• Dutch prosecutors announced today that they have dropped their murder investigation into a late-term abortion that a woman had performed in Spain because the woman suffers from "psychological problems." • The Australian Parliament passed a landmark law today that allows single and lesbian women access to fertility treatment and gives gay partners and parents of surrogate children legal parenting rights. • A former park ranger at the Belair National Park in South Australia claims that rescued koalas that are turned over to park rangers are shot. • An English study of personal ads finds that the myth of the "dirty old man" is true, with most men seeking younger female partners. • A group of English actresses claim they were tricked into auditioning for a porn film when they thought they were auditioning for a Little Britain-style adult comedy. • Why do so many men buy sex? • A UK PSA features a dog drug mule with his chest cut open talking to drug users.• Meanwhile, a new study suggests that dogs have evolved to chase more efficiently over long distances and cats have evolved to creep up on prey, rather than chase. • A painting by Giambattista Tiepolo hidden in an attic of a French chateau for decades because it was deemed "risque" fetched $4.1 million at a Christie's auction in London. • China has told artists performing on its annual TV gala on Chinese New Year's Eve to not lip-synch their songs. • A judge in Arkansas issued a gag order on Wednesday in the murder case against a man accused of beating Anne Pressly, a local news anchorwoman, to death. •

When Left Is Right [Newsweek]

Although a straight woman myself, my prior career was in lobbying — so I pretty much got paid to convince people to do stuff they didn't necessarily want to do. That's advertising, right? While I can't quite do the graphic design work that went into Gay Times' man-pussy ad or its "women are all stupid, frightening bitches" ad or even any of its three "get laid more" ads, I can push out a list of talking points like a mofo. So, following are the talking points lesbians really need to start using to recruit more women to the Sapphic Lifestyle.

• Breasts are fun. They just are.
• You know how you used to fish for compliments about your shoes from your boyfriend? Yeah, don't worry about it.
• You'll never have to smell schweaty balls again.
• You know you always kiss a guy after he goes down on you, so you can't claim squeamishness.
• When you cry, your girlfriend won't try to make fix the problem, she'll just let you have your feelings.
• Double your wardrobe, double your fun.
• Body hair maintenance really is optional.
• Rachel Maddow. You know you want her.
• No woman will ever try to use her teeth on you during oral.
• And, if you're really one of those girly-girls who is super into the Dream Princess Wedding, there's only one thing to say: two wedding dresses.

Homo Promo. Yes, You Read that Right. [Ad Rants]
GT Homo Promo [Facebook]

Related: Lindsay Lohan: Myth vs. Reality [Harpers Bazaar]

Earlier: Rachel Maddow For President (Of Cable News, That Is)

Whereas, Czyzselska says, there are an increasing number of openly gay male role models in various walks of life, the comparable women can be listed on one hand — and a few of those are probably assumed to be gay, but haven't actually come out publicly. As a result, she says, lesbians face a very different set of prejudices and a more difficult coming-out process. As she says, "an established community of other gay men at work helps gay men to come out, because there's often a formal or informal club for them to join." Well, I'm sure plenty of young gay men would be delighted by this blithe assessment of their circumstances! But no one can argue that the challenges for a lesbian coming out at work aren't unique: "Think about it — as a woman, you've already got one strike against you in terms of a diversity box to check. As a lesbian there's the second one as well." She points out the hidden minefields of discussing one's personal life, the elaborate deceptions that can fill a workday with a hundred small stresses and undermine the trust of a work dynamic.

What she says next seems in some ways to confuse her argument:

Happily, those who were confident about their sexual orientation generally felt being a gay woman gave them a distinct advantage in the workplace. Some participants who had been open about being gay found the experience empowering, because it had raised their profile, facilitated networking opportunities and helped them to feel more equal with men in their place of work.

While these results are certainly encouraging, this does feel in some wise reductive; doesn't it stand to reason that those women so "confident about their sexual orientation" are already more prone to healthy work relationships — or that perhaps they're already in more supportive work environments? "People can't be confident enough to come out in this environment but if they come out they'll be confident which will improve the environment" for others, this seems to say — and glosses over a lot of potentially painful variables. That said, at the end of the day, change probably does need to come on the heels of just such simplistic change — a giant step for woman, a small step for womankind. Sometimes we need someone to coin the cliches for us before we can use them.

