In a crazy world, we love our crazies.

 Yes, they are not really crazy. Crazy talented maybe. More than likely, mislabeled. Because that's what we do, right? We don't understand some one, we call them crazy. That's one way to end the discussion, and lately there appears to be enough crazy going around for all of us.

You've got your crazy "spy" character.
  Today's update. 

 And your even crazier Southern cook with her friend. Trying to make apologies for being herself... not the persona she created.
 Hello??

And yet, it's the crazy people who change the world... and make it a much more fun place to live, right?
  So get out there, take some risks, challenge yourself and go... a little crazy.
 Not celebrity crazy though, ok?

Why You'll Never Make The BFFL List

check this list. can you admit to more than three of them?

*statements compiled from watching too much TV and eavesdropping on conversations at the gym 

You think you dress cute

You are a blamer, not a claimer

You don't belong to a gym

You belong to a gym, but never go

You pretend to be a Christian because you think it makes you appear kinder

You drive slow. Everywhere.

You are over thirty years old and have never been to Europe

You made a conscious choice: cats over dogs

You hang around people who are going nowhere in their lives and you respect them

You have never removed the wallpaper in your house

You have no idea what Bikram yoga is

You have never moved just to get a better place

You have regrets

Your best friend is your mother

You love cruises

You find it easier to cut down than compliment

You don't like to dance

You don't carry water with you, ever

 You look in every shiny surface you pass

You return to the same vacation place over and over and over

You think Las Vegas is the best thing ever, besides Disneyland

Dieting is something you do a few times a year. Every year.

You have more free flight miles saved up than you could ever use

You think a martini has more than two ingredients

Every room in your house has a theme

You like the sound of your laugh

You're afraid if you lift weights you'll get too muscular

Your idea of success is a large savings account

You have a list of places you'd like to see but have not booked one vacation this year

If I taped your day, you'd never once say these words: please, love, proud, asshole, yes

You have never shopped online

Your house smells weird to everyone but you

Your family has an outcast, and it's not you

You believe in the power of prayer but not positive thinking

You don't read books

You drive a minivan

You have never been to Canada or Mexico

You think Canada and Mexico are exotic places

Your negativity is your greatest asset

You eat everything and never gain weight

You never had to study in college

You actually have the job you went to school for

You still get the newspaper delivered daily

Clutter is your constant companion

You have a fear of something that will never happen to you- ie: spontaneous combustion

You do not believe in spirits

American Idol, I'm not Judging... but.

You're kidding, right?

It was announced live: here that the new judges for AI this year are Steven Tyler, Jennifer Lopez and the good old stand-by  ( looking fatter and darker than ever) Randy Jackson.
 I'm not feeling good about this. A Latin Diva. A boozing  aging rocker and a guy who calls everyone, "Dog."


Maybe this is one season I will tape and skim at my leisure, hoping to avoid the thirteen worst performances... thirteen more times. You have seen them, haven't you?
  Oh dear Lord.  


 I want to be positive, want to give this revamp a chance, especially when I read that they aren't going to force the singers to perform out of their style.. which was always a problem for me. If someone is a country singer and you try to make them into a hot rocker with no hint of twang, how are you allowing them to be authentic, how are you showcasing their talents? You are merely playing puppet master.


Maybe Lythgoe finally "gets, it, Dog."

Or maybe I am just still jonesing for the old summer hit sorta Idol show: Rockstar.

And, yes, I am still pissed that they replaced Rockstar with Pirate Master? Really?? 


Sigh. Another brilliant move. I need to give up TV and move on.

Drunkorexia? For real???

Yes, like that annoying bad texter, I used a whole bunch of ????
And also?
I am timely.
Spring Break. PMS. Feeling fat. First day of Spring. Countdown to swimsuit weather. Friday! Hello?

And no, I didn't make up the term. It's when you- women mostly- substitute alcohol calories for food calories.
this chick cautions college students. And this article goes much deeper.

 Thing is, Drunkorexia has been the diet of Hollywood for years, just ask Lilo, Britney and Tara Reid.

Drunk Celebrities. Yep. For St. Patrick's Day.

