Kami is the world's first HIV-positive Muppet. She was introduced back in 2002 to help educate kids about living with HIV/AIDS and promote acceptance of HIV-positive individuals (her name is derived from the Setswana word "Kamogelo," meaning "acceptance.") Kami, who lost her mother to AIDS, is quite knowledgable about the disease, and frequently speaks with the other Muppets about the things you can and cannot do with an HIV-positive person (sex is never mentioned - the focus is more on hugging and dealing with sadness than body-to-body transmission of the disease). The blog U Don't Like My Opinion describes her as a "healthy HIV Positive, affectionate 5 year old orphan who is a little shy but quickly joins when approached in a friendly way."

Despite Kami's positive message, some disapprove of including an HIV-positive character on a children's show. Yesterday, The Week ran a roundup of the ten most controversial moments in Sesame Street history, where Kami is listed alongside other such "scandals" as the furor over Cookie Monster's unhealthy diet and Oscar the Grouch's mood swings. According to The Week, "some parents protest that their children are too young to face the harsh realities of the virus." Juhie Bhatia for Global Voices notes that much of the controversy was located in the U.S. Although Kami has never appeared on American Sesame Street, conservatives were all up in arms before her launch in 2002, apparently riled up by the fear that she would start indoctrinate kids into the homosexual lifestyle. Kami's Wikipedia page quotes a letter from the Traditional Values Coalition:

The introduction of an HIV-infected Muppet on Sesame Street is problematic because HIV is spread primarily by homosexuals and bisexuals in the U.S. It is likely that an HIV-infected Muppet would be used to teach tolerance and acceptance of homosexuals to the preschool Sesame Street audience. In effect, this would be another propaganda tool to normalize homosexuality in our culture.

Some bloggers agree. Bhatia quotes a blogger who argues that a character like Kami is unnecessary in America, because children here "are not forced to deal with the issue of HIV/AIDS at that young of an age." Rosemarie Truglio, vice president of education and research for Sesame Workshop, responds to this type of criticism in an interview with USA Today,

"We get letters all the time," Truglio says. "My response is always this: Sesame Street is this wonderful, multicultural place where we celebrate differences as well as similarities. I want to make sure – and I've inherited this mission from our founders – that when kids watch this show, they can all see themselves."

Fortunately, Truglio's attitude seems to be the prevailing one. Kami has been named a UNICEF global Champion for Children. She has appeared alongside Desmond Tutu and Nelson Mandela, and interviewed by Katie Couric. In 2006, she spoke with Bill Clinton about AIDS and acceptance (the video is available online here). Despite the haters, Kami has become a lasting piece of Sesame Street's history, and although we probably won't be seeing Kami in the U.S. anytime soon, she is an example of Sesame Street's willingness to weather controversy in favor of education. Tuglio explains, "we never talk down to children, and we're not afraid to explore sensitive topics."

Sesame Street's HIV-Positive Muppet Raises Awareness [Global Voices Online]
At 40, Sesame Street Is In A Constant State Of Renewal [USA Today]
Kami [Wikipedia]
Top 10 Sesame Street Controversies [The Week]
President Clinton And Muppet Kami Share HIV/AIDS Message [Unicef Youtube]

• Today in pointless clothing lines of the stars: Miley Cyrus and Max Azria's Wal-Mart collection! The digs look well worth every penny of their sub-$20 price point. [Lucky]
• Now, even the Kings of Leon has one. [Blackbook]

