News: Joel Madden, Bush Impeachment, Brad Pitt, PlanetOut
Stock of beleaguered gay media powerhouse PlanetOut in free fall.
Which one of these men is named Tim and which is named Bob? Researchers at Miami University have "shown quantitatively that certain names are associated with certain facial features." So when somebody says, "You look like a (insert name here)" they may be right.
T.R. Knight to appear at Billy Eichner's Creation Nation in NYC tomorrow night. I had the opportunity to see this "live talk show" in January when Joan Rivers was the guest. It's a lot of fun and definitely recommended. Official Site.
Celebrity-stacked (Cyndi Lauper, Hal Sparks, Whoopi Goldberg, Lance Bass, Alan Cumming) AIDS Walk NY takes in $6,857,527.
Arjan chats with Good Charlotte singer Joel Madden who reveals his man-crush to be...Johnny Depp: "I support equality for all people. To me people are people and we really should live and let live. What others want to do with their life doesn’t affect me so people should have the freedom to do that. I really think we’re making progress. There would be less problems and hate in the world, if people stop thinking about others and just worry about themselves."
David Beckham meets The Queen.
New York's new legally married same-sex couples: Secure or not?
Ted Haggard in Alexandra Pelosi doc Friends of God: "You know all the surveys say that evangelicals have the best sex life of any other group." Pelosi: "Because Pastor Ted was my tour guide, he was so good to me. He took me under his wing. Most people think of evangelicals as being these holy roller, Jesus freaks, and Ted wasn't like that," she said. "It was interesting for me to say, these are good people. He was a reasonable, normal everyday man. So, it was hard to stomach what had happened."
Pitt's red carpet Gatsby moment. More here...
Ricky Martin plops down $8 million for a Miami recording studio.
SALON: Why Bush hasn't been impeached. "The truth is that Bush's high crimes and misdemeanors, far from being too small, are too great. What has saved Bush is the fact that his lies were, literally, a matter of life and death. They were about war. And they were sanctified by 9/11. Bush tapped into a deep American strain of fearful, reflexive bellicosity, which Congress and the media went along with for a long time and which has remained largely unexamined to this day. Congress, the media and most of the American people have yet to turn decisively against Bush because to do so would be to turn against some part of themselves. This doesn't mean we support Bush, simply that at some dim, half-conscious level we're too confused -- not least by our own complicity -- to work up the cold, final anger we'd need to go through impeachment. We haven't done the necessary work to separate ourselves from our abusive spouse. We need therapy -- not to save this disastrous marriage, but to end it."
Posted May. 22,2007 at 1:42 PM EST by Andy Towle in Brad Pitt, David Beckham, Gay Media, George W. Bush, Joel Madden, News, Ricky Martin, T.R. Knight, Ted Haggard | Permalink
Americans are such hypocrits. We attack Hillary Clinton for voting for the war but we are as complicit as she is. Who didn't have total blood lust in the period after 9/11? Who didn't want flat out revenge? Who didn't want to make someone pay for what happened to us? We went along with the lies and now we are too ashamed to admit that we were duped along with everyone else and we have to live with the consequences because of it. We got our way and look what happened. Now it's time to try to make it right.
Posted by: MT | May 22, 2007 2:15:10 PM
Kudos to the other celebs for their cameo appearances but Whoopi was apparently the only one that actually WALKED/raised money for the NY AIDS Walk. I guess Lance "I will work every day to earn this [Human Rights Champagne fund] award" Bass had to save his energy for sitting in the "Dancing With Joey" audience.
Posted by: Leland | May 22, 2007 2:17:35 PM
What's sad about the demise of PlanetOut is that massive egos, incredibly poor management, and hubris of monumental proportions will be the death of landmark publications like OUT and The Advocate. I worked for this company, and believe me, don't be too quick to shed a tear for PlanetOut; it was a horrible, abusive place to work. The disregard for the employees who were in the trenches is what killed PlanetOut--nothing more. If upper management could've put their collective egos aside to actually listen to the ideas of those who knew the "products" they were hawking, it would be a thriving company today. Don't mourn the demise of PlanetOut because it's a GAY company. Any company that overpays upper management while nickel and dime-ing the workers, bases their operational paradigm on appearance rather than substance, and where upper management consistently “cashes in their stock” while assuring employees “everything is fine” should go the way of Enron…
Posted by: Nathan | May 22, 2007 2:20:22 PM
At the least, the monster in the White House should be impeached.
