Could Twitter Popularity Lead to Preferential Treatment?

It's a distinct possibility in the near future of our backwards society. In fact, the Palms Casino in Las Vegas is already planning a super-exclusive club around it. The key to get into the V.I.P. restaurant: how many twitter followers you have:

Palms' chief marketing officer, Jason Gastwirth, is currently building out "The Klout Klub," which "will allow high-ranking influencers to experience Palms' impressive set of amenities in hopes that these influencers will want to communicate their positive experience to their followers." The Palms is already pulling in data from Klout and referring to it as part of their reservations process...Founded by Joe Fernandez and Binh Tran, in 2008, Klout initially served as one of the many ego-boosting sites designed to tell Twitter users how popular they are, but the service promptly evolved. In it's current form, Klout is a sophisticated ranking system that analyzes one's activity on social networks and assigns a score to that individual based on his/her ability to influence others...

If this is the future, then here at Token Sports we really need to get our act together. 23 followers isn't gonna cut it. Follow us so we can at least get into McDonalds.

Betty White on "Actors Studio"

Betty White is the perfect role model for those people who feel like their lives have passed them by. Her happy-go-lucky attitude, and care-free spirit is inspirational, to say the least. And her popularity is sky-high. Here she is from "Inside The Actors Studio", a show that a sold out and now promotes young actors and actresses and their new projects, instead of celebrating veteran stars and their storied careers. Here, at least, they can celebrate with someone special.

"Amazing Race" Delivers Classic Viral Moment

During last night's season 17 premiere of the race around the world, this girl gets absolutely flattened with a reverse catapulted watermelon to the face. Take a look at the video in real time, and of course in suuupppeerrr slow motion:

Immediately after the impact, she proclaims "I Can't Feel My Face." Naturally, I connected the dots, and recalled NBA guard Deshawn Stevenson and his "I Can't Feel My Face" trademark after his made baskets. Leave it to Token Sports to tie together two seemingly unrelated things:

Classic Civilization gets a new edition

More Sid Meiers Civilization V Videos

I've always been a fan of the Civilization series. I haven't played Civ4, which came out five year ago, but now that Civ5 has been released just this week, I'm excited. It looks like a beautiful game that has been re-imagined to be even more addictive than the original versions, which have occupied many hours of my days and nights.

Looks like a holiday gift to me.

Say it Ain't So Bruno!

(nice mugshot smile)

I have to say I'm a little disappointed in one of my new favorite musicians, who was caught with a heavy drug in Vegas. Usually, "what happens in Vegas, stays in Vegas." That is, unless you're a celebrity.

While it was initially reported that the singer-songwriter-producer behind hits like “Nothin’ on You” and “Billionaire” had been busted with an unknown narcotic, a report issued this afternoon by the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department identifies the suspected substance.

Police say they were summoned to Las Vegas’ Hard Rock Casino at 1:50 A.M. on Sept. 19 “to investigate the report of a Latin male adult being detained by hotel security.” Mars, born Peter Hernandez, had performed at the venue hours earlier. Police say they found Mars with 2.6 grams of “‘white powdery substance’ believed to be cocaine.” He was booked and released at 7:45 A.M. the same day and has not yet been charged.

Bad timing for the newest hit-maker of 2010. His album is awaiting a fall release, and his single "Just the Way You Are" is starting to do major damage on the Billboard charts. Hopefully he doesn't follow the path of Lindsay and Paris, fellow failed musicians turned coke heads.

Phoenix fooled us all

We all remember that infamous Joaquin Phoenix on David Letterman last year. It was so horribly painful to see the Oscar-nominated actor throw himself down a path of self-destruction and despair, and attempt to become a horrible rap star.

But PHYSC! Phoenix was playing an act, all for his new mock-umentary directed by Casey Affleck who finally let it on that the whole thing was faked for the movie, "I'm Still Here" (but Letterman wasn't in on it).

Ty Burr of the Boston Globe first let me onto the mayhem of the scheme last week when he reviewed the flick for the Globe. But in case we were all wondering, and in a way we all were, Affleck went ahead and told us that it wasn't for real. "I never intended to trick anybody," Affleck said in a E! article. "The idea of a quote, hoax, unquote, never entered my mind."