• Lady Gaga wants in on the action. On starting a clothing line, she told Flare magazine, "At some point, I will. Right now, I'm more concerned with using my fame to promote young designers such as Gary Card, an artist who designed a piece I used on stage." Why would she do such a thing? "There hasn't been a commercial artist lately that has embodied avant-garde and couture so insistently as myself." [ONTD]
• Gaga has one new position to console herself with: M.A.C. Viva Glam AIDS fund face. Cyndi Lauper will co-star in the campaign to sell lipstick and raise money for research. [WWD]
• The British Fashion Council and British Vogue are launching a fashion prize to encourage young talent, somewhat along the lines of the American Vogue/CFDA Fashion Fund awards, which kicked off in 2003. £200,000 will be awarded to one UK designer who can demonstrate he or she has international stockists, a media profile, and demonstrated need of the money. [Telegraph]
• Angelina Jolie and Shiloh are apparently fans of Stella McCartney's line for GapKids. [Radaronline]
• That Christian Louboutin made his first public appearance in Washington, D.C., under Obama's watch is no coincidence. "For eight years I was invited, but I never wanted to come before. I never wanted to come with Bush," says the shoe designer. "I'm looking forward to coming back — at least for four years." We really want to make a crack about voting with your feet here. [WaPo]
• Roberto Cavalli: "All over the world people don't treat me like a fashion designer; they treat me like a rock star… I can't walk down 5th Avenue without being treated like a rock star. In fact, maybe it's more… Many times I've walked down 5th Avenue with rock stars and nobody pays attention to them. It's very strange." [FWD]
• Gisele Bundchen passed the written exam portion of her pilot's license. Although heavily pregnant, and "Almost too big to fly," according to her instructor, she's still making supervised practice flights up to three days a week. [People]
• Karolina Kurkova has given birth to a baby boy. [People]
• Kelly Osborne: Fan of Spanx. [People]
• Christian Siriano says his new reality TV show will reflect the best of several recent high-profile fashion documentaries. "It's very like The September Issue, very Valentino [The Last Emperor]. We want it to be as cool and as real as possible." Apparently, September Issue director R.J. Cutler wouldn't touch the project, but he did advise Siriano "just to be real." [The Cut]
• Sadie Frost's clothing line with Jemima French, FrostFrench, is opening its second store in London's Soho. [WWD]
• A real ad man of the 1960s has some bones to pick with Mad Men's treatment of the brand London Fog. So an employee of an industry that manufactures fictions objects to a fictional show's fictionalizing history? We shake our heads at the irony. [AdAge]
• JC Penney is being sued for trademark infringement by the retailer New York & Company. New York & Company says Penney's new "NYC Style" slogan is too close to its "NY Style" advertising tag line. [WWD]
• Can Sir Philip Green conquer America? [Bloomberg]
• Polo Ralph Lauren reported a 10% rise in second-quarter profits. [TS]
• Bata shoes was, before Communism, an international brand headquartered in Slovakia. The company town isn't doing so hot right now, with the economic transition and the competition from Asia. [BussinessWeek]
• Liz Claiborne may have had seven consecutive quarterly losses, with the announcement of an eight expected next week, but C.E.O. Bill McCombs doesn't have to worry about one thing: his job security. McCombs recently had his contract renewed for another three years. It's not an unusual strategy: only 38 companies in the S&P 500 have replaced their C.E.O.'s in the year to September 30, down 10 on the same period last year, despite the trying economic times. [WSJ]
• Not so lucky is Missoni's general manager, Massimo Gasparini. He has been let go and his position will not be filled. [WWD]

Scientists have been trying to develop an HIV vaccine for decades, with no success. One trial even had to be stopped because vaccinated patients appeared to be at higher risk of getting the virus. But in a study of Thai men and women at average risk of contracting HIV, 51 of the 8,197 who were vaccinated became infected, compared with 74 of the 8,198 who received a placebo shot. The AP calls this 31% reduction in risk "modest," but it may pave the way for a better vaccine later on. Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which cosponsored the study, says, "It gives me cautious optimism about the possibility of improving this result. [...] This is something that we can do."

The vaccine is actually a combination of two previously tested vaccines. One, AIDSVAX, was meant to stimulate the production of antibodies to fight off HIV infection. The other, ALVAC, was meant to help fight HIV more effectively after infection through a process called "cell-mediated immunity." Neither vaccine had worked on its own in clinical trials. And the combination did not reduce the amount of the virus in the bloodstream of those who did get infected. Since the combined vaccine appeared not to affect any of the usual indicators of immunity to the virus, Fauci said its success "tells us how much we have to learn" about what really keeps people from getting infected.

It's not clear whether a 31% reduction in risk is enough for the vaccine to be distributed widely in Thailand or elsewhere. The researchers said they would offer the vaccine to the control group if it showed a "clear benefit," of greater than 50% reduction. And Fauci said that scientists usually would not try to license any vaccine less than 70-80% effective. It's more likely that the results of the study will be used to try to develop other, better vaccines. Says Fauci, "If you have a product that's even a little bit protective, you want to look at the blood samples and figure out what particular response was effective and direct research from there."

