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Meryl Streep never fails to inspire. Lesser women might feel entitled (or just lazy) after scoring an unprecedented SEVENTEEN Oscar nominations (she just snagged another one for playing Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady), but I love how Streep often makes a point of commenting on sexism in the film industry. When NPR's Terry Gross asked her to expand on an issue she raised during a 2010 speech to Barnard's graduating class — that it's easier for women to get into the mindset of dudes than it is for men to relate to female protagonists — Streep said: More »
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The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops apparently doesn't understand the meaning of the word "compromise" or that crazy theory known as "separation of church and state." More »
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In a new interview, ousted Susan G. Komen VP Karen Handel claims the defunding of Planned Parenthood was all supposed to be a big secret — and Planned Parenthood acted like a "bully" by going public. Why do we not buy this? More »
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Remember when we said the birth control compromise Obama would announce today for religious employees wouldn't satisfy anyone? Well, we are actually satisfied! (Mostly, anyhow.) More »
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What do you get for the BFF who has everything and then also has a baby? Well, if you're Gwyneth Paltrow, you buy your pal Beyoncé a top of the line Bugaboo Cameleon stroller—retail price $979. Nothing but the best for Blue Ivy™. But here's a question: what the hell are Beyoncé and Jay-Z going to do with a stroller? That child is not going to see the light of day until she already knows how to walk, or maybe she won't even need to walk because she'll be carried aloft on a platform everywhere she goes. Actually, maybe they could use it to push the baby around inside her 2,200-square-foot nursery. Either way, props to the Goop for the nice gesture. [Us] More »
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There seems to be no end to the things animal shelters can learn from online dating sites. First, it was that using a good picture means you're more likely to get picked. And now, many shelters are using a system called Meet Your Match, which was developed by the ASPCA. It's a program that matches up pets and the people looking to adopt them using a color-coded system that takes into account personalities, energy levels, and needs. More »
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A woman in China will be getting quite a good arm workout while caring for her newborn son. He was born this past weekend and weighed in at a hearty 15.52 pounds. That is a lot of baby. His mother, a 29-year-old woman from the Henan province, gave birth to him via C-section, which is probably a good thing in terms of being able to keep her pelvis in working order. His parents, who are both of average size, named him Chun Chun. He is believed to be the largest newborn on record since the country was founded in 1949, but, as impressive as Chun Chun's birth weight is, he won't be claiming the Guinness World Record. That apparently belongs to a baby born in 1879 that weighed in at 23.7 pounds. Once they cross the 20 pound mark, maybe we should just skip calling them babies and classify them as newborn toddlers. More »
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When it comes to the failed marriage of Courteney Cox and David Arquette, usually it's David that's doing the oversharing. But today Courteney turned everything on its head by opening up to Howard Stern about the specifics of her sex life, or rather her lack thereof. She told him—along with the entire world—that she hasn't had sex in a year. Good to know! More »
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The news from LA's Miramonte Elementary School keeps getting worse: in addition to Mark Berndt (accused of feeding kids his semen, among other stomach-turning crimes) and Martin Springer (accused of fondling seven-year-old girls), a third teacher is now implicated. The unnamed woman allegedly helped Berndt by sending female students to his classroom to "get cookies" (which were in at least one case apparently coated with his semen). A lawyer for the alleged victims describes this teacher's role: "The way Berndt pulled this off is he'd come into her class in the middle of the day, he'd go up to her and whisper in her ear. Then she would go pull out two little girls, and she'd walk the little girls right through the common door into Mr. Berndt's dungeon." More »
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After several weeks of investigating rape allegations made against Greg Kelly, co-anchor of Fox 5's Good Day New York and son of NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly, the Manhattan District Attorney has officially decided not to bring charges against Kelly. In a letter, lead prosecutor Martha Bashford said, More »
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You knew PETA was going to be involved in this somehow, didn't you? Yup — they're suing Sea World, claiming that the parks' orcas are actually slaves. And a judge has agreed to hear the case. More »
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Parents of kids at LA's Miramonte Elementary School are understandably disturbed now that two teachers have been arrested for molesting kids — one for making them taste his semen. Some say the school ignored previous accusations against the teachers. In a high-profile move to restore parent trust, the school is replacing all the teachers and staff. They'll still be paid, and could come back to Miramonte at a later date. The school also emphasizes that none of the other teachers or administrators is suspected of any crime. More »
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A federal appeals court in California decided today that Proposition 8, which would ban gay marriage in the state, is unconstitutional. More »
