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  • Pregnant Shakira Shows Off Bare Baby Bump, Wears No Makeup

    The new Voice mentor, 35, showed off her growing baby bump in an Instagram picture Nov. 27. With her red shirt pulled up, the fresh-faced star leaned into her boyfriend, soccer player Gerard Pique, 25.

    "I could have another nine months like this," the Colombian singer wrote in the caption.

    Shakira announced her pregnancy Sept. 19 via Facebook. "Shakira is really looking forward to being a mother," a source close to the international superstar recently told Us Weekly. "They definitely want more than one together."
     What Shakira thinks of Taylor Swift's impersonation of her

    The "Tortura" singer will welcome a baby boy in 2013. Shakira and Pique met in 2010 while shooting the video for her South Africa World Cup theme song, "Waka Waka (This Time for Africa)."

    Shakira will join Usher as a new mentor for The Voice's fourth season; the musicians, who have already begun filming, will be replacing Christina Aguilera and Cee Lo Green.

    Metro Last Light Shows No Mercy to Former Russian Supermodel in New Trailer

    When all hell breaks loose above ground and the entire population is forced into the underground transit network to survive, who you used to be doesn't matter anymore. Your goal is to be a survivor. That's why the disheveled young lady in this live action trailer for Metro: Last Light is so terrified and, well, disheveled. Things have gone from great to awful for her if you want to take the time and get into her whole backstory.

    However, I fully recommend watching the trailer and listening to the hot blonde with the Russian accent tell you how much she likes bullets. That's not what you expect from your typical super model. The bullets part, I mean. Russian accents are totally a part of super modeling. In any case, somebody find out who this actress is and let us know on Facebook so we can book a photoshoot with her.

    Lisa Hochstein Lists Mansion Featured On Real Housewives of Miami For $10 Million!

     Well, I guess the house that boobs built will have to be home to another hedonistic, lingerie party loving couple! Lisa Hochstein has just listed her mansion featured in the infamous bitch slap n broom beat-down episode for $10.75 Million dollars.

    The Real Housewives of Miami star recently purchased the home Lea Black wanted on Star Island, an elite celebrity resting ground and apparently they are finally ready to relocate to their next palace of boobs, butt implants, and Botox.

    Dang – boob jobs buy a lot of equity – I may have to consider a career change! Dr. Lenny Hochstein, lover of bright colored man-blouses, built chateau, self-titled "Palacio del Eden," in 2007 and shortly after moved Fembot in to be his living recreation of his life's work.


    According to AOL, the 10,000 square-foot home (that's it? pshaw!) boasts floor-to-ceiling marble columns, legendarily trashy parties, massive chandeliers, fresco ceilings, gilded detailing, stained glass windows, a silicone filled pool, Botox fountains, and everything a Real Housewives of New Jersey star wishes her house contained. That's code for tacky, tacky, tacky! 

    Just imagine, all of that could be yours for a cool $10 mil. You can see photos of the monstrosity gilded palace below!

    In other RHOM news, after a week off for holiday break, the ladies telenovella are back tonight with more crazy drama! Tonight's episode features bring your parents to work day as Lisa is forced to entertain her unsurgically altered, but demanding in-laws.

    Joanna Krupa's mom appears and she shares the family's love of dysfunction. Adriana de Moura hosts a party for Frederic's parents. Meanwhile the Elaine Lancaster vs. Marysol Patton drama continues and reaches a breaking point! 

    Joseph Jackson Suffers a Mild Stroke in Las Vegas

    Family patriarch Joseph Jackson, 83, suffered a mild stroke yesterday morning in Las Vegas and is receiving treatment at an area hospital.

    His pal Rutt Premsrirut said, “He’s fine.  He’s back to the regular Joe Jackson, cracking jokes and talking.”

    Joe sought emergency medical treatment after having trouble standing up and walking.  He has suffered two similar incidents in the past five years.

    The former Jackson 5 manager resides in Sin City and stays busy promoting several businesses and products.  His wife Katherine Jackson lives in Calabasas, California with Michael Jackson’s three children.

    Harvard to welcome kinky sex club for students

    Harvard students who have bedroom proclivities that would make their parents’ faces go crimson will soon be able to share the details – in a school-sanctioned club for scholars who like kinky sex. An informal group that calls itself “Harvard College Munch” began meeting last year in the dining hall to discuss the sexual ties that bind them, and it is on the brink of gaining recognition from the school's Committee on Student Life.

        “Pretty much everyone who joins this club always thought they were alone.”

    - "Michael," a Harvard student and kinky sex enthusiast

    The committee expects to approve the group, along with 14 other student organizations, on Friday, The Harvard Crimson reports.

    For charter members, such as one the school paper identified only as “Michael,” the recognition means future generations of students will be free to talk among themselves about all their nocturnal adventures.

    “It’s a little hyperbolic for me to get teary-eyed and paternal about sophomores, but it’s really a joy to see the experience they will have now,” Michael told the Crimson.

    In joining other student organizations, such as the Harvard Undergraduate Mathematics Association and the Harvard Undergraduate Maternal Health Initiative, the new, 20-member group will be allowed to apply for grants, openly recruit members and promote their, um, events.

    “If you come to campus and you have the sexual interests we represent, you may not even suspect that such a group exists,” Michael told the Crimson, adding that recognition “shows we are being taken seriously.”

    Harvard spokesman Jeff Neal said the school recognizes more than 400 independent student organizations, and the groups are required to submit an organizational constitution and agree to the school’s nondiscrimination and anti-hazing policies. Then, their fate is decided by a committee composed of students and administrators.

    “The college does not endorse the views or activities of any independent student organization,” Neal told FoxNews.com. “Rather, it ensures that independent student organizations remain in compliance with all applicable provisions of the Handbook for Students.”

    Man arrested in 1993 disappearance of 10-year-old Florida girl

    Nearly 20 years after 10-year-old Andrea Parsons vanished from her Florida neighborhood a convicted felon has been arrested and charged with her murder.

    42-year-old Chester Duane Price was arrested Thursday and charged with killing Andrea, whose body has never been found. The arrest comes after Price voluntarily returned to the area to give testimony to a grand jury in the case, The Palm Beach Post reports.

    Martin County Sheriff Robert Crowder said in a news conference Thursday detectives were led to Price after a team was assigned to review the evidence in the case last year.

    “The resolve to find Andrea and get answers surrounding the circumstances of her disappearance has never wavered,” he said.

    Price has an extensive criminal history dating back to 1991. He lived in the same county as Andrea at the time of her disappearance, and deputies said they had their eye on him from the beginning, according to The Palm Beach Post

    “We were aware of him from the beginning of the investigation … He was one of our people of interest,” Crowder told TCPalm.com.

    Andrea vanished on July 11, 1993 after making a trip to a convenience store. She had been home with Pat Daniels, her mother's boyfriend at the time. He told authorities he had given her permission to walk to the store and to visit a friend because she was bored. She never returned.

    The Palm Beach Post reports Andrea's neighbor, Claude Davis, told investigators he had seen men stuff Andrea  into a car the night she disappeared. He then said he had been collecting cans with the girl when she hit her head on a trash can and died. He said he drove around looking for help, but eventually dumped Andrea's body in a trash bin.

