(from Courtney Jacobs) A donut eating contest will be held at Randy’s Donuts in Inglewood, CA (Los Angeles area) on the morning of June 5 to promote the release of the first season of CHiPs on DVD. Former CHiPs star Erik Estrada will be the contest judge. The winner will be the first person to eat 18 donuts. Participants will be chosen from the first ten entrants to appear at Randy’s Donuts on the morning of the contest and must be residents of California. Contest eligibility, entrance rules and prizes follow:

ELIGIBLE PARTICIPANTS. MAXIMUM TEN (10) ELIGIBLE PARTICIPANTS. 1. ELEGIBILITY: CHIPS DVD Promotion Donut Eating Contest (“Contest”) is open to individuals eighteen (18) years of age or older who are legal residents of the state of California. Contestants must be present at event in order to enter. Employees and their immediate families (spouse, parents, children, siblings, and their respective spouses), including household members, of Time Warner, Inc. or any subsidiaries or affiliated companies including Warner Home Video, a division of Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Inc. (“Sponsor”) are not eligible to enter or win

HOW TO ENTER: To enter, go to the “Donut Eating” event at Randy’s Donuts on Tuesday, June 5, 2007, by 9:00 AM PDT and be one of the first ten (10) eligible participants in the “Donut Eating Contest” line designated as such.

PRIZES: GRAND PRIZE to the winner (1): Two Thousand Five Hundred Dollars ($2,500) (payment to be made in the form of a check payable to winner within four (4) to six (6) weeks after the end of the Contest). FIRST PRIZE to the first runner-up (1): Portable DVD Player (prize to be awarded the day of the Contest). Total Estimated Retail Value of Prize: (U.S.) One Hundred Seventy-Five Dollars ($175). SECOND PRIZE to the second runner-up (1) “Chips: The Complete First Season DVD” signed by Erik Estrada. Total Estimated Retail Value of Prize: (U.S.) Thirty-Nine Dollars and Ninety-Eight Cents ($39.98).

A website with contest information can be found at http://www.myspace.com/chipscontest

If you have ever wondered what Joan of Arc would be like if her field of expertise was competitive eating instead of medieval warfare, a post on the Westside Eclectic Blog has envisioned that scenario:

Joan was born to a night watchman and landowner named Jacques d’Arc. From a young age, Joan of Arc was a formidable eater. Her parents owned roughly 50 acres of arable land but could not keep animals or grow crops without little Joan devouring the entire supply. The land was located in a small region of France which was still loyal to the French crown despite being surrounded by Burgundian lands. This, of course, was during the 100 Years War, and Burgundy had sided with the invading Brits to topple the French monarchy. Occasionally Joan’s hometown would be raided. During one such invasion the town was burned to cinders, leaving Joan with nothing but a few sooty chimneys to eat rapidly.

BeautifulBrian.com has a preview of Sunday’s Nathan’s qualifier at Shea Stadium. He is torn between rooting for Brian Subich and Allen Goldstein in that contest.

The East Valley Tribune has an article about Mesa, AZ resident Todd “the Butler” Yeates, who will be competing in the Nathan’s qualifier in Tempe Saturday. Todd’s nickname is a reference to the poet William Butler Yeats.

An article about the Philadelphia Nathan’s qualifier video on MLE appears CompetitveEatingNews.com. Apparently IFOCE is standing by its original results:

Nonetheless, several viewers have reported watched the video and claimed that it shows that Shoudt’s hot dogs were closely counted and that, to support claims of a mis-count, Shoudt would have had to eat five additional hot dogs during one of the 10-second periods when the camera pans away. These viewers claim that it is possible to follow Bob’s consumption throughout the contest, if one allows for the missed moments when the camera pans away.

They also claim that the video reveals the MLE host repeatedly alerting the Nathan’s judge to the multiple plate issue and conscientiously following the count.

