Actor Jason Segel is presented with his pudding pot by members of the Hasty Pudding Theatricals while being honored as the Hasty Pudding Man of the Year at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass., Friday, Feb. 3, 2012. (AP Photo/Josh Reynolds)
LONDON, ENGLAND - FEBRUARY 04: Theo Walcott and Robin van Persie of Arsenal celebrate after scoring their second goal of the match during the Barclays Premier League match between Arsenal and Blackburn Rovers at Emirates Stadium on February 4, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Paul Gilham/Getty Images)
Sheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook and soon to be one of the richest self-made women in the world, has a message for all those women struggling up the corporate ladder that she echoed at the World Economic Forum in Davos this week: take responsibility for your careers and stop blaming men for holding you back. Sandberg has become something of a lightening rod for women in business who are searching for a powerful role model, and though many businesswomen appreciate her call for them to "keep your foot on the gas pedal" during their careers, some have criticized Sandberg for failing to acknowledge that her path to success was paved just as much with hard work and ingenuity as it was with powerful mentors and just the right amount of good fortune that positions someone to reap a $1.6 billion windfall when a once-in-a-generation company files a $5 billion IPO.
Not only is Sandberg exceptionally smart, but, after graduating from Harvard Business School, she landed a job at the World Bank as the chief of staff first for Larry H. Summers then the Treasury Secretary. A job at Google followed before she joined Facebook in 2008, an opportunity that Sandberg was prescient enough to take full advantage of. If success really is preparation meeting opportunity, Sandberg was more than prepared for her chance at professional success, but some women believe that when she insists on aiming high, she's discounting the fact that her meteoric rise owes itself, at least in part, to some very favorable circumstances (including the fact that her husband, Daniel Goldberg, is a successful entrepreneur in his own right and the couple doesn't have to worry about finding child care for their two sons). Sylvia Ann Hewett, president of the Center for Talent Innovation as well as the director for the Gender and Policy Program at Columbia University, worries that Sandberg's message of self-reliance is too critical of women who don't become successful. She says,
I'm a huge fan of her accomplishments and think she's a huge role model in some ways, but I think she's overly critical of women because she's almost implying that they don't have the juice, the chutzpah, to go for it...I think she's had a golden path herself, and perhaps does not more readily understand that the real struggles are not having children or ambition. Women are, in fact, fierce in their ambition, but they find that they're actually derailed by other things, like they don't have a sponsor in their life that helps them go for it.
Sandberg's insistence on self-reliance strikes a familiar theme in the legends of American entrepreneurs such as Andrew Carnegie or the granddaddy of go-getters, Benjamin Franklin, successful figures who emphasize their work ethic in crafting the their personal "how-I-became-successful" mythologies. Though Sandberg might not be overtly calling the woman who's falling behind at work because she can't afford child care lazy, she is implying that the only impediment between the average working woman and the riches of corporate America is attitude and that most definitely is not true.
Still, Sandberg touts a positive message and makes a point of recruiting and retaining talented women, not only as a matter of gender equality but because women drive the lion's share of Facebook traffic, accounting for 62% of all daily activity on the site as well as 71% of all fan activity. She also has a contingent of stalwart admirers who enthusiastically refer to her as "the Justin Bieber of tech," which sounds a little pejorative, but whatever, I guess Biebs is super successful for a 17-year-old father. Whatever the flaws are in Sandberg's call for women to stop making excuses for themselves, it can't be doubted that she's at least leading by example. She developed the plan that took Facebook from a site with 70 million users and no business model to one of the most buzzed-about IPOs in recent memory with annual revenues of $3.7 billion. As for Sandberg herself, if Facebook's IPO is accepted, she stands to make $1.6 billion, a personal fortune that most business people, men or women, only daydream about while they're hustling to and from work.
The $1.6 Billion Woman, Staying on Message [NY Times]
Facebook's Superwoman COO Poised to Enter Billionaire Boys' Club [Atlantic Wire]
The Caitlin Raymond International Registry and UMass Memorial Health Ventures Inc. will pay Massachusetts and New Hampshire $770,000 in fines and attorneys' fees after a Thursday judgment in Suffolk Superior Court found that the organizations engaged in improper marketing practices in their effort to recruit potential bone marrow donors. Having realized that donating bone marrow just wasn't sexy enough, UMass Memorial and the Raymond Registry spent $80,000 a month in modelling fees to have scantily-clad women from Click Models of Boston promenade around malls, festivals, and sporting events in an effort to recruit privately-insured bone marrow donors, whom UMass could then overcharge for testing procedures, pocketing the extra scratch. They also gave away big screen TVs, golf clubs, and shirts that either read, "Donating for a Better To-Marrow," "Get a Boner, Give Some Marrow," or were totally worthless.
According to New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney, UMass Memorial will also have to make restitution payments to donors who were deceived about the true cost of testing procedures by models working on commission and probably sucking them in with such flattering lines as, "Oh, you look strong — I bet you're so strong that you don't even need all of your bone marrow. How about you give us some?" Echoing the sentiments of most reasonable people Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said, "No health care provider should be allowed to use gimmicks and free gifts to increase the volume of services covered by health plans for their own financial gain."
New Hampshire Attorney General Michael Delaney said that the two organizations "lost focus on their charitable mission" by resorting to marketing practices normally used to sell timeshares or goad former wrestling champs to stop eating funnel cake and try to impress their wives with a mallet swing at the local carnival. "Lost focus" is certainly one way of putting it, but such crass marketing tactics only underscore how difficult it is to find enough bone marrow donors to ensure that patients have the best possible chance of finding a viable genetic match. Minority donors, for example, are always in high demand because so much tissue variation exists between people of different races and ethnicities. "Adding more diverse members," says National Marrow Donor Program's site,"increases the likelihood that all patients will find a life-saving match." Testing procedures are extensive and the donation process itself requires a hospital visit and general anesthesia.
