Just For Giggles

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Tube Talk

I'm a Glee-k through and through. i like the characters, the stories, the music, the talent, the gay sensibilities, Matthew Morrison's dimples.
But this weeks Britney episode was a mess. There was no story, save for a little nitrous-induced dream sequences of Britney tunes. And the idea that Mr. Shue didn't want the glee club doing Britney songs seemed to make no sense. Plus, and this is just me, the Britney songs really aren't that good.
And now I hear that Gwyneth Paltrow will be doing a few episodes.
Hey Glee writers? Get back to the show i loved. With good songs, good dances, good stories, good characters, and Matthew Morrison's dimples.

More enjoyable than Glee this week, and on at the same time so I'll thank the goddess for the DVR, was Inside The Actor's Studio with Betty White.
What a wonderful life she's had; what a fantastic career. She was the first woman on TV; she was the first woman on TV to executive produce her own show, back in the 1940s. And what wonderful stories she told of The Mary Tyler Moore Show and The Golden Girls.
I got a little misty when she was asked what, if she believed in God, what would she want to hear when she got to Heaven, and she said, "Hello Betty. Allen's waiting."
Love.Her.

Top Chef: Just Desserts is Top Chef: Just Crazy. The Seth Show continues because he doesn't even do the challenges. this week he was supposed to make a wedding cake and he made an engagement cupcake because he doesn't "do" wedding cakes. then he was supposed to make something to sell at a school bake sale, and he made a Financier Cake. Yeah, all those years my Mom baked cookies and cupcakes when she should have been doing a  Financier Cake.
And don't get me started on Morgan, or as I like to call him, Insufferable Dick. And then there's Heather H who called out one of the other pastry chef's wedding cakes as too "home-y." It was more than slightly reminiscent of Gretchen on PR calling someones outfit a design school project.
Still, line of the night goers to Zac for saying to Gail, when he learned of the ninety minute wedding cake challenge, "Have you been snorting butter cream?"
Loved it.

....And Again....Only With a Slightly Happy Ending

Tyler Wilson is eleven-years-old, and the latest victim of school bullying. Only this story has a semi-happy ending because Tyler Wilson isn't dead by his own hand. This time the bullies didn't break his spirit, they broke his arm, because Tyler wants to be a cheerleader.

Kristy Wilson, Tyler's mom, is furious that her son's school didn't do more to stop at least two boys who have been tormenting her son, and beat him up so badly that he may have to have surgery to fix the broken bone.

As for Tyler Wilson, well, broken arm and all, he has vowed that he will not stop cheering, because he wants to use that talent to get into college, telling a local news channel, "I'm going to keep going."

This all started because, over the summer, Tyler Wilson joined a youth football cheerleading squad because of his love for gymnastics and tumbling, He also thought it might help him get into college.

Kristy Wilson was slightly concerned, talking to him about the idea that he might get picked on for cheering, but she didn't think it would turn violent.  "The first thing I wanted to make sure of, when he said he was going to join cheerleading, that he understood the possibility was there that he would get teased and made fun of and he was ok dealing with it," Kristy Wilson said. Tyler joined the squad anyway, and the teasing and taunts started on his first day back to school.

At first, Tyler was just as was verbally combative with the bullies as they'd been with him, but his mother told him to tell the boys that their taunts didn't bother him, and to just keep on walking. But then Tyler came home with a broken arm and Kristy Wilson found out just how vicious the boys had been towards her son.

According to Kristy Wilson, and the police report she filed, Tyler was on his way home when two of these bullies approached him and punched him. Tyler tried to ignore them and keep on walking, but the boys followed, punching and shoving him along the way. These little skirmishes began to escalate until one of the boys picked Tyler up and slammed him on the ground, breaking his arm. 

Kristy Wilson called the police, and then went to the Glenwood Middle School to speak with school officials about the incident, and was shocked at what she learned. She was told, by the principal, that before the boys attacked Tyler on his way home, there had been two separate, previous occasions where the boys had started to fight with Tyler.

Kristy Wilson is furious that the school knew of at least two times that her son had been tormented, bullied and attacked, but that they never called her. She says that, had she known, she would have removed Tyler from the school.

She is also angry at the parents of the two boys, because of what she sees as a lack of response from them over what their two boys did to Tyler. "In my opinion I'm responsible for my child, and have a moral responsibility for my child," Wilson said, adding that If Tyler had broken a boy's arm she would reach out to the parents, offer to help with medical costs or anything else needed.

And you wonder where bullies come from; perhaps it arises from the indifference of their own parents in their own home, so their feel the need to lash out at anyone who is perceived by them to be different. Perhaps that parental indifference leads these bullies to believe that they can get away with anything. Only they can't. 

Lt. Charles Wilson, of the Findlay Police Department told ABC News that both boys involved in the fight have been charged in youth court: "One has been charged with felonious assault, the other with simple assault. One is a felony and one is a misdemeanor. It breaks down to the injuries. The broken arm is a felony."  

The second boy was involved only as far as "kicking and hitting" Tyler.

Kicking.And.Hitting. he names of the two bullies are being withheld because they are minors. 

And as for the school, well it's the same old song and dance. They say that action will be taken, that action has been taken, but that they can't comment on it.

How about commenting on the fact that the principal knew of at least two different occasions when Tyler Wilson was attacked, yet he didn't bother to pick up a phone and call Kristy Wilson?

