Missing White Woman

People goes with a Missing White Woman cover this week, bumping Andi and Josh to a sidebar. Confession:  I've never heard of "America's New Crush." And there's beginning to be a trend with the bottom right sidebar story. Five weeks ago Courteney Cox was described as "50, fabulous and engaged," and now here's Sandra Bullock, and she's 50 and fabulous too!

The Guessing Game

What will be the cover story on People magazine this week? 

Not too much suspense this week - last night was the big Bachelorette finale, so Andi and Josh should be the main cover story on the new issue. There have been some Beyoncé/Jay Z break-up rumors, credible or not, and there's a cute Prince Harry photobomb pic going around.

Another Picture

Bindi Irwin

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This is one of those cover stories that pops up out of nowhere. When I first saw it I thought maybe Bindi had written a book, but the "hook" is that she turned 16. I did get two of the sidebar stories, James Garner and Adam Levine, and MH17 gets a topline tease.

The Guessing Game

What will be the cover story on People magazine this week? Possibilities:

James Garner: Dead Celebrity.
Kanye West: An arrogant, self-aggrandizing and not-completely-coherent interview for GQ.
Adam Levine: Got married.
Skye McCole Bartusiak: Died at age 21; she played Mel Gibson's daughter in The Patriot. She's not that famous but still, Dead Blonde Girl.
MH17: There was only one American on the Malaysia flight that was shot down over Ukraine, but People may still go with a "True Crime With Lots of Dead People" story.

Selling It

My new post went up Monday morning at Blog To Work.

Read it here.

It's George, Again

That was predictable, although I'm somewhat surprised there's nothing about Cassidy Stay. Usually People can't resist a True Crime/Attractive Blonde Girl story. Given how much coverage the "LeBron James Goes Home" story got on Friday and over the week-end, I'm also surprised LeBron didn't get at least a sidebar. In fact, I completely whiffed on the sidebar stories, and the topline tease, "TO DIE FOR A KILLER'S SHOCKING PRISON INTERVIEW" comes out of nowhere.

The Guessing Game

What will be on the cover of People magazine this week? Possibilities: 

Cassidy Stay: 15-year-old girl from Houston survives shooting that killed 6 family members
Tracy Morgan: Recovering from car crash; suing WalMart
LeBron James: Returns to Cleveland, all is forgiven
Gorgeous George: Is it time for another George Clooney cover? He went to war with a British tabloid over incorrect stories about his fiancée's family.
Prince George: His first birthday is July 22; there are new rumors that Kate's pregnant with #2. She's also scheduled to make her first overseas trip by herself.
Ian Thorpe: Australian swimmer with five Olympic gold medals, comes out after several years of claiming to be straight.
Sarah Palin: Is she auditioning for The View? I hope so. Can you imagine Whoopi and Rosie going off on her after she unleashes one of her incomprehensible word salads?
Katherine Webb: The beautiful former Miss Alabama married Cincinnati Bengals QB AJ McCarron.
Reggie Bush: Kim Kardashian's former boyfriend got married Saturday, with Brody Jenner in attendance.
Cameron Diaz: She's doing publicity for her new movie, titled "Sex Tape"

The Day After

After the World Cup, that is. I did watch most of the game, and I don't want to be disrespectful about something that's so important to the rest of the world, but part of me just wants to say, Really? That's what all the fuss is about? 90 minutes of regulation play and the score is zero to zero? Germany finally scored in the "extra time" period and went out in something less than a blaze of glory, definitively beating the Argentines by a whopping 1 to zip.

I get that I don't get it.

Four years ago, during the 2010 World Cup, I wondered why soccer isn't as big here in the States as it is in the rest of the world, then confessed that I didn't have any well thought-out musings on the subject. It's still true, and unless something truly fascinating happens in soccer-world, I'll meet you back here in 2018 for another "Americans just aren't into soccer" post.

Mistakes, Forgiveness And Moving On

My new post is up at Blog to Work.

