Hello, everybody.
Bristol Palin may have survived another week on "Dancing With The Stars" with Florence Henderson in a shocker being the latest to hang up her dancing shoes, but that has already taken a back seat to this week's big entertainment story: The latest celebrity photoshoot that had us singing a bad tune.
Yes, we're talking about the cast of Fox's hit show "Glee" going wild for the pages of "GQ" magazine featuring Cory Monteith, Lea Michele, and Dianna Agron. In one photo that really raised eyebrows, Michele spread her legs while sitting vertically on a bench in her underwear and knee-high socks.
It didn't take long when the outrage started to pour all over the pics, especially this from the Parents Television Council: "It is disturbing that GQ, which is explicitly written for adult men, is sexualizing the actresses who play high school-aged characters on 'Glee' in this way. It borders on pedophilia. By authorizing this kind of near-pornographic display, the creators of the program have established their intentions on the show's direction. And it isn't good for families." GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson fought back: "The Parents Television Council must not be watching much TV these days and should learn to divide reality from fantasy. As often happens in Hollywood, these 'kids' are in their twenties. Cory Montieth's almost 30! I think they're old enough to do what they want."
As far as the participants are concerned, Agron on her blog now regretted her part, saying: "In the land of Madonna, Britney, Miley, Gossip Girl, other public figures and shows that have pushed the envelope and challenged the levels of comfort in their viewers and fans…we are not the first. Now, in perpetuating the type of images that evoke these kind of emotions, I am sorry. If you are hurt or these photos make you uncomfortable, it was never our intention. And if your eight-year-old has a copy of our GQ cover in hand, again I am sorry. But I would have to ask, how on earth did it get there?
I’m moving forward from this one, and after today, putting it to rest. I am only myself, I can only be me. These aren’t photos I am going to frame and put on my desk, but hey, nor are any of the photos I take for magazines. "
The general public, including yours truly in a brief comment that landed on "Entertainment Tonight", have their own two cents on the controversy. Personally, I absolutely don't see anything wrong with these pictures whatsoever. Even though Monteith, Agron, and Michele all play high school students on "Glee", in actuality, they're 28 and 24 respectively with years and years of experience; Michele, for example, starred in "Les Miserables" and "Spring Awakening" on Broadway.
But the racy GQ pictorial starring "Glee" is the latest in a long line of photoshoots that have crossed the line over the last 20 years.
Flash back to 1991, when a very pregnant Demi Moore posed naked for the cover of GQ's sister publication, "Vanity Fair." Shot by Annie Leibowitz, that started the trend of nude pregnancy photos done in a good fashion; case in point: Christina Aguilera for "Marie Claire", who was pregnant with her son Max. By the way, the following year came the sequel, "Demi's Birthday Suit." I'm sure a young Ashton Kutcher must've spent good times pleasuring himself to that cover.
In 1997, it was Toni Braxton's turn to push the envelope in more ways than one when "Vibe" had her wearing nothing but a blanket on the cover, while inside the pages, black panties and a very see-through top exposing her breasts. It was her way to sex up and enhance her image with a Las Vegas gig and "Dancing With The Stars" to follow, though just recently, she filed for her second bankruptcy. And with "Baby One More Time" already making her a household name, Britney Spears's 1999 "Rolling Stone" cover got a lot of flak from another family values group, though Britney (17 at the time) defended it. I remember offering my own take on the matter when my commentary piece on the former "Allen Report" was called "The Bottom Line."
In 2008, "Vanity Fair" and Annie Leibowitz made headlines once again when she infamously snapped then-15-year-old Miley Cyrus backless. Like I said recently, that would eventually sprout to Miley shedding her wholesome "Hannah Montana" image as she toured the world performing in eye-popping wardrobe to the delight of older fans. Boy, I can't wait till what she has in store come November 23; that's when she turns the big 1-8!
Earlier that same year came Bert Stern's re-creation of "The Last Sitting" for "New York" magazine this time starring Lindsay Lohan (who has been sentenced to rehab once again in lieu of jail), while Jennifer Aniston a couple months before she hit 40 had on nothing but a necktie for GQ. In between those, a Calvin Klein perfume commercial was banned for television because a little bit more of Eva Mendes was shown.
Now, it's "Glee Gone Wild", though we have seen those words before when "Rolling Stone" did a cover piece on them. I am not one of those "Gleeks" myself, but the only way that could get me tuned to the show is if Jane Lynch dons a dominatrix outfit.
