James Deen Talks Lindsay Lohan Canyons Behavior

Following a less-than-positive New York Times piece about the troubled production of The Canyons, star James Deen sat down with The Daily Beast to give his take on the expedited shoot.

VIDEO - Watch a Clip From The Canyons

"I thought the whole experience was really fantastic," Deen tells The Daily Beast's Marlow Stern. "Right now, there's audio circulating of her cursing me out on set. That came out the day after the Times article came out painting her as unprofessional, and I think [the audio] was released by her camp to try and make her look good."

Deen adds context, "Two hours before that, I told her I was doing this film for my own self-gratification -- as something exciting and new -- and I think she took it the wrong way, as an affront to her profession and as I was just there to hang out. But that whole situation was defused by her taking a time-out and me talking to her and explaining what I meant."

VIDEO - On The Set of The Canyons

While he admits that most of the article is accurate, Deen describes the piece as "Accurate events reflected in the mirror and then retold for dramatic effect." To prove his point, Deen cites one passage that claims he was lonely throughout the shoot as none of his friends came to visit. He says, "I just feel it’s unprofessional to invite your friends to 'the office.' If I'm working at McDonald’s, I don't invite my friends over to watch me flip burgers."

Deen also has a unique take on Lohan's oft-criticized behavior, saying, "She's a child star who's been living in this fame world being chased by paparazzi. I tried to consider that in every interaction with her, so when she speaks, what could be construed as an insult by some was not necessarily intended to be an insult."

"People treat actors like these fragile, delicate creatures, and you've got to remember that for the past 10 years, Lindsay could not go to Starbucks. She was raised in the Hollywood system, so she's used to a certain level of treatment. Instead of saying, 'Excuse me, could you please pass me the water?' She’s used to saying, 'I need water,' and then someone just giving her water. She's been conditioned to say what she needs and then someone will bring it to her, so I can see why people would consider her to be a train wreck or a bitch or whatever, but her intentions are fine."

For of Deen's interview with The Daily Beast, click here -- and to see the more scandalous parts of his interview (ie: NSFW), watch the video below:

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New details released from Part II of Oprah's interview with Armstrong as IOC blasts TV confession

@LanceArmstrong via Twitter

Armstrong tweeted this pic of himself over the weekend.

The IOC lashed out at Lance Armstrong one day after his confession to doping aired on TV as Oprah Winfrey released new details from her sit-down with the former cycling star.

Armstrong's doping confession to Winfrey was "too little, too late" and failed to provide any new information that will help clean up the sport he tarnished through years of cheating, the vice president of the IOC said Friday.

Armstrong finally admitted to cheating his way to the top of the cycling world during a bombshell interview with the last night.

Reuters

THE LYIN’ KING: Lance Armstrong keeps a stiff upper lip during his interview with Oprah Winfrey, which aired last night.

The stone-faced liar answered “yes” four times when Winfrey asked whether he took the drugs he was accused of using.

A day after stripping Armstrong of his bronze medal from the 2000 Sydney Olympics, the IOC urged the disgraced former Tour de France champion to supply details to anti-doping authorities in order to "bring an end to this dark episode."

In an interview with The Associated Press, IOC vice president Thomas Bach said Armstrong's admission to Winfrey that he used performance-enhancing drugs — after years of vehement denials —was not enough.

"If he thinks this interview would help him get credibility back, I think this is too little, too late," said Bach, a German lawyer who leads the IOC's anti-doping investigations. "It's a first step in the right direction, but no more.

"If he really loves his sport and wants to regain at least some credibility, then he should tell the whole truth and cooperate with the relevant sports bodies."

Winfrey tonight will target Armstrong's family's reaction to his doping admission — including how his mother and son were handling the news — as well was the "arrogant" tweet of Armstrong with his jerseys.

"Was it just you being your cocky, arrogant jerk self that did the tweet with you lying with all the jerseys?" Winfrey asks the former cycling star.

The second part of interview will air tonight at 9 on OWN.

Meanwhile, Armstrong's former teammate, Tyler Hamilton, calls the cyclist's confession a "big first step" but says Armstrong must follow it up by telling authorities everything he knows about the doping programs he used to win his Tour de France titles.