While using the marketing miracle that is the half-naked woman to attract attention isn't novel, it's definitely been employed in far less worthy causes. Had UMass Memorial and the Caitlin Raymond Registry not tried to grease the wheels a little by exploiting the generous policies of privately insured donors, their only sin would have been using an advertising tactic that's become de rigueur for both activist and commercial organizations: harnessing the power of exposed or nearly exposed breasts.
Bone Marrow Recruiting Cases Settled [AP]
Settlement Says Its Not Okay To Use Models In Short Skirts [The Consumerist]
Image via DD Coral/Shutterstock.
Last night's episode of SNL featured Channing Tatum getting all kinds of shirtless and Bobby Moynihan doing his awesome Guy Fieri impression on the Weekend Update. Hopefully you have some better snacks on your Super Bowl party menu, otherwise you'll be in danger of turning your "Super Bowl party into a Super Bowl potty."
Watch Guy Fieri's Super Bowl Party Recipes on SNL [via Eater]
A new infographic from Pew, the think tank that sounds like a baroness's delicate sneeze, shows that fewer Americans believe in marriage and are trying to fill the emptiness in their hearts with expensive Valentine's Day gifts and fancy, last-minute dinners. While about 39% of all Americans (and 44% of all those cynical, emotionally numb 18-29 year-olds) say that marriage is obsolete, that won't stop them from spending $17.6 billion this year trying to convince themselves that, in a world where Seal and Heidi Klum are in the throes of a bitter divorce, love isn't just a sick joke that Gary Marshall came up with to make people see his shitty movies. This year's Valentine's Day dinners will run Americans about $3.4 billion, a shade less than their jewelry purchases ($3.5 billion), and way more than they'll spend on flowers ($1.7 billion). Women will spend $75 on their gifts, while men, in fits of panicked impulse-purchasing, will spend about $160 on crappy heart-shaped necklaces tailor made for the new prototypical American couple — two increasingly suspicious people who realize more each advertising cycle how little they have in common. Your best bet, if you're trying to save money this season, is to stay uncoupled — pet owners only have to spend about $5 to appease their quadruped companions on Valentine's Day (any more than that and it's creepy).
Americans Blow $3.4 Billion On Valentine's Dinner [Business Insider]
Image via Ana Gram/Shutterstock.
A Syrian woman injured by the shelling of the Syrian government forces stands at the entrance to her house in the Homs province of central Syria on Wednesday Feb. 1, 2012. Activists said that Syrian troops battled army defectors in a string of towns in the mountains overlooking Damascus on Wednesday as part of a new assault to crush rebellious areas around the capital. (AP Photo)
The Catholic Church responded Friday to the White House's defense of new rules that will force many religious employers to provide contraception to their workers in government-mandated health plans with the grace and dignity you'd expect from an organization that used to sell raffle tickets for Heaven, that is, with very little grace and dignity.
Anthony Picarello, general counsel of the U.S. Conference of Bishops, assured despairing Catholic employees everywhere that the bishops would "pursue every legal mandate available to them to bring an end to this mandate. That means legislation, litigation and public advocacy. All options are on the table." All options? Maybe the Catholic Church could, say, give back all the gold it helped Spain and Portugal steal from colonial Latin America as an act of good faith or, at least, start paying the taxes the IRS has exempted it from in an effort to show the public that, while the Catholic stance on contraception may not jive with modern attitudes, it's a totally private organization that doesn't benefit from favorable government policies regarding religious institutions.
The new regulations announced last month by the Department of Health and Human Services require employers to provide women with "preventive" health care services such as cervical cancer screenings and — whisper it — contraception by August. The regulations have sparked outrage among evangelical Christians and Orthodox Jews, but no group has been more vociferous than the Catholic Church, which employs far more people than either of the other two groups. Religious institutions qualify for exemption if such mandates violate their superstitions beliefs unless they employ large numbers of people who don't share those beliefs. Enter the Catholic Church, which, as of 2011, became the largest non-governmental school system in the world and, over the past 35 years, as the number of priests has dwindled, has had to rely more and more on lay workers. Moreover, employment with a Catholic organization isn't exactly the most lucrative gig, something you'd know if you attended Catholic school and noticed your Calculus teacher eyeing your peanut butter and jelly sandwich with the eager eyes of a starving jackal. Employees at those bottom rungs of the Catholic employment ladder who don't necessarily subscribe to the organization's belief system might be hard-pressed to regularly fill their prescriptions (the pill, for example, can cost anywhere from $15-50 for a 21 or 28-day pack).
The White House stressed that new rules, which apply to universities and religious charities but still exempt churches, won't force anyone to buy contraceptives and pointed to the 28 states such as California and New York that already have state-mandates requiring insurance companies to cover contraception. The Catholic bishops responded by collectively stopping their ears and saying that it was misleading for the White House to suggest it wasn't forcing anyone to "buy" contraception, since anyone who pays into an insurance plan will be partially subsidizing all those morally bankrupt sex-fiends who copulate wildly without fear of hellfire.
