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Superman star Henry Cavill enjoys Skyrim, World of Warcraft
Sure, we know lots of people who play WoW -- like all of our co-workers -- but we don't expect Hollywood A-listers to be by our side in dungeons and raids. While we'd already heard that now Superman star Henry Cavill played WoW, he recently spoke to British GQ about his love of the game and Bethesda's equally addictive Skyrim. In fact, he enjoys the game so much that he missed director Zack Snyder's call offering him the part. "I saw it was him [calling]," Cavill told GQ, "but the thing is, you can't save World of Warcraft, you can't pause it. It's live." We have that problem all the time, but at least we aren't the only ones. (Though Cavill is clearly up on his WoW etiquette, as it's definitely rude to pick up the phone while you're in a group.) If you want more of the interview, IGN covers Cavill talking games or you can find the British version of GQ available digitally on iPad, Android, or Kindle. (Sorry, Man of Steel, but Iron Man 3's Robert Downey Jr. is currently on the cover of GQ stateside.)
Google Knowledge Graph explains related content, finds the six degrees with less Bacon
We had a bit of a laugh with Google's Kevin Bacon calculator. Not everyone needs to tie their searches to the star of Footloose, though, which is partly why Google is pushing out an update to its Knowledge Graph that explains how searches turn up related items. The effort is starting with actors, celebrities and their links to any movies and TV shows they've starred in. Looking for Orson Welles and mousing over Rita Hayworth's portrait reminds us that the two luminaries were married for years, for example. We won't know when the more intelligent searches will expand, but at least we won't be quite so confused if the animated Transformers movie appears next to Citizen Kane.
Windows Phone Free-Time Machine draws curious New Yorkers, one Kourtney Kardashian (video)
Oh the thrill of seeing a familiar face. No, not the Nokia Lumia 900, which made an appearance in several forms at the Windows Phone event in New York City's Bryant Park today, but Kourtney Kardashian, who drew crowds to the Free-Time Machine -- that fled just as quickly as they arrived. The reality TV star far overshadowed the Windows Phone experience, which is on display in several cities across the US today. New Yorkers can visit Bryant or Madison Square Parks for a chance to flick through some Metro tiles on a Lumia 900, and play to win gift certificates and other prizes -- and in the case of one ecstatic youngster, a day with the above-mentioned celebrity and a $5,000 gift certificate. There were also a few smartphone giveaways on order, along with some "free time" prizes, like a dog walker gift certificate or a chance to skip the line (saving "60 minutes") at the city's Shake Shack burger joint. This isn't the first time we've seen an oversized Windows Phone drop by Manhattan, and it's probably not the last. Jump past the break for a peek at the phone, and the Kardashian.%Gallery-152680%
Guild Wars 2's character creator brings celebrities to Tyria
One of the things we failed to tell you about Guild Wars 2's character creator is just how flexible it can be in allowing players to fine-tune their avatar's face. For one particular beta tester, the tools provided seemed like the perfect opportunity to see if famous celebrities could be recreated. Lo and behold, they could. In under three minutes, this player whisks us through pages of sliders, hairstyles, and facial details to create Guild Wars 2 lookalikes of Liam Neeson, Clint Eastwood, Megan Fox, and Scarlett Johansson. Apart from its value as amusement, the video highlights the range of looks and styles that the character creator can be coaxed into generating. Check it out after the break and see just how uncanny these avatars ended up being compared to the real deal!
Apple: Treating celebs like regular folks since 1976
In my second celebrity-oriented post of the day, we'll explore how Apple treats stars like ... well, like regular people. According to a post on Fast Company, Apple is horrible to celebrities. You see, if you're a major sports figure or a top actress like Snooki, you don't really have to buy a lot of things. Companies love to give you free products so that they can ride your famous coattails to success. That's why if you happen to be blessed enough to walk the red carpet at the Golden Globes or Academy Awards, you'll often find yourself "gifted" with about $100,000 in free products. Well, Apple doesn't need any of that celeb love, much to the chagrin of many stars who lobbied unsuccessfully for Apple schwag. Perhaps the most famous celebrity to beg for an Apple product is NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal, who was quoted as saying "The great Steve Jobs, rest in peace, when the iPhone was first coming out, I used to call him every other day. 'Can I please get one first? Can I please get one first?' He never gave me one. He said, 'Shaq, I can't, I can't, I can't.' He was a great guy." Long-time Apple user and author William Gibson says that "I used to imagine that [Apple] might call me, one day, but I don't think they work that way, and the story about Shaq seems to bear that out!" Bradley Frank, a celebrity publicist with Rogers & Cowen, says his requests to the company for free tech toys have gone for naught: "And when the iPhone 4 came out, I can't tell you how many clients were like, 'We need that early.' And Apple's like, 'No.'" NBA forward Channing Frye of the Phoenix Suns, seems to have Apple's strategy worked out perfectly. Frye, whose cousin works for Apple's marketing division, says "It's just wild how they are so tight-lipped about everything. That makes everyone want it so much more--and the NBA is sponsored by Apple, basically. I've yet to see a player use a PC on the road." When you're standing in line at your favorite Apple Store on Friday awaiting your chance to turn your cash into a new iPad, look around -- you might see a celebrity in line with you.