Posted by: Bill | May 22, 2007 2:20:47 PM
I, for one, am not the least bit confused as to President Bush's crimes. They are absolutely worthy of impeachment and the God damned idiotic democrats who have taken over Congress are too fucking stupid to pursue impeachment. I hate the republican party with a passion, but the democrats are too self centered to agree on anything.
I wish Al Gore would run and win the next election. He is still the best candidate.
Posted by: what the fuck! | May 22, 2007 2:32:37 PM
There is one thing standing in the way of impeaching Bush: Dick Cheney. Who wants to hand the reigns to that psycho?
If anything, Cheney needs to be impeached first, then we can go after Bush.
Posted by: Gregg | May 22, 2007 2:37:19 PM
Oops - I meant "reins", though "reigns" seems to apply here as well...
Posted by: Gregg | May 22, 2007 2:38:27 PM
MT: Speak for yourself.
Many Americans--even New Yorkers--had no blood lust, no thirst for revenge after 9/11. They wanted only justice and for the U.S. to be made as safe as possible from other terrorist attacks. That's why many of us supported attacking Afghanistan to root out Al Qaeda and the Taliban but adamantly opposed the unrelated (and foolhardy) invasion of Iraq.
We were not duped. We saw through the administration's lies about WMD and an Iraq/Al Qaeda connection and knew that sanctions and containment were working.
We didn't get "our way." But bin Laden certainly got his.
Posted by: 24play | May 22, 2007 2:41:26 PM
Sorry 24PLAY, but I think you're full of s**t and lying through your keyboard if you sit there and say you took the moral high ground.
Posted by: MT | May 22, 2007 2:50:47 PM
MT - we may well be hypocrites (what else is new?) but as Maya Angelou wrote..."when I knew more, I did more".
If we are collectively guilty of anything it is a lack of critical thinking when presented with what seems to be opposing "truths" e.g. freedom vs. security. We just don't demand enough answers of those elected to lead us. This is compounded by a weak media that is more concerned with ad dollars and access than truth and accountability. Example: On the one hand CNN reports that Gonzales had not done much to present the truth about his role in firings of those Federal prosectors but no one questions Bush when he declares that Gonzales has "done nothing wrong...and this is all political theater".
Posted by: hoya86 | May 22, 2007 2:53:33 PM
MT and others that seek to exact revenge so quickly - especially about situations they are otherwise in the dark about - could learn a lot about vengence and mob mentality.
The mainstream acceptance of this outlook led our once-great country to where we are right now.
And something MUST change.
Posted by: Rey | May 22, 2007 3:28:28 PM
Where did Ricky Martin get $8 Million?
Posted by: Dave | May 22, 2007 3:35:05 PM
MT: It wasn't about any moral high ground. It was about knowing bullshit when you smell it and preferring to do the smart things that would actually curb terrorism and make us safer.
I'm sure bin Laden was devastated that the U.S. military handed Afghanistan off to NATO and avoided getting bogged down there for eons as the Soviets had.
Then Bush turned right around and gave Osama everything he could have wished for and more:
1) 150,000 U.S. troops stationed in the center of the Middle East perpetually
2) the complete destabilization of Iraq, making it a playland for Islamic extremists
3) the ongoing recruiting boost from news and video of U.S forces disrespecting, abusing, and in some cases, torturing, raping and killing Muslims
4) a chance for al Qaeda operatives to spend years observing U.S. military operations up close
5) U.S. forces actually training Iraqi militia members in American military techniques
6) the break up of 60-year-old Western political coalition
7) loads of cash flooding into al Qaeda coffers from various operations in Iraq, and
8) a new, protected base of al Qaeda operations in Pakistan where U.S. forces won't go for frar of toppling Musharraf.
