World Cup Stars for Vanity Fair

The World Cup’s Stars Wear Their Flags—And Little Else—For Annie Leibovitz – For the June issue of Vanity Fair, Annie Leibovitz set out to capture some of the sport’s biggest stars, including Portugal’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Ivory Coast’s Didier Drogba, Cameroon’s Samuel Eto’o, Ghana’s Sulley Muntari, the U.S.A.’s Landon Donovan, Brazil’s Kaká and Pato, Italy’s Gianluigi Buffon, Serbia’s Dejan Stankovic, England’s Carlton Cole, and Germany’s Michael Ballack. [vanityfair]

The Oil Has Come To Shore – The heavy, black oil that people along the Gulf Coast have feared since the start of the BP spill exactly a month ago finally has arrived on shore. Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal reported seeing thick oil in the sensitive marshlands. “The heavy oil is here,” Jindal said. “This was the day everybody was worried about, everybody was concerned about. That day is here, that heavy oil is in the marshes.” [abcnews]

Kim Jong il Not Scared Of War – South Korea accused North Korea on Thursday of firing a torpedo that sank a naval warship in March, killing 46 sailors. President Lee Myung-bak vowed “stern action” for the provocation following the release of long-awaited results from a multinational investigation. Our Dear Leader didn’t dig that vibe and warned that any retaliation would trigger war. Your move, Lee. [msnbc]

White House “Chief Of Protocol” Wipes Out – When you’re the Chief Of Protocol for the White House, it is important that you get the basics right. You know, like walking. Capricia Penavic Marshall slipped on the White House steps before the arrival of Mexican President Felipe Calderon to the State Dinner. President Obama cautioned photographers “Don’t take that picture” and Michelle Obama added “Don’t print that picture!” Here’s a video.. [huffpo]

Yahoo Buys Online Content Factory for $90 Million – Yahoo has joined the race to mass-produce content for the web with its purchase Thursday of Associated Content for a rumored $90 million. Associated Content, like Demand Media and AOL’s new Seed project, relies on thousands of freelancers to write and film how-tos, profiles and top-whatever lists for web publication — with help from search algorithms to determine what content should be created next. [wired]

Lindsay Lohan’s New Cougar Lesbian Lover – Lindsay Lohan has a new, cougar lesbian lover — stunning photographer and reality-show star Indrani. Lohan, 23, who previously dated deejay Samantha Ronson, has been secretly seeing Indrani, 36, since the women worked together on a photo shoot last fall. Sources say Lohan and Indrani have been on a series of dates in LA and recently spent the night at Lohan’s hotel. Nicely! [nypost]

Replace Your Laptop With An iPad? One Man Did – “Heading out of country to do some reporting last week, I realized that I had to make a decision: fire up the laptop again and carry all five pounds of it through multiple flights on turboprop puddle jumpers, or take a leap of faith that I could do everything I needed to do with the iPad. I went with the iPad. I’m glad I did. It worked splendidly.” [gizmodo]

Self-Repairing Audi A9 Hybrid Would Make James Bond Proud – The Audi A9 concept might sound too futuristic with its automatic system for repairing damage, but this surely is going to impress James Bond. Featuring a wide windscreen that extends to complete the roof, the Audi A9 touts the bodywork enhanced with a unique “electronic painting” system, allowing the owner to change its color at the touch of a button. [bornrich]

Plastic Surgery Turned Handsome French Twin Actors Into Freakish Cat People – Yikes. Igor and Grichka Bogdanoff starred in ’80s French sci-fi shows. Then they got addicted to plastic surgery. Now they look like crazy cat people! Click through for how they used to look, if you want to be sad. [gawker]