(From Todd “the Butler”) An IFOCE strawberry shortcake contest will be held at the Strawberry Festival in Mattituck (Long Island) NY on June 17. Registration opens May 31 at noon.

Beautiful Brian has posted a defense of Pete “Philly Guy” Miernicki on his website.

A video of a woman, apparently named “Sam”, attempting to drink a gallon of milk in under an hour can be found on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6CJDDUpgBA She almost finishes a gallon in under 8 minutes and takes rather long intervals between sips.

(from Erik Denmark comment) Videos from the Philadelphia and Hartford Nathan’s qualifiers can be found on the MLE videos page.

A listing of several competitive eating websites has been added to SonyaTheBlackWidow.com (thanks for the compliment)

There is also an interesting quote from an Alice Cooper song that I originally wondered who it was addressed to, but on second reading, it is apparently directed to men in general.

The New York Times has an article about the contest to find the best user created Heinz commercial. The Heinz logo on the IFOCE.com home page links to the contest website. The submitted commercials receive some negative reviews:

Heinz hopes to show more than five of them, if there are enough that convey a positive, appealing message about Heinz ketchup, he said. But advertising executives who have seen some of the entries say that Heinz may be hard pressed to find any that it is proud to run on television in September.

“These are just so bad,” said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, an advertising agency in New York that is not involved with Heinz’s contest.

One of the most viewed Heinz videos — seen, at last count, more than 12,800 times — ends with a close-up of a mouth with crooked, yellowed teeth. When Ms. Kaplan Thaler saw it, she wondered, “Were his teeth the result of, maybe, too much Heinz?”

From AICE news:

1. Gentleman Joe (”AKA Eatmeiser”) 3.87 lbs
2. Mark Lyle “The Human Vacuum” 2.67 lbs
3. Veto “The Machine” Porter 1.96 lbs
4. Shawn “Taz” Wiggins 1.85

MyFoxKC has a video clip and gallery of the contest

(From Someboys) A video clip of Natsuko “Gal” Sone’s appearance, along with Tokito Ami, her bandmate in Gyaruru on the show Goro’s bar to promote the June 20 release of their single can be viewed at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ST8DT3HD-bo The is no competitive eating on the show, but Ami competes in a funny face contest.

Indiana James competed in the 2 person team vegetarian hot dog eating contest held in Austin, TX Saturday and wrote a blog entry about her experience. She ate 10.5 hot dogs in 12 minutes, a half hot dog more than her male teammate “Honeybun”. Their total of 20.5 hot dogs was good for second place. Fans of picnic style rules will be glad to know that apparently no teams took advantage of the blender.

“In second place, with 20 and a half, we have Honeybun and Indiana!” We smiled, happy that our prides were still in tact. The girl to my left was like, “OMG! I could only eat three!”

What’s cool is that for the rest of the day, I felt like a local celebrity. Everyone kept high fiving me, and asking me how many dogs I choked down. Even after we left, I was recognized. We made a stop over at End of an Ear to pick up the Voxtrot CD for Honeybun, and the clerk was all like “You were that girl from the hot dog contest!”

An excerpt of Brian Seiken’s commentary about Joe Menchetti’s appearance on his television show follows:

Menchetti has to constantly keep his guard up realizing he is on the defensive end similar to being grilled on the witness stand by a prosecuting attorney. If you are expecting foul mouth humor this show is not for you. It will probobly appeal more to the old school CE crowd that has been through the mill with Speedeat.com .He starts off like a lamb then slowly tears into the IFOCE and the Shea’s. The amazing thing about Menchetti is that he stands by most of his past negative remarks and seems to find justification with every phrase and syllable that have made their way to his keypad. If he regrets any of his past remarks on Speedeat it is only because he wishes he could have said it sooner than later. The scary part is that you couldnt even break him if you tried. He remembers facts , stats and where he placed in every single event since his debut in CE. This wealth of CE knowledge is stored in a harddrive located somewhere in the back of his arrogant brain. During a phone in ,.Don Lerman attempts to attack but Menchetti counters with everything Lerman throws at him.