The state regulations, the bishops claim, provide more opportunities for the Church to avoid compliance and Picarello went so far as to (obliquely) describe the Church's ability to get around state regulations in terms of the German Blitzkrieg: "The state mandates are like a Maginot line. They're a hard barrier, but you can just walk around them." Many Church institutions are "self-insured" which means that they can regulate how their funds for employee health insurance are used. Parishes collect all the money for employee health insurance and send it to the Diocese, which then consolidates the money into one giant dragon-pile to be administered by an insurance company, such as Catholic Mutual Group ("serving the temporal interests of the Church since 1889"). Since self-insurance plans fell under federal regulations, Churches could avoid state health mandates simply by subscribing to a self-insurance program. Faced with the Atlantic sea wall that the new federal regulations represent to Picarello's colorful imagination, the Church will have about as hard time wriggling out of its obligation to pay for contraception as it does trying to convince people that its priest aren't going to molest their children. (Coincidentally, Catholic Mutual Group also sells the Church "extra liability policies for damages [that the Church is assessed] related to sexual misconduct.")
Perhaps the best solution would be for the Church to disabuse itself of the notion that women's health services exist solely to destroy precious, potentially-Catholic life. The progestin-only pill, for instance, is prescribed to women to help treat a whole host of non-whore related ailments. The Catholic Church is an institution that relies on rhetoric to unravel its thornier beliefs — transubtantiation vs. consubtantiation — and would need only to re-frame the issue in terms of women's health rather than contraception. How hard would that be? Then again, the Catholic Church is the same organization that spent 18 years trying to decide if bread and wine turned into flesh and blood when a priest waved his hands around them a recited a little Latin ditty.
Catholics plan counterattack on new contraceptive coverage [LA Times]
Catholics blast federal birth control mandate [USA Today]
Dioceses find various ways to cope with contraceptive insurance mandate [Archdiocese of San Francisco]
Image via Kzenon/Shutterstock.
You're looking at the future career for all those puppies who don't cut it in broadcasting when their Puppy Bowl playing days are over — they referee table games between their masters' children. It seems like a pretty sweet gig for a happy dog if it has the energy to bounce around like a motorized pogo-stick as well as the temerity to show its family that it is perfectly capable of eating table food whenever it damn well pleases and only by virtue of its good manners does it still beg underfoot. I'll warn you, though, this video will probably test your depth-perception — the dog bounces back and forth over the net and I pretty much had a panic attack thinking he'd hit his snout if he wasn't more careful.
[via Buzzfeed]
Here's something to write your local congressperson about: American advertisers are pushing cats to the fringes of pop culture, starting with a slate of canine-normative Super Bowl commercials. Of the three — three! — major pet commercials, not one will feature a kitty, which might be cause for concern if you're a lunatic or you adopted a legion of cats in the hopes of training them for movies and profiting off of their fame. Americans, it seems, simply prefer dogs because dogs are, well, what is it about a dog? "You can't go wrong with a dog," says cultural anthropologist Robbie "My-Dog-Is-Probably-My-Life-Partner" Blinkoff. "The dogs are idealized versions of ourselves. They aren't dogs — they're us." Except that they're definitely dogs and advertisers probably use them so often for commercials because they're super easy to train. They'll fetch beer, run in happy circles, and even wear shoes — do you know any cats that would stoop to such obsequious antics? To get a cat to cooperate, you pretty much have to corral it like it's some sort of cow or something. They should make a commercial like that...
Dogs star in 2012 Super Bowl ads [USA Today]
In an effort to elucidate at least part of the vaguest sexual assault story ever, a representative from the Rhodes Trust issued a statement to the New York Times in which he confirms that the Trust suspended Yale quarterback Patrick J. Witt's candidacy after learning of the sexual assault charges filed against him by a fellow student. The Trust had informed Yale on Nov. 4 that Witt's candidacy would be dropped unless the school endorsed him by Nov. 15. When Yale still hadn't endorsed Witt by Nov. 13, Witt made the announcement that he was foregoing his prestigious Rhodes Scholarship and all quad-walking privileges that come with it so that he could play school hero in the Harvard-Yale game (Yale lost anyway). Witt, who at 22 is eligible and being groomed like a prized English setter for the NFL draft, insists that he made the decision to play in the Harvard-Yale game independently from the Rhodes Trust's decision. According to the Times,
Witt and his agent, Mark F. Magazu II, have insisted to The Times and other news organizations that his Rhodes application was never suspended, as The Times reported, and that, in any case, he had decided to withdraw from the competition before he was told, on Nov. 9 or 10, that the allegation had obligated Yale to formally re-endorse him.
"It was essentially a moot point," Witt said in an interview with The Yale Daily News published Wednesday.
The Rhodes Trust and Yale's accounts both contradict Witt, as they say Witt was informed on Nov. 8 that he needed a written endorsement to maintain his Rhodes candidacy. The victim, lost in the shuffle of Witt's cleats from quadrangle to gridiron, remains anonymous, having resolved her complaint through Yale's "informal process."
Rhodes Confirms Suspension of Yale Quarterback's Candidacy [Atlantic Wire]
Rhodes Trust Gives Account of Yale Quarterback's Candidacy [NY Times]
Update: NYT Public Editor Arthur Brisbane has published a critique of Richard Perez-Pena's article, objecting to the article's reliance on anonymous sources. "The Times," he writes,
did not speak with Mr. Witt - who did not return its phone calls, Facebook messages and e-mails - or the female student who was involved. Neither Yale nor the Rhodes Trust was willing to address the matter for the record.
Witt's agent, Mark Magazu of Atlas Strategies, has, according to Brisbane, called the Times piece a "character assassination," given that the story ran with so much unverified evidence. As for the Rhodes Trust withdrawing Witt's candidacy, Magazu claims that Witt didn't learn that he needed Yale's endorsement to remain eligible for the Rhodes Scholarship until after he'd already told Yale and his parents that he was withdrawing his candidacy.
Brisbane concludes with the following assessment of the Times' initial reporting:
Bottom line: I'm not in a position to dispute The Times's finding, although I think the story was handicapped by not having Mr. Witt's version of the timeline. I haven't seen proof that Mr. Witt was no longer a contender when he bowed out.
