Friday, December 18, 2009
Give Oprah more money: $5 for one year of her magazine
Get a one-year subscription to O, The Oprah Magazine, from Amazon.com for just $5. That is $13 off the normal price of $18. Holy cow -- great gift opportunity Batman!
I've never subscribed to O Magazine but have heard good things about it. Maybe it's time I check it out. This special expires Dec. 19.
Are Courteney Cox & David Arquette the Next Brangelina?
No, they're not adopting from overseas. Instead, Courteney Cox and David Arquetteare following in Brad and Angie's philanthropic footsteps and using their star power to promote a humanitarian organization, Save Darfur.
David designed a special-edition T-shirt to be sold at his Venice store, Propr, with benefits going to the war-torn African country.
He arrived at the event before his wife to talk about his efforts and who he looks up to.
"I admire President Obama and Michelle," David said. "I think they're incredible. George Clooney was really one of the first people to shine a light on this. Bono does amazing work...Brad and Angelina. Everyone does really great stuff."
David, who's a dad to Coco, also talked about how his 5-year-old daughter is learning about charity.
"I teach her a lot," David said. "She comes with me and helps when I go to a pantry [soup kitchen], and she's aware of it, just like my parents went and made me aware of certain things. You just have to teach through example."
Once Courteney showed up, she made sure her hubby was red carpet ready before they took photos together...
She was straightening his tie for him before they posed for photogs.
As for their holiday plans, the Cox-Arquettes are going to stay local and pay homage to Courteney's home state during the Rose Bowl.
"We're going to the Alabama football game...roll Tide!" David told reporters.
One random guest at the charity event? Tara Reid, who seemed a bit confused as to why she was there as well. It's a stretch, but maybe the girl does go deeper than Playboy and plastic surgery?
Gosselin Divorce Final ... Finally
Kate says, "I am very relieved that our divorce has been finalized, and I look forward to the New Year, focusing on our children." Her lawyer adds that Kate "will continue to reside with all eight of her children in the former marital home."
The lawyer, Mark Momjian, says, "We are very pleased with the final outcome."
Judge Tilson signed the documents following an arbiter's decision on dividing the couple's assets, despite a recent statement from Jon's camp suggesting the divorce would not be finalized until early 2010.
A report on MSNBC says that the papers were filed in spite of a last-minute holdup: Jon's gun. He was spotted shooting a .38 pistol on the couple's Pennsylvania property. On Thursday, a judge issued a court order barring the gun from the property; whether the ban remains a part of the final divorce agreement in unclear.
Cali 'Housewives' Hit Hard by Recession
Peculiar things have been happening this season on 'The Real Housewives of Orange County.' Gretchen Rossi had a garage sale, Jeana Keough went shopping with her daughter at H&M and Tamra Barney is now doing her own housework. What? This is a dramatic turn from season three when Barney's husband gave her a diamond Rolex for her 40th birthday and Vicky Gunvalson debated over buying a yacht (she decided against it).
"All of them have been very much affected by the economic situation," explains the show's executive producer, Douglas Ross.
"We try to treat it as gently but as honestly as we can," Ross says. "We happened to have been there with our cameras ... as part of our normal schedule when they were served the eviction notice. It's one of those great reality TV moments that happened to be caught because we were in the right place at the right time."
Money is a sensitive subject and some people - even reality TV stars - may not want to expose their financial struggles to millions of people. But the housewives don't seem to mind sharing - they even fancy themselves as an inspiration to others in similar situations.
"It helps people across the nation because they realize it's not just them," says Keough.
Barney says the exposure is just her being honest.
"I'm pretty open. ... There's not too much I'll hide. It was difficult for my husband ... but the world's in this place right now and I think people are going to relate to it," she says.
So far it looks like Barney is right. Ratings for the fifth season have been strong and average about 2 million viewers an episode.
This could partly be due to the popularity of the "Real Housewives" franchise in general, which has taken off thanks to over-the-top versions of wig-pulling, table flipping and incredulous statements from women in Atlanta, New Jersey and New York, like, "I'm up here, you're down here." Their actions make viewers ask, "Are they for real?"
Perhaps this season we're finally getting the answer: Yes, they are.
While "The Real Housewives" are compensated for appearing on the show, Keough says it's not enough to support a family. "It's so minimal. It's not enough to make your house payments. It's more like a location fee to keep your house clean."