Skeptics caution that it's too early to tell whether this vaccine will ever lead to a more effective one. AIDS researcher John P. Moore says, "The rush to judgment is something we should try to avoid. We shouldn't be drawing radical conclusions based on a few raw numbers." Still, it's tempting to see this vaccine as a glimmer of hope in the battle to end one of the biggest public health nightmares of the past 25 years. HIV/AIDS has become such a huge part of modern medicine and sexual politics that it's now hard to imagine a world where it doesn't exist, but anyone born before the early 80s has lived in such a world. Cultural critics sometimes refer to the pre-HIV era as a more "innocent" time, when sex didn't have the same risks it now does. And while plenty of other STDs exist, and pregnancy will always be a concern, it's interesting to imagine what would happen if we could all be vaccinated against one of sex's most dire consequences. Would sex education change? Would abstinence-only types have more trouble arguing that premarital sex was inherently bad for you? Would our puritanical-yet-sex-obsessed culture become a little more at ease with sexuality? Let's hope we get the chance to find out.

Combo Vaccine Reduces Risk Of HIV Infection, Researchers Say [CNN]
For First Time, AIDS Virus Vaccine Effective In Trial [AP, via LA Times]
AIDS Vaccine Experiment Yields Unanticipated Results [Washington Post]
For First Time, AIDS Vaccine Shows Some Success In Trials [NYT]

So, picture a weirdly graphic film of a sexy woman having orgasmic, ecstatic, multi-position sex with a hard-bodied partner whose face we can't see over her writhing limbs and erotically-flowing tendrils. It's the kind of ad you wouldn't want to watch with your parents in the room. (In Germany, the ad can only air after 9, to give you an idea.) And then, after an uncomfortably long few moments of that, the man raises his face, and it's a a demonically-leering guy who doesn't really look like Hitler but is obviously supposed to be Hitler. While thrusting, mind you. And then the words: "AIDS is a mass murderer. Protect yourself!" (And yes, in case you're wondering: totally NSFW.)

I kind of get what they're going for. Unprotected sex is all sexy and hottt until the reality of fucking Hitler AIDS rears its leering head. Maybe you're supposed to be turned on, and then get cold water thrown on you. The ad, made by Hamburg agency das comitee pro bono for the German Aids awareness group Regenbogen e.V., was made to coincide with World AIDS Day. On their website, the company states that the campaign "is designed to shake people up, to bring the topic of Aids back to centre stage, and to reverse the trend of unprotected sexual intercourse. Because anyone can become infected." Posters from the same campaign feature Saddam Hussein and Joseph Stalin.

Whatever the agency's intentions, AIDS charities are understandably skeeved out by it. As a spokeswoman for the National AIDS Trust says,

Of course there are many HIV organisations that run their own campaigns, however I think the advert is incredibly stigmatising to people living with HIV who already face much stigma and discrimination due to ignorance about the virus...On top of this it fails to provide any kind of actual prevention message (e.g. use a condom) and may deter people to come forward for testing.
The advert is also inaccurate because in the UK thanks to treatment HIV is a manageable condition that does not necessary lead to AIDS."

That, and the fact that it's a total piece of cheap-ass Godwin showmanship that distorts and minimizes about five deadly serious things, while still using a sleazy "sex sells" mentality - and also kind of making sex with Hitler sexy, which is just messed up in all kinds of ways. Plus, begs the question: why did this woman go home with Hitler?

Adolf Hitler Sex Video Condemned By Aids charities [Telegraph] (embedded video NSFW)

AIDS: It's Like Having Sex With Hitler (NSFW) [MediaBistro]
AIDS Is A Mass Murderer
"Everything Is Hitler" Meets AIDS In Horribly Offensive Ad (NSFW) [Mediaite]

Uganda is attempting to stem the growing epidemic by offering more options for women to protect themselves. Research showed that women were highly at risk for new infections (and can pass these infections on to their offspring through childbirth, so new initiatives were explored. Heading up the renewed push is a female condom program, but it has already encountered some significant stumbling blocks.

With funding so limited, many donors argue, why invest in an expensive product that faces deep skepticism from the people who would use it? Female condoms, originally introduced in the early 1990s, have struggled to gain widespread acceptance because they are more expensive and less familiar than male condoms - they're big and baggy, make rustling noises during sex, and you need instruction and practice to learn how to insert them properly.

But Uganda sees the female condom as one way to regain the success the nation had in the fight against HIV/AIDS in the 1990s. After slashing its AIDS rate from more than 20% in the late '80s to about 6% in 2000, Uganda saw a leveling off of AIDS cases and then a slight rise. No one has been able to explain the reversal. Some say it's related to failed distribution programs for the male condom in the past. Other experts suspect that it's a result of foreign NGOs and governments pushing Uganda away from effective domestic programs that were aimed at keeping people from having more than one sexual partner, a relatively common practice in the country.

