Yesterday, former President Bill “Bubba” Clinton went to North Korea on a very special mission. Many theorized Tuesday morning that Bubba wouldn’t fly off to that country without something big being planned and negotiated beforehand. Turns out, they were right. After a three-and-a-half hour “negotiation” (in what amounted to a series of photo ops and North Korean attempts at propaganda), Bubba got the two American journalists out of their “hard labor” jail sentence/detention through a pardon by Kim Jong Il. Back in March, Euna Lee and Laura Ling, correspondents for Al Gore’s Current TV, were caught crossing over the North Korean border, and in June, were sentenced to 12 years hard labor. Their release became one of the many terse subjects in back-door negotiations between North Korea and America, and I’m personally surprised that it took so little to get these women out. Sources are claiming that the talks were “exhaustive”, but Bubba left North Korea within hours, with Laura and Euna in tow:

Laura Ling and Euna Lee were headed to Los Angeles from North Korea. For their families, their arrival couldn’t come soon enough.

“We are counting the seconds to hold Laura and Euna in our arms,” the relatives of the American journalists say in a statement.

Ling, 32, and Lee, 36, who work for former Vice President Al Gore’s Current TV, were released from custody Tuesday – pardoned, the North Korean media said, the same day that former President Bill Clinton met with them and with the country’s leader Kim Jong II.

“The families of Laura Ling and Euna Lee are overjoyed by the news of their pardon,” says the statement. “We especially want to thank President Bill Clinton for taking on such an arduous mission and Vice President Al Gore for his tireless efforts to bring Laura and Euna home. We must also thank all the people who have supported our families through this ordeal, it has meant the world to us.”

Gore, who had remained quiet during the ordeal, said on his Twitter page, “We are overjoyed by Laura and Euna’s safe return.” The families also thanked Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who had engaged in diplomatic efforts.

In an email to the journalists’ colleagues, Current TV co-founder Joel Hyatt called the pair “extraordinary women who have shown remarkable courage and initiative” and said their ordeal will not have been in vain.

“To Laura and Euna, we promise this: Your courage and passion will be honored by Current’s continued commitment to telling the stories that no one else will tell,” Hyatt wrote. “We owe you no less. Celebrate!”

[From People]

Well, I’m glad that the women were released, I’m sure their families are overjoyed. I’m also impressed with Bubba’s skill in either/both the negotiations and the staging of the North Korean visit. Officially, Bubba was acting alone, “after the women’s families asked him to travel to the communist country and seek their release, a senior administration official said Tuesday.” But wink, wink, nod, of course Bubba went with the express permission of his wife, the secretary of state, and the current president. CNN is even reporting that Bubba offered an apology to Kim Jong Il, but the apology was not on behalf of America, or the current administration. Hopefully, this incident will help further negotiations about larger subjects, like nuclear war.

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are surely hungover from all of the partying they did post-Basterds premiere at the Cannes Film Festival. Sources claim that not only did Brangelina bring it to the red carpet, they brought it to the after-party, staying and schmoozing until the wee hours of the morning. Unfortunately, Brangelina and the other partygoers staying and working in Cannes’s Hotel du Cap were met with a rude awakening this morning – none other than Bill Clinton and his huge, pimped-out entourage. The Daily Mail is reporting that Clinton and his people have totally “taken over” the hotel, and no mere celebrity is allowed anywhere near the former president. Here’s my question: Why is the world is Bill Clinton at the Cannes Film Festival? Oh, right. He’s co-hosting an AIDS fundraiser at the festival. The other co-host? None other than everybody’s favorite crazy broad, Sharon Stone:

Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie may be royalty in the showbiz world, but Bill Clinton showed who’s really got the power in Cannes this morning.

The former US president has completely ‘taken over’ the Hotel du Cap, where Brangelina normally stay when they are in the south of France.

A source said: ‘There’s a complete lock-down of the hotel for 36 hours. Nobody is allowed anywhere near the hotel, its restaurant or bar while Bill is there. There’s even an air block to stop helicopters flying over.’

Mr Clinton is in Cannes to host an AIDS fundraiser dinner with Sharon Stone tonight, and the hotel confirmed this morning that there is a ‘private party’ and nobody is allowed near the hotel just for today.

Angelina and Brad have instead been forced to stay in a villa in La Napoule, and are in Cannes to promote Brad’s latest flick, Inglorious Basterds, directed by Quentin Tarantino.
Last night the couple were at the film’s afterparty at the Baoli Beach club.

