user: Notables Pan Donald Trump

On the eve of the White House Correspondents Association dinner, many celebrities thought that the 2016 election had taken a turn for the dramatic with the rise of Republican frontrunner Donald Trump.

Michael Kelly, who plays Doug Stamper on the popular Netflix drama House of Cards, said that the election mirrors some of the plot lines that show’s writers cooked up more than a year ago.

“It’s certainly crazier things in this election than anything that I’ve ever seen in House of Cards. Look at the parallel story at what could possibly be the contested convention, that’s insane,” Kelly told TIME. “When we wrote that a year ago, did I really think that would come to life? Never in a million years.”

Trump, the real estate mogul currently in first place for the GOP nomination, is expected to be the butt of many of comedian Larry Wilmore’s jokes at Saturday’s dinner.

Vivica A. Fox, star of the upcoming film Independence Day: Resurgence, told TIME that the Trump we see on the presidential trail was nothing like the person she met during her time on Celebrity Apprentice 7 and that he had “turned politics into a reality show.”

Another former member of The Apprentice cast, Omarosa Manigault, wasn’t quite so pleased that so many of Wilmore’s jokes would come at Trump’s expense Saturday.

“I think there’s going to be a lot of jokes about Trump,” Manigault told TIME. “But I think the biggest joke is on them because he’s going to be the President of the United States.”

Summary: They said he brought reality TV to politics.


Metta World Peace is better in Detroit than Ron Artest was

BIRMINGHAM, Mich. — When Ron Artest first came to town I ignored him, wanting nothing to do with a wacko.

"A lot of people do that," Artest says.

I thought he was just a thug.

"I tell people who call me a thug you're calling the right person a thug," he says. "I was raised to be a thug."

Others insist he's a sweetheart, although Ron Artest and sweetheart don't really seem to go together.

But here we are in a Detroit suburb, the wacko thug more sensitive, insightful and sweet than advertised. Metta World Peace is now nine years removed from the Malice at the Palace.

"The brawl," as Artest calls it, the day he flipped out and went storming into the stands looking for the fan who hit him with a drink.

We agree to meet over lunch along with John Green, the fan with the great aim who threw a cup of Diet Coke at Artest and won a $50 bet and 30 days in jail for doing so.

We can't meet Sunday when the Lakers play the Pistons because Green is still banned from attending events at the Palace of Auburn Hills.

There was a time when Artest would have welcomed such a ban, admitting now, "Nobody knew it at the time, but I could never ever go back to Detroit so I asked Indiana to trade me."

The Pacers were befuddled by the request, but Artest knew the Pacers were going to be regular visitors to Detroit.

"I almost had a nervous breakdown," he says. His stay in Indiana ended in controversy and Artest decided he would not play basketball again.

He put on 25 pounds, sank further into depression and was shipped to Sacramento. Timbuktu does not have a team.

The first time Sacramento was scheduled to play in Detroit, "I found a reason not to go," he says, while admitting he cried at one point.

"For two minutes," he says, probably coming as a shock to the guys who used to get out of his way in the 'hood.

Late word arrives about lunch. The cup-throwing fan wants to be paid $2,500 to talk, and while Artest says he might have been willing to pay Green if notified earlier, I'm telling him the newspaper would end the interview even before it starts.

Artest still wants to help the guy who almost cost Artest everything, meaning he really is a wacko. The thrown cup begins a chain of events costing Artest around $7 million in salary and endorsements and a year in his prime.

"I was so bitter," he says, and bothered by being bitter.

So Artest posts a picture of Green on Twitter and if anyone produces Green's number he'll take them to lunch.

He gets the number and goes to lunch as promised.

Summary:

assistant: BIRMINGHAM, Mich. &mdash; When  Ron Artest  first came to town I ignored him, wanting nothing to do with a wacko.