Bettie Page, the 1950s famous pinup model died in Los Angeles on Thursday. She was 85.
Page never recovered after suffering a heart attack last week said her agent, Mark Roesler. Before the heart attack, Page had been hospitalized for three weeks with pneumonia.
Page was notorious for her near-naked photo shoots and blunt, black bangs.
Her saucy pictures helped spark the next decade’s sexual revolution. Her provocative poses made her an icon in American pop culture and she was one of the first models to appear in Playboy magazine.
“Bettie Page embodied the …

A suicide bomber killed at least 55 people Thursday in a restaurant near the city of Kirkuk, where Kurdish officials were meeting with Arab tribal leaders, police said.
The attack in the “Abdullah” restaurant appeared to be the worst attack in Iraq since 63 people were killed by a truck bomb in Baghdad on June 17.
Police Brig. Gen. Sarhad Qadir, who gave the casualty figures, said the dead included at least five women and three children. About 120 people were wounded.
The restaurant was packed with families celebrating the final day of …

Swimming sensation and Olympic gold medalist Michael Phelps covers the new issue of ESPN The Magazine – featuring the ESPN 100 (annual list of biggest achievements, letdowns and sports controversies of the year.)

A trio of KFC employees were fired after photos of them bathing in the restaurant’s sink were posted on MySpace.

The photos included captions such as “haha KFC showers!” and “haha we turned on the jets,” and were filed under a gallery called “KFC moments,” according to the Record Searchlight newspaper in Redding, California.

A manager of the fast-food restaurant said the girls were reprimanded and suspended Tuesday. She said no manager was on duty when the photos were taken as the three had closed the restaurant for the night.

“KFC has zero …

Deep fried with spicy marinara dipping sauce.
It’s like chicken with a slightly fishy, swampy flavor.

Bernard Madoff, the founder and president of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities and former chairman of the Nasdaq Stock Market, was arrested Thursday morning by Federal Bureau of Investigation agents and charged with criminal securities fraud by U.S.prosecutors.
The criminal complaint filed against ‘Bernie‘ Madoff alleges that he told senior employees that his business was “a giant Ponzi scheme,” according to a person familiar with the matter. The alleged scheme involved tens of billions of dollars, but the extent of investor losses wasn’t immediately clear.
“He’s one of the pioneers of modern …

After beating Oscar De La Hoya in the Dream Match (nightmare for the Golden Boy), Manny Pacquiao can sit back, relax and start counting his earnings from that lopsided fight in Las Vegas.
Pay-per-view (PPV) figures indicate that Pacman is now richer by $11.2 million.
That amount, which exceeds his guaranteed prize, is the minimum that Pacquiao will get. He stands to earn more from his share of live gate receipts and merchandise sales from the Dec. 6 match at the MGM Grand.
According to the numbers released by HBO, Pacquiao’s fight with …

This is a new book which features Callie Shell’s photography.

Guitar Hero fans can expect “Guitar Hero Arcade” in February 2009. Activision plans to bring the franchise to arcades across the globe with the help of Raw Thrills and Konami.

“Basically, Konami approached us with the deal,” said Raw Thrills VP Andrew Eloff. “It shocked the hell out of me. I was thrilled. The thing with Guitar Hero that’s so frightening is there’s so much licensing [music, patents] associated with it. We’re not set up to do all that. When Konami came to us, asking us if we wanted to develop …

Macaulay Culkin is in grief: The Daily Contributor has learned that the Home Alone star’s older sister Dakota Culkin, 29, was struck by a car.
She was walking along the street in Los Angeles on Tuesday when she stepped off the curb and was struck by a moving vehicle.
Following the incident, she was rushed to the UCLA Hospital to be treated for her wounds, but died this morning.
“We can officially confirm that the victim is Dakota Culkin. This is a terrible, tragic accident. We have no further comment at this time,” …