News

Roey Hershkovitz: Lisa Loeb Husband

2009-09-03T13:23:00.000-07:00

roey hershkovitz

This week, singer Lisa Loeb announced that she and her husband, Roey Hershkovitz, are expecting their first child. Read more, and see photos and video here.

They met during a business-related meeting, and were engaged back in 2008. The couple married at the beginning of 2009 in New York City, and now, about seven months later, they have a baby on the way. Loeb is musician who is most well known for the song Stay (I Miss You).

Information for Roey Hershkovitz’ biography is relatively scarce. We know that he is a music coordinator for Late Night With Conan O’Brien. He also worked as the music production supervisor for a number of episodes in 2009 so far. Prior to this year, he was the music coordinator for nearly 500 Conan episodes from 2006-2009. He also worked as a producer on a few episodes of The Office, and has even created a pilot for a cooking show.

Outside of the television business, he actually did some voice acting work for the video game Grand Theft Auto IV, and Grand Theft Auto San Andreas. According to IMDB, Hershkovitz was the voice of a “Hasidic Pedestrian,” a “Subway Announcer,” and “Various” others. In GTA: San Andreas, he played the voice of a person calling into one of the radio stations that you can tune into as you drive in the game.

Lisa Leob and her hubby should be welcoming their baby sometime in 2010.

Ashley Dupre Slams Judgmental Women in Blog, Asks for Second Chance

2009-09-03T13:20:00.000-07:00

ashley dupre

NEW YORK — The high-paid escort who notoriously romped with disgraced ex-Gov. Eliot Spitzer has a message to New York ladies: You're no better than me!

"Get real and get over yourself," Ashley Dupre bluntly tells all the women out there who "just love to judge."

Dupre, responding to a front-page Post exclusive about Spitzer contemplating a return to office, said she is tired of people looking down on her.

"Let me say this — most girls, to varying degrees, of course, want to be pampered and have nice shoes, designer handbags and gorgeous clothes," Dupre, 24, writes in a blog post on hip-hop impresario Russell Simmons' Global Grind Web site.

"I know many women who target guys with money and use them to get these things. They toy with them, flirt, go on dates, have sex and then drop hints about that new dress . . . or being short on rent money — and the guys deliver it."

Oudin Stuns Dementieva

2009-09-03T13:17:00.000-07:00

oudin

If you considered only Melanie Oudin’s age (17), size (she’s 5-foot-6), and lack of experience, she brought almost no obvious ammunition to her second-round United States Open match against No. 4 Elena Dementieva on Thursday. Her game has drawn sneers from other players who say she has no major weapons.

What Oudin did bring to Arthur Ashe Stadium, however, was an unquantifiable toughness and pulled off the biggest upset of the Open so far, topping Dementieva, 5-7, 6-4, 6-3, in front of an electrified crowd rooting for an American success story. Oudin accomplished this despite an injured left thigh that required medical attention in the third set and was so painful it brought her to tears at one point.

“When I play with no fear, that’s when I play my best,” Oudin said. “I just try to play my game and not worry about anything else.”

It is no coincidence that Oudin’s hero is Justine Henin, the similarly tiny player from Belgium who was the world’s No. 1 player before she retired despite all the same knocks against her game and stature. “She proved you don’t have to be six-foot-something to win,” Oudin said. “She figures out a way to take down these players who could overpower her with her variety and her shots.”

Oudin, ranked No. 70, seemed unfazed by her surroundings and the strength of her opponent. She covered the court masterfully and dictated play, despite the strain in her quadriceps muscle. She took advantage of openings Dementieva gave her with a faltering serve. She pumped her fists and seemed to grow stronger mentally as the match progressed and the crowd matched her intensity with its fervor.

“I feel she had a very good attitude today in the court,” Dementieva said graciously after the match. “She was really using all the positive emotions from the crowd. She was really into the game and, you know, really playing at her best today.”

It was an even more unlikely upset because of all the highly ranked players chasing their first major, Oudin drew the one who seems to be getting her act together. Dementieva has reached the semifinals of four of the past five Grand Slams, including last year’s United States Open. And she got what she felt was a breakthrough victory at the Olympics last summer. In the two Slams this year, she ran into Serena Williams on Williams’s way to winning the title at the Australian Open and Wimbledon.

She warmed up for this tournament by winning the tournament in Toronto, beating Maria Sharapova in the final after toppling Serena Williams in the semifinal. But that final also showcased the one major weakness in Dementieva’s game: her serve. She and Sharapova, another notoriously bad server, combined for 17 double-faults. Heading into the Open, Dementieva was averaging 5.4 double faults a match.

But Dementieva said she did not believe any of that, good or bad, carried over to the Open. “It’s all new here,” she said before the match. “It’s a new challenge.”

Dementieva, who had never played Oudin, seemed to take control of the match early, breaking Oudin’s serve immediately and seeming to establish her game. But her serve started to wobble and Oudin collected two breaks of serve in the middle of the set to pull even at 5-5. From there, though, Dementieva steadied herself and closed out the last two games.

But Oudin did not falter, quickly gaining an upper hand in the second set and pouncing on every opportunity Dementieva offered her. Dementieva double-faulted to give Oudin a break point and although Oudin did not covert that one, she got another and crushed a forehand winner to take a 3-1 lead in the set. She broke Dementieva again in the final game of the set to push herself into a dramatic third with the Ashe Stadium crowd roaring its approval for the up-and-coming American star.

Oudin quickly took a 2-0 lead in the third, but then dumped a forehand into the net to get broken in the next game. That’s when Oudin, who has played her first two matches here with tape around her left thigh, called for the trainers, who adjusted the tape and added more.

In the next game, Oudin faltered on her leg after one point and her hand flew to her face as she wiped away tears. Still, she broke Dementieva’s serve in that game with Dementieva losing the grip on her game and spraying errors into the net and long.

Dementieva’s inability to hold serve — and Oudin’s mental toughness — was her undoing. Oudin closed out the match win a service winner and threw her arms to the sky.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Oudin said. “The whole thing was just amazing.”

It was the biggest win of Oudin’s young career, which already includes an attention-grabbing victory over No. 5 Jelena Jankovic in the third round of Wimbledon, 6-7 (8), 7-5, 6-2. but even after that victory, Jankovic had sniffed at Oudin’s talent.

“She can play if you let her play,” Jankovic said. “But she cannot hurt you with anything. She doesn’t have any weapons, you know, from what I have seen.”

Oudin, though, is clearly not intimidated by the world’s top players. She advanced to this match with an easy first-round victory over Anastasia Pavlyuchenkova of Russia, 6-1, 6-2, which left her plenty of energy to battle Dementieva and was clearly the better player in this match. Oudin had 30 winners to Dementieva’s 22.

In contrast to Jankovic, Dementieva had nothing but kind words for Oudin’s game.

“I think she moves really well,” Dementieva said. “The footwork is really great. She was really fighting for every point, playing everything back. She’s very patient on the court. She knows what is her strength. She’s just waiting for the moment to attack the ball.”

Oudin’s match drew so much interest that it shoved Dinara Safina, the No. 1 seed, over to Armstrong Stadium.

It was a different court and a different opponent on a different day, but for Safina, the battle in her second round United States Open match against Kristina Barrois of Germany Thursday afternoon was the same as always. That battle happened less on the Armstrong Stadium court and more inside Safina’s own mind.

Safina, the world’s No. 1 player, grimaced and agonized and double-faulted on key points, but pulled herself together in time to win, 6-7 (5), 6-2, 6-3, over Barrois. It was only one game shorter than Safina’s similarly agonizing first-round victory and it held all the same displays of Safina’s vulnerabilities. She seems to carry the No. 1 ranking — earned despite never winning a Grand Slam tournament — like a weight on her shoulders.

But again, she persevered not only over Barrois but over herself. Her body language was somewhat improved over her first-round escape against Olivia Rogowska of Australia. The yelling and grimacing remained but Safina did avoid constantly looking at her coach, the notoriously dour Zeljko Krajan, which only seemed to send her spirits plummeting even more.

On Thursday, Safina managed to keep her focus on the court, where she had enough problems to deal with, most notably with her serve.

After the struggle against Rogowska, who would have beaten Safina had she not committed an astounding 65 unforced errors, Safina vowed to move forward. But she quickly found herself stuck in the same rut. Safina double-faulted on the first point of the match, failed to close out the first set despite several opportunities and then when she found herself down, 5-6, in the tiebreaker, double-faulted again to lose the set.

It was an exact replay of how she lost the first set to Rogowska. Her serves on that double-fault against Barrois went a feeble 75 miles an hour, followed by a second serve at 74, a clear indication her nerves were getting the best of her.

But again, Safina found some rhythm in the second set and won it easily. Then she fell into another hole, dropping the first two games when she got a gift back from Barrois, who double faulted on break point to give Safina the opening she needed.

Still, Safina being Safina, there was drama ahead. Leading, 4-3, and seemingly looking calmer, Safina fell to 0-40 on her serve. That’s when Barrois helped her again with a flurry of errors, a bounce over the net cord for Safina and a final triumph after three deuces.

Safina closed it out and pumped her fist, living to battle herself another day.

The Barbi Twins

2009-09-03T13:14:00.000-07:00

barbi twins

Just what are the Barbi Twins famous for?

Well, apart from the four obvious points that stand out to make the Barbi Twins famous that is?

As they themselves describe their activities:

Shane and Sia, the Barbi Twins, are international celebrity models turned celebrity health spokeswomen turned animal activists.

Your humble reporter is not quite so sure about the "celebrity models" part. Back where he came from this sort of modeling was called "glamour" modeling: to distinguish modeling with few or no clothes on from modeling of clothes. The modeling of what is usually beneath the clothes as opposed to the clothes themselves as it were.

Such snark aside it is true that the Barbi Twins are in fact real twins, not just playing at being so for the camera. It's said that their mother was a lesbian psychotherapist (that is, such a therapist who has such sexual tastes, not one for those who do) who after leaving their father went on to have a relationship with Dusty Springfield. But it should also be noted that we shouldn't believe all such stories at face value. The Barbi Twins did a Hustler article at one time and then sued over how a great deal of it seemed to be made up rather than factual reporting.

One thing that definitely is true about the Barbi Twins is that they are indeed now animal activists. They have been, for example, huge supporters of the "Restore Our American Mustangs Act"

But Hastings and others with reservations about the bill have three passionate opponents: former Playboy playmates Shane and Sia Barbi (aka "The Barbi Twins") and Amy Nelson, daughter of country superstar Willie Nelson.

"I gotta be honest: I'm very pro-snake. I'm an animal activist," said Shane Barbi. "But these people are snakes in the way that they're trying to disguise themselves as someone that cares about" animals.

Something which, while they do seem passionate about it, doesn't make a huge amount of sense. It's the "Our American" part about the mustangs that doesn't. For the native American horse became extinct some 10,000 years ago (there are still arguments over whether it was climate or that the first inhabitants of the continent ate them) and all horses in the US now are descendants of those from Asia or Europe over the last four centuries. Mustangs are usually held to be descended from horses which escaped from the early Spanish colonialists.

Still, if that's what the Barbi Twins want to agitate for good luck to them: modelling careers don't go on forever and you've got to find something to occupy your time after 20 years of taking your clothes off.

Halftime show to feature unique performance

2009-09-03T13:11:00.000-07:00

unique performance

Brian Hawkins/SDN side, members of the Starkville-based grassroots country band Nash Street — from left, Clay Lezon on guitar, Caroline Melby on mandolin, Hannah Melby on fiddle and Daniel Hare on bass — do a sound check before running through their planned halftime performance with 330-member Famous Maroon Band set for Saturday’s Mississippi State-Jackson State football game at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.

Mississippi State and Jackson State football fans alike will be in a for a musical extravaganza during halftime festivities for Saturday’s football game between the Bulldogs and the Tigers.

Both MSU’s Famous Maroon Band and JSU’s Sonic Boom of the South will be performing at halftime at Davis Wade Stadium at Scott Field.

The 330-member Maroon Band’s halftime show will feature a special performance by Nash Street, the four-member band from Starkville that won the 2008 Colgate Country Showdown in Nashville. Nash Street will join the Maroon Band for a medley of their “grassroots country” songs.

“This is a rare opportunity for our fans,” said Maroon Band director Elva Kaye Lance.

“We are proud of Nash Street and know it will bring a lot to the halftime show and give our fans and the visiting Jackson State fans a great musical experience.”

Nash Street’s members include fiddler Hannah Melby, guitarist Clay Lezon, mandolinist Caroline Melby and bassist Daniel Hare.

Hannah Melby and Lezon are recent MSU graduates, while Caroline Melby and Hare are both current students.

All four members of the band have been MSU fans since they were children.

“Our parents introduced us to all the rich traditions of the SEC while we wore our little MSU jerseys or cheerleading outfits,” said Hannah Melby. “It’s something that’s deeply rooted within each of us... Mississippi State football is part of our heritage!”

When approached about performing with the Maroon Band, the members of Nash Street didn’t have to think twice.

“When the university’s band director came to us and asked if we would play the show, there was no hesitation. I mean after all, this is our home turf.” said Hare.

Hannah Melby agrees.

“It’s going to be a breathtaking experience to be able to stand out on the field and play for the fans who have supported us and our MSU Bulldogs for years. I can’t think of a better way to spend Labor Day weekend,” she said.

Fans at Saturday’s game will also enjoy the 300-member Sonic Boom’s performance, Lance said. While the Maroon Band is traditional marching unit, the Sonic Boom is what is described as a show band, Lance said.

“Their style incorporates a lot of dance moves and it is definitely a treat to have them perform,” Lance said. “Any time another school’s full band performs at halftime, the atmosphere is revved up, and we are happy to welcome them.”

Kickoff for Saturday’s game is set for 2:30 p.m. The game is being televised on the ESPNU network.

For more information about the Famous Maroon Band, visit the band’s Web site at http://www.msstate.edu/org/band.

For more information about Nash Street, visit the Web site at http://www.nashstreet.com.

'I Pledge' Video Causes Controversy

2009-09-03T13:09:00.000-07:00

i pledge video

A few days ago, kids in a Utah elementary school gathered 'round a TV to watch a PSA video. On it, a collection of well-meaning celebrities like Cameron Diaz, Dakota Fanning, and Ashton Kutcher said "I pledge" to do everything from smile at neighbors to help find a cure for Alzheimer's disease.

But the real zinger came near the end of the video when an argyle-clad Demi Moore says she pledges to be a servant to our president. Some parents who found out about the video and its message were a bit perturbed at the content being shown to their kids in a public school. And since then, the story and the video have blown up in Buzz.

Searches on "i pledge video" are up 1,675% and related lookups on "i pledge obama" surged 250% in just a day. TV stations and blogs have also jumped on the story. Fox 13 out of Utah interviewed parents and Gayle Ruzika of the Utah Eagle Forum. Ms. Ruzika said parents should have been forewarned about the video's tone and content.

The principal, who says she didn't see the video before it was shown, has since apologized to parents and sent out a letter. Whether that quells the outrage over Demi Moore's pledge remains to be seen. Below, you can see the video for yourself...

Lynchburg schools allow students to 'opt out' of Obama speech

2009-09-03T13:06:00.000-07:00

obama speech to students

President Obama is giving a speech next week to America's school children.

The talk will be broadcast in public classrooms across the country.

The President's topic is the importance of getting an education, but some worry Obama is trying to indoctrinate a young audience with liberal ideas.

One school district in our region is allowing parents to excuse their child from watching the speech.

Students in Lynchburg City Schools can opt-out of watching Obama's remarks.

Teachers will also have the option of not showing the speech to their class.

Lynchburg City Schools provided News 7 with the following release on the issue:

"On Tuesday, September 8, 2009, President Barack Obama is scheduled to make an address to the nation's students on the importance of education. This address will be broadcast live on the White House Web site at 12:00 p.m.

Within the Lynchburg City Schools, the speech will be available for viewing; however, teachers are not required to show the address. Teachers may include the speech as part of their instructional day if time allows them to do so. Teachers are free to hold discussions regarding the speech after its conclusion but there will be no required assignments connected to this event.

Parents may opt out of having their children watch the speech. The school will make reasonable accommodations for those students. The speech is expected to last 10-15 minutes. Therefore, there are no excused absences from school relative to the address."

Lisa Loeb: An Appreciation

2009-09-03T13:03:00.000-07:00

lisa loeb

Fresh off her marriage to "The Tonight Show" producer Roey Hershkovitz, '90s alt-culture crush Lisa Loeb is pregnant with her first child. While she hasn't really been a part of the pop music conversation since the turn of the millennium, Loeb may be one of the most iconic characters to come out of the grunge era. She was a folksy singer-songwriter who got her big break when her song "Stay (I Missed You)" got placed on the soundtrack to the 1994 Ben Stiller comedy "Reality Bites," broke out as a single and turned Loeb into a chart-topping star even though she didn't have a record deal. If you were of a certain age in 1994, Loeb was probably the cornerstone of your celebrity crushes, and if you were an especially impressionable person at that time, she might have even informed your entire outlook on the opposite sex. Loeb wasn't the first woman to wear cat's eye glasses or wear baby-doll dresses, but she was the artist who turned the sexy librarian look into a mainstream attraction.

The video for "Stay (I Missed You)" had as much to do with her success as the catchy, earnest song. The clip, which was directed by "Reality Bites" star Ethan Hawke (a friend who got her onto the soundtrack in the first place), contains no edits, was shot in only two takes in Loeb's New York City apartment. Loeb finally signed a record deal and subsequently had a few more minor hits ("I Do" and "How" among them), but more recently she had two reality shows (one a cooking show with then-boyfriend Dweezil Zappa and the other a dating show). But for anybody who discovered "Stay (I Missed You)" in 1994, she'll always be the sad girl in the apartment with the cat.

Dugar Family Doing Well!

2009-09-03T13:00:00.001-07:00

dugard family

The Dugard Family is doing well, says aunt Tina Dugard today. Jaycee Lee Dugard and daughters are wonderful, says Tina Dugard.

During the press conference, Tina said Jaycee Dugard, Terry Probyn, Jacyee’s daughters, and her younger sister Shayna Probyn are in seclusion.

Tina said Dugard’s daughters are great and that Jaycee did a great job raising them. She also says Jaycee remembers everything perfectly about her family. Jaycee however is just getting to know Shayna who was A child at the time of Dugard’s abduction.

Tina read a statement, didn’t answer questions, and released three new photos of Jaycee as a child. As reportedly previously on LALATE, Jaycee Lee Dugard, for upwards of ten years, put her most recent photo on company business cards and met with clients, often with her children.

Starlite is 15, Angel is 11. Carl Probyn, Dugard’s step-father Probyn, said of the girls:

“He was the girls’ father - they all cried when he was arrested. Jaycee had to explain that she had been kidnapped. They were a family. They wept when he was captured. They were attached to each other. They thought Jaycee was their sister, They don’t realise she was kidnapped.”

Despite reports, in the 18 year of captivity, Dugard did have contact with the outside world. She went to movies, to the supermarket, interacted with clients, had internet access. But during that time she maintained the name Allissa, never attended school or a doctor.

People of Walmart, Maia Campbell and Man slaps child in Walmart

2009-09-03T12:57:00.000-07:00

maia campbell

People of Walmart

For those who haven't heard of this website already, and very few are left among those who are frequently on the Internet, People of Walmart features pictures from Walmart stores and parking lots all across the country of interesting customers and odd sights. This site is similar to I Can Has Cheezburger, which features pictures of cats with funny captions, in both layout and formula; therefore, it's understandable that this site has become a success. The formula they're using is sure to get laughs, which gets thousands of hits in this day and age.

I have no problem with this website whatsoever. It's an invasion of the privacy of those in the pictures, but it's not like the captions include personal attacks, addresses, or phone numbers. A lot of the time, the person's face isn't even in the frame because their back is turned or the person taking the picture pointed the lense low enough to keep the person's face out of it. So, even though they're prominently pictured on a popular website, they can still maintain their anonymity.

With how horrible things are going in this country, why can't we laugh at ourselves?

Maia Campbell

Former actress Maia Campbell is back in the news today for rumors surrounding her possibly being a prostitute. This descent is not surprising due the unflattering results you receive when you enter her name into Google. Here's to hoping she turns her life around.

Hip Hop Gossip! There's Facts....Then There's Gossip!: So Sad: Maia Campbell & DMX

OMG Is That You Maia Campbell??

Man Slaps Child in Walmart

Roger Stephens, 61, walked up to the mother of a 2-year-old girl who wouldn't stop crying and said "If you don't shut the baby up, I will shut her up for you." After a few moments, he allegedly grabbed the child, slapped her four times, and said "See, I told you I would shut her up." Another customer stopped him, security was called, police came, and he was arrested and charged with cruelty with children in the first degree, which is a felony.

Cincinnati Pops’ Erich Kunzel dies

2009-09-01T13:39:00.000-07:00

erich kunzel

Erich Kunzel, the longtime conductor of the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra, died Tuesday at the age of 74, the orchestra announced.

Kunzel had suffered from cancer of the pancreas, liver and colon for several months. He died at his home in Swans Island, Maine.

“The world has lost a musical giant, and we have lost a dear friend,” said Trey Devey, president of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, in a statement.

Kunzel joined the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra as associate conductor in 1965, at the invitation of Maestro Max Rudolf. He began conducting pops concerts with the orchestra that year, then took the helm of the Cincinnati Pops when it was spun off from the symphony in 1977.

Over the years, Kunzel and the Cincinnati Pops Orchestra have performed at Carnegie Hall, Radio City Music Hall, the Grand Ol’ Opry and the Blossom Music Festival, and recorded more than 85 albums on the Telarc label. The orchestra’s international tours included playing at the opening ceremonies for the Olympic Games in China last summer.

Kunzel also conducted the National Symphony in Washington, D.C., in its nationally televised Memorial Day concerts. In 2006, Kunzel was presented with the 2006 National Medal of Arts by President and Mrs. Bush at the White House.

Locally Kunzel was a well-known figure, as beloved for his showmanship as his musical skills. He spearheaded the fundraising for Cincinnati Public Schools’ new School for Creative and Performing Arts, now under construction at Elm Street and Central Parkway.

Kunzel is survived by his wife, Brunhilde. Besides Maine, the couple have homes in Newport and Naples, Fla.

The orchestra said its fall Pops concerts will go on as scheduled, with guest conductors.

Cheapskating: Kronos spreads the gyros gospel with free food

2009-09-01T13:34:00.000-07:00

kronos gyros

Kronos Foods, a company that supplies a bevvy of Chicago's far-flung gyros joints, is celebrating its self-invented holiday, "Free Gyros Day." The catch is relatively minor—the company will gladly accept your full name, address, and e-mail address in exchange for the opportunity to, according to the website, “EAT MORE GYROS!!!!!” Forty-four Chicago-area locations are participating, with 13 in the city proper, including Felony Franks and two The Works locations. Make sure to print a coupon before heading out today.

Duggar Family Announces 19th Child; Quiverfull Movement in Spotlight Again

2009-09-01T13:29:00.000-07:00

quiverfull

The Duggar family is currently expecting their 19th child, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar announced this morning on The Today Show. The couple, who have a reality television show called 18 Kids and Counting (formerly 17 Kids and Counting) have garnered much media attention in recent years for their large family size and perhaps controversial religious practices.

Who are the Duggars?
According to the Duggar Family website, Jim Bob and Michelle Duggar are normal people, who have strived to live a life according to God's will. MSNBC reports that Jim Bob Duggar is a former state legislator from the Arkansas House of Representatives, while Michelle stays home and tends for their large (and getting larger brood)...including homeschooling. They started their reality television show on TLC in 2007, and have also written a book, The Duggars: 20 and Counting!

What religion are the Duggar family?
Much of the controversy surrounding the Duggar family has to do with their religion. Evangelical Christians, the Duggars are reported to prescribe to the Quiverfull movement (though there is no reference to the movement by name on their website), whose foundation is based on Psalm 127: 3-5, "Lo, Children are the heritage of the Lord; and the fruit of the womb is His Reward. Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them..." The Quiverfull movement has received nationwide attention, especially since the Duggar family came into the spotlight. With feminists calling the Quiverfull movement anti-feminist and many worrying about the health and well-being of women and children that prescribe to the faith, it's no wonder that the Duggar family continue to gain an audience of those curious to see how and why they do it.

Why are the Duggars so popular?
If you've ever watched the Duggar family on 18 Kids and Counting, or listened to Michelle Duggar speak, you'll quickly see why the show and the family are so addictive. With a calm, patient manner and a way when she speaks, Michelle Duggar appeals to parents (religious or not) who strive to bring that calmness and patience to their own parenting. With well-behaved, caring children and a strong family unit, many wish their own family could mimic the Duggar's, if not in size, then in structure.

With the Duggar family expecting their 19th child, expect even more attention to fall towards the controversial Quiverfull movement, the Duggars, and TLC's 18 (19) Kids and Counting.

Yucaipa Fire Rages on with 30 mph Gusts.

2009-09-01T13:26:00.000-07:00

yucaipa fires

The Oak Glen and Yucaipa fires have been putting people on edge through the night and into this morning. The Yucaipa fire has caused mandatory evacuations through out the Eastern end of the Yucaipa Valley, between Willdwood Canyon Road on the south, and Oak Glen Road to the north.

Winds have picked up, with gusting up to 30 mph out of the west, pushing the flames towards more homes and a mobile home park.

Yucaipa and Calimesa schools have been closed because of bad air quality.

There are a number of resources for people to find online, the most up-to-date information for Yucaipa can be found at Rimoftheworld.net, where they are posting transcriptions of the fire crews at http://www.rimoftheworld.net/incident/7175.