    Davis was charged with false imprisonment but the case was dropped in 1994 due to lack of evidence. He later served nine years in prison on unrelated charged, and told The Palm Beach Post in 2000 he did not know where Andrea was.

    Jared Leto Weight Loss: Actor Fasted For 'Dallas Buyers Club' Role

    Jared Leto is dedicated to his craft. So dedicated, in fact, that he has fasted for the past month to embody his "Dallas Buyers Clubs" character, whittling down to a shockingly thin frame that has made him virtually unrecognizable.

    Leto opened up about his dramatic weight loss for his role in "Dallas Buyers Club" during an interview with Vulture on Tuesday at the IFP Gotham Awards. "Your body goes through weird stages," Leto told Vulture of fasting. "Sometimes it's hard to hold on to water. But for me, it's not about the most weight I can lose, it's more to represent the character. I'm focused on what it means to be a transsexual woman."

    At the awards show, some reporters didn't even notice the "My So-Called Life" heartthrob on the red carpet. "He actually looks like a young Courteney Cox," quipped Showbiz 411's Paula Schwartz. She added, "few journalists bothered interviewing him because they didn’t recognize who he was."

    Leto apologized to the audience that night for his fast-inducing lightheadedness and his shaved eyebrows. Despite the physical toll, he has found deeper meaning in his transformation, telling Vulture, "Historically, people have done it for pursuit of self, to achieve a meditative state, so I'm hoping for that, and not the other things. It's not necessarily a bad thing."

    This is not the first time Leto has drastically changed his weight for a movie role, ABC News notes. He lost 25 pounds to play a drug addict in 2000's "Requiem for a Dream," then gained 60 pounds to play Mark David Chapman in 2007's "Chapter 27."

    In "Dallas Buyers Club," the 40-year-old plays Rayon, a transsexual woman with AIDS living in Texas in the 1980s. On-set photos of the actor dressed in drag surfaced earlier this month.

    But, Leto is not the only one whose shocking weight loss is making headlines.

    Leto's "Dallas Buyers Club" co-star, Matthew McConaughey, has also become dramatically skinny for his role. In the film, he plays Ron Woodroof, a drug taking, women loving, homophobic man who is diagnosed with AIDS in 1986.

    McConaughey, who has had to drop 40 pounds from his 183-pound frame, also tries to view the weight loss goal differently. "If anything, it's as much a spiritual journey as it is physical," he told People magazine.

    Oscar Visual Effects Finalists: 'The Avengers,' 'The Dark Knight Rises,' Among Possible Nominees; 'The Hunger Games' Snubbed

    James Bond, Snow White and a whole lot of hobbits and superheroes are in the running for the visual-effects prize at the Academy Awards.

    The superhero blockbusters "The Avengers," "The Dark Knight Rises" and "The Amazing Spider-Man" are among 10 films that made the cut for visual-effects nominations for the Oscars on Feb. 24.

    The other seven contenders announced Thursday include the Bond adventure "Skyfall," "Snow White and the Huntsman," "The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey," "Cloud Atlas," "John Carter," "Life of Pi" and "Prometheus."

    Members of the academy's visual-effects branch will view 10-minute excerpts from each of the films on Jan. 3, and then pick five nominees for the Oscars.

    GOP Rejects White House Opening Budget Bid

    Republicans have rejected President Obama’s opening budget bid.

    In a Capitol meeting with House Speaker John Boehner Thursday, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner submitted the Obama administration’s proposal for addressing medium term deficits, and avoiding across the board tax increases and spending cuts at the end of the year.

    Republicans called the proposal outlandish and brushed it aside as unserious. But it’s almost entirely comprised of policies Obama campaigned on and included in his budget for the current fiscal year. And by satisfying GOP demands that Obama offer up a plan that includes spending cuts, it paints Republicans, who have been reluctant to specify their own Medicare cut proposal, into a tight corner.

    The White House formally proposes to increase tax revenues by $1.6 trillion over 10 years by increasing top marginal income tax rates and taxes on both capital gains and dividends, and by limiting tax deductions for top earners, according to Republicans.

    Obama proposes to reinstate the estate tax at its 2009 level, as well as patch the alternative minimum tax.

    The administration asked Republicans to boost the economy, too, by either extending the payroll tax cut, or replace the holiday with a similar stimulus, such as the Making Work Pay tax credit in the Recovery Act. They also want to extend emergency unemployment benefits.

    On top of that, the administration proposes $50 billion in new infrastructure spending, as well as a mortgage refinancing program. The plan would prevent automatic reimbursement cuts to physicians who treat Medicare beneficiaries, and would eliminate congressional control over the debt limit altogether.

    In exchange, the administration proposes a tax reform proposal consistent with its $1.6 trillion in new tax revenues taken from top earners, and to cut 10-year deficits overall by $4 trillion, including $400 billion in savings from Medicare and Medicaid in Obama’s budget.

    California Flood Threat From "Atmospheric River"

    Meteorologists use the term "atmospheric river" to describe a long, narrow plume piping deep moisture from the tropics into the mid-latitudes.  One type of atmospheric river you may have heard of is the "Pineapple Express", a pronounced plume tapping moisture from the Hawaiian Islands to the U.S. West Coast.

    Amazingly, according to NOAA's Earth System Research Laboratory (ESRL), a strong atmospheric river can transport as water vapor up to 15 times the average flow of liquid water at the mouth of the Mississippi River! 

    Suffice to say, if an atmospheric river stalls over a particular area, significant flooding can be the result.  In fact, a study by Ralph et al. (2006) found atmospheric rivers responsible for every flood of northern Calfornia's Russian River in a 7-year period. 

    That said, they're also important for western water supply considerations. 

    According to NOAA/ESRL, 30-50% of the average annual precipitation in the West Coast states typically occurs in just a few atmospheric river events.

    With that in mind, one such atmospheric river is now soaking parts of the West Coast and will continue to do so through the weekend. Let's get to the forecast details
    Flood Threat Through the Weekend

    The graphic at the top of this article depicts the upper-air pattern that will stay in place through the weekend. Namely, a deep dip, or trough, in the jet stream is currently in place over the eastern Pacific Ocean. 

    This will continue to send a parade of frontal systems and upper-level disturbances into the West Coast.

    The first storm arrived on Wednesday and brought rainfall from California to the Pacific Northwest. The combination of wind and rain led to hefty delays at San Francisco International Airport.

    The upper-level pattern has now tapped into the atmospheric river of moisture extending from just north and west of Hawaii to the West Coast. This will continue to send the ongoing latest round of very heavy rain and gusty winds into northern California through Friday afternoon. Expect a very wet commute with more possible airport delays in the Bay Area Friday morning.

    Though rain showers will continue Friday night into Saturday, the intensity should let up some before the next round of very heavy rain and strong winds arrives in northern California and southwest Oregon for Saturday night into Sunday.

    The 25 worst passwords of 2012

    Is “password” your password?

    Despite the obvious insecurity in using the word "password" as your password, it’s the most popular (and least secure) password used on the Internet, according to a new list published by SplashData.

    The Internet security firm’s annual list of scary logins comes just in time for Halloween -- with a warning. Anyone caught using these lame passwords is most likely already or soon to be the victim of a security breach. 

    "At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations, but those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password,” said Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO.

        'Those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen by a hacked password.'

