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  • Who Won the ‘Spring Breakers’ Madrid Premiere, For Real

    Turns out the other day it was just a photocall for the Spring Breakers premiere in Madrid but last night was the real premiere. So how should points be awarded? Since I just make up the rules to this imaginary competition which instills

    so much hatred in Ethan Hawke, I’m just giving Vanessa Hudgens half a point. So now it’s .5 for Vanessa Hudgens, 1 for Selena Gomez and 2 for Ashley Benson because she won this time. I think I need to make a prize pack for the winner at the end of this competition. Maybe a bag full of condoms and Windex. That seems pretty standard nowadays.

    At least 28 fans injured as car slams fence in Nationwide race at Daytona

    At least 28 fans were injured after a violent crash at Daytona International Speedway Saturday caused debris from a race car to fly into the grandstands. Fourteen were taken to area hospitals. Two are listed in critical condition. One of those has a life-threatening head injury, the other is a child. Both are stable, according to Byron Cogdell, a spokesman at Halifax Health.

    At least nine ambulances rushed to the rear of the Campbell Grandstand as emergency workers scurried to help fans injured in the rows closest to the track after Kyle Larson's car violently tore through the fence, leaving his engine and tire behind. Other safety workers evacuated the scene of race fans.

    Kyle Larson's car (32) gets airborne during a multi-car wreck at Daytona. (AP)In the front row of the grandstand about 20 feet past where Larson's engine had stuck, emergency responders wearing firesuits and helmets tended to several fans sitting on old metal chairbacks. Stretchers were being rolled in from ambulances arriving behind the grandstands while police and other track security ushered  fans from the scene.

    "We responded appropriately according to our safety protocols and had emergency medical personnel at the incident immediately," track president Joie Chitwood said. "We're in the process of repairs to the facility and will be ready to go racing tomorrow."

    The accident occurred as drivers raced toward the checkered flag of the Drive4COPD 300 in NASCAR's Nationwide Series. Regan Smith was leading the race, but got turned as he approached the finish line. That sparked a multi-car accident that sent Larson's car flying into the air. Tony Stewart won the race, but refused to celebrate in victory lane.

    Fans were both shocked and gawking at the accident scene that happened just minutes before when Larson's car got airborne and hit nose first in the catchfence designed to keep fans safe. His car spun wildly to the infield and came to rest with the nose of the car completely torn off, leaving two major support poles bent and a smoking, flaming mess. Fans, about ten rows up, quickly waved to emergency personnel for assistance after a tire apparently had flown through the metallic netting, landing in Row 9.

    "It was like a war zone there," said fan Terry Huckaby, whose brother Eddie was hit in the leg by a three-foot piece of metal. Terry used his belt as a tourniquet to stop the bleeding.

    One woman wearing a Jimmie Johnson shirt appeared to have a foot injury as she was wheeled on a gurney to a waiting ambulance. An older man, wearing an oxygen mask while laying on a stretcher, also appeared to have suffered a leg injury. Another gurney transported a man in a neck support wearing a sling over his left arm. All appeared to be conscious.

    "The engine came right through the fence, injuring about six people," said a Daytona International Speedway supervisor, speaking under the condition of anonymity.

    Mindy McCready's Funeral Set For Tuesday In Florida

     Mindy McCready's funeral has been scheduled for Tuesday in her hometown of Fort Myers, Fla.

    The funeral for the late country star will be held at Crossroads Church. A Friday news release says a Nashville memorial organized by friends and the music community is tentatively scheduled for March 6 at Cathedral of the Incarnation.

    McCready committed suicide Sunday at her home in Heber Springs, Ark., days after leaving a court-ordered substance abuse treatment program. The 37-year-old mother of two died from a single gunshot to the head about a month after her longtime boyfriend David Wilson was believed to have killed himself in the same location.

    Jeep replaces Liberty with an angrier, lumpier Cherokee

    Following enthusiast site Jalopnik posting clandestine shots of the 2014 Cherokee, Jeep released official shots of the SUV today, showcasing a style that’s a shocking departure from the square-jawed model of the ‘80s.

