By Tara Fowler
This weekend, Michael Bay will try to erase the sting of “Armageddon” with the true-crime feature “Pain & Gain.” Personally, I’ve never met a Bay film I haven’t liked (well, maybe Pearl Harbor), so I couldn’t be more psyched for this movie, which centers on three Florida bodybuilders—Daniel Lugo, Adrian Doorbal, and Paul Doyle—who turned to a life of crime in the mid-90s. The true story is more bizarre then the film itself, so I highly suggest you check out Pete Collins‘ lengthy exposé in the Miami New Times. But for those of you who don’t have the time, check out some highlights from the article below.
1) The gym’s core clientele initially consisted of “cops and bad guys”: Which was problematic for obvious reasons. One police officer quipped that he could “meet my monthly quota of felony arrests in one night at the Sun Gym” by running background checks on all the men working out around him.
2) Daniel Lugo told people he was working for the CIA: Sabina, a dancer and Lugo’s girlfriend, became suspicious of his frequent trips to the Bahamas, so she asked him what he was up to. His response? “Look, if you’re ever going to understand me,” Lugo told her, “if this relationship is ever going to be real, you’ve got to understand my work. I’m with the Central Intelligence Agency.” He then began using “007″ as a specialized code for her beeper.
3) Florida businessman Marc Schiller was held captive by the gang: Initially the Sun Gym gang hoped to hold Schiller for only two days, but it took weeks to convert all his assets. In the meantime, they invented an elaborate story that would explain Schiller’s absence involving him running away with a hot young Cuban. While in captivity, Schiller “felt the electric lash of the Taser guns, the explosions of punches, the pistol-whippings. The men took his Sharper Image all-weather lighter and burned him on his arms and chest. They played Russian roulette against his temple.” You can read more about it in his book.
4) When Schiller was first found after his captivity, no one believed his story: Schiller, who’d been force-fed alcohol and then made to get into an accident, was admitted into the hospital as a suspected DUI case. However, he insisted he’d in fact been imprisoned and tortured for more than a month. No one believed him—and they assumed that if he had really been kidnapped, it was over drugs. Still, Schiller begged for protection.
5) After hearing that Schiller was still alive, the gang decided to visit the hospital to finish the job: The Sun Gym Gang waited to hear news of a single-fatality car crash, but when they didn’t, they started calling local hospitals looking for Schiller. He was admitted as a John Doe, but they eventually managed to track him down, purchasing hospital garb as a disguise. Luckily, Schiller checked himself out before the gang ever made it to the hospital.
And that’s just the beginning of the crazy saga… Read more here or just go see “Pain & Gain” this weekend.
Husband Jim Toth ‘feels awful’ he involved the actress in his DUI arrest.
By Gil Kaufman
By Rob Markman
Drake has been known to break a heart or two, but actress Amanda Bynes is looking for Drizzy to put a different kind of hurting on her—and she isn’t bashful about it either.
“I want @drake to murder my vagina,” the “What a Girl Wants” actress tweeted out on Thursday night.
Drizzy hasn’t responded to the former Nickelodeon star’s tweet publicly and he most likely won’t, but he did surprise former “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” actress Tatyana Ali earlier this year after she professed her love for him in an interview.
When Ali was asked in an Huffington Post interview what she would name a reality show based off of her life, the 34-year old tussled between two titles. “‘Dirty Laundry,’ or ‘I Love Drake!’ – in which I stalk him on tour and try to make him realize we’re meant to be together. God, I love his voice,” she told the site.
The Young Money hit-maker heard the message loud and clear. A few weeks after the interview Drake made an appearance at Ali’s birthday party in Los Angeles, he even planted a kiss on her cheek. Soon after unconfirmed dating rumors swirled around the two.
Oh, if only Amanda Bynes was so lucky. The actress hit hard times last year when she accumulated a few car-related incidents that range from charges of DUI to hit-and-run and driving with a suspended license. These days her legal troubles seem to be in her rear view and earlier this month she revealed her new look with long, curly blonde hair and piercings on her cheeks on both sides of her face.
Should Drake respond to Amanda Bynes’ tweets? Let us know in the comments!
Lawyers for Amanda Bynes entered not-guilty pleas on their client’s behalf Thursday (September 27) in connection with two counts of hit-and-run the actress is facing in Los Angeles.
According to TMZ, Bynes, 26, was not in Los Angeles when the pleas were entered, as she’s currently in New York, where she’s reportedly working on launching her fashion career.
Bynes has had an active year on the road in Los Angeles, where she’s allegedly been involved in a pair of hit-and-run incidents, as well as charges of DUI and driving with a suspended license.
