Karl 
GNARLS BARKLEY plays Forrest Gump in the new video for “Smiley Faces,” hanging with everyone from Duke Ellington to the Velvet Underground to David Bowie and beyond. Dennis Hopper and Dean Stockwell have cameos, though not reprising their roles from Blue Velvet.
THE 2006 MERCURY PRIZE shortlist has been announced, with finalists including Arctic Monkeys, Isobel Campbell, Gulliemots, Richard Hawley, Thom Yorke and more. The BBC will hook you up with profiles and samples. There's also a timeline charting the highs and lows of the awards.
THE REAL ANIMALS: Gorilla vs. Bear features metal bands fronted by animals, including Hatebeak (fronted by a parrot) and Caninus (fronted by two pitbulls).
THE RECOVERED BEATLES TAPES could be commerically released as soon as next year, according to Neil Aspinall, head of the Apple Corps estate. Beatles fans expect the recordings to emerge slowly as not to flood the market. There may also be legal issues surrounding the ownership of the Lennon-McCartney tracks. RELATED: Mars Needs Guitars recently posted the MOJO magazine disc of Revolver covers for your listening pleasure..
MORE OF THE TOP 100 MUSIC VIDEOS OF ALL TIME are revealed at Stylus.
THE HOLD STEADY reveal the details on the band's next album, due in October. And if you're unfamiliar with the band, Pitchfork will hook you up with “My Little Hoodrat Friend” at the link.
MARGOT & THE NUCLEAR SO & SOS frontman Richard Edwards explains why the band takes its name in part from The Royal Tenenbaums: “I think the (Wes Anderson) movies, the few people who get them or get into them, really like them and maybe that’s how our music is, if you like us you like us a lot.” There's a selection of Margot tracks streamable from the Hype Machine.
ART BRUT and WE ARE SCIENTISTS are covering each other's songs for a split-single to celebrate touring together.
BELLE & SEBASTIAN is curating an album of children's songs, which will also include tracks from the Flaming Lips, Franz Ferdinand and Jonathan Richman.
RYAN ADAMS: Is he really putting out three more albums this year? Is he really responding to the commenters at Stereogum? If not, he's a good Adams impersonator… Regardless, there is plenty of Adams — including some odd covers — currently streaming via the Hype Machine.
PETE DOHERTY UPDATE: Babyshambles is playing Ibiza, so the folks renting the troubled singer a villa are removing all the valuable items.
CHRISTIE BRINKLEY BREAK-UPDATE: The 19-year old girl at the center of the former supermodel's marital trainwreck is talking to New York Post. Or you can go right to the video. Roger Friedman reminds us of his prior story that Peter Cook was seriously dating a beautiful 19-year-old singer named Samantha Cole behind Brinkley's back before they were married.
BRITNEY SPEARS got an apology from the UK's National Enquirer for reporting that the pop star was ready to divorce Spenderline. So the same day, the Daily Mail claims the “things are far from rosy” in their marriage.
MADONNA works out with a large, £6,995 vibrating gadget. But we all assumed as much already, didn't we?
MATTHEW McCONAGHEY: People magazine's Sexiet man Alive is auctioning his '71 Stingray Corvette for hurricane relief.
JESSIC BIEL: Esquire magazine's Sexiest Woman Alive is auctioning off a lunch date to help raise money for a teenager who lost her leg in a prom night limousine accident.
OLIVER STONE is still taking hallucinogens, which makes it even more remarkable that his upcoming World Trade Center is apparently not a wacky conspiracy movie.
PAM ANDERSON and KID ROCK are getting hitched, thereby preserving the balance of married versus single Baywatch lifeguards.
DAVE NAVARRO-CARMEN ELECTRA BREAK-UPDATE: Navarro may not have left Electra for Tommy Lee, but he's reportedly been seeing socialite Sarah Howard for five months. Electra has yet to find another tattooed loveboy in the mold of Navarro or first hubby Dennis Rodman.
JERI RYAN, best known as Seven of Nine on Star Trek: TNG, is engaged. At Egotastic, Phil reminds us about her last husband taking her to sex clubs and trying to get her to participate in all manner of activities.
STEVE GUTTENBERG: You may be asking yourself, “WTF? Steve Guttenberg?” But if you scroll down to the entry for July 12th at Zap2It, you'll find he's much funnier now that he's lost his mind. The most normal sentence is his first: “I'm doing something, it's actually called Jew Fever…“
PAUL SCHRADER: The acclaimed writer-director is tackling Adam Resurrected, the story of a Jewish circus clown who is kept alive by the Nazis to entertain his fellow Jews as they march to the gas chambers. Jerry Lewis is going to be so ticked!
CATE BLANCHETT bought her first panties since high school just a few years ago. Which we can safely file under TMI.
TRAILER REMIX: Fellini is scored by Eminem in 8 1/2 Mile.
IRAQ: Four key al-Qaida leaders responsible for major bombings and sectarian bloodshed have been captured in Baghdad, according to Iraq's National Security Advisor. British forces killed five members of al-Sadr's militia and wounded ten others in clashes yesterday. The director general of the Independent Electoral Commission and ten others were arrested on charges of corruption “over wasting public money,” which is actually a good thing, given that corruption is a recognized problem even in the new gov't. The UN issued a report stating that about 14K civilians had been killed so far this year. Aside from the inherent difficulty of separating innocent civilian from insurgent or militia in this situation, I am reminded that Saddam killed between 100-230K Shia and Kurds in April 1991 alone. The spike in sectarian violence will have to sustain at the current level for the rest of the year to match Saddam's average.
IRAN: President Ahmadinejad says that “the world is standing on the threshold of great development and the Muslims are expected to overcome their aggressive enemies,” which is just what you want to hear from someone trying to get nukes and talking about wiping countries off the face of the world.
MIDEAST CONFLICT: The New York Times, true to form, opines that the UN — led by the US and France — must step in to broker the earliest possible cease-fire between Israel and Hezbollah (the editorial omits Hamas, but whatever). Has the UN — or the US — a magic wand they've been keeping hidden? To broker a cease-fire, both sides have to think they might benefit. Israel is thinking about ground troops and spending weeks in its effort to crush Hezbollah. For his part, Hezbollah's leader called for “open war,” then said “we are at the beginning.” As Israeli ground troops enter southern Lebanon, members of Hezbollah told CNN that Israel's aerial assault has not damaged their ability to fight, and vowed to struggle to the death. The group's Iranian branch now threatens to attack Israeli and US interests worldwide (which got the FBI's attention). DEBKA — an outfit that clearly favors (and may well have ties with) Israel — notes that Israel’s terms for a ceasefire are unrealistic, while Hezbollah’s leaders and masters in Tehran and Damascus are completely inaccessible and unsusceptible to diplomatic norms. These are not parties with any interest in diplomacy at the moment. The NYT's detachment from this sort of reality may explain why the paper is downsizing.
SEN. LISA MURKOWSKI caught a 63-pound king salmon in the 11th annual Kenai River Classic, an annual fundraiser for conservation of habitat along the Kenai River in Alaska.
WHAT'S IT ALL ABOUT, ALFIE? “Woof! Woof!” a toddler has climbed out of a second-story window and is scampering across the porch rooftops of the row houses? “Woof!”
SNAKE IN A MAILBOX: A six-foot boa constrictor, to be exact. It's all so funny until you end up in federal custody.
PET HOARDING: Yes, I suppose the stench of a decomposed body, 110 cats and three dogs might attract a few flies.
A SEAL takes up residence in a horse paddock down under.