Happy St. Patrick's Day with all that green and luck and gold and small people and cabbage.. or not.

Ken Green, the golfer with really really bad luck.

Mr. Green,

 I first heard your story when my friend, Mitch said he was writing a screenplay about your life. He told me of your sense of humor, ( the alligator), of your positive outlook during recovery, of the way in which you were attacking life as it came at you.

I immediately went home and looked up your blog, read the story of your accident, and became- although silent- one of your greatest fans.

To read today, this news on my computer.

 I am heartbroken. I can offer my sincere condolence, on the loss of your son, Hunter.

I cannot begin to imagine the pain you are feeling, or the immense struggle your life has become. I can only feel guilty for the blessings I have- for the life I take for granted.

I love what one of your readers wrote:

 "May God keep you in his palm..."

 I can only add.

 And not close His hand into a fist.

American Idol behind the Scenes

You thought it happened the way you saw it?
 There is a "trick' to reality TV... it's called EDITING.

                           check it out

If Paris Hilton lived in Georgia

There are a lot of blondes in Georgia- natural blondes- who still believe in big hair and glitz. I think there may be a bit of "stuck in the 80's" happening around here. And certainly if Paris Hilton came to town, she'd be confused by the accents...
but my daughter was certain that if Paris Hilton was going to go trick or treating in our neighborhood, she'd wear these shoes with a sparkly silver skirt and a BFF shirt while cradling Tinkerbell in her arms.

Of course, we only bought them with HALLOWEEN in mind- it may have been the shiny shiny that pulled us to them, or the $6 price tag.

He's a Magic Man.

Everyone knows this guy: He's MAGIC.
I met him once.
I used to do promotional modeling in California. One of my jobs was to appear at a David Copperfield Show in San Diego. This must have been around 1986-1987 He was in his hey dey then, and me? I wasn't impressed. I'm the girl who likes to expose the tricks, watch the hand they don't want you to watch, see the angle to camera can't. So, of course I went backstage.
What I found was a David Copperfield double.
Right after his "I've disappeared from this part of the stage and reappeared in the back of the audience trick." yep

Still, I thought he was hot. And a guy with magic hands? well. 'nuff said.
But I was in a relationship and I declined the drinks and backstage sit-in and instead went home and pretty much forgot all about it.
I followed his rise to fame- him becoming the 57 million dollar man.. a man with a private island.

As with most celebrities, he ran into a bit of girl trouble.. some claims washed away and some are still sticking around. Like this one from 2007:

A Seattle woman has filed a lawsuit stating that illusionist David Copperfield repeatedly sexually assaulted her two years ago on his private island for two days. The woman, 22, claims the magician raped her and sexually assaulted her on two other occasions and even threatened to kill her. Two years ago, David Copperfield invited the woman to his $50 million private retreat on Musha Cay after meeting her at a show in Washington state. One of Copperfield’s assistants invited the alleged victim backstage, where she was told about potential work on the island that might lead to “modeling opportunities,” according to the suit, filed on July 29.
When the 22 year-old woman on the island, that is only reachable by private boat, on July 27, 2007, “she realized no one else was in attendance other than . . . Copperfield,” the suit states. They had dinner and then went to David Copperfield’s room to watch a movie.
“Copperfield then attacked [her] and sexually assaulted her” and “threatened to kill her,” despite the victim’s attempt to fight him off, leaving her “extremely traumatized,” her filing charges.

“This lawsuit is extortion for money, plain and simple,” Copperfield’s lawyers say. “Unfortunately, false claims like this only hurt the women who really have been abused, women who really need our help.”

TMZ.com reported that other women have claimed that Copperfield uses his shows to target attractive women. The woman took photographs of the alleged crime scene with her cell phone and did not bathe so as to retain DNA evidence. Upon her return to Seattle, she went directly to a hospital and a "rape kit" was assembled. Some of her clothing was taken as evidence. FBI agents arranged a

Sting operation in which the woman met Copperfield and he allegedly offered her a US$2 million bribe, if she would drop her rape charge against him.