She was charged with the two counts of hit-and-run earlier this month and is still facing a DUI charge and two charges of driving on a suspended license. If convicted on both hit-and-run counts, she faces up to a year in jail. She is due in court in that case on October 19.
The former Nickelodeon star has raised eyebrows for months with a series of reportedly bizarre actions in public in boutiques and exercise classes Celebuzz reported that on Wednesday, Bynes added to that list of incidents during a two-hour visit to the Little Cupcake Bakeshop in New York‘s Soho, where she allegedly locked herself in the store’s bathroom for 30 minutes.
Wearing headphones and sunglasses during her stop at the sweet shop, Bynes reportedly bought a “dreaming princess” cupcake and then spent an unusually long time in the rest room. “He knocked on the bathroom door numerous times and called for her,” an unnamed source said of a concerned New York firefighter who was in the shop at the time. “The workers at the bakery even turned down the music to see if they could hear any noise coming from the bathroom.”
At some point, the staffers reportedly closed down the shop to focus on the Bynes situation. After the firefighter called police to see if it was okay to break down the door when he got no response following 15 minutes of knocking, Bynes emerged a short time later and claimed she was just working on her makeup.
Following a series of car accidents and traffic stops over the past six months, Amanda Bynes has been charged with two counts of driving on a suspended license Friday (September 21). She faces a maximum of six months behind bars for each offense.
The charges stem from separate traffic stops outside Burbank, California’s Bob Hope Airport last week. When Bynes was pulled over the second time, only an hour and a half after the first incident, cops impounded her car and gave her a ticket for driving on a suspended license.
In addition to the suspended-license counts, Bynes is also facing separate DUI and hit-and-run charges. The actress was arrested on a misdemeanor charge of driving under the influence on April 6 after getting into a minor fender bender with a cop car. According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, Bynes tried to pass a police car when she rear-ended the cruiser. She reportedly refused a Breathalyzer or blood alcohol test at the time. Then on April 10, TMZ reported that Bynes smashed her rental car into another vehicle on an L.A. freeway and then fled the scene.
The hit-and-run allegations don’t end there: On August 4, a motorist reported that Bynes rear-ended her vehicle on Ventura Boulevard, stopped briefly, claimed there was no damage and drove off. The woman claimed there was $800 in damage and that Bynes did not provide proof of insurance or wait for police to be called before driving off. Bynes told police the two women agreed there was no harm after the low-speed collision. According to the Los Angeles Times, the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended Bynes’ license August 25. According to reports, though, she continued to cruise around town afterward in her black BMW 5 series.
According to E! News, Bynes must appear at the Burbank courthouse by or before October 16 to answer to her suspended-license charges.
Chadvril, Lavroeger, Avchad, Kroegvil — call them what you will, but with the announcement of their engagement, Canadian pop star Avril Lavigne and Nickelback‘s Chad Kroeger instantly join the ranks of the music world’s biggest power couples.
With combined sales in the tens of millions, a tabloid history that runs from high-profile relationships with members of the Jenner/Kardashian clan to the requisite DUI-in-a-speeding-Lambo bust, Chadvril have more than earned a spot in the combined-name pantheon. As an added bonus, their true love blossomed in the studio, where Kroeger is helping write and produce tunes for Avril’s next album. So eventually we will have, if not a flesh-and-blood frosted-tip offspring, at least a musical merger.
History is littered with song-making couples who gave it a shot and failed, from Jennifer Lopez and Marc Anthony to Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears. But maybe these crazy Canucks will make it after all!
Where do they fit into that rarified universe? Here’s a look at some of their peers in this exclusive group:
Jay-Z and Beyoncé
Nickname: Jayoncé
Endless Love: The headline-avoiding dynamic duo have (allegedly) been together since 2003 and married in 2008. With nary a bump (that we know of) along the road, they welcomed baby Blue Ivy earlier this year.
Beautiful Music Together: In keeping with their epic career runs, their collabos have been mostly top-notch, including ” ’03 Bonnie and Clyde” and “Crazy in Love.”
Bum Notes: If anything, they’ve been so on-message they’re a bit boring.
Mariah Carey and Nick Cannon
Nickname: We’re happy to make one up (Marannon, Nickiah), but so far, all we have is “Roc” and “Roe” for their twins, Moroccan and Monroe. (Rock and roll — get it?)
Endless Love: Six weeks after it was revealed they were dating (and three months after they first met), the pair got hitched in a surprise affair on Mariah’s private island estate in April 2008. So far, so good.
Beautiful music together: None so far.