Read it here.

To Watch Or Not To Watch

I'm trying to decide whether or not to watch the World Cup final this afternoon. To be truthful, I really don't care that much about it, and more than that, I don't know enough about soccer to really engage with what's happening during the game. I also don't have a particular preference for Argentina or Germany, except for the fact that Pope Francis is way cooler than ex-Pope Benedict. That's as good a reason as any to cheer for the Argentinian team, I guess.

I also like the idea of being part of a global happening, even from here in the non-soccer (or, er, "football") part of the planet. I guess I'm talking myself into watching, at least for a while, so I'd better head for the store for some appropriate afternoon-TV-watching snacks. If anything really intrigues me about the whole event I'll update this post later.

The Prodigal Son

Am I a really horrible person if I say, "enough already" with "King" James?

The Daily Beast has a fun recap of how we got here.

Friday afternoon update: this part is interesting. The Republican party recently selected Cleveland as the host city for their 2016 nominating convention. They announced that they plan to start it on June 28, which is significantly earlier than the traditional late August/early September dates we've seen for the last several election cycles. What does this have to do with LeBron? The convention will take place in the same arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play. If, if, LeBron leads the Cavs to the NBA finals in two years, which he's expected, no, required, to do, the games would bump up against the convention. Either the convention would have to be deferred to a later date or the Cavs would have to find another arena to play in.

Now I'm interested.

Read more here.

Saturday morning update: Have you noticed that in pretty much every article that mentions Cavs owner Dan Gilbert's "unhinged" letter to fans when LeBron ditched the team in 2010, the writer feels compelled to mention, in snidely derisive terms, that the letter was written in Comic Sans?

I like an article I found at Slate.com, which was written before James' return to Cleveland was announced. 

One more thing: I wrote about Lebron over at Blog To Work. That post will go live Monday morning and I'll come back and link to it then. 

Closer To Schadenfreude

Mark your calendars, K-watchers, because today, just 46 days after the big wedding, I've seen the first story indicating that Kimye may not be living happily ever after. It comes from Radar Online and should be taken with a large grain of salt, but still, it's juicy.

In other K news, E Online is reporting that the couple has put their still-not-finished, $11 million dollar mansion on the market, because renovations have taken too long. Apparently the couple is still living with mother-from-hell Kris Jenner; if I were Kanye West, that fact alone would be grounds for divorce.

Because the mothership KUWTK show airs on the E network, making the network the Kardashians' employers, this story may be slightly more credible.

Read the Radar story here, and the E Online story here.

Extant: So How Was It?

Do you know what "extant" means? I didn't either, until a couple of the "morning after" articles I read included a definition: not lost or destroyed.

So how was it? The short answer is weird. It's science fiction, obviously, and takes place in the somewhat near future. Hair and fashion haven't changed much, but there's a cool new way to take out the garbage, if you tap the mirror in your bathroom the morning news pops up on a screen and cars drive themselves. Oh, and Halle Berry's son is actually a robot.

The story/plot is complicated, with strange creatures, an unexplained pregnancy, good guys who may be bad guys (the Japanese investor, the head of the now-private, non-NASA space agency, that weird little kid) and a bad guy who may be good, also known as the dead guy who's apparently alive and trying to help Halle's character.

Steven Spielberg is an executive producer and Halle Berry is an Oscar winner, which makes this a prestige project. I like a lot of the actors, not just Halle but also Michael O'Neill (hello, Ron Butterfield,) Camryn Manheim and Grace Gummer. I recognize Goran Visnjic (from ER, but sounding a lot more American this time around) who plays Berry's husband but I can't decide if I like him or not. And the young actor playing the robot/android son is just creepy, and I mean that in a good way. That's how his character is supposed to be.

I'm definitely going to tune in next week. I'm hoping the story will get more interesting and the weird stuff won't become too overwhelming, because I'd love to get hooked on an engaging program that I can look forward to watching every week. Right now I'm stuck with The Bachelorette.

