If there was ever anything to make you wish to God (with a capital G) that Molly Ivins were alive and sitting right next to you with a glass of Maker's, providing a running commentary, it is ABC's new series "GCB." I will not be as good at reviewing this fictional Texas scenarios as Ivins was at critiquing things that actually happened in Texas. Have you ever read her take on the Texas legislature? It was a beautiful thing to behold, but I am not there yet. Additional handicaps: 1) I am from the South and grew up visiting relatives in Texas, but I am not a Lone Star native. 2) My taste in television tends toward "The Bachelor" and "Criminal Minds." Consider your source.

Here's what I do know: Generally speaking, it's not terribly effective to give a film or series that you want people to remember a name that is an acronym -- especially an acronym easily confused with CBGB or BCBG. Fortunately, there's an easy way to remember this one -- just remind yourself what the series was going to be called before a lot of people got very upset: "Good Christian Bitches." (For a while, the title was going to be "Good Christian Belles," which would have been no fun at all.)

Billed as a Texas version of "Desperate Housewives," the show is based on the book "Good Christian Bitches" by Kim Gatlin, who also co-wrote the series. The premise is this: Recently widowed former mean girl Amanda Vaughn (Leslie Bibb) is forced to move back to her hometown of Dallas with her two kids to live with her socialite mother, played by Annie Potts. The women Amanda terrorized in high school, who in her absence have grown up to control the Dallas society machine, are less than thrilled by Ms. Vaughn's return, especially since their husbands definitely are thrilled. The GCBs, led by Carlene Cockburn (Broadway veteran Kristin Chenoweth), thus conspire to make Amanda's life hell. A lot of the conspiring and hell-raising happens to take place in church.

As Brooks Barnes noted in the New York Times, "If the first episode is any guide, the series ... will be way, way (way) over the top."

I'd say so. The entire thing begins with a failed Ponzi scheme and oral sex that proves fatal to both parties.

It's understandable that some Christians feel that this show misrepresents them: God here is made an accessory to the GCBs outfits and their antics. Some have argued that naming any show "______ Bitches" is demeaning to women in general. That's probably true, and if so, an acronym hardly fixes the problem. And I suppose it threatens to misrepresent Texas women, specifically, to the larger world.

Harvey Weinstein really wants to get into the Katy Perry business. During a pre-Oscar party at Soho House in Los Angeles, Weinstein was talking to Perry about co-starring in new drama about British opera singer and reality television star, Paul Potts.

"I was talking to Katy about a new project, a possible dramatic role in the Paul Potts movie, which will be shooting in England soon," Weinstein told Page Six. "We'd really like someone like Katy or Adele to play the role of Potts' wife, and Katy seemed genuinely interested."

What makes that sorta funny? Potts's real-life wife, Julie-Ann, isn't a singer at all.

As for Paul Potts himself, if the names sounds familiar-ish, perhaps that's because you are one of the 89 million YouTube users who watched the former mobile phone salesman sing "Nessun Dorma" on "Britain's Got Talent." Potts went on to win the reality competition, which launched him to international fame.

This isn't the first time Weinstein has courted Perry for something. Last year, Weinstein said he wanted Perry to play Marilyn Monroe in a stage version of "My Week With Marilyn." He also used her song, "The One That Got Away," during marketing for "Marilyn." Guy really loves "Teenage Dream," apparently. (Who doesn't, but still.)

Mallika Sherawat Sizzles at Cannes Film Festival. Mallika Sherawat sizzles at the premiere of Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps during ongoing Cannes International Film Festival 2010. Mallika Sherawat looks horrible at the event in that dress. Mallika Sherawat who is almost forgotten in bollywood by her movies, remains in news due to public appearances in particular her lust to get place in Hollywood. Mallika Sherawat is planning to host a bash at Cannes with some of the big names in world cinema at the ongoing Cannes Film Festival. Mallika is throwing a big bash at the festival and sources say she is inviting top bosses of several Hollywood production companies and other international personalities. Let’s see how much success she get with this gimmick. Checkout Mallika Sherawat Cannes Pictures.

Deepika Padukone clearly loves her tattoos. First it was the RK tattoo at the base of her neck and then another one depicting an anklet. No wonder, she was chosen as an ambassador by the organizers of the first Tattoo Convention.

The remixed version of the iconic song ‘Mit Jayee gham’ sees Deepika sporting a scorpion tattoo and swinging to the tune with an attitude. After watching the song, IndiaInk Invention got in touch with her and requested her to visit their first ever convention which took place on Sunday, 10th April 2011.

However, the actress was shooting in London for ‘Desi Boyz’ and was unable to attend the convention.She forwarded the invitation to the ‘Dum Maaro Dum’ team. Abhishek Bachchan, Prateik and Rohan Sippy attended the convention instead.
Manoj Thakur, Partner at Par Excellance Entertainment says, “Deepika Padukone’s absence was felt, especially at an event that she would have readily identified with. With her own much-written about the tattoo at the base of her neck and the cutting-edge tattoo she’s seen sporting in the movie, she would have been the perfect ambassador for this tattoo expo.”

