Saturday, April 26, 2008

Madonna: In it for herself?


I do give Britney credit for at least having the sense to not get involved in Madonna's cult. It all smells like bullshit to me. Madge, you are so far removed from the real world and from real people that you simply no longer have a clue. Sit down and STFU.

from foxnews:

Madonna Film: Kabbalah Propaganda

It’s not new to say that Madonna Louise Ciccone has a lot of nerve. After all, she’s said and done just about everything to get our attention, including a book of her sex poses.

However: The documentary she’s made about Africa, "I Am Because We Are," sort of takes the cake and shoves it in the face of the audience. The film, made by her former gardener but with her imprimatur, debuted Thursday night at the Tribeca Film Festival.

Condescending? Yes. Unknowing? Oh, you’d best believe it. Naïve? Eminently.

The pièce de résistance came after the screening, when one audience member asked what our government can do or is doing about Malawi?

Madonna’s informed reply: "I don’t know what our government does," she said, eliciting laughter, "except put us into debt and blow up other countries."

Maybe she should look this up: According to USAID Malawi, the United States gives $35 million annually to the tiny country. And that’s just a small example of aid that’s been given and still is to Malawi not just from the U.S., but from Britain and other countries. Simply Google "Malawi" and "U.S. aid" to find many dozens of instances of help that seem to have escaped Madonna’s purview.

But the worst thing about Madonna’s take on the poor southern African country of Malawi is that she and the gardener — Nathan Rissman — deliver a sizeable wallop of the Kabbalah Center of Los Angeles without informing the audience about what’s going on.

Indeed, the film uses Harvard celebrity sycophant Jeffrey Sachs and a number of Malawi's government officials and mixes them in with Kabbalah staff and philosophy. Even Bill Clinton is thrown in. The result is that all these people seem implicitly to endorse Kabbalah.

What Madonna and Rissman conveniently leave out of "I Am" is that SFK, a philosophy adopted by the Malawians in the film, stands for Spirituality for Kids, which is the teaching curriculum for Philip Berg’s Kabbalah Center in Los Angeles.

The Kabbalah Center has nothing to do with Judaism. It’s a wholly original process conceived by Berg and his wife, Karen. Some might say it’s a pyramid scheme. At the very least, it’s a cult.

Madonna and Rissman are clever about the way "SFK" is woven into "I Am." For the first hour of the film, it’s not even mentioned. Instead, we hear and see horror stories about Malawi's children and mothers living with and dying from AIDS. We’re told over and over that Madonna’s foundation is going to change all of this.

And yet, Madonna’s foundation, Raising Malawi, still remains unregistered as an official charity in the United States. Her Web site refers back to Spirituality for Kids, a main division of the Kabbalah Center. High-up members of Kabbalah also are on the Raising Malawi board. Contributions made to Raising Malawi — such as the $3.7 million raised with Gucci in February — go straight to "SFK" and Kabbalah.

The pictures in "I Am Because We Are" are graphic; the stories are hair-raising and tragic. But the overall effect is like watching a late-night infomercial from the Christian Children’s Fund.

Better than "I Am Because We Are," the film could have been called, "Rich Rock Star Discovers Disease and Poverty in Africa." This part of the film reminded me of a story about a newly hired British editor at a New York magazine who returned from lunch one December and exclaimed: "Did you know there was a big Christmas tree in Rockefeller Center?"

And you know she is well-meaning. Despite the Kabbalah babble and Madonna’s underlying persistence in explaining how she adopted a child in violation of Malawi law, her narration suggests that she was truly overwhelmed when she first set foot in that country. But this happens to anyone who goes to Africa for the first time. I get it. I felt the same way the first time I saw conditions in neighboring countries like Zambia and Botswana.

The problem with "I Am" is that neither Madonna nor Rissman really has any concept of anything other than her interests. Now that she has discovered Malawi, it doesn’t occur to Madonna that other agencies are working there, that anyone else has ever noticed or done anything to help their people or that the government — theirs, ours — cares one bit. She’s Madonna, she’s arrived and the problem will be solved.

Worse still is that, via her narration, we’re not sure if Madonna thinks the people of the country are smart or stupid, motivated or lazy. She declares the Malawians have a wonderful spirit, then declares that no such feeling could ever be found on Central Park West, Rodeo Drive or London’s Park Lane. (These apparently are the only other world references in her life.) It’s quite appalling.

I’m paraphrasing here, but there’s actually a moment in the narration where she declares: "Can you imagine another place where people are good to each other, care about each other or care about each other?" The actual quote is better than that, but it’s maybe the most ridiculous thing ever uttered on film.

Indeed, the film actually shows Malawi's adults regurgitating Kabbalah propaganda they’ve been inculcated with in order to teach the orphans in their country. (No mention is made in the film of the Kabbalah Center's flying them to Los Angeles for this indoctrination.)

It’s kind of shocking — after seeing all the poverty and disease that’s been imposed on them — to hear Malawi's children then recite back the Kabbalah/SFK dictum that they themselves "are responsible for their choices" and that "their actions can positively influence the quality of their lives." Is the moral of Madonna’s movie: Pull yourselves up by your bootstraps?

The brief Q&A session with Madonna and Rissman came after the screening and — I must add this — a standing ovation from the lemming-like audience of people who probably have never read an issue of Foreign Affairs. One woman behind me kept raising her hand to ask a question, adding "I’m from Africa!" She was ignored.

