People: A guitar is just a guitar
In a post-wardrobe malfunction world, questions have arisen about Prince‘s performance at Sunday’s Super Bowl halftime.
In a guitar solo during the “Purple Rain” segment of his medley, his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet.
As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer’s signature symbol) had phallic connotations for some.
New York Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it “embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed.”
But a CBS spokesman said the network has received “very few” complaints – a sentiment echoed by the NFL, which produced the show.
“We respect other opinions, but it takes quite a leap of the imagination to make a controversy of his performance,” said league spokesman Greg Aiello. “It’s a guitar.”
CBS last aired the Super Bowl in 2004, when Janet Jackson‘s “wardrobe malfunction” sparked a crackdown on broadcast decency.
Way, way away, we hope
Paris Hilton‘s impending visit to Vienna is the talk of the town – for all the wrong reasons.
The 25-year-old hotel heiress/reality TV star has been invited to Vienna’s lavish Opera Ball next week by married, 74-year-old construction magnate Richard Lugner, whose previous celebrity guests have included Geri Halliwell, Pamela Anderson and Carmen Electra.
In light of racy images of Hilton that have circulated on the Internet, “this makes a farce of the Opera Ball,” complains Barbara Kroth, a retired real-estate agent.
Scoffs Lugner: “Look, there are probably three or four nude photos of me, too, stashed away somewhere.”
Down a slippery slope
Christina Aguilera says she likes to kick back au naturel on weekends with her husband, music executive Jordan Bratman.
“We have something called ‘naked Sundays,’ ” the 26-year-old pop star says in an interview airing on “The Ellen DeGeneres Show” today.
“We do everything naked. We cook naked.”
“Nothing with grease – that could splatter,” says DeGeneres.
“Well, unless you want the grease,” Aguilera replies.
Liar’s poker, anyone?
Finally, the latest on the weekend incident where Ryan O’Neal was arrested after firing a gun in what he called an attempt to scare off his fireplace poker-wielding son:
While O’Neal claims he was defending himself against son Griffin – who allegedly was beating younger brother Redmond with an ashtray before grabbing the poker – the actor’s estranged daughter, Tatum (who wasn’t actually there), claims it was Griffin who was protecting Redmond.
But authorities released a 911 call from a frantic girlfriend of Griffin’s, saying she had been hit in the eye and couldn’t see.
Griffin hit the pregnant woman with the poker while swinging it at him, O’Neal says.
The birthday bunch
Actor Miguel Ferrer is 52. Actor James Spader is 47. Country singer Garth Brooks is 45. Comedian Chris Rock is 42. Actor Jason Gedrick (“Windfall,” “Boomtown”) is 40. Actor Ashton Kutcher is 29. Actress Tina Majorino (“Napoleon Dynamite,” “Veronica Mars”) is 22.