The cast of Dum Maro Dum launched the special Dum Maaro Dum tattoo at the convention.

A wealthy New York woman is facing criminal charges after being accused of keeping an illegal immigrant as an indentured servant and forcing her to live in a closet for nearly six years.

Documents posted on the Smoking Gun allege that Annie George, 39, and her now-deceased husband, Mathai Kolath George, hired an illegal immigrant from the Indian state of Kerala. The immigrant, identified only as "V.M.," was promised about $1,000 a month in wages to live in the family's 34-room, 30,000-square-foot home, known as Llenroc mansion, which houses a helicopter pad, 15 fireplaces, marble flooring, 24-karat gold gilded ceilings and a glass elevator. V.M. was tasked with taking care of the Georges' four young children, along with performing household duties in the mansion located about 20 miles north of Albany.

New York's minimum wage is $7.25 an hour. Even if V.M. had been allowed to leave the residence at the end of a regular 40-hour workweek, she would have been entitled to a minimum, pretax income of $290 per week, or $1,160 per month.

Instead, the "forced labor situation" (as described in the court papers) was even worse than the already-below minimum wage offer of $1,000 month. V.M. received 85 cents an hour, working 17-hour days, seven days a week, over the 67 months she was kept inside the George residence.

All told, V.M. received only about $29,000 over the five and a half years she was forced to work for the George family.

Georgia O’Keefe once wrote to Mabel Dodge Luhan, “I feel there is something unexplored about women that only a woman can explore.” With this in mind, we present the work of Claiborne Swanson Frank, a photographer living and working in New York. Swanson Frank was formerly Anna Wintour’s assistant at Vogue, and from the photos below we can see the magazine’s influence on this budding photographer.

We talked to Swanson Frank over the phone as she walked her dog and answered questions about her work. Slightly breathless, she was excited to discuss her debut photo collection from Assouline, titled, “American Beauty" -- which features over 100 photos of inspirational women from their twenties to mid-forties.

After taking a class, she decided to follow her dream of becoming a professional photographer in 2010. Her first project was “Indigo Light” -- a series of 29 portraits of her female friends and family members that present the women on their own terms. To Swanson Frank, portraiture is a collaborative process; she works with each woman to present her at her very best, but also remembers that the clothes should always be the woman’s own; it’s not a fashion shoot, but a moment of being, crystallized in time.
CSF: To be a woman in America is such a gift because we have such a freedom to express ourselves and to celebrate our accomplishments. I wanted to tell that story through portraits of these women, through these conversations. There’s been two wars, the collapse of the economy, 9/11, and women in America are wildly different now than ever before -- this really hasn’t been explored on this level before. This is the new creative guard, in a sense.

Andrew Breitbart used the Internet relentlessly to ignite political scandal and expose what he saw as media bias, even if he sometimes had to edit the facts to do it.

The fiery online publisher and blogger who collapsed and died Thursday at 43 relished public combat with liberals -- a YouTube clip last month shows him bellowing at Occupy Wall Street protesters, "Stop raping people, you freaks!" Yet the conservatives and tea party activists who loved him said he exposed corrupt leaders and what he called the hopelessly liberal "old media guard."

The converted Hollywood lefty who partied his way through Tulane University was also a soft-spoken father of four. The conservative warrior chose to live on enemy turf, Brentwood, the tony Los Angeles enclave favored by the Hollywood elite he so often mocked.

Breitbart used his website to promote a hidden-camera video with actors posing as customers that led the downfall of the liberal Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, or ACORN. He posted explicit photos of former Rep. Anthony Weiner that caused the New York congressman to resign in a sexting scandal, and an edited video that caused former U.S. Agriculture Department official Shirley Sherrod to resign over since-reversed perceptions she was a racist.

In a new media age, Breitbart argued that anyone with a laptop could reshape public discourse. He used his skills at sites like Big Journalism and Big Government, and his takedown of Weiner established him as a conservative media star.

He was filled with contradictions. He was a self-avowed enemy of the mainstream media, yet he subscribed to The Associated Press and admitted loving the venerable news agency's photos that came from afar. "It's a love-hate relationship," he confided at a quiet moment. He pleaded with conservatives to drive relentlessly forward -- walk into the line of fire, he would say -- yet the final sentence from his prolific and often caustic voice on Twitter was, ironically, an apology for calling a follower a "putz," just in case he misunderstood a message to him.

His business partner and lifelong friend, Larry Solov, once said Breitbart had two speeds: lighthearted jokester and fiery culture warrior.

"They flip back and forth," Solov said. "And there is not that much in between."

Breitbart died after collapsing shortly after midnight during a walk near his home. He was rushed to the emergency room at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.

Breitbart suffered heart problems a year earlier, but his father-in-law, actor Orson Bean, said he could not pinpoint what happened. Larry Dietz, watch commander at the Los Angeles County coroner's office, said an autopsy was likely.
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