Much clearer to me is that reporting a claim of sexual assault based on anonymous sourcing, without Mr. Witt's and the woman's side of it, was unfair to Mr. Witt. The Times thought it was a necessary part in its exposé of the feel-good sports story. But the impact of the "sexual assault" label on Mr. Witt is substantial and out of proportion for a case that went uninvestigated and unadjudicated.
So, we're back to having a really vague story.
The Quarterback's Tangled Saga [NY Times]
Madonna speaks during a news conference for NFL footbal's Super Bowl XLVI's halftime show Thursday, Feb. 2, 2012, in Indianapolis. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)
More than 20 years since she first went to rehab in 1985, Demi Moore is seeking treatment for her vague Red Bull/incense/Reddi-Whip addiction at the Cirque Lodge, a Shangri-La treatment center in Sundance, Utah for Hollywood's race of drug-addled demigods. Sources say that Moore entered the facility a week after her January 23 collapse during a party at her home in the Benedict Canyon area of Los Angeles, which means that someone at TMZ or E! spent too much time trying to come up with period jokes about Christina Aguilera's performance at the Etta James memorial and forgot to monitor the Demi Moore GPS tracker for updates on the actress's whereabouts. Cirque Lodge claims that it takes its patients' privacy "seriously" and there are probably all sorts of fancy ways that celebrities like Demi Moore have of slipping through the web of gossip magazines — maybe she took a helicopter or even teleported — but it seems like with a little bit less speculation about Moore's rumored Red Bull addiction and a little more relentless stalking we would have known that she'd gone to rehab and could have then made the appropriate arrangements to organize a vigil outside the Cirque Lodge's gates. Our well-wishes might not be welcome, though — according to one source, Moore is "on total lockdown and only talking to a small group of people." [Us, E!]
Russel Brand has reportedly tried to arrange a rendezvous with Zooey Deschanel, which the Daily Mail was quick to point out seems super creepy because Deschanel has black hair and blue eyes just like Katy Perry. I mean, they could be twins or even clones created by Russell Brand's team of circus handlers as part of a contingency plan — should Brand kill or divorce one of them, it'd be like, "Hey, no big deal, there are two!" Sources say that Brand believes Zooey Deschanel is just the sort of manic pixie dream girl to re-ignite his passion for life since he "loves her quirky sense of humor and thinks they'd be great together both on-and-off screen." Like, in between takes of their quirky remake of It Could Happen to You, Deschanel could goad a reluctant Russell Brand into roller-blading through a mall, thus showing him how magical life can be when it's lived in fits of impractical spontaneity. Though "intrigued" by Brand's interest, Deschanel is not unaware that she looks eerily like his estranged wife and probably thinks that's a little weird. [Daily Mail]
It's Channing Tatum! It's Bon Iver! It's two dudes who couldn't be further opposite one another on the Hipster-Bro spectrum! Which means, we hope, that there's a little something for everyone tonight. So grab your popcorn and your Glüwhein (mhmm), and pray for the best. What's the over-under on a Super Bowl sketch being the cold open? Or, if you prefer, what's the over-under on a Shirtless Channing sketch?
And that's a wrap! Settle on in and hang out here for the night, by all means — the door's open. I'll leave you with my favorite getting-ready-to-go-out-pump-up song. Incidentally, it's also my favorite stay-in-and-get-pumped-up song. Enjoy!
Have you heard that video is a big thing over at Gawker Media? It's true, we watch and post a lot of videos each week. Here are some of the best videos of week, culled from an array of Gawker Media sites.
For Kristen Bell's 31st birthday, fiancé Dax Shepard decided to surprise her with a visit from her favorite animal, the sloth. The excitement of the introduction was too much for Kristen to handle and ended up sending her into a complete emotional breakdown. The whole thing caught on tape is truly something to behold. I mean, who would have known that Veronica Mars was such a softie?. View »
Did you guys watch Luck on HBO last night? Did you fall asleep like I did? Well, if you tuned in you saw the most exciting thing before the show even started: a new trailer for Game of Thrones. View »
It's apparently the '80s all over again, with Doc Brown's "Back To The Future" DeLorean now joining Ferris Bueller in this leaked Bud Light Super Bowl ad spot. Great Scot! View »
It's only halfway through the abbreviated NBA season, so I'm hesitant to dub anything dunk of the year. But here it is, dunk of the year-and of course it's from Blake Griffin. Kendrick Perkins's family requests no flowers be sent. View »
A Cessna 172B pilot in Mexico had to save his plane after his airplane propeller detached in flight. Yes, detached. Plonk. You can see the action from the cockpit in this video, including the exhilaration and relief of the passengers at the end. View »
Last week the world wondered what Matthew Broderick was up to in a short ten-second teaser clip on YouTube where he appeared to be playing Ferris Bueller, the character from his famous flick "Ferris Bueller's Day Off." View »
Mitt Romney appeared on CNN's Starting Point with Soledad O'Brien this morning to gloat over yesterday's win in Florida and instead told her he doesn't care about poor people. Romney said his "current focus is not on the poor" as "we have a safety net there," and he instead plans to focus on all those suffering members of the middle-class. View »
In addition to his love of saturated colors, precocious children and Bill Murray, Wes Anderson really enjoys stylized shots from above. See evidence here. View »
Brant Widgeon, an Astronomical Image Enhancement Engineer at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center*, explains his experience creating all those amazing space images that leave the entire world in awe. What the entire world doesn't know is how they are really created. View »
This whole video of teens dancing at a Hong Kong Apple store is entertaining. But go to around 1:06 and check out the moves of the girl in white. Her face is like the face someone would make while carving an ice block into a statue of a machine gun, with a chainsaw. View »
