Renee Zellweger Wants Babies, Not Kenny Chesney

Monday, September 19, 2005

Renee's hubby's aversion to kids caused their split!

According to a "source," the reason that Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney are splitting is because she wants kids and he wants nothing to do with them.

That's definitely plausible, but it's a real stretch to say that meets the legal standard required to get an annulment for 'fraud.' One would certainly think the subject had come up before they got married, and it wouldn't surprise me to find out that Kenny had been less than truthful about his willingness to have children. Lots of people say they do because they know it's what the other person wants to hear, but when faced with the reality, change their mind or reveal that they never wanted to in the first place. But would that rise to an annulable marital fraud?

If they weren't celebrities capable of getting strings pulled, I would say the answer is a definite 'no.' A reasonable judge would tell them that they should have spent more time prior to marriage to figure it out and will have to go through the regular divorce channels to end their marriage. But they're not like you and me, and even if this is the whole story, I'm sure they'll be able to find a friendly judge who will sign off on the annulment anyway.

I know more than one person who finds out their spouse lied to them before they got married and wishes it was that easy to make a marriage go away...Too bad we can't all be celebrities, huh?

Felicity Huffman Earns Her Emmy

It's deja vu at Emmys as past winners are recognized again

There are a lot of prognosticators out there with some serious egg on their faces this morning, and one very deserving actress with an Emmy. Felicity Huffman surprised a lot of people by winning the Emmy for Best Actress, Comedy over her co-stars Teri Hatcher and Marcia Cross.

I have to say that I'm surprised that the Emmys recognized Felicity, but she definitely deserved the award with her portrayal of the executive-turned-mother of Wisteria Lane. Although the storylines involving Hatcher and Cross get more media attention, I think that the show owes its success to Huffman's character. The rest of the show has such outlandish plotlines that without the grounding of her realistic and relatable harried mother trying to keep her marriage together it would be otherwise ridiculous. Basically, it's the glue that holds the show together and too many self-styled critics have completely missed how essential her performance is to the success of the show.

While Eva Longoria's character has an out-of-reach glamour, Hatcher's character is dizzyingly flighty, and Cross' character is borderline creepy; many a viewer can empathize with the struggles of Felicity Huffman's character - allowing them to inhabit Wisteria Lane alongside these other larger than life personalities. Without her the audience is on the outside looking in at the soap opera-esque antics of a bunch of strangers: with her, the audience can live in the neighborhood too and every scene becomes a guilty look inside the neighbor's window.

So congrats to Felicity...it's well-deserved recognition for a very underrated role...

Tyra Banks Proves They're Real

Paris Hilton's selective amnesia

If you had a bet that Tyra Banks had silicon implants, then it's time to pay up. She takes off her push-up bra and undergoes a sonogram to prove her breasts are real on her new show in an episode to air Tuesday.

I didn't even know there was a debate raging over this, but we can all rest easier at night now that we know for sure...

Kate Moss' Fame Outweighs Company's Principles

Saturday, September 17, 2005

Kate Moss admits cocaine use, clothing chain says

Awfully big of Kate Moss to admit that she was using cocaine after being caught red-handed. She's set to model a clothing line for H&M whose policy specifically states that their models are to be "healthy, wholesome and sound."

Yeah, right...as if...Kate Moss is the poster child for drug abuse by models. If they meant what they said, they never would have hired her in the first place. But now that she's been busted, they still want her. Why? Because they never meant it in the first place.

Fashion designers and the stores that sell them don't care a whit about either the models or their consumers. If they did, H&M would have dropped her like a hot potato as soon as they had the proof in their hands. Actions speak louder than words, and in this case their actions speak volumes about how much they care about using a coke fiend to boost their bottom line.

Firing Kate Moss would have sent a message to other models that the industry won't tolerate it. But we know the industry will and does no matter what it says in their neatly worded press releases.

Renee Zellweger Fails to Clarify

Explaining Zellweger's "Fraud" Claim

Renee Zellweger issued a statement yesterday in which she says that the term fraud in her court filing is "simply legal language and not a reflection of Kenny's character."

I agree with the lawyer they interviewed for this article: claiming someone committed a fraud is very definitely not simply legal language, and it is absolutely a reflection of Kenny's character.

To her credit she's trying to put the best face on what is obviously not the best moment of her life, and I can't blame her. The lawyer makes clear though that, in filing for annulment, she has to clear a high legal bar in order to get one. California is different than Nevada where Britney Spears got a quickie annulment of her drunken marriage, and Renee's going to have to submit papers proving that Kenny Chesney in someway defrauded her into marrying him.