The security for the bash was similar to that for a presidential visit – all of the Pitt/ Jolie minders are rumoured to be former CIA agents, and there were several on the roof of the venue.

Brad was seeminglyingly oblivious-to the bedlam around him. ‘Cannes – don’t you love it?’ he asked. ‘This is good crazy.’

Maverick director Tarantino cut some outrageous moves on the dance floor, and, as the champagne began the run out, waiters took the initiative refilling glasses with neat vodka. Imagine the hangovers today.

[From The Daily Mail]

Here’s the thing – The Daily Mail is making a big deal about the Brad and Angelina connection to the hotel, but most sources claim that they weren’t even staying there in the first place. Sources had Brangelina in a rented home close to the hotel, but not in the hotel. Still, Big Bill’s visit must have put out a lot of partygoers and other celebrities.

Here’s a political sidenote – has anyone else noticed that President Clinton and Vice President Biden are basically in the same boat? They’re both known (now) for embarrassing themselves and giving crazy quotes to journalists, and it seems like President Obama (and probably Secretary Clinton too) has ordered both Bill Clinton and Joe Biden to go on some “diplomatic missions” far, far away. I think Biden’s been in Bosnia for the past week, and President Clinton gets sent to places like the fancy Austrian AIDS gala. But here’s the thing – Bill Clinton can and will get into just as much trouble in Cannes as he ever would in Washington. Rumors about Bill and Sharon Stone will start in 3…2…1…

Bill Clinton is shown at the Life Ball on 5/16/09 in Vienna. Credit: Fame Pictures and WENN.com

The National Enquirer is reporting that before Hillary Clinton ran for a seat in the Senate, she had divorce papers drawn up to end her marriage to Bill once and for all. Her reason? The other women, of course. In the papers, Hillary made a list of all of Bills’ lovers, including two actresses. The affairs allegedly included actresses Saffron Burrows (Boston Legal, Reign Over Me, Troy), and Julie Bowen (Lost, Weeds, Boston Legal). I’m sensing a trend here. Perhaps he met one of the actresses through the other. The actresses were never in the same episode on Boston Legal (thank you IMDB), but they could have been on set on the same day.

There were rumors about Bill’s involvement with curvy 38-year-old Lisa Belzberg, who’d split from her husband Matthew Bronfman, heir to the Seagram liquor fortune.

He was also linked with actresses Julie Bowen and Saffron Burrows, British socialite Ghislaine Maxwell and New York socialite Sale Johnson.

Sources said HIllary also warned Bill about his friendship with wealthy blonde Canadian divorcee Belinda Stronach, once dubbed “the young Hillary.”

[from the National Enquirer April 20, 2009 print ed.]

The names probably haven’t come out until now because Hillary decided not to go through with the divorce. Still, the papers are said to remain in her lawyer’s office in Manhattan.

“If Hillary had divorce papers written up but not filed, the lawyer must keep them secure for at least seven years. That is the law.

“But they will always remain secret. Even if Hillary died, the lawyer can never divulge their contents because it falls under privileged information. That would be wholly illegal.”

[from the National Enquirer April 20, 2009 print ed.]

Since Hillary is all about the public image, her decision to run for Senate (and then for President) made it impossible to follow through on the divorce proceedings. After all, she needs to at least give the impression that she has a stable family. By law, the said divorce papers must be kept secure for at least seven years – even if they are not filed.

I wonder if Hillary will ever decide to go through with it. It would surely be one of the most epic divorces in celebrity history. All she’d have to do would be to pull out that list and tack on the names of the latest string of girls.

Saffron Burrows is the brunette below. Julie Bowen is the blonde. Photo credit: PRPhotos

An article in the upcoming issue of Vanity Fair is set to expose former President Bill Clinton’s lurid sexual past – as if we didn’t already know about most of it. The article, written by Todd Purdum, who is married to former Clinton aide Dee Dee Myers – attacks Clinton, saying that his affairs and general Clintonian behavior have wrecked Hillary’s chances at the presidency.

One of the interesting revelations is that Clinton supposedly had an affair with actress Gina Gershon.