This is a video of 'The Stuntbusters' - Speed TV's artisanal automotive show that I think just sets crap on fire - blow up and flip what looks like a 1974-1980 MG Midget 1500 at 1000 frames per second. View »
I'm a sucker for these multiple-track music videos. This guy is Nick McKaig, and he's extremely good at reproducing songs using just his voice. Here's the proof: the Simpsons' theme sung a capella. View »
UConn, America's foremost institution of sports riots and male rage, is in uproar after student-run (and student-funded) television network UCTV aired a sketch comedy segment that depicted a crying girl using a blue-light phone while fleeing a possible rapist. As she attempts to escape, the robotic blue-light voices call her a "cock gobbler," a "stinky bitchy," a "blonde bitch," and a "howler monkey bitch" who is "crying rape." The sketch ends with the girl falling to the ground after her attacker strangles her in a dark parking lot. View »
We are familiar with the James O'Keefe of today, certainly, what about the O'Keefe of yesterday? Before he was a fugitive, professional ambusher and rabble-rouser, James O'Keefe led the life of a simple teen-aged student, wandering aimlessly through the halls of his high school humming "Life is a Highway." View »
You ever look at a race car driver's neck and wonder why they're usually so thick? Watch this video of a woman trying to keep her head in one place while being battered around the Abu Dhabi Yas Marina track in a two-seat Formula One car. Whiplash! View »
While I'm hesitant to praise ESPN First Take blowhard Stephen A. Smith for anything, an exception can be made for moments of distinguished valor-or at least doing something every single one of us has wanted to do on multiple occasions, like flipping Skip Bayless the bird. Last week Terrell Suggs called Bayless a douchebag, which means we're on a bit of a roll here. Maybe next week will bring the words to Skip Bayless on which we've been waiting far too long: "You're fired." View »
NASA said that their Blue Marble 2012 was "the most amazing image of Earth ever." Now they have released the other half, answering to popular demand. View »
How sweet of Teleflora to remind us ladies, just in case we forgot how gift-giving works, that we are obligated to have sex with our man if he does anything nice for us this Valentine's Day... Honestly, they fucked this thing up so badly that I think they owe themselves a bouquet! View »
Now that Stephen Colbert is no longer running for the President of the United States of South Carolina, he went to retrieve his Super PAC (and its money) from Jon Stewart. But Stewart wasn't going to give it up without a fight. Tonight's Colbert Report opened with their long and arduous chase. Here it is. View »
[Image via Shutterstock]
Last September, Love took back her old @courtney handle and, according to Roshan, ordered a staffer to keep it PR-friendly while she continued to tweet covertly from her more private account, "where she lashed out at a wide range of enemies, from Chelsea Handler to musician Dave Grohl. 'So Edward Norton gets to be ambassador to Malawi?' cbabymichelle railed about her former boyfriend last August. 'That's funny, he doesn't even like Madonna.' All the while, @courtney "was issuing a daily series of saccharine tweets, begging @kellyosbourne for forgiveness for Love's attacks on her, heaping praise on casino mogul @ElaineWynn and slathering @perezhilton with "xxoxoxxos" despite his trashing of her over the years."
But Good Courtney couldn't save Bad Courtney from herself: last October, Love got pissed at @courtney's "cloying tweets" and attacked her alter-ego from the safety of @cbabymichelle. Writes Roshan:
"Look, good Courtney, I know we have to be behaving cause were up for movie roles and people are watching," raged Love, threatening to replace her alter-ego. "I'll have you removed at once from doing the celeb-friendly/corporate act if you don't get your shit together and stop making me look like a fool!" A day later, Bad Courtney's inflammatory tweets disappeared.
Judging from the screen cap The Fix gave The Observer, the "real" Love is still tweeting from @cbabymichelle. Just last week, she tweeted to social media researcher Dana Boyd: "i have a 'friend' whose doing my @courtney twitter do to my rantiness=etc- this is actually me - he clearly cant brandHELP." Courtney Love: The Jekyll/Hyde of our times.
Courtney Love Contains Multitudes: One Woman, Two Dueling Twitter Accounts [New York Observer]
There's a new Saturday Night Live tonight. NBC. Channing Tatum. Bon Iver. You. This website. 11:15 pm. Game on.
Remember Antoine Dodson, he of the "Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wife" viral video fame? Well, he's back, with a very serious slow jam called "Lovesick Lullaby," and a low-budget music video featuring someone named Brent Morgan. The whole thing feels very...Ginuwine, but YouTube commenters (internationally-recognized tastemakers that they are) seem to be into it: "Dang dude, I thought this was going to be meh, but you're AMAZING!!!!" one wrote. We wish Dodson the best of luck in his new non-sexual-assault-related endeavors.
But if the study is true and a staggering 90 percent of gay men feel that they have to marry women, shouldn't the issue be broached? And it's unfair to say their wives should stay silent. Luckily there are women like Xiao Yao, a 29-year-old who divorced her gay husband in 2008 and started a website called "Homeland of gays' wives," which has over 1,000 registered users seeking support and advice. "Most gay men's wives I've known are silently suffering at the hands of husbands who could never love them, and like me, some even got abused by husbands who were also under great pressure," she said.
Then there's the gay man told the newspaper that he avoided coming out to his family by marrying someone who understands what he's going through: a lesbian. He said there were online matchmaking services to help gay people wed each other, and that the two "can keep going with our own lifestyle more honestly." The couple sounds happier than those pressured to marry someone of a different sexual preference, but their situation is still far from ideal—hopefully the study will prompt more of a national discourse regarding gay rights.