"Watch with eBay" iPad app lets viewers shop like stars, go broke
As if we don't get inundated with enough entreaties to spend while watching the boob tube, now eBay has joined the fray with a new iPad app. Watch with eBay (free) is designed to let fans find items that are for sale on eBay that are related to your favorite shows. For example, let's say you're watching sports on TV. Watch with eBay provides a way to find sports memorabilia and clothing associated with your favorite team. Imagine sitting down to watch the latest episode of CSI: Miami and being able to purchase an autograph or pair of sunglasses belonging to superstar, award-winning actor David Caruso. It's enough to turn your stomach, but it's now possible with Watch with eBay. But wait, there's more! Watch with eBay also includes a free special feature -- eBay Celebrity! If your own life is so dull and pathetic that you're into celebrity worship, you can now find out what charities your favorite celeb supports and what they'd buy on eBay. To quote the description of this app, "Shop like a star, and make a difference by contributing to your favorite celebrity causes." Only one difference -- they make a lot more money than you do, so be sure not to max out your credit card trying to be just like Taylor Swift. All kidding aside, this could be the perfect app for finding that officially-licensed Tardis ice bucket you didn't know you needed. So get it. Now. Operators are standing by.
Enough Already Arduino mutes TV's overexposed celebrities, frees you to live again (video)
Are you besieged by celebrities? Sure, you could try turning off the TV, but now there's a more complex, DIY solution: Enough Already, an Arduino box that mutes your television at any mention of certain names -- Lady Gaga, for example. The setup's fairly simple if you're comfortable with hardware hacking; it uses the Video Experimenter Shield to read closed captioning data, then sends the mute command via IR whenever offending words appear. Of course, you can tweak the blacklist however you like, so Pippa Middleton updates will still get through. Follow the tutorial after the break and you'll be able to once more channel-surf in peace, knowing you'll never again have to hear the word "Snooki."
VGAs 2010: Pictures from the red carpet
Spike's Video Game Awards are about an hour away (we'll put up our liveblog shortly), but our own Mike Schramm got to the red carpet early to snap some shots and dish with the celebrities attending this year's event. As he forwards us more pics, we'll be sure to add them to the gallery below. In the meanwhile, let us know what you're looking forward to most at this year's show. Is it the Guillermo Del Toro game? Is it Batman: Arkham City? Mass Effect 3? It's, uh, it's Mass Effect 3, isn't it? %Gallery-110364%
The Daily Grind: Do you follow industry personalities?
Every field has celebrities of one stripe or another, and MMOs are no different. Some of them start off as programmers, some start as producers, and some start as commentators that later move into an official capacity. Some have a track record of success, some have a big success and a big failure, and some are considered to be solely at fault for anything that goes wrong in a game. But no matter what the background, they're personalities of note, whose words start having an impact on people even when they're not working on a big project. People listen to them, quote them, and take note of their various projects. Especially in light of recent personality-based developments, it's certainly worth asking how much people really follow the paths of programmers outside of playing their games. The MMO industry doesn't follow Richard Garriott like mainstream media follows Brad Pitt, but he still finds ways to be seen even when he's between major projects. Do you follow specific people in the gaming industry, either out of liking what they've done or wanting to avoid what they're working on? Or does the practice annoy you, and all you want to focus on is the actual games they produce?
Live from the Red Carpet: E! Online mobile app relaunched for Oscars
Just in time for the Academy Awards on Sunday, March 7th (when you should be participating in the TUAW Talkcast...), E! Entertainment has relaunched the popular E! Online mobile app. When we say popular, we mean it -- there are apparently over 1.4 million iPhone and Android users who enjoy their celebrity and entertainment news direct from the free app. The new version of the app includes the "E! Talk Box," which gives users a chance to record their own video commentary for possible inclusion on E! and/or E! Online. While your chances of getting your video snippet on the air are probably slim, at least you can finally talk back to the TV. Part of the app update includes a new carousel navigation menu above the news section (see photo at right) that highlights coverage during the award season with special videos and a "Live from the Red Carpet" section. You no longer need to tear yourself away from your iPhone or iPod touch to watch E! shows. The app, for better or for worse, lets you watch complete episodes of such favorites as Keeping Up with the Kardashians and The Soup. (Update: According to E!, you can download the episodes from within the app, but you actually watch them in iTunes). If all you want is the scoop on your favorite celebs, you can also create a custom celeb list and get the news delivered directly to your iPhone or iPod touch. The free app is available in the iTunes Store now. Be sure to let TUAW know if your iPhone submission to the E! Talk Box gets on the air.