Assistant Superintendent Craig Kupferberg said: "Glenwood Middle School has taken steps to help resolve the situation between the boys. Any kind of bullying -- physical, cyber, we're constantly trying to help students work through these situations or prevent these situations."

The school just gives up, citing programs and policies that are ineffectual at best because no one bothers to follow them.

Tyler Wilson, though, will not give up. Even with his arm in a sling, he is still cheering.
"In the last game of season my son is cheering against his team. Tyler plans on showing up, and the cheer parents volunteered to act as a security detail," Kristy Wilson said. "The only thing that Tyler has said, he is sad because people can't accept him for who he is."

According to Wilson male cheerleaders from high school and colleges across the country have reached out to Tyler to lend their support, and tell him not to give up something he loves. 

Nor should he. 

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Just For Giggles

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Architecture Wednesday

Everyone seems to think "bigger is better" is best and, well, maybe so, in some ways, I guess, but not necessarily in houses.

Case if point: A new modernist box, perched on a bluff overlooking Lake Superior in Bayfield, Wisconsin.

Architect Bill Yudchitz used simple lines and building materials such as Baltic birch plywood to create what is being called an EDGE home; EDGE stands for Experimental Dwelling for a Greener Environment.

Yudchitz. modular design has 320 square feet of well-crafted space on the first floor, plus two 80-square-foot balconies for sleeping.

Yudchitz says the EDGE would sell well in Europe, where many people live in small quarters, but he's not convinced many Americans would embrace it. He's also not convinced they'll pay more for a green home.

And the EDGE is seriously green. It has triple-pane windows, super-insulated walls and roof, geothermal heating and cooling, rainwater harvesting and a heat recovery ventilator. Its huge, louvered doors are designed to help insulate the home, and its sleek wood furniture converts from a sofa to a table to a bed.

Yeah, in America, that might not fly, but it sure is cool.

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....And Again......

Just two days ago, while writing the story of the hate messages left on Billy Luca's Memorial page--Lucas was a young man who killed himself after years of being bullied in school--I mentioned a young man in California, who was on life support after hanging himself rather than face one more day of taunts and jabs and shoves and name-calling.

When I posted that story [HERE] that young man didn't have a name, but now he does.

It's Seth Walsh. And we know that's his name because he died today, after nine days on life support. Another notch in the belt of the bullies who run rampant through our schools. And another blackmark against teachers and school administrators who do nothing about bullying, who do nothing to help these kids.

Out in Tehachapi, California, where Seth Walsh lived and died, police investigators are interviewing some of the young people who taunted Seth the day he hanged himself, though the police say that the actions of these bullies do not constitute a crime. Even though their actions caused a young boy to take his life.

Jeff Kermode, Tehachapi Police Chief, said, "Several of the kids that we talked to broke down into tears. They had never expected an outcome such as this."  

These morons never suspected that continuous, endless, unchecked bullying and taunting and abuse would cause someone to find a way out by taking their own life?

Kermode also said the students had told investigators they wish they had put a stop to the bullying and not participated in it.

Too late for second thoughts and second chances. Seth Walsh is dead. And he's dead because of the vicious taunts by a bunch of bullies.

While Seth Walsh's friends say he had been bullied for years because he was gay, all the school would offer was the news that they have an anti-bullying policy in place.

Yes, just like we have speed limits, but you have to enforce them. Just saying you're a No Bully school doesn't make it so. Schoolmates said staff at Jacobsen Middle School in Tehachapi offered Seth no protection or guidance. 

Let it be. Let him die.

Not only to these moronic bullies need to be punished for their actions, but so does the school. You can't just spout that you have a policy and then let it go unchecked. You can't keep saying that this is what kids do.

This isn't what kids should do. They should be learning and playing and growing. Not spending nine days on life support and then dying because you couldn't take one more day.

This has to stop.
 
 
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Oak Reed Should Be King

Oakley Reed, his friends call him Oak, is a seventeen-year-old senior at Mona Shore High School in Muskegon, Michigan who was voted by his fellow classmates to be this year's Homecoming King.

But Oak won't be wearing the crown at the dance because he is a transgendered student who is still enrolled at the school as a female--he plans on having gender reassignment surgery after turning eighteen--and, according to the principal, he couldn't fulfill his "King-ly" duties because he is a girl .

Now, Oak being transgendered wasn't new, and wasn't a secret. He says teachers openly referred to him as, well, "him". As a member of the band he was allowed to wear the same tuxedo as the other boys; at graduation he will be wearing the male cap and gown.

Still, no one seemed bothered that Oak Reed wanted to be King. He posted "Vote for me for Homecoming King" on his Facebook page, and his fellow students did exactly that, but then the principal said all the votes for him were invalid because of that one little check mark.

His fellow students, however, are not as narrow-minded as the school principal. They have created their own Facebook group, Oak Is My King, where they have posted a protest video and created designed T-shirts in support of Reed and transgendered rights, which they plan to wear in solidarity this Friday.

These days, with stories of kids being bullied, beaten, and driven to suicide, it's nice to hear of students at a high school who understand and accept their fellow students as they are, without prejudice, or fear, or fists.

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Just For Giggles

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That's Our Nikki: Doing What's Best.....For Nikki Haley

In 2006, Nikki Haley, South Carolina Republican candidate for governor, reported a family income of $40,269, including her husband’s money-losing business. Half of that income went to pay interest on the family’s $289,000 mortgage alone.