    Originally slated for an unveiling at the New York Auto Show this March, the Cherokee will replace the Liberty, reviving a nameplate that’s been out of use for over 12 years. Featuring two-tiered headlights reminiscent of Nissan Juke and a kinked 7-slot grill, the 2014 Cherokee eschews conventional styling in favor of a fascia that looks like a grimacing Decepticon. It’s built on the same underpinnings as the Alfa Romeo Guilietta, and boasts up to a 45 percent improvement in fuel economy over the Liberty (likely with a selection of either a four-cylinder or a V-6 powerplant).

    After the Jeep was revealed online, Chrysler design chief Ralph Gilles used Twitter to share a stream of positive reactions; it's certainly the most daring design Jeep has unveiled in decades. But the old Cherokee was beloved by Jeep enthusiasts, and the brand's previous attempts to stretch itself with vehicles such as the Compass and Patriot have fallen short of expectations due in part to their roots in passengers cars. We'll know more about the capabilities of the new SUV in a month, but with a polarizing face like this, the Cherokee will need every technical edge it can get.

    Amber Rose's First Baby Picture Shows Wiz Khalifa Holding Son Sebastian

    Proud parents Amber Rose and Wiz Khalifa welcomed son Sebastian Taylor less than 24 hours ago. And the couple have already shared the first photo of their little guy, whom Wiz has affectionately nicknamed "the Bash."

    Early Friday morning, Rose tweeted "Best daddy ever.... Up with the baby so Muva can go back to sleep :-)," along with an adorable Instagram picture of Khalifa holding Sebastian.

    Khalifa later tweeted, "Thanx for all the love guys. Bash took his first poop, had a good meal now he's peacin ✌" (thanks for sharing, Wiz!).

    He also joked, "My wife sed she juss wants a jacc & coke, a cheesesteak, and a ciggarette :-) Thass why im marryin that woman!"

    Rose and Khalifa have been chronicling their pregnancy via social media since they announced they were expecting last September. Though they revealed Sebastian's name only yesterday, they hinted at their baby-name choice during an interview on the radio show "Big Boy's Neighborhood" in January. "It's a total boss name for a boy," Rose said. "It's funny because I came up with the name for our boy and immediately he came up with a rapper [nickname] for him.”

    Former 'Swan' Contestant Says Erin Moran Will Need Major Therapy Before Appearing On 'Celebrity Swan'

    A former contestant from Season 2 of the extreme makeover/beauty pageant hybrid "The Swan" says the reality show ruined her life, and is speaking out about the celebrities who are slated to appear on Fox's two-hour special "Celebrity Swan."

    At 34 years old, Lorrie Arias appeared on "The Swan" in 2004, and underwent more plastic surgery procedures than any other contestant -- going on to get a face lift, nose job, brow lift, upper lip lift with fat transfer, upper/lower eye lift, full body lift, breast implants, tummy tuck and liposuction on her knees -- but did not go on to compete in the beauty pageant component of the show.

    Today, Arias told the New York Post that her surgeries were for nothing, since she's "a 300-pound mess of a person who is afraid to go outside.”

    The former reality show contestant is speaking out about Fox's decision to revive the show, which was once called "the most sadistic reality series of the decade," with a two-hour special that will feature celebrities. The show is currently still casting, but producers allegedly have their sights set on stars like former White House intern Monica Lewinsky and "Happy Days" alumna Erin Moran.

    Arias told RadarOnline, it's not the plastic surgery that's the problem, but the lack of psychological support during and after the series that left her spiraling downward. The former reality show cast member claims producers offered only four 15-minute therapy sessions during the two-and-a-half months of filming, and she couldn't afford therapy when she returned home.

    Arias told the website, she believes Moran -- who is currently broke, homeless and living like a recluse -- will need major therapy before and after the show, calling the former actress "unstable," but thinks former White House intern Monica Lewinksy will be "fine."

    10 Things No One Tells You About Married Sex

    Saying "I Do" can be a libido booster, so he might want even more sex now.

    You've stopped obsessing about how you look, so you're enjoying sex more than ever!

    It's easy to get lazy about taking your birth control-that surprise pregnancy is less of a big deal now.

    You'll do things that you never thought you'd do (hello, sex toys!) to keep things exciting.

    Quickies are the new norm, and you love 'em.

    How many calories does sex burn?

    You have random romps that are so hot it's like the first time all over again (only better).