Other news from Uganda points to circumcision as an effective deterrent to HIV. The NY Times reports:

[C]ircumcision can make a significant dent in the H.I.V./AIDS crisis in this country is still being debated, because the epidemic in the United States is so different from the one in Africa. The African trials found heterosexual men were less likely to acquire the H.I.V. virus after circumcision, but largely ignored the question of whether women were safer - or possibly put at even greater risk of infection, as one small study suggested - if the man was circumcised; they also focused exclusively on heterosexual transmission, though in the United States, men who have sex with men are at higher risk.

Even Dr. Gray, who led the trials, is not sure the United States should promote circumcision. "If you were to ask me, should the U.S. be promoting circumcision, my answer would be, ‘no,' " he said. "What I do think ought to be the policy is that parents should be informed about the potential protective effects."

Each article hinted at religious and cultural traditions that enabled the spread of HIV/AIDS and the distrust of misuse of condoms, but focused on a lot of the issues between existing solutions. AIDS is still spreading in all corners of the globe and for some reason, despite educational campaigns and the occasional project funding, we seem to be succumbing to the virus.

The Battle In Uganda Over Female Condoms [Time]
The Latest Fight Over the Foreskin [NY Times]
Statistics: Worldwide [AMFAR]

[Nusa Dua, Bali; August 10. Image via Getty]

A woman explains how to use female condoms to protect against HIV transmission on the sidelines of the ninth International Congress on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP) in Nusa Dua on the resort island of Bali on August 10, 2009. Experts from 65 nations have gathered in Indonesia to assess progress in the battle against HIV/AIDS in Asia and the Pacific, amid concern that only a quarter of those in need in the region were getting treatment. AFP PHOTO / Sonny TUMBELAKA (Photo credit should read SONNY TUMBELAKA/AFP/Getty Images)

Researchers Dan Allman and Melissa Ditmore surveyed sex workers for their report, Good Practice for Sex Workers' Participation in Biomedical HIV Prevention Trials. They found that sex workers didn't necessarily know about research practices and medical ethics, and that researchers didn't know they didn't know. To remedy this, they suggested that researchers — shocker — actually "consult local sex workers at each proposed location before beginning a trial." Allman and Ditmore write,

Many sex workers had recommendations for researchers hoping to work with sex workers such as involving stakeholders from the outset, explaining procedures in non-technical terms and translating all materials and information into local languages.

They also say that many sex workers "wanted to learn more about research and would consider involvement in research providing they were confident it was ethical and participatory." So basically sex workers are interested in participating in clinical trials, provided they know what they're getting into. We wonder if that was the case with the participants recent nonoxynol-9 trials, who experienced no reduction in HIV transmission and an increase in genital lesions. Whether or not these women were truly informed, it makes sense that future studies need to treat sex workers as "stakeholders," and not passive "subjects" with no interests of their own.

Note: The women pictured are Bolivian sex workers protesting for the right to work.

What Do Sex Workers Think About The Ethics Of Biomedical Research Studies That Are Done On Them? [Feministe]

Earlier: Researchers Stop New Male Circumcision Trial In Uganda

• An anonymous man, who has been convicted of attempted rape twice, first when he was 11 and again at 14, spoke to the BBC about his own history of abuse and why he continued the cycle of violence. "I didn't see it as committing a sexual offence, I seen it as a normal act," he said. "I'd witnessed it all my life, it was just normal to me, didn't think there was anything wrong with it… playing doctors and nurses, that's how I described it when I was younger." • Time magazine investigates the link between homophobia in Africa and the AIDs epidemic. Sadly, since public health announcements focus exclusively on heterosexual sex, many African men are unaware of the risks associated with unprotected anal sex. • A recent study on the power of media influence on teen behavior shows that kids are more likely to do stupid shit like "car surfing" (i.e. riding on the roof of a moving car) after they have seen it depicted on television or in a film. • Click here to watch a video of a beagle and a raccoon playing together. Cute interspecies friendships are the best! • A survey of female surgeons found that most women doctors are happy with their career choice, although many of them would prefer to have a more flexible work schedule. • According to a study from the University of Montreal, women who have had their ovaries removed and thus experience premature menopause are more likely to be diagnosed with lung cancer than those who enter menopause without intervention. • "Though violence against women can be found in every country, women in societies with entrenched male dominance, patriarchal kinship patterns, and legalised discrimination - the situation in many Arab countries - are acutely vulnerable," reads a recently released UN-sponsored report on "Challenges to Human Security in the Arab Countries." It continues: "The fabled oil wealth of the Arab countries presents a misleading picture of their economic situation to live with the insecurities associated with their status. They are at the mercy of conditions in camps or political and economic events in their host countries, which could suddenly turn against them." • Pro-choice advocate group NARAL has announced that it's endorsing Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor. NARAL previously withheld support because it was uncertain of Sotomayor's views on the issue since she has never ruled on abortion. •