Tough times, for sure. But then the foundation arm of Lexington Medical Center, which State Representative Nikki Haley had supported in its fight to open a heart surgery center, came to her financial rescue. And just three years later, Nikki Haley was making more than $100,000 as a fundraiser for the medical center.

Nice job. A nice job that hospital president and chief executive Mike Biediger created specifically for Nikki Haley, despite the fact that Haley had no experience as a fundraiser, and her resume included only accounting positions with a Charlotte firm, and her parents’ clothing company. 

Haley campaign spokesman Rob Godfrey says Nikki Haley did have fundraising experience, but could not, would not, did not provide specifics.

A high-paying job with no experience? Sign me up. Also of note, other than Haley's lack of experience, is that the board of Lexington Medical Center was not given the opportunity to approve her hiring, only chief executive Mike Biediger made that decision. Add that to the fact that Nikki Haley, with no true fundraising experience, was paid 63% more than fundraisers at similarly sized charities.

Again. Nice job. No experience, big paycheck. Records obtained by The State newspaper show that in paying Haley, "Lexington Medical Center Foundation spent seven times more in salaries and overhead than the much-larger foundation at Palmetto Health Richland. Of every $10 the Lexington foundation raised, more than $2 went to pay Haley’s salary."

And while Nikki Haley was at the foundation, it raised thousands of dollars from a pair of payday lending firms that Haley once oversaw on a House business subcommittee. One fellow Republican once ripped Haley, saying she "single-handedly had blocked efforts to regulate the payday lenders that later became large contributors to the Lexington Medical Center Foundation."

It pays to be a friend of Nikki Haley.

Facts:

• Nikki Haley has campaigned for governor, in part, by saying that voters have a right to know how their elected officials make their living.
• Nikki Haley was paid $42,500 by a Columbia engineering firm that does business with the state while she was a state representative.
• Nikki Haley, as a state legislator, regulated payday lenders, then used payday lenders to help the Lexington Medical Center Foundation raise money.
• Nikki Haley's salary at Lexington Medical was 23% of the $482,000 gathered in contributions, while competing medical center Palmetto Health pays just 6% of it's contributions in salaries.
• Nikki Haley accepted a $500 contribution from payday lender, Check Into Cash in 2007, one of at least three donations totaling $1,750 that year from payday lenders.
• Nikki Haley received at least four other campaign donations totaling $4,000 from payday lenders and their trade associations in 2008. And it was in 2008, that then-state Sen. John Hawkins blamed Nikki Haley for the failure of a bill to reform state regulation of payday lenders.

Last fact: Nikki Haley is wrong for South Carolina.

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....And Again.....

Last week Asher Brown was in the eight grade, but he'll never make it to the ninth. He shot himself in the head last week, seeking what he thought was his only refuge from the endless taunts and bullying he endured in school.

In school. Where he should have been learning, and laughing and playing and growing.

Not any more.

And all because of the daily harassment he suffered at the hands of four students at Hamilton Middle School in Houston.

His family says Asher was "bullied to death" because he was a small kid, because of his religion, because he didn't wear the cool clothes, and because people assumed he was gay. His mother and stepfather, David and Amy Truong, say the bullying went as far as other students "performing mock gay acts on him in his physical education class."

Asher Brown's parents said that they had complained time and again, over the course of eighteen months, to school officials about their son's abuse, but that nothing was ever done. Amy Truong made numerous phone calls to the school, but they were never returned.

School officials say they never received a single complaint from Asher Brown's parents before the suicide, and district spokeswoman Kelli Durham said no students, school employees or the boy's parents ever reported that he was being bullied.

Now who's being bullied? The Truong's are outraged because they say the school,  and the district, are simply protecting themselves, and the bullies, rather than protecting Asher Brown when they had the chance. 

Amy Truong: "That's absolutely inaccurate — it's completely false. I did not hallucinate phone calls to counselors and assistant principals. We have no reason to make this up. … It's like they're calling us liars."

And the Truongs aren't the only ones complaining. The website of KRIV-TV, which aired a report of Asher Brown's suicide, has been inundated with comments from parents and students saying that Asher had been bullied by classmates for several years.

One of the last things Asher Brown said, on the day he died, was to tell his stepfather that he was gay. And his father said that was okay.

You want to see progress in America for the LGBT community? See the end of DADT? The end of DOMA? Marriage equality? Simple equality? I wanna see an America where kids don't kill themselves because they're bullied and tormented for being short, or have red hair, or wear glasses, or dress funny, or have accents, or might be gay, or are gay, or...or...or....

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Musings

Big weather changes in Smallville. The heat of summer has been replaced by the coolness of fall almost overnight. We were in the high 90s last week, and have spent the last couple of days in the rainy wet 70s. Dare I say it, but summer is truly over.

Carlos was doing outreach over the weekend at a local Catholic Church. Do not get me started on the idea that a Catholic church in South Carolina would let someone hand out information on HIV prevention and protection at a church. That is, as Rachel Zoe might say, Major. But then they asked Carlos to make his announcement that he would be outside after Mass from the pulpit. Yes, dear readers, My Little Homo spoke at a Catholic Mass. Now, apparently, I must call him Padre Carlitos, though I'm leaning more towards Sister Carlotta.

Is man-massage loving, meth-head, former mega-church pastor, ex-gay....tee hee, it's funny because it's not possible....Ted Haggard rushing to the defense of accused sexual predator Bishop Eddie Long because he truly believes Long is innocent, or because he wants to get on the Eddie Long in Pink Muscle T's mailing list?
That's a rhetorical question.