    - Morgan Slain, SplashData CEO

    “We're hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different passwords for different websites."

    Several high profile password hacking incidents dotted headlines in 2012, including a handlful at major sites including Yahoo, LinkedIn, eHarmony, and Last.fm.

    But despite these -- and the publicity created around the 2011 list of the worst Internet passwords -- little has changed, SplashData noted: The top three passwords, "password," "123456," and "12345678," remain unchanged from last year's list.

    New entries to this year's list include "welcome, " "jesus," "ninja," "mustang, " and "password1."

    SplashData, provider of the SplashID Safe line of password management applications, releases its annual list in an effort to encourage the adoption of stronger passwords.  It culls the list from millions of stolen passwords posted online by hackers.

    #              Password                Change from 2011
    1               password                 Unchanged
    2               123456                    Unchanged
    3               12345678                Unchanged
    4               abc123                     Up 1
    5               qwerty                     Down 1
    6               monkey                    Unchanged
    7               letmein                     Up 1
    8               dragon                     Up 2
    9               111111                    Up 3
    10             baseball                   Up 1
    11             iloveyou                   Up 2
    12             trustno1                   Down 3
    13             1234567                  Down 6
    14             sunshine                  Up 1
    15             master                      Down 1
    16             123123                    Up 4
    17             welcome                  New
    18             shadow                    Up 1
    19             ashley                      Down 3
    20             football                     Up 5
    21             jesus                        New
    22             michael                     Up 2
    23             ninja                         New
    24             mustang                   New
    25             password1               New

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        Windows 8: Make-or-break moment for Microsoft CEO
        25 Worst Internet Passwords


    You, win the $500M Powerball jackpot? It's not happening

    Last March, when the people of America were drooling at the thought of winning a record $656 million Mega Millions jackpot, we poured an icy bucket of mathematical reality over your head: You weren't going to win.

    And you didn't. Three winning tickets were sold, but you weren't involved. It was never going to happen. As we wrote then, you stood a better chance at hitting two consecutive holes in one than winning that jackpot.

    Now, with a record $500 million Powerball jackpot up for grabs on Wednesday, we figured it was a great time to, once again, dash your dreams. We know, we know -- someone will win at least a share of the prize, if not Wednesday, then in some subsequent drawing. But it won't be you.

    Why you keep playing the lottery

    The chance of a ticket winning a Powerball jackpot is 1 in 175,223,510 (slightly better than the chance of winning a Mega Millions jackpot, which is 1 in 175,711,536). Here are a few unlikely scenarios that, we're sorry to say, are much more likely than you taking home this jackpot.
    Lottery winners' lives ruined

    From the Harvard School of Public Health:

    -- Dying from a bee sting: 1 in 6.1 million.

    -- Dying from being struck by lightning: 1 in 3 million.

    From U.S. Hole in One, which insures golf prizes for holes in one:

    You, win the $500M Powerball jackpot
    -- An amateur golfer making a hole in one on a par-3 hole: 1 in 12,500.

    -- A golfer hitting a hole in one on consecutive par-3 holes: 1 in about 156 million.

    From a 2011 State Farm study on collisions between vehicles and deer:

    -- Hitting a deer with a vehicle in Hawaii, the state where State Farm says deer-vehicle collisions are least likely: 1 in 6,267.

    Deborah Raffin Dead: Actress Dies At Age 59

    Deborah Raffin, an actress who ran a successful audiobook company with the help of her celebrity friends, has died. She was 59.

    Raffin died Wednesday of leukemia at the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center, her brother, William, told the Los Angeles Times ( ). She was diagnosed with the blood cancer about a year ago. http://lat.ms/R0q9NM

    Raffin, the daughter of 20th Century Fox contract player Trudy Marshall, had roles in movies such as "Forty Carats" and "Once Is Not Enough." She also starred in television miniseries, most notably playing actress Brooke Hayward in "Haywire" and a businesswoman in "Noble House," based on the James Clavell saga set in Hong Kong.

    She and her then-husband, music producer Michael Viner, launched Dove Books-on-Tape in the mid-1980s, which blossomed into a multimillion-dollar business. The company's first best-seller was Stephen Hawking's opus on the cosmos entitled "A Brief History of Time."

    Raffin's job was getting celebrities to provide voices for some of the books. Among them were the nonfiction bestsellers "Anatomy of an Illness" and "The Healing Heart," both by Norman Cousins and read by Jason Robards Jr. and William Conrad, respectively.

    Raffin also compiled celebrities' Christmas anecdotes for a 1990 book, "Sharing Christmas," which raised money for groups serving the homeless. It included stories from Margaret Thatcher, Kermit the Frog and Mother Teresa.

    Raffin and Viner sold the company in 1997 and the couple divorced eight years later. Viner died of cancer in 2009.

    Raffin is survived by her two siblings, William and Judy Holston; and a daughter, Taylor Rose Viner.

    Larry Hagman Dead: 'Dallas' TV Star Dies At 81

     Larry Hagman, who created one of American television's most supreme villains in the conniving, amoral oilman J.R. Ewing of "Dallas," died on Friday, the Dallas Morning News reported. He was 81.

    Hagman died at a Dallas hospital of complications from his battle with throat cancer, the newspaper said, quoting a statement from his family. He had suffered from liver cancer and cirrhosis of the liver in the 1990s after decades of drinking.

    Hagman's mother was stage and movie star Mary Martin and he became a star himself in 1965 on "I Dream of Jeannie," a popular television sitcom in which he played Major Anthony Nelson, an astronaut who discovers a beautiful genie in a bottle.

    "Dallas," which made its premiere on the CBS network in 1978, made Hagman a superstar. The show quickly became one of the network's top-rated programs, built an international following and inspired a spin-off, imitators and a revival in 2012.

    "Dallas" was the night-time soap-opera story of a Texas family, fabulously wealthy from oil and cattle, and its plot brimmed with back-stabbing, double-dealing, family feuds, violence, adultery and other bad behavior.

    In the middle of it all stood Hagman's black-hearted J.R. Ewing - grinning wickedly in a broad cowboy hat and boots, plotting how to cheat his business competitors and cheat on his wife. He was the villain TV viewers loved to despise during the show's 356-episode run from 1978 to 1991.

    "I really can't remember half of the people I've slept with, stabbed in the back or driven to suicide," Hagman said of his character in Time magazine.

    In his autobiography, "Hello Darlin': Tall (and Absolutely True) Tales About My Life," Hagman wrote that J.R. originally was not to be the focus of "Dallas" but that changed when he began ad-libbing on the set to make his character more outrageous and compelling.


    To conclude its second season, the "Dallas" producers put together one of U.S. television's most memorable episodes in which Ewing was shot by an unseen assailant. That gave fans months to fret over whether J.R. would survive and who had pulled the trigger. In the show's opening the following season, it was revealed that J.R.'s sister-in-law, Kristin, with whom he had been having an affair, was behind the gun.

    Mayim Bialik Divorce: 'Blossom' Star Splitting From Husband Of 9 Years

    Mayim Bialik is splitting from her husband of nine years.

    The 36-year-old actress says in a statement posted online Wednesday that she and husband Michael Stone have decided to divorce. The couple has two young sons.

    Bialik recently released a book about attachment parenting, but says the philosophy that encourages forming close bonds with near-constant physical contact played no role in the couple's split.

