‘Most Beautiful’ & ‘Most Hated’ Leading Ladies: Anne, Gwyneth & Reese

Anne Hathaway, Gwyneth Paltrow and the recently arrested Reese  Witherspoon – what do these A-List leading ladies have in common besides beauty, talent and Oscars?  All three are lately being– to different degrees– ‘hated on.’

Hating Anne Hathaway started as a strange Tweet trend that surged just at Hatheway’s moment of triumph, winning an Oscar for her critically acclaimed performance in Les Miz.  Hathaway’s ‘crimes’?  Her haircut?  Her teary-eyed actressy demeanor?  Just being herself, apparently, is crime enough to her detractors.  “The only thing worse than Anne Hathaway is Anne Hathaway crying,” one Hathaway-hating Tweet-er ‘explained.’

It used to be that movie star fame, while high pressure, insulated stars from the slings and arrows of outraged fans.  Not to mention from officers of the law.

Reese Witherspoon must have been going by ‘old school’ movie star rules when she foolishly mouthed off to a policeman.  Consequences are still unfolding despite Witherspoon’s quick and contrite public apology.  Given Witherspoon’s carefully cultivated ‘good girl’ image, she had best brace for a firestorm as she topples from her pedestal into the virtual Roman Collesium of Hate Games.

And Gwyneth Paltrow?  Perhaps her case is the most puzzling of all.  PEOPLE Magazine just named her the ‘most beautiful’ celebrity woman.  But what did this golden girl star do to deserve almost simultaneously winning ‘Most Hated Celebrity’ in an online poll?  Was it naming her baby ‘Apple’?  Publishing a book of health-foody kiddie recipes?  Or was it just being too beautiful and too successful at too young an age, married to a rock star and mom to boot.

Is Gwyneth also targeted for hating because she, like Reese W., is not now quite as young and shiny new?  Are we tossing these dolls aside like slightly battered Barbies?   Do our own Twitter-ized youths really have nothing better to do than to ‘hate on’ Hathaway, Paltrow, no-doubt soon on Reese W. and who knows who next?

(photos: cnn.com, crushable.com, eonline.com, Google images)