I still believe that country music fans aren't going to be satisfied to let this go without more explanation. I'm sure Kenny's huddled with his lawyers and PR people trying to figure out how to respond, but I expect to hear something from his camp by Monday or Tuesday. If we don't, then we'll know that they just don't have a good explanation and are just crossing their fingers and hoping it will go away.

If I know country music fans, it's not going to do that. I sure hope Kenny's putting together a good plan because he's going to need it....

Gwen Stefani's L.A.M.B. a Hit

Stefani's L.A.M.B. line roars at Fashion Week end

Apparently, Gwen Stefani's fashion line, L.A.M.B., was a big hit at New York's Fashion Week.

Fashion shows are never just about the clothing: they're also about the showmanship of the designer, and as we all know that's Gwen's specialty. Her show included models getting out of tricked out cars with hydraulics: just what you might expect from a Gwen Stefani production.

The article has some pictures of the runway models sporting her clothes, and to me they definitely look like something you might catch Gwen wearing. If a celebrity is going to put together a fashion line, it should reflect their personal style and Gwen's certainly does.

A

Renee Zellweger Says It Was Fraud

Friday, September 16, 2005

Actress Zellweger ends marriage

Renee Zellweger is claiming that Kenny Chesney engaged in some sort of fraud in her court papers seeking an annulment.

Whoa...That's a heavy claim to make. According to the article, that fraud can take many forms including hiding the fact that he was already being married, was impotent, or has a criminal record. In this day and age, I'd be surprised if she didn't already know if he was impotent or not before they were married, and neither of the other apply to the best of my knowledge. My guess is that her claim of fraud is probably based on insincerity of the wedding vows: meaning that he never intended to honor his vows and therefore the vows were never valid.

Usually when a claim like this is made it's because the spouse has been unfaithful. It wouldn't be terribly shocking to find out that this is the case since Kenny has been on tour virtually since the day they were married.

On the other hand, she also specifically requested that the court rule out any possibility that Kenny would be eligible for any sort of financial support. Given his successful recording career, that's kind of surprising but that leaves open two possibilities: a) her lawyers are just covering their bases, or b) that Kenny has blown all his money and that may be the fraud she's claiming in the annulment papers.

Who knows, although I'm sure that since this article has hit the wires Kenny won't really have any choice but to respond in some way. He really can't afford to have this kind of speculation going out there. Country music fans aren't rock fans: they're typically family-oriented people, and his career will definitely suffer if allegations of marital fraud aren't answered to their satisfaction.

I'd be surprised if this is the last we hear on the subject...

Angelina Jolie Replaces Gisele Bundchen

Angelina Jolie the new face of St. John

Angelina Jolie is going to be the new face of St. John luxury clothing and a spokesman for their new children's cause charity replacing Gisele Bundchen.

The article says that their charity is a new one which tells me that they probably formed it in order to obtain the services of Ms. Jolie. If she placed that demand on them, as I would guess that she did, then good for her.

Whatever you may think of her behavior prior to her adopting children, you really have to take your hat off to her for throwing herself into her new role as an advocate for children around the world. Kudos to Angelina, and congrats to St. John for landing such an illustrious spokeswoman.

Mrs. McCartney Plans to Stalk Jennifer Lopez

Heather to stalk fur-loving J-Lo

This is just stupid. The second Mrs. McCartney, Heather, says she plans to stalk Jennifer Lopez over the use of fur in J-Lo's fashion line, Sweetface.

These fur nazis never know when to stop. All they do is make themselves look like complete fools when they pull stunts like this. If they think they're gaining any converts to their cause by publicly calling people out, they need to think again. All this kind of behavior does is make me want to go out and buy a fur suit and dare one of them to do something about it. I can guarantee you that splashing paint on me is a good way to wind up with a fate worse than that in the videotapes they brandish.

I'm all for a more humane way to kill the animals to get the fur, but humans have been wearing fur since the beginning of time. It's long past time they figure that out. The high priests and priestesses of Political Correctness have become the Puritans of our time. For all the grief they want to give Republicans, these killjoys are really the ones who are actually bent on controlling every aspect of our lives: trying their best to squeeze every bit of enjoyment out of it for everyone who doesn't live according to the arbitrary and ridiculous rules they put forth.

Enough's enough. These people think they have the right to do whatever they want, whenever they want, if they think it will force someone to submit to their PC agenda. It's time to tell them where to go, and I'll give you a hint: Heather McCartney has a good start on her destination with the first two letters of her first name....