Not all the Orange County ladies are having a hard time paying their bills, though. Self-professed workaholic Gunvalson says her insurance business is doing better than ever. And she proudly reveals she's 42 and on target to retire comfortably at age 55.
"When I first started (on the show), I was working out of the house with two employees and now I have a huge office with 10 employees, 700 agents out in the field," she says.
Then there's new cast member Alexis Bellino, 32, who has three children and two nannies. On a recent episode, her husband gave her a 7 carat diamond necklace, just because.
This season, there have been some inconsistencies to the ladies' money woes. Curtin allowed herself to be filmed getting a face lift while her daughter got a nose job. Her husband, Frank, acknowledged the cost of the procedures on camera but said his family's happiness was more important.
Despite the eviction, Lynne Curtin says her finances are improving and predicts her family will be able to build a house next year.
"My husband is a builder in Southern California. It's not like he doesn't try. He's not sitting at home watching TV. He is going out and making an effort. ... I've been married for 20 years. ... We've had the high life we've had the low life. It's just reality."
Vampire Diaries Hunk Gets Ripped for New Role
Looks like Sean Faris will be wielding more than just acting skills when he joins the of Vampire Diaries!
The hunky actor, who'll be playing Mystic Grill bartender Ben in the new year, said in the new issue of that he packed on 15 lbs. for the CW's .
"Cooking at home is key to being in shape," the 27-year-old star said. "You can order a salad in a restaurant, but not know what you’re getting."
And the secret to achieving his six-pack? It's all about taking it slow.
"I see so many people in the gym just slinging weights around," he said. "You can accomplish more if you squeeze the reps out in perfect form, instead of going big and trying to kill it every time."
Report: Elin Nordegren Consulting High-Powered Divorce Attorney
Before with her to her for the holidays – without husband (and father of the kids) Tiger Woods – Elin Nordegren reportedly is consulting with veteran Hollywood divorce attorney Sorrell Trope.
Having practiced since 1949 and representing everyone from the much-married screen legend Cary Grant, as well as , Nicolas Cage, Hugh Grant and , Trope has built a reputation as a hard-nosed negotiator, reports New York's .
Speaking to the newspaper, Manhattan divorce lawyer Robert Wallack called Trope, 82, "the dean of the California matrimonial bar," while Beverly Hills-based family law arbitrator Alexandra Leichter said, "He's in a class of maybe 12 or 15 lawyers that handles very high-asset, high-income divorces with contentious custody cases."
Trope did not return calls seeking comment on his alleged involvement in the Woods-Nordegren marriage, which has come under the scrutiny since it was revealed (and later) that the world's No. 1 golfer has committed a series of sexual transgressions.
Photos circulated this week, showing Nordegren, 29, pumping gas into her vehicle near the couple's home in Windermere, Fla., last Saturday, also captured the Swedish-born former nanny and mother of two (Sam, 2, and Charlie, 10 months), not wearing her wedding ring – fueling speculation of where the marriage was headed, though a source told PEOPLE the absence of the band "meant nothing."
Still, another source , 29, "She plans to leave Tiger."
Woods's Whereabouts
As for Woods, 33, who has not been seen in public since his the , an unconfirmed report in says he is in isolation, spending his time eating cereal and watching cartoons – and his nights hitting golf balls.His NBA-star friend Charles Barkley has also voiced concern over the fact Woods is not responding to his attempts to reach out to the embattled golfer. "I've been trying to get to him and can't. It's very frustrating," Barkley is quoted as saying.
If it is any solace, on Thursday night the Golf Writers of America named Woods the group's Golfer of the Year, with 84 percent of the vote. The honor marks the 10th time in 13 seasons Woods received the award.
'Precious' and its box-office crash: Is it failing to cross over?
Close to a year ago, on a cold gray snowy evening, I walked out of the world’s very first showing of Precious: Based on the Novel ‘Push’ by Sapphire (it was then called Push: Based on the novel by Sapphire) during my very first day at the 2009 Sundance Film Festival. Like so many others who have now seen this film, I was moved, devastated, uplifted, blown away; as I walked over to a shuttle bus stop, my mind was still reeling from the movie. Yet I think that if someone, right then and there, had told me that the picture I’d just seen would be talked about less than a year later as a hot contender for the Academy Awards, I might have looked at that person as if they’d lost their mind. Over the years, I have loved and championed too many Sundance films only to see them get released into the real world and go nowhere, and Precious, with its uncompromising drama of abuse and despair, certainly didn’t look or feel like an Oscar movie.
