I guess he's not the sex symbol he thinks he is. Quote: "I am hoping that I can be known as a great writer and actor some day, rather than a sex symbol." Oh, I forgot all about David Spade. Yes, he's another one.
Upstairs, Downstairs
Speaking of authoritarian regimes, that avatar of the plucky common man - Rocky Balboa - found himself accused this week of running a stern encampment for the servants at his palatial Miami manse.
Five cooks and a maid have filed suit against '80s he-man icon Sylvester Stallone and his '90s trophy wife, Jennifer Flavin, claiming they were unfairly dismissed for failing to follow Stallone's strict - not to mention bizarre - edicts for their behavior, The Miami Herald reports.
The servants (five cooks?) claimed they were forced to work according to a draconian "code of conduct," which dictated dismissal for such rank offenses as looking directly into Stallone's eyes, eating any scrap of food left over from the efforts of the five cooks, or - oddest of all - talking to (or even listening to) Stallone's aged mother, Jackie. Vassals were also enjoined to back out of a room immediately if Stallone entered, to search the luggage of all guests for stolen items, and to submit to daily searches themselves upon entering and leaving the premises.
An encounter with Mama Stallone led to the dismissals, the lawsuit alleges. Jackie Stallone gave the servants Christmas presents - autographed pictures of her own sweet self and some ink pens adorned with angels. The next day, Flavin confiscated the gifts, accused the hired hands of stealing them (for sale on the thriving black market for Jackie Stallone memorabilia, no doubt), and gave them the sack.
The Stallones are contesting the case, firing back with a slander suit seeking $1 million from the uppity servants, and accusing them of concocting the whole story for tabloid exposure. Flavin, meanwhile, took her plight to the public, appearing on the, er, tabloid TV show, "Entertainment Tonight."
She said the Hispanic workers were just lousy employees, "drinking all our beer." And she singled out one of the battery of cooks, Maria Vivanco, as being a "disaster."
"In one instance, I found her actually weighing the roast on my husband's bathroom scale," said Flavin, scarcely able to convey her horror to the intently nodding head of her tabloid interlocutor. "She was actually taking a baby's thermometer and actually seeing if the food was done by putting the thermometer in the food."
A baby's thermometer! So it was child abuse then! Oh, those drunken, swarthy devils. Looking people in the eye, accepting Christmas presents - next they'll be wanting Miranda rights or something. Keep fighting the good fight, Jen!