Hamilton's testimony was key to the case against Armstrong. He described the doping program on Armstrong's team and the power Armstrong wielded in pressuring teammates to go along with the doping.

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Prices for Miami Beach luxury condos soar to records

Ultra-luxury condominiums on South Beach are fetching nosebleed prices.

On Tuesday, a penthouse at the Setai Resort at 2001 Collins Avenue closed for $27 million — the highest price ever for a South Florida condominium, according to real estate agents.

“We’re definitely seeing the market turning upward,” said Jeff Miller, of Zilbert International Realty in Miami, who represented the buyer in the sale of the palatial 7,100-square-foot condominium. “We’re seeing buyers come in from all over the globe.”

Just a few weeks ago, Ohio coal mining businessman Wayne Boich Jr. completed the sale of his Icon South Beach penthouse at 450 Alton Road in the uber-trendy South of Fifth neighborhood for just under $21 million.

The 6-bedroom, 7 1/2-bath Icon condo sparked a bidding war that drove the sale $2 million above the listing price — a level that is three times the $7 million Boich paid in July 2007 in the depths of the bust. It was a record price for a Miami Beach bayside condo.

“The luxury market is on fire in South Beach — especially the South of Fifth neighborhood,” said Dora Puig, principal of PuigWerner Real Estate Services, who was the listing broker for the Icon unit. “It’s moving Miami to totally different pricing points.”

The Setai’s record may not reign for long.

Penthouse 2 in the decade-old Continuum South tower at 100 South Pointe Drive in the South of Fifth neighborhood is on the market for $39 million.

That is a record listing price for a Miami-Dade condominium, according to Puig, who also snagged that listing.

Amid the market sizzle, Puig bumped up the asking price late last summer from $35 million.

The penthouse, which has 11,000 square feet of interior space, belongs to Manhattan real estate developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who built the Continuum project at the tip of South Beach and kept the trophy for himself.

The Continuum penthouse, which has 6,000 square feet of deck and a rooftop heated pool, boasts sweeping 13 1/2-foot ceilings that give the feel of a single-family home. The floor-to-ceiling glass walls offer a 360-degree view of the Atlantic Ocean, Biscayne Bay, downtown Miami and Miami Beach from 40 stories up.

“It looks down on Fisher Island, way down,” Puig said with a smile.

The unit has a private interior elevator, of course, and stretches over two indoor levels and two largely exterior levels.

One big plus: It has a gated entrance and sits on an expansive enclave of rolling lawns and gardens adjacent to a city park at the tip of the island.

The unit comes with an additional 874-square-foot guest quarters that would delight most mortals. “The guest unit is intended for professional quarters: the maid, the nanny, the chef, the pilot,” Puig explained.

Also included is a snazzy cabana on the beach.

Eichner has used it as a vacation home and once rented it to Tom Cruise for a couple of months while he was in Miami to film Rock of Ages.

On Thursday, Puig hosted Miami’s power brokers for a look at the Continuum penthouse over champagne and hors d’oeuvres. Next week, she plans to spend three days in New York touting the property to high-end brokers.

Such palatial properties typically are paid for in cash. But what would a monthly payment be?

With a 20 percent down payment of $7.8 million, the buyer would have to finance $31.2 million.

“I don’t know that I’d be able to find anybody willing to go that high on one unit,” warned Steve Schneider, a mortgage broker who is owner and president of Abacus Lending Group in South Miami.

If a buyer could line up a 15-year fixed rate mortgage at 3.5 percent, the monthly payment for principal and interest would be $223,043.35.

“I’d hate to see the tax bill,” said Schneider.

According to Miami-Dade County Property Appraiser records, the 2012 property tax bill on the Continuum penthouse was $264,896.17. That was based on an assessed value of just $9.5 million, less than half what the Property Appraiser listed as the market value of $19.3 million. The tax break came as a result of the state law that caps increases in assessed values on non-homesteaded property at 10 percent a year.

The condo maintenance fee for Eichner’s unit runs $7,624 a month. “I think that’s low for what you get,” said Puig.

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Judge throws out Taliban terror case against Margate imam

A federal judge threw out the terrorism charges against a young Muslim cleric from Broward County in a trial where he and his father, an imam in Miami, are accused of providing financial support to the Pakistani Taliban terrorist organization.