    The Emmy-nominated star of CBS' "The Big Bang Theory" says "relationships are complicated no matter what style of parenting you choose."

    She says divorce is "terribly sad, painful and incomprehensible" for children and adds that the couple's sons remain their priority.

    Bialik first gained fame as the star of the 1990s sitcom "Blossom." She holds a doctoral degree in neuroscience from UCLA, specializing in obsessive-compulsive disorder in adolescents.

    'Psycho' Shower Scene One Of Most Influential In Hollywood History

    For his first professional acting job, a 22-year-old Anthony Hopkins took a train from South Wales to Manchester. With time to kill on a rainy day, he dropped off his bags and headed to the movies, where a long queue wound outside the cinema.

    "It was packed," Hopkins recalls. "I sat down and I didn't know what the hell I was in for. I had heard stories about it. When it got to the shower scene, I don't think I've ever been so scared in my life."

    The movie was, of course, Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho," a film that 52 years after its shocking premiere still hasn't released audiences from its subversive thrall. The film, which Hitchcock called "a fun picture," was revolutionary in its violence, its sexiness, its sympathy to the perspective of the criminal mind – and, perhaps above all, its technique.

    "What if someone really good made a horror picture?" wonders the British director, played by Hopkins, in the new film "Hitchcock."

    Directed by Sacha Gervasi, it depicts the making of "Psycho" with a keen focus on Hitchcock's relationship – and profession indebtedness – to his wife Alma Reville (played by Helen Mirren).

    It is only the latest example of the undying fascination with "Psycho," a film that ushered in a new darkness in American movies, one with a playful sense of irony toward violence but also a serious treatment of that which had previously been considered mere "schlock." Though Hitchcock made a dozen films that could easily be labeled masterpieces, none seized audiences with the same power as "Psycho."

    Made for just $800,000 at the end of Hitchcock's contract with Paramount (which distributed the film but left Hitchcock to finance it himself), "Psycho," based on Robert Bloch's novel, went on to gross $32 million – the biggest hit of his career. The director famously handed out manuals to theaters with explicit directions not to let anyone in after the movie began. Though most critics dismissed the film then, some finally began to consider Hitchcock an artist of the highest order – most notably Robin Wood, who called "Psycho" "perhaps the most terrifying film ever made."

    "We are (taken) forward and downward into the darkness of ourselves," wrote Wood. "`Psycho' begins with the normal and draws us steadily deeper and deeper into the abnormal."

    Chris Brown Guyana Show Canceled After Protests Over His 2009 Assault Of Rihanna


     Organizers say American R&B star Chris Brown has canceled a stadium concert in Guyana after local protests over his 2009 beating of then-girlfriend Rihanna.

    Brown was billed to headline a Dec. 26 show. But he drew the ire of women's rights groups and opposition lawmakers who said Brown would not be welcome in Guyana three years after his assault of Barbadian superstar Rihanna.

    Concert promoter Hits & Jams Entertainment said Thursday that Brown backed out, citing discomfort with the protests.

    In 2009, Brown hit, choked and bit Rihanna during an argument in Los Angeles. He later pleaded guilty to assault.

    Since then, Brown has worked to repair his image, undergoing violence counseling and putting out a new album. He has a duet with Rihanna on her recently released record.

    'Liz and Dick' Review: Oh Lord, What Have They Done?


    Even before watching "Liz and Dick" (Sun., Nov. 25 at 9 p.m. EST on Lifetime), it's easy to come up with a list of a few things a movie about Elizabeth Taylor-Richard Burton should do.

    It should establish Burton and Taylor as charismatic, complex people. Taylor was an intoxicating combination of devil-may-care bawdiness and classic glamour; she liked to belt back drinks and tell it like it was, and she was an old-school Movie Star who effortlessly commanded every room she entered. As for Burton, he was passionate, smart and rough around the edges; any portrayal of him would have to capture both his brooding outsider qualities and his sly, knowing wit. They weren't just actors on the make, they were fascinating personalities with very divergent histories, and any film about them would need to reflect their vast differences and intriguing backstories.

    It should make the electricity of their relationship apparent. The anticipation for their first kiss should be unbearable; the depiction of their affair should be deliciously hot. They were one of the 20th Century's most iconic couples, and their bond lasted until their deaths. The depth and combustibility of that bond should be the film's main selling point.

    It should be a treat for the eyes. Their affair began on the set of "Cleopatra," caught fire in paparazzi-infested Rome and then took them to Switzerland and London and beyond; all those locations should be shown in expensive, expansive period-specific detail. This was the era of "Mad Men" but on a much more lush and living-large scale; why not have some fun with that?

    It should take its time. You'd be hard-pressed to find a sentient adult that does not know the basic contours of their relationship: a turbulent affair followed by two well-chronicled marriages. If we already know the destination, the smart filmmaker would make the journey of Liz and Dick as smart, diverting and entertaining as possible.

    It should be well cast. Telling this story wouldn't be easy, given how well known its two protagonists are, but there have to be actors who could give the collision of these titanic personalities dramatic heft. You wouldn't want mere look-alikes -- you'd want terrific actors able to convey the pain and the pleasure of this calamitous, enjoyable relationship in very specific and compelling ways.
    "Liz and Dick" does absolutely none of these things.

    All it really does is make you sad about what's become of Lindsay Lohan, and wonder at the motivations of the filmmakers who put her in this cheap-looking, exploitative movie.

    Exploitation really is the name of the game here; the whole point of casting Lohan was to draft off her status as a formerly promising actress who some time ago became a tabloid fodder thanks to her career-destroying antics. The casting of Lohan would ensure coverage of the production itself, and then more "Can she manage a comeback" chatter once the movie's air date approached. It's one way to get attention for a project, I guess.

    Another way is to create something of quality, but that would take time and effort, and expenditure of labor clearly wasn't the point here.

    Texas Highway Pileup: Massive Car Crash Shuts I-10 In Texas; At Least 2 Dead


    Two people died and more than 80 people were hurt Thursday when at least 140 vehicles collided in Southeast Texas in a pileup that left trucks twisted on top of each other and authorities rushing to pull survivors from the wreckage.

    The collision occurred in extremely foggy conditions at about 8:45 a.m. Thanksgiving Day on Interstate 10 southwest of Beaumont, a Gulf Coast city about 80 miles east of Houston.

    A man and a woman were killed in a Chevy Suburban SUV crushed by a tractor trailer, the Texas Department of Public Safety told KFDM-TV.

    Jefferson County sheriff's Deputy Rod Carroll said in a news release that 80 to 90 people were transported to hospitals with 10 to 12 of those in serious to critical condition. He said 140 to 150 vehicles were involved in the pileup.

    According to DPS, a crash on the eastbound side of the highway led to other accidents in a dangerous chain reaction. There were multiple crashes on the other side of the highway as well.

    Carroll told The Associated Press the fog was so thick that deputies didn't immediately realize they were dealing with multiple accidents.

    "It is catastrophic," Carroll said. "I've got cars on top of cars."

    I-10's eastbound lanes were re-opened Thursday evening after more than eight hours.

    DPS trooper Stephanie Davis told KFDM that two people in an SUV died after the crash.