More information, phone numbers, wild fire information, and news can be found at http://www.inlandempire.us/fire_info.php

Hurricane Jimena path - San Diegans may be in store for interesting weekend

2009-09-01T13:23:00.000-07:00

hurricane jimena path

Those San Diegans planning on doing some beach camping this weekend may be in for some big waves, big winds, and possibly big rains with hurricane Jimena currently looming off the Baja California coastline. Already Mexican residents have begun evacuating the peninsula or hunkering down for the oncoming storm by boarding windows and lashing down belongings.

According to a Public Advisory issued at 1100am by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, Hurricane Jimena is located approximately 110 miles southwest of Cabo San Lucas.

Jimena is a category 4 storm on the Saffir-Simpson scale with winds around 135 mph with higher gusts at times. The hurricane is heading north-northwest at approximately 12 mph and is expected to continue on this course for the next couple days.

It is unclear at this time what effect the storm will have on Southern California. Although firefighters fighting the Station Fire in Los Angeles could certainly use some help from fighting that blaze.

Anyone planning on heading to the beach this Labor Day weekend should expect larger surf height at the least and come prepared with wet weather gear.

Safina makes narrow escape at US Open tennis

2009-09-01T13:20:00.000-07:00

rogowska tennis

NEW YORK — World number one Dinara Safina barely escaped suffering one of the greatest upsets in Grand Slam tennis history before edging Australian teen Olivia Rogowska on Tuesday in the first round of the US Open.

The 23-year-old Russian top seed, still searching for her first Grand Slam title to justify her ranking, outlasted the 167th-ranked wildcard entrant 6-7 (5/7), 6-2, 6-4 after two hours and 35 minutes.

Instead of becoming the first US Open women's top seed to lose her opening match, Safina escaped from a 3-0 hole in the third set to reach a second-round match against either Poland's Urszula Radwanska or Germany's Kristina Barrois.

"I played 2 1/2 hours and I was down in the third set but I love playing here and I wanted to stay," Safina said.

Screaming with frustration at times, Safina nearly became only the fifth top seed in Grand Slam history to lose in the first round, the first since Martina Hingis was dumped by Spain's Virginia Ruano-Pascual at Wimbledon in 2001.

"I didn't break any rackets and I didn't get any warnings. That's already positive," Safina said.

The worst showing by a US Open top seed came last year when Serbian Ana Ivanovic lost in the second round.

Rogowska, an 18-year-old from Melbourne, would have been the second-lowest player in rankings to oust a top seed in any round of any Slam, 21 places above France's Julie Coin when she ousted Ivanovic from last year's US Open.

Reigning French Open champion Svetlana Kuznetsova shook off a slow start to advance, the Russian sixth seed ousting Germany's Julia Goerges 6-3, 6-2, and later saying that lumping Russians as "head cases" is unfair.

"Every Russian should get the respect. Everybody has their own problems," Kuznetsova said. "Dinara, she maybe has a real bad something missing in her game. I maybe have something missing in mine.

"That is the life, in and out of the court, for everybody."

Safina, 23, will stay atop the rankings after the Open regardless of how she fares in the Flushing Meadows fortnight, even if second-rated reigning champion Serena Williams takes her third Slam crown of the year and 12th of her career.

But her struggles to subdue unknown Rogowska simply reinforced the notion Safina does not belong at the top.

Safina, whose best US Open showing was last year's semi-final run, lost to Serena Williams at this year's Australian Open final, to Kuznetsova in the French Open final and to Venus Williams in a Wimbledon semi-final.

Rogowska, up 502 ranking spots from a year ago, beat Russian Maria Kirilenko in the first round of the French Open and almost pulled off a stunner for the ages to beat Safina.

Rogowska seized a 3-0 lead in the thrid set, the key point when her backhand down the line was overturned into a winner on a review challenge to break Safina in the second game.

Safina, who squandered four break points in the third game, fought off two break points to hold serve in the fourth and after an exchange of breaks was gifted a double fault break by the Aussie to pull within 4-3.

"I was like, 'Please just try to see the ball when you serve,'" Safina said. "That's why I didn't make a double fault."

Safina held serve, broke in an extended ninth game when Rogowska sent a forehand long, and held at love in the final game for a narrow escape.

Rogowska fought off a break point in the 12th game of the first set and swatted a forehand passing winner to force the tie-breaker, then saw Safina net a backhand and double fault on the last two points to surrender the first set.

Safina, whose 24 unforced errors in the first set were only three fewer than Rogowska, answered the challenge by breaking the Aussie upstart three times in the second set to force a third, each struggling to hold as tension mounted.

Kuznetsova, who won her first of two career Grand Slam singles titles at the 2004 US Open, next faces Latvia's 96th-ranked Anastasija Sevastova, who ousted Thailand's 90th-rated Tamarine Tanasugarn 6-3, 7-5.

Kuznetsova needed only 62 minutes to move on, winning 10 of the final 12 games and rescuing three break points in the second set to hold off 92nd-ranked Goerges.

"First match is always tough," Kuznetsova said. "It's very difficult when you don't know what to expect."

Kuznetsova, 24, and compatriot Maria Sharapova, 22, are the only prior Flushing Meadows champions in their half of the draw. Sharapova, the 2006 US Open winner, meets Bulgaria's 98th-ranked Tsvetana Pironkova in a night opener.

Other women's openers send Russian fourth seed Elena Dementieva, the 2004 US Open runner-up, against France's Camille Pin and Serbian fifth seed Jelena Jankovic, last year's US Open runner-up, against Italy's Roberta Vinci.

Chapter One: The Rise and Fall of Art Schlichter

2009-09-01T13:18:00.000-07:00

art schlichter

Chapter One: The Rise and Fall of Art Schlichter

Art Schlichter’s book, “Busted,” is an unflinching autobiography of a life gut-punched by gambling.

He describes:
*his charmed rise as an athletic icon in Ohio; he was the center of a recruiting competition between Woody Hayes and Bo Schembechler, and later threw the pass that got Hayes fired at Ohio State.
*his father, who lived vicariously through his accomplishments and later committed suicide.
* his harrowing (and sometimes comical) tour of some 40 prisons over a 10-year period.
* his failure as an N.F.L. quarterback.
* his lust for the high of gambling that Schlichter described this way:
“I had, and still have, an addiction. It’s a severe, severe addiction. It’s kind of like crack cocaine in that it takes away your soul and your character.”

He writes: “Some people say to me today, ‘Don’t worry, it’s all behind you.’ ”
“No, it isn’t, because you can’t just walk away from a disease like mine.
“Will I do bad things again that will send me back to prison? I admit the urge is always there.
“Today, I know I’m still only one wrong step away from imprisonment, insanity, or death.”

Schlichter now manages gamblingpreventionawareness.org and is a speaker on the dangers of gambling addiction. The first chapter of the book, which comes out today and which was written with Jeff Snook, is below:

Chapter 1

Locked in “The Shu”

God, I’m tired. I’m tired of prison. I’m tired of being shackled and chained. I’m tired of being told what to do and when to do it. And most of all, I’m tired of not being able to see my daughters, to hold them and hug them and to tell them I love them. Please watch over them God. Take care of them. Help them be happy. Wrap your arms around them and show them the way. Take care of my mom, too. You know she’s a good woman. She’s someone who deserves happiness. You have to keep me from going insane in here. Please help me survive this place. Please keep me from killing myself. I don’t want to go out this way. Please God … please don’t let me unscrew that light bulb.

It’s late January, 2005, and my life has come to this. I’m praying about a light bulb—a stupid, stinking, meaningless 20-watt light bulb.

Hanging over my head, it’s my constant companion. There are days it’s the only light in my life. Other days, I’m sick and tired of staring at it. It just dangles there as if it’s taunting me. Then there are the worst days, the days when the emotional stress of being imprisoned in this hell-on-earth are too painful for me.

Those are the days I want to unscrew it, break it into pieces and use a shard of it to slice my wrist. I know that shattered light bulb could be my deliverance. It could be my only way out of this dungeon. Maybe I’ll bleed to death all over this concrete floor before they can get to me. Then God can take my soul out of here. I can’t walk through those steel bars, but He will take me far away from this miserable existence.

Weeks ago, I was living in a detention camp, the lowest level of incarceration there is in the American correctional system. I had a nice bunk, good food, I worked in the yard, I felt the warmth of the sunshine. Then I bet on an otherwise meaningless college basketball game. I needed one team to beat another by more than 20 points. The team I bet on won the game 80-60. Typical.

I’d lost again, the latest in a lifetime filled with loss.

When the corrections officers discovered I’d gambled again, they chained me, shackled me, and threw me in here, The Hole—solitary confinement. On the inside, we call this horrible place The SHU—Special Housing Unit. This SHU is the absolute most horrible, darkest, dirtiest place I’ve ever seen. The corrections officers, or “hacks” as we call them, tell me I’ll be deadlocked in this dungeon, deep in the bowels of the Indiana Reformatory near the town of Pendleton, for twenty-three hours a day for the next six months. Pendleton’s a depressing concrete compound built in 1923. It once held John Dillinger. I’m housed in the most horrifying wing, locked in a six-by-eight feet cell, shut off from the rest of the prison … and the rest of the world.
I have nothing but a steel toilet, a tiny steel sink, and a wafer-thin pad that separates me from the cold concrete floor.

And my light bulb. I’ve spent ten years of my life in more than forty prisons. I’ve seen the beatings, the rapes, the common atrocities of prison life, but I’ve experienced nothing like this. This place is agony. This place is mental torture. This place will drive me insane if I’m left here for very long.

At night I can hear the rats running through the walls that are covered with messages and pictures drawn by the captives who preceded me here. Someone drew a perfect Jesus, his hands spread wide. I look at Him every day. A naked woman stares from another wall. Gang signs are all around me, but I can’t decipher them.

I’m locked down with no interaction with anyone, other than the inmate to my right. He’s been held in solitary for 17 years and surely is certifiably insane by now, if he wasn’t when he was free. They tell me he killed an entire family years ago and recently stabbed somebody in prison. He’ll never see the outside of this place.

When the hacks walk by his cell, he sometimes throws his own (expletive) on them. On the days he behaves, they allow him outside his cell to roam walkway. Somehow, he’s become a living sports encyclopedia and he knows every statistic from every game ever played. He stops in front of my cell and recites them to me.

I figure he must be about my age, even though he appears to be in his 60s. They tell me he has AIDS. He smells like death, but everyone smells bad in here, including me. The chemical they gave me as deodorant burns my skin, so I never use it. The entire place smells like a mix of feces and body odor.

I don’t experience much physical pain other than intense hunger and thirst. I’ve come to appreciate the slop they slide through the bars to feed me at four in the morning, ten o’clock, and three o’clock. Its arrival is how I tell time. I surely can’t judge time by my stomach because I’m hungry around the clock.

Sometimes I shake involuntarily from the cold. The thin, dusty blanket they give me wouldn’t keep a mouse warm at night. The emotional pain is much worse. It’s so boring in here. Time stands still.

The only thing that keeps me surviving from one day to the next is looking forward to the mail each weekday afternoon. I stash the letters from my mom and my children under my mat—my prized collection of pain and sorrow stuffed into tear-stained envelopes.

I write my mom and my kids almost daily, but there’s never much new to say. It just gives me something to do. In my mind, writing them somehow helps me stay connected to the outside …

Mom, I hope this finds you well. I’m still in the hole. I haven’t left my cell since last Friday for ten minutes to get some soap. They feed me the slop through the hole in the door. It’s pretty primitive. This is my fourth winter without seeing sunshine. I can’t wait for you to bring the girls to see me, but don’t know when they will allow me to have visitors. I can only imagine how
big the girls are getting. Mom, I can’t take much more of this. It’s tough sitting in here thinking about all I have lost. My freedom. My family. My integrity. The money. It all depresses me. I’m mad at myself. I can barely live with myself for doing the things I did. I can’t live with the guilt for all I have done in my life. I worry constantly about you and the girls. I love you Mom. I miss you. Be safe. Love, Art.

I have no real possessions now, other than utter despair. I’ve lost virtually everything in my life and now my hope is slipping away, too. All I have is time, seemingly endless time.
Time to sleep. Time to cry. Time to think of what I did to deserve this the place. When I sleep, I lie on the dirty pad with my head resting on a tiny plastic pillow at the base of the toilet, with my feet toward the steel bars. If I would lie the other way, I’d risk someone reaching through the bars and bashing my head during my sleep.

But when I sleep, I can dream. And when I dream, I’m free. There are times I pray that I wake up and discover this was a just a horrible nightmare. Those prayers never work. Those are the mornings I’m the most depressed. Those are the mornings when I want to unscrew that light bulb.

I never stop wondering, “How did it come to this? What happened to me?”
How did I become known as State of Indiana Inmate 954-154?
If only I could go back forty years to be Art Schlichter, the carefree kid growing up on a farm.

If only I could go back in time to when I had the world at my feet …

Jaycee Dugard case gives hope to mom whose daughter was kidnapped nearby

2009-09-01T13:13:00.000-07:00

jaycee dugard daughters photos

The police are looking into the kidnapping of two girls that have similar stories of Jaycee Dugard, and if Phillip Garrido is involved. Michaela Garecht (right in photo) was 9 years old in 1988 when she was kidnapped, just 30 miles from where Phillip Garrido lived, and only three months after he has been released from prison, according to CNN.

Michaela’s mother now has hope that perhaps her daughter is still alive. Michaela’s mother told CNN in an interview, that a week before she was kidnapped her daughter wrote a poem about people who were kidnapped and being held captive. Looking back, her mother thought it was a premonition, and the words kidnapped and captive have rung in her head ever since…not the words kidnapped and killed.

According to Michaela’s mother who told CNN, her daughter was kidnapped in a supermarket parking lot. Michaela and her friend left their scooters outside the supermarket and when they came out, one was gone. They looked around the parking lot and saw it leaning against a parked car, so Michaela went to get it, and when she was close a man grabbed her from behind, threw her into the car and drove off.

Ilene Misheloff (left in photo) was 13 when she disappeared in 1989, about 165 miles southwest of the Dugard’s home. According to CNN, police in the San Francisco area are looking into other kidnapping cases to see if they may be linked as well.

Dinara Safina narrowly avoids elimination against Australian teen Olivia Rogowska

2009-09-01T13:09:00.000-07:00

olivia rogowska

Australian teenager Olivia Rogowska has gone agonisingly close to pulling off one of the biggest upsets in grand slam history, losing to world No.1 Dinara Safina in a thrilling US Open first-round match.

Safina fought back from 3-0 and 15-40 down in the deciding set to deny Rogowska 6-7 (5-7) 6-2 6-4 in 2hrs 35mins at Flushing Meadows.

In staving off defeat, the Russian avoided becoming the first women's top seed in 41 years of professional tennis to crash out in the first round in New York.

At No.167 world, Melbourne-based Rogowska was also bidding to become the third-lowest-ranked woman ever to defeat a world No.1 – and the first in eight years to knock the top seed out in the opening round at any grand slam event.

Anything but overawed, Rogowska had expressed her immense excitement at the prospect of playing on a centre court for the first time from the moment she drew the temperamental Safina.

Safina has a history of mental meltdowns, having crumbled in all three of her grand slam final appearances, and Rogowska had vowed to apply the blow torch.

But the young wildcard exceeded all expectations at Arthur Ashe Stadium, the largest arena in tennis with a crowd capacity of 23,763 fans, playing the match of her life and stunning Safina with her remarkable poise and power.

After nervously dropping her opening service game of the match, Rogowska returned serve – literally – to twice break Safina and charge to a 3-2 lead in the first set.

She was unable to sustain her advantage, giving up further breaks to fall behind 5-3 – but refused to lie down.

Troubling Safina with her deep and angled groundstrokes, Rogowska saved a set point before breaking the Russian for a third time in the ninth game.

Rogowska held serve from 0-30 to level at 5-5 and then staved off a further two set points in the 12th game – including one with a huge serve and fearless follow-up forehand winner – to force the tiebreaker.

Safina won the opening two points of the breaker and continued to lead until Rogowska unloaded a "bullet" – as Martina Navratilova called it – of a forehand pass to level at 4-4.

As the tension mounted, Safina dumped a backhand return into the net and then double-faulted, prompting the fist-pumping Rogowska to skip to her courtside chair in delight after snaring the opening set.

The youngster suffered an inevitable letdown in the second set, dropping four games in a row to allow Safina to put the match back on level terms.

But there looked to be no denying Rogowska when Safina coughed up four double-faults in one game to hand Rogowska an early service break and a 2-0 lead in the third set.

Rogowska then showed extraordinary composure to hold from love-40 down, fending off four break points in all, to go up 3-0.

Then she had the top seed facing two more break points at 15-40, but was unable to convert her advantage into what surely would have been an unassailable lead.

Safina drew back to 2-3 when Rogowska double-faulted on game point in the fifth game.

But the Russian returned the favour with her 12th double-fault, giving Rogowska a 4-2 buffer.

Alas, the Australian committed her 11th double-fault to hand Safina the seventh game and the Russian then held for 4-4.

The decisive moment in the match came in the ninth game of the deciding set when, despite gallantly fighting off three break points, Rogowska was unable to save a fourth.

Safina held her nerve – and serve to love – to close out the match with a forehand winner to keep her Open hopes alive.

Meanwhile, adopted Australian Jarmila Groth is out of the US Open after losing her first-round match to China's Shuai Peng. Slovakian-born Groth, who is expected to receive her Australian citizenship in the coming months, lost 6-2 6-3 to the world No.44.

Michelle Duggar Pregnant: Duggars 19th Child

2009-09-01T13:05:00.000-07:00

duggars 19th child

Is mother of eighteen Michelle Duggar pregnant? Yes, my friends, those are the rumors circulating and yes, the rumors are true. Michelle and Bob Duggar are expecting their 19th child together! Read more about the Duggars 19th child news, see photos and video here.

Michelle Duggar is pregnant. It seems so hard to believe that Duggar is pregnant again, considering the mother-of-eighteen just had their youngest child eight months ago. Ok wait, maybe it isn’t so surprising, but rather a sense of shock with the number nineteen. Nineteen children! Duggar is used to being pregnant year after year after year. Talk about one fertile and patient woman!

The Duggars announced their baby news on the Today Show saying, “We are so thrilled. We just couldn’t believe it is happening.” Is she seriously surprised?

One would think that at the age Michelle is at that she would be a tad worried about the risks that can occur with pregnancies at her age. However, Duggar has opted out of receiving any prenatal testing.

She tells a source, “We know what could happen. We read through the information. If the Lord chooses to give us challenges along the way, we know His Grace will be there, so we don’t opt to do the testing.”

In even more interesting Duggar news, their son Josh and his wife Anna are expecting a baby in October. What does Michelle have to say about that?

“My sister and my mother were having babies at the same time, so I have nieces and nephews older than me. It was a great time because we really have close relationships with my nieces and nephews.”

The assumed to be “J”-named Duggar 19th child will join Joshua, Jana, John-David, Jill, Jessa, Jinger, Joseph, Josiah, Joy-Anna, Jedidiah, Jeremiah, Jason, James, Justin, Jackson, Johannah, Jennifer, and Jordyn.

When it comes to the Duggars, apparently the more, the merrier!

Quality Road is one to beat in Travers Stakes

2009-08-29T10:49:00.000-07:00

travers stakes

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. (AP) — There's a reason Quality Road is the morning-line favorite over Belmont Stakes winner Summer Bird in Saturday's $1 million Travers: He was the Kentucky Derby favorite before hoof injuries sidelined him for the Triple Crown season.

Now he's back, and in record-setting form.

Earlier this month, Quality Road returned to the races for the first time in more than four months and won the 6½-furlong Amsterdam Stakes at Saratoga in track record time of 1:13.74.

Previously, the 3-year-old colt won the 1 1/8-mile Florida Derby at Gulfstream Park in track record time of 1:47.72.

The big question going into the 1 1/4-mile Travers is whether Quality Road is ready to stretch out in distance.

"He's a special horse," Todd Pletcher said of Quality Road, who was trained by Jimmy Jerkens but sent to Pletcher in June by owner Edward P. Evans. "It takes a special kind of horse, with both speed and the ability to carry that speed over a distance of ground, and I think he's that kind of horse."

Kiaran McLaughlin, who sends out Charitable Man, believes Quality Road is the one to beat in the "Mid-Summer Derby"

"I have to give Todd great credit in getting him ready to run, after the layoff to win so impressively at 6½ furlongs," McLaughlin said. "He (Pletcher) is trying to do all that he can do to ensure that he will get the mile-and-a-quarter, and I'm sure that he will."

Quality Road, the 8-5 choice, will be ridden by John Velazquez. Summer Bird, with Kent Desormeaux up, is 3-1, with Jim Dandy winner Kensei 7-2, followed by Charitable Man (6-1), Warrior's Reward (8-1) and Hold Me Back and Our Edge, both 15-1.

The National Weather service forecast for Saturday is calling for a 90 percent chance of rain — occasional showers with thunderstorms. Quality Road has never run on a wet track.

"It's like always with the weather," Pletcher said. "You wish that it was going to be perfect conditions, but you have absolutely no control over it so you just hope for the best."

Missing from the Travers is Preakness-winning filly Rachel Alexandra and Kentucky Derby winner Mine That Bird.

Rachel Alexandra is skipping the race because she will be taking on older boys next week in the Woodward Stakes, and the Derby winner is out as he continues to recover from throat surgery.

The field is still a strong one.

"Even if you go by what they say on paper — you have the Florida Derby winner, the Belmont winner, the Jim Dandy winner, the Peter Pan winner, the Barbaro winner (that's us) ..." says Hall of Fame trainer Nick Zito, who will saddle Our Echo.

"There are so many great qualifications in there. If you had the Kentucky Derby winner in there, it would have been special, but it's a special race anyway."

Summer Bird's trainer Tim Ice is looking for a big race from his Belmont winner, who was a solid but distant runner-up to Rachel Alexandra in the Haskell Invitational at Monmouth Park on Aug. 2.

"He's run a couple of big races, but I still think he has a lot left to show just how good he is," Ice said. "I'm really happy with the way he's coming into the race."

Kensei comes into the 140th Travers off victories in the Dwyer Stakes at Belmont on July 4 and the Jim Dandy on Aug. 1. The son of Mr. Greeley missed the Triple Crown races, but now has a chance to move out of the shadow of stablemate Rachel Alexandra.

"This is the defining moment for him," said Stonestreet Stables owner Jess Jackson, who also co-owns Rachel Alexandra. "It won't be the final moment, but it will be the defining moment."

Chip Woolley, who trains Mine That Bird, said Quality Road was the horse he would have feared most.

"You don't know how good that horse really is. He has shown great talent," Woolley said. "He's a very fearsome sight out there."

Offutt Air Show promises to be great this year

2009-08-29T10:47:00.000-07:00

offutt air show

The Offutt Air Show, Defenders of Freedom '09 looks to be a great outing for the younger kids this year. Normally, the heat is up in the lower 90s around this time of year but the weather report for Saturday and Sunday has the overall temperature being in the mid 70s. The air show runs from 9am - 5pm daily. Performers include the US Navy Blue Angels, US Army Golden Knights parachute team, an assortment of US Air Force aircraft, fake dog fights, and Tops in Blue will perform Saturday at 4pm.

Static displays from the Air Force, Navy, and retired aircraft will be available to the public. There is even a B-2 Motorcycle crafted by Northrop Grumman to celebrate 20 years of the B-2 Stealth Bomber. Units from local organizations and military presenters will have booths set up around the flightline.

The Fun Zone will be set up for children including 17 inflatables, glitter temporary tattoos, and photos in a F-4 Phantom Cockpit are offered at the event. There will be food and drink vendors available throughout the event.

If you plan to attend, please remember that security will be tight. Backpacks, coolers and tote bags must be left in your vehicle. Small fanny packs, small purses, strollers, wagons, and small diaper bags will all be allowed subject to hand-search at the gate. Large diaper bags may not be permitted but individuals can return to their vehicles to get extra clothes, diapers, etc. You can bring electronics without restriction but large camera bags will not be allowed. Water, drinks, and food are also allowed to be brought in if they are hand-carried. Plan accordingly so you do not get stuck at the gate.

Parking will be available on base, in limited quantities, via Bellevue Gate (off Galvin Rd), If you can ride the shuttle, parking will be available at Southroads Mall, Bellevue University, and at Bellevue East and West High Schools. Handicap parking is available at the Offutt Field House parking lot through the Capehart Rd/STRATCOM gate. Shuttles will all run from 8:45am - 6pm on both days. No pets will be admitted. Admission, as always, is free.

Arthur Ashe: A Life Dedicated to the Welfare of Others

2009-08-29T10:44:00.000-07:00

arthur ashe kids day 2009

Arthur Ashe is more than the name on the stadium with all the luxury boxes. He is more than the inspiration for the Eric Fischl statue at the south gate to the United States Open.

Lately, Ashe’s widow has come to think of him as a Bodhisattva — “a beautiful Buddhist term for a person who is dedicated to the ultimate welfare of other beings,” as Jeanne Moutoussamy-Ashe put it the other day.

She considers the possibility that Arthur achieved Buddhahood, either during his 49 years or after his life was cut short in 1993 by AIDS from a blood transfusion.

Arthur Ashe remains the only man of color to win the United States Open (in 1968), the Australian Open (in 1970) or Wimbledon (in 1975). He is also the inspiration for the annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, which will be held at the expensive bazaar on Saturday. And he is one of the founders of the National Junior Tennis and Learning network, which prepares young people for sport and for life.

He remains a presence. Every time I hear his name, I think of the slim young player, peering owlishly at the clubby world of the West Side Tennis Club at Forest Hills, which he had worked so hard to reach, and I also think of the wan retired athlete, stricken by the heart trouble that would indirectly kill him.