Izhar Khan, the imam of a mosque in Margate, will be a free man later Thursday after U.S. District Judge Robert Scola issued a verdict of acquittal for the 26-year-old Muslim scholar.

The prosecution, which rested its case Wednesday in the material support trial, failed to mount sufficient evidence of wrongdoing against the younger imam, imam of Masjid Jamaat Al-Mumineen mosque off Sample Road.

“I do not believe in good conscience that I can allow the case to go forward against Izhar Khan,” Scola ruled Thursday.

The judge also noted that the government nonetheless “proceeded in this case against Izhar Khan in good faith.”

After the judge’s verdict, the defendant hugged defense lawyer Joseph Rosenbaum and members of his Margate mosque shook each other’s hands, quietly celebrating.

Both father and son have been held in the Miami federal detention center since their arrest in 2011 on charges of funneling about $50,000 to the Taliban to target U.S. interests in Pakistan. The Taliban allegedly used the funds for buying arms and other ammunition to carry our terrorist attacks against the Pakistan government, which is a U.S. ally.

Scola already denied Hafiz Khan’s bid for an acquittal verdict halfway through the trial. Scola said Thursday that the government’s case against the 77-year-old imam of the Flagler Mosque is overwhelming.

The government’s case has been built largely on FBI-recorded phone conversations between Hafiz Khan and other members of his family and suspected Taliban sympathizers. His bank records have also been central to the government’s case against him.

This article will be updated as more information is available.

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SAG Awards Flashback: Javier Bardem 2008

Javier Bardem made an immediate impact on the film world when he began undertaking roles in wide-release American films; however, he didn't experience the reward of his American film success until undertaking ruthless hit-man "Anton Chigurh" in No Country for Old Men.

The Spanish actor had received plenty of accolades in his native country but had yet to receive any tangible reward for his American films until 2008. He had been nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his first American film, Before Night Falls, but still had nothing to solidify his touted performances.

VIDEO: Javier Bardem is an 'Uncomfortable' Bond Villain

"It's a great honor of course, and I guess what I did is to take it and say, 'O.K., thank you for that; it's a great honor," he says to ET's former co-host Mary Hart at the 2008 SAG Awards of his many nominations for No Country. "There's not much you can do other than really thank the people that thought that you could be included in [the nominees category]."

Bardem would have plenty more thanking to do that night, as he won not only the Best Supporting Actor Award but also received the Best Cast Award for No Country. A few weeks later, he completed his sweep of the awards circuit with an Oscar for the role.

RELATED: Javier Bardem: I Don't Watch My Performances

"I'm so happy!" Bardem offers in Spanish when prompted by Mrs. Hart to celebrate as he would in his native tongue.

While Bardem won't have the opportunity to make an awards sweep as he did in 2008, the 43-year-old actor has been given another SAG nomination to be thankful this year, this time for his supporting role in Skyfall.

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Bloomberg calls NRA ad 'dumb PR'

New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg says a new NRA Web video that labels President Barack Obama an "elitist hypocrite" is "dumb PR."

In an appearance Thursday on "CBS This Morning," the mayor said: "You have to be stupid to do that."

The video's narrator asks why Obama is skeptical of putting armed security in schools when his daughters are protected by armed guards in their own school.

The White House has called the NRA ad "repugnant and cowardly."

Bloomberg, who's a strong gun control advocate, said the NRA was itself hypocritical for coming out with a video shooting game app.

After the Newtown, Conn., tragedy, the NRA blamed violent video games and movies, not guns, for contributing to mass shootings.

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Florida led nation in 2012 foreclosure activity

Florida posted the highest foreclosure rate in the nation in 2012, eclipsing Nevada for the first time, according to RealtyTrac.

In Florida, 3.11 percent, or one in every 32 homes, received some sort of foreclosure filing last year, the California-based data firm said.

Much of the rising foreclosure activity represents loans that soured a long time ago, rather than a major new round of defaults.

Foreclosure activity in Florida rose 53.5 percent in 2012 from a year earlier, as lenders stepped up activity after a long hiatus during the robo-signing controversy. With the settlement last spring between 49 state attorneys general and five large banks, lenders now have clearer guidelines on how they can press foreclosures.