Over the last few years, aides have winced at repeated tabloid reports about Clinton’s episodic friendship and occasional dinners out with Belinda Stronach, a twice-divorced billionaire auto-parts heiress and member of the Canadian Parliament 20 years his junior, or at more recent high-end Hollywood dinner-party gossip that Clinton has been seen visiting with the actress Gina Gershon in California. There has been talk of a female friend in Chappaqua, a woman in a bar at a meeting of the Aspen Institute, and a public sighting of Clinton, Bing, and a ravishing entourage in a New York elevator that, a former Clinton aide told me, led a business leader who saw them to say: I don’t know what the guy was doing, but it was so clear that it was just no good.

[From Vanity Fair via Gossip Rocks]

I don’t think it’s any news that Bill’s a player. So much was made of the Clinton’s marriage during the Lewinsky sex scandal that there really isn’t much to say about it anymore. I don’t think many people believe they have a marriage of love, at least in the traditional romantic sense. It seems more that it’s a partnership, and Bill at least gets his love somewhere else. Who knows. But it seems like plenty of people have been able to support the former president politically while decided that his personal proclivities are his own affair. So to speak.

Clinton’s office issued an angry, 2,476 word rebuttal to Vanity Fair’s article, pointing out many of its holes. They also point out that the article fails to mention any of the good Clinton has done since leaving office through the William J. Clinton Foundation – which has been prolific. While they defend nearly every single accusation in Vanity Fair’s article, the only seemingly-important issue they don’t address is that of Clinton’s sexual dalliances. Considering the depth they went into, leaving something like that out says more than anything they could have said.

Clinton called writer Purdum “Sleazy” “Slimy” and a “Scumbag” when asked by Huffington Post reporter Mayhill Fowler if the Vanity Fair article was “weighing on his mind.” He pointed out that Purdum used fifty anonymous sources.

“Anytime you read a story that slimes a public figure with anonymous quotes, it oughta make the bells go off in your head. Because anytime somebody uses those things– he wrote the story in his head in advance, and he just goes around and tries to find some coward to say whatever they want to say, hoping to get some benefit out of it. It didn’t bother me. It shouldn’t bother you.”

[From the Huffington Post]

Clinton’s spokesman had to apologize on his behalf for the sleazy/slimy/scumbag comments. I don’t really blame him – so many anonymous sources is something you’d expect of some magazines, but certainly not Vanity Fair. It will be interesting to see if the article does significant damage to Hillary Clinton’s campaign – though several websites are claiming she’ll be dropping out of the race any day now, regardless of the article.

Header of Gina Gershon at the Icons Of Music II auction in New York City on May 31st and Bill Clinton leaving his hotel the way to a benefit fundraiser for Hillary Clinton in Dublin on November 17th. Images thanks to WENN.

Former President Bill Clinton and actor Brad Pitt broke ground for the Make it Right project in the Lower 9th Ward of New Orleans. The Make it Right Project is building 150 green homes for New Orleans residents affected by Hurricane Katrina, and Pitt states that it’s “not about a handout, but a hand up.”

Pitt has contributed $5 million dollars to the project along with real estate developer and film producer Steven Bing. Bill Clinton was there to represent the Bush-Clinton Katrina Fund, which has contributed $1 million. Former President George H.W. Bush was not able to attend the ceremony.

600 students from around the world were also on hand to volunteer and help clean up. They were there are part of the first meeting of the Clinton Global Initiative University. The meeting was held at Tulane University and hopes to gather student and university staff to help address the world’s problems.

Brad Pitt looked dashing in his trademark newsboy cap and a white dress shirt with jeans while President Clinton wore a red sleeveless polo and brown pants. Pitt vowed to stop wearing that hat for New Year’s but doesn’t seem to have been able to get rid of it. He was said to be selling the hat to benefit the charity, but currently the only hat available on the MakeItRightNola website is a baseball cap. You can’t blame Pitt for trying to hide that crew cut he got for his most recent part.

Story details from PRNewswire. Thanks to Splash News for these pictures from Sunday.

If Santa Claus goes by the Reuters good celebrity list, then it seems Angelina Jolie probably got something good in her stocking this year. Brad Pitt maybe? Reuters have listed the top celebrity humanitarians of 2007.

The actress was voted the person who has given the best name to “celebrity humanitarianism” for her work as goodwill ambassador for the UN refugee agency.

The 32-year-old, who has three adopted children from poverty-stricken areas, was also recognised for her attempts to draw attention to suffering in Africa and arrange aid for displaced Iraqis.