The Invisible Women [The Guardian]

• An animal welfare journalist named Mira Tweti (pronounced "Tweety") advocates "planned parroting," or being aware of the challenges of raising parrots, to keep down the rising numbers of unwanted pet birds. • A new regulation in England, which went into effect today, no longer requires barristers to wear wigs in the courtroom. • A new craze of wacky beauty gadgets in Japan gave birth to the Kogao Meiku Beruto, or "small face make belt," which is a strap worn around the head that claims to shrink the wearer's face over time. • On Monday, New York City Transit, which is part of the MTA, will begin distributing 200,000 pamphlets about sexual harassment on public transportation to accompany the new anti-sexual harassment SubTalk ads in subways. • A female arsonist and police officer from Wisconsin is engaged to one of the firefighters who responded to a blaze she set in an abandoned house in March. • Police in England are investigating a death threat against a female priest following a series of hate crimes against her, including someone throwing a lit candle into her car.• Parent Television Council filed an indecency complaint with the FCC after a portion of a male contestant's penis slipped out of his shorts during the season premiere of Survivor: Gabon. CBS calls the incident "completely unintentional" and "virtually undetectable." • A 20-year-old woman from Atlanta was "livid" and "scared to death" when some men attempted to "rape" her after someone posted a phony "rape fantasy" ad for her on Craigslist. • When a New York woman told a nurse during a routine GYN exam that she had been treated for PMS mood swings in the past she was transfered to the psych ER unit and wasn't allowed to be released until after 5 hours of tests. • An argument this week between two brothers in Boston over a dog that ate the other brother's watermelon eventually led to one of the brothers repeatedly stabbing himself to prove he wasn't afraid of pain. • And just to prove that women can sometimes be prone to violent overreaction: A woman in Florida punched and bit her ex-husband on Monday after he forgot to buy kitty litter. • Many breast cancer advocates from the U.S. are reaching out to Africa to help promote breast cancer awareness and proper treatment , including a delegation of advocates and doctors that will travel to Ghana in October to open a medical center to educate and treat breast cancer. •

• Did Samantha Ronson refuse to DJ a lesbian bar because "she doesn't do those kind of venues" ? [Page Six]
• Headline of the day: "Lindsay's MySpace Is Like Her Fake Wedding Ring." [E!]
• Additionally, Lindsay says Joe Francis is "yuck." [E!]
• Did Michael Lohan write a blog in which he calls Samantha Ronson "disgusting" and discusses her toilet paper habits? [The Sun]
• Victoria Beckham says she'd like to have another kid but she's too busy right now. "I don’t want another baby for two years because I’m working so hard on my fashion business. I haven’t got time. We would like another child but it won’t be for a couple of years yet." She also says: "David and I still go out on our own and we have a real laugh together. I love him more now than I did when we first met." Awww. Sniff! [The Sun]
• The Jolie-Pitt Foundation has just donated another $1 million, this time to fund the Human Rights Watch's work in Burma and Zimbabwe. [Perez Hilton]