“With the Miami numbers we’re seeing the expected rise off the artificially low numbers in 2011 as lenders pushed through foreclosures delayed by questions surrounding proper foreclosure documents and procedures,” Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, said in an email.

While the rising number of bank-owned sales of homes creates a headwind for the housing market, the inventory of homes for sale has been so tight that those distressed sales haven’t proved, at least so far, to be the onerous “other shoe” that many had predicted.

The Miami Association of Realtors next week is expected to report the county posted record home sales for 2012, beating a record year in 2011. Median home and condo prices in Miami-Dade are posting consistent gains, instilling confidence that the housing recovery is on strong footing.

Realtors insist they don’t expect the continued, or even accelerated, flow of distressed properties into the market to derail that housing recovery in Florida.

In many cases, professional investors are in the wings to snap up distressed property as soon as it becomes available, making it tough for the average home buyer to get a shot at the properties.

“A lot of investors are buying at the courthouse,” said Liza E. Mendez, a broker and owner of Petro Realty International in Hialeah.

“Everyone talks about the shadow inventory,” said Francisco Angulo, a Coldwell Banker agent and regional coordinator to South America for the National Association of Realtors. “Well, there are shadow buyers to go with that shadow inventory.”

The surge in foreclosure activity in Florida came as half the states saw increases in foreclosure activity and half saw declines. Most of the increases occurred in “judicial” states, those that handle foreclosures in protracted court proceedings rather than the quicker administrative processes.

“2012 was the year of the judicial foreclosure, with foreclosure activity increasing from 2011 in 20 of the 26 states that primarily use the judicial process, and a judicial state — Florida — posting the nation’s highest state foreclosure rate for the first time since the housing crisis began,” Blomquist said.

Twenty percent of the nation’s foreclosure activity centered on Florida last year, with some 305,766 properties in some stage of foreclosure or owned by a bank. California ranked second with 14 percent of the total, followed by Illinois, which had 9 percent. Ohio and New York each had 5 percent.

Florida had eight of the 20 metropolitan areas with the highest foreclosure rate, including Miami at No. 5 in the nation; Palm Bay-Melbourne-Titusville, at No. 6; and Orlando at No. 8, RealtyTrac reported.

Within Florida, Miami-Dade County ranked second only to Okeechobee County in foreclosure activity during 2012. Foreclosure activity in Miami-Dade was up 56 percent in 2012 to 44,284 foreclosure filings.

In tallying foreclosure filings, RealtyTrac includes default notices, scheduled auctions and bank repossessions, thus a single property will log multiple events over the course of a foreclosure proceeding.

Broward had 25,935 foreclosure filings of all sorts in 2012, marking a 26.4 percent increase from a year earlier, RealtyTrac data show.

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Driver in Rickenbacker Causeway cyclist death to be sentenced

A motorist who killed cyclist Aaron Cohen in a hit-and-run crash on the Rickenbacker Causeway will learn his fate Wednesday.

A Miami-Dade judge on Wednesday afternoon will sentence Michele Traverso, 26, who earlier pleaded guilty for the crash that killed Cohen last February.

The fatality, and a similar hit-and-run wreck in 2010, has renewed calls for increased safety for cyclists and joggers on the popular causeway. Fellow cyclists staged a memorial ride and erected a billboard overlooking Interstate 95 in Cohen’s honor.

Members of Miami’s avid cycling community are expected to be on hand for the 1 p.m. sentencing.

Traverso, driving on a suspended license, struck Cohen and cycling partner Enda Walsh as the two rode in the northbound lanes near the crest of the bridge. Traverso surrendered to police 18 hours after the crash.

Though there were reports of Traverso drinking in Coconut Grove that night, investigators could not prove that his blood alcohol content level was above the legal limit because of the delay in turning himself in.

Traverso pleaded guilty to leaving the scene of an accident involving a death, leaving the scene of an accident with great bodily harm, and driving with a suspended license. He also pleaded guilty to earlier cocaine possession charge.

Miami-Dade Circuit Judge William Thomas could sentence him to as little as 22.8 months in prison, and as much as 35 years behind bars.

In May, Thomas told Cohen’s widow, Patricia Cohen, that he would be unlikely to deliver the maximum sentence, although he could consider “20 or 25 years” after hearing from her and Traverso’s own family at a possible sentencing.