Madonna was voted the least respected celebrity altruist in the survey of 606 people by Reuters AlertNet. Although she raised millions for orphans in Malawi, she was accused of using her influence to adopt a baby from the country without the normal legal procedures.

Digital Spy

The poll wasn’t based on who did the most good, but rather who is the most respected do-gooder.

Other celebrity humanitarians include Bono, Bill Gates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Bill Clinton. Following Madonna on the dubious humanitarian list is Paris Hilton following her aborted Rwanda trip, Oprah, Bono again, and Bob Geldof. So how can you earn respect to go along with your celebrity status?

The difference between Jolie and the other famous philanthropists is that the star doesn’t travel with camera crews and does her best to dodge the paparazzi.

“Someone like Angelina Jolie comes across as having more integrity than some celebrities and a greater sense that she doesn’t just do this for the publicity,” the director of the Feinstein International Famine Centre at Tufts University told Reuters news service.

POP

Angelina is an obvious choice as a respected celebrity humanitarian – although how the hell she gets anything done with four kids around is beyond me. I mean anything. Having time to brush her teeth, watch the news to know which countries are in crisis, anything! Some say that she’s got a team of nannies, but four kids must be demanding even if you have four nannies.

It also seems a little unfair to brand Madonna for adopting David Banda without following protocol, mostly because Malawi doesn’t seem to have a protocol for adoption. It is hard to bring a foreign child into your home and raise it, Madonna didn’t just adopt the kid for fashion, he’ll be around for the rest of her life.

It’s interesting that even after years of working for the AIDS cause and other issues in Africa, Bob Geldof and Bono still haven’t got the public’s respect.

Picture Note by Celebitchy: Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt are shown shopping at a baby store in New Orleans on 12/27/07, thanks to Splash News. Shiloh and Zahara are still young enough to need something from a baby shop so it might not mean they’re preparing for a new arrival by plane or hospital, although the tabloids are sure to make something of it. Thanks to Splash News.

Bill Clinton has done many an inappropriate thing to a many a lady over the years. But who knew he could work his mojo on a lesbian? Well Bill, apparently. Rosie O’Donnell went off on the former prez/ladies man during a stand up act a few years ago, not knowing that Bill was apparently in the audience. You’d think someone would have mentioned that to her. Or that all the security would be hard to miss. But apparently not, because Rosie told the audience, “He disgusts me,” O’Donnell recalled saying at the casino show. “And I know I’m not supposed to say this because I’m a good Democrat, but I didn’t want to [talk] to him because he lied to me when he said, ‘I did not have sexual relations with that woman,’ and then put the scarlet-letter [bleep]-job on her for the rest of her life . . . I still hate you!”

Well Bill, being the guy that he is, actually sent O’Donnell a card apologizing to her, and gave him her phone number.

The sapphic supernova, doing stand-up at the New York Comedy Festival Tuesday night, told the audience how Clinton sent her a card after she slammed him during a performance at the Mohegan Sun Casino Hotel five years ago, The Post’s Mandy Stadtmiller reports. When the corpulent comic called the phone number Clinton included with his note, Bubba himself picked up, she said. “My knees got weak. I was like, ‘Can I [bleep] you?’ No, I didn’t say it, but I felt it – I was like, ‘Whoa! Whoa!’ And he said, ‘I was at your show the other night, and I was sorry that you didn’t come over and say hello to me. And I know that you’re still harboring some hard feelings,’ ” O’Donnell related.

“And I said, ‘You know, listen, here’s the deal, dude. I’ve been disappointed by men my whole life. I loved JFK, my mother loved JFK, and you were the JFK to me. And you let me down, man. You killed me and that hurt me a lot, and when you hurt me, I don’t know, I didn’t expect that out of you and I thought you could do better for your wife, for the country and just in general.”

Clinton then worked his charm on O’Donnell. “He goes, ‘I’m sorry for all the men who ever hurt you, I’m sorry that I hurt you. Everything you’ve said to me, I’ve said to myself, and I hope one day you can forgive me, and I hope I can forgive me.’” Clinton’s mea culpa quickly had O’Donnell’s faucets opening up. “I’m hysterical crying,” she recalled.

[From the New York Post]

Man he’s good. Never let it be said that there’s a lady out there that Bill Clinton can’t bed. Seriously. Was that disrespectful to say? I don’t care, it’s true. If all men could harness whatever sexual magnetism it is that Bill Clinton has, women the world over would be rendered powerless. It’s a good thing it seems to be bestowed upon the relative few.