Celebrities 3/16

So it is official that Kelly Clarkson is dating Brandon Blackstock. Since Kelly is friends with Reba and his dad is Kelly’s manager, the two got hung out a lot at family BBQs and things.

On Monday, Russell Brand got into trouble in New Orleans when he allegedly snatched a photographer’s cell phone and threw it through a nearby law firm’s window. A warrant was issued for his arrest and the actor, who has offered to pay for the property damage, turned himself in yesterday.

Former presidential nominee John Edwards and his mistress Rielle Hunter, the woman he had an affair with before his wife Elizabeth Edwards died of breast cancer in 2010, are allegedly thinking about having another baby together. The two have a 4-year-old daughter Quinn, who was conceived while John and Elizabeth were married, but according to sources, they're hoping to have another as soon as possible.

Yoda, the mixed Chinese crested and Chihuahua dog who held the title World's Ugliest Dog has died. She died in her sleep at the ripe old age of 15. Yoda lived a tough life on the streets until being found by her owner behind an apartment building. She was originally mistaken for a rat. (Which isn’t hard to believe if you look at her) Cut to last summer when she became famous, won $1,000 and got a huge trophy for being the World's Ugliest Dog.

A 56-year-old man was killed yesterday when he was buried under a 20-foot mound of pinto beans at a warehouse in eastern Colorado where he worked. The cause of the accident is under investigation, but somehow Raymond Segura Jr. fell into the huge pile. Co-workers, emergency personnel and even four inmates from the county jail spent an hour digging through the mound to get the trapped worker. However, he was dead when they found him.

TV/Movies/Music 3/16

Thousands and thousands of people across Asia and Australia got up early this morning to get the new iPad. This third version goes on sale in the US today starting at 8am local time. Pre-orders on the website sold out already for the first shipments so there will probably be more people going to stores to see if they can get one.

Leonard DiCaprio is teaming up with his good pal Martin Scorsese to make The Wolf of Wall Street, a film based on a memoir of hard-partying stockbroker Jordan Belfort who was indicted in 1998 for security fraud and money laundering. This will be the fifth film that DiCaprio and Scorsese have done together.

James Franco has signed on for a multi-episode arc on Nick at Nite’s upcoming primetime soap called Hollywood Heights. The show, which is based on a Mexican series, is about a shy girl who becomes a pop star after winning a competition. It will run the same way telenovelas and soap operas do airing five nights a week. It will premiere in June.

Jennie Garth has signed on with CMT to produce Jennie Garth: Little Bit Country, a reality series that will follow her as she leaves Hollywood and her failed marriage for a more simple life in the “country” (which is Los Olivos, CA).

The reboot of the TV series Dallas has a premiere date. The show will air on June 13^th on TNT.

Castle’s Nathan Fillion has been tapped to play Hermes in the next Percy Jackson movie. Hopefully they get working on the sequel The Sea of Monsters soon otherwise Percy is going to be 30 before they finish the series.

ABC Family has decided to make a Home Alone 5 made for TV movie. The TV movie will star Malcolm McDowell, Debi Mazar, Edward Asner, Eddie Steeples and Christian Martyn and will premiere during the channel’s 25 Days of Christmas special.

Pope Benedict XVI is finally getting a fragrance to call his own. Italian perfumer Silvana Casoli is the nose behind the holy scent. While concocting the fragrance, Casoli says she “thought of the smells the Pope would smell when praying at the Grotto of Lourdes” and apparently that includes lemon tree blossom and the smell of spring grass.

Legal Issues and Politics 3/16

North Korea announced plans this morning to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a “provocative move” that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the US exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions. “The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but it argues that its satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from any international disarmament agreements. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised way of testing military missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban.”

A new bill in Arizona would require women to tell their employer why they are getting birth control if they try to get reimbursed through their employer-provided health plan. The bill allows employers to hire women if they have a religious objection to birth control! Oh! And if one amendment goes through, it will only be reimbursed if you get it for things like acne, not to prevent pregnancy. (Why does anyone live in Arizona!?!?!)