A FOUR-SIDED BED: Sizzler & Site by Bravo Sierra

~~~~~~~~~~A FOUR-SIDED BED: SIZZLER & SITE~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Check it out:  A FOUR-SIDED BED, a feature film in development with BRAVO SIERRA, the team that produced the short film CELEBBRITIES IN DISGRACE (which premiered at Woods Hole Film Festival in 2010 and has screened at festivals across the country). 

A Four-Sided Bed’s SIZZLER REEL is directed by Matthew Quinn Martin; produced by Bravo Sierra; it stars Jason Sol (rt), Julie Stone (left), Kevin Dwyer (below left) and Cassandra Bodzak (below right)

 This feature film project is based on A FOUR-SIDED BED by fiction writer and blog Mistress of Ceremonies, Elizabeth Searle. The film venture was featured in IMAGINE a magazine covering the New England film community.  Visit our new FOUR-SIDED WEBSITE & view our SIZZLER REEL:

http://www.afoursidedbed.com

Some love stories have more than two sides.  Allie Wolfe discovers the truth about her new husband JJ’s past when Kin and Bird, an unconventional couple, begin pushing to see sexy mysterious JJ ‘one last time’.  As JJ and his young wife Allie await their first baby and Kin learns he is seriously ill, Kin and Bird re-emerge in JJ’s life and reawaken feelings from the summer when they had connected with him “all ways.”  

These two very different couples find their lives entangled, their relationships at risk and their psyches at war in this gender-bending love story for our times. 

The novel A FOUR SIDED BED  was published by Graywolf Press and released in a new paperback edition in 2011 by PFP Press; it was on the Boston Globe Paperback Bestseller list and was nominated for an American Library Association book award.  The Screenplay for A FOUR-SIDED BED won Best Adapted Feature at the American International Film Fest in 2012.

Brava to the sizzling Sizzler Reel cast and director, to website designer Jenny Martin and to Bravo Sierra as they work to bring this story to the big screen.  Stay tuned…

BIEBER, LAUER & BANKERS: The High Price of Not Being Nice

Matt Lauer of TODAY fame has made a career of seeming genial.  Justin Bieber was the nice Boy Next Door made good via his mom’s posts on YouTube.  Now Bieber may face prosecution for an alleged ‘spitting incident’ and Lauer finds himself fending off rumors he may be fired.

Both find their careers in crisis at rising reports that these professional Nice Guys have a nasty side.

At least Bieber has his age as an excuse.  The young pop star’s latest not-so-nice behavior allegedly involved Bieber spitting at a couple who showed up at his mansion to complain about Bieber’s speeding in his gated community.

Matt Lauer didn’t spit at TODAY’s ousted Ann Curry, or not that we know of.  But this week reports have emerged that he just ‘didn’t like’ the blindsided Curry and may have pulled strings to have her removed, contrary to his denials.  Lauer’s all important likability ratings are sliding.

What does all this have to do with not-so-nice Bankers?  Once respected and trusted, Wall Street bankers and investors find themselves under fire for bad behavior from firebrand truth-tellers like Senator Elizabeth Warren.  Our resident wit Litotes summed up their collective chagrin when petulant reports of ‘tensions’ between JP Morgan and regulators emerged.  In his quote, Litotes adds a prescription that should apply to outa-control stars as well:

Well duh, there should be “tensions” between a regulator and the vampire squid it’s trying to regulate. “Tensions” as in “If you break the law, buddy, you’re going to jail”.

(photos: radaronline.com, gossippoints.com, Googleimages)

‘THE OSCARS’: Close Up by Erin Lynn Violette

Erin Lynn Violette is a recent graduate from the University of Southern Maine’s Stonecoast MFA program in Creative Writing. She currently lives in Hollywood with her husband Ryan, and their spirited dog Abbey.   As HOLLYWOOD CORRESPONDENT for this blog, Erin gives us an up-close and personal view of THE OSCARS.

‘THE OSCARS’: Close Up by Erin Lynn Violette 

So the Oscars have come and gone, but I have to say this year they’ve left a big impression on me. It could have been because this was New England’s year with Connecticut born Seth MacFarlane hosting, and Boston native Ben Affleck taking Best Picture for Argo. But I think it had more to do with living locally and witnessing all that goes into the preparations for such an extravagant event.

Security Check Point

~Of course it’s too easy to get caught up in all the glitz and glamour, but a lot has to be said of the weeks of meticulous preparation, and the high security detail that took over several blocks of Hollywood Boulevard, and all this for the sake of honoring movies. And then what took nearly a month for the Academy and Dolby Theatre to set up had literally disappeared overnight. Right down to the Oscar billboards, which had been replaced with the old standard – Sofía Vergara smooching up to a can of Diet Pepsi (she’s 40 and clearly fabulous by the way).

Selma Hayek wins Erin’s favorite hair-do!

~At first I couldn’t quite wrap my head around how they pull this off.

Erin loves Jane Fonda’s ‘Dynasty’ look!

I tried to imagine how they got all these celebrities inside. I thought perhaps limos simply pulled up to the curb depositing celebrities at the front of the Dolby Theatre where a slender red carpet, much like the yellow brick road, led them to their destination inside. Let me tell you, it made much more sense that they blocked of the section of Hollywood Boulevard in front of the theater, set up security check points for everyone entering the ceremony, laid out a red carpet that covered the blocked off street and entrances, and placed bleachers along the street on the way into the theater.

The Bleachers