• It's official! Whitney Port, the girl who was flown to Paris by Condé Nast but could not pronounce Givenchy, has her own spinoff of The Hills. The series starts shooting immediately in New York and will follow Whitney's life working for Diane von Furstenberg. Can Whit hold her own? Can she pronounce Houston Street? All will be revealed in 2009. [E!]
• Shanna Moakler, who was "devastated" when she learned of the plane crash that left her ex-husband badly burned, is spending time with Travis Barker, trying to lift his spirits. [People]
• Will George Clooney come back for the final season of ER? (Hint: No.) [Reuters]
• MTV is working on a "black version" of The Muppets with, who else, Kanye West. [Rush & Molloy]
• Blake Incarcerated says he'd rather stay in jail than go to rehab, probably because you can get drugs in jail. [The Sun]
• Kate Moss has been "trying to forget" her breakup with Jamie Hince by hanging out in Paris. [The Sun]
• A judge has thrown out a paparazzo's suit against Keanu Reeves; Keanu hit the dude with his car as he was trying to inch out of a parking space and the guy tripped over his own feet and hurt his wrist. [AP]
• Is Kristin Chenoweth dating Jeff Probst? They're both very pretty. (She says "We're really good friends.") [E!]
• Jonny Lee Miller, ex-husband of Angelina Jolie and star of TV show Eli Stone, is expecting a child with wife Michele Hicks. It will be their first! [People]
• Vanessa Minnillo and Nick Lachey may have split up, not that you care. Also maybe on the rocks: Josh Duhamel and Fergie. [E!]
• Radar did a photo shoot with Shannen Doherty and she looks all angst-y. [Radar]
• Isaac Hayes has left part of his estate to the Isaac Hayes Foundation, which promotes literacy, music and nutrition. [AP]
• Hugh Hefner says Holly Madison is not dating Criss Angel. "Holly shares my bed on a nightly basis," Hef says. But! He admits that his relationships with Holly, Kendra and Bridget are "in transition." [E!]
• Michael Phelps admits he pees in the pool. And! If you missed Phelps playing Dr. McSwimmy in a Grey's Anatomy spoof before the Emmys, you can see it here. [LA Times]
• Pete Doherty was a "chess-mad schoolboy" when he was a kid. [The Sun]
• Charlie Sheen's wife had emergency gall bladder surgery even though she's in the early stages of pregnancy, yikes. She's gonna be okay. [E!]
• Jennifer Hudson's new CD includes a duet with fellow American Idol alum Fantasia. That's a lot of voice on one track. [Fox 411]
• Janet Jackson has left her record label. Stay tuned as she tries to figure out how to stay relevant. [E!]
• "I would like to go to university and complete a degree and so that will mean a break from acting. I've always tried to balance my education with my acting career, but I just don't think it will be possible to juggle it with a degree course. I have a need now to study." — Emma "Hermione Granger" Watson. [Daily Mail]
• "I am a size 27 jeans. My measurements are 34, 26, 39. But remember I am 5'2" and ½ and everyone carries their weight in different places. I am really sick and tired of people being so mean and nasty and assume I am lying. JUST FOR YOU NON-BELIEVERS, I WILL POST A VIDEO BLOG OF ME SHOWING YOU GUYS MY SIZE 27 JEANS LATER TONIGHT!" — Kim Kardashian. [MSNBC]

But, in that absence of a record — and as the Vice President on a ticket headed by John McCain — his stances are now basically her stances, or at least the policies she'll be called upon to defend. And, like her position on abortion, his stances on a range of issues important to women are not exactly progressive.

Abortion Rights: On abortion, they're clearly alike (now). McCain used to support an exception in cases of rape, incest or risk to the life of the mother but reversed himself this year. Glamour reports that he didn't support overturning Roe V. Wade in 1999, then he did and that he was kind of a dick when the magazine's editors asked for further clarification. He's definitely all excited about the 2-3 Supreme Court vacancies expected "by the people who decide these things," since that'll give him a chance to appoint justices that will see Roe v. Wade as a "bad decision" the way that he does.

Equal Pay For Equal Work: Moving onto pay equity, something else that Sarah Palin's said nary a word on. McCain's said plenty, including that he's "all for pay equity" but not for the Ledbetter bill because it would lead to, you know, women using the courts to enforce said equity. Of course, he's also said that we could solve pay equity by giving women better job training, which sort of pisses Lilly Ledbetter off. Nonetheless, the official position of a McCain-Palin administration would be "no" to any bill that attempted to resolve the issues in the law that allowed the Supreme Court to fuck over Lilly Ledbetter.

Women At War: McCain's somewhat more progressive on women in combat, telling Glamour:

I think this policy needs to be reevaluated constantly.... We have more and more evidence of greater abilities of women in combat. Also...this conflict is everywhere; we have had a large number of women wounded and killed in Iraq and in Afghanistan. I'm for integrating women as much as possible—with one exception: For example, in Baghdad today, a male combat infantryman puts on 50 pounds of body armor, then another 40 or 50 pounds of military equipment. I want to make sure that women are able to also do that. Now, I'm not saying women are physically weak. Some of the strongest [people] I have ever known in my life are women.... I just want to make sure that they're able to carry out these missions in the most effective fashion.... Women have proven to [everyone's] satisfaction as pilots, as combat medics, in any other role they've been in, that they're perfectly capable, and in some ways not only capable but superior.

Of course, that's a little bit different than what he said back in 1991, but even old dogs can learn new tricks. Is flip-flopping a doggie trick? Anyway, he'd "reevaluate" constantly, sort of like he already has, but I would say it's iffy whether he and Palin would reverse the women in combat decision; I doubt they'd be spearheading any women-in-combat initiatives — let alone any reversal of don't ask, don't tell, despite its disproportionate effects on feamles.