In early February, the US Department of Justice indicted Switzerland’s oldest private bank on charges of helping wealthy Americans hide $1.2 billion from the US tax authorities. After a lot of back and forth, the Swiss parliament approved an amendment to the country’s existing tax record with the US which will give the government unprecedented access to accounts held by its citizens in Switzerland. The current agreement allows for this information already but various stumbling blocks often slowed or halted the process. The new agreement will allow the government to get information when Americans exhibit certain “behavioral patterns.”

Saying it would endanger local children and lead to the destruction of the federation, a Russian judge has banned the 2014 Sochi Winter Olympics from creating a Pride House for gay and gay-friendly athletes. The Pride House at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics was considered a huge success and garnered heavy positive press coverage. Russian gay activists have vowed to take their case to the International Olympic Commission.

The Italian Supreme Court issued a ruling that may help clear the road for marriage equality. “In its first case regarding a gay couple who wed abroad, the Supreme Court explained that the couple must enjoy the same legal rights as any heterosexual couple. The Court pulled a New Jersey though and said they would leave it up to Parliament to decide how the couple gets the rights (meaning marriage or civil unions) but they have 60 days to come up with something.

After months of obstructionism by the GOP, the US Senate yesterday finally approved President Obama’s nomination of Michael Fitzgerald to the federal bench. He is now the fourth openly gay federal judge and the first one serving outside of New York City.

The New Hampshire House has resoundingly defeated a bill that would have allowed wedding businesses to refuse to serve gay couples on the basis of religious objections.

A Memphis police officer decided to get frisky in his squad car while on duty. The worst part is however that they turned on the police scanner and every police officer and dispatcher in the district heard it happening. He has been suspended without pay.

Crazy Right groups begin gathering the petition signatures to place a repeal of Maryland’s marriage equality law on the November ballot yesterday. Maryland has one of the nation’s strictest petition systems, but only 55,000 names are required.

Focus on the Family has launched a ballot petition drive that, if successful, will ask Colorado voters to make it legal to deny housing, employment, and services to any person on the basis of religious objections. Now obviously they are going after gay people, but think about the vague writing of the petition would mean that almost any religious objection someone had can be used against you gay or straight (i.e. your landlord could deny you housing if you want to live with a boyfriend or girlfriend and are not married).

The American Decency Association is uber-pissed at video makers, especially Electronic Arts (EA), for allowing people to have the option to play gay characters. Apparently if an 11-year-old boy plays a gay character on a video game, he will become gay in real life. HAHAHAHAHAHA! (EA has introduced a Star Wars video game with the option of gay characters.)

Story I Have To Share: Last week the University of Washington's FoQus group for Queer Students held a food drive for the Lifelong Aids Alliance. We raised a lot of money and food that they desperately needed, all the while being picketed, loudly, in the middle of Red Square by church folk, who were yelling that people with AIDS did not deserve to eat, condoms would not save you from hell, and that "Queers shall experience hell, along with the drunkards, druggies, STD havers, and church gossips!" While it was horrible to hear them say as many homophobic things as they did, we'd really like to thank them for picketing so hard, because so many people came up to us and handed us a lot of cash and food donations, just to piss them off. (LOVE IT!!!)

Celebrities 3/15

I hope this isn’t true, because that is weird. It is being reported that Bobbi Kristina Brown is dating her adopted brother Nicholas Gordon. There is also talk that they are engaged to be married. I know they are not related but that still creeps me out.

Actress Charlize Theron has adopted a baby boy. Her rep released a statement saying: “Charlize Theron has adopted a child. She is the proud mom of a healthy baby boy named Jackson.”

In a recent interview, X-Files’ Gillian Anderson admitted to having a few lesbian relationships in her life. She says though there wasn’t too much shame associated with them (a few of them were in high school and college) because she wasn’t really sure she was gay, she just liked the girls at the time. After college however she realized that she wasn’t really into women and now admits that her celebrity crush is Ryan Gosling.

After returning to her house in LA on Saturday, Avatar star Zoe Saldana noticed someone had forced their way in while she was away. The weird thing is that she has an alarm system that was activated but it never told the police someone broke in. (I know someone who is going to get her money back from that company.)

Bruno Mars has joined an exclusive club if gentlemen as he is the 10^th man to ever appear on the cover of an issue of Playboy magazine. Their March 16^th issue will be their Sex and Music issue.