Let's check America's collective short-term memory. Y'all remember back when Bill Clinton was president and the GOP painted him as the most evil of evils? Like they're doing to Obama now? Okay, good. Well, do y'all remember serial adulterer Newt Gingrich and his "Contract With America"--that list of all the things the GOP would do if we voted them control of the House? Nice. So, then, you must remember, that many people voted to give the GOP control and suddenly we heard no more of the "Contract With America". And now, they're trying the same thing with the "Pledge To America." You really think they'll follow through on it? I mean, they didn't follow through the last time, but, okay, you wanna believe it, go ahead. But make sure you realize that the writer of the GOP's "Pledge To America" is a lobbyist for AIG and Exxon and Pfizer, among others. So, does that seem like the GOP has the best interests of America at heart, or the best interests of big business?

Lohan. Yeah, back in jail for a hot minute and out on bail. Barely. There is talk that Lohan was so strapped for cash that she almost couldn't post bail, which might have been the best thing for her. And then comes the news that Lindsay would voluntarily check herself into rehab; fifth time's the charm. Or is it the sixth? But instead of going into rehab she makes a highly publicized trip to an LA mission and hands out purses to some of the girls there. Lindsay? Honey? I know we've had our issues, but seriously, a trip to a mission doesn't make you Mother Terese, it makes you a self-entitled drug addict looking for good press in the hopes that, come October 22nd, the judge doesn't send your ass back to jail. Sad, but true.

I caught a couple of episodes of LOGO's new show, Gossip Queens. Not so heavy on the gossip, and not so much fun with the queens. If you wanna see real gossip and real queens, check out Joan Rivers on E's Fashion Police. Now that's gossipy and funny!

Just For Giggles

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A Win Against DADT

A DADT smackdown, even after the repeal of the homophobic policy failed in Congress last week.

In Washington state, a federal judge has ruled that Major Margaret Witt, a decorated flight nurse discharged from the Air Force for being gay, must be allowed to return to service as soon as possible.

Witt was first suspended in 2004 and then discharged under DADT after the Air Force learned she had been in a long-term relationship with a civilian woman, and Witt immediately set about suing to get her job back.

U.S. District Judge Ronald Leighton: "Today you have won a victory in that struggle, the depth and duration of which will be determined by other judicial officers and hopefully soon the political branches of government."

Judge Leighton's ruling marks the second smackdown of DADT in as many weeks. Recently, a federal judge in California ruled the law unconstitutional and is considering whether to immediately halt the ban. This kind of injunction will instantly halt any dismissals of gay servicemen and women, but it does nothing for the 13,000+ who've already been discharged because of their sexual orientation.

Gay rights advocates see Leighton's ruling as a death knell for the policy, because they believe the government must now justify each and every discharge under DADT.

The Justice Department has yet to comment on the ruling, but James Lobsenz, Witt's attorney, said he expected an appeal. And the Leighton ruling is somewhat of a surprise, considering that back in 2006, he rejected Margaret Witt's claim that the Air Force violated her rights, following precedent that the military policy on gays is constitutional. 

But then an appeals court panel overruled his ruling two years later, determining that DADT does in fact intrude on the constitutional rights of gay service members; that panel said that, for the government to discharge gays, it must prove that their firings further military goals.

Armed with this new ruling, Leighton decided that Margaret Witt's discharge "advanced no legitimate military interest"and, instead, hurt morale within her unit and weakened the squadron's ability to carry out its mission: "There is no evidence that wounded troops care about the sexual orientation of the flight nurse or medical technician tending to their wounds."

Nor should there be.

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Even In Death

A thirteen-year-old boy in Tehachapi, California tried to kill himself last week because he was being bullied for being gay. He hanged himself from a tree in his yard, and has been on life support since then.

His name is being kept from the news outlets.

He used to attend school, but was placed on independent study this year when it became clear that he could not receive the education he deserved without being taunted and ridiculed and bullied. Why the bullies were allowed to remain in school as though nothing happened, and the victim is removed, has not been explained.
But what it clear is that, while the young man did not attend regular school, thereby safely receiving an education, he was still taunted whenever he went outside, to the local parks or simply walking down the streets.
Police said they are investigating whether the attempted suicide was linked to bullying, but isn't that the norm? Blame the victim, and let the bullies keep on bullying.
District administrators have said they heard no reports of the boy being bullied at school, but they take bullying very seriously and address the issue multiple times throughout the school year.
How about not "addressing" the issue and doing something about it instead. How about making it an offense for which those students guilty of bullying any student for any reason, are the ones who go on independent study? How about protecting the kids at school?
Of course, it isn't just in school, or in the parks, or on the streets, where LGBT youth are being tormented. Some, like Billy Lucas, are being bullied, teased and tortured on the Internet.
Even after they're dead.

I'm sorry, I shouldn't hav [sic] called Billy a fag. Thanks to you all, I now belive [sic] "closet homosexual" to be the correct term. No, the real "fags" are the over9000 people who've crawled like maggots out of the woodwork to support a guy who never had any friends in real life. "OMG! My bff jus died! Brb, gotta go make a Face...book page!" You are the cancer, and you deserve everything you get. Fuck you.