Sex Education: While, as I've previously mentioned, Sarah Palin's record on abstinence-only education is sketchy at best, McCain's positions are more robust. He supports teaching abstinence in schools and is less supportive of birth control education. In fact, he's said that he opposes eliminating the proved-ineffective abstinence-only education programs currently on the books, while leaving wiggle room on giving teenagers some information that there are ways to avoid pregnancy if you ignore the abstinence thing. He did vote against an 2005 family planning bill and, when asked to explain by Glamour first said it was because it have provisions on funding abortion (it didn't) and then clarified that it was because it had provisions relating to Plan B, which doesn't exactly make it better.

In the end, when it comes to women's issues, there may not be a ton of information out there on where Sarah Palin stands, but — like every Vice President before her — she's not going to have any choice but to stand by her man... who hardly stands by many of the women in this country on the issues outlined above. McCain thinks women should nonetheless vote for him because he wants to keep taxes low (not that he's actually correct about that) and make sure that when his plan goes through Congress, the (magical) markets will keep prices low.

Interestingly, McCain's economic adviser, Carly Fiorina thinks women shouldn't be voting just based on abortion, and that issues likes taxes and health insurance are important to women too — issues on which, as I've just noted, McCain is actually worse on. So tell me again how is McCain's candidacy is supposed to be about the issues?

For these reasons and undoubtedly many others, the National Organization for Women Political Action Committee today endorsed Barack Obama and Joe Biden for the Presidency and Vice Presidency — one of the very few times the organization has ever made a general election endorsement. But even NOW's President, Kim Gandy, admitted on NPR that this would be controversial among some of their members despite the significant differences between Obama-Biden and McCain-Palin on the issues supposedly of importance to women. Bethesda, MD psychologist Lynette Long, a lifetime Democrat, probably knows a little about why — she's not voting on the issues, just on the gender that she shares with Sarah Palin. For all Fiorina's (and McCain's, and Palin's) posturing about the elections being about the issues (and about issues other than abortion), the McCain camp wants a lot of women like Long to completely ignore the issues, not choose between them.

Palin's Record on Women's Issues Questions [UPI]
Palin: Unserious About Sex Crimes and Domestic Violence [Shakesville]
Palin On Abortion: I'd Oppose Even If My Own Daughter Was Raped [Huffington Post]
McCain Poised to Flip on GOP Abortion Platform [ABC News]
Is McCain the Nostradamus of the Supreme Court? [CBS News]
McCain Opposes Equal Pay Bill In The Senate [Huffington Post]
John McCain [Glamour]
Women's Combat Roles Likely To Be On Next President's Agenda [LA Times]
McCain: Gay Troops "Intolerable Risk" [Gay.com]
John McCain Campaign to Brody File: Eliminating "Abstinence Only" Programs is Wrong [CBN News]
Health Insurance And the Single Girl [Glamocracy]
Tax Plans And the Single Girl [Glamocracy]
National Organization for Women PAC Endorses Obama-Biden [NOW]
National Organization For Women Endorses Obama [NPR]
In This Election, Putting Gender First [Baltimore Sun]

"Why Are Lesbians Always Fatter Than Straight Women?" from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

"Is Believing In Creationism Grounds For A Breakup?" from Pot Psychology on Vimeo.

• St. Stanislaus College, a Catholic boarding school in Australia, is being investigated for new claims of abuse in late-night prayer sessions and a teacher's (supposed) recommendation that boys read Penthouse. • Ad Age's Marti Barletta urges marketers and advertisers to create a "new normal" for women that is not ultra-thin in advertising to start cycling out our culture's obsession with thinness. • Are more women accepting of experiencing pain during a natural childbirth than doctors? • Adventures in obvious studies: Working moms are spending 15 hours a day working at a job and taking care of household work and errands. Doesn't that number seem a little low? • Ron Jeremy on being a pin up for Playgirl: "[The magazine] likes to think that their audience is mostly women, but no, no, the majority is gay." • Kids spend a mere 24 minutes doing chores these days because they are spending more of their time studying and participating in youth groups. • After watching a TV show in Saudi Arabia where brothers viewed their sisters as being treated like "princesses" because they aren't allowed to drive, a Saudi blogger sounds off on the restrictions that women face when not allowed to drive.