Last night Kim Kardashian was having a little trouble going to sleep. So she decided to take a topless picture of herself and put it on Twitter. LOL! Now she does have a little pillow in front of her so you can’t see anything but who goes “I can’t sleep. I know, I’ll take a topless picture of myself and put it out there in public.”

A study has been released that talks about the smartest dogs. Here are the Top 5: 1) Border Collie, 2) Poodle, 3) German Shepard, 4) Golden Retriever, and 5) Doberman Pinscher. The biggest part of the test was how quick they learned new tricks and training but they also did some observing to see how the dogs could figure out some “puzzles.”

TV/Movies/Music 3/15

Vampire Diaries fans, finally we will get a new episode tonight. It will be a flashback to 1912.

CBS has announced that they will be renewing 15 series next season. Those shows include 2 Broke Girls, Mike & Molly, Person of Interest, Hawaii Five-0, Blue Bloods, The Good Wife, NCIS, NCIS: LA, Criminal Minds, CSI, The Mentalist, How I Met Your Mother, The Big Bang Theory, Survivor, The Amazing Race, Undercover Boss, 60 Minutes, and 48 Hour Mystery. The shows that could be saved but might not are Unforgettable, Two and a Half Men, Rob, A Gifted Man, CSI: Miami, CSI: NY, and Rules of Engagement.

Wow! Apple now has a larger market capitalization than the entire US retail sector as defined by the S&P 500. So it is bigger than practically all retail combined!

Yesterday, Ben & Kerry’s announced they are changing the name of Oh my Apple Pie to Apple-y Ever After to support the UK proposal to legalize same-sex marriage. The packaging includes a picture of a wedding cake with rainbow ribbons and a gay couple on top of the cake.

Jermaine Jones is off American Idol. On March 5^th, he was arrested for a getting into a fight and then he gave the cops a fake name. When that was found out (and the fact he had outstanding warrants) he was arrested. He was released and I guess the producers were going to keep him but then he got arrested again this weekend! He was only a passenger in the car that got pulled over, but gave a fake name again and was charged with giving false information. The producers have had enough and he is gone.

People really wanted to see Julianne Moore as Sarah Palin! Game Change premiered on HBO Saturday night and was the channel’s highest rated original film in eight years breaking the record held by John Adams. 3.6 million people watched the show.

Bobby Brown is shopping around a tell-all book about Whitney Houston that will “give her fans all the facts about her life and style.” He has tried to get this published before without success but now that she is dead, publishers are apparently very interested.

Glee’s Darren Criss was offered the job to host X Factor USA as the replacement for cutie Steve Jones. However he turned it down because he is too busy with Glee and some other secret project.

Sorry 24 fans, but it looks like you won’t be getting your movie. Pre-production on the 24 film was grounded to a screeching halt. Apparently the negotiations between Fox, the filmmakers, and Kiefer Sutherland have been convoluted with all sides not being very clear with each other.

There has been a “movie poster” going around the internet of Ryan Gosling in a biopic film about Walt Disney. This poster is fake and was created by French artist Pascal Witaszek. However, they should probably do the movie as everyone thinks it is an awesome idea. LOL!

The Rolling Stones say that even though 2012 is their 50th anniversary together, they will not be going on a tour. They aren’t ready. But they do plan on do something in 2013.

Tickets for the Broadway shows Evita and Newsies are selling like hotcakes. Evita has made over $10 million in advance ticket sales and Newsies has made about $7 million.

Real-life couple Olivia Wilde and Jason Sudeikis are taking their relationship to the big screen as they have been cast in the romantic comedy Relanxious. The movie is about two people with too much anxiety who fall in love.

The Sopranos’ Michael Imperioli has been cast in NBC’s hospital pilot County as a veteran doctor taking interns under his wing.

Freddie Prinze Jr. will be back on TV in an untitled comedy pilot. The show revolves around a “shy woman working at a company called Pharmville who gets dumped by Prinze’s character after a 2-year engagement.”

The 244-year-old Encyclopedia Britannica will be going out of print this year. If the likes of Google and Wikipedia, who needs to buy a huge set of books that cost $1,400 that are out of date the second they are printed. The latest version is 2010 and they have about 4,000 copies left. They will try to sell those and then they are done.

Pepsi announced they are going to release Pepsi Next. The drink will be a 60 calorie pop that will have “way more flavor than diet, but without all the calories.”

