Wish I Didn't Know

Kutcher And Sheen Have A Run-In At The Emmys (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(today.msnbc.msn.com)- The two “Men” came face-to-face at the 63rd Primetime Emmy Awards on Sunday night.

Former “Two and a Half Men” star Charlie Sheen tweeted two photos of himself backstage with his replacement, Ashton Kutcher, from the ceremony in Los Angeles.

“Giving the new kid a little advice..! With @aplusk backstage at the Emmy’s,” Sheen tweeted, along with a link to a photo of the pair on his WhoSay account.

After their backstage powwow, Sheen continued the praise for Kutcher, writing, “Seriously… @aplusk great talking to you! We’ll all be watching! Make us proud!!”

Earlier in the night, the new CBS star joked about the “…Men” controversy while on stage with co-star Jon Cryer.

“Hello, I’m that guy from ‘Pretty in Pink,’” Cryer said while presenting the Outstanding Writing for a Drama Series award with Kutcher.

“I am not Charlie Sheen… Jon, I want to tell you something. I do not think that you are a troll,” Kutcher said, referencing Sheen’s infamous dig at Cryer after he was fired from the hit sitcom.

Earlier in the ceremony Sheen gave Kutcher props while presenting the Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy award, telling Kutcher, “From the bottom of my heart, I wish you nothing but the best for this upcoming season.”

Original Article

Baz Luhrmann’s Epic ‘Great Gatsby’ Begins Filming - In 3D (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Bob Williams

(Matt Peckham, TIME newsfeed) - Move over Robert Redford. Here comes Leo DiCaprio, and this time he’s not playing a poetic lovelorn punk.

That doesn’t mean it won’t be punchy, because Romeo and Juliet director Baz Luhrmann is heading up this star-jammed adaptation of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby—you know, one of the greatest American novels going, named by the Modern Library as second only to Irish author James Joyce’s Modernist masterpiece, Ulysses.

Production on Luhrmann’s 3D Gatsby (you read that right—eye-popping three-dee!) just swung into gear, says The Hollywood Reporter, adding that DiCaprio (as Jay Gatsby), Tobey Maguire (as Nick Carraway), Carey Mulligan (as Daisy Buchanan) and others have assembled in Sydney, Australia to begin filming.

Whatever you think of Luhrmann’s visually spasmodic, often over-the-top prior films—Strictly Ballroom, Romeo and Juliet, Moulin Rouge, Australia—you can’t call him boring. In fact Warner Bros Pictures, which plans to distribute the film, says Luhrmann will “create his own distinctive visual interpretation of the classic story, bringing the period to life in a way that has never been seen before.” Well of course it’s “never been seen before.” Who ever thought the selling point for a contemporary adaptation of Fitzgerald’s post-World War I “roaring twenties” and prohibition commentary would turn out to be stuff like the book’s “valley of ashes” and “eyes of doctor T. J. Eckleburg” popping out of the screen at us through stereoscopic plastic goggles?

In any event, look for award-winning Bollywood actor Amitabh Bachchan (as Meyer Wolfsheim) and newcomer Elizabeth Debicki (as Jordan Baker) to join the three above as well as Isla Fisher (as Myrtle Wilson), Jason Clarke (as George Wilson) and Joel Edgerton (as Tom Buchanan).

The whole thing’s estimated to cost $125 million, including reports that Luhrmann’s shipping in an army of vintage cars from an auto museum in Illinois. The Hollywood Reporter says three of these—a pair of 1929 Duesenbergs and a 1929 Packard, driven by DiCaprio’s Gatsby—may be worth around $3 million a piece.

So piles of cash, knockout stars, cutting-edge 3D visuals, all to channel a relatively low-key (plot-wise) American classic. What could possibly go wrong?

Original Article

The River Jordan Hosts Baptism Of Rupert Murdoch’s Children, Celeb Guests (WIDK)

Posted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Michael Seamark, Daily Mail) — The dress code was all-white and celebrity godparents Nicole Kidman and Hugh Jackman figured prominently in a gushing Hello! report covering the baptism of Rupert Murdoch’s two youngest children.

Curiously, there was no mention – or  photograph – in the magazine’s 19-page picture spread of another famous godparent present at the star-studded ceremony on the banks of the River Jordan.