And last but not least, a clarification: Last time, I mentioned that the two Burger Kings we have at Fort Wainwright and Eielson are off limits to us civilians and that we have to drive all the way to Wasilla for the nearest one. Well, I've come to realize all along that if you have proof of vehicle insurance and some form of identification like a driver's license or state ID, you can get a day pass to the military bases and still get your Whopper fix. On that note, so long and stay strong.
(Oh yeah...after teasing you for so long, the starting field of 30 for Sexiest Man of 2010 is finally out and voting in Round 1 begins November 1. To find out who they are, go to my Twitter page.)
Saturday, October 23, 2010
Monday, October 18, 2010
Hello, everybody. There has been so much happening this week, and you know where we start with: the Chilean miners' rescue.
The attention of the entire world was focused on that one country and the San Jose Mine in Copiapo as a billion television viewers held their breath watching, in 15- to 30-minute intervals, all 33 miners seeing the light for the first time after 69 days in the dark. It began shortly after 7:00 pm Alaska Time with Florencio Avalos being the first one out, and ended 22 hours later with Manuel Gonzalez.
Not since Baby Jessica (which I'll get to in a bit) has there ever been worldwide jubilation over all the miners coming out alive and well, though one of them, Yonni Barrios, claims to have had a mistress. But nonetheless, they're already instant celebrities, and from magazines to "60 Minutes" to Oprah Winfrey, everybody wants a piece of all this so we can learn more about the ordeal in their own words.
Now I tweeted that the rescue is reminiscent of Jessica McClure's in 1987, when she was trapped inside an abandoned well in Midland, Texas and we were on pins and needles right in front of our TVs hoping and praying they would get her out alive. Now Jessica Morales, she's married with a kid and they still live in Midland.
However, the same thing couldn't be said for Kathy Fiscus 38 years prior to that. Fiscus fell down a 14-inch-wide well outside of Los Angeles and reporter Stan Chambers covered every moment of the ordeal round-the-clock for KTLA. Sadly, Fiscus died before rescuers would reach her, and grief was spread not throughout Southern California, but around the country as well.
Chambers recently retired from KTLA after spending almost a lifetime there, but his non-stop reporting of the Fiscus tragedy was the watershed event for the fledgling medium even though radio was still king in the late '40s.
A lot of lessons have learned from Kathy Fiscus, Baby Jessica, and now the Chilean miners over the course of the last 60 years.
Well, it didn't take long to shift subjects from that to another war of words on "The View" as Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar briefly stormed off the show over guest Bill O'Reilly's take about a mosque being placed near Ground Zero. Now CBS's "View" clone "The Talk", premieres on Monday, and here's hoping we won't be seeing any walk-offs right at the start.
It was a week of two unexpected celebrity breakups: First, Courteney Cox and David Arquette followed by Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman with Aguilera filing divorce papers just a short while later.
For Aguilera, she knew how to handle it very quickly, as she and son Max were out and about at a pumpkin patch with Christina later in Hawaii. But what led to the couple being no more?
Poor sales for her recent album "Bionic" plus the cancellation of her summer tour are likely to blame, but remember: she did shoot "Burlesque" with Cher which comes out next month, and like I said in the "2009 Year in Review", this could be Christina's chance to come back on top this time without Jordan's help.
And last but not least: When I moved back to Fairbanks for the second time in 1985 after 1 1/2 years in Phoenix, we felt it had it all: an Arby's, a Baskin-Robbins, a Nordstrom's, JCPenney, two Burger Kings, a Sizzler, even a Dairy Queen. Well, flash forward to 2010...we have none of these anymore!
Okay, we still have Burger Kings in Fort Wainwright and Eielson, but they're off limits to us civilians. The remaining Fairbanks BK closed down in 2007 and if you still want a Whopper, the nearest one is in Wasilla -- 350 miles down the Parks Highway! And except for Sizzler (which left Fairbanks by the time I returned in '92), the same can be said for all the other eateries an additional 50 miles in -- you guessed it -- my hometown, ANCHORAGE!!!!
Recently, Carl's Jr. opened up their second Fairbanks location on my side of town across the street from Taco Bell, but let's face it: Burger King and Arby's are still missed here. Of those two, Burger King may come crawling back here sometime soon; my best bet is between 2011 and 2012.
As for breakfast? Even though IHOP is also eight hours away in Anchorage, our best bets here are Sam's Sourdough Cafe and The Cookie Jar. Applebees? I ate there for lunch while in Mississippi a decade ago, but if I want to do it again, there's two of them in Anchorage for my disposal. And the next time I want to go on another DVD shopping spree at Best Buy...ah, you know.
