Manic Monday: Amy Winehouse

Further adding to my long-held belief that celebrities do a wonderful job of making themselves look foolish, and don't need my (or anyone else's) help to do so...

Last night, a photographer talked to her for around 6 minutes (above) about her divorce to Blake Fielder-Civil-Supreme-Circuit-Appeals Court or whatever his name is (she denies it) and her obsession with X-Factor (the British version). During her rambling, Winehouse even swore she wasn't drunk (actually, THAT I believe).

Winehouse talked about one X-Factor contestant the most: a 16-year-old kid named Eoghan Quigg. She said she likes his dad and her goddaughter likes the boy. They've even called him up. She didn't really say what they talked about, but the Mirror claims she's invited the boy for a wild night out with her.

A source said, “Amy wants to meet him whether he wins or loses. She’s a massive fan and thinks he’s cute. She told him he was doing well in the competition and to keep up all the good work. But she was also insistent that she wanted to meet up when he wasn’t rehear-sing – and Eoghan was up for it.”

Lord help these children...

Manic Monday: Adrienne Bailon

If you've never heard of Adrienne Bailon of the Cheetah Girls, you have now, thanks to some pictures of her naked ass that were conveniently "stolen" from her laptop (y'know, I've left my laptop in more places than I can count, and it's ALWAYS been returned to me, contents untouched! How the HELL is it that every time a celebrity's laptop gets "stolen," there are pictures and phone numbers and Gods know what else posted everywhere? For that matter, how aren't their bank accounts emptied on sight?).

Adrienne claims the pictures were only meant for her true love Robert Kardashian (brother of Kim).

Her spokesman, Jonathan Jaxson (who also runs a gossip blog -- how convenient), issued this statement to TMZ:

"The photos that have surfaced of Adrienne Bailon were stolen from her laptop over a week ago at an airport in NY and sent to several media outlets. These photos were taken in private. Adrienne will be pursuing legal action against the person or person's sending these private photos out. Adrienne is deeply sorry for any pain this may have caused to her fans."

And in the fine tradition of the pot calling the kettle black, you might remember that Adrienne was the first to come out against fellow Disney starlet Vanessa Hudgens when her set of nudie pics surfaced. Adrienne's catty remark was, "*I* keep my clothes *on*..." Yeah, I'll bet.

And I'm sure I'm not the only one who sees the one degree of separation between herself and Kim Kardashian, the Queen of Trashy Do-Nothing "Fame." Kardashian's father, you'll remember, was one of the team of OJ Simpson's original defense lawyers...the ones who helped him get away with murder with their race baiting and hate mongering.

Manic Monday, indeed.

Manic Monday: Election Edition

This is Shirley Nagel, a FIRED teacher from Michigan, and a RNC delegate. Ms. Nagel makes my Manic Monday list today because, quite simply, she's a nasty excuse for a human being and paints every decent, non-judgmental, intelligent Republican (yes, they're out there) in a bad light. Coming from an ol'blue New York Democrat, this is saying quite a bit.

You see, on Halloween, Ms. Nagel decided not to give candy to children whose parents were Obama supporters, using the same tired lines that the entire mean-spirited Republican campaign has been using in this, the Rovian era (i.e., scary Muslim, unqualified socialist, and so on), which has made me, nearly every Democrat, and several moderate Republicans ashamed of the country we live in.

This post, however, is not about political or religious beliefs. This post is about the mean-spirited-ness of this woman who, of course, paints herself as a righteous Christian, in line with the Republican ideals. It's one thing to believe what you like -- far be it from me to tell you otherwise. It's one thing to educate children about the political process, and explain your reasoning in an AGE APPROPRIATE manner (a five year old kid doesn't understand about the politics of mud-slinging, folks. My five year old nephew thinks he should vote for Obama because his younger brother, my other nephew, looks like Obama. If I didn't know better, I'd say he was right. Never mind that, at 5 years old, he doesn't understand that he CAN'T vote, bless his heart...).

It's another thing entirely to deny CHILDREN -- who wield NO political influence, and probably, like my nephew, have such a small understanding of the world to begin with (he doesn't think we should vote for McCain because, like his grandfather [my father], McCain is 72 years old, "and he has to take his medicine, and when he takes his medicine, he doesn't feel very well." Do you think he, for all his intelligence, understands "privatizing Social Security" or "no pull-out timetable for the Iraqi war"?!) -- equal rights to HALLOWEEN CANDY (because, y'know, spreading the chocolate wealth around is SO Socialist...) because you don't agree with their parents' politics.

The sad part is, before the Republicans began catering to the racist Dixiecrats and the fringe Religious Right, it WAS known as the party of fairness and reason. If Barack Obama becomes President tomorrow, in a very real way, it is because of a Republican's efforts over 150 years ago (Lincoln) that was the first in a progressive process of civil rights and equality. Even John McCain -- for all that he sold his soul to the Lee Atawater School of Slander -- was, not so long ago, a true maverick who was unafraid to reach across the aisle to the most liberal of Senators (Feingold and Kennedy -- who both prove that Obama is quite MODERATE in his voting record) to pass truly fair and balanced legislation.

Unfortunately, for every McCain-Feingold Act, there's a Shirley Nagel. I truly hope that, whoever wins tomorrow (the writing's on the wall, but let's be elusive so the networks can get their ratings...), they will have the decency and the courage to reach across the aisle and be truly non-partisan in their rule, and render idiots like Shirley Nagel completely obsolete.