Magic Man? maybe not.
Odd how I mistyped his name first off-- coming up with Copperfiend. And because I like to expose truths...
here's a sneak peak at the way one of his "magic" tricks is really done.


David Copperfield Revealed - For more of the funniest videos, click here

Are you a SUPERFAN?

Even if you're merely a "FAN," you are going to love this new site I found.
If you're anything like me, when you want to know about something, or someone .... you want to KNOW ALL ABOUT it.
and what if you could go to one place, instead of window upon window of link upon link?
You can. (OH my, I sound like an infomercial.) Check it out.

It's SuperFan.
I tried typing in LOST, one of my guilty TV pleasures, and found videos, photos, connections to other pages , a comment section and a place to talk to other super fans. Totally cool thing. Some pages also offer blogs, quizzes and battles. The Sports Pages are especially full of information.

My sisters would have loved this when we were growing up. They had walls of posters of their favorite singers and actors. They read all the teenybopper magazines and wrote love letters to them in their diaries. Now thirteen year olds can go to SuperFan, type in The Jonas Brothers or Channing Tatum or Megan Fox and start their own fanclub.


SuperFan.com was founded by Harvard MBA and internet pioneer, Rick Marini, a guy who's lived in two of my former states, NH and CA and started a little thing you might have heard of called Tickle.com, which he later sold to Monster Worldwide for over $100 million. Nice.

Women over 40. Is there botox for your saggy knees?

These are the knees of a few celebrities over 40. Seriously? That's what this UK article says. You can guess whose legs are whose or click the link and find out.

The article says, and I directly quote, "Our knees are made up of skin on bone (there is no muscle you can tone to keep them in shape), so when the ageing process kicks in and gravity begins to take its toll, the skin starts to slide off the bone like a well-cooked chicken: not a good look.

Victoria Beckham (who has not even made it to her 40s yet but is preternaturally thin), Teri Hatcher, Demi Moore and Nicole Kidman are fine examples of very skinny women who have all been mocked for their gnarled knees.

Moore was so hurt by media comments about her knees after she'd spent a rumoured £250,000 on surgery on her body that she splashed out a further £5,000 on pioneering and painful extra surgery to rectify the problem.

There were also rumours that Kidman had undergone the same procedure when, following unflattering pictures, she was photographed with her knees covered in plasters.

The operation involves stripping the skin from the knee cap, pulling it tight and stitching it in place just like a face-lift.

The only problem is that unlike a face-lift, there's no handy hairline to hide the scar and the patient must commit themselves to a lifetime of fake tans and concealers.

Demi, as an international movie star married to a man 15 years younger than her, took the high-maintenance option. Most middle-aged women opt for the cheaper and less painful route: putting their knees into purdah and never revealing anything from the shin up."

How much longer till summer's over?

Porn Star drinks at my favorite pub. The night I stay home.

Damn. I need a rabbit's foot. Or a chimney sweep.

I say plenty of stupid things, so why don't I have a book deal yet?

You all remember this former lingerie model?



She has a book deal.

Mother Fears Child's Birthday Celebration Will Be Lost in Sea of Celebrity Deaths

Though Piper Lee turns 11 today, a day she has been counting down for weeks, preparing her family for for months, a day marked on several calendars, chalkboards and ipod reminders, despite all that- less than 18 out of 306 million Americans will take note of the blessed birthday event.
According to recent polls, more people are interested in celebrities than their neighbors. More people scan gossip rags in the checkout line and peruse Yahoo news links on their phones than engage in lively face to face conversation with the person next to them. Sad, but true.

Last night, watching the entertainment programs before SYTYCD started, we were treated to a very lopsided celebrity death wrap up, flipping from Farrah to Michael to Karl and back to Michael and wondered if anyone remembered poor old Ed or the OxyClean dude.

For those who like their figures and percentages here's a bit from: WASHINGTON (AFP) – Nearly 2 out of 3 Americans believe the media gave too much coverage to the death of Michael Jackson and just 3 percent think it was too little, according to a survey published on Wednesday.
29 percent of the 1,000 people polled June 26-29 for the survey by the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press believe the coverage of Jackson's sudden death on Thursday at the age of 50 was the "right amount."
30 percent of those polled said they followed the coverage of Jackson's death "very closely" while 28 percent said they followed it "fairly closely."23 percent said they followed it "not too closely" and 19 percent said they followed it "not at all closely."31 percent said they followed the Jackson story more closely than any other during the week.