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First they came for Barbie, and now they're coming for Bart Simpson. Iran has apparently had it with American toys that promote (admittedly crappy) values. It is now banning dolls based on Bart and the rest of his famous family. Mohammad Hossein Farjoo, who runs the agency that oversees what toys Iranian children can play with, didn't exactly specify why, but he did say it was because some episodes of The Simpsons were already banned. It could have something to do with the fact that Lisa wears a strapless dress, and Homer isn't exactly a model citizen—but Maggie too? What could she possibly have done to offend the authorities? More »
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Last month, a Milwaukee county employee walked into a house that had been repossessed because of a tax foreclosure and found a very disturbing sight: a dead body. It turned out to be the former home owner, David Carter, who had been in the dead in the house since 2007. Yikes. His body was "nearly skeletonized," and showed evidence of a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Apparently, Carter, who would have turned 45 on the day his body was found, died in the home and no one noticed or thought to check on his whereabouts. He'd told friends he was moving to New Mexico; so people assumed he didn't live in the house anymore. Still, you'd think someone would inquire after him, but no. Eventually, the utilities were turned off after a neighbor noticed a broken pipe, and the mail was stopped because it was piling up. But nobody ever checked inside. Why would anyone do something simple like that? Silly! There wasn't even a mortgage company to come calling since Carter's mother had paid the house off; so it wasn't until the taxes grew to more than $30,000 that someone came by to see what was up, because $30,000 is the exact number, apparently, when people begin to give a shit. More »
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Academy Awards Best Actor nominees Jean Dujardin, left, of "The Artist" and George Clooney of "The Descendants" are shown during a group photo of nominees at the 31st Academy Awards Nominees Luncheon in Beverly Hills, Calif., Monday, Feb. 6, 2012. The 84th Academy Awards will be held in Los Angeles on Sunday, Feb. 26. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello) More »
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On the heels of KO Barstool's boycott of rapey blog Barstool Sports's Blackout Party at Northeastern University, Boston College students are staging a protest of their own. BC's Blackout Party is slated to take place on March 28, the same night as the school's Take Back The Night event. Student newspaper The Heights is asking students to stay away from the Blackout Party: More »
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In the middle of the firestormy crap tornado that engulfed Susan G. Komen for the Cure last week, a little job listing was quietly posted in a DC paper's classified section. Could it be for Karen Handel's replacement? More »
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The New York Post, one of the most respected names in lurid journalism, has obtained a copy of a new "tell-all" memoir by Mimi Alford, a woman who claims to have had a pretty skeezy affair with President John F. Kennedy when she was a 19-year-old summer intern at the White House. A faithful Post scribe has copied and summarized some of the sexiest (or creepiest) passages from the memoir — which will be released this Wednesday — including Alford and Kennedy's first alleged encounter in "Mrs. Kennedy's room." More »
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Now that emails from inside Susan G. Komen for the Cure confirm what we suspected last week — not only was the charity's decision to defund Planned Parenthood nakedly political, but also most definitely spearheaded by anti-choice politician Karen Handel, and the charity most definitely lied about it — the organization's image has never been more tarnished. And that tarnishing wouldn't have been possible without an orgy of lies and bad decisions by Komen's leadership. So why has no one resigned? More »
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News that Mark Berndt, a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Florence-Firestone California, was arrested after allegedly spoon-feeding semen to at least 23 students between 2005 and 2010 has been improbably exacerbated with the arrest of yet another Miramonte teacher on allegations of sexual abuse. Police are holding 49-year-old Martin Bernard Springer — a second grade teacher at Miramonte — in lieu of $2 million bail after two former students accused him of improperly touching them within the last three years. Captain Mike Parker of the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department has said that the investigation is ongoing and that the girls "were allegedly fondled in the the classroom at the Miramonte school by suspect Springer." They were both only 7-years-old when the abuse allegedly took place. More »
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Eli or Tom? Schnauzer or terrier? The choice is yours... More »
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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) More »
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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) More »
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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, More »
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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 »
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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!] More »
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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. More »
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The story of the collapse of Susan G. Komen's brand among the young, mobilized and progressive isn't as much a story of one organization's downfall as it is another's gain. In the days since Komen announced they'd no longer be providing support to Planned Parenthood, the family planning provider has made out like a bandit, Komen's been left with egg on its face, and Komen supporters are just about universally mad and confused. Let's quantify this shitshow. More »