Betty Makoni is amazing. Herself a victim of rape - she was assaulted at 6, and told to keep quiet by her mother - she says she realized the "potentially deadly consequence of a woman's silence" when she watched her father murder her mother three years later. And this culture of silence and abuse has helped to facilitate the dissemination the "virgin myth" that's grown apace with the AIDS epidemic. As an adult, Makoni has devoted her life to ending the culture of systemic abuse, and the ensuing shame, that affects so many women in her country.

The virgin myth - a widely-held superstition that sex with a virgin will cure a man of HIV or AIDS (and, pre-AIDS, a range of mortal illnesses; this isn't a new idea)- has led to a rash of child rapes in sub-Saharan Africa (most notably in South Africa) and the ensuing pregnancies and AIDS infections are a little-addressed source of shame for the victims.

Makoni, who says she's seen baby girls as young as one day old raped as a result of the myth, became aware of the scope of its consequences as a teacher. The increasing absences of female students - and what she found when she looked into the cause - led her to found the Girl Child Network (GCN) ten years ago. The GCN started as a support group, a safe place for victims to talk about their experiences without judgment or shame. Now there are 700 GNC clubs throughout Zimbabwe, and their methodology has been replicated in Swaziland, Malawi and South Africa. It's become an important public forum and an invaluable resource - Makoni estimates that the GCN's three "empowerment villages," which provide asylum, medical care and counseling, have helped to rescue some 35,000 girls from abusive sitautions, both "virgin myth"-related and otherwise. Some ten girls per day report rapes; given the pervasive culture of silence, one can only imagine how many go unreported.

While Makoni's amazing work, chronicled in the documentary Tapestries of Hope, is inspirational, it's hard not to fear for the GCN's future: last year, Makoni was forced to leave Zimbabwe for the UK after her life was threatened. She now runs the organization from England in concert with the DOVE project, a domestic violence organization, and is trying to raise GCN's international profile. But while Makoni's relief work is crucial, we wonder how the "virgin myth" - and a culture that allows for its perpetuation - can be discredited: surely hundreds of experiments - i.e., rapes of young girls which have not resulted in the curing of AIDS! - should begin to rob it of its potency?

Worryingly, increasing AIDS education has not stopped the epidemic of child-rape in South Africa; as AIDS rates rise, child-rape stats have risen accordingly. And it's a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation; as the "virgin myth" proliferates, so too can child and sexual abuse generally, and rising rates of frustration, alcoholism and financial desperation - all on the rise along with AIDS rates - can work in horrifying concert. Depressing? Oh, yeah. And sometimes looking at the systemic nature of the issue, some epic form of cultural headdesk can seem like the only viable option. But if Makoni can keep the faith in the face of its daily reality, the rest of us can profit by her example.

Get Involved: Girl Child Network [Official Site]
Child Rape Survivor Saves 'Virgin Myth' Victims [CNN]
Tapestries Of Hope [Tapestriesofhope.com]
HIV/AIDS, The Stats, The Virgin Cure And Infant Rape [Science in Africa]
Zimbabwe: Profile On Betty Makoni and the Girl Child Network [UNGEI]

"In India, China and sub-Saharan Africa, millions upon millions of women are missing. They are not lost, but dead: victims of violence, discrimination and neglect," writes Nicole Baute, who spends the rest of the article exploring the various causes behind the "missing women" phenomenon.

Female infanticide in countries like China has widely been considered one of the causes behind the gender discrepancies in population growth. However, Baute points out a study by Siwan Anderson and Debraj Ray that shows that while infanticide is certainly an issue, the majority of "excess female deaths" comes much later in life. As Anderson notes: "Previously, people had thought that they (the missing women) were all at the very early stages of life, prenatal or just after, so before four years old. But what we found is that the majority are actually later."

