The feel-good blog item of the day is the story of when the small town of Brandon, Mississippi successfully foiled Westboro Baptist Church's plan to protest a Marine's funeral. (Here is a video of the refreshingly protester-free road as Marine Staff Sgt. Jason Rogers is returned home on April 14.) How'd they do it? They sicced the police on them and beat them up.
America's most polarizing actress has been cast in another project, one that's sure to be issuey. What will people say? Also today: a good actress joins a hopefully good movie, more Hunger Games casting news, and some good and some bad for HBO.
Is Megan Fox, pouty-faced president of the Marilyn Monroe Society for Unoriginal Starlets, finally letting go of her idol? The New York Daily News notes that Megan's Marilyn tattoo has been looking lighter, lately. At left, Megan at the premiere of Passion Play in September; at right, at an appearance on April 20.
Remember the hope-filled days of 2008, when the titans of Wall Street came together to pour money into Barack Obama's presidential campaign, because they knew he was going to win? It was truly an inspirational example of the rich setting aside their historic partisan affiliations in order to further their own self-interest.
If you're a lawyer for one of the 170 or so remaining detainees at Guantanamo Bay, you're probably happy that Wikileaks has finally dropped the classified case files for each defendant showing just how spurious, thin, and ludicrous much of the evidence against them is. That sort of information could come in handy for a trial or tribunal. Too bad it's classified, and therefore, according to the Justice Department, can't be used in court unless we say so nanny-nanny-boo-boo.
Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the former model turned singer turned French first lady, is pregnant with her second child, according to several French newspapers. The Élysée Palace, which is French for White House, has refused to comment because it's a "personal matter." You know what what means, don't you? The 43-year-old will be popping out the president's son in no time. It will be her second child and Nicolas Sarkozy's fourth, but their first together. It's like Le Bunch du Brady.
The fallout from Nic Cage's night of drunken thrashing continues. Robert Pattinson's fear of clowns is actually quite reasonable. Charlie Sheen has terrible body odor. Some actress bitchslaps Paris Hilton on Twitter. Here's your Tuesday gossip.
Barack Obama was definitely born in Hawaii. How do we know this is true? Because CNN says so. "Period." The network traveled to the state where Obama was allegedly born in 1961 and spoke with Dr. Chiyome Fukino ("a former director of the Hawaii Department of Health and a Republican") who said Obama's live birth certificate is legit, and that "he was absolutely born here in the state of Hawaii." A Republican even says so. Case closed.
If you're a Botox user you're basically a zombie who's devoid of all emotion, according to new research. Talking to someone who uses Botox is sometimes tough, especially when you try to get a read on their expressions but can't get over the permanent look of shock on their face. But, in a bizarre twist, it goes both ways: The results of a study published in the journal Social Psychological and Personality Science have found that Botox patients can't understand your expressions, either.
As part of her punishment for violating probation, Lindsay Lohan has been sentenced to 120 hours of community service at the L.A. County Department of the Coroner. Apparently she will do "basic janitorial work. She won't be handling any dead bodies but she'll certainly see them." She will also serve 360 hours of service at a homeless shelter for women on Skid Row.
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's reputation as a fighter for transparency and destroyer of secrets ought to be thoroughly demolished by today's spectacle of the New York Times literally forcing him to give up the Guantanamo Bay files he'd been hoarding for months.
After coming out while in office in 2004, former New Jersey governor Jim McGreevey joined the seminary and tried to be an Episcopal priest. Now it turns out the denomination doesn't want him and, shockingly enough, the decision has nothing to do with his shacking up with another man.
Among the cache of documents allegedly leaked to Wikileaks by PFC Bradley Manning was over 700 dossiers on detainees at Guantanamo Bay Prison. A slew of international papers published stories based on them today, and Wikileaks is dribbling out the full cache. They paint a picture of Gitmo as a poop-strewn debacle stuffed with crazy people, a journalist, random Afghan civilians—even some dangerous terrorists.
Eliot Spitzer has found a new target. For much of the week Spitzer has been laser focused on revealing whether Donald Trump's finances are actually as good as he says they are.