    You'll dream about sex with old boyfriends once in a while. (Don't worry, it's normal!)

    His obsession with oral sex will never go away, even after you've been married for years.

    At times you'll feel like your husband is cheating on you…with porn.

    None of this sound familiar? For some couples married sex is exactly the same as it was before they were married.

    Obama’s sequester deal-changer

    Misunderstanding, misstatements and all the classic contortions of partisan message management surround the sequester, the term for the $85 billion in ugly and largely irrational federal spending cuts set by law to begin Friday.

    What is the non-budget wonk to make of this? Who is responsible? What really happened?

    The finger-pointing began during the third presidential debate last fall, on Oct. 22, when President Obama blamed Congress. “The sequester is not something that I’ve proposed,” Obama said. “It is something that Congress has proposed.”

    The White House chief of staff at the time, Jack Lew, who had been budget director during the negotiations that set up the sequester in 2011, backed up the president two days later.

    “There was an insistence on the part of Republicans in Congress for there to be some automatic trigger,” Lew said while campaigning in Florida. It “was very much rooted in the Republican congressional insistence that there be an automatic measure.”

    The president and Lew had this wrong. My extensive reporting for my book “The Price of Politics” shows that the automatic spending cuts were initiated by the White House and were the brainchild of Lew and White House congressional relations chief Rob Nabors — probably the foremost experts on budget issues in the senior ranks of the federal government.

    Obama personally approved of the plan for Lew and Nabors to propose the sequester to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.). They did so at 2:30 p.m. July 27, 2011, according to interviews with two senior White House aides who were directly involved.

    Nabors has told others that they checked with the president before going to see Reid. A mandatory sequester was the only action-forcing mechanism they could devise. Nabors has said, “We didn’t actually think it would be that hard to convince them” — Reid and the Republicans — to adopt the sequester. “It really was the only thing we had. There was not a lot of other options left on the table.”

    A majority of Republicans did vote for the Budget Control Act that summer, which included the sequester. Key Republican staffers said they didn’t even initially know what a sequester was — because the concept stemmed from the budget wars of the 1980s, when they were not in government.

    At the Feb. 13 Senate Finance Committee hearing on Lew’s nomination to become Treasury secretary, Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.) asked Lew about the account in my book: “Woodward credits you with originating the plan for sequestration. Was he right or wrong?”

    “It’s a little more complicated than that,” Lew responded, “and even in his account, it was a little more complicated than that. We were in a negotiation where the failure would have meant the default of the government of the United States.”

    “Did you make the suggestion?” Burr asked.

    “Well, what I did was said that with all other options closed, we needed to look for an option where we could agree on how to resolve our differences. And we went back to the 1984 plan that Senator [Phil] Gramm and Senator [Warren] Rudman worked on and said that that would be a basis for having a consequence that would be so unacceptable to everyone that we would be able to get action.”

    In other words, yes.

    But then Burr asked about the president’s statement during the presidential debate, that the Republicans originated it.

    Lew, being a good lawyer and a loyal presidential adviser, then shifted to denial mode: “Senator, the demand for an enforcement mechanism was not something that the administration was pushing at that moment.”

    That statement was not accurate.

    On Tuesday, Obama appeared at the White House with a group of police officers and firefighters to denounce the sequester as a “meat-cleaver approach” that would jeopardize military readiness and investments in education, energy and readiness. He also said it would cost jobs. But, the president said, the substitute would have to include new revenue through tax reform.

    'Dark Skies' An Ill-Fated Attempt To See A Midnight Screening

    Dark Skies, which is out in theaters now, was not screened early for critics. This is never a good sign. If nothing else, however, it does pique my curiosity. What am I not supposed to see? I must know!

    On Thursday night, I purchased a ticket to the midnight showing of Dark Skies (along with fellow movie-writing folk Matt Singer and Jenni Miller) at the AMC Loews Village 7 in Manhattan's East Village. Dark Skies is the story of ... well, I still have no idea, to tell you the truth. If you must know, perhaps there's a nice summary on its Wikipedia page. Yes, I tried to see Dark Skies early on Friday morning, but things did not go smoothly. Along the way, I kept a running diary of what happened.

    11:42 p.m. Honestly, I have no idea what Dark Skies is about. I think it's about space? Or aliens?

