Another Sad Story About the Lauren Conrad Collection

You know how Michael K. has his infatuation with Shauna Sand and Phoebe Price? And how Perez loves him some Orange Oprah? Well, I guess you can put me on those levels when it comes to the Lauren Conrad Collection. I'm obssessed with it's atrociousness. The plot just keeps on thickening.

Apparently, the alleged "clothing designer" made an appearance at Bloomingdales in Century City last Thursday, and said the following to describe one of her pieces:

"This one's a little more nighttime. Again, it's a mini, it's that asymmetrical look that is in for this fall. Um, um. That's it [points to model]."

Anyway, my words can only say so much. Check out this vid for the live scoop!

Rosie O'Donnell is Facing Her Addiction

Controversial comic/actress/talk show host/lesbian Rosie O'Donnell is coming forth about her serious addiction--one that faces many--one that faces myself--the addiction to blogging and the Internet.

What began as a brief message to her readers, led to O'Donnell confronting her so-called problem, hoping that taking time off from her daily rants and raves will help her in some way. She writes the following:

i am taking off august
in blog-ville
2 c if i can
rosie unplugged
happy summer peeps
peace in
peace out

Following the former View host's 1-month sayonara from the Blogosphere, she admitted to People.com that she needs help with her cyber-dependency, telling the site, "they need the show "Intervention" for people who need to get off their computers! My real addiction is the computer and the blog."

I have the same addiction, but I do not find it unhealthy. And if it is something that gives the celebrity an outlet to speak her mind, while entertaining others and being informative, why should she stop? I proudly proclaim my World Wide Web addiction, and I wouldn't have it any other way! :-)

X17 Embraces Britney's Shitty Parenting Skills

X17 Online, the unconditionally Britney Spears-loving paparazzi agency, irritates the hell out of me once again. Yesterday I posted that pic of cute little Sean Preston playing with mommy Spears' pink lighter. x17 had posted that photo, along with a series of others, demonstrating the 2.5-year-old tot grabbing Spears' lighter and cigarettes very curiously and eager.

It must have been a slow day for X17, who then proceeded to re-post the photos yet again this morning, stating, "Brit's just lookin' SO fine in these pix, and little Sean Preston is so cute - not that Jayden isn't! - we just had to post 'em again!"

X17 is and isn't as dumb as one would think for laying out a story as such. You see, the agency was able to state the obvious (Spears' son got a hold of her light-up stash and Spears therefore looks like an irresponsible parent), but still come out looking like the nice guys by (overly) sugar coating a very serious situation.

Although the agency most likely feels it was able to kill two birds with one stone, in the end, the site still comes off ignorant for praising such photos and pathetic for it's desperate attempts at kissing Spears' ass.

X17 is Desperate For Story Ideas

All these celebrity pregnancy speculations get old after awhile. It's one thing if there are ongoing rumors (from legitimate sources) that a person is pregnant. And it's one thing if someone looks significantly bigger in the tum-tum. But otherwise, questioning the possibility of a star being preggo is just redundant, cliche--and quite frankly, stupid.

Most of these pregnancy speculation stories are all outlandish, but today I have surely found the most pathetic. X17online posted photos this morning on it's site of Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon leaving West Hollywood restaurant Nobu last night. The site went as far as to title the posting, "Stop Hating! Is Mariah Pregnant?!?" And went on to list the following ridiculous reasons as to why Carey could perhaps be pregnant:

1) Mariah's puppies look a bit bigger than usual.
2) Nick's being more precious than usual with his wifey, carefully guiding her through the crowd.
3) There's definitely something in the water here in Hollywood!

In response:

a) It's called a push-up bra
b) It's called putting on a loving show for the photogs
and
c) that may be true, but I'd hardly add that to the list of "evidence" (as the site says) that Carey could indeed be preggers.

Truth of the matter: Carey may very well *be* pregnant for all anyone knows. But even if so, I would certainly not credit any of X17's "creative ideas" for informing me.

Kanye's Plan to Prevent Particular Blogger From Getting Publicity Surely Backfires

If Kanye West thought "cleverly" scratching out some guy's face and whiting out his name would stop the guy from being noticed, he couldn't have been more wrong.