Chinese Women Marrying Gay Men: Report [Huffington Post]
Millions of wives wed to gay men: expert [China Daily]
Look, I love dogs and cats as much as the next guy — probably more, unless he also spends a good chunk of his day watching videos of Corgis on YouTube. But I have to marvel at the inflammatory tone of CNN's report on the U.S. pet obesity epidemic. (Be advised: this story contains sad references to pets dying young and adorable photos of Garfield-sized kitties.) The lede alone is journalistic perfection.
Kim Stevens has a problem that affects tens of millions of Americans. If left untreated, it could lead to the death of someone she loves, someone who's part of the family.
Stevens' dog Dodger, a black and gray mixed breed, is obese. According to a new study, he's emblematic of a growing problem.
According to the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention, 53 percent of dogs and 55 percent of cats are considered overweight or obese by veterinarian standards. For me, the real shocker is that cats are only a little fatter on average than dogs. Have you ever seen a cat exercise past some light stretching?
The problem, as you might have guessed, is diet and a sedentary lifestyle. (Pugs can barely breathe when they're sitting, and now you expect them to run laps?) But dog and cat obesity, however adorable, can cause serious complications, including high blood pressure, diabetes, and arthritis. Association for Pet Obesity Prevention founder Ernie Ward warns that pets with these problems can have their lives shortened by as much as two-and-a-half years.
But another explanation for the epidemic is the way we treat our fat pets: instead of rubbing their sweet little tummies, we should apparently be helping them shed the pounds. We don't even have a sense of what it means for a dog or cat to be overweight — at least, that's what pet owners claim. Personally I wouldn't be surprised if some of them were lying for the sake of preserving that precious belly waddle.
A central part of the problem, the pet obesity group found, is the growing "fat pet gap:" More and more owners are unaware their pets are overweight. The study found that 22% of dog owners and 15% of cat owners characterized their pets as normal weight when the animals were actually overweight or obese.
The story continues with a couple inspirational stories of dogs who have managed to get on the right track. Hey, if I had an underwater treadmill like Raleigh, I'd be more motivated to lose weight, too. But if the Association for Pet Obesity Prevention really wants to get pet owners on board, I suggest a Biggest Loser-esque competition. There is no greater incentive than the promise of fleeting reality TV fame.
[Image via Shutterstock]
According to inside sources, Fleischer, who has worked as a media consultant for clients ranging from Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper to the NFL after leaving the White House in 2003, told prospective candidates for the position of "Senior Vice President for Communications and External Relations" at Komen that the foundation planned to stop giving Planned Parenthood money for breast cancer screenings, and asked them how they would handle the issue. One interviewee said Fleischer revealed that Komen's CEO, Nancy Brinker, was unsure how to deal with the situation, and that Brinker was a longtime friend of his.
Fleischer told ThinkProgress that he played a role in filling the position for a fee "substantially below the normal placement fee charged by executive search companies" because "they're a charity I believe in." However, he said a different PR company actually dealt with crisis management last week. Still, Fleischer's involvement "further complicates its image as an apolitical cancer charity," ThinkProgress points out. Fleischer, a well-known right-wing pundit, once went as far to allege that the Clinton Administration was influenced by Planned Parenthood to the point where, "if Planned Parenthood wanted it, the previous administration favored it." How ghastly.
EXCLUSIVE: Ari Fleischer Secretly Involved In Komen Strategy On Planned Parenthood [ThinkProgress]
American Studies professor Jo B. Paoletti has announced the publication of her book, Pink and Blue: Telling the Boys from the Girls in America. I've been eagerly anticipating getting my hands on a copy. It was from Paoletti that I learned that the idea that pink was a feminine and blue a masculine color was a relatively new invention in American history (one that even now does not necessarily extend to other countries). See, for example, this pink 1920s birthday card for a man (with a pre-Nazi swastika too).
The book asks "When did we startdressing girls in pink and boys in blue?" To answer this question:
She chronicles the decline of the white dress for both boys and girls, the introduction of rompers in the early 20th century, the gendering of pink and blue, the resurgence of unisex fashions, and the origins of today's highly gender-specific baby and toddler clothing.
As an illustration of the changing color norms, she offered a one-minute video (above) featuring a collection of cards sent to a pair of new parents in the 1960s. She notes that many of the cards are gender-neutral and include both pink and blue, but that even the gender-specific cards (this particular baby was a girl) use both colors. These cards, then, reveal that pink and blue had emerged as recognizable baby colors by the 1960s, but the use of blue in the "for girl" cards and the preponderance of gender-neutral cards suggests that the importance of gender differentiation hadn't taken hold.
(P.S.: At her website Paoletti says she has a book planned on "old lady clothes, mother-of-the-bride dresses, cougars and other age-appropriate nonsense." I can't wait.)
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Image via Getty.
The White House accused the country's military of having "murdered hundreds of Syrian citizens, including women and children" in what many are calling the most violent government assault in the almost 11-month-long uprising. A number of human rights groups are reporting that upwards of 200 Syrians were murdered and many more were wounded in an attack that began when Syrian Army defectors attacked two military checkpoints and abducted around a dozen soldiers. The military commanders retaliated, big time, from about 9 p.m. Friday to 1 a.m. Saturday, mostly in Khaldiya and five nearby neighborhoods.
The Syrian government claims, as it has throughout the past year, that "life is normal" in the country and that the media is "fantastically exaggerating" the casualties. The toll is basically impossible to confirm, since Syria won't let journalists through its borders. But first-person reports and videos depict a truly monstrous scene. "It's a real massacre in every sense of the word," one Syrian told the New York Times. "I saw bodies of women and children lying on roads, beheaded. It's horrible and inhuman. It was a long night helping people get to hospitals."