    11:45 p.m. I live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Here is the line for tickets to the midnight screening of Dark Skies.

    line

    11:54 p.m. I live in one of the largest metropolitan areas in the world. Here is what the theater looks like at the midnight screening of Dark Skies.

    theater

    11:57 p.m. Strangely, a large group of people just showed up for Dark Skies all at once, yet very few seem to know each other. Including us, there are at least 12 souls in New York City who wanted to see Dark Skies as soon as humanly possible.

    12:01 a.m. Just as the lights went down, Matt Singer had to close the theater door himself. That's never a good sign for those who hope that there are movie theater employees here to make sure things go as smoothly as possible.

    12:06 a.m. So, after the 10-second AMC fanfare played, we've now been sitting here for five minutes staring at a blank screen.

    12:06 a.m. Maybe this just is Dark Skies. Maybe this is why no one wanted us to see this movie.

    12:09 a.m. The lights are still off in the theater and there's still nothing on the screen. I must say, the rest of the crowd is surprisingly calm considering that we all paid $13 to stare at literally nothing.

    12:11 a.m. We are on the seventh floor of the theater, there are no theater employees in sight and the screen is still dark.

    12:12 a.m. I called the theater and I was just told by whomever answered that what was happening is normal and the movie would start at 12:15. I think she thinks I'm complaining about the trailers. I literally said, "I go to a lot of movies, the screen is blank." Her response, "That's normal. Call back later if nothing happens."

    World's Worst Tattoo is Fixed Photo

    The man with the "world's worst portrait tattoo" finally got his happy ending on Thursday when he had the opportunity to fix the botched ink job of his late wife that had plagued him for so many years.
    More on Yahoo! The Worst Tattoos in Hollywood

    In 2007, on the one-year anniversary of his wife Mindy's death, Chad Stahl, 38, owner of Cutright Lawn and Landscaping, LLC, visited On the Edge Tattoo Studio in Bowling Green, Ohio to honor her with a portrait tattoo. The couple had been dating for 10 years, had 3 children, and were married for less than 3 months when Mindy died in a household fire.

    Tattoo artist Dennis Foust inked the $450 portrait tattoo. "I had seen Faust's portrait work on his website and he even tattooed some of my in-laws with designs in honor of Mindy so I was confident going in," Stahl told Yahoo! Shine in his first media interview. "But when the swelling subsided, it didn't look like Mindy at all—her teeth looked evil." To add insult to injury, a friend had emailed him a link to a blog post titled "Worst Tattoo Ever" with a photo of Stahl's tattoo posted by a disgruntled On the Edge ex-employee. A few months later, Stahl returned to the studio and Faust tried to fix it, adding the words, "In loving memory of Mindy" but the damage was too great. "I was embarrassed to wear sleeveless shirts and didn't want anyone to see the tattoo but everyone in my town knew about it," says Stahl.

    Foust told Shine: "This was my very first portrait tattoo done years ago. I've since moved forward, improved my skills, and my work has been featured in magazines."

    Recently, a friend of Stahl's recommended that he visit Scott Versago at Empire Ink in Akron, Ohio, who had heard of the infamous tattoo and on Thursday Versago fixed it—for free. Vergaso wrote on his Facebook page: "I got to tackle the official '#1 worst portrait tattoo in the world' today. I'm sure you've all seen it a million times online, as had I. I couldn't believe my eyes when this guy walked in and showed me this project. I think my jaw literally hit the floor. He went on to tell me the story behind the portrait; He had just married his beautiful wife and not even three months afterwards she was killed in a horrible house fire accident leaving him to raise their three children alone. Shortly after he went to a local tattoo studio to memorialize his wife and was left with this abomination. He later returned to that studio for one more session, thinking that perhaps 'he had done something wrong in the healing of the tattoo' and they butchered it even more the second time. Finally, he drove all the way to my studio, Empire Ink, just to meet me and to see what his options were. Touched by his story, I gifted the entire project to him for free. Now he has closure and I have an amazing story to add to my portfolio!"

    The fix-it job took just three hours. "I'm so happy and want everyone to see it," Stahl told Shine. "I'm going to enter the tattoo in a contest hosted by On the Edge to see if they recognize me."

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