In the late 1980s, Ashe would wear a naval-officer-style cap with a gold braid on it — never asked him why — and he would sit in the press box and schmooze with the regulars. I miss him. Miss the stuff he would teach us, in a kind way. Books. Concepts. History.

“I began to see Arthur’s life journey as caring about all sentient beings,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said recently. “So much of Buddhism reminds me of Arthur’s goals in life, but while he certainly knew about Buddhism he was not a student.”

Moutoussamy-Ashe does not live in the past. She keeps her name (“Just like me: I could have a name with four letters but I choose to have one with 15,” she said) and continues to work as a photographer, her path when they met. He dropped the world’s worst line — “Photographers sure are getting cuter” — but he did not let her get away.

As an artist still taking stylish photographs in black and white, she has published three books, but does not yet work with a digital camera. (“I am a Neanderthal,” she said.) She had input into the statue the United States Tennis Association placed at the south end of the National Tennis Center, now named after Billie Jean King.

The statue by Fischl, known for his ability to shock, depicts a man, a nude man, coiled into the serve position, but with only the handle of a racket in his hand. Some people gasp or titter when they see the statue for the first time.

“This is a figure — serving,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said, patiently. “The message is service. There is no racket. It’s so metaphorical.” She paused and added, “I voted for it.”

A ball that Arthur tossed deftly into the air in 1969 remains in play. He and Charlie Pasarell, his college teammate and friend for life, and Sheridan Snyder, another friend, formed the National Junior Tennis League for children like Ashe, who had moved from Virginia to Missouri so he could play tennis beyond the bounds of overt segregation. Recently the word “league” has been replaced by “learning,” which was always part of the program.

In 1999, the network began a contest for the best essay about the life of Ashe. The winner was 12-year-old Blake Strode from St. Louis, who this year graduated from the University of Arkansas with a 3.972 grade-point average. Strode has delayed his entrance to law school at Harvard to try the tennis circuit for a year.

“The N.J.T.L. gave me a kick-start,” Strode said the other day. “I had already started playing tennis, but at 9 my mom dropped me off every morning in Forest Park. The clinics and the tennis were the highlight of my day.” He said the racial picture has improved greatly since the days of Ashe and Althea Gibson, the first black female champion, but added that tennis still presented economic and social barriers.

The junior tennis league, backed by the U.S.T.A., reaches an estimated 220,000 youths each year. “It’s family,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said. “It’s Thanksgiving. It’s Christmas. There may be some people you don’t want to see, but it’s family. It’s always there. It’s never not a part of me.”

Moutoussamy-Ashe told how she slipped 6-year-old Camera (now a student at Hunter College in Manhattan) into the hospital, against the rules, and how the little girl recoiled at the grim reality. Her bed-ridden father held her and called her Precious and told her it was all right to be scared.

“Arthur was a mixture of common sense, kindness and doing,” Moutoussamy-Ashe said. And she added, “Now everything is about you.” Ashe came from a time and place when people had a glimmer of some communal good. Only now is his wife able to put a name on what she thinks he achieved: a state of Buddhahood.

Kennedy’s Closest Confidante, in Politics and Life

2009-08-29T10:41:00.000-07:00

victoria reggie

BOSTON — It was 1991, the worst year of Senator Edward M. Kennedy’s life since Chappaquiddick, 22 years earlier. With scandal unfolding that spring in Palm Beach, Fla., involving his nephew, the senator was humiliated by tabloid photos that showed him in a nightshirt after their boys’ night out, an aging, dissolute playboy.

In the Senate, he was engaged in a difficult struggle over a major civil rights bill. And then, that fall, with accusations of sexual harassment dominating the Clarence Thomas confirmation hearings, there was the televised spectacle of Ted Kennedy — long a champion of women’s rights — sitting mute and powerless, silenced by the Palm Beach case. His approval ratings plummeted.

But 1991, as it turned out, was also one of the best years of Ted Kennedy’s life. That was the year he fell in love with Victoria Reggie, the canny, razor-smart, beautiful 37-year-old daughter of old family friends, who was also a top banking lawyer.

Ms. Reggie was having her own struggles. Newly divorced from Grier C. Raclin, a lawyer, she was juggling her demanding career and life as the single mother of two small children. And back home in Crowley, La., her father, Edmund Reggie, a longtime judge and political insider, was facing felony charges of misapplying bank money. That June, her parents invited Ted Kennedy to a small dinner for their 40th wedding anniversary at Vicki’s home in Washington. When the senator showed up alone, Vicki joked in front of everyone: “What’s the matter? Couldn’t you get a date?”

“My mother, I think, was horrified,” Mrs. Kennedy would say later, in an interview with her husband’s biographer Adam Clymer. “ ‘Oh, don’t talk to men that way, poor Vicki.’ ”

The next day Mr. Kennedy made what he — and everyone who knew him — would later view as the smartest move of his life. He called to ask Vicki out to dinner.

In recalling the courtship, Vicki Kennedy told Mr. Clymer that she had been aware of the senator’s low approval ratings, which he had mentioned over dinner one night. They had fallen into the mid-40s. “And I said, ‘Oh, wow, I’ve never gone out with anybody whose approval rating wasn’t at least 48.’ ”

The senator proposed to her in January 1992 at a performance of “La Bohème” at the Metropolitan Opera in New York — a love of opera was one of many passions they shared. They married that July at his home in McLean, Va., in front of about 30 family members.

And that was the beginning of the extraordinary relationship —a love story as well as a political partnership — that would define the final years of Mr. Kennedy’s life, both personally and professionally. Mrs. Kennedy brought him a happiness, his friends said, that had long eluded him, seeing him through until the end, and to even now, as she presides at his public memorials in Boston and prepares for his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

“I have seen political couples come and go for four decades,” said David Mixner, 63, a writer and civil rights activist who got his start in politics at age 14, when he volunteered for John F. Kennedy’s presidential campaign. “I don’t think there has been a partnership and a love story in American politics like this one.”

While no one who knows her would ever describe Vicki Kennedy as a woman who needed rescuing, her friends say that Mrs. Kennedy, who had never expected to marry again, was also transformed. She gained a worshipful husband who adored her children, shared her deep religious faith, consulted with her on everything from Kennedy family matters to campaign strategy, and made her his partner in a life of politics and public service that she had been introduced to as a girl by her father and that she loved herself.

“She saw him as many of us did, as the person carrying on the progressive tradition of the Democratic Party,” said Marylouise Oates, a writer and friend of the Kennedys who is married to Robert M. Shrum, the Democratic strategist and former speechwriter for Mr. Kennedy. “He was the love of her life — and the icon of her life.”

It was the blending of two large, powerful political families, the Irish-American, Roman Catholic Kennedys from Boston and the Lebanese-American, Roman Catholic Reggies from Crowley, a relationship whose seeds were planted at the Democratic National Convention in 1956, when Ted was 24, and Vicki was 2.

That was when Edmund Reggie helped deliver his state’s delegates for John Kennedy, who was running for the vice-presidential nomination, but lost to Senator Estes Kefauver. It was the beginning of a lifelong friendship between the Reggies and the Kennedys.

Mrs. Kennedy revealed what a valuable asset she was during her husband’s hard-fought campaign for re-election in 1994 against Mitt Romney, a 47-year-old multimillionaire venture capitalist.

For the first time in decades, Mr. Kennedy was contending with a viable Republican opponent. Mr. Romney cast the 62-year-old senator as an old, tired, out-of-step liberal.

Mrs. Kennedy was instrumental in the campaign’s creation of a series of devastating advertisements that challenged Mr. Romney’s proclamations about his record as a venture capitalist in creating jobs in recession-battered Massachusetts. The spots focused on the workers at the Ampad stationery factory in Marion, Ind., where Mr. Romney’s company, Bain Capital, had eliminated jobs, reduced wages and discarded the union contract.

In a strategy session that spring, Mrs. Kennedy urged her husband’s advisers to learn more about Mr. Romney’s company. Although Mr. Romney was claiming that he had created thousands of jobs in Massachusetts, it was her experience as a banking lawyer, she said, that when venture capitalists took over businesses, there could be a lot of downsizing and layoffs.

As a result of her urging, the campaign hired The Investigative Group Inc., a detective firm headed by a former Senate Watergate counsel, Terry Lenzner. The firm discovered how Bain management had handled the Ampad workers after taking over the factory. The advertisements ran in the fall.

“She was key,” Mr. Shrum said of Mrs. Kennedy. “She had a very good strategic sense.”

In an interview on the 1994 campaign with Mr. Clymer, Mrs. Kennedy demonstrated great attention to detail, down to her objection to a health care-related commercial that put her husband in a lab coat — not because it made him look fat, as had been reported, but because he did not look like himself.

“It looked like a costume as opposed to what he really was doing,” she said.

The interview also revealed the intimacy of their political bond. She told Mr. Clymer that two days before a debate with Mr. Romney, her husband “was brushing his teeth in Boston, and he just apropos of nothing turned to me, and he said, ‘I’m ready, you know.’

“And I said, ‘Yeah, I know.’ Because I did. I knew. You could just see it.”

The senator was credited with besting Mr. Romney in the debate.

Years later, Mr. Mixner would observe Mrs. Kennedy in action at a 2004 fund-raising reception she and the senator had at their home in Washington for the gay, lesbian and bisexual community.

Vicki Kennedy greeted each of the some 300 guests at the front door. “She remembered every single name — and where each person was from,” Mr. Mixner recalled this week. “I would just say a name, and then she would greet them, and say just the right thing — ‘Thank you for your work on the environmental community.’ I was floored.”

The people at that event, Mr. Mixner said, helped elect seven Democratic senators that fall.

“The two of them never wasted a day,” Mr. Mixner said of the senator and his wife. “They sailed, they sang, they laughed, they told great old Irish political stories.”

And even as she was by his side in the last year of his life, helping him navigate the doctors’ appointments and medical care, friends say, she was also the one making sure his life was as full as he wanted it to be. That meant time to work on health care legislation and on his memoir, to sail with friends and family, to enjoy her cooking, and to sit on the porch with their Portuguese water dogs, Sunny and Splash — and the newest addition, as of last winter, Captain Courageous.

“In that first week, when the diagnosis came — how she put the entire medical profession through their paces,” Joseph Kennedy Jr., a nephew of the senator, said in an interview Friday after the wake. “And then she basically put my uncle, who had always carried our entire family on his shoulders, she put him on hers, and she just carried him.”

On Thursday and Friday, dressed in simple black, she was carrying on as his partner, friends say, presiding at his wake in Boston, greeting the tens of thousands of mourners. She stood for hours at the Kennedy library, shaking hands, saying a few words to each person who came through, extending herself, Joe Kennedy said, to Teddy’s people as he would have wanted, just as they had planned it, together.

There has been the inevitable talk of Vicki Kennedy’s running for her husband’s vacant Senate seat. But her friends say she has not expressed interest in it.

With her husband gone, “I think she will do exactly what he wanted her to do,” Mr. Mixner said, “and continue living life to the fullest — with great sorrow, with a great sense of loss,” but not, he added, “as a victim or as a widow.”

Details of President Obama’s eulogy of Senator Kennedy

2009-08-29T10:34:00.000-07:00

obama eulogy

Deputy Press Secretary Bill Burton says that the eulogy President Obama will deliver at Senator Kennedy's funeral mass later this morning, "will be a personal message from the President about Senator Kennedy's impact as a friend, legislator, mentor, colleague and family member on those around him and our entire nation."

The President has, according to a senior official, consulted with top political adviser David Axelrod. He has also worked with his speech writing team, led by Jon Favreau. Assisting was former Kennedy staffer and WH speech writer Cody Keenan.

Senator Kennedy's funeral mass will take place at Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica in Boston at 1030a.m. Watch Fox News Channel for full coverage.

Carter Visit Brings Big Costs

2009-08-29T10:31:00.000-07:00

jimmy carter

In less than a month, former US President Jimmy Carter will become the second person to accept the Mahatma Gandhi Global Nonviolence award at JMU. Hosting prestigious guests, like Carter, comes at great cost and requires months of preparation.

Harrisonburg has played host to a few of the most influential men of our time. In September 2007 it was Archbishop Desmond Tutu, in October of last year, then candidate Barack Obama and in September, former President Jimmy Carter will join the city's list of v.i.p. visitors.

"It's a unique opportunity and I think it's about some topics that many folks find very meaningful," says JMU Spokesman, Don Egle.

But to host big names, the city and JMU must also spend big. The university will shell out about $80,000 to bring in the Carters. Harrisonburg has agreed to contribute $15,000 through in-kind donations, like police overtime. Those writing the checks say it's not an expense, but an investment.

"Some of the in-kind funds are actually received by the city on behalf of taxes or things like that where people are coming to the restaurants," says Harrisonburg Mayor, Kai Degner.

Harrisonburg alone won't reap the benefits of Carter's lecture.

"I think these types of events add value to what happens on the university campus, it adds value to the student experience in general and for faculty and staff but even beyond that, I think it adds value to the surrounding community," says Egle

When Barack Obama spoke at JMU, Harrisonburg spent $9,000 on police, $4,000 on transit and as much as $2,000 on public works. In all, the campaign reimbursed the city close to $15,000.

"Obviously we want to be careful about where we're spending money and what we're supporting. I think an event of this magnitude certainly justifies a contribution," says Degner.

JMU will raise money for the Carter lecture through ticket sales and a dinner.

"Yeah, it's not cheap, but it's nice that we have different avenues of revenue that have come in to help cover the cost," says Egle.

Fundraising isn't all that's being done in preparation for the Carters. Logistics for parking, promotions and seating started months ago.

Former President Carter will lecture on September 21st in the JMU Convo at 7 p.m. You can buy tickets by calling 568-3853. Tickets are $10 - $5.

There will be about 7,000 seats available. You will find a link to online ticket sales by clicking on the "hot button," section of this Web site.

Mass Lottery Mega Millions!

2009-08-29T10:29:00.000-07:00

mass lottery

Below again are the Mass Lottery and Mega Millions Winning Numbers from last night August 25, 2009. The Mega Millions Winning Numbers prompted state lottery websites to crash last night. Last night’s draw was the third largest in U.S. history: $252 million.

The Mega Millions winning lottery numbers : 3, 12, 19, 22 and 40 with the Mega Ball, 2.

Additionally, that Powerball last week that went for $260 million yielded one winner - Solomon Jackson Jr., a former South Carolina state employee. Solomon was already enjoying retirement. Now Solomon will REALLY be enjoying retirement.

A rep for the New Jersey told press last night before the draw:

“With jackpots of this size, you start to see people who don’t normally play a game like Mega Millions buying a ticket. They may notice it’s over 100 million, and they’ll say, ‘OK, I’ll take a shot at it.’”

A Georgia official additional said the following:

“Whenever we have a large jackpot, there is always excitement across the state and that translates into additional dollars for the educational programs we fund.”

Yo-Yo Ma, Domingo to perform at Kennedy funeral

2009-08-29T10:25:00.000-07:00

yo yo ma

BOSTON — Cellist Yo-Yo Ma and tenor Placido Domingo will perform at the funeral Mass for Sen. Edward Kennedy.

The Rev. Philip Dabney, associate pastor of Boston's Mission Church, says Saturday's service will be a "regular Catholic funeral" — with superb music.

In addition, there will be a contingent from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and mezzo-soprano Susan Graham.

Several clergy members will be on hand. The Rev. Donald Monan, the chancellor of Boston College, will be the principal celebrant.

The Rev. Mark Hession of Our Lady of Victories Parish on Cape Cod will delivery the homily, and Boston Cardinal Sean O'Malley will lead the final prayers of commendation.

President Barack Obama will delivery the eulogy.

AP Top News at 12:23 p.m. EDT

2009-08-29T10:22:00.000-07:00

BOSTON — Leaders and other luminaries paid final tribute Saturday to Edward M. Kennedy, mourning the loss of a senator who made an indelible impact on U.S. life over 47 years in Congress and the man who held up America's most famous family during tragedy and triumph. President Barack Obama was delivering the eulogy at a two-hour Roman Catholic funeral Mass for Kennedy. The service drew to Our Lady of Perpetual Help Basilica three of the four living former presidents, dozens of Kennedy relatives, pews full of current and former members of Congress and hundreds of others affected by the senator in ways large and small. Kennedy died Tuesday night at 77, after battling brain cancer for more than a year.

Next step not clear for Vicki Kennedy

2009-08-29T10:18:00.000-07:00

caroline raclin

Even in a family sadly experienced in public mourning, the sight of Victoria Reggie Kennedy standing by her husband’s casket at the John F. Kennedy Library, greeting a seemingly endless number of well wishers, or leading a group of prominent political figures in honoring Ted Kennedy’s memory at a service Friday night, seemed to have special meaning. They were, in a sense, the public affirmation of the role the dark-haired Louisiana lawyer who became Kennedy’s second wife had come to play in his life.

Friends of Kennedy say it was Vicki who rescued him from his famously self-destructive habits when they were married 17 years ago, becoming both confidante, protector and adviser. As Kennedy battled with the brain cancer that would ultimately kill him, she organized his treatment and managed his time, and after he died she planned how he would be remembered and who would be attending. “It was as if the good Lord had sent her,” former Sen. John Warner, a close friend of Kennedy’s, said in an interview with POLITICO.

Vicki Kennedy played a far more active part in her husband’s career than the wives of John F. Kennedy and Robert F. Kennedy — Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Ethel Skakel Kennedy, whose grief over their slain husbands embedded them in the national consciousness. And as a widow she is likely to live a different kind of life — though how she will define it is not clear.

Her very public moments this week left some wondering whether Vicki Kennedy will remain on the national stage, pushing her husband’s issues—including the one he never saw to fruition, health care reform. But it is at least as likely that she will revert back to the life she had before she met Kennedy, this time as a 55-year-old working mother with two grown children, Curran Raclin and Caroline Raclin, now in their twenties.

Kennedy has told friends she isn’t interested in filling her late husband’s Senate seat either temporarily—if state lawmakers revert back to an old system that would allow the governor to fill the vacancy—or in the long-term, by running in a special election. “All this stuff about her going to the Senate is completely wrong,” Bob Shrum, the longtime Kennedy speechwriter and adviser, said in an interview.

But that hasn’t stopped the pundits—and even some Kennedy aides— from chattering about the possibility. Appearing on ABC News on Thursday, Cokie Roberts called Kennedy a “political person” and said she wouldn’t be surprised if she did in fact make a run for the Senate. “She knows politics. She knows substance. It’s normal for someone who’s been that involved to want to stay involved,” Roberts said.

A former longtime Kennedy aide agrees: “She’s the logical choice to keep the seat. She’s a very sharp lawyer, she knows the issues well, and she could carry the torch for Teddy on the health care issue. She would complete his mission.”

But friends say they take Vicki Kennedy at her word. “I believe her when she says she has no interest in public office,” said Pam Covington, a friend of Kennedy’s for close to two decades. “I’ve never heard her even hint at that.

“I don’t know what’s in her heart of hearts that she’s not talking about,” Covington added. “But my guess is that she is happy to carry on Teddy’s legacy in other ways.”

Rep. Ed Markey, the Massachusetts Democrat and a longtime Kennedy friend, said he can see Vicki continuing to be an advocate for the passage of health care reform. “It’s something that is central to his legacy and I think that she will work to see that legacy completed,” Markey said.

As many have noted in recent days that legacy was sometimes challenged by issues in Ted Kennedy’s personal life. He divorced his first wife in 1982 and his name quickly became shorthand for comedians’ jokes about politicians behaving badly. In the months leading up to his testimony at the rape trial of his nephew William Kennedy Smith, the senator began dating Vicki after she invited him to party celebrating her parents’ 40th wedding anniversary. (The two families had been longtime friends: Vicki’s father Edmund, a judge, supported John F. Kennedy for Vice President in 1956 and Vicki’s mother Doris was the only delegate from Louisiana to vote for Ted Kennedy for president in 1980.)

They married in 1992 and Kennedy aides quickly noticed a difference in him. “She brought sunshine to his life,” one longtime aide recalls. “It’s like she opened the shades and lifted his spirits. He suddenly looked healthy.”

During Friday night's ceremony, Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Vicki has "been a tremendously wonderful wife to my friend Ted."

"Their marriage in many respects saved Teddy," Hatch continued, adding that their union made him "a better man and a better senator."

Markey and others credit Vicki for helping to win Kennedy’s hard-fought Senate race against Republican Mitt Romney in 1994.

“He obviously loved having her at his side at every event and he turned to her constantly for advice,” Markey said. “She was constantly providing encouragement and advice to him and they became inseparable both personally and professionally.”

While the spotlight was on her husband, Vicki Kennedy took on her own causes, becoming an advocate of children’s safety issues and president and co-founder of “Common Sense about Kids and Guns,” an organization committed to reducing gun violence involving children.

While she’s likely to maintain those interests, it’s unclear whether she intends to resume her legal career. After marrying Kennedy, she left the law firm Keck Mahin & Cate, where she was a partner specializing in banking and restructuring, to focus on her kids—she served on the board at the Maret School, where they were students -- and her husband’s career.

But friends think Vicki Kennedy will return to Washington and resume life in a home she and the senator purchased in the Kalorama neighborhood, far from the Kennedy family’s Massachusetts base, but also outside of the Washington limelight.

"She was not a socialite by any means and they were never part of the Washington social scene,” says Sally Quinn, the Washington hostess and social observer. “He was good at being a pol but not crazy about going to seated dinners. He would often do a 'fly by.'"

"Vicki is very quiet but I don’t see her becoming the grande dame of Washington,” Quinn added. “She was very content being Teddy’s wife and being a mother.”

“I would expect her to be very active in his causes," she said. "I still don’t think she’ll be a major figure in the Washington social scene. She’ll remain much more a quiet figure in Washington.”

Still, she added, "She’ll always be effective at what she does."

That Vicki Kennedy possesses an inner toughness was clear to anyone who came in contact with her during her husband’s illness. News reports have documented one particular squabble between Vicki and Joseph Kennedy II, Kennedy’s nephew, over her husband’s medical treatment.

“It was obvious that there were many demands flying around,” said one longtime family friend. “She became Teddy’s guardian of the gate and that created some tension. To this day, there’s a lot of ice there and some difficulty.”

The friend added that many members of the Kennedy clan including, Caroline Kennedy, were “solidly in Vicki’s corner.”

Even though Ted Kennedy was the “lion” and family patriarch, everyone knew that in the end it was Vicki who would call the shots. “A great reason why he did have as great a year as he did was because of Vicki,” added Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) one of Kennedy’s closest friends, said in an interview. “She gave him a remarkable year.”

She spent her time talking to doctors across the country about the best medical options for her husband, while juggling the cooking, prodding him to finish his memoirs and deciding when the senator was well enough to venture out on his 50 foot-sailboat “Mya” and when he would have to stay in.

Even Dodd, one of his closest confidants, admits, “I never went up to see him without talking to her and I never called him without talking to her.”

And in May when Dodd was coping with his own sister’s battle with cancer, it was Vicki, he says, who called him within hours to say she had scheduled an appointment for her to see Ted Kennedy’s doctor.

While the last year provided challenges for Vicki Kennedy, friends say, it also provided her with clarity.

“As tough as it was, I know the last year provided her with some of the happiest moments of their life together,” Covington said. “Her faith and great optimism not only bolstered him, but it bolstered them.”

Cash for Appliances offers free rebates

2009-08-25T09:59:00.000-07:00

cash for appliances

The Obama administration announced the economic stimulus plan dubbed Cash for Appliances last month, but it's gained new attention as the program nears active status.

With some differences to the wildly popular Cash for Clunkers program, one noteworthy change is that a trade-in is not required to obtain monetary incentives.

The incentives will be in the form of consumer rebates which can be used towards the purchase of new refrigerators, washing machines, dishwashers, air conditioners and the like.

Depending on the product and the state of residence, the rebates will run between $50 and $200 for energy efficient purchases.

Cash for Appliances may not only stimulate the economy but help reduce energy consumption and utility bills. Old appliances simply consume more power. For instance a newer washing machine may save $10 or more dollars a month in electricity consumption, a new microwave $5 dollars. It all adds up.

Though program is not without some critics. $300 million dollars in taxpayer monies has been set aside for it and 10 to 25 percent of the money will cover administrative costs. At 25 percent that is $75 million, simply to implement an unproven economic-energy plan.

According to the Department of Energy, the Recovery Act appropriated funds for the program are designed to help achieve the national goals of spurring economic growth, creating jobs, saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions. States and territories can use these funds to leverage the utility companies and energy efficiency program sponsors in their area.

The Cash for Appliances program will be available in some states as early as November, which may help Black Friday fans save more. States are allocated funds based on population and their proposal due October 15.

To check out how much of a rebate is available, look to the Department of Energy website (energy.gov) or your state government website for updates.

Aaliyah: Remembering Her Legacy Eight Years On

2009-08-25T09:57:00.000-07:00

aaliyah

One of the last hits from Aaliyah's all-too-brief career was the track "More Than a Woman," released posthumously from her self-titled third LP.

The song and the video both showcased Aaliyah Dana Haughton, then 22, at her finest: flirty, reserved, sultry and, most importantly, it left listeners and viewers with a palpable sense that there was indeed more to come from this talented artist. Unfortunately, her life was tragically cut short when a plane carrying her and her entourage crashed shortly after takeoff. Her death — which occurred exactly eight years ago — still feels like it happened entirely too soon.

Ever since the Detroit singer and dancer debuted in 1994 with Age Ain't Nothing But a Number, we all watched Aaliyah blossom. Her initial look of dark sunglasses and baggy clothes evolved into a more adult look on her next album, One In a Million. She was always beautiful, but later as a young woman she exuded the kind of appeal that was as sexy as a whisper in your ear — so subtle that it never had to be overtly pointed out.