~The bleachers are where 700 hundred lucky people get to sit and watch the celebrities as they arrive. And! Tickets to sit in the bleachers are available when you enter a lottery to win them. This year the lottery opened on September 24, 2012, and closed on November 16^th with winners being announced later that month. So mark your calendars and look into this next year. The process is simple. Just sign up to be an Oscars insider at www.oscars.org/insider and bookmark the site.

Boehner & Brown: Sit-Down Guys

The Oscar for Worst Performance by an Audience Member:

A TIE between surly sleepy-eyed John Boehner, stubbornly keeping his seat through President Obama’s spirited State of the Union, and sullen Chris Brown, slumped in his seat at the Grammys while the rest of the audience rose to their feet for rival R&Ber Frank Ocean.

Speaker Boehner and President Obama have not come to blows as Brown and Ocean reportedly did over a West Hollywood parking spot.  But Boehner radiated sour-grapes as he sat through Obama’s assured SOTU star-turn.

Republicans were left with little to cheer about.  Their own best hope for 2016, boyish Senator Marco Rubio, came across looking Not Ready for Prime Time as he side-lunged for his water bottle only moments into his over-hyped SOTU response.

As for rapper Brown, he had a fired-up Adele to contend with.  Alas, reports that the formidable British songstress was giving bully Brown a tongue lashing have been denied by Adele herself via Tweet.  Still, Brown facing firebrand Adele looks as sheepish and speechless as the GOP in general seem these days in the face of our re-elected ‘stand-up’ President, Barack Obama.

(photos: usmagazine.com, nydailynews, iamsupergorge.com, minnesotapublicradio.org)

BQHATEVWR, Scott Brown

#Bqhatevwr : An incoherent word w/ ‘HATE’ in the middle; sums up many right-wing ‘thoughts’!  Good riddance & hate-whatever 2 u ScottBrown!

(my own late-nite Tweet re: Scott Brown)

BQHATEVWR

In wine there is truth.  And possibly in late-nite ‘drunk Tweets’ as well.

Those of us in Massachusetts who endured Scott Brown’s mean-spirited and ultimately failed Senate race are not surprised to see the word ‘HATE’ pop up in Brown’s much-mocked Dark Night of the Soul tweet.

Yes, we all tap wrong keys at times– but for me, there was no mistaking the vicious level of real ‘hate’ in an anti-Warren website put up by the official Brown campaign last year that looked more like the work of a Cyber-Bully than a sitting Senator.

Complete with juvenile name-calling and distorted photos of Warren, the site attacked Warren’s character in strikingly personal terms.  Yes, Warren’s own campaign fought back hard, but it focussed on the issues and especially on Brown’s own voting record.

Note to the GOP: It’s the ‘HATE’ in the middle of many a muddled right-wing ‘thought’ that is turning off mainstream voters.

Along with many MA voters, I breathed a sigh of relief when Brown declared he would not run for the newly vacated Senate seat– an abrupt move that has angered many in his own party.  I hope the GOP candidates who do run will learn from Brown’s defeat that playing the ‘hate’ card of personal attacks tends to backfire.

Good riddance to hateful campaiging– and ‘bqhatevwr’ to Scott Brown.

(photos: sodahead.com, boston.com, GoogleImages)

John Kerry Stepping into ‘Big Heels’ as SOS & Stepping Up to the Plate for DES

As John Kerry stepped onto the world stage, seeming ‘happy at last,’ he joked that he had ‘big heels’ to fill.’  Kerry’s foreign policy expertise is widely known, but we on the blog know another side to him, revealed in the reprinted blog post below by DES activist and writer Caitlin McCarthy.  She describes working with both Kerry and former Senator Brown on a womens’ health issue of both national and international concern…
Caitlin McCarthy’s posts on the DES drug disgrace for this blog have been linked by the Huffington Post and read worldwide.  She has appeared widely this year in MA and national media speaking out about DES.

Caitlin received her Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from Emerson College.  An award-winning screenwriter at international film festivals and labs, Caitlin has two feature films in development: WONDER DRUG with producer/star Alysia Reiner; and RESISTANCE with director Si Wall. Caitlin is also partnering on writing/creating the TV series PASS/FAIL with Jim Forbes, a multiple Emmy, ALMA, AP and Golden Mic award-winning writer, producer, correspondent and narrator; and developing the TV series FREE SKATE with choreographer Michael Masionis. In addition to screenwriting, Caitlin serves as an English teacher at an inner-city public high school.

FDA Letter Is National News (& It All Started Here)

February 24, 2011 by easearle

Coverage on the FDA letter in the Boston Globe…

FDA LETTER IS NATIONAL NEWS (& IT ALL STARTED HERE…)

Our blog is proud that Caitlin McCarthy’s series of impassioned guest posts on the DES drug scandal has resulted in an important news-making letter of acknowledgement from the FDA about the DES tragedy.

The offices of Sen. John Kerry and Sen. Scott Brown have put out a joint national press release on the FDA letter, which was prompted in part by Caitlin’s posts on this blog and her request that readers contact Senators Brown and Kerry.

One of Caitlin’s DES posts for our blog was linked by theHuffington Post‘s own Diana Bianchini, who wrote about Caitlin and the DES apology effort, reaching a worldwide readership.  This week’s letter from the FDA breaks new ground and will have political and legal ramifications that are likely to help DES victims around the world.

Our thanks to all the readers who contacted the senators and to Caitlin for showing that one voice can make a difference.

(photos: Forbes.com, boston.com, GoogleImages)