For it emerged after that Tony Blair is godfather to the media tycoon’s nine-year-old daughter, Grace, raising fresh questions about links between the former prime minister and the News International boss.

The secret bond between Mr Blair and the Murdoch family was disclosed in a rare interview with the billionaire’s third wife, Wendi, in which the former Labour leader is described as one of Mrs Murdoch’s ‘closest friends’.

Mr Blair’s office refused to comment on the interview, which appears in the October issue of Vogue, but sources have confirmed that the magazine account is accurate.

Mr Blair’s close ties to the Murdochs might now explain his reluctance to criticise News International over the phone-hacking scandal that has engulfed the media empire and forced the closure of the News of the World.

Earlier this summer it was reported that Mr Blair had urged Gordon Brown to put pressure on Labour MP Tom Watson, who led the campaign to expose the scandal, to back off – although the former prime minister’s spokesman denied this.

On becoming Labour leader in 1994, Mr Blair flew to a conference hosted by Mr Murdoch to end the party’s feud with him.

The unlikely alliance continued throughout Mr Blair’s ten years in office as Mr Murdoch’s newspapers – The Times, The Sun and the News of the World – supported him.

But news that he played such a significant role in the Murdoch children’s baptism – hosted by Queen Rania of Jordan – reveals a far closer personal relationship between Mr Blair and the media mogul.

The April 5, 2010, issue of Hello! reported that Mr Murdoch’s daughters Grace and Chloe, eight, were baptised at the site where Jesus is said to have been immersed in the Jordan by John the Baptist.

Guests included Hollywood stars Kidman and Jackman, as well as property tycoon Donald Trump’s daughter Ivanka and Google co-founder Larry Page.

Pictures of Mr Murdoch and his high-profile guests fill page after glossy page of Hello!, but there is neither sight nor mention of Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy.

It was left to the Vogue interview with Mrs Murdoch, 42, to reveal his intimate role in the proceedings.

She did not comment directly on Mr Blair, but the article said he was one of her ‘closest friends’.

It reported that he attended the baptism ‘garbed in white’ and was Grace’s godfather. Mr Murdoch’s eldest son, Lachlan, is her other godfather.

News International is to sell its Wapping site and relocate its stable of titles to its neighbouring Thomas More Square base in East London.

The company transferred to the 15-acre Wapping site in 1986, a move that broke the dominance of the print unions and began the mass exodus from Fleet Street.

Original Article

Reporter Covered In Toxic Sea Foam During Storm Update - VIDEO (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(Fox News) — A local news reporter from Washington, D.C. ended up getting covered in what is probably the remnants of raw sewage as he delivered live hurricane reports from Ocean City, Md.

WTTG-TV reporter Tucker Barnes was providing live updates for stations around the country as a wall of what he described as sea foam poured over him. Barnes was on the boardwalk as Hurricane Irene hit the coast of Maryland. He noted that he had immersed himself in organic material.

SEE VIDEO HERE

Reporter Gives Update Covered In Sea Foam: MyFoxNY.com

That “organic material” was most likely the effects of raw sewage pouring into the water during the storm. ”It doesn’t taste great,” he said. He said it had a sandy consistency and added, “I can tell you first-hand, it doesn’t smell great.” The foam is often a toxic mix of pollution and cyanobacteria.

60 mph wind gust sprayed the toxic mix across the reporter and the boardwalk and coated buildings. Bubbles and foam in the ocean can be caused by several other things, including oils from decomposing animals.

Original Article

Madonna’s ‘Sex’ Book Tops Most-Wanted List (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(msn.com) - Madonna’s infamous “Sex” book has topped a list of out-of-circulation publications literary fans most want to add to their shelves.

According to a new poll by Bookfinder.com, the Material Girl’s shockingly explicit coffee table picture book is still proving popular.

The limited-edition release caused outrage in 1992 and featured the singer in a series of pornographic poses with rapper Vanilla Ice and Naomi Campbell.

Next on the most wanted list is Nora Roberts’ “Promise Me Tomorrow,” followed by two Stephen King releases, “Rage” and “My Pretty Pony.”

Also in the top 10 are Johnny Cash’s “Man In Black,” a Marilyn Monroe biography by Norman Mailer, and Kyle Onstott’s “Mandingo.”