As one would hope, most countries are horrified by last night's events. President Obama said in a statement that President Bashar al-Assad "has no right to lead Syria, and has lost all legitimacy with his people and the international community." French foreign minister Alain Juppé called it a "crime against humanity" and vowed that "those responsible will have to answer for it." Today, protestors stormed Syrian embassies around the world, in some cases tearing off embassy gates and destroying property. The United Nations Security Council met soon after the assault in hopes of coming up with a solution, and thirteen members, including France, the United Kingdom, and the United States voted in favor of a proposed Arab League peace plan, but Russia and China vetoed the measure on the grounds of imposing on Syria's sovereignty. Members tried to work out a compromise with Russia, Syria's main ally (and, in a total coincidence, major weapons provider), beforehand, but it didn't go so well: Sergey V. Lavrov, Russia's foreign minister, said his country rejected the final resolution because "it did not place sufficient blame for the violence on the opposition" and it "unrealistically demanded that the government withdraw its military forces back to their barracks."
U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice said the United States was "disgusted" by the veto. "This intransigence is even more shameful when you consider that one of these members continues to deliver weapons to Assad," she said, referring to Russia.
Deadly Attack on Syrian City Adds to Push for U.N. to Act [NYT]
Obama slams Syria on massacre, as U.N. Security Council fails to pass resolution [CNN]
If you're bummed that the Queen doesn't have more exciting accessories, you might be happy to know that an anonymous dinner guest once spotted the Queen take a plastic suction cup out of her bag and "discreetly" spit into it. She then attached the cup, which had a hook on it, to the underside of the table. Then, she hung her purse on the whole contraption. Now that's worth a story.
Contents of Queen's handbag revealed: including £5 for church collection [The Telegraph]
After over six hours of testimony on Thursday, the New Jersey state Assembly approved legislation that would allow for same-sex marriage (don't worry, Governor Chris Christie has already promised to veto this nonsense). During the course of the day, 15-year-old Madison Galluccio testified before the Assembly, making an emotional case for her fathers' right to be married:
I do have to say that New Jersey has made me feel discriminated, like I'm some sort of outcast. But guess what New Jersey? I'm no outcast. I am Madison Galluccio, and I am part of the Galluccio family.
My parents will be married, and I will make sure that this happens till the day that I die.
You might want to give your wet face a second to de-puff before you go run those errands.
Sources told TMZ that Drake is "adamant" he never dated Lee, who says the two were together for more than a year between 2010 and 2011. And his rep says that Lee consented to the use of her voice before the album dropped, and never asked to be paid. "This claim is entirely without merit and our client has not engaged in any wrongful conduct... It was only after she retained a lawyer that there was a demand for payment," his rep added. "Drake tried for months to resolve the matter amicably, and he now looks forward to being vindicated in court." [Entertainment Online] [TMZ]
The Harry Potter movies may be about the adventures of wholesome kids, but things behind the scenes weren't nearly as innocent. Daniel Radcliffe has admitted that he was in the throes of a major drinking problem while filming the series, and he'd often show up for work drunk. God, first Pat Sajak and now this. In an interview with Heat magazine this week, Radcliffe said that during his Potter period he often drank to the point of blacking out:
I have a very addictive personality. It was a problem. People with problems like that are very adept at hiding it. It was bad. I don't want to go into details, but I drank a lot and it was daily — I mean nightly.
As much of a problem as he was having, the 22-year-old did put some limits on himself:
I can honestly say I never drank at work on Harry Potter. I went into work still drunk, but I never drank at work. I can point to many scenes where I'm just gone. Dead behind the eyes.
Harry Potter obsessives better cancel their weekend plans so they can rewatch all the movies and figure out which scenes he was drunk in. But seriously, kudos to him for sobering up and managing to avoid the quicksand pit of self-destruction that so many child stars fall into. [Reuters, EW]
Despite evidence that everything is just fine with Jennifer Aniston and Justin Theroux—they just bought a house together, after all—the National Enquirer says they had a big "blowup" and now their love is might be dead forever. The spat in question occurred during dinner at an LA restaurant. Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban were there too, and as Aniston and Theroux went to leave, they disagreed about whether to go say hello. Jen just waved, while Justin went over to chat. Jen came back and said hello and tried to pull him away. As they left, they were hissing at each other. Well, Jesus, if this means they're in trouble, then every couple in America is on the verge of splitting up, because that is some run-of-the-mill shit. Sure, for most of us our fights don't involve chatting with Nicole Kidman and Keith Urban, but still. [National Enquirer]
Madonna is nervous for her Super Bowl halftime show, but she says she's ready:
Over the 25 years of performing that I've done, I have never worked so hard or been so scrupulous or detail-oriented or freaked out as much maintaining my sanity.
Thankfully, her sanity is intact and nothing can stop her now—not even a strained hamstring. She's going to push through the injury; she says, "I feel like one of the football players now. Mind over matter." Let's pray that she gets carried away with that feeling and insists on playing in the second half of the game. Now, that would make it a Super Bowl. [People]
Justin Vernon told Billboard that Bon Iver was invited to perform at the Grammys but declined:
We wanted to play our music, but we were told that we couldn't play. We had to do a collaboration with someone else. And we just felt like it was such a large stage. We're getting nominated for this record that we made, me and Brian [Joseph] and a bunch of our fucking friends, and we were given accolades for it. And all of a sudden we were being asked to play music that had nothing to do with that. We kind of said "fuck you" a little bit and they sort of acted like they wanted us to play, but I don't think they wanted us to play.