I first wrote about Billy Lucas HERE and was horrified that this is happening again and again. But what is even more disgusting is the hate, homophobia, bullying and torture that has gone on since Billy Lucas hung himself.
A friend had set up a memorial page on Facebook for Billy Lucas, and suddenly it was overrun with homophobic messages and pictures. It was just a small taste of what this young man faced in life.
When do we learn that differences are all right; that differences are not to be taunted and tormented and bullied. We are, each and all of us, different, and one day, those bullies might run out of gay kids, or fat kids, or redheaded kids, to taunt.
Do you think that will stop them?
It won't. Blue eyes might become the next target. Skinny will be the next victim. Bullies need a someone to taunt and torture and humiliate to fill themselves with some warped sense of purpose, so they will always find someone new to victimize.
Even after their victims are dead.

wow this kid is a huge faggot thank god he ended his life... we dont need weak people like him.

Sunday Funnies

I Ain't One To Gossip, But....

It pays to be rich in America.

It seems that serial drug addict--and her own personal drug mule--Paris Hilton has struck a plea deal with the Las Vegas district attorney after her arrest last month for gum, oh, I mean, cocaine, possession.

Paris will plead guilty to two misdemeanors and will serve one year probation, pay a $2,000 fine, and serve 200 hours of community service.

The best way for her to serve the community would be to disappear and never be heard from again.
In the plea agreement, the district attorney states:
"Defendant shall stay out of trouble. Defendant agrees that an arrest for any charge, excluding minor traffic violations for which a citation is issued, shall result in the immediate termination of her probation and the execution of the suspended sentences."
Paris Hilton? Stay out of trouble?
Yeah, that's like asking her to stay off drugs.
Never gonna happen.
It pays to be rich in America.


But not so much in Japan.
Paris Hilton, the 29-year-old drug-mule, drug-addict, fame-whore, after pleading guilty to two misdemeanors in her Las Vegas cocaine case, has been detained in Japan, unable to enter the country due to her drug charges and sentence.

Hilton was set to appear at a news conference in Tokyo to promote her fashion line, but that appearance was canceled. Hilton was forced to cancel her tour and returned home when she was denied entry at Tokyo's airport--running afoul of strict Japanese laws.
"I'm going back home, and I look forward to coming back to Japan in the future," Hilton sniffed, before departing on her private jet.The trip had been planned before Hilton's latest run-in with the law regarding drug use, and her subsequent arrest and guilty plea. The terms of her sentence did not restrict travel overseas, but Japan don't like cokewhores running amok in their streets.
Hilton's publicist, Dawn Miller, said Paris plans to make the trips at a later date: "Paris is very disappointed [that she was caught again with drugs] and fought hard to keep her business commitments [and drug buys] and see her fans [and dealers], but she is forced to postpone her commitments in Asia. Paris understands and respects the rules and laws of the immigration authorities in Japan and fully wishes to cooperate with them [and has trashed a hotel, a private plane, and every drug-infused restroom at the airport]."
We could learn a lesson from Japan.


Apparently, Queen of Soul, Aretha Franklin, wants to make a movie of her life story, and has already announced it to the press, and cast it as well.

According to Franklin, Halle Berry would portray her younger self--though Aretha has named no one to play her older, um, larger, self. Denzel Washington would take the role of her father, C.L. Franklin, and Terrence Howard would be Smokey Robinson.
Uh huh.
Halle can't sing, Aretha, at least not like you. And I can't see Denzel taking on what amounts to a small part of the whole story. And Terrence Howard? He's on TV now, girl.
But that ain't stopping Miss F. She is claiming that all of the actors are "enthusiastic about the project and have agreed to take on these roles, subject to further negotiation."
I guess when Aretha calls, everybody, and I mean everybody, shows some R-E-S-P-E-C-T.

Ashton Kutcher, who fancies himself quite the Twitterer, and I fancy him quite the twit, may find himself Demi Moore-less because of a far more dated technology.

Texting.

It seems that Kutcher, who may just barley make it to his fifth wedding anniversary with Moore, has been having an affair with 21-year-old Brittney Jones. And Jones, in typical mistress style, has held on to texts that she ALLEGES were sent to her by Ashton. And she has turned over the texts to Star magazine, that bastion of journalistic integrity.

Brittney [to Ashton]: "When's the next time you're gonna have an empty house?"
Ashton [to Brittney]: "Not sure. Maybe the end of the month. I'm w/ my daughter.""
Brittney Jones has already blabbed her story to Star magazine once before, claiming that she and Kutcher had sex on a couch while Demi was filming 'LOL: Laughing Out Loud' with Miley Cyrus.
If true, and I'm not saying it is, or it isn't, I wonder how Demi feels thinking her husband has been cheating on her with a women young enough to be her daughter.


Former Friends star [read: out of work former star] Matt LeBlanc is not a happy man.
Especially if you call him Joey.

LeBlanc says he wants to put his Friends past behind him, and when a reporter for the Uk Mirror accidentally called him Joey, LeBlanc went crazy.
The incident started when the 43-year-old actor[?] clumsily knocked into the reporter's table, sending glasses flying. The reporter jokingly asked, "You all right, Joey? How YOU do-in
LeBlanc, however, was not amused. He ALLEGEDLY raged, "I'm not Joey.... Don't you dare call me Joey.... The papers say I'm finished, so don't call me f**king Joey.... I want to leave that all behind. I'm moving on.....I'm not Joey....For the last time. I'm not f**king Joey.... It's Matt.... Matt LeBlanc.... Joey's in the past. I'm trying to do something new."
Whatever you say..........................Joey.