Yet as everyone knows by now, Precious is the powerfully bleak inner-city drama that may just end up getting to go to the ball. In a turn of events that surprised and thrilled me the moment it happened, Oprah Winfrey and Tyler Perry signed on to be two of the film’s executive producers, taking this honest and artful little movie under their wing. The result of their devotion, along with a brilliant campaign by the film’s distributor, Lionsgate, has been thatPrecious, in six carefully planned weeks of release, has grossed $38 million — three times as much as The Hurt Locker, and even more than the crowd-pleasing romantic hit (500) Days of Summer. Even as it got beyond a handful of theaters, its per-screen averages were off the charts. Just today, the film was nominated for several Golden Globe awards, including Best Picture (Drama), Best Actress, and Best Supporting Actress. By any standard, Precious is a triumph of American independent cinema, an example of what can happen when talented people devote themselves to making something happen.
Yet the fairy tale, I’m afraid, has now run into something of a road block. Every successful movie, in its own way, waxes and then wanes with audiences, but over the last few weeks something startling has happened to Precious: After burning up the box office, it quite suddenly went cold. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, for instance (when it was still hot), it was on 664 screens, and it averaged a sizzling $10,680. (I don’t mean over the five-day holiday; I mean over the normal Friday-to-Sunday frame.) Then, just one week later, it was still on 664 screens, but suddenly the average was down to $3,437 — a virtual cliff drop of a plummet. One week later (which is to say, this past weekend), the movie was still on 664 screens, and the average had sunk to $1,929. In other words, within the space of three weeks, just as the awards season begins to get busy with actual awards, Precious has gone from being a breakout indie smash to a movie that looks as if it’s starting to squeeze out its last receipts.
I hope I’m wrong about that. But make no mistake: The vast majority of movies as successful as Precious do not — repeat, not – endure that kind of dramatic drop. So what I want to know is, why did this sudden commercial nose-dive happen? What I can’t help wondering is whether Precious did such extraordinary business by playing for about a month to a sizable African-American audience, only to end up stalling just at the moment when it was poised to expand to a wider demographic. Or is it that the movie, now that it’s attained such a high media profile, has suddenly been perceived as too much of a downer? Or have those two factors worked in tandem?
Here’s the thing: I don’t know. I honestly don’t. Because this is a movie that deserves, quite simply, to be seen, by every demographic under the sun, for its drama and truth and artistry and power.
But that’s why I want to find out what’s going on with Precious from all of you. Have you seenPrecious yet? And do you plan to? And for those who haven’t seen it, what’s your perception of the movie? For those who have, do you think that it deserves to be seen by a much wider audience? And do you believe, in the end, that it will be?
Unemployment In Detroit Pushing 50%?
Nearly one out of two workers in Detroit are unemployed, according to a report by The Detroit News. It's a figure far higher than the government's official figure, which is still close to a staggering 30 percent.
But the newspaper says that rate doesn't take everything into account. For every person who is still looking and collectingunemployment, there are scores of others who have had benefits run out, accepted a part-time position, taken early retirement or a job outside of their regular field.
Here's how the paper arrived at it's assessment:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics estimated that for the year that ended in September, Michigan's official unemployment rate was 12.6 percent. Using the broadest definition of unemployment, the state unemployment rate was 20.9 percent, or 66 percent higher than the official rate. Since Detroit's official rate for October was 27 percent, that broader rate pushes the city's rate to as high as 44.8 percent.
The report says at least 100,000 in the city have given up the job search all together. Think about that number for a second. There is a small population-within-a-population that has just given up. The job market is so bad in Detroit that this group is betting it's better to just throw in the towel than continue to be silently mocked by their job search.
Also, if you tell the unemployment office you stopped looking for a job more than a year ago you're not counted in the official tally.
Detroit has been the poster child city for how quickly a city can spiral downward in an economic decline. Scores of major car making plants have been shut down, leaving thousands of workers in the dust. Then, you have suppliers shutting down who once made a living producing parts for the factories. Finally, with no employees working nearby, restaurants close up shop because nobody's stopping in for a breakfast, lunch or dinner. Mix all of that in with the stagnant real estate market and it's a recipe for disaster.