The Cohen family is suing Traverso and his father, who owned the car.

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iPhone demand said to be ‘robust,’ recent cuts don’t reflect weak demand

Following recent reports from Nikkei and The Wall Street Journal that suggested Apple (AAPL) slashed iPhone 5 component orders in half due to weak demand,  the company’s stock fell significantly and opened below $ 500 for the first time in nearly a year. The reports have been called into question, however, with many believing they do not represent true consumer interest. Shaw Wu of Sterne Agee wrote in a note to investors on Tuesday, per Apple Insider, that his supply chain checks have indicated that demand for the iPhone 5 “remains robust.” The analyst believes the recent reports are a result of improved yield rates and possibly Apple’s recent supplier changes.

[More from BGR: PlayStation 4 and Xbox 720 could cost just $ 350, expected to launch this fall]

Despite the recent concerns, Wu expects Apple to post better-than-expected earnings for the December quarter led by sales of 47.5 million iPhones with a gross margin of 38.7%. Both estimates are above Wall Street’s expectations of between 46 to 47 million iPhones and a 38.3% gross margin.

[More from BGR: HTC One SV review]

Sterne Agee reiterated its Buy rating on shares of Apple with a price target of $ 840.

Wu’s expectations remain bullish compared to other Wall Street analysts. Stuart Jeffrey of Nomura is the most recent analyst to cut his outlook on Apple stock. Nomura reduced the company’s price target to $ 530 from $ 660 Tuesday morning, citing weak demand for the iPhone 5 and increased pressure on Apple’s margins.

This article was originally published on BGR.com

Wireless News Headlines – Yahoo! News

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LeAnn Rimes Talks Affair with Eddie Cibrian Rehab and Ex Dean Sheremet

No topic was off limits when LeAnn Rimes sat down exclusively with ET's Nancy O'Dell.

The country superstar, whose controversial relationship with husband Eddie Cibrian has become both a blessing and a curse, tells Nancy her upcoming album Spitfire was born unexpectedly during her extra-marital affair with Eddie. In fact, a handful of infidelity themed tracks included in the album were initially written about a friend of hers while LeAnn was married to her ex, Dean Sheremet.

"What Have I Done is one of the first songs that I wrote for the record, before anything was actually starting to happen," said LeAnn. "It was written about a friend of mine, but I didn't realize I was writing it for myself at the time... It was my subconscious talking and I didn't know yet."

Video: LeAnn Gets a Tattoo of Her Wedding Vows

Speaking on the feelings that sparked her and Eddie's infamous affair, LeAnn acknowledged that her then husband had heard the troubling track and perhaps knew she would soon be led astray.

"He actually heard the song when I wrote it and, actually, he knew what it was about before I did," she reveals. "He knew I was feeling feelings. I'm not sure what those were that he knew."

Sighed LeAnn, "It's a very complicated situation."

Pics: Celebrity Affairs to Remember

When asked if she ever worries whether her husband Eddie would ever cheat on her, LeAnn admits that she does.

"I would be ignorant to say, and everyone else would think I am a liar if I didn't say yes, and I have at times," said LeAnn, going on to reveal that Eddie has had the same concerns about her.

"Speaking for him, I would actually say that's creeped into his [mind]…I think we've been very honest and open with that to each other and our conversations about it have only made me understand how much he actually cares, as much as I do, about being faithful to each other."

Related: LeAnn Sues Alleged Phone Tappers

Although the Grammy-winner is proud of how far she's come emotionally through the past few years, LeAnn took a bold move recently when she made it known publicly that she had checked into a rehab facility for anxiety and stress-related disorders.

"I feel like there's only about a handful of people that could understand where I've been through as a childhood star and now actually having a career after that," explained LeAnn of her rocky emotional state before treatment. "It's hard to explain and I'm not asking for anyone's sympathy. I think when you see all these things written about you and what people are speculating you want to go, 'This is why' and it's just as simple and as complicated as I need to go learn how deal with myself and with the world because everyone is always looking in and I needed to figure out how to deal with it."

Watch the video for more of LeAnn's revealing interview. Spitfire hits shelves in Spring 2013.

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