File this under: Too Bad, So Sad.

It seems that the company that built all of Mel Gibson's properties in Malibu, including his three residences and his own personal Tres Catholique church, are suing the Anti-Semite-Alcoholic-Batterer-Homophobe-Misogynist because he ALLEGEDLY owes them money.
And, if they win their lawsuit, Melvin will be facing foreclosure.
The first suit claims that Melvin Gibson owes Ramage Construction over $12,000 for work done on the three residences, while the second claims he owes some $200,000 on the church.
Churches are expensive, which is why i never built one at Chez Smallville.
Anyway, according to the terms of the lawsuit, Melvin can either cough up the cash he owes, or the company will ask for permission to foreclose.
Oh, the humanity.
Smirk.

Uh oh.
Does SJP know about this?
It seems that Mr Big, AKA Chris Noth, has some thoughts about the future of the Sex & The City franchise and it looks mighty bleak.

He says that Sex is dead, and the New York magazine killed it, and he gladly told that to a reporter from the magazine.
Huh? What? Huh?
Noth:
“It’s over. The franchise is dead. The press killed it. Your magazine fucking killed it. New York Magazine. It’s like all the critics got together and said, ‘This franchise must die.’ Because they all had the exact same review. It’s like they didn’t see the movie. Got any more gum?”
Um. Rather than gum, howsabout a Valium, because some one's a little peeved.
Magazines don't kill movies. Movies die because audiences don't go see them because sometimes a movie with a 2 after it is really just the same as the first movie, only, maybe, in the desert somewhere.

Just For Giggles

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That's Our Nikki: When The Truth Hurts, She Resorts To Lies

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The Republican and Democrat candidates for South Carolina governor have gone on the attack, with Nikki Haley and Vincent Sheheen both releasing new television ads.
Democrat Sheheen's ad has several different voters talking about contradictions between what Republican Nikki Haley has said and what she's done.

• "She says she's for transparency," says one person in the Sheheen ad, followed by another saying, "But Nikki Haley hid a $40,000 contract that she got because of her connections."
  Is that true? According to the tax records that Haley released and the statement of economic interest forms she filed with the State Ethics Commission, she did initially fail to report $42,500 she earned doing consulting work for Wilbur Smith Associates, a transportation and infrastructure consulting firm.
• The next part of the ad has citizens saying, "She claims to be a fiscal conservative...But she wants to put a tax on our groceries."
  That's also accurate. On August 11th, Haley told reporters that she thought it was a mistake when the state removed the sales tax on groceries three years ago.
  "It looked good. It felt good. It didn't create the first job. Not the first job. So we have to turn around and look and say what was a good idea one year is not a good idea as we go forward," she said.
• Finally, the Sheheen ad says, "Nikki Haley boasts about her accounting skills...But she got fined for failing to pay her own taxes."
  That's also true. She was fined several thousand dollars for paying her personal income taxes late several years. Her family's business, for which she was the accountant, also had tax liens put on it three times for failing to pay taxes on time.

As for Nikki Haley's attacks on Vincent Sheheen:

• Haley's ad attacks Sheheen by saying, "He's a liberal who backs the Obama spending and health care disasters."
  As proof of that claim, the Haley campaign's documentation is that Sheheen put out a press release on April 16, 2009, which read, "State Senator Vincent Sheheen (D-Camden) announced his plan to end the stimulus standoff has earned the support of two Republicans in the State Senate. Senators Luke Rankin (R-Myrtle Beach) and Jake Knotts (R-Lexington) have signed onto the legislation that would require Gov. Mark Sanford to accept stimulus dollars for education and public safety. 'I'm grateful to have the support of my colleagues for this common sense plan to make sure our tax dollars are spent here at home and not in some other state,' said Sheheen."
• The Haley ad then says, "He's a big spending Columbia politician who supports a legislative slush fund that wastes our money on his pet projects."
  The Haley campaign says the "slush fund" is the competitive grants program, which was called a slush fund by the editorial board of The State newspaper. However, the competitive grants program was eliminated by lawmakers, so while he might have supported it in the past, it's inaccurate to say he "supports" it now, since it no longer exists.
  Haley's supporting documentation says, "Haley said the fund--used to pay for pet projects in lawmakers' districts such as community festivals--is 'an example of how government tries to be all things to all people and this is not a responsible way to spend tax dollars.'"
  But Nikki Haley also supported the "slush fund", requesting herself or supporting requests for 15 projects between 2006 and 2008. And while she criticizes Sheheen for funding "pet projects...such as community festivals", she requested $90,000 for the Lexington FunFest in 2006 and another $25,000 for that festival in 2007.
  Nikki Haley's requests from the "slush fund" total more than $463,000.
• And finally, Nikki Haley's ad says, "He's a trial lawyer who's against stopping runaway lawsuits that destroy jobs."
  It is true that Sheheen is a trial lawyer. But he voted to stop "runaway lawsuits that destroy jobs." The Senate Journal from March 8, 2005 shows that Sheheen voted in favor of a tort reform bill.

That's our Nikki.
When the truth hurts, she resorts to lies.
Nikki Haley is wrong for South Carolina.

PR8EP9: High Fashion, Low Taste



Well, after the debacle of the Jackie Oh No You Di'in't challenge, I'm left wondering if anyone--other than Andy and Mondo--is worthy of hitting the tents.