Even the city's mayor - Dave Bing - agrees with the more realistic assessment. At the recent White House Job Summit he pegged the city's unemployment rate as "closer to 50 percent." He is urging the government to start sending money Detroit's way so it can be used for city clean-up projects and infrastructure development that will put some people to work.
Madonna Plays Italian Housewife in New Dolce & Gabbana Ad Campaign
Don't cry for me... Madonna peeling onions in new Dolce & Gabbana S/S 2010 ad. Photo courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
The smoldering black and white ads -- shot by famed fashion photographer Steven Klein in New York -- capture the 51-year-old Material Girl in the act of domestic chores like washing dishes and peeling onions while dressed to the nines in signature Dolce & Gabbana: corseted waists, lots of cleavage, leopard printand the same hip-hugging floral silk skirt that Rachel McAdams dons on Vogue's January cover.
Doing Dishes has never looked this seductive. Photo courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
Hmmm... we wonder if Kate Moss and Karl Lagerfeld would approve.
The images, which will be published in Italian Vanity Fair this week, seem a far cry from Madonna's luxe reality, which is probably the point.
Madge caught in the act of carb loading for Dolce & Gabbana's new ad campaign. Photo courtesy of Dolce & Gabbana
la. man exonerated after 35 years behind bars
James Bain used a cell phone for the first time Thursday, calling his elderly mother to tell her he had been freed after 35 years behind bars for a crime he did not commit.
Mobile devices didn't exist in 1974, the year he was sentenced to life in prison for kidnapping a 9-year-old boy and raping him in a nearby field.
Neither did the sophisticated DNA testing that officials more recently used to determine he could not have been the rapist.
"Nothing can replace the years Jamie has lost," said Seth Miller, a lawyer for the Florida Innocence Project, which helped Bain win freedom. "Today is a day of renewal."
Bain spent more time in prison than any of the 246 inmates previously exonerated by DNA evidence nationwide, according to the project. The longest-serving before him was James Lee Woodard of Dallas, who was released last year after spending more than 27 years in prison for a murder he did not commit.
As Bain walked out of the Polk County courthouse Thursday, wearing a black T-shirt that said "not guilty," he spoke of his deep faith and said he does not harbor any anger.
"No, I'm not angry," he said. "Because I've got God."
The 54-year-old said he looks forward to eating fried turkey and drinking Dr Pepper. He said he also hopes to go back to school.
Friends and family surrounded him as he left the courthouse after Judge James Yancey ordered him freed. His 77-year-old mother, who is in poor health, preferred to wait for him at home. With a broad smile, he said he looks forward to spending time with her and the rest of his family.
"That's the most important thing in my life right now, besides God," he said.
Earlier, the courtroom erupted in applause after Yancey ruled.
"Mr. Bain, I'm now signing the order," Yancey said. "You're a free man. Congratulations."
Thursday's hearing was delayed 40 minutes because prosecutors were on the phone with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. DNA tests were expedited at the department's lab and ultimately proved Bain innocent. Prosecutors filed a motion to vacate the conviction and the sentence.
"He's just not connected to this particular incident," State Attorney Jerry Hill told the judge.
Attorneys from the Innocence Project of Florida got involved in Bain's case earlier this year after he had filed several previous petitions asking for DNA testing, all of which were thrown out.
A judge finally ordered the tests and the results from a respected private lab in Cincinnati came in last week, setting the wheels in motion for Thursday's hearing. The Innocence Project had called for Bain's release by Christmas.
He was convicted largely on the strength of the victim's eyewitness identification, though testing available at the time did not definitively link him to the crime. The boy said his attacker had bushy sideburns and a mustache. The boy's uncle, a former assistant principal at a high school, said it sounded like Bain, a former student.
The boy picked Bain out of a photo lineup, although there are lingering questions about whether detectives steered him.
The jury rejected Bain's story that he was home watching TV with his twin sister when the crime was committed, an alibi she repeated at a news conference last week. He was 19 when he was sentenced.
Ed Threadgill, who prosecuted the case originally, said he didn't recall all the specifics, but the conviction seemed right at the time.
"I wish we had had that evidence back when we were prosecuting cases. I'm ecstatic the man has been released," said Threadgill, now a 77-year-old retired appeals court judge. "The whole system is set up to keep that from happening. It failed."