This morning, West posted a blog entry entitled, "I DON'T KNOW WHO THE HELL THIS IS... BUT I COVERED HIS NAME AND FACE SO HE WOULDN'T GET THE PUB HE WAS OBVIOUSLY LOOKIN' 4!"

This short posting was in response to a blog entry written about a guy named Marcus Troy who is supposedly West's "Ghost Writer." In other terms, this is someone who supposedly blogs for the rapper behind the scenes so that he can continue to have posts up on his site even when he is off jetsetting around the world or on tour. These posts are written to sound like West, so that people do not think someone is writing them for him.

As West whited out anything relating to this Marcus fella, all it took was the googling of the entry's title, "Meet Kanye West's Ghost Blogger" to read the original entry and find out what this guy is all about. And naturally, within just a few short hours of Kanye's attempt at giving this guy an invisible identity, the blogger dude probably had more hits on his personal website than West, himself, for the day.

And what's especially funny? Troy isn't even the one to be held accountable for this "Ghost Writer" talk. It was this other blogger named Sandra Rose, who claimed this information as such. The Kanye-outing continues, as in a more recent post, Rose proceeds to deem West a "Blog Jacker." I'm sure we can all sit back and anticipate another Kanye reaction to this one.

So, lesson of the day, folks? Make up a rumor (or state the truth, for that matter) about Kanye West--or call him out for something, or talk shit--and you're automatically guaranteed free press. Because Kanye is the King of clearing up rumors on his blog for the world to see. Little does he know, his little shit talking antics are really doing everyone else a favor.

Good Morning!

GREETINGS, everyone!!! While I spent my weekend agonizing over the feud between Spencer Pratt and Mary-Kate Olsen, I hope all of you were enjoying your air-conditioned-induced work-free days.

As for me, I just wanted to give a lil shout to the VH1 Blog. Why? Well, they're the first major blog to link to one of *my* stories. Remember that Mizz Na'Tasha item I posted in regards to her gracing the cover of Smooth magazine? Well, I never realized it'd be such a success! So much so that it grabbed the attention of the VH1 Blog. So three cheers for a first step in getting The Platinum Pen noticed by the "big wigs." haha

Okay, moving on.... how much do I freakin hate (sorry, my mom always tells me I should only reserve the word hate for Hitler and a couple losers I used to know--but I really hate songs. I really, really do) L.A. radio? One would expect L.A. to have wonderful radio stations, right? Ugh, couldn't be more wrong. Every channel I click, I am lead to the same freakin songs. And let me just say on the record, I don't care how damn popular it is, but I hate that song "Bleeding Love." Ugh, it's always on. And it's soooo annoying. I want to stab the radio everytime it comes on. Not to mention, L.A. radio (mainly KIIS-FM--gawd, and even Power 106) still feels the need to play "Sexy Can I" by Ray J. Can we say OVER it?! And lastly, "Lollipop" by Lil Wayne. Just strangle me, why don't you. Oh wait, and how can I forget the worst ??? "Bye Bye Bye," by Mariah Carey. OMG. Sorry yall. It's Monday, I'm tired, irritable, need my coffee.

BUT... on a much more relieving note, good news: To those who are over mainstream L.A. radio (minus good 80's r&b/dance stations like 93.9 and 102.3), I have turned to an alternative music source. When I am in my car, I'll still try to dig through radio stations, in between balancing the music on my CDs. But now when I am at home, I will opt to listen to iTUNES radio. I've actually been doing this for about 5 years, but I go through phases of time in which I listen frequently, and I go through phases of my station of choice. Station of the moment? Radio Danz . It's all dance music--mainly house-ish type stuff--and it's always fun and lively. You can make song requests from the station's playlist, and you are allowed up to 2 per hour; and provided that the song hasn't been played in the previous 3 hours, your requests will be played in no more than 15 minutes. You can also add songs to the station's playlist by emailing danz@radiodanz.com . Anyway, I strongly suggest giving this station a listen. I've been listening to it all the time, I've discovered so many new songs from the station, and I just wanted to spread the word. :-)

ENJOY YOUR DAY, EVERYONE. I promise to make more posts this week. Once again, I apologize for the shortage last week.

Blog Talk

At this point—being the blog connoisseur I am—I’ve come to realize that if I haven’t already seen it, it probably isn’t worth seeing.