    Sexy actress Sherlyn Chopra Kamasutra 3D First Look Poster

    Sherlyn Chopra’s Kama Sutra 3D is based on the original concept of the ancient Indian sex manual written by Vatsyayana. The film was announced at the Cannes Film Festival 2012 by Paul, who has also directed Saint Dracula 3D.The first look of the movie has been out now.

    Last time the hottest news in the block about Sherlyn was about her nude shoot for an international magazine.  The magazine is a popular one among its readers because of the sassy adult contents.

    Rupesh Paul is the director of the movie kama Sutra that will be made in 3D. During the premiere of his maiden Hollywood act Saint Dracula 3D at the Cannes film festival that was held this year, he announced that Sherlyn Chopra will play the role of the leading lady in his upcoming movie.

    The director further confirmed the same as he revealed his plan to premiere the exotic movie at the Cannes film festival that will be held next year. "Sherlyn has exotic Indian looks and a bold attitude to carry a role like this. The film will assure maximum utilization of her talent and beauty. Besides, it will also be challenging and exciting for me as a director to portray her in a new bolder avatar" says Rupesh.

    It is Rupesh’s Kama Sutra 3D that is set to make news after Mira Nair’s Kama Sutra — A Tale of Love, which turned heads with the exotic and bold acts of the two leading ladies Indira Verma and Sarita Choudhury. Though both the leads of Mira Nair reportedly had deep concerns to act brassy and go nude, Sherlyn on the other hand has limited reservations to do the same.

    About the 3D aspect of the movie the director quotes “3D would add that extra dimension to the sexual positions described in the ancient treatise on the art of love.” To add more to the spice Sherlyn adds "Kama Sutra is nowhere close to vulgarity. Nudity is not vulgar. It is a form of art and an expression of the mind. I am considered to be a bold personality but I know this film is going to change perceptions."

    The other key roles will be played by known actors from Bollywood exclaims director Rupesh Paul, who will disclose the names soon after he has finalized them.

    After what Mira Nair had to face during the shooting of her film; Rupesh is hush hush about the shooting location, guarding the secret wisely. However, the shooting of the film is set to start early next year.
    Sherlyn Chopra Kamasutra Teaser

    Jennifer Lawrence Admits She’s a Terrible Dancer!

    Hunger Games star Jennifer Lawrence may be kick ass with a bow and arrow, but the 22-year-old actress says that hitting a bullseye is just about her only party trick.

    Because of her self-proclaimed “awful” dancing skills, Jennifer said the first few days of filming her latest project, Silver Lining Playbooks alongside Bradley Cooper, were especially difficult.

        If you miss a target, you still look cool because you’re holding a bow and arrow… But when you mess up dancing you just look like an idiot.

    According to Jennifer, both she and Bradley were reeeeeally shaking in the dancing department, but were there to support each other along the way.

        It’s a great way to get to know a person… You’re instantly sweating and learning something together.

        I remember I thought, OK, it’s going to be all right because we are holding each other and we were both very vulnerable to this choreographed dance that we were going to have to do in three weeks in front of Robert De Niro. We [we
    re] treading water together, helplessly treading water together.

    Candice Swanepoel’s Stomach Is Ready for the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show

    Two days before the highly anticipated Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, Candice Swanepoel posted a photo on Twitter showing how she had meticulously prepared for her moment in the spotlight while scantily clad on stage.

    Tragically the ensuing image of her concave stomach and jutting hipbones has caused a bitter backlash from followers outraged with the South African model's unhealthy body image, along with concerns that she is suffering from an eating disorder.

    PHOTOS: Victoria’s Secret Supermodels Strip Down Into Their Bikinis

    "It's quiet obvious this girl is bulimic," wrote one commentator, while another posted: "It looks like the African kids… only missing the number you need to call to donate."

    This is far from the first time the 5'9" blonde beauty's emaciated frame has appeared shockingly thin, and as RadarOnline.com previously reported, Candice was skin and bones in a sexy animal print bikini at the 2011 SWIM collection launch in March 2011.


    After she got a frosty reception to the glamourous shoot, Swanepoel, 24, defended her weight to People.com. "I am healthy and happy," she said. "I'm heartened to know how much everyone cares about me, but in this case, everything is normal and good."

    Last month, she appeared with a group of equally skinny VS models at the Mario Testino Exhibit preview in Boston, where healthy-looking new mom Alessandra Ambrosio dominated the red carpet with her sexy curves over her skeletal cohorts.

    Ke$ha? Pants, Ke$ha Coordinates Her Pants

    I thought Ke$ha had really turned a corner after we saw her at the AMAs. She looked somewhat presentable. Normal even. But no. It wasn’t meant to be. Here’s Ke$ha performing on the Today show on Tuesday wearing some fishnet getup she carved an upside down cross into and had Rainbow Brite vomit on. On the bright side, at least she’s not trying to look like an Indian chief anymore.

    Sherlyn Chopra shoots sex scenes for 'Kamasutra' in Hollywood

    After Poonam Pandey hitting the headlines for bagging a film project titled “Nasha”, it is time for Sherlyn Chopra to be the next in news. This model-turned-actor’s film has been named “Kamasutra”.

    The name might raise eyebrows, however, none can overlook the fact that she posed all nude for the magazine “Playboy” and this film will not be much different.

    Sherlyn has been seen in the film, “Dil Bole Hadippa”, however her role in it had been

    Insignificant, to say the least. To jump into the limelight she posed nude for the famed magazine “Playboy” and in the bargain she got some undisclosed sum of money.

    The film with which she is debuting will be having many bold scenes which will be shot in Hollywood. This will be done to avoid any trouble or social protest out here in India.

    Rupesh Paul, who is directing the film, is currently in Los Angeles in the hope of hiring a studio there. He said “Considering the touchy cultural atmosphere (in India) and the people’s sentiments; we have decided to shoot the scenes outside India. I met a line producer here who is well experienced in the field, and can easily facilitate any studio in Hollywood for the nude scenes.”

    He also added that it was his friends pertaining to the industry who warned him about shooting the bold scenes in India. He said, regarding this “I was getting calls from my friends, warning me that no nude scenes should be shot in India. It may create unwanted issues. Some communal organizations can even exploit the situation just to make headlines.”

    The other places that have been selected by the director for the shoot of the movie and its songs are Rajasthan, Gujarat, Mumbai and Madhya Pradesh.

    The director Rupesh Paul recently premiered his first venture Saint Dracula 3D at the prestigious Cannes Film Festival this year and hopes to premiere “Kamasutra” there as well next year.

    When asked about selecting Sherlyn as the leading lady of the film, he said “Sherlyn has exotic Indian looks and a bold attitude to carry a role like this. The film will assure maximum utilization of her talent and beauty. Besides, it will also be challenging and exciting for me as a director to portray her in a bold new avatar.”

    This film is also being made in 3D, for which he added “3D would add that extra dimension to the sexual positions described in the ancient treatise on the art of love.”

    Playboy girl Sherlyn Chopra sizzles in Kamasutra 3D's first look

    Wait is over and sensuous playboy girl Sherlyn Chopra is back with hot looks in soon to be released Kamasutra 3d directed by Rupesh Paul. Movies First look released by the actor are showing her in different seductive poses.

    The actor has recently uploaded a video teaser. The video features her gyrating to music in a golden bikini in the video.