• Women taking antidepressants and experiencing a hard time achieving orgasm as a side effect of the medication may benefit from taking Viagra.

• "Grammar Girl" is out to get rid of bad grammar. • A former Muslim sex slave who was targeted for her ethnicity when Serbs attacked tells her heartbreaking story to CNN. • Southern New Hampshire towns are reporting an increase in domestic abuse calls and arrests, which police says is linked to the poor economy. • A self-instructional program on reproductive health and sex-education for teen girls with diabetes will help them understand the risks of unplanned pregnancy while diabetic. • Inflation, high security at hotels and popular venues, and traffic jams have made weddings a real bummer in Sri Lanka. • A weak baby dolphin that was caught in Japanese fishermen's nets has regained its ability to swim after being outfitted with a special lifejacket. • Meet Rampa Rattanarithikul, a Thai mosquito scientist who has researched and collected mosquitoes for 50 years. • Two dogs that were allegedly trained to have sex with their female owner have been accepted into a no-kill animal sanctuary in Utah. • Cute puppy news! Look at this newborn french bulldog set to Chopin. (Image via She Cards.)

If you aren't an obsessive MSNBC watcher, you might not know, but Rachel's the new Golden Girl of political prognositication. She's cute but not dumb, intelligent but not intimidating and she manages to not only hold her own on a male-dominated network (on male-dominated shows) but to best the boys. With the death of Tim Russert and the excommunication of Tucker Carlson, there's an opening for a new anchor and Rachel seems likely to get the slot.

What is sort of interesting — and something Rachel has never tried to hide — is that she's a lesbian. That little tidbit of information is left until the last hundred words or so of the Times' profile, even as her open (and thankfully unabashed) sexual orientation has caused some to question whether she can be successful as a news network anchor. Listen, MSNBC honchos: if Rachel can cause me to question my lifetime commitment to men with her intelligence, wit and composure under fire, I think even my sometimes-conservative grandma can get on board.

Now in Living Rooms, the Host Apparent [NY Times]

Chivers' research shows that women are more easily aroused than men (no, seriously, it does), except when it comes to looking at hot naked men doing non-sexual things. I think I can speak for a number of straight women here when I say that even the hottest naked guy can do bad-naked things and that, sometimes, a flaccid penis on even a hot guy jumping around isn't going to get my engine running. But women do get physiologically aroused by naked women bouncing around, all kinds of porn and even monkeys fucking. And, thus Salon and the New York Times declare us all a little bisexual. [Insert long sigh here]

Chivers does her best to point out that what one fantasizes about or gets randomly turned on by doesn't have anything to do with what you are actually interested in doing.

To conclude that women are bisexual on the basis of their sexual responding overlooks the complexity and multidimensionality of female sexuality.

Not that anyone cares, of course, because it's not as a good a story as us ladies are all one small push away from eating each other out with great gusto.

But if we all stopped and thought about it for a second, we all are aroused by things, or fantasize about things to get aroused, that have no actual interest for us sexually. I've had sex dreams about women, fantasized about group sex, public sex, the dirtiest of anonymous sex, sex in public places, sex with inappropriate people... none of which I've ever done or really made any effort to do in the last 14+ years of sex-having because they don't hold any real-world interest for me. I don't think that fantasies of having a threesome makes you a swinger, or that getting aroused watching monkeys fucking means that you're into bestiality, or that fantasizing about S&M makes you a closet submissive, and thus I don't think that getting aroused at the sight of women bouncing up and down (images, notably, that we're strongly culturally socialized to think of as sexy) makes an otherwise straight woman bisexual.

This might be a little nurture-over-nature for most people, but I would expect that in a culture that fetishizes the female form in so many ways and does not fetishize the male form in the same way women would naturally be more aroused by random naked women than random naked men because so much of sexuality is in your head anyway. And, in a culture in which the male homosexual taboo is so strong, I would equally expect that many, many men would not find images of hot naked guys sexy because male sexuality is not all in their dicks, either — it's in their heads as well, jostling around with their taboos. But maybe I'm just trying to justify my closet bisexuality. That's probably what the New York Times would tell me, just before the Grey Lady tried to stick her tongue in my mouth.