She also possessed the type of talent and charisma that led many to believe her future was as bright as a supernova.

"Aaliyah was one of the finest young women I have ever worked with. She was a consummate professional, an amazing talent with limitless potential and, most importantly, an exceptional person," Lorenzo di Bonaventura, who worked with the singer on the film "Romeo Must Die," said in a statement after her death. "Her passing is a huge loss to her many friends here at Warner Bros. and we extend our heartfelt sympathy to her family and to those who loved her as we did."

Her credits are easy to remember: three albums that were each certified double-platinum along with the aforementioned "Romeo Must Die," which helped to put her on Hollywood's map. Another film, "Queen of the Damned," was released after she passed.

Her legacy is slinkier — immense yet understated, just like her voice. Traces of it lie the way Ciara moved in the video for "Promise." It's there in Rihanna's runway-fashion sense. Keri Hilson's around-the-way persona and Nicole Scherzinger's simmering sexuality share a debt to her. And the sense of what her career could have ultimately become is evident in Beyoncé's multimedia presence.

During Aaliyah's rise, she and her contemporaries shared a number of similarities, most notably an affinity for going by just one name: Brandy, Monica, Mya, etc. All of them did well from the very beginning. Since then, of course, they've continued to experience success, but each with the usual ups and downs that fame tends to dish out. Aaliyah undoubtedly would have gone on to accomplish more.

But she always felt different, more mature than her age — and her ascent also felt more gradual and firm, and when she passed there was a sadness that resonated because she was set to soar.

"I'll be more than a lover, more than a woman," she sang. "I'm gonna be more. I don't think you're ready."

There truly was no way we could have been.

Fannie, Freddie Soar as Day - Traders Seek Profit

2009-08-25T09:54:00.000-07:00

fnm stock

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Shares of U.S. government-controlled mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac soared for a second straight day on Tuesday after attracting the attention of day-traders looking to turn a quick profit with these low-priced household names.

Fannie Mae shares rose as much as 24 percent to $2.12 while Freddie Mac gained as much as 14 percent to a high of $2.34 in morning trading on the New York Stock Exchange.

Though both hard-hit companies were essentially nationalized by Uncle Sam to prevent them from going under last fall, Fannie Mae shares have more than doubled since starting the year at 76 cents. Freddie Mac shares have almost tripled in value from 73 cents.

"You can get these massive spikes in these low-dollar companies that are structurally in a lot of trouble," said Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research.

Shares of other financial companies such as Citigroup Inc and insurers American International Group and Hartford Financial Services Group also have risen dramatically in recent weeks.

The U.S. government seized Fannie and Freddie last September after they reported huge losses caused by plummeting U.S. house prices.

For better or for worse, then, some investors see the mortgage lenders following the rebound of the banking sector.

"If the recession has actually ended and the economy is bouncing back, these investors would hope and believe that Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will make a similar move as these others," said William Lefkowitz, option strategist at brokerage firm vFinance Investments.

In late morning trading, Fannie Mae shares were up 14 percent at $1.93 while Freddie Mac shares were up 6 percent at $2.18, despite any material news.

Joe Kinahan, chief derivatives strategist at Thinkorswim Group, a division of TD Ameritrade Holding Corp, said some investors may see an improving outlook for the mortgage giants thanks to an economic rebound and government intervention.

"The only rumor I have heard is that the government may extend or increase the time frame for the government's first-time home buyer tax credit, which is supposed to expire this fall. If that happens, that would be great for Fannie and Freddie," he said.

Options markets were also very active Tuesday. During the first 45 minutes of trade, about 61,000 call options changed hands in Fannie -- more than three times its average daily volume and nearly five times the number of puts, according to option analytics firm Trade Alert.

Heavy call demand shows that investors expect Fannie and Freddie stock to rise.

Peep Show at the Standard Hotel

2009-08-25T09:52:00.000-07:00

high line standard hotel

Two female guests at the Standard Hotel near the newly opened High Line Park give viewers a show as they dance naked in front of their window. The Standard Hotel has become the center of controversy over the past several days as passersby can see guests engaging in sexual activity thanks to the hotel's ceiling-high windows.

Melanie Griffith back in rehab after strange color demands…

2009-08-25T09:49:00.000-07:00

melanie griffith

"Working Girl" star Melanie Griffith is in rehab again, her publicist confirmed to Star magazine.

Griffith, 52-year, checked into Utah's Cirque Lodge Rehab Facility, the previous temporary home of Lindsay Lohan and Kirsten Dunst.

While her publicist cited Griffith's "commitment to stay healthy" as the reason for her admission, FOXNews.com's Pop Tarts learned that she checked herself in part because husband Antonio Banderas, 49, would have no more of her erratic behavior.

One possible example? Someone who had recently worked with her told Pop Tarts that Griffith "had a multitude of crazy demands, including insisting everything around her, from the food to the flowers, be yellow."

So that would make her diet lemons, bananas, and ... what else, yellow squash?

We're not sure what the color scheme is at Cirque Lodge.

Heather Podesta: A Commentary on Lobbyists

2009-08-25T09:46:00.000-07:00

heather podesta

Members of the Senate and House of Representatives should be like criminal juries: neutral and closed to the world. The only people they should listen to are their superiors and the American people. Any other influence could sway a particular iniative in the direction of a motivated individual with an agenda or axe to grind, otherwise known as a lobbyist.

Our elected officials are distracted enough as it is with what's on their plate and the inefficient manner in which the federal government does business. The last thing they need is hoardes of manipulative people hanging around asking for them to do something. In this case, the quote "Too many cooks in the kitchen make a bad cake" is apt.

I respect lobbying as a constitutionally approved practice and lobbyists for working hard at what they strongly believe in. Yet, I can't support a practice that has yet to sit well with me.

Claymont steelworker sent to hospital after fire breaks out

2009-08-25T09:43:00.000-07:00

mark harris

A blaze from a one-alarm fire at a Claymont steel company sent an employee to the hospital Monday night after he suffered smoke inhalation. The man, a worker at Evraz Claymont Steel Company, formerly known asCitiSteel, was taken to Crozer-Chester Medical Center in Upland, Pa.

Claymont Fire Company Chief Mark Harris said the fire started in a furnace refractory at 6:11 p.m. Molten steel from a container dripped onto an electrical panel and caused the blaze, Harris said. The employee was working on a crane above the container and was not able to escape without help. Firefighters had to use ropes to free him because there was no visibility inside the room, Harris said.

More than 20 employees were evacuated. Fire companies from Talleyville, Brandywine Hundred, Holloway Terrace, Five Points and Wilmington helped extinguish the blaze. The fire was under control at 7:26 p.m.

Harris said employees were not allowed back into the unit that caught fire because of smoldering metal inside.

Harris also said the unit had smoke damage but it was not extensive. The State Fire Marshal's Office is investigating.

Danyl Johnson 'X Factor' Audition Video Goes Viral

2009-08-25T09:41:00.000-07:00

danyl johnson video

The video of Danyl Johnson performing the Beatles' "With a Little Help From My Friends" on the British talent show "The X Factor" has gone viral. On Monday, the official clip on YouTube had registered about 600,000 views since the weekend. Twenty-four hours later, the count had doubled to almost 1.2 million.

On Saturday night's airing, judge Simon Cowell called Johnson's soulful cover "the best first audition I have ever heard." Johnson quickly shot to frontrunner status, raising questions about whether he'd become the next incarnation of Scottish chanteuse Susan Boyle, albeit one in cargo shorts who prefers classic rock to "Les Misérables."

In the days since his performance, the British press has been reporting exhaustively on Johnson's personal history, just as it did following Boyle's appearance on "Britain's Got Talent" in April. The 27-year-old is a schoolteacher from Reading, England, who has fallen short in other attempts to make it big as a singer. According to The Daily Mirror, he has been in two boy bands, Upfrunt and Streetlevel, but neither of them ever caught on. The paper also reported that Johnson performed on television with a rock band called Empty Spaces and has auditioned for "X Factor" three times.

The Daily Mail landed an interview with Johnson's estranged father, who said he had not spoken with his son for a year after a falling-out. Following the "X Factor" performance, though, Johnson's father sent Danyl a text message and received a response back.

"I was so proud when I saw Danyl on the television," he told the paper. "I did shed a tear as he was singing."

The audience and the judges were nearly as taken with his performance. "When we see a performance like that, it's the absolute perfect audition," judge Dannii Minogue said. "So exciting to be sitting here on this panel."

Avi Ben Stella car crash

2009-08-25T09:39:00.000-07:00

avi ben stella car crash

The Avi Ben Stella car crash story appears to have finally gone properly viral.

Essentially, people are getting an email, or a Facebook request (and any other of the various forms of social media request) to simply change their status for one hour in order to ask for prayers for Avi Ben Stella, a 12 year old child who is now in a coma after being seriously injured in a car crash.

You can see the current status of this at Snopes, here.

No one is as yet quite sure: is there an Avi Ben Stella, was someone of that name in a car crash? Or is it simply a joke of some kind, although as yet the punchline is undelivered?

My supposition is that this is a joke, a game, of some sort. For one of the terms that has been replicating across the internet is "Avi Ben Stella Snopes".....and where would you go to try and find out the truth of an online rumor? Yes, Snopes.

But if the search engines are thoroughly polluted with that serach term, you're most unlikely to find the Snopes entry, are you? You can only get there by using the engine on Snopes' own site.

So I would write this off as a joke, a game: if anyone knows differently please do contact me in the comments.

Martha Raye

2009-08-25T09:37:00.000-07:00

Fergie at the Teen Choice Awards last night in Universal City, and vaudevillian/TV star/singer and USO trouper Martha Raye. So alike, and yet only one is “The Big Mouth.”

Max Baer Jr. May Purchase Sparks Property

2009-08-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

max baer

Former actor Max Baer Jr. is contemplating the purchase of the Silver Club in Sparks and transforming the property into Jethro's Beverly Hillbillies Hotel and Casino. Sparks Mayor Geno Martini tells the "Reno Gazette-Journal" that Baer has discussed the matter with City of Sparks staff and at least three city council members. Baer played the character of Jethro on the 1960's TV sitcom "The Beverly Hillbillies." The Silver Club is now closed and is one of six casinos in Nevada owned by Harold Holder that have filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization.

Funk Fest today at LaSalle Park

2009-08-23T10:09:00.000-07:00

ricky james

Rick James lives. Buffalo Funk Fest 2009—the Rick James Memorial Concert—uncorks beginning at 1 p. m. today at LaSalle Park.

The concert, produced by WWWSAM 1400 Solid Gold Soul and the Buffalo Funk Fest Committee, features a lineup that includes the All Star Band, the Old-School B-Boys, Will Holton and the JWN Band.

Sponsors include Masten Councilman Demone Smith, University Councilwoman Bonnie Russell, State Sen. Antoine Thompson, D-Buffalo, Carmen Sims (Rick James’ brother) and LP Ciminelli.

TCM presents a day of Angela Lansbury movies

2009-08-23T10:05:00.001-07:00

all fall down

Angela Lansbury is the featured actress in the TCM Summer Under the Stars on Sunday, August 23, 2009. Lansbury is a versatile actress who has portrayed innocent girls, evil mothers, scheming maids, itches, free spirits sleuths and even a singing teapot. Lansbury became a household name with the television series “Murder She Wrote,” but before that series she had a long movie and stage career. Movies being featured on TCM include The Angela Lansbury in Gaslight Public Domain WikipediaHarvey Girls, Tenth Avenue Angel, A Lawless Street, All Fall Down, The Manchurian Candidate, The Reluctant Debutante, Bedknobs and Broomsticks, Gaslight, Kind Lady, Death on the Nile, The Picture of Dorian Gray and Season of Passion.

The Harvey Girls at 6:00 AM

The Harvey Girls, 1946, is set in the Southwest in the late 1800’s. The musical score was a tribute to the railroad that helped to win the west. “On the Atchison, Topeka and the Santa Fe.” Was a hit and won the Oscar® for Best Song. The cast of The Harvey Girls includes Judy Garland, John Hodiak, Ray Bolger, Angela Lansbury, Marjorie Main, Cyd Charisse and Ben Carter.

Tenth Avenue Angel at 8:00 AM

Tenth Avenue Angel, 1948, features Margaret O’Brien who was a child actress. The cast includes Margaret O’Brien, Angela Lansbury, George Murphy, Phyllis Thaxter, Warner Anderson, Rhys Williams and Barry Nelson.

A Lawless Street at 9:30 AM

A Lawless Street, 1955, is the story of a Marshal with a past that comes back to haunt him. The cast includes Randolph Scott, Angela Lansbury, Warner Anderson, Jean Parker, Wallace Ford, John Emery, James Bell, Ruth Donnelly, Michael Pate, Don Megowan and Jeanette Nolan.

All Fall Down at 11:00 AM

All Fall Down, 1961, is the story of Berry-Berry Willart (Warren Beatty), a irresponsible ladies man who causes a family crises when he visits his family in Cleveland. The cast includes Eva Marie Saint, Warren Beatty, Karl Malden, Angela Lansbury, Brandon De Wilde.

The Manchurian Candidate at 1:00 PM

The Manchurian Candidate, 1926, is a political satire and thriller that enjoys cult status. The cast includes Frank Sinatra, Laurence Harvey, Angela Lansbury, Janet Leigh, Leslie Parrish and James Gregory.

Private Screenings: Angela Lansbury at 3:15 PM

“The Summer Under the Stars” day with Angela Lansbury features a interview in which Lansbury speaks with TCM host Robert Osborne.

The Reluctant Debutante at 4:15 PM

The Reluctant Debutante, 1958, is the story of a young girl hwose parents prepare for her society debut. The cast includes Rex Harrison, Kay Kendall, John Saxon, Sandra Dee, Angela Lansbury, Peter Myers and Ambrosine.

Bedknobs and Broomsticks at 6:00 PM

Bedknobs and Broomsticks, 1978, is about the adventures of a witch apprentice and the three children she looks after during World War II. The cast includes Angela Lansbury, David Tomlinson, Roddy McDowall, Sam Jaffe and John Ericson.

Gaslight at 8:00 PM

Gaslight, 1944, is the classic movie about a wife who is being driven insane by her sinister husband. Gaslight won Oscars for Best Actress (Ingrid Bergman), Best Picture, Best Actor (Boyer), Best Supporting Actress (Angela Lansbury), Best Screenplay and Best Black and White Cinematography. Gaslight was directed by George Cukor, The cast includes Charles Boyer, Ingrid Bergman, Joseph Cotton, Dame May Whitty and Angela Lansbury.

Kind Lady at 10:00 PM

Kind Lady, 1951, is a tale about the dangers of allowing strangers into you home and life and includes blackmail, murder and extortion as part of the plot. The cast includes Ethel Barrymore, Maurice Evans, Angela Lansbury, Keenan Wynn and Betsy Blair.

Death on the Nile at 11:30 PM

Death on the Nile, 1978, is a star studded Agatha Christie adaptation about a pleasure cruise that turns into a crime scene. The cast includes Peter Ustinov, Jane Birkin, Lois Chiles, Bette Davis, Mia Farrow, George Kennedy, Angela Lansbury, David Niven, Maggie Smith, Jack Warden, Olivia Hussey and Jon Finch.

The Picture of Dorian Gray at 2:00 AM

The Picture of Dorian Gray, 1945, is the creepy story of a man who doesn’t age. The cast includes Hurd Harfield, George Sanders, Angela Lansbury, Donna Reed, Peter Lawford, Lowell Gilmore, Reginald Owen and Miles Mander.

Season of Passion at 4:00 AM

Season of Passion, 1961, has a cast that includes Ernest Borgnine, Anne Baxter, John Mills, Angela Lansbury, Vincent Ball, Janette Craig and Ethel Gabriel.

All times are Eastern Time.

A happy medium

2009-08-23T09:58:00.000-07:00

wilco tour

Jeff Tweedy? Isn’t he that miserable cut of a curmudgeon from Wilco? JIM CARROLL is surprised to find otherwise. The longtime Wilco frontman is all good cheer as he describes getting out of Chicago to record, touring little-known baseball stadiums – and jamming with his rocker son

AFTER ABOUT 10 minutes of friendly banter, you begin to wonder if it’s really Jeff Tweedy on the other end of the phone. This guy is laughing and wisecracking like he’s trying out for a comedy festival. Perhaps the newfangled phone system in his management office has accidentally connected you with someone else called Jeff Tweedy in the greater Chicago area?

It doesn’t add up. Isn’t Tweedy supposed to be a dour, unhappy, miserable cut of a curmudgeon? Isn’t this the dude who tried to cure his demons with pills and ended up in rehab? Isn’t he the band leader who kept chopping and changing the line-up like some sort of indie-rock James Brown?

Tweedy snorts with laughter once again.

“Well, it depends on who you ask,” he says about his grumpy rep. “I did an interview with someone in Spain a while ago and they said that they knew I was very, very, very sad and that they liked that.”

There’s another giggle from the Windy City before he continues. “To be honest, I think a song like Heavy Metal Drummer is pretty funny, not ha-ha-ha, laugh-out-loud funny, but it’s funny. Casino Queen , too, from A.M . is humorous.

“Actually, every record has had its funny track and it’s been a part of the band, but it’s not a part of the band that people have focused on before because of the perceived seriousness of a lot of the other material. I think this time we’re definitely laughing more. It might have something to do with the first song you put on a record, and the first song here has definitely got some humour.”

Tweedy is talking about Wilco (The Song) , the opening salvo on their seventh album, Wilco (The Album) . It’s an optimstic, tongue-in-cheek battle cry, with Tweedy nodding and winking as he provides a shoulder for the masses to cry on. “Wilco,” he croons to the listener, “Wilco will love you baby.”

The rest of the album is just as cheery and upbeat, as befits this year’s only record with artwork of a camel on a roof standing next to a table with a cake on it. What we get here is a perfect match of the band’s mellow mood swings ( One Wing could well have been plucked from their last album, Sky Blue Sky ) cosying up to their more experimental side (the powerful, uneasy Bull Black Nova has some of that Yankee Hotel Foxtrot hooch running through its veins).

It is also, remarkably, their first record to feature the same line-up as the album before it. Given the band’s previous form in turning a simple album release into a bit of a soap opera, are we now dealing with a drama-free Wilco?

“I don’t know where people get the idea that every Wilco record is supposed to have drama,” says Tweedy – with a laugh. “Okay, I guess, historically speaking, we’ve had our fair share of ups and downs. I’m not the master of the universe, so the next record might be completely different in that regard, though I’m not planning it that way. Let’s just say that there’s a noticable lack of drama in the eyes of people paying attention to us.”

Whatever about the lack of drama, the ambition that has driven Tweedy for more than a quarter-century – since his days as a member of The Plebes back in Belleville, Illinois – is still very much present and correct.

“Yeah, I’m ambitious, I don’t want to make the best Wilco record, I want to make the best record full stop. I know that’s impossible, but that’s part of the reason why it’s fun to keep trying.

“I’m aware, too, that I’m always competing with Wilco in the eyes of the listener and our earlier records. That’s been the way for a long time. When Wilco started, we were competing against Uncle Tupelo. It’s never changed anything about what I do when I go into a recording studio. You can only do the best you can do, and that’s what I strive for.”

One reason for the stress-free gestation of Wilco (The Album) could be that it wasn’t put together in Chicago. The band found themselves in New Zealand working on a charity record in Neil Finn’s studio and decided to stay on. It proved to be a good idea.

“We’d a great time in New Zealand and gotten really comfortable in Neil’s studio, and so it seemed really natural to stay down there and get some of the basic tracks down. We stayed an extra week or so and we got a lot done. It was way more efficient to do that because, strangely, we worked a lot faster than we’d ever work in Chicago.

“When you’re only responsible for feeding yourself, it makes it a lot easier to focus on just making rock music. When you’re in your hometown, though, as much as everyone around us understands that this is our job, it’s hard to stop normal life from interfering with the recording process.

“I think it’s really good and healthy to get away from all your stuff once in a while, because rock’n’roll is built on kicking against your limitations. One of the things we’ve done over the years is build this loft space in Chicago and fill it up with all the coolest gear we can find. But it’s also good to take yourself out of that environment and force yourself to work with what’s to hand, and that’s what made New Zealand such an enjoyable trip.

“It was also about the longest I’ve been able to stay anywhere away from home – other than Ireland, oddly enough. We were in Ireland for about a month working on the Mermaid Avenue album a few years ago. I have to say that New Zealand’s weather beats your weather hands down.”

In early 2008, Wilco took over the Riviera venue in Chicago for a couple of nights to perform their entire recorded repetoire over a few shows.

“After years of touring with this line-up,” says Tweedy, “I’ve noticed that people would request songs which we didn’t know or hadn’t played. It got me thinking, and I said to the others, why don’t we just play all these songs at the one time? If we’re going to call ourselves Wilco, let’s go and play all the Wilco songs and lay claim to all of these past records and do something that no other line-up of the band had ever done. I think this line-up plays some of those older songs a whole lot better than the line-up which created them.”

Some former members might disagree. The best known ex-Wilco player is the late Jay Bennett, the multi-instrumentalist who was publicly fired in 2001. Bennett died from a drug overdose in May, a few weeks after issuing a legal suit against Wilco alleging breach of contract and unpaid royalties.

While Tweedy contests Bennett’s claims (“he was suing me for a contract we didn’t have and over a movie I did not produce”), there is a note of sadness about the death. “Jay was a really amazing musician and he really helped Wilco to grow as a band during the years he was with us. It was a tragic, sad end.”

The disintegration in their relationship was vividly captured in the documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart , a riveting insight into how a band deal with all manner of problems, from getting dropped by their label to inner-band strife and creative conflict.

You’d imagine, then, that Wilco would be reluctant to have any cameramen in their faces for an extended period ever again. Nonetheless, the band invited film-makers Brendan Canty and Christoph Green to shoot Ashes of American Dreams , which documents the band on a tour of some colourful US venues.

“Fortunately, or unfortunately, for the film-makers, nothing extraordinary happened other than the music,” says Tweedy. “Sam Jones was just in the right place at the right time with I Am Trying to Break Your Heart . The worse things got for us, the better they got for him.

“I’m not opposed to people coming round to document things. I still have a pretty laissez-faire attitude to the whole thing. I don’t think we have an image worth spending that much time and energy trying to control.”

As the new documentary follows Wilco to Nashville, Tulsa, Mobile and New Orleans, there is a strong sense of a disappearing country, where places with strong regional identities are slowly becoming more and more homogenised.

Tweedy says the film and the band’s recent tour of minor-league baseball parks are “not part of some broader band philosophy on America”, but more an attempt to show different environments to the world.

“I have an ambivalence about America, which is hard for people outside of America to grasp. People outside America see a lot of chest-thumping, and it’s very much a love or hate thing. I think most Americans are somewhere in the middle, where there are some things which feel very communal and feel like home, and other things we are deeply ashamed of.

“The whole slant of the Ashes of American Dreams movie and us playing these baseball parks earlier in the summer has much to do with the band’s desire not to play in sterile, corporate environments if we can avoid them.They’re just the kind of places we gravitate towards because they feel good to play music in.

“They’re places we see, in some romantic way maybe, as the best parts of America and they’re places which don’t really tend to exist anymore.”

These days, the Wilco frontman isn’t the only Tweedy in the music business. Spencer, his 13-year-old son, is playing drums and raising teenage hell with his own band, The Blisters.

When Tweedy talks about his relationship with his son, parental pride is very much to the fore. But there is also the sort of philosophy about making music that has served Tweedy and Wilco so well since they started out in 1994.

“We hang out and play music together all the time. I think he’s got a lot of advice from myself and my wife, who ran a rock club for many years, and he’s learned from other musicians and the guys in the band.

“I think the main thing we’ve tried to instil in Spencer is that music is something to be enjoyed. I feel I’ve tried to live my life in a way which shows that to him as much as say it to him. Music is part of your life, and it enriches your perspective and appreciation for being alive.

“Anything which interferes with that is to be shunned and avoided if you chose to make your living from music. It’s too high a price to pay if you’re going to sacrifice your enjoyment of music to get ahead.”

Wilco (The Album) is out now on Nonesuch. Wilco play Vicar Street in Dublin on August 27th and 28th.

Actor Antwon Tanner pleads guilty in scheme in NYC

2009-08-23T09:55:00.000-07:00

antwon tanner

NEW YORK – "One Tree Hill" actor Antwon Tanner has pleaded guilty to selling more than a dozen Social Security numbers for $10,000. Tanner told a federal judge in Brooklyn on Friday that he was a middleman, selling numbers someone else provided. He and his lawyer didn't comment on how he got involved in the scheme.

Tanner is expected to get as much as a year in prison at his sentencing, set for Nov. 20.

The 34-year-old actor was charged in April with selling 16 Social Security numbers and three bogus Social Security cards.

Tanner plays the character Skills in the CW series. Representatives for the network didn't immediately return a telephone call Saturday.

Tanner also appeared in the 2005 movie "Coach Carter," starring Samuel L. Jackson.

Patti Davis Playboy

2009-08-23T09:52:00.000-07:00

nancy reagan

Patti Davis (perhaps better known to you as Patti Reagan) did indeed pose for Playboy back in 1994. You can see the cover of the magazine here (SFW). She was also inside the magazine wearing less than just those dark hands and as they're not safe for work we'll not be linking to them.

It has to be said that there's always been an element of epater les bourgeois to Patti Davis' public actions. Daughter of the famously conservative Ronnie and Nancy Reagan her opinions on such things as abortion are a great deal more liberal than theirs are/were. But that's not all.