Original Article

Hustler Claims to Have a SEX TAPE of Rihanna (WIDK)

(Fox News) — SOS! Rihanna may have a sex tape on the loose. Adult company Hustler says it has a sex tape of the singer, which reportedly involves J. Cole, the rapper who opened for her on her 2011 “Loud” tour.

“We have not made any decisions about what we are going to do with it yet,” Hustler told E! News. But according to Ri-Ri, there is no sex tape. “We don’t believe U, U need more people…AND ofcourse an actual sextape! #slownewsday,” she tweeted.

A source close to Rihanna tells E! News the story is “not true.” But even if it IS true, it’s not like we haven’t seen almost all of the Barbadian beauty before. And the “S & M” singer isn’t exactly shy about her sexuality.

Original Article

Libya Unrest: Details On Journalists’ Rixos Hotel Ordeal Revealed (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Emily Moore

(BBC) — About 30 foreign journalists have managed to leave the Rixos Hotel in Tripoli after being trapped there for days as the battle for the capital raged around them. The BBC’s Matthew Price was among the group.

When we got driven out, we discovered that we had basically been confined to one tiny part of Tripoli, with two gunmen who believed that they were still fighting on behalf of Col Gaddafi.

They believed to the end that the battle for Tripoli was still going - even though the whole world had seen this city had fallen - and they thought that Col Gaddafi was still going to win that battle.

It was firmly their belief that if we went outside the hotel, the rebels would capture us, kill us and rape the women.

All the journalists decided to spend the nights and days together in one corridor, as we felt it was safer there. We then had a room that we could go into if things really turned nasty.

We drove out of the hotel compound into a completely different city to the one that we had last seen seven days earlier”

We were lying there a couple of nights ago with our flak jackets on and our cameraman said “you get good news, bad news, good news, bad news” - and it just kept going on like that. We thought, maybe this is going to be the moment when we suddenly manage to leave - and then it wasn’t.

When the town of Zawiya got taken by the rebels we then knew that we had no way out. That road west out of Tripoli was the lifeline for the capital but also the route in and out for journalists.

Then on Saturday night when the uprising started in Tripoli and this city began to fall, we slowly but surely realised that there was no route out of this government-run hotel.

During Sunday we saw the government minders and their families leaving, and by Monday morning we woke up and we had young gunmen walking round the hotel and essentially in charge.

We feared what they would do. Were they protecting us, did they see us as enemies of Col Gaddafi? There has been a lot said here by Col Gaddafi’s side about the foreign media taking sides in this war, so they were pretty anxious days.

Some of the hotel staff are not Libyans and they were just as scared as we were, wanting to get out and away - and they were allowed to get away.

I think that those close to the regime - the civil servants and the powers that be - knew that Tripoli was in trouble but believed that there would be a way back.

For most of the people in that hotel, Col Gaddafi had been in power for either all their lives or the vast majority of their lives. They were signed up believers.

Like the two guards who were disarmed today by one of the journalists in the group, they firmly believed that it was impossible for Col Gaddafi to fall.

When we left, the whole team was astonished.

We drove out of the hotel compound into a completely different city to the one that we had last seen seven days earlier.

The tanks are here, the damage is here, but the people on the streets are different.

These are people who are so opposed to a regime that lasted 42 years that they were prepared to risk their lives to overthrow it.

Original Article

Picture This - Kate Moss, 37, Married - And TOPLESS (WIDK)

(WIDK) — 37-year-old Kate Moss poses topless for the famous Pirelli calendar for photographer Mario Sorrenti.

Original Article

Mexican Billionaire Increases Stake in NEW YORK TIMES (WIDK)

(Financial Times By David Gelles in New York and Adam Thomson in Mexico City) — Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has increased his stake in the New York Times Company just weeks after the US newspaper group repaid the emergency $250m loan it took from Mr Slim in 2009.

Mr Slim upped his stake from 6.9 per cent to 7.3 per cent through the purchase of 553,000 class A shares, according to a regulatory filing. The new holdings, acquired on August 18 for between $6.83 and $7.09 per share, were purchased by Mr Slim’s Inmobiliaria Carso SA investment fund and came at the end of a volatile week on the stock market.