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Now, that Susan G. Komen for the Cure has sufficiently pissed off progressives, they've changed course and reinstated existing grants to Planned Parenthood, pissing off the anti-abortion crew they'd initially been trying to appease. But before Komen was loudly defunding— and then reinstating funding for— Planned Parenthood, they were stealthily defunding organizations that associate with embryonic stem cell research. And the financial damage from this iteration of their pro-life ideology totals in the millions. More »
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There's been a lot of excitement surrounding Facebook's IPO filing this week, but here's a little Facebook news that's not as exciting: There are zero women on its board of directors. In fact, it's all rich white guys—not terribly representative of the wide open world Facebook claims to represent. More »
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There's a new kind of dirty bomb we need to worry about while flying: poopy diapers. A Qantas plane was in mid-air between Darwin and Brisbane, Australia earlier this week when passengers began complaining that something smelled strange. Airline procedures dictate that the plane has to land ASAP when that happens, so they made an emergency stop in Mt. Isa. It was there that they determined the foul odor was coming from a dirty diaper that someone had thrown away in the bathroom nearest the cockpit. I shit you not. If making an emergency landing wasn't hassle enough, it then turned out that the Mt. Isa airport couldn't handle the large Boeing 767; so the passengers had to be removed from the plane using a forklift, which could only carry down five of them at a time. It took two hours to get everybody off the plane, and eventually a new plane took them to their destination. After that ordeal, the babies on that flight must have been getting some serious side eye. More »
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Does this bread look like a tiger? No, it looks like a giraffe! And Lily Robinson, age 3, wasn't going to stand for it anymore. With the help of her mom, she wrote a letter British chain Sainsbury's, which sold the bread. This touched off a mass Facebook campaign, and this week, the store caved: "In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our Tiger Bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our Tiger Bread to Giraffe Bread and seeing how that goes." More »
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When Susan G. Komen for the Cure announced that they'd no longer be providing support to Planned Parenthood, many of its supporters smelled a right wing political agenda at work and took to the group's Facebook page to express their disappointment. After working tirelessly to delete negative comments from the page for several hours yesterday, the foundation has released a statement insisting that their decision to defund Planned Parenthood wasn't political, because they're not a political organization. Bullshit. More »
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It's been a bad week for sick child abuse "games" in California. First came news of the teacher who played the terrible "lollypop game" with a student, and now Mark Berndt, a teacher at Miramonte Elementary School in Florence-Firestone, California, has been arrested for playing the "tasting game," in which he got sexual pleasure from spoon-feeding his semen to his students. What's even more horrifying is that he is believed to have abused at least 23 students, both boys and girls, between the ages of seven and ten. More »
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In a truly awful act of violence, an Afghan man strangled his wife to death after she gave birth to a second daughter instead of the son he had wanted. The 22-year-old woman, whose name was Estorai, had previously told her family members that her husband was unhappy with the birth of their first daughter and had threatened to kill her if she gave birth to another girl. More »
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The first family from left, Sasha Obama, first lady Michelle Obama, President Barack Obama, and Malia Obama, walk together to the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, Sunday, Jan. 29, 2012. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin) More »
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A story about plus-size bikinis would be intriguing no matter what, but since we're talking about Brazil — a country with swimsuits so small a pubic hair wax was named for it — it's even more interesting. Apparently plus-size apparel is much-needed in Brazil, and that includes swimwear. More »
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Republicans these days spew so much crazy talk that it's sometimes hard to tell what to get upset about and what to simply dismiss as an empty threat. But one conservative who has a pretty solid record of doing exactly what he says he's going to do is Grover Norquist. Nominally, he's a tax activist (he's the president of Americans for Tax Reform), but really he is the evil puppeteer who pulls the strings that control most Republican politicians with one hand while probably stabbing a President Obama voodoo doll with the other. More »
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Over the weekend, new details have come out about the interactions between news anchor Greg Kelly and the woman who accused him of rape last week—and the plot has certainly thickened. First, it's becoming more clear what happened the night of the alleged assault. It was initially reported that Kelly, who co-hosts Fox 5's Good Day New York, had met the woman the same night she claims the attack happened, but, in fact, they met two days prior when she recognized him from TV on the street. What followed were two days of sexually explicit text messages. An unnamed source described the interaction to the New York Post as "two days of foreplay." More »
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