Tag: celebrities
#EndorseThis: Lewis Black Relishes Trump’s Inaugural Humiliation

#EndorseThis: Lewis Black Relishes Trump’s Inaugural Humiliation

Surely you’re aware of the Trump inaugural committee’s persistent frustration in booking top-ranked talent for the president-elect’s constitutional “festivities.” You’ve likely heard that Radio City’s venerated Rockettes, for instance, have resisted performing for the misogynist billionaire. You may even have read Trump’s tweeted whine that he doesn’t care whether any A-list artists show up for his party.

But you probably haven’t heard Lewis Black break down the details of the new administration’s humiliating launch. Black has his own recommendations for possible entertainment at the inauguration. And the comedian insists he already has glommed his own tickets and wouldn’t miss it for the world — if only to witness what he expects will happen when Trump puts his hand on the Bible.

Can Celebrity Endorsements Sway An Election?

Can Celebrity Endorsements Sway An Election?

This election cycle, the candidates aren’t the only stars.

Of course, there is Donald Trump, who has shattered that fragile line between entertainment and politics.

Long before he took on the Republican establishment, Trump was firing hopeful entrepreneurs on NBC’s The Apprentice and making cameo appearances in The Little Rascals and The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. He receives a yearly pension of $110,228 from the Screen Actors Guild, and was a weekly pundit on Fox and Friends for years. His WWE Hall of Fame bio describes him as “the most charismatic and famous businessman in America.”

Given all that, it’s remarkable how many of Trump’s fellow celebrities have risen up against him. Sure, he’s received his fair share of endorsements, but they’re mostly a collection of oddball stars and B-listers: Hulk Hogan, Gary Busey, Aaron Carter — no offense to the composer of the greatest rap song ever written about beating Shaquille O’Neal in basketball.

But, as we all know, Hollywood Is For Liberals.

From the beginning of his national breakout, Bernie Sanders has ridden a wave of celebrity excitement, one that goes far beyond actors writing checks and saying a few kind words. Rapper Killer Mike seems to be at Sanders’s side at all times. He regularly hypes up crowds at rallies, fills his Twitter feed with a dizzying amount of praise for the Vermont senator, and even organized a phone bank in his hometown of Atlanta.

Comedian Sarah Silverman released a viral video this week explaining why Sanders earned her vote. “Under President Sanders, you can still become a super-rich asshole. It’s just that your fellow hard-working citizens don’t have to feed their children cat food in order for you to do it,” she explained. The video already has over 27 million views on Facebook.

Girls star and creator Lena Dunham, who carries about as much feminist clout for the average millennial as Gloria Steinem, has long been in Clinton’s camp, and has slammed the “rabidly sexist” media coverage Clinton faces.

Tony Award-winning playwright Tony Kushner struck a similar chord in an interview with Chris Hayes. He criticized the tepid response that Clinton has sometimes garnered, particularly among Sanders fans. He called her “an extraordinary candidate” and asserted, “I don’t understand why people with political views that I share aren’t more excited about her.”

Clinton has big-time Hollywood money on her side too. While it is not unusual for celebrities to help fill the pocketbooks of their preferred candidate, the ever-active George Clooney is in the midst of organizing a lush fundraising dinner, VIP tickets for which will cost an impressive $353,400. That had better be one hell of a steak.

And it turns out big shots, surprise, are just as petty and stubborn as the rest of us: Susan Sarandon and Debra Messing fired shots back and forth in a Twitter spat this week over Sarandon’s controversial statement that she would understand some Sanders supporters voting for Trump if Sanders lost the Democratic nomination.

Are these stars actually winning over any votes for their chosen candidates? It is hard to believe that many American voters will throw their support behind Clinton or Sanders simply because their favorite actor told them to. Instead, celebrity influence is probably more indirect. In an age where two thirds of millennials get the bulk of their news from social media sites, rather than the traditional outlets of print news and television, celebrities are invaluable to achieving viral success.

Hillary Clinton could stick to cloistered interviews on cable news, but her cameo appearance on Broad City lit up the web. Likewise, his rambunctious singalong with Vampire Weekend added a whimsical edge to Sanders’ curmudgeonly exterior.

With millions of Americans following celebrities’ personal and professional content daily, politicians can’t help but rely on Hollywood to get the word out. After all, they’re now celebrities themselves. We can try to avoid the pitfalls of glamorizing our politics, and politicizing our celebrities, but in an election year fit for the tabloids, we might not have much choice anymore.