With all of us already spending our PFD money to go along with whatever else we have in our bank accounts, Anchorage has always been the one place to blow it on. Like I said on this blog before, we're doing most of our upscale shopping there even if we have two Fred Meyers and a Walmart. But don't worry, folks: Fairbanks is hosting their second Alaska Federation of Natives convention next week, and for businesses large and small, this is their moment to shine. But if they want to "Have It Their Way"...forget it! So long and stay strong.
The attention of the entire world was focused on that one country and the San Jose Mine in Copiapo as a billion television viewers held their breath watching, in 15- to 30-minute intervals, all 33 miners seeing the light for the first time after 69 days in the dark. It began shortly after 7:00 pm Alaska Time with Florencio Avalos being the first one out, and ended 22 hours later with Manuel Gonzalez.
Not since Baby Jessica (which I'll get to in a bit) has there ever been worldwide jubilation over all the miners coming out alive and well, though one of them, Yonni Barrios, claims to have had a mistress. But nonetheless, they're already instant celebrities, and from magazines to "60 Minutes" to Oprah Winfrey, everybody wants a piece of all this so we can learn more about the ordeal in their own words.
Now I tweeted that the rescue is reminiscent of Jessica McClure's in 1987, when she was trapped inside an abandoned well in Midland, Texas and we were on pins and needles right in front of our TVs hoping and praying they would get her out alive. Now Jessica Morales, she's married with a kid and they still live in Midland.
However, the same thing couldn't be said for Kathy Fiscus 38 years prior to that. Fiscus fell down a 14-inch-wide well outside of Los Angeles and reporter Stan Chambers covered every moment of the ordeal round-the-clock for KTLA. Sadly, Fiscus died before rescuers would reach her, and grief was spread not throughout Southern California, but around the country as well.
Chambers recently retired from KTLA after spending almost a lifetime there, but his non-stop reporting of the Fiscus tragedy was the watershed event for the fledgling medium even though radio was still king in the late '40s.
A lot of lessons have learned from Kathy Fiscus, Baby Jessica, and now the Chilean miners over the course of the last 60 years.
Well, it didn't take long to shift subjects from that to another war of words on "The View" as Whoopi Goldberg and Joy Behar briefly stormed off the show over guest Bill O'Reilly's take about a mosque being placed near Ground Zero. Now CBS's "View" clone "The Talk", premieres on Monday, and here's hoping we won't be seeing any walk-offs right at the start.
It was a week of two unexpected celebrity breakups: First, Courteney Cox and David Arquette followed by Christina Aguilera and Jordan Bratman with Aguilera filing divorce papers just a short while later.
For Aguilera, she knew how to handle it very quickly, as she and son Max were out and about at a pumpkin patch with Christina later in Hawaii. But what led to the couple being no more?
Poor sales for her recent album "Bionic" plus the cancellation of her summer tour are likely to blame, but remember: she did shoot "Burlesque" with Cher which comes out next month, and like I said in the "2009 Year in Review", this could be Christina's chance to come back on top this time without Jordan's help.
And last but not least: When I moved back to Fairbanks for the second time in 1985 after 1 1/2 years in Phoenix, we felt it had it all: an Arby's, a Baskin-Robbins, a Nordstrom's, JCPenney, two Burger Kings, a Sizzler, even a Dairy Queen. Well, flash forward to 2010...we have none of these anymore!
Okay, we still have Burger Kings in Fort Wainwright and Eielson, but they're off limits to us civilians. The remaining Fairbanks BK closed down in 2007 and if you still want a Whopper, the nearest one is in Wasilla -- 350 miles down the Parks Highway! And except for Sizzler (which left Fairbanks by the time I returned in '92), the same can be said for all the other eateries an additional 50 miles in -- you guessed it -- my hometown, ANCHORAGE!!!!
Recently, Carl's Jr. opened up their second Fairbanks location on my side of town across the street from Taco Bell, but let's face it: Burger King and Arby's are still missed here. Of those two, Burger King may come crawling back here sometime soon; my best bet is between 2011 and 2012.
As for breakfast? Even though IHOP is also eight hours away in Anchorage, our best bets here are Sam's Sourdough Cafe and The Cookie Jar. Applebees? I ate there for lunch while in Mississippi a decade ago, but if I want to do it again, there's two of them in Anchorage for my disposal. And the next time I want to go on another DVD shopping spree at Best Buy...ah, you know.
With all of us already spending our PFD money to go along with whatever else we have in our bank accounts, Anchorage has always been the one place to blow it on. Like I said on this blog before, we're doing most of our upscale shopping there even if we have two Fred Meyers and a Walmart. But don't worry, folks: Fairbanks is hosting their second Alaska Federation of Natives convention next week, and for businesses large and small, this is their moment to shine. But if they want to "Have It Their Way"...forget it! So long and stay strong.
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