This morning I decided to venture out of Google Reader to see what some of the blogs I do not read regularly have to offer. You see, I was scurrying around Google Reader (naturally) and my *favorite* blogsite Gawker linked to this Vanity Fair blog matrix (pictured above). I decided to take a gander, and check the pictogram out. This led me to an array of previously unseen bloggage, and from those sites, more unseen bloggage. And to my dismay, none of which were the least bit appealing. So I have therefore decided that I am just going to stick to the 50-some-odd blogs I have in my Google Reader because those are the absolute best.

And even though I have many of my favorite sites listed to the right of this webpage, I shall mention them (and others) anyway—the ABSOLUTE best: Gawker (as aforementioned), Defamer, Jezebel, Radar, Dlisted, Jossip, Bossip. Those are my favs. I enjoy them because they combine entertainment, politics and pop culture—quite similarly to The Platinum Pen. I do not care for the sites which are *entirely* entertainment-based. Well, no. I shouldn’t say I don’t care for them—because quite frankly, I read them regularly and I, in fact, am employed with one of them; however, I guess I just find that they get a little too redundant. They all say the same thing. Blah blah. I mean each of them serves their purpose, but I have different takes on a few. (will explain).

TMZ: It was super funny/fun to read for quite some time. Kinda over it now. It actually kind of bores me, in fact. And although I give them credit for exclusivity and specializing in their stalkerazzi videos, the videos are usually of some celebrity walking out of a club, mobbed by photogs, not answering any questions and getting into their car. That shit gets old after awhile. But on the rare occasion they post their videos of worth, I do indeed enjoy watching.

E! Online: The website for the E! Network has a ton of cool stuff. A good source if you're looking for actual celeb NEWS (not just gossipy stuff). Long, journalistic, informative news items to be found. Also, celeb gossip columnist Marc Malkin does an excellent job of getting tons of exclusive dirt for the site. The videos on the site are cool as well. They are actual news pieces put together with all sorts of footage and hosts.

DListed: Rarely has any exclusive info—just bootlegged info taken from other sites. Could be deemed as redundant, but because Michael K. is a comical genius, I will gladly read his redundant info any day! I even got my mom turned on to this site. It’s quite funny. P.S. not to mention that K. is a 90210 fuh-reak like myself. (also check out Yeeeah!. Similar to Dlisted, but less postings per day)

Perez Hilton: half recycling and half original material. Can be funny at times. The photo captions and drawings (via microsoft Paint) are the best part of the site.

Page Six: One of the best celebrity gossip blogs on the net. As a column (and blog) out of the New York Times, the gossip on this site is a) NEVER recycled. It's all original material, and b) It's a very dependable source.

Just Jared: Very factual—not edgy or opinion-based. But good photos—and always a ton of them. JJ could be deemed as “boring,” but I am not *bothered* by this site necessarily.

X17: I used to actually really enjoy this site. And now I have no idea why. It bores the heck outta me. Like JJ, they do put out a bunch of good exclusive photos. And occasionally they do get a few exclusive tidbits of gossip here and there. BUT… their obsession and loyalty to Britney Spears is tiresome—and their commentary in general is lame. Definitely nothing exciting here except the photos (and good vids on their X17Video site)

In Case You Didn’t Know (ICYDK): Appropriately titled. Always provides the celeb 411 like 24hrs *after* the info is originally released and posted on every other entertainment site on the web.

Defamer, Jezebel, Radar, Jossip: Always clever, always interesting, always thought-provoking. I find myself becoming worldlier and more informed by reading these sites. They are great because I do not need to read TIME or any of those small-print newsy pubs to understand what’s going on in the universe—politically and popularly.

Oh, and if celeb booby pics are your forte, Drunken Stepfather (I just like saying the name) and Hollywood Tuna are boss!

PopSugar, Pink Is the New Blog, A Socialite’s Life: Good & informative, but same ‘ol, same ‘ol. Just different spins on the same entertainment stories.

And lastly, for the Angeleno in you, LAist is my favorite LA site. No celeb gossip/news here, just straight up LA stuff. It's pretty informative and hip.

I would certainly be interested to know what sites *you*, my readers, visit. Any good ones I missed? I know I did not mention all the entertainment-based sites or blogs in general, so fill me in if there is one you know of that kicks some serious bootay!