    In film, she will exhibit seductive poses and sexual positions from the ancient scriptures on the art of love in 3D.
    Kamsutra 3D is based on the original concept if the Indian sex manual written by Vatsyayana. Paul announced the movie at Cannes Film festival 2012 by Paul. The man has also directed Saint Dracula 3D.

    Sherlyn will be the first popular Indian actress to star in the ancient Indian erotica's cinematic adaptation. Apart from her, two more important characters in the film will be featuring in the movie.

    The role will be essayed by popular Bollywood actors.

    Interestingly, Sherlyn is also the first popular Indian actress to star in the ancient Indian erotica cinematic adaptation unlike Mira Nair's Kamasutra: A Tale Of Love, which starred two American born actresses, Indira Verma and Sarita Choudhury, in the lead.

    The movie trailers will be released at the American Film Market in Los Angeles on November 4th. The trailers are shot by Sapan Narula

    Steven Spielberg: I Will Not Direct A Star Wars Movie!

    Steven Spielberg won't be going to galaxy far, far away.

    After the announcement of a seventh "Star Wars" film in 2015, speculation has run rampant about who might direct the massive project - with many high profile names being thrown around - but Spielberg won't be in the running.

    PLAY IT NOW: Access Extended: George Lucas & Steven Spielberg In Cannes, Part II (2008)

    Access Hollywood caught up with the director on Thursday night at the premiere of his latest film, "Lincoln," where we asked the longtime friend and collaborator of George Lucas about the possibility of directing the upcoming "Episode 7."

    "No! No!" Steven told Access.

    VIEW THE PHOTOS: The Cast Of Star Wars: Then & Now

    According to the Hollywood icon, lightsabers, stormtroopers and Wookies will be somebody else's responsibility.

    "It's not my genre," the director explained. "It's my best friend George's genre."

    For more on the direction Access is hoping the next "Star Wars" movie goes, CLICK HERE!

    Beyond Vintage New York Sample Sale and Links a la Mode

    Every time I get an invite to a fabulous New York sample sale, I'm tempted to hop on on the next flight and just go. After all, I'll be saving tons of money by shopping the sale which means the trip practically pays for itself. Please ignore my flawed reasoning and let me live in my fool's shopping paradise.

    If you're in the Big Apple, please stop by the Beyond Vintage Sample Sale taking place from Tuesday October 23-Friday October 26 at 275 West 39th Street, 2nd Floor. It's their biggest sample sale yet as current and past seasons will be heavily discounted along with a selection of vintage from their archives. Indulge me and let me live vicariously through your Manhattanite shopping adventure.


    At the sale I would snap up these fall favs in a heartbeat. Actually, it's a good thing I won't be there because I can get downright feline at sample sales...claws out, pounce ready.

    Sex Workers Daughters Access Education in India

    The story below was published in Global Press Institute on Oct 11- the first International Girl's Day. I was traveling and read it myself after a couple of days. So, thought of sharing it here, with a few new photos. You can also read the original article here.

    The kids at Chaithanya Happy Home sing as a proud Jayamma - their guardian looks with a smile.
    NEW DELHI, INDIA – Madhavi, 12, of Hyderabad, the capital of Andhra Pradesh state in southern India, is an aspiring poet.

    “I love music and poetry,” she says. “When I grow up, I want to teach poetry to little children.”

    But the girl’s own childhood was far from poetic. Deep scars on Madhavi’s face mark the time a dog mauled her at age 2 while she was living on the streets with her mother, who earned a living as a sex worker.

    Yet Madhavi’s eyes shine as she smiles and dreams about her future.

    “To be a schoolteacher and take care of so many children will be fun,” she says.

    And she now has the opportunity to achieve her dreams. No longer living on the streets with her mother, she has safe shelter at Chaithanya Happy Home and studies in the fifth grade at a city school.

    Chaithanya Happy Home is part of Chaithanya Mahila Mandali, India’s first nonprofit organization founded by a former sex worker, Jayamma Bandari. Between the ages of 4 and 14, the 35 girls living in the home are all daughters of commercial sex workers.

    Even a decade ago, the fate for these girls was to join the same profession as their mothers once they came of age. Today, however, they are living in a safe place and are attending one of the best English-medium schools in Hyderabad, dreaming of becoming schoolteachers, engineers, doctors and revenue collectors.


    The stigma and discrimination attached to female sex workers in Indian society trickles down to their daughters. To change this, nongovernmental organizations are working to secure basic rights for the girls, such as education, with the help of the 2010 Right to Education Law. But activists say more needs to be done to change age-old societal attitudes stigmatizing sex workers and their daughters and to pay for continuing education. 

    In Hyderabad alone, there are more than 25,000 female sex workers, according to Chaithanya Mahila Mandali. Bandari's organization has helped 600 of them to possess valid proof of identity. But thousands of others are still unable to access free health care, to vote or to open a bank account.

    More than 60 percent of the total number of sex workers in Hyderabad do not own any property and live in rented apartments, Bandari says. They do not reveal their real profession to their landlords or to their neighbors, fearing that they will be evicted and shunned.

    “A normal parent will never allow his or her kids to mingle with the kid of a sex worker or keep social relations with sex workers,” Bandari says. “The sex workers, therefore, live in total social exclusion.”

    This exclusion – for being sex workers and also single mothers – trickles down to their children, denying them basic rights in the past such as education.

    Rihanna Drops Visuals For Lead Single Off 'Unapologetic'

    Rihanna was already scheduled to chat with Andy Cohen on Facebook Live on Thursday, but first she had some important business to get out of the way: the music video for "Diamonds."

    The song is the lead single off her upcoming album, "Unapologetic." "Diamonds" was produced by Benny Blanco and Stargate and written by Sia. It marked a strong departure from her recent work, which veered more toward electronic dance music. In an interview with The Huffington Post, Blanco explained how the single came together:

        We were trying to come up with stuff for Rihanna for weeks. I was with Stargate, and we kept trying to come up with stuff that was cool. And we came up with some stuff, but it just sounded so much like Rihanna. Most of the time when people work with an artist, they don't give them what they need for the future, they give them what their last album sounded like. So it's like, "oh, One Republic needs a song, why don't we send them 10 that sound like 'Apologize?' Or, "Oh, Rihanna needs a song, why don't do 'We Found Love'?" But what you really want to give someone is something they don't know and have them realize they need it.

        But we didn't even do that. We're sitting there trying to make records, and we finally just said, "Let's just do something we like. Let's make a hip-hop record with some really cool chords on it." It didn't sound Rihanna at all. We were more thinking of making a record that sounds like Kanye. Let's make a record with a dope beat. So we did. Then Sia heard the track and instantly gravitated towards it. We weren't even thinking of putting a pop song on it, but she wrote this amazing song, and it just happened overnight.

    Rihanna said "Diamonds" has replaced "Umbrella" as her favorite song she's ever made. "Even if you're in the club, it really f--ks with your head. Like, really, I'm too drunk for this sh-t," she told Cohen.

    Other fun quotes: She thinks Kanye is "a genius," Jay-Z is "even more genius" and Beyonce is "gorgeous -- a stab to my confidence."

    The video comes on the heels of Rihanna's well-received performance at last night's Victoria's Secret Fashion Show taping. She also dropped a preview of her new song with Chris Brown, "Nobodies Business." Watch the "D

    Republican Reckoning Begins After Revealing Defeat

    Republican Party leaders on Wednesday began picking up the pieces of their movement, trying to figure how to put them back together.