Those "later" deaths can be attributed to a number of factors: poor access to health care for women, high suicide rates, HIV and AIDS, and dowry-related murders (which, Burke notes, are marked as "injuries.") Women are treated as second-class citizens whose worth often has a monetary price, and when that price gets too high, they are quickly disposed of. "If you're interested in gender discrimination," Anderson says, "it's really one of the starkest measures of discrimination, because it's women who should be alive, but aren't."

How Did 100,000,000 Women Disappear? [Toronto Star]

We mentioned earlier that efforts to increase the number of girls' football teams in Uganda are being met with resistance. Many traditionalists in the neighboring country of Kenya were also hostile to the idea when Unicef launched the Ukunda Queens football team in the Islamic province of Kwale, according to The Times of London. "Starting a girls' football league seemed like a crazy idea at first," said Roselyn Mutemi-Wangahu, the team's coordinator, "We had to reach those girls. They don't stay in school or go to organised groups. Their parents keep them at home," she explained. "We had to bring them together to raise their confidence and teach them about HIV. Here, the one thing that brings everyone together is soccer."

Girls in Kwale have some of the lowest levels of education in Kenya, and traditional views toward women are especially oppressive there. In the province, girls are not allowed to speak to their fathers directly, may be sent back to their parents if they refuse to have sex with their husband, and are often beaten. Teenage girls are seven times more likely to contract HIV than boys of the same age, and the "treatments" make matters even worse. Witchdoctors in Kwale encourage people to have sex with HIV-infected patients, and some believe girls should sleep with their father and uncles to "make them fat and strong" and "open the door to other men."

Initially locals were hostile to the idea of a girls' football league. Anisa Kombo, 23, who is on the Ukunda Queens said that older men used to harass them during their early matches. She said:

When they saw us playing they cursed us. Some Muslim leaders said that we were being led into prostitution. Other boys and girls called us lesbians. Here the idea is that the woman stays in the kitchen. A girl may never set foot in school and can be married off at 12.

But eventually, people started to accept the league because the girls on the team were receiving HIV/AIDS education. A local man said, "According to our traditions, what they are doing is wrong but if it's about HIV, it's acceptable."

After the foundation of the Ukunda Queens, football league district chairmen Mohamed Said Mwakulola says he started going door to door trying to persuade more parents to let their daughters join teams. "It took three years, one step at a time," he says, explaining that in some cases it took more than a year to build a full team. The league, which is part of Unicef's Kick Aids project, has expanded, and now there are thousands of women's teams in Kenya. "There has been a change in our community in letting the girls play football - and it gives me hope," said Mwakulola.

Kenyan Women United In Freedom And Football [The Times of London]

Earlier: Kicking Old Habits

• Twihards! Sparkle vamp Robert Pattinson says there will be a fourth Twilight movie; the plot of the book Breaking Dawn will come to the big screen. What does this mean?

To the uninitiated, (SPOILER) this creepy story involves young Bella being pregnant with a vampire baby that eats its way out of her uterus... Fun times! Vampires are dead, right? So how can they be born? Or have sperm to impregnate? Oh, that's right: SPARKLES. [The Hollywood Reporter]

