mosker

That's just not right!

There are just some things that should not be messed with. Like my morning routine. It's not that I'm inflexible. Not completely anyway. It's just that having a morning routine is important. Without it I will never get to work on time, and goodness knows it's pretty darned easy to get me off track in the morning as it is.

Every morning I watch CNN's American Morning. I get my necessary news fix to start my day and I like Soledad O'Brien and Miles O'Brien. They're both smart, funny, and neither are irritating. I like that Miles is a geek and knows lots of useless information and that despite being smart, beautiful, and successful, Soledad seems like someone you'd actually enjoy meeting. The show skips most of the banter and all of the cooking segments, leaving plenty of time for, uh, news.

Except CNN is going to ruin it for me. They are replacing O'Brien and O'Brien with John Roberts and Kiran Chetry. I like Roberts well enough, but he's always struck me as being more of a traditional anchor type. Maybe that's just his CBS background. I have no idea who Chetry is, other than she had a falling out with her  former Fox News Channel bosses.

I know it's all about the ratings, but I am disappointed nonetheless. Maybe if I change my morning routine completely I won't notice that there are no good morning news shows anymore.

Don't blink or you'll miss it

Suzanne is off taking care of her youngster today, so I will jump in and post this: Britney Spears has left rehab.

Wait, wait, you're thinking, I've already heard that! She left rehab and then darted around town collecting buzz cuts and tattoos. Except she reportedly checked herself back into rehab yesterday, and then today checked out again. You'd think with all that money she could afford to buy herself a brain. Yes, that's harsh, but come on...she's starting to make K-Fed look less skeevy. I didn't think that was possible.

My favorite line in the brief news report: "Later, the TV show "Extra" and the Web site TMZ.com said Spears, 25, left the center far short of the usual 45-day stay." Yeah. Just a bit short.

I wonder if anyone in the media feels silly now for having talked smack about Lindsey Lohan's "work release" rehab.

The one where he disappears back into obscurity

Rupert Murdoch has pulled the rug out from under OJ Simpson by canceling both the book and accompanying television special about Simpson's murder of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown. Public criticism prompted an apology from the Fox chairman:

I and senior management agree with the American public that this was an ill-considered project," said Rupert Murdoch, News Corp. chairman. "We are sorry for any pain that his has caused the families of Ron Goldman and Nicole Brown Simpson. (link)

And the book, which this morning reached #42 on Amazon's book list, has disappeared from the bookseller's website as though it had never been. We can only hope the Simpson will disappear from public view as quickly.

"If I did it"

You can hardly blame me for having thought it was a joke. After all, the very idea that OJ Simpson would write a book detailing how he killed his wife--if he did, wink, wink--is preposterous. It sounds more like the setup to a bad stand-up comic's joke: "Did you hear about how OJ is writing a book about killing Nicole?" I mean, how many kinds of stupid to you have to be to win an acquittal and then proclaim to the world "Suckers! I killed them!"?

I doubt the revelation will change any minds though. I've heard that the split between those who believe he killed them and those who believe he didn't falls along racial lines, or along gender lines, or even football fans versus football haters. I know someone who insists that there is no way OJ could have killed his wife, but if he did, then he must hired someone to do it. People like that will see the book or watch the interview and shout "Wait! It's fiction! He said IF he did it". People like me, who have long believed he committed the crime, will just say "I told you so". Legally it doesn't matter, because he cannot be tried again.

Although ReganBooks is taking a beating for publishing the book, I'm not shocked someone agreed to the project. An OJ confession? Of course someone's going to print it. (It is already ranked #149 in books at Amazon, by the way.) No, what surprises me is that OJ would risk losing the proceeds from the book to the Goldman family, who have a $33.5 million civil judgment against Simpson. Can he really be that desperate to get back in the public eye? Or did he accidentally look into a water hazard as he scoured golf courses for "the real killer" and shout "Eureka! I told you I'd find him!"

Note: Since I wrote this post last night, the book has moved from #149 to #43 on Amazon's list. And it's still in pre-order.

privacy and respect part 2

Thus says Suzanne...