Eric Ferrero, spokesman for the Innocence Project, said a DNA profile can be extracted from decades-old evidence if it has been preserved properly. That means sealed in a bag and stored in a climate-controlled place, which is how most evidence is handled as a matter of routine.
The project has a bigger problem with lost or destroyed evidence than getting usable DNA profiles from existing evidence, he said.
Florida last year passed a law that automatically grants former inmates found innocent $50,000 for each year they spent in prison. No legislative approval is needed. That means Bain is entitled to $1.75 million.
Twiggy's Photoshopped Olay ads banned in England
Perhaps we should start calling 2009 the year of the airbrush. The latest Photoshop scandal involves not anemaciated model nor a bizarrely-retouched actress on the cover of a fashion magazine, but instead a 60-year-old icon with not enough crows' feet for anyone's liking.
Let's catch you up: Last summer, beauty company Olay debuted its Definity eye cream campaign depicting model Twiggy looking far younger, smoother, and firmer than her then 59 years should suggest. The '60s fashion star appeared virtually wrinkle-free in the ads and, since her baby-faced visage was selling anti-aging cream to older women, quite a few people—including bloggers, news outlets, and the British Parliament—grew quite disturbed.
In August, British lawmakers called for a ban on the digitally altered ads, suggesting they mislead the public. And, in the ensuing months, the U.K's Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) received hundreds of complaints from the public, claiming the Olay images were "socially irresponsible" and could have a "negative impact on people's perceptions of their own body image, " The Guardian reports.
Finally, yesterday, the ASA banned the complete set of Olay Twiggy ads, ruling that the post-production retouching could give consumers a "misleading impression of the effect the product could achieve."
You think?
In the ads, Twiggy says, "Olay is my secret to brighter-looking eyes" and "Because younger-looking eyes never go out of fashion...[it] reduces the look of wrinkles and dark circles for brighter, younger-looking eyes."
However, since Olay admits to "minor retouching" around Twiggy's eyelid area (essentially wiping out any indication of undereye darkness, bags, and fine lines), we know the cream is not really her secret. Instead it's a skilled computer technician, which is something you just can't bottle and sell for $23.89. Nor is this "secret" available to most women. Honestly, it's refreshing that, with the banning of these ads, finally someone is saying just that.
Citi decides not to play Scrooge for the holidays
Get this: Citigroup wants to make sure that its customers -- those on the verge of being booted out of their homes -- have a less stressful holiday. So the beleaguered bank has decided to give them a holiday reprieve by suspending foreclosures and evictions for up to 30 days.
"We want our borrowers to have a much less stressful time, to spend their time with their families during the holidays as opposed to worrying about their homes," the head of Citi's mortgage division told the Associated Press.
Do they get a Hallmark card, too?
I mean, does anybody believe that Citigroup really cares what kind of holiday its customers have? Banks have been dragging their feet so much on loan modifications, it's hard to believe Citigroup or any other bank cares about the type of holiday American families will have.
More likely, Citi's concerns have more to do with the public response to press stories and photographs of people being evicted from their homes just before the holidays. Imagine the Christmas trees and tinsel, along with the usual furniture, littering the lawns of abruptly vacated homes!
I suspect that the government's 34% stake in Citigroup may have been another key factor in the decision. Citi had been hoping to shake off the government yoke, but The Treasury Department delayed its sale of Citigroup stock after the shares received a lukewarm reception from investors. That means Citigroup will remain under government control for at least another year.
By getting Citigroup to take the lead on the foreclosure moratorium, I'll bet the government is hoping other banks - now no longer under its control thanks to the payoffs of their government bailout money - will follow Citi's lead.
But whatever the reason at least 4,000 borrowers will be able to stay in their homes for the holidays thanks to whoever made this happen. Citi will suspend foreclosures starting Friday through January 17, 2010. Only borrowers with Citigroup loans will benefit. Those just being serviced by Citigroup with loans from other investors won't benefit from the foreclosure moratorium.
Citigroup expects that about 2,000 homeowners scheduled for foreclosure sales will benefit from its holiday largess, as well as another 2,000 that were due to receive foreclosure notices. An even better gift would be to send the 100,000 borrowers who have applied for loan modifications under president Obama's plan a note saying that they have secured permanent modifications. But according to the latest data from the Treasury Department, only 270 Citi borrowers had received permanent modifications through the end of November. Citi called the number a "reporting error," and said it would rise dramatically at year-end.
How's that for a lump of coal?