What Women Want (Maybe) [New York Times]
Are All Women An little Bit Bi? [Salon Broadsheet]

• Ellen DeGeneres is so psyched about the California Supreme Court ruling regarding gay marriage that she's gonna get hitched to longtime love Portia de Rossi. Woohoo! It would be kind of awesome if they did it on TV. And then danced! [TMZ]
  
• Pregnant Angelina Jolie will be looking "sexy" on the July cover of Vanity Fair; she was shot by Patrick Demarchelier. Wonder if he'll have her Photoshopped? [Page Six]
  
• Click here if you need info on Angelina's tattoos. [Sydney Morning Herald]
  
• Angelina will probably give birth in France, FYI. [USA Today]
  
• Angelina's dad Jon Voight is all riled up over Israel: "God gave this land to the Jewish people; they shouldn't be giving it away," he says. But, um, Voight is not Jewish. [Mirror]
  
• "If I punched every bitch who called me fat, it would be dead bitches all up and down the highway." — Star Jones. [Page Six]

• Just two weeks after marrying Mariah Carey, Nick Cannon is driving a new car: the $120,000 Maserati Quattroporte. Did Drumline profits pay for it? [TMZ]
• Ali Lohan swears that even though sister Lindsay hangs with Sam Ronson, she is not a lezebel. "They're best friends. They're just friends. It's pathetic what people say," Ali claims. [Perez Hilton]
• Here's a book for your Amazon wish list: Hollywood Babylon: It's Back has full-frontal nudes of stars like Mick Jagger, Daniel Radcliffe, Ewan McGregor, John Malkovich, James Woods and Richard Gere. Plus! Stories about the size of other actors; Johnny Depp was known as "donkey dick" and an art student who sketched Sean Connery years ago swears, "It was the biggest I've ever seen. It made me drop my charcoal pencil." [Rush & Molloy]
• As previously reported, Britney Spears and Mel Gibson are on vacay together in Costa Rica. Also along for the adventure are Brit's dad Jamie and Mel's wife Robin, as well as some "unidentified youngsters." Apocalypto! [E!]
• An L.A. band says there's a Miley Cyrus song that sounds suspiciously like one of theirs. Miley's rep says, "She doesn't write the songs - she sings them. We have referred this to Disney." Ah, well, okay then. [Page Six]
• Hulk Hogan has written letters to the court trying to get his son Nick a softer sentence; Hulk says Nick isn't the wild kid people see on TV because their reality show "is scripted." [TMZ]
• American Idol alum Taylor Hicks will join the cast of Grease on Broadway. [ET]
• Duran Duran are in the news! They rerouted their world tour to perform for Deutsche Bank staffers; then the show got canceled. Now they're hungry like the wolf. Don't say a prayer for them now, save it til the morning after. [Mirror]
• Sheryl Crow has a new boyfriend; he's a restauranteur and pilot from Alabama. He can fly home the bacon and fry it up in a pan. [MSNBC]
• Movie-industry private investigator Anthony Pellicano has been found guilty of conspiracy after wiretapping and harassing a string of celebrities, including Garry Shandling, Kevin Nealon, Sylvester Stallone and Keith Carradine. [Portfolio]
• Rapper DMX has pleaded not guilty to felony drug possession and misdemeanor animal cruelty charges. [Yahoo News]
• Jury selection is complete in the trial of R. Kelly! Maybe the trial will finally begin? [Mirror]
• Ryan Kavanaugh, the executive producer of 21, smitten with Natalie Portman? What will Devendra Banhart say? [Page Six]
• Kanye West performed with four topless dancers wearing space helmets and made $1 million. [Page Six]
• Blind item! "Which TV legend likes to play dirty in the bedroom? The larger-than-life fella ties up his conquests with bathrobes - and takes breaks from "satisfying" the girls only to snort piles of coke." [Rush & Molloy]
• Lil' Kim won $500,000 in a lawsuit against a former fellow Junior M.A.F.I.A. member. That kind of cash will get her some nice fingernails. [Vibe]
• Dennis Rodman has been charged with battery and domestic violence after allegedly hitting his girlfriend last month in an L.A. hotel. Rodman is currently in a rehab facility, but he told TMZ "I've never hit anyone." [TMZ]
• Kelly Osbourne has a new boyfriend named Luke. [Mirror]
• "The handbags alone were heavenly. I'm a handbag girl, so I was just salivating. Every time a new purse came into the wardrobe room I'd get so excited. People would walk in with arms full of bags, just trying to decide which one my character should use that day. Just flipping through them, one more beautiful than the next. I was stunned... Next time I will make sure I put a clause into my contract that I get to keep all my purses." — Jennifer Hudson, on the Sex And The City movie. [Mirror]