After Britney's Dateline disaster multiple polls showed that greater than 80% of people had a less favorable opinion of Britney than prior to the interview. 

To refresh your recollection she boo-hooed through the interview about wanting privacy and respect. 

So less than two weeks later she has dyed her hair black and posed naked for one of the glossies she denounced as "trash" during the interview. 

Clearly she has no sense of privacy about her physical self.  Whatever happened to modesty in our culture?  If she wants the paparazzi go to away, how does this help? 

(Oh yes, in an internet poll conducted about the photospread connected with the image here 62% thought she came across as trashy in the images, only 38% thought she looked classy.  I suspect that if the images had not been airbrushed the 38% who thought she looked classy would plummet dramatically.) 

A+

Thus says Suzanne...

Aaaaaaah, yes...here is how it is done!  Tastefully clothed, no chewing gum, no air quotes, and (gasp!) complete sentences.  Lovely in every way. 

Paparazzi out to get the "country" girl

Thus says Suzanne...

Okay, I wasn't going to do another post on the now-infamous Dateline interview but they repeated the episode last night so all bets are off.

It is Mrs. Federline's assertion that the mean paparazzi are always following her around scaring her and that is what makes her do those crazy things with her son (you know, letting him drive the car, the whole car-seat debacle, and nearly dropping him on his head in Manhattan).

She insists she let him drive the car because her daddy let her do it and she's "country" (though I suspect she would spell it kuntree).  Does it mean one is from the south?  Gosh, let's see, famous southern ladies (and moms) with paparazzi following them around...Reese Witherspoon, Jennifer Garner and Julia Roberts.  Nope, they're not dropping their babies or letting them drive the car, even with paparazzi following them around.  I can only surmise that "country" is code for white trash.

Let's not limit this to southern ladies.  How about the uber-high-profile new mother Angelina Jolie who with three children (and a rather colorful past) has never been photographed endangering her children in spite of what could easily be characterized as a paparazzi feeding frenzy.

Britney's claim that the paparazzi made her do it is absurd.  Then again, I may have misunderstood her remarks.  After all, between the chewing gum and the incomplete sentences punctuated by grunts and "air quotations" it's hard to know what message she intended to convey.

privacy and respect

Thus says Suzanne...

Because I've made a lot of comments about Britney lately I felt that to be fair I should watch her hour-long interview on Dateline last night.  Nothing I saw or heard during the interview improved my opinion of this woman.

Evidently the main point she wanted to get across was that she wants privacy and respect.

Okay, here goes.  Sigh.  When one desires the aforementioned privacy and respect, one might wish to avoid the following...

Dressing like a pregnant prostitute, wearing a too-tight see-through blouse revealing one's hot pink bra which evidently is at least a full size too small.

Wearing a cut-off denim ultra-mini skirt which barely covers one's nether regions.  Crossing and recrossing one's legs, coming perilously close to showing all things "private" to the viewers.

Wearing false eye lashes, one of which was not applied properly, looking like a lost spider.

Wearing frizzy hair extensions, not using a brush, having a haircolor not found in nature (reminiscent of a color previously only seen in aging Senator's wives in the 1980s).

Smacking gum with one's mouth open like an ill-mannered 13-year-old.

Repeatedly using air quotes to punctuate one's comments.

Madonna

Thus says Suzanne...

Madonna has opened her new tour - blah blah blah - on a mirrored cross - blah blah blah - wearing a crown of thorns - blah blah blah - with backup dancers prancing around with ball gags in their mouths - blah blah blah - save the world - blah blah blah - grabbing her crotch - blah blah blah...BLEEEEEECH!  Hasn't she done this same tired crap like eleventy times now?  Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...someone wake me when she retires, okay?   

What the?!?

Thus says Suzanne...

Aaaaaack!  A poll was conducted asking who the sexiest celebrity vegetarians are.  The "sexiest" male was purple guy Prince Artist formerly known as Prince oh you know who I mean (does he even have a name anymore)!  I notice that included in the list of choices was Dan Abrams from MSNBC.  I think the stars must be out of whack or something because there is noooo way purple boy is sexier than Dan Abrams.