Kinda amazing. It seems that the Sasha Baron Cohen theme has gone into mainstream well-accomplished actors, after the whole "I'm not who I see to be" scheme started back with the great Andy Kaufman. How this sort of thing works with a man who is such an accomplished actor is beyond me. But I don't think I want to spend the money to see this in theaters. That's what Netflix is for.

Token Highlights: The MTV VMA's

As always, MTV laid it all on the line for their annual awards show highlighting the best in music. Granted, MTV doesn't really play that many music videos anymore, but the VMA's aren't really about the music video awards...if that makes any sense. Now that I've thoroughly confused you, here's the Token Awards for the night. On to the real winners.

The "Yep, You're Insane" Award goes to Lady Gaga. She wore shoes that made her as tall as Shaq. She wore a piece of raw meat on her head as a hat. Has somebody told her that this is Planet Earth we live on?

The Lip Syncing Award goes to Justin Bieber. Sorry for the low blow, but I couldn't hold it back.

The "Really? Still?" Award goes to Taylor Swift. Every Taylor Swift song is about her being dumped by a boy, and learning some cheesy teenage lesson. Really? Still? It also sounded like the song she debuted tonight was directed towards Kanye West. That s*** was a year ago. Really? Still?

The Comeback Award goes to Kanye West. Listen, it's no secret that Kanye is a weird, unique guy, but musically the man always brings it. His show-closing performance was also the world premiere of his new single "Runaway" and it's got all the makings of a classic. The always-inventive made the beat live on the stage and then put his touch on the unforgettable vocals "let's have a toast for the douchebags...let's have a toast for the a55holes"...only Kanye can make that into a catchy track.

The Funny Chick Award goes to Chelsea Handler. I used to hate on her big time, but I've finally come full circle on the comedian/talk show host. The Lady-Gaga entrance...the opening satire with Lindsay Lohan...the hot tub party with the Jersey Shore cast...all hilarious. Not to mention she was looking pretty good tonight.

Overall, MTV did it again. Great performances from B.O.B., Eminem, and Drake (amongst others) and a lot of jokes.

Take That Justin Bieber!!!

How young is too young to be a star in today's music industry? The answer is...there is no answer! Proof of that comes from Willow Smith, the 9-year-old daughter Will and Jada Pinkett Smith. 

The song's been burning up the internet and now Will Smith's daughter Willow has announced Jay-Z's record label Roc Nation as her official musical home this morning with Ryan Seacrest. Willow, who is only nine years old, shocked everyone in the studio with how mature and poised she was. When asked about what it's like entering the limelight, she stated, "it's very very amazing  and it's very overwhelming...all of the red carpet and the flashes, all the people wanting to meet you...it's very, very, very overwhelming for a nine year old."... The nine year-old's first single “Whip My Hair,” produced by newcomer Jukebox, has launched to rave reviews. Willow’s debut video will be shot in Los Angeles at the end of this month.  The catchy tune is a celebration of freedom, energy, expression and liberating yourself by “whipping your hair.”
Not convinced yet? Take a listen to her debut single below. I speak for Mike and myself by saying that we'll take this over "Bieber mania" any day of the week.

So, B.O.B.'s Real Name is Bob.

Kind of depressing to hear, I know. Despite a lack of creativity in creating his stage name, rapper/producer B.O.B is taking off fast with the success of his well-crafted singles "Nothin' on You", "Airplanes", and "Magic." He stopped by Chelsea Lately to talk with the soon-to-be MTV Video Music Awards host about his success, his dreams growing up, and his favorite moment of his young career.

SLAM!

There is something about Poetry Slams that are just awesome. It's a mix of the competition, the first-rate poetry, the top-performances, and the crowd. I was first introduced to poetry slam during my freshman year of college by the roommate I hate, and I've searched for that first slam video I saw, but I can't find it. I haven't been to one, but I want to go, and soon enough, I'm sure I will.

This above Poetry Slam video of Taylor Mali is amazing, and it's performances like that that make me want to get my ass in a seat at a Slam.

CoCo is coming!

Insert shameless free advertising here for our orange-haired hero, Conan O'Brien!