The First Ever Soily Award Nominees

We all know of the Golden Raspberries and the prestigious honor of being called terrible and the worst.

Now, we have the Soily Awards!

The Soily Awards not only highlight the worst of the worst of 2011's cinematic dump, but they also highlight the movies that thought were incredibly pretentious and pompous.

The Soilies were created by Movieline and will be given out on March 23rd. So who are the lucky nominees…

The Soily for Worst Picture of 2011

The most appalling, misconceived and/or unpleasant-to-watch film of 2011. The more ambitious/pretentious, the better.

Abduction

Conan the Barbarian
Green Lantern
The Human Centipede II (Full Sequence)
Transformers: Dark of the Moon

The Soily for Achievement in Bad Directing

The director of the most appalling, misconceived and/or unpleasant-to-watch film of 2011 — or maybe just most appalling director? (NOTE: The award will be named after its inaugural winner.)

Michael Bay, Transformers: Dark of the Moon

Dennis Dugan, Jack and Jill
Clint Eastwood, J. Edgar
David Gordon Green, Your Highness and The Sitter
Zack Snyder, Sucker Punch

The Soily for Achievement in Bad Acting

A unisex award recognizing the worst and/or least inspired performance by any actor in any film in 2011.

Russell Brand, Arthur

Glenn Close, Albert Nobbs
Taylor Lautner, Abduction and The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part I
Alex Pettyfer, I Am Number Four and Beastly
Adam Sandler, Just Go With It and Jack and Jill

The Brown Paycheck Achievement in Bad Acting

A unisex award recognizing the most lopsided ratio of salary to quality.

Bradley Cooper, The Hangover Part II
Harrison Ford, Cowboys and Aliens
Nicole Kidman, Just Go With It
Helen Mirren, Arthur
Natalie Portman, Your Highness, No Strings Attached and Thor

The Shart Prize

A film that seemed like it might be bad but turned out much, much more aromatically awful than anyone could have imagined.

Arthur

Atlas Shrugged: Part I
Bucky Larson: Born to Be a Star
Your Highness
Zookeeper

The Shit-the-Bed Award

Arguably the most prestigious Soily, this honor goes to the movie that, despite its pedigree and everything it had going for it on paper, nevertheless resulted in a massive failure to move the cultural needle or achieve anything remotely resembling entertainment.

Carnage

Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close
The Iron Lady
J. Edgar
War Horse

Legal Issues and Politics 3/15

Current GOP Delegate Count: Romney 495; Santorum 252; Gingrich 131; and Paul 48

Heritage of Pride announced that Chris Salgardo, Cyndi Lauper and Connie Kopelov & Phyllis Siegel will be Grand Marshals for the 43rd annual LGBT Pride March on June 24, 2012 in New York City. Salgardo is the president of Kiehl’s and is a huge advocate for corporate responsibility. Lauper is being honored for her True Colors Foundations that helps GLBT kids and Kopelov & Siegel were New York’s first legally married same-sex couple.

The Russian Orthodox Church has called for St. Petersburg’s ban on “homosexual propaganda” to be extended to the entire nation. The ban in St Petersburg say that you cannot make posters, songs, movies, books, speeches, or have classes/seminars/workshops that talk about homosexuality in any form.

Even though nothing will really come from this, hate group leader Scott Lively is being sued in Massachusetts court by a Ugandan GLBT rights group for inciting the persecution and murder of homosexuals in their country. Lively would visit the country and explain that they had to take a “strictly biblical” attitude towards gay people which caused the government to right the pending legislation to kill people for being gay.

Sean Patrick Maloney, the openly gay former aide to New York governors Spitzer and Paterson, has announced his intent to run for Congress. The Advocate reports that Maloney wants the seat being vacated by retiring Democratic Rep. Maurice Hinchey, whose district includes Binghamton and Poughkeepsie.

The final wording for the Washington State ballot has been approved. The ballot will read “The legislature passed Engrossed Substitute Senate Bill 6239 concerning marriage for same-sex couples, modified domestic partnership law and religious freedom and voters filed a sufficient referendum on this bill. This bill would allow same-sex couples to marry, preserve domestic partnerships only for seniors, and preserve the right of clergy or religious organization to refuse to perform, recognize or accommodate any marriage ceremony. Should this bill be [ ] Approved [ ] Rejected”