• One of Robert Pattinson's bodyguards pushed a paparazzo into a trash can at Cannes. [Gatecrasher]
• Kate Hudson and Alex Rodriguez had dinner and drinks in Manhattan Friday night. It's so on. [People]
• Rihanna and rapper Drake: Really, really on. [Page Six]
• Sarah Jessica Parker is concerned for the safety and well-being of the surrogate carrying her twins: "She's had friends threatened and family threatened and she's had family of friends threatened," SJP says. Plus, the woman's phone and computer have been tapped/hacked. [USA Today]
• Gay bashing alert: A young woman was attacked at a party where Samantha Ronson DJ'd, and Sam says it was "simply for being gay." She writes: "NO ONE should have to suffer any sort of attack, verbal or physical, for any reason." Warning: She links to a picture of the victim's face, and the damage is terrible. [MySpace, Twitpic]
• The documentary about Amy Winehouse — Saving Amy — may reveal that the singer is struggling with anorexia, alcohol, and her parents. [Daily Mail]
• If you want to see what Michael Jackson looks like these days — without a face mask — go ahead and click. [Daily Mail]
• Property improvements! Brad Pitt is building a new pool cabana and deck on his Malibu estate, which is up for sale. If you have $18 million, you can get a lovely home, pool, tennis courts, and neighbors like Cindy Crawford and Leo DiCaprio. Any takers? [LA Times]
• Here's a first review of Brad Pitt's latest, Inglorious Basterds. Derek Malcolm calls it "absurd, overlong and mostly cardboard version of World War II." The script "places its actors in the unenviable position of appearing either melodramatic, farcical or just plain dull." And "there are some decent moments but they are few and far between." [This Is London]
• Ellen had No Doubt come to her show and overbooked the studio by 500 people — leaving hundreds in the heat and sun for hours, even though they had tickets. Feeling hella bad. [Perez]
• Shawn Johnson says Dancing With The Stars changed her life, and that her dancing partner brought out her personality. "And I've loved every second of it." [E!]
• A neighbor says Jon and Kate of Plus 8 fame are only together for the TLC paychecks. "A lot of people around town say that's what their relationship has been about for a while." [MSNBC Scoop]
• Paula Abdul was asked if all four judges would be returning to American Idol next season, and replied, "Tune in!" [LA Times]
• A reporter to Hugh Hefner: "Would you let Lindsay Lohan play for Playboy?" Hef: "Who?" Reporter: "Lindsay Lohan." Hef cluelessly looks to his young girlfriend, who says, "Lindsay Lohan?" Hef, still looking confused, says, "Sure." Its on video. [Radar Online]
• In this video, Katy Perry talks about her religious parents: "They're very much cool." And: "My mom's isn't the rock-n-roller pot-smoking debutant that she was, and my dad's not the acid dealer with long hair anymore." Plus, she says doing a second record will be good, because "It'll show that either I got lucky or that I was meant to do this." [Rolling Stone]
• Years before Jay Leno nabbed a primetime spot, NBC was asking Oprah and Letterman to try it. [Variety]
• George Clooney will star in a flick called A Very Private Gentleman, playing an assassin who who protects his cover by hiding out in an Italian town. Is it even fiction? Can't you picture Cloons having a secret identity? [Yahoo News via E!]
• Looks like Chace Crawford from Gossip Girl will definitely be in Footloose; and now he may be joined by Miley Cyrus. The world is a strange and mysterious place. [E!, The Hollywood Reporter]
• Paris Hilton has been trying to get paid to appear at nightclubs in Cannes; a source says: "They aren't about to pay her. It's not 2002." [Page Six]
• Seven words you didn't want to hear this morning: "Jennifer Love Hewitt to relaunch singing career." [NME]
• Jesus, there is still major drama going on in Gossip Girl star Kelly Rutherford's divorce and custody battle. Rutherford has filed legal papers asking the judge to bar her ex from taking their 2-year-old son Hermes home — until the dad kid-proofs the pool and play areas. [TMZ]
• In this video, Charlotte Gainsbourg, who stars in Lars von Trier's Antichrist — the one with the genital mutilation — defends the film and Von Trier against the charge that he hates and exploits women. [Guardian]
• Another day, another Slumdog Millionaire child star's home destroyed. This time it was the living quarters of little Rubina Ali. [Yahoo News via AP]
• Sienna Miller wants a rose named after her, so somebody had better get on that. [Daily Express]
• Do you care if Vanessa Minnillo is still with Nick Lachey or not? This report says she was seen "acting single." Because she was drinking and dancing in a club. [Page Six]
• Colin Firth says he was well-versed in Noel Coward's work long before he signed on to star in Easy Virtue, a film based on a Coward play. [UPI]
• Does Ryan Phillippe have a wandering eye? [Page Six]
• File under: Moms re-entering the workplace. Liz Hurley has been away from movies for five years — due to the birth of her son — but would like to come back: "I decided I couldn't do movies for a while, which was a huge decision for me because I actually love making movies more than anything," she says. If she could do a film that could work around her son's school holidays, she would "take it like a shot." [Telegraph]
• T-Mobile is bringing Catherine Zeta-Jones back to its ads. [Business Insider via WSJ]
• Interesting: Chris Pontius of Jackass fame will appear in the new Sofia Coppola film, Somewhere. [The Hollywood Reporter]
• It's hard to read this story about actor Rip Torn's probation for DUI, because his 2006 mug shot is so LOL. [Yahoo News via AP]
• Blind item! "Which wanna-be rocker had to take a trip to the emergency room because he went to sleep with his contacts in?" [Gatecrasher]
• "It is all going well and I know I am very happy right now. I want the happy ever after ending. I've definitely changed. I'm just letting things happen and seeing what does. In so many ways I am behind the mark for my age. I'm not married and I don't have children but my attitude now is that things may happen or they may not but just be happy." — Kylie Minogue, who has been dating this sweet piece of man candy for seven months. [Daily Mail]
• "I'm doing a speech about the situation with AIDS in America basically, and how we need to address what's going on. We seem to be falling a little behind in America. I find this disease very cyclical. Every 10 years or so, after we spend a lot of money trying to educate people — a new generation of people — and we tell them to have safe sex and to abstain sometimes but have safe sex, wear condoms, we find that after 10 years another whole group of people come along. And we have to start all over again, which is really, really frustrating because it takes money for education. And we find that if we could get into the schools at a grass-roots levels, which we do in places like Africa where we get to kids at a young age and we tell them about preventive measures for not getting HIV, we find the success rate is tremendous." — Elton John. [CNN]
• "I just hope it will go away, after a little bit of time. I hope I'm not naïve in thinking that's possible. I don't want to be a part of it. I can't seem to navigate a way of doing that, of actually telling the truth of events that happened without feeling I'm encouraging the whole gossip notion." — Christian Bale on his rant. [USA Today]
• "I don't want us to split up. I love my husband, but I can't sit around crying. This is a new story and a new chapter in my life. Pete is the love of my life and I am so sad and upset by his decision to separate and divorce me as I married him for life. This is not what I want, but the decision was taken out of my hands." — Katie "Jordan" Price. [Telegraph]
• "'Hot' has become a euphemism for all things positive, making it generally acceptable to use to describe everything from a jalapeño to a drum solo. It's sort of a useful word. We don't have to think of appropriate adjectives for people, places, performances, tacos, or objects anymore as they all fit snugly under the glorious umbrella of 'hotness.' So I don't know how hot I am but I'm honored to be considered as warmer than the average taco." — Olivia Wilde, who is number one on Maxim's Hot List. She also says, "Michelle [Obama] will always be No. 1 on MY list." [The Daily Beast]