    The GOP was blindsided Tuesday, but also revealed. The Democrats' ground organization was beyond anything they'd imagined, pulling in new voters with stunning effectiveness. It exposed a major weakness in the Republican approach to winning elections, practically and intellectually.

    "I don't think anyone on our side understood or comprehended how good their turnout was going to be," said Henry Barbour, a Republican committee man from Mississippi. "The Democrats do voter registration like a factory, like a business, and Republicans tend to leave it to the blue hairs."

    But President Barack Obama's triumphant get-out-the-vote program also pulled back the curtain on the GOP's looming demographic demise. The exposure was so severe that there will be few inside the party who can deny the need to work toward immigration reform, as well the need to make a broader effort to communicate to parts of the electorate that the party has not tried to in the past.

    There was a quick move to embrace the need for change, from the ranks of the party's next generation of elected leaders, as well as from its online flame-throwers.

    "The conservative movement should have particular appeal to people in minority and immigrant communities who are trying to make it, and Republicans need to work harder than ever to communicate our beliefs to them," said Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla).

    Erick Erickson, founder of RedState.com, a conservative blog, said Republican candidate Mitt Romney's approach to Hispanic voters was "atrocious."

    "Frankly, the fastest-growing demographic in America isn’t going to vote for a party that sounds like that party hates brown people," Erickson said.

    However, the day after was not all self-reflection for those on the right. Some struck a far more combative tone.

    "We are in a war. We're in a war to save this nation," said Michael Needham, chief executive of Heritage Action, an arm of the conservative Washington think tank, The Heritage Foundation.

    Obama re-election protest escalates at Univ. of Mississippi; racial slurs, 2 arrests reported

     A protest at the University of Mississippi against the re-election of President Barack Obama grew into crowd of about 400 people with shouted racial slurs as rumors of a riot spread on social media. Two people were arrested on minor charges.

    The university said in a statement Wednesday that the gathering at the student union began late Tuesday night with about 30 to 40 students, but grew within 20 minutes as word spread. Some students chanted political slogans while others used derogatory racial statements and profanity, the statement said.

    The incident comes just after the 50th anniversary of violent rioting that greeted the forced integration of Ole Miss with the enrollment of its first black student, James Meredith.

    Ole Miss Chancellor Dan Jones promised an investigation and said “all of us are ashamed of the few students who have negatively affected the reputations of each of us and of our university.”

    On Wednesday night, about 700 people held up candles and called for racial harmony outside the administrative building at the university in Oxford, countering Tuesday’s protest over Obama’s re-election.

    Police were initially alerted to Tuesday’s uproar by people who saw Twitter posts about it. The students were told to leave, but about 100 came back later. One person was charged with public intoxication and another with failure to comply with police orders. There were no reports of injuries or property damage.

    Rumors about the situation were fueled on Twitter after the university’s student journalists posted a video referring to the gathering as “riots.” The student newspaper posted a video of the crowd, but much of what the students said in it is unintelligible other than the “Hotty Toddy” cheer, which is common at football games and other school gatherings.

    One picture that spread rapidly on social media shows people burning an Obama campaign sign, but the university hasn’t confirmed that the picture was taken on campus. The chancellor said some photos shared on social media showed things that were not seen by police on campus, but the reports of uncivil language and racial slurs appeared to be accurate.

    Showbiz with Gordon Smart @TheSun_Showbiz Katherine Jenkins to take part in live Sun webchat

     Currently promoting her forthcoming festive album, This Is Christmas, the Welsh wonder will kick-start the party season as she answers your questions at 12 noon on Wednesday November 14.

    Katherine's visit will see her follow previous big name guests including Will Ferrell, P. Diddy, Jessie J and JLS into our hotseat.

    The disc, packed full of seasonal favourites, follows an incredible year for the blonde bombshell after enjoying a dazzling run to the final of Dancing With The Stars, a performance at The Queen's Diamond Jubilee concert and a role as an ambassador for the London Olympic athletes.

    This is now a unique opportunity for you to get up close and personal with the stunning star as you ask her anything you like.

    Katherine Jenkins on Dancing With The Stars
    Raising her profile in the US ... Katherine sizzled on Dancing With The Stars before coming second
    Perhaps you can find out what she has planned for Christmas or ask what she thinks of this year's Strictly Come Dancing.

    Or you can quiz Katherine on her rumoured romance with Cheryl Cole's ex Derek Hough or that strange David Beckham Tweet.

    Singing sensation ... Katherine Jenkins

    Tune in live at 12 noon next Wednesday November 14. If you can't make the chat leave your questions on the meesage board below and we will put the best ones to Katherine.

    This Is Christmas is out on November 26.

    It's a 50-50 nation, give or take

    The election laid bare a dual — and dueling — nation, politically speaking, jaggedly split down the middle on the presidency and torn over much else. It seems you can please only half of the people nearly all of the time.

    Americans retained the fractious balance of power in re-electing President Barack Obama, a Republican House and a Democratic Senate, altogether serving as guarantors of the gridlock that voters say they despise. Slender percentages separated winner and loser from battleground to battleground, and people in exit polls said yea and nay in roughly equal measure to some of the big issues of the day.

    Democracy doesn't care if you win big, only that you win. Tuesday was a day of decision as firmly as if Obama had run away with the race. Democrats are ebullient and, after a campaign notable for its raw smackdowns, words of conciliation are coming from leaders on both sides, starting with the plea from defeated Republican rival Mitt Romney that his crestfallen supporters pray for the president.

    But after the most ideologically polarized election in years, Obama's assertion Wednesday morning that America is "more than a collection of red states and blue states" was more of an aspiration than a snapshot of where the country stands.

    "It's going to take a while for this thing to heal," said Ron Bella, 59, a Cincinnati lawyer who lives in Alexandria, Ky. He is relieved Obama won, but some of his co-workers are in a "sour mood" about it.

    "They feel like the vast majority of the country wanted Romney, and the East and the West coasts wanted Obama," he said. "I'm not sure exactly why that is, but there just seems to be such hatred for Obama out there."

    Compromise was a popular notion in the hours after Obama's victory and an unavoidable one, given the reality of divided government. But the familiar contours of partisan Washington were also in evidence, especially the notion that compromise means you do things my way.

    As Democratic Rep. Steve Israel of New York put it, "If you refuse to compromise, we are going to beat you." Israel, chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said the election showed "if you are an extremist tea party Republican, you are going to lose."

    Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky said pointedly that Republicans will meet Obama halfway "to the extent he wants to move to the political center" and propose solutions "that actually have a chance of passing."

    Spain's Gay Marriage Law Reaffirmed By Top Court

    Spain's Constitutional Court upheld the legality of the country's gay marriage law on Tuesday, rejecting an appeal contending that marriage in the Spanish constitution means only the union of a man and woman.

    The county's top court voted 8-3 to dismiss the appeal of the conservative Popular Party filed shortly after Spain became the world's third country to approve gay marriage.

    Spain's Parliament passed the gay marriage law in 2005 when it was Socialist-controlled, with Popular Party deputies opposed. The Popular Party took power late last year after the Socialists were ousted over their handling of the economy.