Mr Slim’s group also increased his stake in Saks, the luxury retailer, from 15.7 per cent to 16 per cent on the same day.

“We are buying because we feel that the shares are at a very good price, and we are increasing our holdings in the two companies,” said Arturo Elias Ayub, Mr Slim’s son-in-law and head of strategic alliances at Telmex, Mr Slim’s fixed-line phone company.

Shares in the New York Times are down 29 per cent from six months ago as the group struggles to balance declining print advertising and circulation with new digital revenues, while shares in Saks are down 26 per cent over the same time.

In 2008, Mr Slim began acquiring shares in the New York Times Company, which publishes its flagship paper along with the Boston Globe and other regional papers, and had acquired 6.9 per cent by the time he made his loan in 2009, when the company faced short-term cash needs in an unfavorable credit market.

Mr Slim bought the most recent shares on the open market and did not exercise the warrants he was granted as part of the loan. People close to the company say Mr Slim has remained a silent shareholder and does not intend to acquire 10 per cent or more of the company, which would require him to file additional information with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.

Eduardo García, who follows Mr Slim’s fortune closely on Sentido Comun, his Mexican business publication, says the substantial holding gives Mr Slim a better chance of breaking into the city’s elite circles.

In recent months, Mr Slim has shown increasing interest in New York. Last year, he paid $44m in cash for the Duke-Semens townhouse, one of the only private mansions left on Fifth Avenue. Months later, his holding company announced it was considering taking Sanborns, Mr Slim’s iconic retailer-cum-cafeteria, to the city.

Mr Slim, now 71, is ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man, with a personal fortune of $74bn, His business interests range from tobacco and mining to banking and retail but most of his wealth stemmed from the acquisition, in 1990, of Telmex, the former state telecommunications monopoly.

Original Article

Facebook To Revamp Privacy Controls (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Bob Williams

San Francisco (Alexei Oreskovic, Reuters) - Facebook is making it easier for users to control who sees their information, and to have more say over the photographs they appear in, as the world’s No. 1 social networking service seeks to assuage privacy concerns.

The changes will enable Facebook’s 750 million users to quickly access and modify their privacy settings each time they share information on the online network, rather than forcing them to click through various specialized sections of the website.

When a person uploads a photograph to Facebook and “tags,” or labels, their friends in the picture, the friends will now have the power to approve the tag before the picture is linked to their personal profiles. Previously, users could only un-tag themselves from undesirable photos after the fact.

Privacy has been an ongoing challenge for advertising-supported Facebook, which must balance its commercial interests in having people share more of their lives on the service with users’ sensitivities about having sufficient control over their personal information.

Last year, Facebook Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg rolled out simplified privacy settings — which at one time required users to tinker with more than 150 different options — amid complaints by some users and privacy advocates.

Facebook also recently raised privacy hackles when it expanded the use of a facial recognition technology that automatically identifies people in photographs.

The latest changes come as Facebook is facing its most significant competition in the social networking market in years, following the recent launch of Google Inc’s rival service, Google+.

The new service, which enrolled 10 million users in its first two weeks, has touted its ability to let people organize their friends and contacts into different groups, thus offering fine-tuned privacy controls as a key advantage over Facebook.

Facebook Vice President of Product Chris Cox said the changes had been in the works for months and are intended to address several long-standing requests from users, rather than matching the competition.

“As long as people don’t feel like that part of the tool is awesome, we have work to do independent of Google or anyone,” said Cox.

Among the new features, which Facebook will introduce on Thursday, will be a drop-down menu that allows Facebook users to specify the intended audience for each message or photograph they share on the network, as well as the ability to alter who can see a message after it has already been posted online.

Facebook also added a special button to make it easier for people to check how their online profile and activity appears from the perspective of another individual, such as a boss or an ex-girlfriend.

Even as Facebook offers new privacy controls, the company is introducing new features that could cause some privacy concerns.

Facebook users will now be able to tag anyone in a photograph, loosening the previous policy in which users could only tag people with whom they were friends. The change will be paired with new safeguards, including the ability for users to approve any tags that link to their profile and the ability to block a specific person from tagging them in photos.

Facebook is also seeking to incorporate more data about its users’ various locations into the service. New features will allow users to specify the physical whereabouts of items they share on the service, such as a restaurant mentioned or the setting of a photo, as well as the location from which they are posting information to Facebook.