A new days dawns and Gretchen ad libs Reality Show Quip # 319: With no insert name here  [she used Michael Drummond] it now makes this a competition

Yeah, the first eight weeks were playtime, and now it's time to get crackin'--another of Gretchen's "got-to" words, like "design school project" and "replicator". And "bitch." Oh wait, that's me.

CHALLENGE

Create a high fashion look to promote L'Oreal eye shadows, and the winner's creation will be featured in a Marie Claire advertorial, and they will receive $20,000. Mouths open, but there are no words. They will also have $300 and two days to create their looks.

Mouths open again later, but for a much different reason.

Tim shocks them with the news that they must create a Ready-To-Wear [RTW] companion piece to go along with their couture design, and they will have $100 and no extra time whatsoever. Luckily Tim comes with security, because I could have sworn I saw Ivy reaching for the pinking shears.

Let's rip.....

Christopher

Chris' eyeshadow of choice, and I'm not talking personally here, was the crystal collection, but he didn't take it literally and go all beaded and rhinestones on his look. And I think that may have helped him.

His couture piece was, I thought, kind of a mish-mash. The Cher-inspired nude top with the lace appliques was one thing, but then the covered up right breast and the ruffled sleeve detail were another. Throw in some chiffon hips, which make her look like a wide fluffy cloud, and add some lavender schmootz at the bottom and I just didn't get it. The right breast, the left breast, the shoulder poof, the billowy hips, all seemed to come from five different dresses, and didn't work together at all.

His RTW was totally him.

It was sleek and elegant and, well, for me it seemed a little like a throwaway, because there wasn't a lot of time--no extra time, in fact--to devote to it.

But I am worried about Christopher as the weeks go on. With each week there are clear winners emerging, and clear losers, and clear Middle-Of-The-Road designers. And I think Chris is MOR, and I want mor-e, from him.

I am waiting, week after week, for Chris to do something wonderful, and he always seems to miss the mark.

But, who am I to judge, Christopher got a pass.

April

While every one else in the workroom was thrilled to have a two-day challenge, April was the only one who got to work; making her the only one who wasn't utterly stricken with fear [Yeah, I'm looking at you, Ivy] when Tim added the second dress.

That said, April has become the gal for shorts and sheers and black. I understand that's her style, but as a designer she should realize her audience might want a little variety.
And maybe a dress!

Her couture piece wasn't couture enough in my mind, because when I think couture I think over-the-top, and this was very cool and sexy, and very April, but just shy of Wow!

Still, April's RTW piece was the only one of any of the outfits that had true detail and design and workmanship. It wasn't just a simple, tight, throwaway dress [Mondo? Chris? Andy?] and it wasn't hideously awful with no connection to the couture outfit [Gretchen? Ivy? Val?] and it wasn't just a shortened version of the couture piece [Michael?]..

It seemed to compliment her couture piece and that was the challenge. 

I'm thinking of adding April to my list of tent showers, along with Andy and Mondo. I think those three are the ones who have a fashion forward aesthetic and are true to themselves week-after-week. I mean, remember, April defended her diaper pants.

But it was only good enough to get her a pass.

Michael

He is still the whippin' boy of the bitches, although Val and Ivy were so god-awful at time management, and so far behind, that they mostly kept quiet. Which allowed Gretchen to fill in with her usual snark. Michael C is a replicator. Heard that one before, Gretchen.

But then Gretchen really goes off the deep-end because she discovers that Michael is using the same color for his dress as she is using in parts of her dress.

The dreaded Bordeaux.

Gretchen, whom we are lead to believe, was the inventor of the color Bordeaux, is insulted that Michael would use it use it without the expressed permission and written consent of the House Of Gretchen.

She says she isn't threatened by him--though she bashes him almost as much as she praises herself--but says he "crossed a boundary."A Bordeaux boundary.

What Michael crossed was the line between couture chic and costume. His dress, and the Bordeaux is not a good color, especially that much, went to far over-the-top and down the road. It had a train that Amtrak could use, and a wired hemline that swooped and swirled. But he got props for his construction and tailoring.

His RTW creation he dubbed the Mini-me versions of his high fashion design, and it did look good. But again, that color. It needed something else; some other color, some other detail.

Or he could have been derailed. 

But he got a save because, well, Ivy and Val are horrid designers.

Val

She got the breakdown edit. A tearful fit in the bathroom with Gretchen and Ivy to comfort her, and then trash her off-camera.

I'm missing Val's aesthetic. Her designs started out good; that Marie Claire red dress is still one of my favorites. But she gets stuck on adding odd details like zippers and pleats, and one-winged angel crystals. She's been going cray-cray, acting cray-cray, saying cray-cray.

At one point, she tells us it's time to stop talking and focus, and I couldn't agree more. While I like her so much better, oh so much better, than Ivy, I seem to find myself shrieking at the TV whenever she appears, Shut up? And stop talking in questions all the time? 

Her couture look is a cross between wedding and ice skater one-winged angel. It doesn't say high fashion as much as it says, Get me off the runway and hide me away forever. The judges don't like the idea of her trying to create structure with silk; Kors compares it to making a winter coat from Kleenex.

Don't give her any ideas Michael.

The RTW dress was just sick. Not good sick, but Calling-for-your-Mama-to-take-your-puke-bucket-from-beside-the-bed-because-it's-full sick. The neckline unintentionally sloped, and Val thought hot gluing three crystals down the front would say Crystal Challenge.

Instead, it says Crystal Meth Is Bad.