Pew said African Americans followed the death of Jackson more closely than the population as a whole with 8 in 10 blacks saying they followed the news of his death very closely compared with 22 percent of whites.

7 in 10 whites said there had been too much coverage compared with 36 percent of blacks.38 percent of those under the age of 40 said they followed the pop star's death very closely compared with 27 percent of those between 40 and 64 and 20 percent of those 65 and older.

The protests in Iran made up 19 percent of the news hole for the week while the Jackson story took up 18 percent, it said. However, from the time the Jackson story broke Thursday afternoon to the end of the day Friday, 60 percent of the news coverage studied was devoted to his death, Pew said. Iran coverage dropped to 7 percent of the news hole during the same period.

31 percent of those surveyed said they followed coverage of the Iranian government's crackdown on election protesters very closely.Pew said the survey of some 1,000 Americans aged 18 years older has a margin of error of plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.

And now I am 100 percent sure I am statistically brain fried.

* addendum* And now, we add another celebrity death. Rest in peace, Mrs. Slocum.

Your regular programming is interrupted to bring you this botox update.

We all knew Mary did it. But when she made fun of herself on live TV, we loved her even more.
You go girl.


2009 Mary publicity shot

The original Mary we all loved to scream with.


She looks so good, am thinking of making dermatologist appointment myself.

Let's talk TV.

I have been oddly silent about my TV viewing lately.
But a few comments about 2 of my addictions is in order.
First? LOST.
Oh yeah.
Last night was everything I expected, and more. Enough to make me login to i-tunes and find those podcasts I used to follow then listen in to speculations and praise.

If you aren't a LOST fan, there is something wrong with you. It has all the elements of smart TV, and some pretty people too. It's not too late, you ca watch all the seasons on DVD, and most of the episodes on your computer from this site.


And then AMERICAN IDOL.

Well, sure, we all knew Adam Lambert was good. Unlike those secretly wishing they could be plucked from ordinary lives contestants, he was already performing in musicals, he lived in LA, he was cool and suave and played it all too well.
When these photos of him surfaced,
I was curious how it would affect his popularity, curious to see if he would answer the accusations, because what does sexuality have to do with his voice? Seeing him drop to the bottom three answered one of those questions... after last night, I wondered if the screaming half-naked female would have still stormed the stage in San Diego knowing her AI crush was gay?

Oh, and AI! Thanks for the gratuitous T and A last night, from Alicia Keyes appearing bra-less to Katy Perry's ass hanging out of her Elvis costume, I forgot I was watching FOX.
Jordin Sparks was in fab voice and looked beautiful. You can see the perfomances here.

Can't wait to see what happens next week, as now it's down to the the sweet little married boy from Arkansas who performed one of my favorites songs from the movie ONCE...
and an amazingly talented sexy rocker guy who probably never needed American Idol to begin with.
Maybe this time I'll actually vote.

Write What You Know. Then Watch It.

Let's face it. Writers are interesting people.

Of course Hollywood has cashed in on this. Besides, when you're a writer, one of the first things you'll find yourself doing when you sit down to the keyboard...is writing about what you're doing.

( I can't tell you how many bad stories I read every week that open with a conflicted author who becomes his character, or loses his mind. Then there are the stories that open with someone reading or writing the story you're about to read, or keeping a journal, or finding a diary, or writing a script or ... you get the picture.)

A few of the better movies about writers:

Hannah and Her Sisters
Dianne Wiest plays a failed-actress-turned-writer who draws a little too closely on her own sister's marriage for inspiration in creating a script.


Permanent Midnight
Even as he was making a name as a hugely successful TV writer (thirtysomething, Moonlighting, Alf), Jerry Stahl was on a downward slide of heroin use and crazy, self-destructive behavior. As long as he produced, nobody he wrote for really cared.

