Where are they now? Jake Lloyd the Young Darth Vader

What do you do when you are Comicon and bump into an ex-child star that just so happened to be Anakin Skywalker? You interview him! Find out what’s become of Jake Lloyd since he filmed Phantom Menace 10 years ago. Now age 20, he seems to have a much better attitude than his fictitious counterpart Anakin Skywalker. In fact despite his professed hard work ethic, he seems to believe life is random and better off that way. That’s a long way from Darth Vader.

Stephanie Tanner, we hardly knew ye...

Before we get into this hot mess, I would like to point out the Ed Hardy shirts on these two. First of all, I hate Ed Hardy. H8E. His stuff looks like the old-time graffiti that used to populate the Queens Blvd. underpass where I grew up. I don't want that on my shirt, and I think people who spend hundreds of dollars on one shirt for this travesty (especially in this day and age, when people are losing their jobs left and right, and can't afford to put food on their table) are self-serving douche-nozzles.

Aside from that, people who buy Ed Hardy "couture" are also being duped. BADLY. In France, the term haute couture is protected by law and is defined by the Chambre de commerce et d'industrie de Paris based in Paris, France. Their rules state that only "those companies mentioned on the list drawn up each year by a commission domiciled at the Ministry for Industry are entitled to avail themselves" of the label haute couture. The criteria for haute couture were established in 1945 and updated in 1992.
To earn the right to call itself a couture house and to use the term haute couture in its advertising and any other way, members of the Chambre syndicale de la haute couture must follow these rules:

Design made-to-order for private clients, with one or more fittings.

Have a workshop (atelier) in Paris that employs at least fifteen people full-time.

Each season (i.e., twice a year), present a collection to the Paris press, comprising at least thirty-five runs with outfits for both daytime wear and evening wear.

However, the term haute couture may have been misused by ready-to-wear brands since the late 1980s, so that its true meaning may have become blurred with that of prêt-à-porter (the French term for ready-to-wear fashion) in the public perception.

In a nutshell, Ed Hardy, you're an idiot. You no more make couture than those idiot groupies who cut up band shirts and call it "rock wear."

ANYWAY, Stephanie Tanner and her estranged husband, Cody Herpin, were in an Orange County, CA court room this morning for an emergency custody hearing. During the hearing, the judge ordered that Jodie Sweetin can't be with her 8-month-old daughter Zoie without one of her parents present. This is beyond "how rude!"

Herpin told the judge that his former meth head wife is a lousy mom who shouldn't be alone with their daughter. Herpin said Jodie once drove drunk with their baby in the car. Some doctor-type confirmed that Jodie was back on the booze for a quick minute, but said that she's been talking to her sponsor and going to AA meetings.

Herpin's lawyer told People that they know she's boozing, "but there's also concern regarding methamphetamines."

TMZ says that both Herpin and Sweetin have to get drug tested before the next hearing.

Whip It Out Wednesday: Willie The Parrot

Stories like these put a rainbow in my otherwise cold, black heart...

Meet Willie the Parrot. His owner, Meagan, was baby-sitting two-year-old Hannah, when Hannah began choking on a Pop-Tart (I know, I wondered how too...).

Willie the Parrot, upon seeing this, starting flapping his wings and repeating, "Mama! Baby!" over and over again.

"While I was in the bathroom, Willie (the parrot) started screaming like I'd never heard him scream before and he started flapping his wings," said Meagan. "Then he started saying 'mama baby' over and over and over again until I came out and looked at Hannah and Hannah's face was turning blue because she was choking on her pop tart."

Fortunately, Meagan was able to rescue the toddler using the Heimlich maneuver.

"If anything happened to her, I don't know what I would do," said Samantha Kuusk, Hannah's mother. "I'm very grateful for the both of them because they both saved her."

Former Child Star Admits to Triple Homicide, Could Face the Death Penalty

Courtesy: The Associated Press

Defending a man accused of killing three people, attorney Gary Pohlson took an odd angle in his opening statement.

He said his client is "guilty of all three murders."

Pohlson told a jury Tuesday that Skylar Deleon killed Arizona couple Tom and Jackie Hawkins, who were thrown off their yacht and bound to an anchor. He also killed another man he met in a work furlough program, Pohlson admitted. But the lawyer argued his client should not die for his crimes.

"My goal is simply to save Skylar Deleon's life," Pohlson said in a 15-minute opening statement.

The concession is not the same as a guilty plea. Pohlson said he will dispute some details of the prosecution's case. The attorney indicated his client should not face the death penalty because others involved will have different outcomes of their cases.

Deleon is accused of killing the couple in 2004 to steal their yacht, as well as a man he took thousands of dollars from the previous year. The 29-year-old former child actor has pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain.

The defense strategy stunned Ryan Hawks, the 32-year-old son of Tom Hawks, who came to hear testimony.

"I was blown away," Ryan Hawks said. "Thank God I was sitting down."

Pohlson said outside court that he told jurors Deleon was guilty to maintain his credibility when he argues they should preserve his client's life. Orange County prosecutor Matt Murphy said he wasn't surprised by the strategy.

Earlier, Murphy told jurors the couple took a cruise off Southern California thinking they were showing off their yacht, the Well Deserved, to an interested buyer and ended up pleading to be spared death.

"The evidence is going to show that is how Tom and Jackie Hawks died, begging for their lives," Murphy said.

Deleon has allegedly boasted that he was a star on the "Mighty Morphin Power Rangers" but apparently only had a small part in one episode. The RANGER BOARD, especially, takes great pains to make a bold note: "Skylar Deleon was NOT a Power Ranger. He was an uncredited extra, at best."

Prosecutors are seeking the death penalty for Deleon, who they say drafted a plan to kill the Hawkses after learning they were planning to sell their 55-foot yacht in November 2004.

They say Deleon feigned interest in buying the nearly half-million-dollar yacht, then enlisted the help of two men to overpower the Hawkses on the cruise before forcing them to sign over paperwork for the yacht and killing them.

Murphy took jurors on a step-by-step outline of how the case unfolded after the Hawkses disappeared and family and friends began to frantically search for them around Newport Harbor, where they docked their boat.

Murphy said Deleon and his former wife, Jennifer Henderson, were a young couple saddled in debt and living in a converted garage.

After the killings, Murphy said Henderson paid a notary $2,000 to backdate paperwork to transfer ownership of the yacht and Deleon had a friend show her color photocopies of the Hawkses' drivers' licenses so she could describe the couple to police as if she had seen them.

Murphy said Deleon initially tried to enlist his friend Adam Rohrig to drive the boat while "he made two bad people disappear." But Rohrig refused and didn't take Deleon very seriously, Murphy said.

After the killings, he said, Rohrig asked Deleon how he was going to get away with it.

Murphy said Deleon answered: "No bodies, no murder."

Henderson was convicted in 2006 of murder and murder for financial gain for her role in the deaths and was sentenced to two terms of life in prison without parole. Three other men have pleaded not guilty to murder and murder for financial gain and have yet to stand trial. One is expected to testify in Deleon's case.

The jury will also consider the separate murder charge against Deleon in the death of a man he met in a work furlough program in 2003 while serving jail time for burglary.