Posted by: 24play | May 22, 2007 4:18:15 PM
We can discuss this until we are all blue in the face. However, the fact remains, the museums have been looted, the vaults have been emptied, this administration has even taken the vaults. For the first time in US history, we are in debt to a communist country (China). No matter what is done now, can not undo the atrocities that have occurred. This administrations only debt will be to determine what architectural style their presidential libraries will have.
Posted by: dit | May 22, 2007 5:42:32 PM
Dear MT -
You ask, "Who didn't have total blood lust in the period after 9/11? Who didn't want flat out revenge? Who didn't want to make someone pay for what happened to us?"
Well...um...I didn't. And neither did about 50% of the electorate.
You say, "We went along with the lies and now we are too ashamed to admit that we were duped..."
Again, about 50% of the electorate didn't "go along with the lies." To us, everything the Bush administration said was so patently false that it was literally as if they were asking us to believe that two plus two equals five. We spoke out, we rallied, and we marched. And people who fell for the snake oil being peddled by Bush, Dick, Colin, Condi, Wolfie, Rummy, et al called us every name in the book from morons to traitors, and many called for us to be arrested for treason and then executed. Our words were drowned out by bellicose, self-aggrandizing fools like Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly, and our demonstrations received no coverage in the "liberal" media. And, every day, the administration and the press continued trying to force-feed us information that was such obvious BS that it was beyond insulting.
For me, this country went through the looking glass and entered upside-down world the day GWB was installed in the Oval Office by a partisan Supreme Court. That's when just about every bloody thing uttered by the administration and mindlessly parroted by the corporate media became, more or less, the direct opposite of the truth. And it made me and a lot of other people very, very angry and frustrated to find that we were suddenly living in a world where selfish, ignorant loudmouths were telling us that square pegs fit into round holes and that dill pickles taste like chocolate milk shakes, and maligning us for deigning to exercise our consitutional right to disagree and to point out what was, to us, as obvious as the fact that the earth is not flat. Frankly, I would still find it extremely gratifying if everyone in this country who supported Bush/Cheney and/or who supported the invasion of Iraq were forced to go on national television and write, one million times on a gigantic blackboard, "I was a complete idiot."
I'm glad you came to your senses. But please don't accuse people who never lost theirs in the first place of being "full of s**t" and of "lying through [our] keyboard[s]." Because even though we could see the writing on the wall from the get-go, we, too, have to live with the consequences of mindless decisions made by people like you.
Posted by: JOE 2 | May 22, 2007 5:57:52 PM
I'm so glad Brad Pitt is clean shaven and bathed again.
Posted by: Daniel | May 22, 2007 7:05:03 PM
Nice reminder of how incredibly hot Redford was...and is, in my book.
Posted by: sam | May 23, 2007 9:38:51 AM
Thanks, Joe2. You saved me much typing. I'll just say "Ditto" and add...
My very first comment before the Towers even fell was..."I wonder if Dubya has something to do with this" (about which I ended up in an argument with my THEN RepubliCON mother who thought it was horrible that I would even suggest such a thing).
I knew the Shrub was bad news before 9/11. Everything since has only made me go from disliking to loathing the man.
Posted by: Dean | May 23, 2007 4:40:21 PM
Happy Birthday to Brad & Angelina's baby Shiloh yesterday! She ate her birthday cake in Cannes. Here's something fun about Shiloh... an astrology reading on video that predicts who her future husband will be and when she'll get married, www.flownetworkproductions.com/shilohioliepitt.htm
I predict that the bad boyfriend at 18 will be Michael Joseph Consuelos (Kelly Ripa's son), and that the good husband at age 28 will be Michael Joseph Jackson, Jr. (Michael Jackson's son). I figure by that time Mike Jr. will have had enough therapy that he will make a good husband. Both of these guys are ten years older than Shiloh. (When you watch the video, this will make more sense.) What does everyone else think?
Posted by: BJ | May 29, 2007 12:53:05 AM