Britney Spears Names Her Baby Boy

Britney Spears' baby name revealed

Sean Preston

That's the name that Britney Spears has chosen for the 6 lbs., 11 oz. baby boy she gave birth to at 12:57 PM on Wednesday.

I worried that they would choose some off the wall name combination for him, but it appears that good sense prevailed and he was given a normal name.

The article makes a big deal out of all the expensive accomodations at the hospital, but let's be honest: if every mother giving birth had the option, they'd be doing it too. I can't fault her for doing it up in ultimate comfort.

I hope her baby has the same effect on her that adopting a child did for Angelina Jolie. It would be a nice change to hear about Britney and Kevin doing something positive once in a while...There's a child to think about now: I hope they remember that...

Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney Over Already

Thursday, September 15, 2005

Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney split

Well that didn't take long at all...

Renee Zellweger and Kenny Chesney are splitting up and are going to have their marriage annulled.

They only met in the middle of January and were married by mid-May, and now it's over. Wow! Talk about your whirlwind romances. It's one of those cases where opposites attract but they don't last for long. It was always an unlikely pairing, and now it turns out that it was even more unlikely than even they knew at the time....

Kate Moss Not So Clean After All

Kate 'caught snorting coke'

This is not good news. Kate Moss has been caught on camera cutting and snorting cocaine while at a recording studio with her boyfriend Pete Doherty.

Unfortunately, I'm not surprised. She has a history of drug abuse, and Doherty was busted a month ago with both heroin and crack cocaine in his luggage. The odds of a supposed ex-junkie dating a using junkie and not relapsing are pretty much nil.

If it were just her unwillingness to let go of the rock 'n' roll lifestyle at issue I wouldn't care. She tossed away so much potential with her drug use and failure to get clean and stay clean that I don't have much sympathy left for her. She's had more chances than 99.99% of other junkies, but craves the bright lights too much to walk away from it.

What makes me mad is that she has a two-year old little girl who, by all rights, should be enjoying the best of everything given the fame and wealth of her parents. Instead, she's got a junkie mom without the sense to build a life outside the drug-infested whirlwind that is the music scene.

Tragic....

Paris Hilton Hacker Gets Off Easy

Hilton Hacker Jailbound

The punk who hacked into Paris Hilton' account and posted the phone numbers and personal information of everyone listed on the internet has been sentenced to 11 months in juvy and 2 years of probation where he's prohibited from any device that can connect to the internet.

According to the court records, this was pretty much the least of his computer crimes. He had hacked into a number of other places as well. Before the usual whining hacker boys start complaining about how they're performing a public service by exposing security flaws, that's a bunch of hooey. He wasn't trying to perform any public service, and he didn't have any right to that information. He was using his computer knowledge to get his jollies off. Plain and simple. There is no defense for what he did.

He's 17-years old: certainly old enough to recognize the consequences of his actions, and as far as I'm concerned he should have been sentenced as an adult rather than as a juvenile.

He got off easy. Think about someone taking your information, posting all over the internet, and then having every moron on the planet start harassing your friends and family for no reason other than because they're losers who have nothing better to do with their lives. Everyone you know has to change their phone number and get security to protect themselves from stalker weirdos, and now they all have to think twice before giving you their new contact info. You get to decide what happens to this fool: you think 11 months vacation from high school is sufficient punishment for that kind of havoc being wreaked on your life?

I sure don't...

Britney Spears Has a Baby Boy

Britney Spears gives birth to baby boy

In probably what is the most anticipated celebrity birth of the year, Britney Spears has given birth via planned Caesarian section to a healthy baby boy. They haven't released the little man's name yet, but it's good news for all concerned that both mom and son are healthy and doing well.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed that they don't try to get too terribly inventive with his name. He's going to have enough of a struggle growing up as the son of Britney Spears without being saddled with some kind of weird name...

Heidi Klum Gives Her Baby Boy a Whole Lotta Name

Wednesday, September 14, 2005

Heidi Klum names newborn son after husband and father

First, congrats to Heidi Klum and her husband Seal on the healthy birth of a baby boy. They've given him a name:

Henry Guenther Ademola Dashtu Samuel

Whoa! That's way too much name for such a little person. What happened to the time-honored tradition of first name, middle name, last name? Did they really need to give the child 5 names?

I understand the drive to honor her father and the baby's father by passing on a name, but couldn't they just pick one from each? Did they really need to use all the names?

I feel for the poor kid...While all the other kids in kindergarten race through writing their names, he's going to wind up struggling for a half hour to get through the essay his folks saddled him with...