    The gay marriage law angered the predominant Roman Catholic Church but opinion surveys showed most Spaniards backed it. Belgium and the Netherlands approved gay marriage laws before Spain.

    Gypsy Taub, Nudity Activist, Gets Naked At Board Of Supervisors Meeting

    Sometimes it feels like people throw around the term "only in San Francisco" with a little bit too much carelessness. Just because someone told you there's a 45-minute wait for brunch or three of your friends are all competing to become the mayor of the new Norwegian-inspired taco truck on Foursquare doesn't entirely justify the declaration that those things could exclusively happen here in town.

    On the other hand, sometimes the phrase is actually warranted. Take what happened during Monday's hearing of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Neighborhood Services Committee in which officials discussed a ban on public nudity, for example.

    If you assume the next sentence is going to run along the lines of, "someone took off all of their clothes," you would be correct.

    (SCROLL DOWN FOR GRAPHIC VIDEO)

    During the meeting, nudity activist Gypsy Taub stepped up to the podium and addressed the committee. "Nudity does not harm children," she said. "Have you ever seen a child cry because they saw a naked person? What do children do when they see naked people? They laugh. It makes them happy, it doesn't traumatize them. Nudity is natural and harmless. Our bodies are God's gift and God doesn't make mistakes. Attacking our right to be nude is an attack on sacredness, beauty, love freedom, art and creative self-expression."

    Taub then removed her dress, revealing a nary an undergarment, and declared, "attacks on body freedom are unconstitutional and un-American."

    She was quickly escorted out of the room by police officers while chanting, "Up with body freedom, down with Scott Wiener."

    Naturally, Taub was greeted with a rousing round of applause--probably for a whole variety of reasons.

    In the hallway outside the committee room, Taub was detained by police and eventually put her clothes back on. "Nudity does not harm anyone," she added. "It's people's actions and not people's bodies that harm people. Clothes have never stopped anyone from sexual harassment; they have not stopped anyone from raping; clothes have never stopped anyone form getting raped. It is nothing to do with clothes, it has to do with people's actions."

    The San Francisco Chronicle notes that Taub had sent out press release to various media outlets announcing her intention to disrobe during the meeting.

    Cynthia Nixon Says 'Sex And The City' Women Wouldn't 'Ever Vote For Romney'

    Actress Cynthia Nixon has been a vocal advocate for LGBT rights, women's health and President Barack Obama, but on November 1st, she informed Florida voters that Miranda Hobbes, the character she played on the hit HBO series "Sex and the City" from 1998 to 2004, would have supported the president as well -- and that Miranda's best friends Carrie Bradshaw, Samantha Jones and Charlotte York also wouldn't vote Romney on November 6th.

    Nixon, 46, made this claim last week when she was down in Florida volunteering for the Obama campaign. In a radio interview with 102JamzOrlando, Nixon said that her fictional counterpart, attorney Miranda Hobbes, would most certainly share her own political leanings. "I think Miranda Hobbes would rather shoot herself in the head than vote for Mitt Romney,” Nixon said. “Mitt Romney is so terrible on women’s issues.”

    She also spoke for the other three "Sex and the City" main characters:

        I know that there are women who support [Romney], and it’s hard for me to understand, but certainly Miranda nor Carrie nor Charlotte nor Samantha, none of those women would ever vote for Mitt Romney. They would do something terrible first before they would ever vote for Mitt Romney.

    Nixon told a crowd at the Ybor City Obama field office that she decided to come campaign for Obama in Florida after hearing Michelle Obama give "an amazing speech" at a New York City fundraiser, CL Tampa Bay reported. She went on to explain why she is supporting the president, mentioning the the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act and Obamacare. She also discussed the importance this November has for her as a lesbian:

        You know, everybody used to say about Bill Clinton that he was the first African-American president, but I think that Barack Obama is the first gay president. My wife and I got married this May -- and I know it took him a little while to get there, but the fact that he came out fully for marriage equality for all Americans -- we've never had a president come anywhere close to that. And I know that if we can keep him in there for another four years, we're gonna see the repeal of the Defense of Marriage Act.

    705 million tourists worldwide since start of 2012

    Traveler numbers increased by four percent year on year between January and August, according to official figures released by the World Tourism Organization on Monday.

    Over the first eight months of the year, the WTO recorded an increase of 28 million tourists compared with last year's numbers. If the trend takes hold, the WTO predicts that the billion tourist threshold will be reached by the end of the year.

    Compared with the first five months of the year, which saw an average increase in tourists hovering around 5%, June and July were a bit slower, with respective increases of 2.7% and 1.4%.

    The surge was more pronounced in August (+4%), which is generally the most travel-friendly month of the year.

    The best figures come from tourism towards the Asia-Pacific region (+7%) and Africa (+6%). Europe (+3%) and the Americas (+4%) also increased their numbers of visitors.

    In the Middle East, tourism seems to be rebounding, although the numbers are still down year on year (-1%). Last year's tourist numbers for the region painted an even more pessimistic picture, with a 7 percent drop.

    The Justin Bieber Sex Doll Is Here

    Barely-legal Justin Bieber is being initiated into adulthood with his very own sex doll.

    Enter the "Just-in Beaver" blow-up sex doll made by Pipedream Products.

    The plastic, bisexual boy toy, touted to be "Finally 18!" and "Ready to Rock Your World!," is modeled by a Bieber lookalike wearing a sideways hat and a boyish grin.

    SCROLL FOR PHOTO

    The "Girlfriend" singer celebrated his 18th birthday back in March, and now the sex toy industry is celebrating Bieber's manhood with a "love doll" in his likeness.

    "Meet Just-In Beaver, the barely legal boy-toy who's waited 18 long years to stick his lil' dicky in something sticky!" reads Pipedream's description of the Bieber sex doll. "When he's not busy beating up paparazzi or beating off, he's up to his high-tops in hot Hollywood tail! But the Beave-ster doesn't have this effect just on women -- he turns straight men gay faster than you can peel his skinny jeans off! So what are you waiting for, inflate this lil’ pricks's ego even more and have your very own Beaver bash!"

    Just-in Beaver is available for purchase on Amazon, with prices ranging from $20 to $138.

    The doll follows the California-based company's "Finally Mylie," a sex doll made to resemble the now 19-year-old former Disney star, Miley Cyrus.

    Bieber's kinky counterpart may not be available for long. Even though Bieber himself is not named in the product or product description, the teenybopper could sue for the company's use of his celebrity. "Considering the doll is unlicensed, chances are it won’t be available to the public for very long," ONTD notes.

    In February, Bieber and his people handed a cease and desist order to RC3 for developing a mobile game app called "Joustin' Beaver," TMZ reported. The cartoon game features a beaver Bieber, dressed in a purple hoodie and rocking a mop of tousled hair, that gamers must defend from the "phot-hogs." The company rejected the demand, claiming its game is a parody and protected under the First Amendment.

    While the sex doll may be marketed toward gay men, Bieber is already a hit with many lesbians -- or at least his once famous haircut is. The tumblr blog "Lesbians Who Look Like Justin Bieber," which has been featured in NY magazine and GQ as well as on "TMZ" and "The Insider," was created more than two years ago by Dannielle Owens-Reid, "a biebian from South Carolina who loves Justin Bieber and the lesbians who look like him."

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