• A new study shows that most female child molesters were victims of sexual abuse themselves. • Jordan has charged a man who allegedly killed his sister for having an extramarital affair. • Stephanie Pearl-McPhee calls herself the "yarn harlot" and keeps an eponymous blog about knitting. • Some conservative British politicians want to bar lesbians from receiving IVF treatment unless the potential child would have a "male role model" involved. • In the U.S., paid maternity leave is a luxury, not a right. "The United States provides the fewest maternity leave benefits in both length of leave and paid time off," when compared to nineteen equally rich countries, according to Time. • Overheard at the gay rodeo: "This is an all-American sport, and we are all-American people." • Queen Elizabeth tops the list of Live Science's 10 Most Powerful Modern Women Leaders. Also included: Indira Gandhi, Golda Meir, Angela Merkel, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf.

Poetry Of Sappho [Isle Of Lesbos]

• Big conundrum for Paris Hilton - continue to be against testing on animals or support research into curing (her) Chlamydia? Toughie. [Science Daily]
  
• This headline makes us sad: "Stunning New Revelations on Cancer; Limit Bacon, Alcohol & Red Meat." So what are we supposed to eat for breakfast, lunch, and dinner? [ABC News]
  
• A man who is suspected of abducting two women from Soho and raping them in separate incidents is being sought by the cops, not to mention the Jezebel Vigilante Justice Task Force. [NY Times]
  
• Feministing draws our attention to a new Amnesty International report which says that 600 women are raped in Kenya every day. Sickening. [Feministing]

• Some doctors are shooting collagen into the vaginal walls near the G-spot to help women orgasm. No, the FDA didn't approve that memo. [First Coast News]
• The stupid Pope is urging Pharmacists to refuse to dispense birth control as "conscientious objectors." Oy. [Ms.]
• Singapore Airlines, which is designing those dope-sounding first class cabins with beds, doesn't want you soiling the mattresses with your love-making, okay? [MSNBC]
• There are some things we're cheap about (drugstore makeup, Forever 21 ensembles, tacos) and other things we don't mind paying big money for, namely, plastic surgery. Others, it seems, fly down to South America for a bargain sale on boob jobs. [MSNBC]
• Cambodia's Prime Minister is disowning his daughter and cutting her out of his will because she recently came out as a lesbian. At the same time, however, he urged others not to discriminate against gays because, "Most of them are good people and are not doing alcohol, drugs or racing vehicles." Racing vehicles? Is this some new lez hobby we don't know about? [NY Times]
• Black women who have breast cancer and get the necessary treatment of tumor removal and radiation therapy still have a larger chance of the disease reappearing within 10 years of diagnosis. We reiterate: Mother Nature can be a fucking racist bitch. [Science Daily]

Doonan notes that while being a gay man is still a struggle, gay women are making strides: "There are no male equivalents to Ellen or The L-Word. Last Oscar night saw gay women openly chewing up the red carpet while gay men were all but invisible." So yeah, it's tough to be a gay man. But now we're obsessed with dudes who look like dykes. Tony Curtis! Clay Aiken! Phil Spector! Chris Cooper! And, whoa, Wes Anderson. So here's a question: If you're attracted to a man (coughDenisLearycough) who looks like a woman who likes women, what does that make you?

Hey, Middle-Aged Men! Think Twice About That Eye Lift, Lest You Resemble Power Lesbians [NY Observer]

You heard it here first. Er, second. Simon Doonan eats oatmeal. And is a total dyke.

To come: Follow-up about how this affects his sex life with Jonathan Adler.

Random Questions For... [The Fashion Informer via Fashion Week Daily]

• Can't a divorced set of parents get along for the sake of the kiddies? If Terri Romanoff-Newman has her way, the answer is yes. [Minneapolis Star-Tribune]

• Can't we all just band together in the fight against breast cancer? The American Cancer Society is at odds with new guidelines issued by the American College of Physicians about mammograms for women under 50. [CNN]

• Can't a career-minded woman get a break? Yet another study suggests that the longer you wait to procreate, the more likely you are to have a child with autism. [USA Today]

• Can't a parent escape blame? 50% of cases of pertussis (a fancy word for "whooping cough") among babies are attributable to their evil, germ-filled parents. [NYTimes]