Val barely gets a pass. In fact, she was so sure she'd be going that she offered to leave instead of Ivy. luckily, that isn't allowed, since i know Ivy would have taken her up on the offer.

Ivy

What a mess. And since she didn't get The Bitch Edit, I almost felt sorry for her. But, in the end I felt sorry for me for having to look at the "creations" she sent down the runway.

From the start, she was behind the gun and making bad decisions. She decided to forgo her usual palette of muted colors like, well, white and cream, and went for the Cobalt Blue.

What is with this crop of designers and their affection for Bordeaux and Cobalt Blue? Seriously? Were they not listening to Kors a couple of weeks back about Cobalt Blue?

But then Ivy takes that blue and started cutting ribbons of it to make waves on her dress, and more ribbons to make water crashing. Tim literally winced when she told him about the waves.

You should have listened to The Wince, Ivy. the Wince is always right.

Her couture piece was a D-I-saster. The top was crooked, and had two-toned stripes on in; the strips continued down part of the front, but completely filled the back to make it look like the dress was half-finished.

Oh, it was finished all right.

And her RTW piece was equally bad. The same misshapened neckline--Why she didn't say that was part of the design, to redeem herself, I'll never know.

Probably because nothing could redeem ill-fitting, poorly made, Cobalt Blue ribbons. 

Ivy was Auf'd, and I did a jig around the living room.

Gretchen

Really? What is with her?
I mean, she trash talks nearly everyone on the show--including her so-called friends--at the same time she heaps congratulations upon herself.
There's confidence...then arrogance....then bitch.....then Gretchen.
And I seriously hope she doesn't win PR, because I think her head has a better, more profitable, future as a float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade.

Picture it: Gretchen's head attached to ropes, and a bunch of little men maneuvering it down Broadway. Fab-u-lous.

And that big head was evident when Tim gave them the challenge, and warned them that velvet is a difficult fabric, Gretchen makes the bold move to choose it.

And then she proceeds to make some sort of hybrid between a Cher Half Breed costume and a castoff of one of Mrs. Roper's caftans from Three's Company. it's like a bathrobe for a drag queen, only nowhere near as fantastic.

And when Tim Gunn says it looks like a robe, well, pay attention.

Her RTW piece is stupid; that's the only word for it. it has a long blouse thing, that hangs down to her knees in the back, and then the skirt looks like a half a skirt, with no back panel. So when the model walks, it flies open up to her bony hip.

But she gets a Top Three for these mistakes. I don't get it. Her aesthetic is billowy boring, dowdy drab, and feathery fuck-ups.

Andy

I like Andy.
He has a very strong viewpoint, and whether you like it or not, he stays true to it. His designs are always wild wacky and wonderful; and I'm including his Jackie OMG cargo pants in that. While they weren't Jackie O, they were very cool, and very Andy.

His couture piece was warrior, and wow. He had the metallic eye shadows, and used some very metallic looking fabrics, and created these pleated pieces for the top. He also made these pants that slip over shoes, and look like boots, ,and a fabulous headpiece RuPaul would die for.

His look stayed to to his Asian aesthetic, but it was still very modern, and very high fashion. All of the judges liked his designs, except Heidi, who liked the Ready-to-wear, but not the couture piece; I don't think it was T'n'A enough for her.

Heidi is all about the T, and the A. I'm sure you all remember the dress she wore to this year's Emmys, and the fact that you could almost see her, um, A.

And as for that RTW dress. Well, it was nice, but it was a simple, basic dress. Nothing interesting, although his use of the metallic fabric insets was nice. I seriously think the designers were so thrown off by the addition of the second piece that they all--except for April--just stapled something together at the last minute.

Andy got the Second Place finish for his designs, but in Smallville, I gave him a First Place for his description of Val's Ready-to-wear piece:
I saw Val's second dress....and it's............................black.

That's all.

Mondo

Once again, Mondo wins.

And for staying Mondo and picking an eyeshadow [Bright] and fabrics he likes, and creating a vision for the entire look. He thought of a kaleidoscope, and used colored striped fabrics running this way and that to mimic a kaleidoscope.

And it worked.

It looked like a cross between Wild West madam and futuristic ball gown, and this time, that's a good thing. It was bustier and bustle, and the judges loved it. Kors scared me for a moment when he said the back looked like a Kentucky Derby winning ribbon, but then he said it was fantastic and dreamy. And Nina gave Mondo props for staying true to his love of color, and wild design, and wackadoo fabrics.

And for the hat he created at the last minute.

And, while Mondo's RTW dress was also simple, and seemed like an after thought, he explained how the lack of color--just black and white--made it a true companion to his more colorful piece. And Kors loved how it would make the wearer look thin; in fact he was so enamored, I started to picture him parading around Chez Kors on that dress and I nearly had to gouge out my eyes.

And, of course, to top it off, while the other designers wanted the $20,000 win to pay off bills, and April wanted to buy a miniature pony, Mondo wanted drinking money.

I could see that.

And I could see having a drink with him, too.

So, what have we learned.

It's good to see Ivy go.

Val will be next because she's losing herself in trying to do so much.

Christopher needs to step it up. Safe doesn't win at the tents.

Michael C is a good designer, but he makes a better whipping boy for Gretchen.

Gretchen is blah. She may call it bohemian, but I call it blahemian.

April is coming up. I can see her at the tents, though I worry about the all-black.

Andy. Always liked him; love his style.

Mondo is the Little Pocket Gay That Could.

And, I hope, does.