty' — looks that odd. And then you get closer... More »

The U.S. got more from the British than a language and Victoria Beckham. We also got a wave of tabloid editors and paparazzi trained in a ruthless, hypercompetitive market — where at least one major newspaper routinely hacked celebrity voicemail. More »

14-year-old Brittany Lopez read 325 novels and comics this summer, winning the New York Public Library's Summer Reading 2010 contest. Lopez, who received her award at Yankees Stadium, says, "Curtis Granderson pinched me to check I wasn't dreaming. I wasn't!" More »

[Moldova, September 1: Schoolchildren wait outside for the opening of their new school, which features indoor toilets, new teaching materials, and specially-trained teachers. UNICEF praised it as a model for future schools in Moldova. Image via AP.]

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A reminder that bigotry is alive and well even where gay marriage is legal: a popular dean of students has been forced to resign from a Massachusetts high school for marrying another woman. More »

As if Power Rangers staying on the air for 17 seasons wasn't bad enough, Nickelodeon is now bringing the show back for an 18th season in 2011. Note: children's TV executives are reviving Power Rangers, while Reading Rainbow remains canceled. More »

When our tipster told us that Lindsay Lohan's character was naked most of the time she appears in Machete, nudity-watchers cried foul: It's a body double! More »

As expected, job losses continued through August, the third month in a row, causing the unemployment rate to rise to 9.6 percent, one-tenth higher than it was the previous two months. But the total loss of 54,000 non-farm jobs was less than anticipated, which caused a jump in stock futures before the opening of U.S. markets. (According to a Dow Jones survey, economists expected job losses to be more than double that.) The private sector once again actually added jobs, 67,000 in total, but it wasn't enough to offset the loss of 121,000 government workers — most of whom worked for the census, but some of whom merely worked for cash-strapped state and local governments.

U.S. Employers Cut 54,000 Jobs [WSJ]

Read more posts by Chris Rovzar

Filed Under: jobs jobs jobs, economy, jobs, unemployment

• Kat Von D is in love, and Jesse James is the lucky man.

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According to the Department of Education, 1,800 New York City teachers who lost their jobs earlier this year have yet to apply for another job in the system or attend fairs for recruitment, despsite the fact that there are 1,200 openings. Perhaps their apathy and poor self-motivation (sounds like someone's getting sent to the guidance counselor's office) stems from the fact that New York is the only city in the U.S. where teachers are guaranteed pay for life even if their school closes and they no longer have a permanent job. The policy costs the DOE more than $100 million in year in salary and benefits. Those teachers go into the Absent Teacher Reserve pool, where they can be used as substitutes. The average salary for ATR pool teacher? $82,000, with some making $100,000. Some teachers have been in the pool since 2006.

The United Federation of Teachers says the problem of the ATR pool is the DOE's fault. The union has offered a number of possible resolutions, including telling chancellor Joel Klein to put the laid-off teachers in job vacancies and close down the pool. "The fact that he has chosen not to do so indicates that he prefers to have the issue to complain about rather than to resolve the problem," says UFT president Michael Mulgrew.

The Journal thinks Klein is holding onto the pool for philosophical purity. "For Mr. Klein, forcing teachers into vacancies would go against his philosophy of giving principals market-based autonomy and accountability." So in order to promote free market principals and accountability, Klein wants to offer job security for life to laid-off employees during a recession with no stipulations for getting them back into the city's workforce? We must have missed that social studies class.

Teachers Ignore Openings [WSJ]

Read more posts by Nitasha Tiku

Filed Under: bad education, absent teacher reserve pool, joel klein, new york city department of education, united federation of teachers

If you want proof that the American romantic comedy is in a dismal state, trapped halfway between apology and experiment, you need look no further than "Going the Distance," which features real-life couple Drew Barrymore and Justin Long as a likable young recession-era duo separated by a continent, a lack of funds and a cloudy future. I don't mean that this movie is strikingly good or strikingly bad, in cosmic terms -- it's a solid but totally forgettable entertainment, redeemed somewhat by Barrymore's loud, horsey laugh and some agreeably racy comic situations.