The dialogue was taken exactly from Real World episodes and Pedro's public speaking engagements. However, I don't remember—and I watched the show religiously—Puck ever referring to Pedro as "AIDS boy." It's quite possible that this is something that Pedro and the roommates witnessed when no cameras were around, or maybe the movie just wanted to make a point of what an asshole Puck was in a short moment. I thought we'd get some more behind the scenes looks, but they just reenacted famous scenes, like Puck digging his fingers into the peanut butter jar:

And Rachel telling Pedro that she's not comfortable living with someone "living with AIDS":

As for the cast, the acting, particularly on the parts of the chicks playing Pam and Rachel, was atrocious, although the guy playing Puck totally got his voice down. The guy cast as Judd was way too tall.

The real Judd and Pam—who are now married with two kids—made a cameo:

The dolls were assembled in recognition of National Women and Girls H.I.V./AIDS Awareness Day, and included old castaways and new dolls. Organizers wanted a racially mixed set of dolls to reflect the fact that in New York City 90 percent of women living with H.I.V. are black and Hispanic, 94 percent of new H.I.V. infections in teenage girls are in blacks and Hispanics, and a black woman is nine times more likely to die from an AIDS-related illness than a white woman. But despite the fact that nationally ethnic minorities make up 43 percent of the population under 20, staffers had difficulty finding non-white dolls, even in New York. "I went to three 99-cent stores and couldn't find any," said Krishna Stone, a spokeswoman for Gay Men's Health Crisis. "Another colleague went to four stores. What is that about?" Eventually two four foot black dolls were donated, and made the centerpiece of the exhibit. [The New York Times]

One of the highlights of this episode was when special guest judge Jenny Shimuzu — known for modeling and maybe hooking up with Madonna and Angelina Jolie — told Bebe Zahara Benet, "I would be doing coke with you if this were the 90s." But in addition to learning that Rebecca Glasscock's best friend is dying of AIDS, we learned that fan fave Ongina — the winner of the Mac Viva Glam challenge — has been living with HIV for two years. "I didn't want to say it on national TV because my parents doesn't know," she sobbed. But she pulled it together and said: "You have to celebrate life." Clip above.

Ongina's challenge campaign for MAC was truly the best — upbeat and fun. See it below:

The other highlight of this ep? Watching Shannel juggle and show off her ass:

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