For his latest movie Body of Lies, Oscar award-winning actor Russell Crowe gained 63 pounds partially by "munching on cheeseburgers for breakfast."
Posted by Adam Kuban, August 15, 2008 at 5:20 PM
According to Advertising Age magazine, the rapper and entrepreneur has the rights to bring ten locations to the Chicago metro area. The first will open next month.
The rapper, producer and sometimes political activist isn't the first celebrity franchisee to stake new territory for the 56-year-old chain. Fatburger has focused on African-American tastemakers to aid its expansion. Last year, talk-show host Montel Williams opened stores in Colorado and rapper Pharrell Williams opened the first locations in New York. Former Baltimore Raven Orlando Brown also bought rights to open Fatburgers last year in Washington.
Posted by Adam Kuban, July 24, 2008 at 2:45 PM
New York Daily News
OK. She's not really a burger waitress. She'll just be playing one on TV. The New York Daily News has photos of the starlet on location in Long Island City, Queens, shooting a scene for an episode of Ugly Betty. And there's a continuity issue. Check it:
Is it Flushing Burgers or Flushing Burger? The show told the Daily News that the fake restaurant is "Flushing Burgers." Flushing is, of course, the neighborhood in Queens where the fictional ugster lives.
This isn't the first time that burgers have played an incidental role in Ugly Betty. In the episode "Swag," Betty arranges a very important dinner for a very important designer—at White Tassel, a stand in for White Castle. Video, after the jump.
Continue reading »
Richard Blais of Top Chef Season 4 tells the blog Eater he plans to open a a burger joint in Atlanta called Flip and would like to go nationwide with it. Previously: Top Chef's Spike Brings Burgers, Fedoras to Capitol Hill
Posted by Emily Koh, June 24, 2008 at 7:10 PM
In a recent London Times interview, House star Hugh Laurie mentioned one perk of his celebrity status was his Burger King gold card, granting him a limitless supply of free burgers.
The kicker? Laurie didn't even own one! His mention of the card, however, has gotten Burger King a lot more attention than expected, and soon he'll be joining the other 11 celebrities who are BK Crown cardholders, which include Jay Leno, Jennifer Hudson, and George Lucas.
The card was originally made available to the public back in 2006, but in reality is no more than a glorified gift card; only the famous people get the gold card perk. Celebrities who are "good friends" of the brand and have "long-standing relationships" have been presented with the card. Jennifer Hudson, for example, was a former employee at Burger King before making it big, and George Lucas always partners with the fast food chain for movie release tie-ins. Robert Downey, Jr. received a card after mentioning Burger King in interviews when he was promoting Iron Man (after all, his character Tony Stark was fiendin' for a BK cheeseburger). Jay Leno describes the reaction upon flashing his Crown Card:
"So I order my food, and the guy says, 'That's $11.' So I say: 'Fine, here you go,' and hand him the card. His reaction was amazing: 'Whoa... where'd you get this?' He was not impressed that I was on 'The Tonight Show' or even that I was driving a Porsche Carrera GT. He was more impressed with this piece of plastic."
You too can earn the admiration of your peers and say you're a proud BK Crown Card holder (because, you know, "prepaid gift card" sounds a little boring and unoriginal) by getting one from bkcrowncard.com.
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 11, 2008 at 11:54 AM
Everyone's been reporting this shit about Robert Downey Jr. crediting Burger King with his drug-addiction turnaround. I actually saw this story last week, but everyone was crediting British film magazine Empire as a source. Oddly enough, no one was linking to the story his quotes were supposedly from. Rather than pass on spurious info to you, I took a pass on mentioning it here. Here's the quote, attributed Empire, as reported by OK! magazine (got that?):
"I have to thank Burger King," he told the magazine. "It was such a disgusting burger I ordered.
"I had that, and this big soda, and I thought something really bad was going to happen."
Downey Jr. says he went and threw all his drugs into the ocean right there and then.
The actor revealed that there is a nod to that moment in his latest movie, Iron Man, when his character asks for a Burger King cheeseburger when he is released by kidnappers.
Well, leave it to Access Hollywood to do some real investigative journalism. The show talked to Downey Jr.'s publicist:
The actor’s rep told Access Hollywood, the savory story was “not as simplified as described, but true enough.”
Related: Iron Man's Tony Stark Is a Genius, But Not When It Comes to Burgers
Posted by Adam Kuban, June 22, 2005 at 12:15 PM
ARCHIVES > NEW YORK CITY
Agh! How could we have missed this one! If we would have known that Martha Stewart was going to be flipping burgers at the Shake Shack in New York City's Madison Square Park, we'd have trekked down there for lunch for a photo op. As the New York Observer reports:
"Large or small?" asked Martha Stewart of the Madison Square Park Shake Shack's lunchtime regulars on Tuesday, June 21—most of whom seemed unimpressed with their billionaire burger-server. "I guess I like her," said one woman waiting in line, as her friend stared into space and tried her hardest to look like she would've been there with or without the celebrity presence.
Ms. Stewart got a new daytime show, aptly titled Martha, and she needs to get her knees dirty (when she's allowed out of the house, at least) if she wants to connect with the unemployed proles whoíll be watching it.
The idea for the segment, according to a hanger-on, was to go around the country and film "fun and fabulous" places to eat. "You never know where she's gonna be!" said a member of Ms. Stewart's team. "Hence the Shake Shack! This was perfect for her, as she loves burgers and frankfurters." Oh my God, us too!
AHT ON THE SHAKE SHACK
Behind the Scenes at the Shake Shack
Review: Shake Shack
Source: Fry, Martha [New York Observer]
[Thanks to Janelle for the tip.]