 

Photo: Screen shot courtesy Comedy Central

Angelina Jolie Has Ovaries, Fallopian Tubes Removed To Thwart Cancer Risk

Angelina Jolie Has Ovaries, Fallopian Tubes Removed To Thwart Cancer Risk

By Christie D’Zurilla, Los Angeles Times (TNS)

As she promised nearly two years ago, Angelina Jolie has had her fallopian tubes and ovaries surgically removed as a preventive move against the cancer that killed her mother.

The surgery, however, came sooner than she’d planned, she explained in a New York Times essay on Tuesday.

The 39-year-old mother of six said her decision-making process gained urgency after a regularly scheduled blood test showed signs that could be an early indicator of cancer. Jolie — whose mother Marceline Bertrand died at 56 of ovarian cancer — had a preventive double mastectomy in April 2013 after testing positive for the BRCA-1 gene, which indicates a high risk of developing breast cancer.

Bertrand had been diagnosed with ovarian cancer at age 49, Jolie said.

“I went through what I imagine thousands of other women have felt,” she wrote. “I told myself to stay calm, to be strong, and that I had no reason to think I wouldn’t live to see my children grow up and to meet my grandchildren.

“I called my husband (Brad Pitt) in France, who was on a plane within hours.”

Further testing and a surgeon’s exam of Jolie’s ovaries came up negative for a tumor.

“To my relief, I still had the option of removing my ovaries and fallopian tubes and I chose to do it,” she wrote. “I did not do this solely because I carry the BRCA1 gene mutation, and I want other women to hear this. A positive BRCA test does not mean a leap to surgery. I have spoken to many doctors, surgeons and naturopaths. There are other options …. The most important thing is to learn about the options and choose what is right for you personally.”

Jolie said she’d been consulting with Western and Eastern physicians since getting the mastectomy, but thought she had months left to make a choice — until getting the scary test results. Finally, she chose her procedure: a laparoscopic bilateral salpingo-oophorectomy, which happened last week.

“There was a small benign tumor on one ovary, but no signs of cancer in any of the tissues,” she revealed in her essay. She’s on hormone replacement therapy, including progesterone to reduce risk of uterine cancer, and said she chose to keep her uterus because uterine cancer is not in her family history.

“The beautiful thing about such moments in life is that there is so much clarity,” she said, referring to her reaction to the results of the blood test. “You know what you live for and what matters. It is polarizing, and it is peaceful.”

She’s gone public with her journey — as she did before with the double-mastectomy — to make other women aware that in this health situation and others, a person can “seek advice, learn about the options and make choices that are right for you. Knowledge is power.”

(c)2015 Los Angeles Times, Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC

Photo: Gage Skidmore, Flickr

Jennifer Lawrence Slams Stolen Nude Photos As ‘Sex Crime’

Jennifer Lawrence Slams Stolen Nude Photos As ‘Sex Crime’

New York — Oscar-winning actress Jennifer Lawrence has spoken publicly for the first time after naked pictures of her were hacked and posted online, angrily slamming the leak as a “sex crime.”

Speaking exclusively to Vanity Fair, the rising siren of the silver screen said she felt violated and was afraid how the hacked photographs would affect her career.

“Just because I’m a public figure, just because I’m an actress, does not mean that I asked for this,” she told the November issue of the magazine, which will be available online Wednesday.

“It’s my body, and it should be my choice, and the fact that it is not my choice is absolutely disgusting. I can’t believe that we even live in that kind of world.”

Hackers dumped nude photos of more than a dozen Hollywood celebrities on social media last month after snatching them from Apple’s iCloud in what the tech giant called a “targeted attack.”

“It is not a scandal. It is a sex crime,” the 24-year-old actress told Vanity Fair.

“It is a sexual violation. It’s disgusting. The law needs to be changed, and we need to change. That’s why these websites are responsible.”

“Just the fact that somebody can be sexually exploited and violated, and the first thought that crosses somebody’s mind is to make a profit from it. It’s so beyond me. I just can’t imagine being that detached from humanity. I can’t imagine being that thoughtless and careless and so empty inside.”

She told Vanity Fair she had sent the photographs to her then boyfriend while they were in a long distance relationship.

She was initially tempted to write a statement, but said: “Every single thing that I tried to write made me cry or get angry.

“I started to write an apology, but I don’t have anything to say I’m sorry for. I was in a loving, healthy, great relationship for four years. It was long distance, and either your boyfriend is going to look at porn or he’s going to look at you.”

More than a dozen Hollywood celebrities have threatened to sue Google for failing to crack down on the leaks.

A letter by prominent Tinseltown lawyer Marty Singer published by the Hollywood Reporter warned they could seek $100 million in damages from the U.S. online search giant for failing to take down the photos.

AFP Photo/Isaac Brekken

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