In the parlance of the day she was "shacked up" with one member of the Eagles (Bernie Leadon) while her father was Governor of California. These days the idea of a couple living together without marriage is quite unsurprising, even if there are areas of the country where people would prefer their daughters didn't do so. But back in the early 1970s it was still quite unusual: and doubly so for the daughter of a prominent conservative politician.

In fact, while she was with Leadon she co-wrote with him a song which appeared on the Eagle's album, "One of These Nights": "I Wish You Peace", a song for which she still gets royalties.

The only slightly puzzling thing is why everyone seems to be searching for the Patti Davis Playboy pictures today.

She has also, to some extent, followed in her mother's footsteps, as an actress in various shows, including Love Boat and Fantasy Island.

Metal guy movie has footage

2009-08-23T09:48:00.000-07:00

venom movie

As previously reported everywhere in cyberspace besides here, Jon Favreau and several of his actors debuted a big chunk of Iron Man 2 footage at Comic-Con in San Diego in July. Finally, the roughly five minutes of footage has debuted online in gratifying Bootleg-o-Vision right here. What took so long?

Just as promised, you'll see Samuel L. Jackson as Nick Fury bantering with Robert Downey Jr.'s Tony Stark as he lounges in a giant fake donut in his Iron Man suit, with sunglasses replacing the helmet, eating an actual donut. Marvel at the triumphant return of Garry Shandling as a United States senator butting heads with RDJ's meticulously goateed Stark in some sort of televised hearing. Bask in the indecipherable narration of Mickey Rourke's Ivan Vanko as he builds stuff in a room adorned with the fake periodicals from Iron Man the first, with sudden cuts to both ScarJo's Black Widow jumping around a white room and a very Rocky 4-esque scene of dancers against a giant American flag, Hopefully you'll enjoy Rourke on the racetrack whipping around his electronic Whiplash tendril things like an elderly post-apocalyptic Jump Rope For Heart participant as much as I do.

Close the window after the Black Sabbath-accompanied title screen and you'll miss Sam Rockwell being characteristically slimy as gloved arms dealer Justin Hammer talking to dour and suddenly not-very-Terrence-Howard James Rhodes in a hanger. For the final shot you lucky people get the screen debut of yet another dark-suited and truly awesome 90s-tastic Marvel comics character. With Ghost Rider, Gambit and Venom already making the jump, we're only a Darkhawk and a Carnage away from having the whole awful decade committed to screen.

Sunday Word: Vineyard Vacation

2009-08-23T09:46:00.000-07:00

martha s vineyard

Wind and rain usher the First Family to Martha’s Vineyard this afternoon for a weeklong vacation.

But even the vineyard, a popular getaway for Democratic politicians, is no safe haven for President Obama. During his stay Conservatives for Patients’ Rights, a group trying to force the public option out of the health care proposal, plans to run a spot titled “Surf’s Up” on television stations in Martha’s Vineyard and the Boston area.

The anti-war protester Cindy Sheehan also plans to take her case to the traveling president. “I think the new titular head of the empire needs to know that his policies are devastating people as much as the same policies did when Bush was president,” she wrote on her blog Thursday.

Obama’s Vietnam: Earlier this summer a group of historians dined at the White House with Mr. Obama in the very same room where Lyndon B. Johnson made some of his most fateful decisions about the war in Vietnam, reports The Times’s Peter Baker in a Week in Review piece today. In that setting, the comparison between the two presidents, both of whom won elections while committed to a grand domestic agenda and a seemingly vital war, was inevitable.

“He said he has a problem,” said one person who attended that dinner at the end of June, insisting on anonymity to share private discussions. “This is not just something he can turn his back on and walk away from. But it’s an issue he understands could be a danger to his administration.”

Daschle’s in the House: In November President Obama tapped former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle to be the administration’s leading voice on health care. Months later, questions over his taxes derailed his nomination, yet he remains a major influence in the White House and on Capitol Hill while serving as a highly paid adviser to health care industry clients.

“With unrivaled ties on both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, he talks constantly with top White House advisers, many of whom previously worked for him,” The Times’s David Kirkpatrick reports. “He still speaks frequently to the president, who met with him as recently as Friday morning in the Oval Office.”

Mr. Daschle’s clients are poised to benefit from the plan to establish health insurance cooperatives, the plan he has advocated for the last two months as a politically feasible alternative to the government-run insurance plan, Mr. Kirkpatrick reports.

Red Cross Tracking Militants: For the first time, the Red Cross will be able to track dozens of the most dangerous militants held in secret United States prisons in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Times’s Eric Schmitt reports. The reversal of Pentagon policy sheds light on the American detention system overseas and advances the Red Cross’s long fight for more information about the detainees.

Edwards in Retail: In less than a month Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former North Carolina senator, John Edwards, has gone from bestselling author to furniture saleswoman. In downtown Chapel Hill Saturday she opened a new furniture store called Red Window. Yes, Mr. Edwards was present on the first day of business.

Celebrating Ganesh Chaturthi

2009-08-23T09:44:00.000-07:00

vinayaka chavithi katha

Ganesha Chaturthi, the great Ganesha festival, also known as 'Vinayak Chaturthi' or 'Vinayaka Chavithi' is celebrated by Hindus around the world as the birthday of Lord Ganesha. It is observed during the Hindu month of Bhadra (mid-August to mid-September) and the grandest and most elaborate of them, especially in the western India state of Maharashtra, lasts for 10 days, ending on the day of 'Ananta Chaturdashi'.

The Grand Celebration
A life-like clay model of Lord Ganesha is made 2-3 months prior to the day of Ganesh Chaturthi. The size of this idol may vary from 3/4th of an inch to over 25 feet.

On the day of the festival, it is placed on raised platforms in homes or in elaborately decorated outdoor tents for people to view and pay their homage. The priest, usually clad in red silk dhoti and shawl, then invokes life into the idol amidst the chanting of mantras. This ritual is called 'pranapratishhtha'. After this the 'shhodashopachara' (16 ways of paying tribute) follows. Coconut, jaggery, 21 'modakas' (rice flour preparation), 21 'durva' (trefoil) blades and red flowers are offered. The idol is anointed with red unguent or sandal paste (rakta chandan). Throughout the ceremony, Vedic hymns from the Rig Veda and Ganapati Atharva Shirsha Upanishad, and Ganesha stotra from the Narada Purana are chanted.

For 10 days, from Bhadrapad Shudh Chaturthi to the Ananta Chaturdashi, Ganesha is worshipped. On the 11th day, the image is taken through the streets in a procession accompanied with dancing, singing, to be immersed in a river or the sea symbolizing a ritual see-off of the Lord in his journey towards his abode in Kailash while taking away with him the misfortunes of all man. All join in this final procession shouting "Ganapathi Bappa Morya, Purchya Varshi Laukariya" (O father Ganesha, come again early next year). After the final offering of coconuts, flowers and camphor is made, people carry the idol to the river to immerse it.

The whole community comes to worship Ganesha in beautifully done tents. These also serve as the venue for free medical checkup, blood donation camps, charity for the poor, dramatic performances, films, devotional songs, etc. during the days of the festival.

Swami Sivananda Recommends
On the Ganesh Chaturthi day, meditate on the stories connected with Lord Ganesha early in the morning, during the Brahmamuhurta period. Then, after taking a bath, go to the temple and do the prayers of Lord Ganesha. Offer Him some coconut and sweet pudding. Pray with faith and devotion that He may remove all the obstacles that you experience on the spiritual path. Worship Him at home, too. You can get the assistance of a pundit. Have an image of Lord Ganesha in your
house. Feel His Presence in it.

Don't forget not to look at the moon on that day; remember that it behaved unbecomingly towards the Lord. This really means avoid the company of all those who have no faith in God, and who deride God, your Guru and religion, from this very day.

Take fresh spiritual resolves and pray to Lord Ganesha for inner spiritual strength to attain success in all your undertakings.

May the blessings of Sri Ganesha be upon you all! May He remove all the obstacles that stand in your spiritual path! May He bestow on you all material prosperity as well as liberation!

Solheim Cup Sunday pairings

2009-08-23T09:42:00.000-07:00

solheim cup sunday pairings

New Delhi, Aug 23, 2009: Solheim Cup Sunday pairings. The Solheim Cup is a biennial golf tournament for professional women golfers contested by teams representing Europe and the United States. It is named for the Norwegian-American golf club manufacturer Karsten Solheim, who was a driving force behind its creation.

The US team is selected by a points system, with American players on the LPGA Tour receiving points for each top-twenty finish on tour. For the European team, up to 2005, only seven players were selected on a points system based on results on the Ladies European Tour (LET).

This allows top European players who compete mainly on the LPGA Tour to be selected to ensure that the European team is competitive. From 2007, only the top five players from the LET will qualify and another four will be selected on the basis of the Women's World Golf Rankings.

This reflects the increasing dominance of the LPGA Tour, where almost all top European players spend most of their time. In addition, each team has a number of "captain's picks", players chosen at the discretion of the team captains, regardless of their point standings, though in practice the captain's picks are often the next ranking players.

Solheim Cup pairings

Suzann Pettersen
Paula Creamer

Becky Brewerton
Angela Stanford

Helen Alfredsson
Michelle Wie

Laura Davies
Brittany Lang

Gwladys Nocera
Juli Inkster

Catriona Matthew
Kristy McPherson

Sophie Gustafson
Brittany Lincicome

Diana Luna
Nicole Castrale

Tania Elosegui
Christina Kim

Maria Hjorth
Cristie Kerr

Anna Nordqvist
Morgan Pressel

Janice Moodie
Natalie Gulbis

1 ticket wins Powerball’s $260 million

2009-08-20T04:35:00.000-07:00

florida powerball

Sizzling tickets sales sent the jackpot soaring again, to $259.9 million - up $15 million since Saturday - and then one ticket won last night.

Sorry - unless you bought yours in South Carolina.

Now the biggest jackpot around is the $207 million up for grabs in tomorrow's Mega Millions lottery, played in New Jersey and 11 other states.

Powerball's top prize is back to $20 million for Saturday's drawing.

In last night's drawing, two Pennsylvania tickets did win $200,000 each for having the first five numbers - 14, 24, 31, 43 and 51 - but not the Powerball of 27. Eleven other players won the same amount: three in Wisconsin, two each in Arizona and Florida, and one apiece in Kentucky, Maine, North Carolina and West Virginia.

Four more tickets won $1 million for having the first five numbers, plus the Power Play multiplier option. Two were bought in Indiana, one each in Iowa and Indiana.

Powerball is played in 30 states, including Delaware.

Tottenham Hotspur Boss Harry Redknapp Purrs Over Electric Form Of Jermain Defoe

2009-08-20T04:33:00.000-07:00

hotspur

Following Tottenham Hotspur striker Jermain Defoe's onslaught at Hull City - where Spurs triumphed 5-1 with the 26-year-old tallying thrice - Harry Redknapp was quick to laud both the display, and the player, claiming "electric" Defoe was "unplayable".

"It was a terrific exhibition of attacking football," Redknapp reflected on the official website of FIFA.

"The movement, passing, pace - I played with four forwards and really took it to them. We looked dangerous every time we had the ball."

He continued, "Defoe looked almost unplayable, his form is absolutely electric.

"He looks stronger than I have ever seen him and I have known him since he was 14," Redknapp said, perhaps indicating to national manager Fabio Capello that Defoe is a worthy candidate for a first-team starting role with England should he continue to produce such scintillating performances.

"He has done a lot of work in the gym in the summer and he looks even more explosive.

"If he continues to play like that he has got no problems," he concluded.

Phil Mickelson feeling Minnesota love

2009-08-20T04:29:00.000-07:00

feeling minnesota

CHASKA, Minn. – The roar echoed across Hazeltine National Golf Club.

That Phil Mickelson can conjure thunder under clear blue skies at the PGA Championship comes as no surprise, but this was a practice round.

Mickelson jolted the folks jammed into the bleachers at the 18th hole off their feet by holing a 12-foot putt.

And it wasn’t even for birdie.

It was an unremarkable putt to save par, though it was hardly inconsequential.

“That was a $100 putt,” Butch Harmon, Mickelson’s swing coach, said afterward.

Mickelson’s putt saved him from reaching into his wallet after an 18-hole match with long-hitting Dustin Johnson. Mickelson’s putt assured a push in their all-square match. As impressed as Harmon was with the nature of the fan reaction, he was more impressed by the nature of Mickelson’s last stroke. He believes Mickelson’s ball striking is sharp enough to win this week. He believes putting was the difference in Mickelson’s runner-up finish at the U.S. Open in June and his close call at the Masters in April, and he suspects it will make the difference again this week.

“Phil played really, really well at the U.S. Open,” Harmon said. “His ball striking's been good. He missed some short putts like he did at the Masters and that probably cost him winning.”

Wednesday marked Mickelson’s first practice round at Hazeltine National this week.

His day began almost as remarkably as it ended. He received a standing ovation.

There’s nothing unusual about Mickelson inspiring that, either, except it came on the driving range before he hit a shot.

Fans squeezed into the bleachers spotted him crossing the bridge to the range, and it was like some head of state had arrived. One by one, they began rising and cheering and even chanting his name.

Of course, it’s noisier than ever around Mickelson now because his fans are cheering for two. Though Amy, Mickelson’s wife, isn’t here as she recovers from breast cancer surgery, she’s here in spirit. Lefty’s legion of fans let him know at every turn that they understand that.

“It’s been flattering, but what’s been interesting is to see how this affects so many people,” Mickelson said. “Everybody has a personal story, because it’s affected everybody’s life. Whether it’s their mother, sister or whether it’s breast cancer or another form of cancer, it’s shocking to me to see how this disease has affected so many people.”

Mickelson will be looking to win the fourth major of his career this week. He skipped the British Open last month to be with Amy and the couple’s three young children. He said he isn’t sure he will be able to play the Presidents Cup in October, and he isn’t sure how many FedEx Cup playoff events he’ll play when they begin later this month. Amy’s treatment will dictate his schedule.

“It’s been an interesting year, and we’ve had some highs and lows,” Mickelson said. “And I think we’ll have some more highs and lows for the next year or two. I think in the end, everything’s going to be fine. But right now, things are day-to-day for us. That’s both golf and not golf.”

Minnesotans made it clear Wednesday that they love Mickelson as much as the New Yorkers who rooted him on at Bethpage Black at the U.S. Open.

With Mickelson making his way to Hazeltine National’s first tee to play with Fred Couples, club professional Ryan Benzel and Johnson, fans stampeded in herd-like fashion to see. They were stacked along the ropes almost the entire length of the first fairway.

Lefty is the opposite of homeless. Almost everywhere Mickelson plays, it feels like a home game. He’ll have a home-field advantage again this week, though he doesn’t necessarily see it that way.

“You still have to execute, you still have to hit shots,” Mickelson said. “You still have to hit the putts and shoot the low score if you expect to win, and nobody else can pull the trigger except for you.”

Dave Pelz focuses on Mickelson’s short-game as a coach, but he feels what the crowds mean to his player’s game.

“I think it’s part of Phil’s personality, and if the crowds weren’t there he would miss them,” Pelz said. “He can get inspired and play out of his mind. I think you saw it at the U.S. Open. I think he just ran out of gas there. If he had a fraction more energy, I believe he would have pulled it if off at the U.S. Open. It was a combination of emotional and physical factors, but he gave it everything he had.

“People say Tiger never gives up, but Phil’s the same way. I’ve never seen Phil give up. I’ve been coaching Phil’s short game for six years now, and I’ve never seen him not try his best over a shot. There’s no give up in Phil.”

It’s part of what Mickelson’s legion of fans love of about him.

“Phil feeds off them,” Harmon said.

C.I.A. Sought Blackwater’s Help in Plan to Kill Jihadists

2009-08-20T04:27:00.000-07:00

blackwater

WASHINGTON — The Central Intelligence Agency in 2004 hired outside contractors from the private security contractor Blackwater USA as part of a secret program to locate and assassinate top operatives of Al Qaeda, according to current and former government officials.

Executives from Blackwater, which has generated controversy because of its aggressive tactics in Iraq, helped the spy agency with planning, training and surveillance. The C.I.A. spent several million dollars on the program, which did not successfully capture or kill any terrorist suspects.

The fact that the C.I.A. used an outside company for the program was a major reason that Leon E. Panetta, the C.I.A.’s director, became alarmed and called an emergency meeting in June to tell Congress that the agency had withheld details of the program for seven years, the officials said.

It is unclear whether the C.I.A. had planned to use the contractors to actually capture or kill Qaeda operatives, or just to help with training and surveillance in the program. American spy agencies have in recent years outsourced some highly controversial work, including the interrogation of prisoners. But government officials said that bringing outsiders into a program with lethal authority raised deep concerns about accountability in covert operations.

Officials said the C.I.A. did not have a formal contract with Blackwater for this program but instead had individual agreements with top company officials, including the founder, Erik D. Prince, a politically connected former member of the Navy Seals and the heir to a family fortune. Blackwater’s work on the program actually ended years before Mr. Panetta took over the agency, after senior C.I.A. officials themselves questioned the wisdom of using outsiders in a targeted killing program.

Blackwater, which has changed its name, most recently to Xe Services, and is based in North Carolina, in recent years has received millions of dollars in government contracts, growing so large that the Bush administration said it was a necessary part of its war operation in Iraq.

It has also drawn controversy. Blackwater employees hired to guard American diplomats in Iraq were accused of using excessive force on several occasions, including shootings in Baghdad in 2007 in which 17 civilians were killed. Iraqi officials have since refused to give the company an operating license.

Several current and former government officials interviewed for this article spoke only on the condition of anonymity because they were discussing details of a still classified program.

Paul Gimigliano, a C.I.A. spokesman, declined to provide details about the canceled program, but he said that Mr. Panetta’s decision on the assassination program was “clear and straightforward.”

“Director Panetta thought this effort should be briefed to Congress, and he did so,” Mr. Gimigliano said. “He also knew it hadn’t been successful, so he ended it.”

A Xe spokeswoman did not return calls seeking comment.

Senator Dianne Feinstein, the California Democrat who leads the Senate Intelligence Committee, also declined to give details of the program. But she praised Mr. Panetta for notifying Congress. “It is too easy to contract out work that you don’t want to accept responsibility for,” she said.

The C.I.A. this summer conducted an internal review of the assassination program that recently was presented to the White House and the Congressional intelligence committees. The officials said that the review stated that Mr. Panetta’s predecessors did not believe that they needed to tell Congress because the program was not far enough developed.

The House Intelligence Committee is investigating why lawmakers were never told about the program. According to current and former government officials, former Vice President Dick Cheney told C.I.A. officers in 2002 that the spy agency did not need to inform Congress because the agency already had legal authority to kill Qaeda leaders.

One official familiar with the matter said that Mr. Panetta did not tell lawmakers that he believed that the C.I.A. had broken the law by withholding details about the program from Congress. Rather, the official said, Mr. Panetta said he believed that the program had moved beyond a planning stage and deserved Congressional scrutiny.

“It’s wrong to think this counterterrorism program was confined to briefing slides or doodles on a cafeteria napkin,” the official said. “It went well beyond that.”

Current and former government officials said that the C.I.A.’s efforts to use paramilitary hit teams to kill Qaeda operatives ran into logistical, legal and diplomatic hurdles almost from the outset. These efforts had been run by the C.I.A.’s counterterrorism center, which runs operations against Al Qaeda and other terrorist networks.

In 2002, Blackwater won a classified contract to provide security for the C.I.A. station in Kabul, Afghanistan, and the company maintains other classified contracts with the C.I.A., current and former officials said.

Over the years, Blackwater has hired several former top C.I.A. officials, including Cofer Black, who ran the C.I.A. counterterrorism center immediately after the Sept. 11 attacks.

C.I.A. operatives also regularly use the company’s training complex in North Carolina. The complex includes a shooting range used for sniper training.

An executive order signed by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976 barred the C.I.A. from carrying out assassinations, a direct response to revelations that the C.I.A. had initiated assassination plots against Fidel Castro of Cuba and other foreign politicians.

The Bush administration took the position that killing members of Al Qaeda, a terrorist group that attacked the United States and has pledged to attack it again, was no different from killing enemy soldiers in battle, and that therefore the agency was not constrained by the assassination ban.

But former intelligence officials said that employing private contractors to help hunt Qaeda operatives would pose significant legal and diplomatic risks, and they might not be protected in the same way government employees are.

Some Congressional Democrats have hinted that the program was just one of many that the Bush administration hid from Congressional scrutiny and have used the episode as a justification to delve deeper into other Bush-era counterterrorism programs.

But Republicans have criticized Mr. Panetta’s decision to cancel the program, saying he created a tempest in a teapot.

“I think there was a little more drama and intrigue than was warranted,” said Representative Peter Hoekstra of Michigan, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee.

Officials said that the C.I.A. program was devised partly as an alternative to missile strikes using drone aircraft, which have accidentally killed civilians and cannot be used in urban areas where some terrorists hide.

Yet with most top Qaeda operatives believed to be hiding in the remote mountains of Pakistan, the drones have remained the C.I.A.’s weapon of choice. Like the Bush administration, the Obama administration has embraced the drone campaign because it presents a less risky option than sending paramilitary teams into Pakistan.

Official, Omarion Dropped From Young Money

2009-08-20T04:25:00.000-07:00

omarion dropped from young money

Two months after being signed to Young Money Entertainment, Omarion has been dropped from the giant recording company. Spilling the beans about the matter is the label's president Mack Maine on his Twitter which reveals that Omarion is fired because he has allegedly leaked his duet song with Lil Wayne.

"ATTN: Omarion is no longer Young Money ... the song they leaked ft. Wayne is not official .. good luck 2 him in his future," so Mack wrote. Shortly after that, one of Young Money's artists Jae Millz re-tweeted Mack's short message, apparently trying to emphasize that the news is not a rumor.

Omarion was previously signed to Epic Records before he joined Young Money Entertainment in June. He is currently working on his next studio album titled "A New Me". Now that he is out of Young Money, it seems that the rapper has to seek a new home to drop the effort.

Up to date, Omarion hasn't offered any comment concerning him being axed from Young Money.

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 23-29

2009-08-20T04:22:00.000-07:00

marlee matlin

Celebrity birthdays for the week of Aug. 23-29:

Aug. 23: Actress Vera Miles is 79. Satirist Mark Russell is 77. Actress Barbara Eden is 75. Actor Richard Sanders ("WKRP In Cincinnati") is 69. Country singer Rex Allen Jr. is 62. Singer Linda Thompson is 62. Country fiddler-singer Woody Paul of Riders in the Sky is 60. Actress Shelley Long is 60. Singer-actor Rick Springfield is 60. Actor-producer Mark Hudson is 58. Guitarist Dean DeLeo of Army of Anyone (and Stone Temple Pilots) is 48. Actor Jay Mohr is 39. Singer Julian Casablancas of The Strokes is 31.

Aug. 24: Actor Kenny Baker (R2-D2 in "Star Wars") is 75. Guitarist Mason Williams is 71. Singer Marshall Thompson of The Chi-Lites is 67. Keyboardist Ken Hensley (Uriah Heep) is 64. Actor Joe Regalbuto ("Murphy Brown") is 60. Actor Steve Guttenberg is 51. Talk show host Craig Kilborn is 47. Singer John Bush (Anthrax) is 46. Actress Marlee Matlin is 44. Newsman David Gregory ("Meet The Press") is 39. Country singer Kristyn Osborn of SheDaisy is 39. Actor-comedian Dave Chappelle is 36. Actor Carmine Giovinazzo ("CSI: New York") is 36. Actor Chad Michael Murray ("One Tree Hill," "A Cinderella Story") is 28. Actor Rupert Grint ("Harry Potter") is 21.

Aug. 25: Game show host Monty Hall is 88. Actor Sean Connery is 79. Talk show host Regis Philbin is 78. Actor Tom Skerritt is 76. Jazz saxophonist Wayne Shorter is 76. Actor David Canary ("All My Children," "Bonanza") is 71. Singer Walter Williams of The O'Jays is 67. Actor Anthony Heald ("Boston Public") is 65. Drummer Danny Smythe of The Box Tops is 61. Singer Henry Paul of BlackHawk (and Outlaws) is 60. Actor John Savage is 60. Bassist Gene Simmons of Kiss is 60. Singer Rob Halford of Judas Priest is 58. Keyboardist Geoff Downes of Asia is 57. Musician Elvis Costello is 55. Director Tim Burton is 51. Country singer-actor Billy Ray Cyrus is 48. Actress Ally Walker ("Profiler") is 48. Actress Joanne Whalley is 48. Guitarist Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard is 47. Actor Blair Underwood is 45. Actor Robert Maschio ("Scrubs") is 43. DJ Terminator X of Public Enemy is 43. Singer Jeff Tweedy of Wilco is 42. TV chef Rachael Ray is 41. Country singer Jo Dee Messina is 39. Model Claudia Schiffer is 39. Actor Eric Millegan ("Bones") is 35. Actor Kel Mitchell ("Kenan and Kel") is 31. Actress Rachel Bilson ("The O.C.") is 28. Actress Blake Lively ("Gossip Girl") is 22.

Aug. 26: Singer Vic Dana is 67. Singer Valerie Simpson of Ashford and Simpson is 63. Singer Bob Cowsill of The Cowsills is 60. Bandleader Branford Marsalis is 49. Guitarist Jimmy Olander of Diamond Rio is 48. Actor Chris Burke ("Life Goes On") is 44. Singer Shirley Manson of Garbage is 43. Guitarist Dan Vickrey of Counting Crows is 43. Drummer Adrian Young of No Doubt is 40. Actress Melissa McCarthy ("Samantha Who?," "Gilmore Girls") is 39. Singer Tyler Connolly of Theory Of A Deadman is 34. Actor Macaulay Culkin is 29. Singer Cassie is 23. Actress Keke Palmer ("Akeelah and the Bee") is 16.