While Facebook users will need to consent to share their location when they post messages on the social network, some users may not understand that this is in fact occurring based on the description that Facebook provides, said Justin Brookman, the director of the Consumer Privacy Project at the nonprofit Center for Democracy and Technology.

“There may be some bumps in the road as people get used to that feature,” he said.

Original Article

Kim Kardashian Set To Make $17.9 Million On Nuptials (WIDK)

Submitted to WIDK by Bob Williams

(Cynthia R. Fagen, The New York Post) - Forget white! Kim Kardashian could have been wearing green at her wedding.

The buxom reality-TV diva and her basketball-playing hubby, Kris Humphries, raked in a lot more than a few toasters when they tied the knot last night — scoring about $17.9 million by turning the ceremony into a media extravaganza.

The exclusive photo rights to the Hollywood super nuptials were sold to People magazine for $2.5 million, a source told The Post.

But that’s just the icing on the couple’s cash cake.

Their biggest payout will come from turning last night’s ceremony into a four-hour, two-part TV spectacular called “Kim’s Fairytale Wedding: A Kardashian Event,” which will air on E! in October.

The special is expected to pull in $12 million to $15 million for the Kardashian family franchise and for the show’s producer, Ryan Seacrest.

The wedding likely didn’t cost the celebrity couple much, if anything, experts say.

LA celebrity event planner Tony Schubert said many vendors would have either comped or given huge discounts to the couple in return for the publicity.

“It benefits the vendors, their goods and services [to be] shown to millions of people,” he said.

The 30-year-old star of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” picked the Sotto Il Monte estate in Montecito, Calif., for the black-tie affair.

She got three $20,000 Vera Wang gowns — one for the ceremony and two for later in the evening — all free, and $400,000 worth of Perrier Jouet Champagne also gratis.

Her $15,000, 10-tiered wedding cake with chocolate-chip icing and black and white decorations made by Hansen’s Bakery was comped, too.

In addition, the $10,000 worth of invitations by Lehr & Black were free.

“It seems they released the invitation a few weeks ago for obvious reasons. It’s all part of the game,” Schubert said.

Other costs would have included $2 million for Mark Gardens floral arrangements of African white roses and black and white décor, tents, lighting and favors.

Caviar, Kobe burgers, truffles, cupcakes and other tasty tidbits for the reception racked up a sweet $750,000 tab for the nearly 500 guests, which included Seacrest, Lindsay Lohan, Eva Longoria, and, Carmelo Anthony and his wife, La La, People reported.

The $3 million in wedding bling — including the couple’s $1 million nuptial bands and Kim’s $2 million engagement ring, all by Lorraine Schwartz — was deeply discounted.

Even the $50,000 bachelorette party was sponsored, by Tao of Las Vegas.

In a public wedding of this magnitude, “everything is usually paid for or traded out,” said TV consultant Adam Armbruster of New Jersey-based ESA & Co.

After the wedding, the couple planned to head to New York, where Kim and her sister Kourtney will work on their reality TV show “Kourtney & Kim Take New York.”

During the filming, they will have a second wedding party at Capitale.

Making off like bandits

While the wedding of Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries was reported to cost a manicured-eyebrow raising $10 million, the lovebirds really didn’t have to shell out a dime — in fact, they’ll rake in at least $17.9 million for just saying, “I do”!

Payments they received

* $15 million plus profit for four-hour, two-part wedding special on E!

* $2.5 million for exclusive photos with People magazine

* $300,000 for exclusive engagement announcement with People

* $100,000 for exclusive rights to bridal shower with Britain’s OK! mag

* $50,000 to have bachelorette party at Tao in Las Vegas

Stuff they got for free

* $15,000 to $20,000 Hansen’s Bakery wedding cake

* $20,000 Vera Wang wedding dress and fittings

* $40,000 for two more Vera Wang evening dresses

* $400,000 in Perrier Jouet Champagne

* $150,000 in hair and makeup for photo shoots and TV “home video”

* $10,000 in Lehr & Black wedding invitations

Deeply discounted

* $2 million 20.5-carat engagement ring and $1 million wedding bands by jeweler Lorraine Schwartz. The amount they paid for these items hasn’t been revealed, but it’s much less than their worth.