Bum Notes: Nick has gotten into some public beefs with Charlamagne Tha God and Eminem over shots the MCs took at Carey, resulting in his admittedly “corny” dis track “Warning.”
Justin Bieber and Selena Gomez
Nickname: Jelena
Endless Love: Aside from that hiccup involving a dropped paternity suit, these two young stars (recently named the “most powerful” couple by Billboard) have made a solid go at it for nearly two years.
Beautiful Music Together: Bieber recently revealed he’s writing songs for Gomez’s next album, on which he also wants to do some production.
Bum Notes: Aside from making his legions of Beliebers upset at his “taken” status and pissing off dudes who can’t afford to rent out Staples Center for dates, Jelena haven’t had one of those “ick” moments to date.
Alicia Keys and Swizz Beatz
Nickname: Swizzcia? Keybeat?
Endless Love: The pair confirmed their engagement in May 2010 after years of rumors, and they married in July 2010, just three months before Keys gave birth to their son, Egypt.
Beautiful Music Together: World-renowned producer Beatz got behind the boards for Alicia’s recent reggae-inspired single “New Day,” a solid addition to her stellar canon.
Bum Notes: It’s hard to miss when you mix the elegance of Keys with the rat-a-tat beatmaking mastery of Swizzy, but the pair have weathered a number of breakup rumors.
Who is your favorite musical power couple? Let us know in comments below!
Sometimes the end is just a beginning you thought was the end but you were wrong because you’re just not awesome enough to understand stuff. Kenny Powers didn’t actually say that, but he might.
Because despite seemingly strutting off into the sunset at the end of season three, the trash-talking, watercraft-loving, heat-throwing bundle of hot mess at the center of HBO‘s “Eastbound and Down”
is prepping another comeback.
According to Variety, HBO has ordered eight more episodes of the Danny McBride-starring show, ensuring a surprise fourth season next year.
Yes, the spring finale of the show co-produced by Will Ferrell and frequent collaborator Adam McKay appeared to chronicle the end of the Powers saga. Long-suffering assistant Stevie moved out of the Powers Myrtle Beach seaside crash pad, the sex-and-drug-paraphernalia-laden baby room was turned back into a dojo, Kenny was called up to the bigs, smoked a couple of strikes and then walked away and appeared to die in a fiery DUI car crash. But, spoiler alert, he faked his death, got back together with April and finally realized wining isn’t everything.
The series’ seeming ending wasn’t exactly “The Sopranos,” but it was (mostly) satisfying for an audience used to audacious and sometimes cringe-inducing hairpin comedic turns.
It sure sounded like that was all she wrote for the fictional author of the rousing inspirational memoir “You’re F—ing Out, I’m F—ing In,” earlier this year when McBride said he was ready to hang up La Flama Blanca’s cleats. “HBO definitely wants us, and [co-creator] Jody Hill and I love writing for the show,” McBride told Entertainment Weekly earlier this year before the season finale. “But there is other stuff we’d like to do. Both of us are ready to make jokes concerning people who don’t have strange haircuts.”
Looks like McBride has another “ass-ton of stupid choices” to make. And for that, we are eternally grateful.
Are you excited that “Eastbound and Down” is coming back for another season? Let us know in comments below.
By Rob Markman
The Ying Yang Twins were quite the party animals at the height of their rap career, but being the life of the party got group member D-Roc arrested last week. The crunked up rapper was arrested and hit with DUI, drug possession and child endangerment charges.
On June 1, D-Roc (born Deongelo Holmes) was arrested in Georgia after Gwinnett County police stopped the rapper for failing to drive in a single lane. According to a police report obtained by MTV News after the stop, D-Roc admitted to having “a few beers at a friend’s house” and smoking marijuana earlier in the evening. He was driving with his children (a 3-year old and a 2-month-old), who were asleep in the back seat of his 2002 GMC Yukon Denali.
The arresting officer found two alprazolam pills on D-Roc’s person, and upon searching the vehicle, the officer also found two grams of marijuana in a grinder.
During their height, the Ying Yang Twins experienced success with high-charting Billboard singles like 2000′s “Whistle While You Twurk” and 2005′s “Wait (The Whisper Song).” In 2003, they dropped their hit “Salt Shaker” and also guested on Lil Jon‘s #1 Rap single “Get Low.” The duo earned two platinum albums with 2003′s Me My Brother and then again two years later with U.S.A. (United States of Atlanta). The Twins dropped Ying Yang Forever in 2009, but the double disc CD failed to match their previous success.
Last month, the group took it upon themselves to remix Justin Bieber‘s hit single “Boyfriend.”