Aug. 27: Cajun-country singer Jimmy C. Newman is 82. Bluegrass singer-banjo player J.D. Crowe is 72. Actor Tommy Sands is 72. Musician Daryl Dragon of the Captain and Tennille is 67. Actress Tuesday Weld is 66. Singer-bassist Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge is 65. Actress Marianne Sagebrecht is 64. Actress Barbara Bach is 62. Ex-porn star Harry Reems ("Deep Throat") is 62. Guitarist Jeff Cook of Alabama is 60. Actor Paul Reubens (Pee-Wee Herman) is 57. Guitarist Alex Lifeson of Rush is 56. Actress Diana Scarwid is 54. Bassist Glen Matlock of The Sex Pistols is 53. Gospel singer Yolanda Adams is 47. Country guitarist Matthew Basford of Yankee Grey is 47. Bassist Mike Johnson (Dinosaur Jr.) is 44. Percussionist Bobo of Cypress Hill is 41. Actress Chandra Wilson ("Grey's Anatomy") is 40. Bassist Tony Kanal of No Doubt is 39. Actress Sarah Chalke ("Scrubs," second Becky on "Roseanne") is 33. Rapper Mase is 32. Actor Aaron Paul ("Breaking Bad," "Big Love") is 30. Guitarist Jon Siebels of Eve 6 is 30. Singer Mario is 23. Actress Alexa Vega ("Spy Kids") is 21.

Aug. 28: Country singer Billy Grammer is 84. Actor Ben Gazzara is 79. Actor Sonny Shroyer ("The Dukes of Hazzard") is 74. Actor Ken Jenkins ("Scrubs") is 69. Actor David Soul is 66. Singer Wayne Osmond of The Osmonds is 58. Actor Daniel Stern is 52. Actress Emma Samms is 49. Actress Jennifer Coolidge is 48. Country singer Shania Twain is 44. Actor Billy Boyd ("Lord of the Rings") is 41. Actor-singer Jack Black is 40. Actor Jason Priestley ("Beverly Hills, 90210") is 40. Actor J. August Richards ("Angel") is 36. Singer-bassist Max Collins of Eve 6 is 31. Actress Carly Pope ("Popular") is 29. Country singer Leann Rimes is 27.

Aug. 29: Actor-director Richard Attenborough is 86. Movie director William Friedkin is 74. Actor Elliott Gould is 71. TV personality Robin Leach ("Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous") is 68. Keyboardist Dan Truman of Diamond Rio is 53. Actress Rebecca DeMornay is 50. Bassist-singer Me'Shell NdegeOcello is 40. Singer Carl Martin of Shai is 39. Actress Carla Gugino is 38. Guitarist Kyle Cook of Matchbox Twenty is 34. Actor John Hensley ("Nip/Tuck") is 32. Bassist David Desrosiers of Simple Plan is 29.

CIA Hired Blackwater for Assassination Program, NY Times Says

2009-08-20T04:18:00.000-07:00

xe services

Aug. 20 (Bloomberg) -- The Central Intelligence Agency hired contractors from Blackwater USA, a private security company, under a plan to assassinate senior Al Qaeda members, the New York Times reported, citing current and former government officials.

Blackwater helped the agency with planning, training and surveillance in the multi-million dollar program, which did not capture or kill any terrorist suspects, the report said.

A spokesman for the parent company, which changed its name to Xe Services in February, was not immediately available for comment.

Baked flounder recipe with cracker topping

2009-08-20T04:15:00.000-07:00

Baking flounder, sole or cod is a quick & easy way to prepare this mild white fish. Just a few simple ingredients, and tender baked flounder is ready to serve.

How to Buy Flounder

- The easiest way to purchase flounder is by ordering it at your favorite seafood restaurant! Flounder can be ordered battered and deep fried, or baked in the oven. Obviously, the baked flounder or cod will have less calories and be lower in fat. Easy Peasy, no mess or smelly kitchen. Don't forget to leave your waitress a good tip!
- The cheapest way to buy flounder will probably be from the frozen section in your local supermarket. The flounder is flash frozen, or IQF, which means individually quick frozen. You can take out and thaw as many pieces of fish as you need and return the rest to the freezer for later use.
- The freshest way to buy flounder is from your local fishmonger or the seafood section of your local store. Ask the manager when they receive their shipments and from where. Make sure the fish is the freshest possible, with little to no fishy smell. Keep refrigerate until ready to use.

Baked Flounder with Cracker Crumb Topping

- 2 flounder filets, about 1 pound, fresh or frozen
- Kosher salt and fresh ground pepper
- 1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
- 1/4 cup crushed Ritz Crackers
- 2-4 Tablespoons melted butter
- 1/4 teaspoon Mrs Dash or similar seasoning
- A few sprigs fresh parsley, minced
- 1/2 fresh lemon, quartered

How to Bake Flounder

- Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Spray casserole dish with vegetable spray.
- Rinse the flounder and pat dry with paper towels. Place in the baking dish and season with salt & pepper.
- Mix cheese with Ritz Crackers and sprinkle evenly over the top of the flounder.
- Drizzle melted butter over the prepared fish. Sprinkle with Mrs Dash and bake at 400 degrees for 25-30 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork. Do not overbake.
- Remove from oven and plate. Garnish with minced parsley and a lemon wedge.
- Serves 2.

Rick Bayless wins 'Top Chef Masters'

2009-08-20T04:12:00.000-07:00

rick bayless

Much-lauded Chicago chef Rick Bayless told the story of his career in food to win the finale of Bravo TV's "Top Chef Masters," which aired Wednesday night.

Bayless, chef and co-owner of Frontera Grill and Topolobampo, relied on his mastery of Mexican regional cooking to best competitors specializing in the cuisines of France (Hubert Keller of Fleur de Lys in San Francisco and Las Vegas) and Italy (Michael Chiarello of Bottega in California's Napa Valley).

His $100,000 prize goes to the charity he helped found, Frontera Farmer Foundation, which supports small Midwestern farms considered "sustainable."

This first season of "Top Chef Masters," a spinoff of Bravo's popular "Top Chef," pitted accomplished chefs against each other in the same types of stressful cooking challenges as the scrappier parent show. The so-called master chefs, though, exhibited more cooperative spirit than the often bickering younger contestants of "Top Chef."

Throughout the series, Bayless relied on the Mexican regional dishes that have made him famous, including a heck of a lot of guacamole, but also more unusual dishes such as beef tongue tacos. His appearances were also notable for his calm, composed approach to tackling challenges, even when producers threw twists at contestants.

Another Chicago chef, Art Smith of Table Fifty-Two, also made the finals but was sent packing in the second round, done in by rice ice cream that the judges hated.

Real World Cancun Episode 9

2009-08-20T04:08:00.000-07:00

real world cancun episode 9

The Real World Cancun Season 22 Episode 9 is another thrilling episode and you must see it. The 9th episode was broadcasted on 19th of August 2009 (Wednesday) at 10:00pm on MTV. The title of the episode is “Cancun: The Love Square”. This episode was very interesting and if you miss the show, don’t worry the summary of the episode is

"As Jasmine hooks up with a new interest, JR, to make Pat jealous, she inadvertently drives Jonna and Pat closer together. Ultimately, Jonna breaks up with her boyfriend, Matt, and brings Pat into her bed. After an incident with a fire extinguisher, Bronne is banished from the ME Hotel."

The participants of this reality show are,

Bronne Bruzgo
Jonna Mannion
Jasmine Reynaud
Derek Chavez
Ayiiia Elizarraras
Joey Rozmus
Christian “CJ” Koegel
Emilee Fitzpatrick

The Real World Cancun is the 22 season of the famous reality television show The Real World of MTV. The show was created by Bunim/Murray Productions. Total duration of the show is one hour and The Real World Cancun was start on June 24, 2009. In this reality show group of different people live together in a room for several months.

Ed Reimers, 'good hands with Allstate' voice, dies

2009-08-17T10:18:00.000-07:00

Ed Reimers

NEW YORK — A relative says the actor who told television viewers "you're in good hands with Allstate" for decades has died in upstate New York. Ed Reimers was 96.

Dean Lindoerfer, Reimers' nephew by marriage, says the actor died Sunday at his daughter's home in Saratoga Springs. The cause wasn't immediately clear.

Reimers was best known as the Allstate Corp.'s TV spokesman for 22 years, starting in 1957. He also was an announcer for television programs including the 1950s-era Western "Maverick" and appeared in shows including an episode of the original "Star Trek" series.

Born in Moline, Ill., Reimers spent most of his adult life in Los Angeles. He moved to Saratoga Springs in 2007.

Survivors include his daughter, Kathryn, two grandsons and a niece.

Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland in Dancing with the Stars 2009 Lineup

2009-08-17T10:15:00.000-07:00

joanna krupa

Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup includes Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland. The Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup looks to grant Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland the chance to do what few models have been able to do on

Dancing with the Stars, and that is make it to the winners circle at the end of the season. The season nine Dancing with the Stars lineup holds some interesting names in the mix, but Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland could be two of the most recognized names not only in the United States, but on an international scale, leading to them possibly having more votes than some of the models in the past.

The assumption with Dancing with the Stars voting is that people want to root for the underdog, and a models always tend to come into the show with the connotation that they have a step up on the competition because of their looks. Actress and model Brooke Burke was able to break the trend of models being sent home early in the Dancing with the Stars season seven, when she was partnered with Derek Hough. Now both Joanna Krupa and Kathy Ireland are hoping they can overcome the largest cast in Dancing with the Stars history, as the Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup includes sixteen different competitors.

Past models that have appeared on Dancing with the Stars include Shanna Moakler from season three, Kim Kardashian from season seven, Paulina Porizkova from season four, Holly Madison from season eight, Shandi Finnessey from season four, and Rachel Hunter from season four just to name a few. There hasn't been a shot supply of models that have been interested in participating in Dancing with the Stars and the Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup is going to give two more supermodels their chance at the title. Joanna Krupa is a model from Poland who was voted the Sexiest Swimsuit Model in the World by Maxim Magazine. Kathy Ireland is of course a frequent visitor to the pages of the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue, and a former supermodel turned entrepreneur.

Both Kathy Ireland and Joanna Krupa have a tough road ahead of them against the rest of the Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup, but as with any of the contestants, they have a great shot to take home the title with some strong performances. By competing in the first place they are taking the first step towards the mirror ball trophy, and if they can come out strong against the rest of the Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup they could find themselves scoring very well in the later weeks of this season. The Dancing with the Stars 2009 season premiere is scheduled for Monday, September 21st at 8:00 P.M. PST and EST.

WWL-TV's Lucy Bustamante cohosts with Regis today

2009-08-17T10:12:00.000-07:00

WWL-Channel 4 evening anchor Lucy Bustamante gets her shot at the hot seat today (August 17) as she subs for Kelly Ripa on the nationally syndicated "Live! with Regis and Kelly."

Bustamante won the honor of going toe-to-toe with Regis Philbin by viewer vote - a show promotion titled "From Local to 'Live!'"

Five female local news anchors from around the country are working on "Live!" throughout the week.

News dudes, sitting in with Ripa and pinch-hitting for Philbin, went the week of August 3.

Scheduled guests on Monday's "Live!" are Jordin Sparks (an "American Idol"-launched singing star), Carrie Ann Inaba (currently starring on Broadway in the musical "Burn the Floor") and Diane Kruger ("Inglorious Basterds").

"Live!" airs locally at 9 a.m. on WWL-TV.

Chuck Liddell Joins 'Dancing With The Stars,' May Resurrect DMX's Career

2009-08-17T10:09:00.000-07:00

chuck liddell

The new season of "Dancing With the Stars" is coming up soon, and the new cast has been announced. It includes R&B singer Mya, rock and roll scion Kelly Osbourne, spacey Macy Gray, Aaron Carter and former Dallas Cowboys wide receiver Michael Irvin (following in the footsteps of former teammate Emmitt Smith). But there is one new member of the cast who intrigues me the most, and that is former UFC Light Heavyweight Champion Chuck "The Iceman" Liddell. The MMA fighter recently retired from the cage, having lost four of his last five fights (including two via devastating knockouts at the hands of Rashad Evans and Mauricio "Shogun" Rua).

Though the kickboxer and wrestler is more used to throwing overhand rights than doing the tango, Liddell should be great on "Dancing With the Stars." Think about it: He has a tremendous amount of strength, stamina, coordination and flexibility. In the past, athletes have fared very well on the show (including championship runs from Smith, gymnast Shawn Johnson and figure skaters Kristi Yamaguchi and Apolo Anton Ohno). Liddell should go deep — besides, wouldn't everybody be afraid of giving him negative feedback? The dude is huge!

Of course, he also knows music. He has appeared in music videos by Nickelback and American Head Charge. During his fighting career, Liddell used the intro to DMX's album It's Dark and Hell is Hot as his entrance music. While it seems unlikely that Chuck will be dancing to any X tracks on the show, I hope he walks to the stage to the song every time he goes to compete. And with several million people watching per week, it's sure to get people interested in the missing-in-action rapper's back catalog. And with tracks like "Party Up," who can blame them?

Evelyn Stevens - the Cinderella of the biking world

2009-08-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

evelyn stevens

Is she Cinderella on a cycle?

Little more than a year ago, Evelyn Stevens was working 50 hour weeks on Wall Street, trying to stay in shape by running when she could squeeze it in.

Then she bought a bike.

On Sunday, August 9th, the 26-year-old former college tennis player began the Route de France, a six-day race that draws some of the world's top female cyclists. And here's the part nobody, not even Stevens, could have imagined just a few months ago: She might just win!

How can that happen?

I suspect that Evelyn Stevens is blessed with a high VO2 max, that determining factor in how well her lungs and heart work to get oxygen to her working muscles. Being a virtual newcomer she hasn’t been submitted to a lot of testing but the ones she has done show she has an unusual amount of leg power for someone so small(120 pounds) and so inexperienced.Her light weight and high power output allow her to climb uphill faster than anyone she's faced so far.

She has been involved in athletics for some time. After playing college tennis at Dartmouth and landing a job at investment bank Lehman Brothers in New York, Stevens says she was content to leave sports behind. Her exhausting schedule left her with barely enough time for that occasional run.

But in November of 2007 her sister and brother-in-law persuaded her to try a cyclocross race, an muddy hybrid between mountain and road biking. After numerous falls, she ended the race dirty and sore. "But I had so much fun," she says.

For the next four months, Stevens contemplated buying a bike, finally settling on a low-end Cannondale with an extra "granny" gear to help beginners push themselves uphill. At the end of May, she got her first taste of racing at a clinic in Central Park organized by the Century Road Club Association. There, she found the experience "addictive." Within a month, she'd won the Union Vale road race, a gruelingly hilly jaunt in upstate New York. She capped the season with a victory over some of the top amateurs in the Northeast at the four-day Green Mountain Stage Race in Vermont.

This April, after hiring a coach and training hard all winter, she won the country's largest sanctioned one-day bike race (in participation), the Tour of the Battenkill in upstate New York. Last month, she won her biggest race yet — the Cascade Cycling Classic stage race in Oregon.

A big obstacle to success for female professional cyclists is the pay: Top women's professionals make about $30,000 a year, a figure that makes it almost impossible to train without working a “real job”.Most people agree Stevens could be one of the next great American women cyclists, but there's no guarantee that she will conquer the world. Connie Carpenter, an Olympic gold medalist in cycling in 1984, calls her ascent "remarkable," but adds she still has work to do. "The difficult part will be to go from being good to being great," she says. To become world-class, Miller says, Stevens will have to bump up her power anywhere from 6% to 13%.

Stevens is willing to put in the work. At the end of June, Stevens left Wall Street and devoted herself to cycling full-time. The sport's governing body, USA Cycling, sent her to do training sessions on a velodrome with competitors who are almost 10 years younger. She's now in Italy, training with the U.S.A. Cycling National Development Team, living the life of a professional athlete; working out, eating, and resting up for that next workout. "I just feel fresher when I get on the bike," she says. Instead of going to the office, she says, "Today, I came back from a ride, ate, surfed the Web, wrote emails, read books, hung out. It's really nice, actually."

Stevens pulled off her first major European road stage race victory with a win in stage four of La Route de France on Thursday.

Can you imagine what she will be able to do with some proper training? Remember the name! You'll be hearing more about this special athlete with the Cinderella story.

Park District plan for 2 new harbors moves forward

2009-08-17T10:04:00.000-07:00

chicago park district

The Chicago Park District took a formal step Wednesday toward building two city harbors, which could open as early as 2011 and will create approximately 1,100 boating slips.

The Park District enlisted the Public Building Commission to oversee the construction of Chicago Gateway Harbor and 31st Street Harbor. Work is scheduled to begin next spring.

The projects, estimated to cost about $110 million, still must be authorized by state lawmakers, the Chicago Plan Commission and the Army Corps of Engineers.

The Chicago Gateway Harbor would replace the dilapidated Dime Pier, located about 480 feet south of Navy Pier and 400 feet north of Chicago Harbor Lock, and be used primarily by visiting boaters, Park District officials have said.

The harbors would be the first built since DuSable Harbor opened with 420 slips in 2000.

Hurricane Bill Projected Path Watched Closely

2009-08-17T10:02:00.000-07:00

hurricane bill projected path

Hurricane Bill projected path speculation is rising now that Hurricane Bill has become a serious storm. The projected path of Hurricane Bill is the first one of serious interest in the Atlantic hurricane season. For now, the Hurricane Bill projected path predictions have it remaining in the Atlantic Ocean for the moment. However, Hurricane Bill's projected path may bring it on land within the end of the week, though people on land still have a lot of time to prepare.

The Hurricane Bill projected path still gives the storm a few days to become a real, threatening hurricane. It remains 1100 miles east of the Lesser Antilles, with maximum winds up to 75 MPH. However, the Hurricane Bill projected path speculates that it will pack a punch when the week ends.

Hurricane Bill is projected to become a major hurricane by Wednesday, as it begins to get closer to land. The first land to be threatened could be the Virgin Islands, as Hurricane Bill may skirt the northern edge. It is Bermuda that might get hit by Hurricane Bill by the end of the week.

However, other predictions have Hurricane Bill's projected path missing land altogether. Though Hurricane Bill may increase in strength over the next few days, there is still a good chance that it may not make landfall. The biggest damage to the shores may come from high tides created by the remains of Hurricane Bill.

The Hurricane Bill projected path is still being watched closely, in case the best case scenarios are wrong and it does hit land. It is part of a massive new string of hurricane watching, as Tropical Storm Ana begins to die down, Tropical Storm Claudette reaches Florida, and Hurricane Guillermo finally starts to weaken in the Pacific.

Ana, Bill, Claudette and Guillermo have been long overdue, since hurricane season is officially starting later than usual. For the moment, it appears that the projected paths of each storm have them dying down before they cause damage on land. Yet their very appearance now has everyone getting ready, in case another storm actually does reach land and cause serious trouble.

Hurricane Bill may or may not be that storm, depending on if the projected path is correct. But it will be a big story over the next few days, as more ominous reports come in on its strength, and more speculation builds over whether it will die down in time.

Dancing with the Stars 2009 New Cast for Season 9 Introduced

2009-08-17T09:58:00.000-07:00

dancing with the stars 2009 lineup

Dancing with the Stars 2009 new cast has the usual demographics on board, as athletes, B-list actors, singers, and a few wild cards make up the Season 9 lineup. The Dancing with the Stars 2009 cast is sure to get many people talking, and ensure that Dancing with the Stars Season 9 won't miss a beat.

Today's Dancing with the Stars 2009 Season 9 announcement on Good Morning America introduced the country to its newest dancing icons. Some new cast members seem obvious, some are out of the blue - and one in particular is a bit of a shock.

The Dancing with the Stars 2009new cast became big news on the political front when Tom DeLay was picked for Season 9. Tom DeLay has now gone from former House majority leader, and one of the many Bush administration officials to face scandal, to a reality star.

By joining Dancing with the Stars, DeLay has gotten one up on Rod Blagojevich, who failed to join the reality TV circuit when he was rejected for I'm A Celebrity...Get Me Out Of Here! Aside from Tom DeLay, the Dancing with the Stars new cast has its usual mix of talent and B-list star power.

Musical icons like Donny Osmond, Macy Grey, Mya, Aaron Carter and Kelly Osborne will be on Dancing with the Stars Season 9. The sports demographic is represented by Michael Irvin, Olympic swimmer Natalie Coughlin, and boxer Chuck Liddell. The actors in the new cast are Melissa Joan Hart, Debi Mazer, and Ashley Hamilton - whose father George was a Season 2 contestant.

The rest of the Dancing with the Stars 2009 lineup has Iron Chef America's Mark Dacascos, models Kathy Ireland and Joanna Krupa, and snowboarder Louie Vito.

For Dancing with the Stars Season 9, things will be done a little different in mid-season, according to host Tom Bergeron. Three double eliminations will be held back-to-back at that time, while dances like the Charleston, the Lambada, the Two Step and the Bolero are worked into the rotation.

The latest edition of Dancing with the Stars continues the show's unlikely place as one of reality TV's biggest non-American Idol hits. The show is always used as a platform for a return to fame for its B-list stars, and for some form of wacky behavior to take place on and off the dance

With ABC promoting the show's lights out every season, starting with the annual Good Morning America new cast announcement, Dancing with the Stars 2009 should be as big as ever.

Season 9 of the show is set to premiere on Monday, September 21 at 8 p.m. Eastern on ABC.

Tom DeLay Dances Back Into the Limelight

2009-08-17T09:55:00.000-07:00

tom delay

Who knew that Tom DeLay was such a dancing machine? The former House Republican leader has been selected as a contestant on the upcoming season of "Dancing With the Stars," joining cultural celebrities such as Grammy award winning singer Macy Gray and '70s icon Donny Osmond.

One thing is clear: the entire DeLay family is ecstatic about the Hammer's transformation to Dancing Machine.

"He's been working hard all summer trying to get in shape, improve his flexibility, endurance, etc. He's lost 12 lbs already!" daughter Dani DeLay Ferro, Dad's former campaign manager, said in a message to the Sleuth via Facebook. "He's taking this very very seriously and we are all sooooo excited! People probably don't know that he's a really good dancer!"

Daughter Dani said she's most excited "for America to get to know the funny, caring man that I've grown up with and worked for. They won't know what hit 'em!"

As Washington Post TV columnist Lisa de Moraes has reported, DeLay's involvement with "Dancing With the Stars" goes back to 2007, when he heavily lobbied the show's viewers to vote for the seemingly wholesome country singer Sara Evans. That all backfired on the Hammer when Evans quit the show in the midst of a nasty divorce in which she accused her husband of verbal abuse, alcoholism, watching pornography in their home and keeping photos of himself having sex with other women.

DeLay Ferro said the slimmed down former congressman, whose ironclad style of rule over House Republicans earned him the nickname "The Hammer," begins rehearsal tomorrow in Sugar Land, Texas, his hometown.

In a few weeks, Dad will relocate to Los Angeles, where the show is filmed. The first show airs Sept. 21.

"He'll stay there until he is voted off which, I hope, isn't till the November finale!" DeLay Ferro told us.

Mark Dacascos and Tom DeLay to compete in Dancing with the Stars !

2009-08-17T09:52:00.000-07:00

mark dacascos

Come September 21, 2009 and Mark Dacascos & Tom DeLay will be competing for the crown in Dancing with the Stars. The other 14 participants include Aaron Carter, Natalie Coughlin, Macy Gray, Ashley Hamilton, Melissa Joan Hart, Kathy Ireland, Michael Irvin, Joanna Krupa, Chuck Liddell, Debi Mazar, Mýa, Kelly Osbourne, Donny Osmond and Louie Vito.

Mark Dacascos is an Actor portrays "the Chairman" on Food Network’s television series Iron Chef America. His father, Al Dacascos, is from Hawaii. He is a martial arts instructor of Filipino, Spanish, and Han Chinese ancestry. His mother, Moriko McVey is of Irish and Japanese ancestry. He is married to actress Julie Condra, who starred with him in Crying Freeman.

Thomas Dale DeLay is a former member of the United States House of Representatives from Sugar Land, Texas. He was a Republican House Majority Leader from 2003–2005, when his high profile legal problems forced him to step down.

Dancing with the Stars will return for a ninth season on September 21, 2009 on a three-night premiere.Executive producer Conrad Green confirmed to Entertainment Tonight that the 9th season would start off with 16 celebrities, with 3 double-eliminations halfway through the season. The cast was unveiled as it traditionally has, on the Monday, August 17, 2009 edition of Good Morning America, returning to the announcement format of most seasons past.

Jennifer Hudson celebrates the birth of her first baby

2009-08-15T05:33:00.000-07:00

jennifer hudson baby

Jennifer Hudson has had a year of milestones, both triumphant (with her first Grammy award) and tragic (with the murder of her mother, brother, and nephew).

Late Monday night, however, Jennifer had a new reason to celebrate. She gave birth to her first child, a son, named David Daniel Otunga, Jr. after her fiancé, David Otunga. The couple have been engaged for more than a year, but due to the loss that the Hudson family suffered in October, they have not yet set a date for their marriage.

Interestingly enough, Jennifer never formally announced that she was pregnant. There was a lot of media speculation, though, especially after Hudson performed at Michael Jackson's Memorial Service looking rather round.

Jennifer's representative, Lisa Kasteler, made a public statment after the birth of David, Jr. She said,

"The baby is beautiful and perfect. His parents are ecstatic."

Best wishes to Jennifer and David, who deserve some happiness in their lives after a tumultuous year.