People, Entertainment Weekly and the LA Times have recaps/reviews.

Things I Don't Care About

LeBron James. Cleveland? Miami? I really don't care.

Extant

In about 30 minutes, I'm going to watch the first episode of Halle Berry's new television series, called Extant. She's an astronaut, she's been alone in space for over a year, she's now back on earth and she's pregnant. Wow, how could that happen? I don't quite know what to expect but I'm hoping it's so intriguing and appealing that I can't wait for episode 2.

Stay tuned, I'll write more after I've watched.

Depressing

Jessica Simpson gets the cover nod this week and I have to say, it's depressing. I had her on my guessing game list but in my mind she was a longshot. I would have said she was more or less "over" in terms of pop culture relevance. She's also just not very interesting. The hot car death and soccer goalie Tim Howard get topline teases. I haven't heard anything at all about the Alaska family that vanished, or about Robert Downey Jr.'s son.

Over at The Royalist, Tom Sykes has a preview of Vanity Fair's August cover, starring Prince George. He turns 1 this month, so think back. Do you remember the "great Kate wait?"

The Guessing Game

What will be the cover story on People this week? Possibilities:  

Justin Ross Harris: the hot car death of a toddler.
Jessica Simpson: Got married.
Andi Dorfman: The Bachelorette, with some real-life drama surrounding the death of former contestant Eric Hill.
Malia Obama: Turned 16. People probably won't go there but it could be a sidebar story.
Mila Kunis: Pregnant and engaged to Ashton Kutcher. She's on the cover of the August issue of W magazine, saying "I've found the love of my life." People could also go with a story about Demi Moore, who can't be enjoying all the coverage of Mila and Ashton's hot romance.
Oscar Pistorius: The defense has rested: there should be a verdict soon.
John Kennedy, Jr.: Next week is the 15th anniversary of the plane crash; another one of his associates has a book out.
Taylor Swift: Wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal. (Really)
Johnny Manziel: "Johnny Football" is photographed holding a rolled-up dollar bill, he either is or is not using it to snort cocaine.
Tim Howard: U.S. soccer team goalie. The next Secretary of Defense? President Obama said he'd consider it.

Tuesday afternoon update: Ellen DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi. People has what looks like a teaser story on the website, with an invitation at the bottom to get more details by picking up the new issue, on newsstands Friday. That's sometime a signal for what the new cover story will be.

The Hippocampus, The Prefrontal Cortex And The Basal Ganglia: Forgotten Child Syndrome

Could you "forget" your child in the car? If your answer is "hell, no, and anyone who does that is a monster," I invite you to read the following articles. You may find yourself thinking differently about this complex and scary subject. I've come to believe that under the right circumstances, or more accurately, with a tragic combination of the wrong circumstances, it could happen to anyone.

In 2010, Washington Post columnist Gene Weingarten won the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing, for his story "Fatal Distraction."

CNN legal analyst Sonny Hostin shares details about the time she forgot her child in the car.

Neuroscientist David Diamond is a frequent court consultant in Forgotten Child Syndrome cases; he provides some scientific basis for how a good person could do such a terrible thing.

Doing It Right

I have a new post up over at Blog To Work, and yes, it's about the wedding. You can read it here.

By the way, be warned: I'm attending another wedding this week-end, so we'll probably be in wedding mode for a few more days here at Writing The World.

More Pictures

With the groom's grandmother.



The bride with her bridesmaids and their beautiful flowers.



The barn.



Green shoes, love it!



The bride, the dress and the doggie! Hi Dixon!

Hotness

People's messing with my head, or at least with my schedule, this week. Usually I do my Guessing Game post on Monday or Tuesday and the new cover is posted on the website at 7.00 Wednesday morning. This week it went up on Monday night, before I had even drafted a guess about who might be on the cover. Anyway, we've got some serious Hollywood beefcake. Enjoy!