Todd “The Butler” Yeates has uploaded a picture of the competitive eating “Wall of Fame” located in his home gym to his blog.

The “Gentleman” Joe Menchetti episode is now available for purchase on beautifulbrian.com

A report on yesterday’s Nathan’s qualifier in Philadelphia appears on competitiveeatingnews.com.

Shoudt ate 33, and one viewer claimed that an entire Shoudt plate was missed and that Bob actually ate five more HDBs. However, this claimed was dismissed by a veteran Nathan’s judge who counted Bob’s dogs throughout the event.

The new poll asks what you think the Nathan’s wild card winner average (over three qualifiers) will be.

Hogzilla has posted entries about his competitive eating training in his myspace blog. He is preparing for the July 4 hot dog eating contest at the Dairy Inn in St. Petersburg, FL.

There is an article about that contest in creativeloafing.com containing some quotes from Kate Westfall of the IFOCE.

Delaplane Strawberry Festival results from a Wing Tut (contest MC) text message:

Tom “Goose” Gilbert 9 lbs
“Gentleman” Joe Menchetti 6.88 lbs
Ian “the Invader” Hickman 6.2 lbs
Carey Poehlman 5 lbs
Chris “The American” schlessinger 4.9 lbs
Cain 2.5 lbs

(From Beautiful Brian & Philly Guy & Steakbellie & Wild Bill & anonymous commenter )

Nathan’s Philadelphia qualifier results, Independence Center

1.) Sonya Thomas 36
2.) “Humble” Bob Shoudt 33 or 34
3.) “Big” Brian Subich 27
4.) “Wing Kong” Collins 23 1/2
5.) Steakbellie 17.25
6.) Wild Bill 16.5
7.) Pete “Philly Guy” Miernicki, 13.75
8.) Paul “Buffet Buster” Sakelarides, 12
9.) Mike Isco, 10 (tie)
9.) Sean Verma, 10 (tie)
11.) Adam Dewalt, 9

update NBC10.com has a brief article about the contest

update #2 MegaMunch has a post about his thoughts on the judging controversy

A video from a road trip to Denny’s Beer Barrel Pub to attempt the 15 pound Belly Buster burger is available at http://youtube.com/watch?v=OUkcRa-d-jU

AZCentral.com has an interview with Joey Chestnut. Joey states he plans to compete in the Tempe, Arizona qualifier on June 2. He will practice for that event in the Los Angeles Dodgers All You Can Eat pavilion this weekend. Joey expresses confidence about his upcoming performances:

Meanwhile, Chestnut believes he’s prepared to shock the eating world.

“I’ve definitely been able to break the record in practice,” he said, adding that for competitive reasons he doesn’t want to say exactly how many hot dogs he has devoured.

“Unless I have a bad day, I’ll break the record.”

And he is convinced that Kobayashi is approaching his gastrointestinal zenith.

“Kobayashi is amazing, but he’s been at it about six years and he’s hovering at about the same amount,” he said. “I don’t know if he can go much higher. If I can get to 55 or 56 I have a chance to beat him.”

updateAZCentral has another article about the qualifier

NYMag.com reports that “Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating”, starring Crazy Legs Conti, will be screened at the first New York Food Films Festival on June 21. The schedule of events for that evening follows:

Thursday, June 21st
8:30pm - Tasting Rachel Ray - 3 mins.
- Best of the Wurst - 21 mins.
- A Trip To The Butcher - 4 mins.
9:00pm - Crazy Legs Conti - Zen and the Art of Competitive Eating
10:15pm - Q&A with Crazy Legs Conti
10:45pm - Hot Dog eating contest - 32 inch Stahl-Meyer Hot Dog
closing - XXX - An Uncanventional Love Story - 1 min.

Another movie to be screened at the festival is Buffet - All You Can Eat Las Vegas. A trailer for that film is available at NYMag.com