Justin.TV Deploys Better Anti-Piracy Tools

2009-08-15T05:29:00.000-07:00

justin tv izle

Online video sharing sites have always been plagued by the problem of copyrighted material being uploaded without consent from the owners. It took YouTube years and millions of dollars to get the problem under control and it still hasn't completely eradicated it. Justin.TV, the up-and-coming live video streaming site, is hoping to nip the problem in the bud by partnering with content filtering firm Vobile.

“We're working with Vobile to filter content on Justin.tv using their database of content. As of this week we've begun fingerprinting all saved clips on Justin.tv and scanning them against Vobile's content database,” Justin.tv said in an emailed statement. “This new filtering is part of a deal signed with Fox to increase copyright protection for live video. We already offer a takedown tool that lets copyright owners login to a Justin.tv admin interface and kill channels in real time, and hundreds of content owners are using it today.”

The program will start with the saved content that users archive on the site. All of it will be scanned and compared to original works to detect illegal copies, using a technology similar to that deployed by other players in the market like YouTube. Infringing content will be removed from the site but this is just the first step, with the much more slippery issue being live streaming content.

This is especially popular for live sports events and Justin.TV has had issues before with this. For now the site offers content owners a tool to issue a takedown notice in real time with the offending channel being yanked off the “air” the moment it receives the notice but this means that copyright holders have to constantly monitor the channels for illegal streams.

A much better solution will be implemented in fall when Justin.TV will start scanning all the streams for infringing content but that is a considerably harder undertaking than just scanning saved videos. The new filtering tools come as the site signed a partnership with Fox, not for content, but basically an agreement between the two companies assuring that Justin.TV won't get in legal trouble for infringing content its users may stream or upload.

Lady Gaga hermaphrodite rumors still going strong

2009-08-15T05:23:00.000-07:00

lady gaga hermaphrodite

Ever since fans at the Glastonbury Festival in the UK swore they saw something dangling from Lady Gaga's super short dress, rumors have been spreading like wildfire that the singer is a hermaphrodite (or at least she has a penis).

Bossip, a celeb gossip news site, even claims that Gaga herself admitted to having both male and female parts.

“It’s not something I’m ashamed of, I just don't go around telling everyone,” she said (supposedly). “I have both male and female genitalia, but I consider myself female. It’s just a little bit of a penis and doesn’t interfere much with my life," she said.

“The reason I haven’t talked about it is that it’s not a big deal to me. Like come on. It’s not like we all go around talking about our vags," she added.

"I think this is a great opportunity to make other multiple gendered people feel more comfortable with their bodies. I’m sexy, I’m hot.

"I have both a poon and a peener. Big f**king deal," Gaga said.

I don't know Lady Gaga personally, but either she cusses like a sailor and says weird British phrases, or this thing was totally made up.

The singer needs to publically address this issue or the next rumor will be that she's also the mother of Michael Jackson's children.

Flu symptoms send many students home

2009-08-15T05:19:00.000-07:00

swine flu symptoms

Thomasville, GA (WALB) - With school back in session, hundreds of students and staff in Southwest Georgia are forced leave school in the middle of the day with flu-like symptoms.

Public heath departments are treating the cases as pandemic H1N1 flu clusters. Even though every person who goes home sick has not received positive test results for H1N1, they are being treated that way.

In Thomas County schools, more than 100 kids were sent home Friday. School officials were warned by health officials to expect a wave of swine flu among students, likely during the third week of classes.

In Thomas County, dozens of students starting coming down with symptoms Wednesday, a little over a week after school began.

On the elementary school level, more than 30 kids were sent home Friday. At the county middle school, 57, and several more at the high school went home sick. The numbers were about the same the past couple of days.

But it isn't just students going home with high fevers, several teachers have gone home too. We spoke with a 1st grade teacher today who is doing everything she can to keep her kids in the classroom, and at home, swine-flu free.

"With two babies at home I go home and change my clothes before I get my babies because my youngest I don't want to take any risks of her catching anything," said Jenny Holt.

"We've been very aggressive with sending kids home," said Head Nurse Terri Matthews. "We've identified any and all kids who are complaining of headache stomach ache, sore throat, anything that may give us some indication they may have the flu, as well as fever."

Kids are sent home with even the slightest fever. When they come to the nurse they have to stay there until a parent can pick them up. Under no circumstances are sick children allowed to ride the bus home. It's important to remember Pandemic H1N1 flu is more contagious than regular seasonal flu and has a high attack rate in children and teens.

So teachers everywhere are stressing hand-washing over anything else. If you are a parent and your child is sent home, remember to keep your child home until 24 hours after their fever is gone without using fever reducing medicine. If you send them back sick, they're only going to get sent home again.

Health officials advise flu patients to get plenty of rest, drink plenty of water, and wear a mask around others in your home if possible. Also, don't give aspirin to children with the flu, use a fever reducer like Tylenol.

And if symptoms include trouble breathing or vomiting, seek emergency treatment.

'District 9' rated a 10 by critics

2009-08-15T05:15:00.000-07:00

district 9 movie

"District 9" opened today to good buzz and great reviews. This is the first feature film from Emmy-nominated special-effects wiz Neill Blomkamp ("Smallville"), who co-wrote and directed this dark tale of aliens on Earth based on his 2005 short film "Alive in Joburg."

Sharlto Copley – who appeared in "Joburg" as a sniper – now plays a government agent in "District 9." The biggest name associated with "District 9" is Peter Jackson. The three-time Oscar winner ("The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King") produced this moderately budgeted sci-fi film set in South Africa.

The Meta Critic survey of 33 reviews yielded a score of 81. Among the most enthusiastic critics were John Anderson of the Washington Post – he described "District 9" as "a sci-fi-fueled indictment of man's inhumanity to man and the non-human" – and Lisa Schwarzbaum of Entertainment Weekly – she dubbed "District 9" as "a thinking person's sci-fi movie."

Over at Rotten Tomatoes, the cream of the crop among critics rated "District 9" to a staggering 92. Among the 24 notices included in the tally, only two – from the Wall Street Journal and the Globe and Mail – were less than fresh.

"District 9" is sure to figure in the nominations for the Saturn Awards next spring. These kudos have honored the best in sci-fi, fantasy, horror and action/adventure since 1972. And it could be a player at the MTV Movie Awards, particularly for the battle sequence that pits the renegade (Copley) against his one-time army.

UFC Releases Five Fighters Following Losses at the UFC 101 Pay-Per-View

2009-08-15T05:11:00.000-07:00

ufc 101

Thales Leites (14-3 MMA, 5-3 UFC) has been released from his UFC contract. Leites was the top middleweight contender just four months ago, but after a “lackluster” unanimous-decision loss to Silva at UFC 97 and a loss via split decision at UFC 101, he is now gone.

Tamdan McCrory has also been cut from his UFC contract. The Barncat is 11-3 overall, but only holds a UFC record of 3-3 with the loss he suffered at UFC 101. McCrory is a victim of the UFC freshening up their roster with roughly 20 Affliction fighters, as well as the usual mid-level talent pruning.

Also released following UFC 101 losses were Dan Cramer, George Roop and Danillo Villefort.

Les Paul dies at 94; guitarist whose innovations paved the way for rock 'n' roll

2009-08-15T05:04:00.000-07:00

les paul gibson

Les Paul was often called rock royalty, but for the people who knew the man before his death Thursday at age 94, that term often inspired a gentle chuckle.

Born in Wisconsin in 1915, Paul was a Midwestern jazz man who went on to make high-polish 1950s pop recordings, a style of music that was snuffed out by the reckless energy of rock 'n' roll. Still, the rock demi-gods of the 1960s and '70s adored Paul for what he handed them, the Gibson Les Paul electric guitar, a beast of an instrument that has endured through the years whether the band on stage was Led Zeppelin, the Sex Pistols or Green Day. The six-string became such an American institution that, like Levi Strauss, Jack Daniel's and John Deere, it became more a symbol than a mere brand name.

Keith Richards, Jimmy Page, Jeff Beck, Eddie Van Halen and Slash are just some of the players who have raised and praised the guitar during their careers. Richards, of the Rolling Stones, said Thursday that "all of us owe an unimaginable debt to his work and his talent," while Joe Satriani, whose searing solos sound like cosmic noise compared with Paul's vinyl hits, put the nonagenarian's passing in terms that even the youngest music fan could understand: "He was the original guitar hero."

Paul died of complications from pneumonia at White Plains Hospital in New York, according to a spokesperson for Gibson Guitar Co. Paul had been in failing health for some time, but he had soldiered on, amazingly, with his weekly Monday night performances at the Iridium Jazz Club in New York City until earlier this year.

James Henke, the chief curator of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, went to a show in May and, backstage, it was apparent that Paul was ailing. "But he still played two shows that night and sounded great," he said.

Artist, inventor

Paul's legacy is a broad one. Part artist, part inventor, Paul was "that rare person who was artistic and scientific at the same time," as Henke put it. Paul was a master picker, one of the best of his generation, and was often cited as a major influence on other more famous guitarists, including Chet Atkins, who called Paul "one of my idols."

Still, it is Paul’s innovations that put him in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. They include an early solid-body electric guitar as well as new ways to create multiple tracks and echo effects for recordings, which he applied with memorable effect to his recordings with his then-wife Mary Ford. Through the years, the guitars with Paul's name on them became so popular that he was routinely -- and wrongly -- cited as the inventor of the electric guitar, an error that spoke to the ubiquity of his brand.

"When most people think of the electric guitar, they think of Les Paul," said Dan Del Fiorentino, historian for the National Assn. of Music Merchants, a trade group for the music-products industry. "He wasn't the inventor of the solid-body electric guitar, but he certainly made it famous."

Well-known pioneers were looking to amplify a guitar as early as the 1920s, among them Doc Kauffman, Adolph Rickenbacker and George Beauchamp, whose "Frying Pan" is considered the first solid-body electric guitar. None of those names would become as famous as Les Paul, who was born Lester William Polfuss on June 9, 1915, in Waukesha, Wis.

Always curious, Paul would tinker with his mother's upright player piano, re-punching the piano roll to make new notes. By 9, he had taught himself the harmonica by listening to earthy blues and country hits on the family radio.

His first guitar was a model from Sears, Roebuck & Co. that captured his imagination, and by his late teens he had dropped out of school to pursue music.

That path led to Chicago. During the day, he would play country music using the name Rhubarb Red; at night he would jam in the jazz clubs with a more enduring moniker, Les Paul, with Gypsy guitarist Django Reinhardt as part of his style heritage.

Paul crafted his own crude version of an amplified guitar as a teenager. His goal was simply to be better heard. To amplify the sound, he tried using a phonograph needle, a telephone mouthpiece and a radio speaker. The sound did get stronger, but, as Paul would recollect in Modern Guitar magazine in 2005, "I ran smack into the problem of feedback."

He realized that the acoustic guitar's hollow body -- which was designed to reverberate and amplify the string sound -- probably wasn't needed if the instrument was hooked up to power. He filled the hollow with socks and shirts and even plaster of Paris, which, not surprisingly, created some problems.

In the 1930s, his experimentation continued in a new direction. He attached electronic pickups and strings to a 4-by-4-inch piece of pine that was about 18 inches long. It worked well enough but didn't have the graceful look of a guitar. So, in the name of aesthetics, he sliced a regular guitar in half lengthwise and bolted it to the wood. He dubbed the contraption "The Log." It gave Paul the sustaining power he had been seeking -- he playfully boasted that he could play a note, go out, grab a bite to eat and come back and the same note would still be sounding.

Essential figure

Stones guitarist Richards said Thursday that Paul's leaps of invention and insight made him an essential figure, on par with Leo Fender, the engineer who in 1951 began mass-producing the solid-body Broadcaster (later renamed the Telecaster), the instrument that would soon revolutionize popular music.

"Les Paul, along with Leo Fender, is the most important developer of the electric guitar," said Richards, who marveled at Paul's youthful quest. "He actually taught himself to play guitar in order to demonstrate his electronic theories. Wow."

The famed guitar company Gibson also designed a solid-body guitar and, in 1952, released an instrument that was endorsed by Paul, who had by then made a name for himself in music. Various models of Gibson Les Pauls are still in production.

Electrifying the guitar took the instrument from one used for simple background rhythm to an up-front driving force in country music, blues, R&B and rock. Even the feedback Paul tried so hard to eliminate became a new language for guitarists who wanted to push into the sonic frontiers that Paul in many ways mapped out.

Perhaps even more important than Paul's role in the electric guitar were his recording innovations.

To get a fuller sound on some songs, Paul tinkered with one of the first tape recorders to figure out how he could record one track at the same time he was playing back another track. It was the beginning of multi-track recording and sound-on-sound -- an essential approach to modern music-making.

"I'll never understand why I chased sound all my life," Paul said in a 1997 interview for the Smithsonian Institution. "But I was there chasing it constantly, saying it's got to have a little more of this and a little more of that." He told The Times' music critic Robert Hilburn that his inventions were "conveniences" designed "to help me get the sound I had in my head on record."

Paul's musical odyssey in life took him to St. Louis and Chicago and then on to New York, where the Les Paul Trio played for several years on Fred Waring's radio program and, in off hours, Paul went to Harlem to sit in with greats such as Art Tatum and Charlie Christian.

In the 1940s, Paul's career was ramping up. He performed with Nat "King" Cole and recorded with his idol Bing Crosby on "It's Been a Long, Long Time," which quickly hit No. 1 on the charts.

Paul signed with Capitol Records in 1948 and his crisp, smooth sound and small-combo approach was red hot. He was still a wizard: Paul began melding live and recorded tracks and playing with the tape speed. The instrumental "Lover (When You're Near Me)" in 1947 layered eight guitar parts, an early step toward the later studio alchemy practiced by the likes of Phil Spector and Brian Wilson.

With Mary Ford

Paul built a studio in his Hollywood home, where he recorded the 1946 hit song "Rumors Are Flying" with the Andrews Sisters. By then, Paul had met singer-guitarist Colleen Summers, to whom he later gave the stage name Mary Ford.

After a serious car accident in 1948 and a career-threatening arm injury (Paul persuaded doctors to set his broken limb in a bent position that allowed him to still pick), the couple had mastered the sound that opened the door to their huge popularity.

"How High the Moon," which was made with a dozen overdubs, stayed at the top of the charts for more than two months in 1951. The "new sound," as Paul called it, allowed fresh renderings of songs like "Mockin' Bird Hill," "I'm Sitting on Top of the World" and "Tiger Rag," as well as another big hit, "Vaya Con Dios."

At one point, 13 consecutive Paul-Ford tunes sold more than half a million copies. The couple became so popular that from 1953 to 1960 they hosted a five-minute weekday TV show from their home.

The great success ended abruptly with the arrival of rock 'n' roll. Dave Dexter, a Capitol Records executive, said: "It didn't just taper off, the way it did with Crosby and hundreds of other artists. It just absolutely stopped."

As Mary Alice Shaughnessy wrote in her 1993 book "Les Paul: An American Original," "The electric guitar that Les had done so much to popularize was becoming the instrument of his professional doom. Les and Mary's sweet sound and down-home stage patter were simply too quaint for modern tastes." The couple divorced in the mid-1960s; Ford died in 1977.

Paul continued to record, earning a Grammy in 1976 for "Chester and Lester," recorded with Atkins. But Paul was more famous as a brand name than as a recording star by then.

In 1974, for instance, a youngster named Steve Jones admired a Gibson Les Paul with a sunburst paint job that sat in the window of a Shaftesbury Avenue music shop in London. Jones liked the guitar so much he stole it and began a music career. As the guitarist for the Sex Pistols, he ushered in another new generation of players.

"I had no idea there was a guy named Les Paul when I got that guitar from the poor sod that owned the shop," Jones said Thursday. "It was years before I found that out and then more years until I found out that he was a guitar player and this cool old guy. . . . That guitar of his, it was the only one for me. You know when you pick it up where it's going to go."

In 1984, when Paul was nearing 70, he returned to the stage, appearing in New York clubs. Richards, Tony Bennett and Paul McCartney were among the icons who joined him at his weekly shows.

In 2005, Paul released his first studio album in 27 years with guests such as Steve Miller, Eric Clapton, Peter Frampton and Sting.

Paul's original Log is housed at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville; a replica sits in the Rock Hall in Cleveland.

Paul is survived by three sons, Lester, Gene and Robert; a daughter, Colleen Wess; five grandchildren and five great-grandchildren; and longtime friend Arlene Palmer. A private service will be held in New York.

In 2005, Paul told NPR that he remembered even his bad times with warmth.

"Every setback might be the very thing that makes you carry on and fight all the harder and become that much better," he said. "And I'll probably play until I fall over and that's the end."

Review: Vanessa Hudgens Plays It Cool in Bandslam

2009-08-15T05:02:00.000-07:00

vanessa hudgens

Review in a Hurry: High School Musical this ain't, thanks to real live bands with serious cred, a normal-looking dude in the lead role and a less-than-picture-perfect story. But it's Vanessa Hudgens who steals the mic with a surprisingly subtle performance.

The Bigger Picture: Another day, another teen musical, it seems. But not so fast. Yes, Bandslam's makeup crew cannot avoid the overgroomed styling that plagues most teen flicks these days, including a borderline obsession with big-barrel curling irons and false eyelashes. But beyond that, director Todd Graff has managed to dodge the candy-sweet slickness that so often seeps into teen flicks. Instead we have an uneven but honest hybrid coming-of-age dramedy, somewhere between a Disney machine musical and the better films from music-loving writer-director Cameron Crowe.

Chinless teen indie rock fan Will Burton (Gaelan Connell, all Adam's apple) feels out of place in Ohio. He says as much in letters he writes to his idol, David Bowie. (Yes, another movie writer who uses his lead character to lecture young audiences about the Good Old Days of Rock. God forbid we have a teen who worships Panic at the Disco.)

Will and his mom (Lisa Kudrow, who has lost none of her comic timing since Friends) move to New Jersey, a wondrous, strange land where the high schools have live bands playing in the cafeteria and students have their own Wikipedia pages. A giant battle of the bands is coming up. A blazing blond senior girl named Charlotte recruits the starstruck Will to manage her new act, just when the brooding Sa5m (a wise-eyed Hudgens) starts crushing out on him. (Oh, the "5" isn't a misprint. It's silent. It's an alt-girl thing, see.)

Aside from Hudgens, who plays it cool, the cast's acting can feel forced, and the film meanders a bit overmuch before the Bandslam rockers—including local acts recruited during shooting in Austin—finally turn up the amps. But whenever the music is playing, it's tough to fight the urge to rock out right in your theater seat.

The 180—a Second Opinion: The instruments are tight, but Hudgens and costar Aly Michalka don't have much to offer in the vocal department.

Ashley Greene and Chace Crawford: Hot Hollywood Couple?

2009-08-15T05:00:00.000-07:00

ashley greene

Rising starlet Ashley Greene may have more to celebrate than the much-anticipated release of the Twighlight sequel New Moon. Gawking fans caught a glimpse of Ms. Greene locking lips with none other than Gossip Girl’s Chace Crawford when he recently dropped her off at LAX. Is this a new Hollywood hot couple in the making? Will the worlds of Twilight and Gossip Girl collide? One can only hope.

Surprisingly enough, Chace isn’t the only Gossip hottie making headlines. Apparently Blake Lively, a.k.a. Serena Van der Woodson, has made some interesting changes in her life as well. Not her love life per say; let’s just say she’s made some alterations to her look.

According to MakeMeHeal.com, the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants beauty has undergone a rhinoplasty operation and breast augmentation.

The nose job rumors started when Blake’s nose appeared slightly thinner in photos since her rise to stardom, compared to snaps from early in her career. Cosmetic surgeon Dr. Anthony Youn tells MakeMeHeal, “[It] appears that her nose is thinner and fits her face much better. She looks great. The surgeon did a nice job.”

Dr. Paul Nassif adds, “Comparing the two photos of this young lady, it does appear that Blake Lively’s nasal tip has been narrowed. From this oblique view of her nose, it does appear that her nasal profile is slimmer and her tip doesn’t hang so much. Her tip appears much improved and more aesthetically appealing to match her face.”

Lively also came under scrutiny this spring when she hit the red carpet at the Met Costume Gala with her suddenly ample breasts nearly spilling from her gown. Although the 5’10’’ glamazon already had a stunning figure, plastic surgeons speculate that she added modest breast implants to create a few more curves.

Lively, of course, has yet to admit any procedures, telling People magazine last year, “People just wanna talk. They wanna create negative things about you and your life and make up things. You can’t let them affect you!”

Spoken like a true Gossip Girl.

Perseid Meteors Shower the Sky

2009-08-15T04:53:00.000-07:00

meteor perseids

Didn't get a chance to see this week's Perseid meteor shower? Amateur and professor astronomy photographers have captured images of the shooting meteors from all over the world.

The Perseid meteor shower occurs every year when the Earth passes into a cloud of debris trailing behind the comet Swift-Tuttle. The shower has already passed its peak for the year, but several quick-fingered photographers have shared their photos of the meteors streaking the sky.

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra review

2009-08-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

snake eyes

Following the success of the films based on its Transformers toy line, Hasbro decided to adapt another of its well-known properties for the big screen. This time, the "Real American Heroes" get the live action treatment.

A good amount of negative publicity surrounded the film prior to its release. Backlash was strong against the first glimpses of the movie in advertisements, and there was even a rumor at one point that director Stephen Sommers had been fired. As if to top this all off and assure the public that Paramount had no hope for the movie, it was not screened for mainstream critics prior to its release.

Fortunately, G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra rises above expectations (albeit very low ones) to deliver a fun two hours' worth of entertainment. Admittedly, the construction of the majority of the promos for the film was very poor, highlighting the worst aspects of the movie rather than the best. These commercials were the main culprit in creating low expectations for the movie. This was almost certainly unintentional, but it works to the viewing experience of the final product's advantage.

None of the actors deliver particularly great performances, but nor do any of them drag the movie down with blatantly poor showings. Channing Tatum is serviceable as Duke, one of the Joe's newest recruits, and Marlon Wayans provides his typical comic relief as Ripcord. Dennis Quaid, arguably the biggest name in the cast list, gives one of the poorest performances in the film as General Hawk. The standout on the Joes' side is by far Ray Park as the silent warrior Snake Eyes. Best known as Darth Maul from Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace, Park does what he does best - martial arts - and quite a bit of it as well.

The primary villains in the story are Sienna Miller as the Baroness, Byung-hun Lee as Storm Shadow (Snake Eyes' rival), Christopher Eccleston as McCullen and Joseph Gordon-Levitt as The Doctor. The majority of these villains undergo significant changes throughout the course of the story, contributing to the titular rise of Cobra, the Joe's rival organization.

There are two key issues with the movie. First, it is so overly reliant upon CGI that the creators should have gone to great lengths to ensure they were top notch, but its excessive use and poor implementation makes it easy to fall out of the movie experience. And after the extreme levels of action in Transformers: Revenge of The Fallen, the filmmakers eschew one or two spectacular events for nonstop mediocre action sequences.

The second is that it simply isn't G.I. Joe in the traditional sense. Many of the heroes aren't even American. Character names are the same, and the use of the brand facilitates cross-promotion and merchandise sales, but it also generates preconceived notions about what the story should and should not be in the audience. A similar movie without that brand attached may have been received more positively overall.

Nevertheless, there are seeds for a franchise here, and lots of room for improvement without this film being a total waste. Unlike many big budget action movies, the experience does not demand a theatrical viewing, but it is a fun diversion. Recommended at a discount viewing or as a rental.

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar: Milan Is Perfect For Me

2009-08-13T09:55:00.000-07:00

huntelaar milan

Klaas-Jan Huntelaar signed for Milan from Real Madrid last week and is already enjoying his new surroundings.

"Before accepting a transfer to Milan, I spoke at length with management and Leonardo," he explained to the Corriere dello Sport on Tuesday.

"There are no guarantees on the number of games I will play, but I will play plenty. Several clubs were interested in me, but I am sure I've made the right choice."

The Dutch striker was only at Real Madrid for half a season, before president Florentino Perez's re-instatement saw a massive spending spree that brought in stars such as Kaka, Cristiano Ronaldo and Karim Benzema, pushing out Huntelaar after just 20 appearances.

"It's true, I didn't expect things to end like that, but in Italy it will be fine. I have carefully chosen my new team and Milan will be perfect," the 25-year-old concluded.

According to the latest reports, it's possible the former Ajax star could make his debut for the Rossoneri on August 14 against Pescara.

Miller Finds New Love?

2009-08-13T09:53:00.000-07:00

Sienna Miller

Sienna Miller is moving on after her split from Balthazar Getty - she's dating a DJ called Slinky Wizard, according to a new report.

The actress ended her on/off relationship with the "Brothers & Sisters" star earlier this year and has already been linked to the DJ, whose real name is George Barker.

The pair was spotted getting close to one another at the Secret Garden Party in Cambridge, England last month, reports Britain's Daily Mirror.

And the 27-year-old is so smitten with Barker that she is already planning their first romantic getaway.

A source tells the newspaper, "Sienna and George is still a pretty casual thing but they're both really happy. George is a good, all-round guy and they have friends in common. He's not famous and isn't interested in fame.

"George is really into his music and has been introducing Sienna to new stuff, and even given her a go on his decks. They've talked about a holiday together and Ibiza has been discussed. It's early days but things are looking great."

Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols 'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra' Andrews

2009-08-13T09:49:00.000-07:00

rachel nichols

Actresses Sienna Miller and Rachel Nichols speak from the red carpet at the premiere of "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" held at Andrews Air Force Base in Camp Springs, Maryland on July 31, 2009. From the Egyptian desert to deep below the polar ice caps, the elite G.I. Joe team uses the latest in next-generation spy and military equipment to fight the corrupt arms dealer Destro and the growing threat of the mysterious Cobra organization to prevent them from plunging the world into chaos. "G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra," starring Miller, Nichols, Channing Tatum and Marlon Wayans, opens in theaters on August 7, 2009.