Mighty Earl is losing steam. Though the hurricane is still covering a “massive area” and gusting winds up to 105 miles per hour, it is said to be weakening by the hour. The storm has been downgraded Thursday night to a Category 2 hurricane, though the National Hurricane Center said Earl “is expected to remain a large and strong hurricane as it passes near the Outer Banks” of North Carolina. And the storm may still meddle with Labor Day weekend plans, as the East Coast could face at least 24 hours of stormy, windy weather due to Earl's arrival. [CNN]

Update: The eye of the storm was offshore as Hurricane Earl passed North Carolina. With winds of 105 miles per hour, it's now headed towards New England and Nova Scotia. It's on track towards Massachusetts, with the closest pass to the shore expected in Nantucket before it moves up to Canada tomorrow. [Bloomberg]

Read more posts by Josh Duboff

Filed Under: my name is earl, hurricane, hurricane earl, labor day weekend, north carolina, weather

BP is in a bind. The oil giant says that if lawmakers pass legislation barring the company from acquiring new offshore drilling permits, they, uh, may not have enough money to pay for all of the damage caused by that Deepwater Horizon oil spill you may have heard about. Additionally, BP says the ban would leave them without the resources necessary to see through the planned restoration efforts for the Gulf Coast.

“If we are unable to keep those fields going, that is going to have a substantial impact on our cash flow,” said David Nagle, BP’s executive vice president for BP America, in an interview. That, he added, “makes it harder for us to fund things, fund these programs.”

The company, unsurprisingly, isn’t getting much sympathy from those behind the provision in Washington.“The risk of having a dangerous company like BP develop new resources in the gulf is too great,” said Daniel Weiss, the chief of staff of Rep. George Miller, who wrote one of the drilling overhaul bills. “Year after year after year, no matter how many incidents they’re involved in, no matter how many fines they’ve had to pay, they never changed their behavior. BP has no one to blame but themselves.”

BP Says Limits on Drilling Imperil Oil Spill Payouts [NYT]

Read more posts by Josh Duboff

Filed Under: bp, offshore drilling, oil spill

Mayor Bloomberg is not likely to be pleased at the results of a new New York Times poll examining attitudes toward the proposed Muslim community center and mosque at Ground Zero. The survey indicates that most New Yorkers are not in favor of the current location of the mosque: 67 percent of respondents said that “while Muslims had a right to construct the center near Ground Zero, they should find a different site.” And the results indicate a more widespread uneasiness about feelings toward Muslims in general.

Nearly nine years after the Sept. 11 attacks ignited a wave of anxiety about Muslims, many in the country’s biggest and arguably most cosmopolitan city still have an uneasy relationship with Islam. One-fifth of New Yorkers acknowledged animosity toward Muslims. Thirty-three percent said that compared with other American citizens, Muslims were more sympathetic to terrorists. And nearly 60 percent said people they know had negative feelings toward Muslims because of 9/11.

Opposition to the plan is strongest among those who live in the outer boroughs (54 percent in the Bronx are opposed), those who make under $50,000 (only 31 percent in support), and those over the age of 45 (60 percent opposed). The poll, conducted from August 27 to 31 among 892 adults, also revealed - intriguingly but perhaps unsurprisingly - that many New Yorkers are conflicted about their feelings regarding the controversial issue, as a number of those polled gave almost contradictory explanations to back up their answers.

“Freedom of religion is one of the guarantees we give in this country, so they are free to worship where they chose,” 56-year-old real estate broker Richard Merton told the Times. “I just think it’s very bad manners on their part to be so insensitive as to put a mosque in that area.”

This uncertainty is also indicated by the finding that 38 percent of the respondents who did express support for the plan said later, during follow-up questioning, that they would actually prefer it to be moved farther away from the Ground Zero site.

New Yorkers Want Islamic Center Moved, Poll Finds [NYT]

Read more posts by Josh Duboff

Filed Under: polls, ground zero mosque, new york times

We would tell King not to quit his day job, but... too late!

Read more posts by Josh Duboff

Filed Under: music to nobody's ears, lady gaga, larry king, poker face, ryan seacrest, video

Thank you for coming along with us on this journey through the glories of Beverly Hills 90210 on this most holy of days -- a day that literally came but once in our lifetime. Okay, twice, if you happened to...

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Today in Tweet Beat, Larry King struggles with one of life's big mysteries, Kylie Minogue has the best shoes, and Beverly Hills is giving the Kardashians the key to the city. More »

Sure, I like Julianna Margulies's Emmy dress:Do I LIKE like it? I don't know. But someone else does:...