Adaptation
LOVE LOVE LOVE Charlie Kaufman. What a talented guy.

Charlie has been hired to write an adaptation of Susan Orlean's The Orchid Thief which, ironically, happens to be an almost inadaptable non-fiction book about a plant dealer. While Charlie struggles, his twin brother, Donald, becomes a well-paid action hack — a transformation that makes Charlie even more neurotic than he was before.


In a Lonely Place ( Title says it all, doesn't it?)

Lots of Hollywood scribes have a streak of self-loathing about what they do — and so it goes for Humphrey Bogart's down-on-his-luck Dixon Steele in this masterwork of moody noirish angst from director Nicholas Ray. (The script is by Andrew Solt, whose extremely downbeat original ending was reworked by Ray and the cast — a case-in-point illustration of how little control writers typically have over the finished product.)


Here's a list of TEN TOP GREAT MOVIES ABOUT WRITERS, some of which I've seen, and
of course I would have to add a recent movie: STRANGER THAN FICTION which gets into the wacky minds of female writers and the conundrums of caring too much for your characters.
This movie made me so sad, because it was probably true.

But this weekend, I found another movie about writers that I love. PURPLE VIOLETS
You can see the trailer, even download the movie for your IPOD. A really wonderful Ed Burns film.

Even Presidents Get Do-Overs. Where's mine?

• 
  

Obama takes presidential oath again after stumble

• Play Video Video: The Oath Oops ABC News

I was the only in my house who commented on this- only one who seemed to think it was kinda screwy... but apparently brilliant minds think alike:

IN TODAY'S NEWS:
WASHINGTON – After the flub heard around the world, President Barack Obama has taken the oath of office. Again. Chief Justice John Roberts delivered the oath to Obama on Wednesday night at the White House — a rare do-over.



We all screw up. At least once in this life. And we have all wished we could just go back to that moment and say the perfect thing, make the perfect move, solve the problem, or nip it in the bud.
Wouldn't it be nice to be given a do-over? Better yet, to have your do-over occur on your home turf, with you in control?
Sweet.

Andrew Wyeth dies at 91

I have had the pleasure of living near and exploring the same landscape Wyeth painted. I think his work is magical. If only I had a few million bucks...


"Art to me, is seeing. I think you have got to use your eyes, as well as your emotion, and one without the other just doesn't work. That's my art." Andrew Wyeth


I borrowed this from his UK obituary:

The one Wyeth owned by New York's Museum of Modern Art, Christina's World (1948), is the best known American painting of the 20th century. It is perhaps typical of Wyeth's darker side; it shows a crippled woman in her 50s, Christina Olson, dressed in an acid pink dress and crawling through a luminous field towards an 18th century farmhouse on the horizon. The setting is near Cushing, Maine. Christina's World, nearly four foot wide, is tempera on gessoed panel. It was bought for $1,800 and is permanently on view, an incongruous sight in the midst of the avant garde-isms of modern times. "The challenge to me was to do justice to her extraordinary conquest of a life which most people would consider hopeless," Wyeth said. "Limited physically but by no means spiritually."

And of course, underneath is all, there was a love story- though some say it was fabricated as a publicity stunt.
pishaw this is love.

and who doesn't know this famous painting?

Stripper Idol

Yes. the show is back. More interesting, is how American Idol is suing a Texas strip club.

Seriously?

But however will these sweet young girls pay their way through college, now?

IN THE NEWS:

AUSTIN, Texas – "American Idol" is suing a Texas strip club over its "Stripper Idol" contest.

FremantleMedia North America, which owns the popular TV show, says the contest is a trademark violation that could mislead the public to think the show sponsors the event, The Dallas Morning News reported in Tuesday editions. The company has filed a lawsuit in federal court to stop the weekly contest.

Managers of the Palazio Men's Club in Austin say the contest doesn't resemble the TV show, and they don't plan to end the Thursday night strip-off.

"Stripper Idol" contestants have 60 seconds to dance topless, then are ranked by audience applause to win $500.

Club managers say the contest is in its 12th week and is growing in popularity.

Imagine that.