EA hosts Battlefield: Bad Company 2 celebrity benefit tournament
As reported on these very pages yesterday, EA and DICE got a group of semi-celebrities together last night to celebrate the impending arrival of Battlefield: Bad Company 2 with a charity tournament, pitting NFL stars and 90210 actors against each other in a bragging rights team match. The celebs also selected their own team names for an upcoming Major League Gaming tournament, and the winning team in that match (which you can predict right now on GameStop's website) will end up giving $25,000 to the winning celebrity's charity of choice. The event kicked off with a red carpet event, and Matt Lanter and Tristan Wilds of the new 90210 joined gossip blogger Perez Hilton to talk about crushes on their costars and how awesome Bad Company 2 was. Meanwhile, we wondered, where's the actual game? %Gallery-86003%
Toshiba Natural Selection laptops get celebrity paintjobs, good causes
Alright, we're not too happy with the Natural Selection moniker implying that being a celebrity is somehow a marker of evolutionary prowess, but we'll forgive Toshiba this one time. The Japanese company has recruited a quartet of famous folks to help promote its wares with limited edition laptops painted to their specifications. Aerosmith guitar legend Joe Perry, the no less mythical Rainn Wilson, Pittsburgh Steeler Hines Ward and his coach Mike... oh wait, that's Omar Epps, have put their own personal stamps on a selection of Toshiba's latest 505 laptop models from the A, P, M, and Qosmio X series. These will be auctioned off on eBay starting this Friday, with all proceeds going to charity. Any more questions before you start the bidding? No? Good. %Gallery-78904%
Celebrity Nerds: Lil' Wayne's got a modded Xbox
Celebrity Nerds confirms what you always knew, deep in your heart of hearts: that stars are nerds like us. Send in your own confirmations of this fact right here. Now, we don't have photographic evidence of this one, so Wayne, if you happen to be a reader, feel free to snap a pic of yourself with the console. Either way, we have enough proof to proudly classify Lil' Wayne a... you know, nerd. GTR has published a video of the New Orleans-born rapper having a conversation with KRS-One during which he says he's got an "Xbox that has every game from A-Z, Atari, Nintendo, pong, movies & even porn." Whoa. Where can we get one of those? Wayne claims that the Xbox was a gift... but we bet he hacked it himself. Video is embedded after the break.[Via Joystiq]
Henry Cavill plays WoW -- Ryan Reynolds doesn't
I was reading my print copy of Entertainment Weekly today, which features their Summer Must List. They listed their Must Dashing Duke as Henry Cavill from The Tudors. Cavill says that World of Warcraft is on his Must List: "It's fairly addictive." In an interview with JustJared.com earlier this year, Cavill said that he also plays Eve Online. As a geekgirl, I say yay to more gamer hunks.In the same issue of EW, their cover boy, Ryan Reynolds discussed his Must List. It included Intervention and Jon & Kate Plus Eight. When asked about his Must Videogame, he said "I don't really play videogames. Is there a way to waste more f-ing time?"I'll field that question, Ryan. Yes, yes there is. Those reality shows that you have spent so much time watching? Yeah, excellent candidates for bigger wastes of time. I watch reality TV, too, but I think that interactive gaming is a much better expenditure of my leisure time. Of course, I'm a bit biased, but I think that if people compared their hours spent watching TV to the hours that gamers spend playing, the numbers would be similar.Now I have to decide: desecrate some flames? Or watch The Deadliest Catch? Regardless of my decision, it won't be watching Van Wilder, but that has nothing to do with Mr. Reynolds' view of gaming.
Vin Diesel plays WoW. Probably.