Original Article

Submitted to WIDK by Bianca Coombs

(Piper Weiss, Shine) - Periodically, fashion has its Zoolander moments—those idiotic decisions by arbiters of the industry that trivialize real human suffering for the sake of controversy.

In the 2001 parody movie there was the homeless-inspired Derelicte clothing line. In real life, there was the Duncan Quinn ad with the woman being choked, the Calvin Klein child pornography campaign, and now the latest: Vogue’s slave earrings.

In this month’s Italian edition of the magazine, a trend story on hoop earrings bares the headline “Slave Earrings.” The text accompanying the image of a model wearing the circular jewelry reads: “If the name brings to the mind the decorative traditions of the women of color who were brought to the southern United States during the slave trade, the latest interpretation is pure freedom.”

Sorry Vogue, but America’s horrific history of oppression and human torture can’t be treated with the same cavalier proclamation, as say, bell bottoms making a comeback. The topic of slavery never was and never will be fair-game fodder for fashion.  The Twitter universe made that abundantly clear on Monday as hoards of comments like “insanely offensive” and “What the f—- were they thinking?” flooded the social networking site. Finally, Italian Vogue’s editors got a clue. Sort of.

“We apologize for the inconvenience. It is a matter of really bad translation from Italian into English,” the magazine’s editor-in-chief Franca Sozzani said in a statement to press.”The Italian word, which defines those kind of earrings, should instead be translated into ‘ethnic style earrings’. Again, we are sorry about this mistake which we have just amended in the website.”

If the word “inconvenience” wasn’t enough compelling evidence, the title change from “Slave Earrings” to “Ethnic Earrings” on the magazine’s English translated website, was a tip-off to readers that something still wasn’t connecting for the fashion bible’s Italian staff. “It’s equally frightening that the high fashion magazine, would find the two words–slave and ethnic–interchangeable,” writes Fashionista’s Hayley Phelan.

By Monday evening, the entire article was finally removed from the sight and replaced with the following text: “We’ve decided to remove the article from the site to prove our good faith and to show it wasn’t our intention to insult anyone.”

But for many, the damage is already done. If fashion is about controlling how people perceive you, and Vogue is the world’s fashion bible, their Italian editors are in no position to be dispensing any advice. Right now, they’re perceived as clueless.

Original Article

Nivea’s Offensive Ad Gets ‘OFF’D’ (WIDK)

(Mike Krumboltz, Yahoo News) - Companies like to push the envelope with their ads. Sometimes the gamble works, sometimes it doesn’t, and sometimes, like in the case of a new advertising campaign from Nivea, the whole thing turns into a fiasco.

Nivea, a company that specializes in skin-care products, recently released a print ad that it has since pulled. How to best describe the ad? It shows an African American man preparing to toss a decapitated head (his own?) with an afro-style haircut. The ad copy reads: “Re-Civilize Yourself.” The underlying message seems to be that afros are not civilized.

Almost immediately, the ad met with outrage. The Los Angeles Times reported that Facebook users began “posting photos of themselves with Afros on Nivea’s wall, saying things such as: ‘I wear my hair natural and I just graduated with my doctorate! So who needs to be re-civilized?? Nivea no longer welcomed in my household.’ “

Nivea has since taken down the ad and issued an apology via Facebook. “Thank you for caring enough to give us your feedback about the recent ‘Re-civilized’ Nivea for Men ad. This ad was inappropriate and offensive. It was never our intention to offend anyone, and for this we are deeply sorry. This ad will never be used again. Diversity and equal opportunity are crucial values of our company.”

While the ad has since been pulled, the massive interest in the controversy it created continues full steam ahead. Over the past 24 hours, Web searches for “Nivea recivilize yourself” surged 629 percent. “Nivea racist ad” spiked 140 percent. The conventional wisdom is that there’s no such thing as bad publicity, but the fallout from this ad SNAFU might prove otherwise.

Original Article

Ron Paul Attacks Romney, Perry, Bachmann In Ad (WIDK)

(Catalina Camia, USA Today) -Presidential hopeful Ron Paul takes aim at the three candidates getting the most attention in the GOP race, blasting Mitt Romney, Rick Perry and Michele Bachmann as “smooth-talking politicians” in the same company as President Obama.