Sharon Stone returns for ‘Arts for Act'

2009-08-13T09:45:00.000-07:00

sharon stone

ESTERO: Actress Sharon Stone will be making a return appearance for the "Arts for Act" auction on Saturday.

The Auction this year will be August 15th at the Hyatt Regency at Coconut Point in Estero.

She will be helping Jesse Metcalfe as celebrity auctioneer.

This will be Stone's third appearance at the fundraising event for Abuse Counseling Treatment, Inc. which is a private not-for-profit that helps victims of domestic violence and sexual assault.

In 2005, she auctioned off her designer dress and shoes for the cause.

This year's theme is "Masquerade of the Arts".

Tickets are still available. They are $125.00 individually, or a reserved table of 12 is $1,800.00 and can be purchased by calling 239-939-2553.

'Oliver!' star Mark Lester claims he's real father of Michael Jackson's daughter

2009-08-13T09:41:00.001-07:00

mark lester jackson

A former child actor who starred in the lead role in 1968 film version of the 'Oliver!' musical, has claimed that he is the father of Michael Jackson's daughter Paris.

Mark Lester claimed that he donated sperm to help the late singer have a child, and has outlined his desire for a paternity test to see if he is indeed 11 year-old Paris' dad.

The former actor, now an osteopath and godfather to Jackson's children, said he was making his belief public because communication between his family and the children had been severed.

Jackson's mother Katherine has custody of the singer's three children.

"I'm the godparent to them and Michael was godparent to all my four kids," he told the News Of The World. "Our two families spent a lot of time together, and had a lot fun together. Now I'm not able to have any communication with the children. My repeated phone calls aren't returned and emails go unanswered.

"This isn't what Michael would have wanted. I feel I have to come forward, as my only way of saying, 'Please don't shut me out!'"

Lester said that he made the offer in 1996 because Jackson was petrified of having sex himself, so feared he couldn't naturally father a child.

"Michael wasn't gay," he said, "but I'd say he was asexual. I think he'd already tried using his own sperm but it hadn't worked for him, so I made an off-the-cuff comment saying, 'Try mine!'"

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra hopes to ascend towards top movies of 2009

2009-08-13T09:37:00.000-07:00

movie gi joe

Taking over the number one spot during its opening weekend, Rise of Cobra's time frame is set in the near future, where James McCullen (Christopher Eccleston), a weapons designer for M.A.R.S., creates weaponry deadly enough to destroy entire cities. After selling to the U.S., the Army, headed by Duke (Channing Tatum) and Ripcord (Marlon Wayans) lead a team of soldiers entrusted to deliver the warheads to their destination. Things quickly get out of hand, as the soldiers are ambushed by an elite team, led by Baroness (Sienna Miller), whose attempts of stealing the warheads do not prove fruitful, thanks to the arrival of Snake Eyes (Ray Park), Scarlett (Rachel Nichols), and Heavy Duty (Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje), part of a counter-elite squad themselves.

After saving Duke and Ripcord (and a brief stand-off), the soldiers and warheads are escorted to the Joe's base, known as The Pit. Though being relieved of their assignment by General Hawk (Dennis Quaid), Ripcord and Duke talk, then train their way into becoming Joes, in order to avenge their fellow soldiers killed in the previous battle, and thanks to Duke's knowledge of the Baroness' true identity. This sets in motion the constant battle throughout the film over the warheads, while weaving in and out of origin stories for multiple characters, delivering background through flashbacks for Duke, Ripcord, Baroness, and Baroness' brother, Rex Lewis (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), their relation to each other and why they become who they become (within the context of the movie, for all you die-hard comic book and cartoon fans). There's also McCullen's family story, showing who he's eventually destined to be. And of course, the source of rivalry between Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow (Lee Byung-hun) is revealed.

The film was ok. Not the best movie of 2009, but definitely not the worst. Some of the strong points included Snake Eyes and Storm Shadow's fight scenes (and let's throw in Storm Shadow's casual attire, because that brotha was clean!), as well as Scarlett and Baroness' cool weapons. Throw in the origin stories, and little hints showing respect to the comics and cartoon (Hawk briefly in the wheelchair, Scarlett and Snake Eyes' affection, Destro and Baroness coupled up, old school gunfire in one of the fight scenes), and I was cool with it. Weak points? Some of the overall cheesiness (dialogue, certain parts of the CG), Duke's dry interactions with Baroness (pretty much bland all around for Tatum's performance), and some of Cobra Commander's reason for hating Duke (plothole?). One surprise though. While most felt Wayans would be a terrible fit for this film, he actually did a good job of blending comedy with serious; nothing too over the top.

What started as military themed children's action figures in the sixties, has since grown over the decades into numerous variations of toys, comic books, cartoons, cartoon movies, parodies, and now, a live action flick. The Joe's next mission? Paramount's hoping the popularity keeps up going into the sequel, and possibly, a trilogy.

G.I. Joe. Also starring Said Taghmaoui as Breaker, Arnold Vosloo as Zartan, and Karolina Kurkova as Cover Girl, with special appearance by Brendan Fraser as Sergeant Stone.

Vanessa Hudgens Wants To Play Janis Joplin

2009-08-13T09:34:00.000-07:00

vanessa hudgens

After "High School Musical" and "Bandslam," Vanessa Hudgens had planned to leave musical movies behind to concentrate on darker fare like Zack Snyder's "Sucker Punch." But the singer/actress caught the musical-biopic bug while filming her upcoming teen flick "Beastly."

So what musician does Hudgens want to bring to life on the big screen? "Janis Joplin," she told MTV News. "I don't know [why]. In 'Beastly,' there's a Halloween party, and it's kind of a high school Halloween party. All the girls are dressed up as sl--s, and my character comes in as Janis Joplin."

From that point on, Hudgens couldn't help but become a little obsessed with the legendary performer. "I would not stop listening to her music [after that], and I think she's so incredible," she said. "I know I don't look much like her, but you can always hope, right?"

Hudgens isn't the first person to pursue a Joplin biopic. Back in 2004, it was announced that Pink had signed on to "The Gospel According to Janis," a movie that director Penelope Spheeris has been developing for two decades. Another singer/actress, Zooey Deschanel, is now attached to the project, but she told MTV News in 2007 that the film was "on hold." "It's one of these things [that] seems like it's been hard to get all the money and the rights in place," Deschanel said.

Renée Zellweger was also signed on to play Joplin in a movie set to be titled "Piece of My Heart" or simply "Janis."

Chace Crawford Gets 'Footloose' (And A Few Sore Muscles) As He Dishes On Preparing For His Big Role

2009-08-13T09:30:00.000-07:00

chace crawford

Chace Crawford is a busy man. In between filming "Gossip Girl" and canoodling with a certain "Twilight" hottie, the 24-year-old has been hitting the dance floor to prepare for his starring role as Ren McCormack in the remake of '80s classic "Footloose." And he has the sore muscles to prove it. "I'm training right now in New York and it's intense," Chace told MTV News during the Teen Choice Awards. "I've got all these muscles I didn't know I had. I'm sore."

Dance is only part of the equation, however, for this remake. Music also plays an integral part, and Chace admitted that it will be hard to top Kenny Loggins' barn-burning title tune. "They've got some stuff up their sleeves," Chace said. "It's not going to be the exact same. They've got a good vision for it. It's going to be original but woven in." Click play on the clip below to hear more from Chace on "Footlose," including one important role still to be cast.

"Twilight" actress Ashley Greene gets involved with DoSomething.org

2009-08-13T09:18:00.000-07:00

Actress Ashley Green won the Teen Choice Award for "Fresh Face Female" for her role as Alice Cullen in the "Twilight" sagas. "Twilight" and Greene fans should be pleased to learn that she is getting ready to launch a new cause-campaign with DoSomething.org.

Earlier this weekend, before the Teen Choice Awards, Greene attended DoSomething.org's "Power of Youth" event to celebrate the achievements of LA's best young leaders. Greene seems to be following in the footsteps of fellow actresses Kristen Bell and Rachel Bilson who also support DoSomething.org.

Details of Greene's new cause-campaign lauch are being kept under wraps at the moment. Greene did have some comments to make about DoSomething.org, "I think it's important to let young people and teens know that they should help other people now rather than later. DoSomething.org is a brilliant site. It's really easy and let's teens know all the little things they can do to help out. I'm so excited to be working with an organization that calls so many young people to action."

DoSomething.org's motto is "Powering Offline Action. Using the power of online to get teens to do good stuff offline." The website is an interactive place set up with a list of causes that can be clicked on and where teens can learn how to Do Something about them. Causes range from going green to battling HIV/AIDS and learning about Disaster Response and Relief.

Ashley Greene has been involved with other charitable organizations including DonateMyDress.org where she is the celebrity spokeswoman. DonateMyDress.org is a national program that sets up local dress drives across the nation where girls can donate prom dresses or recieve a prom dress free of charge to help them have a prom night to remember.

A Real American Parody: ‘The Ballad of G.I. Joe’

2009-08-12T03:08:00.000-07:00

gi joe movie

At this point, observing that FunnyOrDie.com produces clever videos is like saying that the cell phone is a useful communication device, but sometimes the comedy Web site really knows our sweet spot. If you were put off lately by the relentless trailers for “G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra” and their high-octane Kid Rock soundtrack, but still want to indulge your nostalgia for 1980s action figures, “The Ballad of G.I. Joe” by Daniel Strange and Kevin Umbricht may be more your speed. It’s a low-key guitar jam that imagines what the G.I. Joe team and its Cobra enemies might do in the after hours — and it features a celebrity cast that’s as impressive as the “G.I. Joe” movie. Make sure you stick around to see Destro and the Baroness practicing their clarinets.

Sharon Stone at 51 graces Paris Match topless

2009-08-12T02:57:00.000-07:00

match sharon stone

Sharon Stone, 51, has decided to pose topless in Paris Match.

"I'm a person who feels that if it's appropriate for the character I'm playing or the mood of the piece, then [nudity is] no big thing," she was quoted as saying via Hollywood Gossip (picture source as well).

Stone has 3 children and looks fit and fabulous in her high leather boots, corsets and gloves.

Two years ago Stone was captured topless in an Italian magazine. I am not sure who cares but she makes the news presumably because of her age. Let's remember the trainers she has and that she gets paid to look fit.

Do we care if her breasts are real or not? Maybe because if they aren't (and truly I'd like to hear from 50+ women with children who look anything like Stone) then it seems to be false advertising! Then there is air brushing. Hey I'm not envious or anything but we need to be realistic here and think about what goes into shots that show Stone's body.

Sharon Stone has followed the GI Diet, which is based on the glycemic index of food. She has also cut out all sugar. Sharon works out from time to time, but isn’t fanatical about it. Sharon works her abs.

Mark Lester photos, his rubbish claim of fathering Paris

2009-08-12T02:53:00.000-07:00

mark lester jackson

Mark Lester photos, his rubbish claim of fathering Paris. Now there is one more man who says he fathered Michael Jackson’s daughter Paris. Paris came in for special praise from all around for her composure and for her tribute to her father Michael Jackson during his memorial service in LA.

Michael Jackson’s daughter moved people to tears at his memorial service. The Memorial service, the grandest, anyone has seen in recent past was moved to tears when Michael Jackson’s daughter forced herself to speak a few sentences.

And the words could not be better. No child of her age could have given a better parting tribute to her father.

Her words also stunned the audience, silenced her relatives and within no time everyone was weeping like her.

Michael Jackson’s 11 year old daughter Paris who was persuaded to speak in the memorial said, “I just want to say, ever since I was born, daddy has been the best father you could ever imagine, and I just wanted to say I love him so much”.

There is no denying the fact that this was the best tribute paid to the departed soul from any one. I

Mark Lester, an old friend of Michael Jackson has claimed that he fathered Paris as he had donated his sperm to Jacko. He claims he did it free as a service to his friend.

Reports say that according to Lester Jackson was so disturbed that he couldn’t have sex so he sought to have children through artificial insemination. When his own sperm wouldn’t work, he asked Lester to make a donation to the cause.

Lester says, “Michael found it very difficult to have relationships with women. He became very scared, and found it so disturbing he couldn’t perform. Michael wasn’t gay. But I’d say he was asexual. In 1996 Michael asked me if I would give him my sperm and I said yes. It was a gift to him, no money was paid. It was something I was honoured to do. He wanted children so badly”.

Lady Gaga accused of being a hermaphrodite

2009-08-12T02:44:00.000-07:00

lady gaga hermaphrodite

Bizarre rumours are circulating that chart-topper Lady Gaga is in fact a man. Even weirder rumours claim she is in fact a singer.

Gaga apparently showed a little more than she/he bargained for in a recent video clip, strengthening claims that she is a hermaphrodite.

A hermaphrodite, for the unenlightened, is someone with the erogenous features of both a man and a woman - for instance a libido AND a brain.

The nearly man of pop claimed earlier this year that she once had sex in the back of a cab. Most men have done that. Claimed it, I mean.

I remember having a liaison with a girl in the back of a taxi once. She was so tasty I could hardly keep my eyes on the meter.

The gender rumours are growing so widespread I'm beginning to believe that Gaga is in fact Paris Jackson's dad.

In a market wide open to each-way betting, Paddy Power now go 1-3 that Gaga is all lady, just 9-4 a hermaphrodite, and 5-1 a male (identical to the Fernando Torres odds, in fact).

Vanessa Hudgens gets past the drama

2009-08-12T02:17:00.000-07:00

vanessa hudgens

Vanessa Hudgens wishes people would just — stay with it for a minute — let her work.

“It's so annoying, because there's always so much hype, and there are always so many people following actors when they're not doing anything,” says the Disney starlet, on the phone from New York. She's been talking up Bandslam, a scrappy high-school musical of sorts, opening Friday.

“I hate drama, so I try to avoid it at all costs.”

Right about now, the collective thought is probably something along the lines of, “Mmmhmmm.”

Hudgens, 20, made these earnest claims less than a day before a second set of nude photos surfaced online. (She has yet to release any official statement.) Similar photos leaked in 2007, and Hudgens apologized.

Alleged comedian Dane Cook took a cheap shot at Hudgens' latest photo scandal during Sunday's taping of the Teen Choice Awards.

“Girl, you gots to keep your clothes! Phones are for phone calls, girl,” he yelled from the stage. His comments were cut from Monday's broadcast.

It's all a bit of shame, really, since Bandslam is a charmer that turns several high-school clichés upside down. It focuses on Will Burton (Gaelan Connell), a painfully awkward nerd with a love of classic rock who assembles a group of oddcasts to form a band (the cleverly named I Can't Go On, I'll Go On) with hopes of winning a high-school competition. He develops an intense crush on Hudgens' Sa5m (the 5 is silent), an emo-esque loner with a love of reading and sarcasm.

Much of the film was shot in Austin, where Hudgens says she had the chance to take in South by Southwest and spent time at an “incredible” movie theater where “you could sit down and order food, and they would bring it to you as you're watching the movie.” (That's the Alamo Drafthouse, y'all.)

Bandslam also boasts winning turns from Lisa Kudrow as a much-put-upon mom and Alyson Michalka as a quirky hot girl with a heart and issues of her own. (Your tween daughter knows her as one-half of sister act Aly & AJ.)

“Even though it's based around an unoriginal story, I think we've made it original. It doesn't go the way you think it would go,” Hudgens says.

She also relished the chance to break out of the shiny-happy Disney mold. The film was directed and co-written by Todd Graff, who knows his way around adolescent angst — and has a penchant for soundtracking it with flourish. He also helmed 2003's grandly entertaining Camp.

“I don't really relate to Sa5m that much at all. I was kind of a loner when I was a kid, but I was never dark or anything like that,” she says.

“It was definitely a collaboration with the producers and Todd — the way she dressed, the way she talked, the way she walked. It was a whole process. It was a lot of fun being part of that creative process.”

Hudgens' real-life high-school experience was hardly as adventurous. Mostly, it involved sitting at home with mom, slaving over assignments at the kitchen table. No breaking into spontaneous song.

But the Cali girl says she doesn't regret missing out on — well, she'll explain. (And it includes that “d” word again.)

“I went through High School Musical, had my graduation for High School Musical, made my really good friends from High School Musical,” she says.

“I think the only thing I missed is drama, and that's totally fine — jealousy and prom and all that other junk that is just so unnecessary.”

The Neverland Club

2009-08-12T02:10:00.000-07:00

john hughes died

IN life, there is always that special person who shapes who you are, who helps to determine the person you become. Very often it’s a teacher, a mentor of some kind. For me, that person was John Hughes. Along with the rest of the world, I was stunned when I learned that he had died of a heart attack last week at 59.

Not long after hearing the horrible news, I found myself talking on the phone to Anthony Michael Hall, my friend and co-star in several of the movies John directed. His experiences mirror mine to a large extent. Both of us were catapulted from obscurity and planted in the American consciousness through the films that we did with John. Michael, as he prefers to be called, will be forever associated with “geekdom” just as I will always be the girl whose 16th birthday is forgotten. But for both of us, what really matters is less the mark that these films left on the world than the experience of making them with John, the mark it made on us.

We stayed on the phone for a while reminiscing about our old friend and mentor. Since the days of John’s death, we have both been inundated with missives from friends and acquaintances, sending us their condolences the way you would for a close family member. Yet the strange thing is, neither of us had talked to John in more than 20 years.

Most everyone knows that John retreated from Hollywood and became a sort of J.D. Salinger for Generation X. But really, sometime before then, he had retreated from us and from the kinds of movies that he had made with us. I still believe that the Hughes films of which both Michael and I were a part (specifically “Sixteen Candles” and “The Breakfast Club”) were the most deeply personal expressions of John’s. In retrospect, I feel that we were sort of avatars for him, acting out the different parts of his life — improving upon it, perhaps. In those movies, he always got the last word. He always got the girl.

None of the films that he made subsequently had the same kind of personal feeling to me. They were funny, yes, wildly successful, to be sure, but I recognized very little of the John I knew in them, of his youthful, urgent, unmistakable vulnerability. It was like his heart had closed, or at least was no longer open for public view. A darker spin can be gleaned from the words John put into the mouth of Allison in “The Breakfast Club”: “When you grow up ... your heart dies.”

I’m speaking metaphorically, of course. Though it does seem sadly poignant that physically, at least, John’s heart really did die. It also seems undeniably meaningful: His was a heavy heart, deeply sensitive, prone to injury — easily broken.

Most people who knew John knew that he was able to hold a grudge longer than anyone — his grudges were almost supernatural things, enduring for years, even decades. Michael suspects that he was never forgiven for turning down parts in “Pretty in Pink” and “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” I turned down later films as well. Not because I didn’t want to work with John anymore — I loved working with him, more than anyone before or since.

John saw something in me that I didn’t even see in myself. He had complete confidence in me as an actor, which was an extraordinary and heady sensation for anyone, let alone a 16-year-old girl. I did some of my best work with him. How could I not? He continually told me that I was the best, and because of my undying respect for him and his judgment, how could I have not believed him?

Eventually, though, I felt that I needed to work with other people as well. I wanted to grow up, something I felt (rightly or wrongly) I couldn’t do while working with John. Sometimes I wonder if that was what he found so unforgivable. We were like the Darling children when they made the decision to leave Neverland. And John was Peter Pan, warning us that if we left we could never come back. And, true to his word, not only were we unable to return, but he went one step further. He did away with Neverland itself.

“I just remember how fun it all was,” Michael said on the phone.

It was: the concerts he took us to (the blues great Junior Wells at Kingston Mines in Chicago), the endless mixed tapes he made for us and, most of all, the work itself. It doesn’t even seem like you should be able to call it “work” because we enjoyed it so much.

There’s a scene in “Sixteen Candles” where my character, Samantha, and Michael’s character, “the geek,” have a heart-to-heart talk. The scene lasts all of six minutes, but it took us days to film because we were all laughing too hard. John, too. He sat under the camera — his permanent place before directors retreated to the video monitor — while the assistant directors stood around rolling their eyes waiting for him to stop laughing and reprimand “the kids.” But how could he? He was one of us.

About 15 years ago, I wrote John from Paris, where I was living, to tell him how important he was to me. I had been on a François Truffaut kick and had just watched the series of “Antoine Doinel” films that he had made with the actor Jean-Pierre Léaud. There was something in the connection of actor and director that I recognized in us, particularly in the first film of the series, “400 Blows.”

After Truffaut died, I heard that Jean-Pierre Léaud had suffered a kind of breakdown, going so far as to drop flower pots on people from high-storied buildings. This is most likely a rumor, French film lore, but I think I now understand how painful it is to lose someone like that. John was my Truffaut. A week after I sent my letter, I received a bouquet of flowers as big as my apartment from John, thanking me for writing. I was so relieved to know that I had gotten through to him, and I feel grateful now for that sense of closure.

Toward the end of my phone call with Michael, we spent a little time catching up on mutual friends and family. I told him that my 5-year-old daughter, Mathilda, had just secured the part that she wanted in her theater camp — Tiger Lily, the Indian princess in “Peter Pan.” Michael made me promise to invite him to Mathilda’s debut as a fellow thespian. So in a few weeks we’ll drive to the theater and spend a couple of hours with Tiger Lily, Peter, Wendy and the Lost Boys.

Turns out, you can return to Neverland. At least for a little while.

Anna Paquin: Engagement Ring Proud!

2009-08-08T22:42:00.000-07:00

anna paquin

Newly engaged actress Anna Paquin smiles for photographers as she walks her dogs around the neighborhood on Thursday morning (August 6) in Venice, Calif.

Yesterday, the 27-year-old actress just announced her engagement to her True Blood co-star Stephen Moyer.

To see some of Anna and Stephen’s (Bill & Sookie) on-screen chemistry, check out the new episode of True Blood, airing @ 9PM ET/PT this Sunday (August 9) on HBO.

Manning's deal still not completed

2009-08-08T22:40:00.001-07:00

eli manning

ALBANY - On Wednesday, Jerry Reese said he was "hopeful" about completing the Eli Manning contract extension soon. Saturday, he maintained that hopefulness.

"There are a lot of details in this kind of a deal," the Giants general manager said on his way to lunch. "I'm not concerned at all."

The two sides agreed to a deal in principle Wednesday, according to sources. That six-year extension is worth $97.5 million and, coupled with Manning's salary of $9.4 million this season, would pay him $106.9 million over the next seven years. At $15.2 million per season, that would be the highest multiyear contract in the NFL.

Sources have said the holdup on the deal is a "language" issue. Reese said the basic structure of the agreement has not fallen apart. "But a contract's not a contract until the name is on the line," he added.

Manning walked through the cafeteria, but all he said was, "Nothing new, nothing new," as he stepped inside.

Reese said he didn't know when Manning would actually sign the extension.

"There's no timetable on it," he said. "We're hopeful that it's sooner rather than later."

Opening day: 'G.I. Joe' headed for $60-million opening

2009-08-08T22:37:00.000-07:00

gi joe

Paramount may just have another successful big screen brand.

"G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra" sold a studio-estimated $22.3 million worth of tickets in the U.S. and Canada on its opening day. If it follows the path of other big summer action movies, it should end up earning around $60 million for its three-day opening weekend.

Given the movie's $175-million production budget, that would be a solid start and, assuming audience word-of-mouth is strong, put it on track for a healthy box office run. According to market research firm CinemaScore, opening day moviegoers gave "G.I. Joe" a grade of B+, once again contradicting the view of critics, as they did on Paramount's "Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen." That would seem to validate the studio's strategy to not screen the picture for print and broadcast critics before it opened and to focus much of the marketing at blue-collar audiences in smaller markets.

Though it's headed for a good opening, "G.I. Joe" isn't on track to do as well as Paramount's other cinematic re-launch of a well known brand, "Star Trek," which made $75.2 million on its opening weekend. Nonetheless, it would put the studio in the enviable position of having a third big-screen brand it can produce a sequel for in the next few years, along with "Trek" and "Transformers."

Sony Pictures' "Julie and Julia," the weekend's other big release, earned $6.5 million Friday. It will likely end up grossing a little under $20 million for the weekend, a good start for a movie that cost about $40 million to produce and is targeted mainly at adult women, who don't tend to go to theaters as often as young males, who are expected to be the biggest segment of the "G.I. Joe" crowd.

Update (9:55 AM): "Funny People" is apparently finding a dead crowd on its second weekend, as ticket sales plummeted 70% on Friday from the previous week.

Meryl Streep on the prowl in 'It's Complicated' trailer

2009-08-08T22:34:00.000-07:00

meryl streep

James Bond and Mr. Darcy were just the beginning for Meryl Streep. “Turns out [she's] a bit of a slut.” In Nancy Meyers’ It’s Complicated, the Mamma Mia! star juggles Jack Donaghy and a mild-and-crazy guy. In the film’s trailer, Streep’s bitter divorcee becomes The Other Woman when she and her remarried ex (Alec Baldwin) renew their passions. Caught in between is Steve Martin’s sweet, square architect.

My first thought when I saw this was, “Wow, Meryl Streep’s going to star in two $100 million hits this year.” (I don’t mean to jinx Julie & Julia.) What a run for the actress who, in her “Hollywood prime,” flailed in attempts to prove her stardom with misses like The River Wild and Death Becomes Her. What she’s doing now is unprecedented for an actress of her…experience.

What did you think of the trailer, PopWatchers? Too much Something’s Gotta Give? Which supporting character most caught your eye: Lake Bell, John Krasinski, Rita Wilson, Lake Bell? And who would you rather have dinner with: Alec Baldwin or Steve Martin?