Jamie Lynn Spears is still an idiot


Jamie Lynn Spears is pregnant but apparently she was under the impression that she would get fat for a while then doctor would walk her down to the river where her new baby would be wrapped in blankets and floating in a basket. She doesn't seem to like the alternative. Star Magazine says:

A source tells Star that when the Spears family matriarch showed her seven-months-pregnant 17-year-old daughter a video of a real natural childbirth, Jamie Lynn threw up! "Lynne was trying to be helpful," a source tells Star. "She wanted to show Jamie Lynn what a woman goes through giving birth, that it's a natural and beautiful thing, but all Jamie Lynn saw was the blood - or 'goop,' as she called it - the screaming and the pain. It was too graphic for her. She flipped out and literally got sick." Now Jamie Lynn is totally freaked out. "She is wondering if a C-section is possible," the source adds. "She wants to be knocked out and then wake up when it's all over."

*Maybe mama shoulda showed that to the little ho before she got knocked up*

Friday, April 25, 2008

For your weekend entertainment....

Here's Lords of Acid!

Poor Nicole....

She just can't rid herself of Pari$ite and her man just won't stick around...

Rumour sweeping the states is that Nicole Richie's rapid weight loss is down to the fact that her partner Joel Madden has had a crisis of confidence and has left the house leaving Nicole with baby and a bout of post-natal depression. :( (Holy Moly!)

Pals Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are planning a double wedding to their partners Joel and Benji Madden.

Pals Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are planning a double wedding to their partners Joel and Benji Madden.

Former Simple Life co stars Paris Hilton and Nicole Richie are planning a lavish double wedding to boyfriends, Good Charlotte twins Benji and Joel Madden, Showbiz Spy has claimed. Insiders say the friends are planning their double ceremony for, guess what, they millions it would generate! A source said, “Paris is doing it all for attention, as usual. It’s a publicity stunt, just like everything else.”

Awesome....

from handbag gossip:

Good Charlotte is fed up with Pari$ite and is trying to convince Benji to dump her!

Punk pop band Good Charlotte are trying to get their guitarist Benji Madden to dump his girlfriend Paris Hilton.

Punk pop band Good Charlotte are trying to get their guitarist Benji Madden to dump his girlfriend Paris Hilton.

Good Charlotte are trying to get Paris Hilton off their current world tour, the Mirror reports. The socialite has recently been travelling with the band after getting together with guitarist Benji Madden, but the rest of the band, including Nicole Richie’s fiancé Joel Madden, don’t like it, sources say. “Paris is desperately trying to fit in with the band,” the insider claims, adding, “She has outstayed her welcome. Everyone is hoping he'll wake up soon and dump her.”

Thursday, April 24, 2008

PWNED!!!1!!

"She said she was going to win an Oscar before she turns 25. I just kept thinking, 'But you can't act.'" — "Harry Potter" actor Rupert Grint, talking about meeting Lindsay Lohan (Source: London Sun;

Wednesday, April 23, 2008

yadda yadda yadda

like we didn't already know, whatev!

Jones married Al Reynolds, 39, at Saint Bartholomew's Church in New York City on Nov. 13, 2004. The wedding, which had 500 hundred guests, three matrons of honors, 12 bridesmaids and four flower girls, came under scrutiny when Jones discussed its sponsors at length on her ABC show.

An attorney, Jones began her broadcasting career as a commentator on Court TV and spent several years as a legal correspondent for NBC's "Today" show. She joined "The View" in 1997 and on June 27, 2006, announced she would be leaving the show after being told that her contract wasn't going to be renewed.
Jones also hosted her own show on cable's truTV (formerly Court TV). She has authored two books: "You Have to Stand for Something, or You'll Fall for Anything" and "Shine."

*Sit down & shut up Star!*

Quiet and who cares

from msnbc.com:

NEW YORK - The matrimony of singer-actress Beyonce Knowles and hip-hop mogul Jay-Z is official — the couple have filed marriage papers, a town clerk in a New York City suburb said on Tuesday.

The couple held a lavish private celebration in Manhattan on April 4, but have been mum about the details of their wedding. Guests reportedly included Gwyneth Paltrow and Beyonce’s former Destiny’s Child bandmates, Kelly Rowland and Michelle Williams.

“The license was sent back to our office on Friday,” said Donna Conkling, the town clerk of Scarsdale Village in suburban Westchester County. She would not say who officiated.

Sunday, April 20, 2008

Lilo's looking rough


from ONTD:

Back in the Big Apple, Lindsay Lohan enjoyed a night on the town - checking out BFF Samantha Ronson’s performance at Hawaiian Tropic Zone on Saturday night (April 19).

The Mean Girls actress posed for pictures and offered up the “peace” sign before heading behind the DJ booth to chat it up with Ronson.

Meanwhile, Lohan recently became vocal about her displeasure with her father’s constant desire to speak to the media about her.

During a radio show appearance, Lindsay said: “I just wish he wouldn’t go and talk to the media. It’s not attractive to me, it really upsets me and I wish he would stop. I love my father. I just don’t know why he’s doing what he’s doing. It’s a weird situation, very odd.”

The 21-year-old redhead’s comments came after her 47-year-old father “expressed his displeasure with his daughter’s management team for not permitting her to accompany him on a missionary trip to India.”