The Texas congressman, who finished second to Bachmann in last weekend’s Iowa straw poll, highlights his votes against “every tax increase, every unbalanced budget” and proclaims he is the candidate who “will stop the spending, save the dollar, create jobs” and “bring peace.”

Images of Perry, Romney and Bachmann — along with Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi — roll by throughout the ad. The script begins by describing a story of “smooth-talking politicians” and “games of he said, she said.”

The ad will air in Iowa and New Hampshire, where the first presidential nominating contests will be held in February.

The intensity and direction of the race for the GOP nomination shifted after the Iowa straw poll Aug. 13, and much of the focus is now on Romney, Perry and Bachmann.

Paul’s supporters have been ardent behind his message of no government intrusion and helped him do well in Ames over the weekend. He has also been able to deploy the Internet as a fundraising tool.

Romney, a former Massachusetts governor, has led in national polls by Gallup and other organizations and is the clear front-runner in New Hampshire. Perry, the Texas governor, shot up to second behind Romney in national surveys even before he formally entered the race Saturday.

Bachmann has been doing well in Iowa, according to polls in the Hawkeye State. Paul fared better than she did in the latest CNN national survey (12% vs. 7%), but Romney and then Perry were at the top of that poll.

Original Article

Online Petition Urges Bert And Ernie To Wed On ‘Sesame Street’ (WIDK)

(Anne-Marie Dorning, abc news) - Thousands of same-sex couples have been married in New York since gay marriage was legalized in the Empire State in July. Now an online petition is pushing to have one more twosome join the line at City Hall – Sesame Street’s Bert and Ernie.

That’s right – the muppets.

Chicago resident Lair Scott started an online petition at Change.org to pressure the Sesame Street Workshop to “Let Bert & Ernie get married on Sesame Street.” The petition reads, “We are not asking Sesame Street to do anything crude or disrespectful…. It can be done in a tasteful way. Let us teach tolerance of those that are different.” As of this writing, the petition had collected more than 1,600 signatures.

But are Bert and Ernie even gay, never mind ready for the ultimate commitment? Scott clearly thinks so. In an interview with ABC News.com, Scott said, “A lot of people have wondered about Bert and Ernie…. Living in the same bedroom and the same home would make anyone question their sexuality.” His aim, he added, is to get 20,000 petitioners to encourage the Sesame Workshop to either marry Bert and Ernie or introduce a gay or lesbian character.

A few days before he posted the marriage petition, Scott had generated another, asking Sesame Workshop to “Out Bert and Ernie as Gay.”

Today Sesame Workshop responded in a statement: “Bert and Ernie are best friends. They were created to teach preschoolers that people can be good friends with those who are very different from themselves.”

And despite what Scott or anyone else thinks, the statement goes on to say, Bert and Ernie aren’t gay.

“Even though they are identified as male characters and possess many human traits and characteristics…they remain puppets, and do not have a sexual orientation.”

The characters were developed 40 years ago by Jim Henson, the creator of Sesame Street. The felt-based duo both wear stripes and have mops of black hair. But that’s where the similarities end. Ernie has always played the lovable doofus to Bert’s boring straight man. Bert likes pigeons, Ernie prefers rubber ducks.

For a couple of puppets geared toward preschoolers, the two have generated controversy over the years, centered primarily around their sexual orientation.

The rumor mill went into overdrive last year when Bert wrote on the Sesame Street twitter account that his haircut resembled Mr T’s — “the only difference is mine is a little more ‘mo, a little less ‘hawk.” That was enough to convince many bloggers that the Sesame Workshop was secretly signaling Bert’s sexual orientation.

But the folks on Sesame Street have always pushed back against the rumors.

In 2007, Sesame Workshop president and CEO Gary Knell wrote, “They are not gay, they are not straight, they are puppets…they do not exist below the waist.”

Of course that kind of logic won’t likely stop the petitions on Change.org. Predictably, Lair Scott now has some competition in the Bert and Ernie petition department. There is now a “Leave Bert and Ernie alone” petition and a “Stop Pressuring PBS to make Bert and Ernie Gay” petition.

As of this writing, the number of people signing up for those petitions is climbing.

Original Article