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Vin_Diesel_in_awe_about_Wrath_of_the_Lich_King'; Reader Nick tipped us to this one -- Fast and Furious actor Vin Diesel had a guest appearance on Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, where he alludes to playing World of Warcraft. While he plays coy about any details about the character(s) he plays, an interesting part comes when popular British host Ross reveals that his wife plays a green, Spectral Tiger-riding Level 80 character. Diesel gets up to shake Ross' hand at the mention of this, and proceeds to some helium-induced hilarity.It shouldn't be a huge surprise that Diesel actually plays that game, considering that he's known to be a hardcore gamer and even wrote the foreword to the D&D 30th Anniversary retrospective coffee table book. In fact, he leads the discussion from D&D to World of Warcraft by saying that games nowadays are MMOs. This should corroborate what baseball player Curt Schilling has mentioned in a past interview about Diesel playing WoW. It would've been interesting to learn his class and faction (rumors say his character's name is Dish), but I guess players will just have to find that out another day. Maybe if he talks over vent, his Iron Giant voice should give him away...
Palm Pre handled, handed out to celebrities?
There seems to be no shortage of chatter about celebrities and their new Palm handsets today. We already knew that stars attending the Independent Spirit Awards would be getting a swag bag containing -- among other things -- a Palm Pre, and based on the coverage we're seeing from the event (held on the 21st), they at least got to handle them. It's actually difficult to say if Palm was giving the device out that night or putting people on a waiting list, but what it does make clear is that the Pre can't be too far from launch if the company felt comfortable enough to throw them into such an uncontrolled setting. Does this mean the release date is nearer than we think, or is Palm just hoping that a little of that star power rubs off on the phone? Either way, we're super jealous of Eliza Dushku.Update: According to a Tweet from Palm (which links this post -- meta!), these were just there to be played with, not handed out.[Thanks, Marques]
Ozzy Osbourne and Steve Van Sandt in two new TV commercials
var digg_url = 'http://digg.com/pc_games/Ozzy_Osbourne_and_Steve_Van_Sandt_in_two_new_WoW_commercials'; Blizzard has put together two new TV spots for the holiday season. The first, seen above, features Steven van Zandt (better known as Silvio Dante on The Sopranos, but also a real-life performer in Bruce Springsteen's band) spouting an old Godfather III reference (that a lot of returning fans are probably saying to themselves after re-entering Warcraft for level 80).And the second (definitely the more hilarious one) features Ozzy Osbourne as an Undead Warlock having it out with the Lich King over just who's WoW's Prince of Darkness. It's embedded after the break, definitely a must-see. Blizzard's doing terrific already -- their games are setting records, and subscriptions are higher than ever. But it doesn't look like they're taking this holiday season lying down at all.
RIM shows employees that rich people use BlackBerrys, as if they care
Oh yeah, we know a certain dutiful crew in the R&D labs at RIM are toiling away on the BlackBerrys that we'll be swooning over in the years to come, but what winner took the time (and what champion instructed him / her?) to conjure up this PowerPoint slide? Reportedly, this here slide was used within the company to show just how awesome its handsets are, because clearly, if six rich people accept free phones well before the street date from you, that equates to stellar quality and usability. Oh, and just remember RIM -- we'll bet Motorola used to brag about all the superstars with RAZRs, too. See how far that got 'em?
BGR Radio a good way to stay on top of Kim Kardashian's phone purchases
If we were wealthy beyond mortal comprehension, we'd be earmarking a sizable percentage of our mammoth budgets to acquiring opulent, ridiculous, and unreleased mobile tech -- that's just how we roll -- but for the Kim Kardashians and Carmelo Anthonys of the world, it seems garden-variety BlackBerrys are the way to go. Who knew? Boy Genius Report is parading out a list of musicians, athletes, and "stars" to chat up phones 'n such on its new BGR Radio segment, and in case you're interested, it turns out Kim's rocking nothing more than a Curve at the moment while Melo's excited about the Bold (and really, who isn't?). It looks like the show's lined up to become a regular segment, so if you've ever wanted to know just how tech un-savvy a celebrity can be, we've found your nirvana.
Jennicide places in poker, poses for Playboy, and plays on Proudmoore
Jennifer Leigh knows games -- she finished 5th at the Poker Royale: Battle of the Ages series. She's known as Jennicide on PokerStars, and finished "in the money" at the World Poker Tour in 2006. Other folks might know her from May's issue of Playboy magazine. In a recent interview with the RPG Vault on IGN, she talked a little about her history with games and World of Warcraft. WoW's the only MMO she's played recently, but she's been known to play Everquest, Guild Wars, and others. She picked up World of Warcraft during a losing streak of poker, and figured paying Blizzard a monthly fee was would be less painful than continuing her streak. Of course, she runs into the same problem many people do: while she loves her WoW, she has trouble explaining to people who don't get it. She's surprisingly open about her server information. (For the record, she plays a Night Elf Druid on Proudmoore, and helped found the guild Fate and Fury. Also, she's planning a Blood Elf Warlock.) Between this and the politicians coming out of the closet, I can't wait to see what other interviews crop up.