Dave Chappelle Likes Smaller Crowds

Tuesday, September 13, 2005

Dave Chappelle happy to be working clubs

Dave Chappelle gave an interview to the Cincinnati Enquirer in which he talks about his decision to walk away from his show. He explains that he prefers the feeling of doing stand-up comedy in clubs and getting the feedback from the crowd.

I remember a young Dave Chappelle when he used to handle the emcee duties at a local Baltimore comedy club over a decade ago. More than once, my friends and I left the club commenting that he had been far funnier than any of the acts he was introducing. None of us knew then that he would go on to acting in movies and having a hit show, but we knew funny when we heard it.

I'm glad that Dave is happy. No doubt that his fans, me included, are disappointed that he chose not to continue with his show but it took a lot of guts to walk away from that kind of success. I applaud him for making such a tough personal decision and hope that one day he'll chose to return, if not to the silver screen or TV, at least to a club near me...

Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg Didn't Get the Memo

Carey to sing on hurricane song

Evidently someone forgot to give Mariah Carey and Snoop Dogg the memo that Michael Jackson is to be avoided like the plague.

Both artists, amongst several others, are involved in Michael's new hurricane relief song. I realize that the song is a benefit for hurricane victims, and that's certainly a noble cause, but c'mon...Michael Jackson?

The man, beyond being a walking warning against the dangers of plastic surgery - which although freaky beyond words is a matter of personal choice, is a pedophile. Given half a chance he wouldn't be writing songs to benefit the children, he'd be having them at his house for sleepovers. Where is the 'Ugh...' factor for these artists? Are you seriously telling me that his project was the only one available to choose from? Yeah right....There are a million aspiring songwriters and as many established ones who would love to be involved in a project like these. Here's a brainstorm: why not record a song by someone from the Gulf Coast? Why choose the pedophile's music?

As an aside, I will say that I think the recent court case against him was a total sham: the mother was completely out to extort money from Michael Jackson. That being said, I don't believe you pay $50 million to hush up an innocent sleepover, and he's paid more than once to more than one family. I won't even go into what I think about the parents who let their kids sleep there. But to take part in any project he's putting together is just sending the message that these artists don't care about his pedophilia.

It's the wrong message to send, no matter the cause...

Korn Pockets $15 Million

Monday, September 12, 2005

EMI Hungry for Korn

Korn has signed a deal with EMI that pays them $15 million in upfront money in exchange for 25% of their publishing, merchandising and touring money.

After all the recent talk about Paul McCartney "selling out," I can only wonder if the same people are going to be levelling those accusations at what is obviously a purely corporate deal. The breakeven for each side of this deal is at about $60 million: if Korn makes more, they wind up making less than they would have without the deal; but if they make less, then EMI overpaid for what they're getting.

The end result is that you can be sure that EMI will be pushing Korn front and center in order to recoup their investment. It's a great way to make sure your band is getting top-notch promotion, but Korn has always been kind of an anti-establishment band, so it'll be interesting to see how their fan base responds to this deal.

Their new album is due to hit stores on November 22nd, so we won't have to wait too long to find out...

Matt Damon's Off the Market

Matt Damon, girlfriend reportedly engaged

Sorry ladies, Matt Damon is no longer on the market. He has proposed to his girlfriend of two years, Luciana Barroso.

In a town of whirlwind on-the-set romances, the fact that the relationship has already lasted for two years is an accomplishment in and of itself. He even managed to be one of Angelina Jolie-s co-stars (in the upcoming The Good Shepherd without getting romantically involved with her, so the relationship must be on pretty solid ground.

I've always liked Matt as an actor and, from what I've seen and heard from him, as a pretty squared away and intelligent guy, so congrats to both Matt and Luciana....

Matt Damon's Dessert Not So Tasty

Matt Damon's dessert up for auction

How crazy is this kind of thing? Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie (how's that for a box office powerhouse duo?) have wrapped up filming on The Good Shepherd, and some crew member is auctioning off Matt's partially eaten dessert from the set.

This follows in the tradition of the auctioning off of Britney Spears' chewing gum. It also follows in the tradition of other "gone too far" fan behavior.

In a weird way, it's got to be a little flattering that someone would be willing to pay for your half-eaten dessert. On the other hand, it's got to be creepy to think that every cast-off from your life is subject to someone rooting through it so they can make a quick buck off eBay.

Personally, I think you've got to be a little off your rocker to place a bid; but if that's your cup of tea then knock yourself out...