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.
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.
In fact Mallika has much to cheer about at Cannes this year. A French fashion website reportedly voted her among the 13 best-dressed celebs at the Festival. While opinion remains divided about her status as style icon, the actress was clearly over the moon for being noticed above other beauties like Aishwarya and Deepika: “WOW! 1 of the 13 best-dressed @ Cannes?! and me the only Indian listed!?”