Their loss. Yet another reason why the Grammys are fast fading into irrelevance. [ONTD]
Also, FYI, he likes to hide love notes for his wife, Jenna Dewan, under the toilet seat. Hope you guys are pumped for many more tidbits like this from Tatum, because he has five movies coming out this year and will probably be doing press tours non-stop. Let the fun begin. [MTV, People]
In this Friday edition of Tweet Beat, RuPaul wants you to know that he doesn't dress like a woman, Jackée has an idea for the best TV show ever and Kristin Chenowith enjoys NYC by running into Hoda Kotb on the street.
In this week's television roundup, Joan Rivers is smoking that sticky icky, OK Go brings their charms to Sesame Street and Glee sends Michael Jackson spinning in his grave.
1.) Let Joan Rivers take a moment to hot box her car.
Enjoy that bowl, Joan. You deserve it.
2.) RuPaul helps Tyrese out of a crisis on The Soup.
After losing Hat Person of the Year to Kate Middleton, Tyrese Gibson enters a destructive spiral of meth and whiskey use. If anyone can help, it's spirit guide RuPaul. Mankini, however, is on his own.
4.) Glee does Michael Jackson. Much like Michael, Glee started off with such promise and has grown increasingly unsettling in its delusions and treatment of children. But, hey, at least that Darren Criss sure is charming.
7.) Michelle Obama and Ellen compete to see who can do more push-ups.
No wonder the First Lady has such great arms.
8.) OK Go does a stop-motion music video about primary colors on Sesame Street.
Red and yellow make what? Red and yellow make ORANGE!
9.) Jimmy Fallon hosts an aroused baboon on Late Night.
To be fair, the baboon was a middle school girl when "Idiot Boyfriend" came out.
10.) Chris Gethard would like you to not call him "Chris Get Hard."
Sorry for the double Conan clips, but it was a good week for Team Coco and the comedy nerd. Here's the Upright Citizens Brigade star Chris Gethard being his usual subtle and hilarious self.
Literati rejoice — Gertrude Stein was born on this day in 1874. Today is her 138th birthday!
It's hard to find video and audio of Stein together, so I'll give you a little of each. At left, you can watch Stein while listening to some vaguely bitchy things Hemingway said about her.
And here's audio of Stein reading "If I Had Told Him: A Completed Portrait of Picasso," a poem she wrote in response to Picasso's famous portrait of her. Turn it on, pour yourself something tasty, and have a wonderful weekend.
What's so great about this particular recipe is that allows for spontaneity. It's the very opposite of the usual eighteen-step, multi-stage rising and proofing bread recipe, which requires about six hours of intermittent attention and energy. This recipe is spur-of-the-moment. Friends coming over for an impromptu drink? Put some bread in. Need something to take to a dinner party but no time to stop at the bottle store? Put some bread in. Hungry? Put some bread in. I've made this recipe in at least five countries and five U.S. states; I've made it in dorm rooms and holiday houses and at the childhood homes of friends, in New York City studio apartments and, once, in an office kitchen. I've made it at altitude and at sea level, in gas ovens and electric, and using some things that only barely qualify as "resealable containers" (like a plastic water pitcher) or as "measuring cups" (like drinking glasses). This bread recipe has never failed me. And now, it will never fail you.
One batch of dough as described above will make around 3 loaves of the size shown here. My maybe favorite part of this whole recipe is that when you finish your last loaf, you don't have to wash your container. Even if you don't have time to mix a fresh batch of dough, just seal the lid and return the empty container to the fridge. In a week or two when you do want to mix a new dough, the remains of the yeast in the last batch will have deposited a delicious pool of greyish alcohol at the bottom of the container. Just pour your warm water on top of that liquid and follow the recipe as above. Not washing the container is a great way of getting that delicious, three-week-old-refrigerator-dough taste in a dough that is in fact just hours old.
If there's something you'd like to see as a DIY project, you know what to do. In the meantime, to check out past DIYs:
You Too Can Have Kick-Ass Nails Like Rihanna
How to Make the World's Easiest Purse
How To Wrap The Best Gifts Without Breaking The Bank
How To Pluck Your Eyebrows
How To Winterize A Coat
How To Knit A Burberry-Inspired Cowl
How To Make A Colorful Wrapped Hair Comb
How To Transform Yourself With Special Effects Makeup
How To Give Yourself Paint-Splattered Jackson Pollock Nails
How To Turn A T-Shirt Into A Pillow
How To Make A Felted Soap
How To Make A Manicure Last
How To Make A Corinne Day-Inspired Spiderweb T-Shirt
How To Do A Polka-Dot Manicure
How To Do A 30s-Style Moon Manicure
How To Make An Envelope Clutch
How To Paint Your Nails With A Charming Leopard Print
How To Alter A Thrift-Store Dress
Mario Lopez's dog Julio started a Twitter account last week and it's become increasingly obvious that he has a drinking problem, makes wildly inappropriate, sexual comments, and that he's kind of a misogynist. A gallery of WTF-ness ahead.
The Top 10 Most Disturbing Tweets From Mario Lopez's Dog [BuzzFeed]
It's been a wild few days in the world of women's health. So what just happened? What's the lesson? Will there be a quiz? Here's an overview to help you track exactly how pink became the new blech.
In order for Susan G. Komen for the Cure to revamp it's image as a anti-abortion social club more interested in popularity and profit than actual good works, they'll have to do some housecleaning. Either that or get better at lying.
What makes us happy? Fox News says it's the little things in life. USA Today says it's dogs. MSNBC says it's not getting married. Forbes says it's working in Miami. Personally, I'm partial to cupcakes and swearing. All in all, when it comes to this very hot pursuit, everybody has an opinion. Not only that, the Harvard Business Review tells us that measuring happiness may be just as important as measuring our GDP, so I am pleased to present the Happiness Scale, based on careful research, for this sole purpose.
So how happy are you today? Just make sure you figure it out and get it right, because World Happy Day is coming up.
