Wednesday, September 26, 2018

Chrissy Teigen

Issue dated October 8, 2018: Chrissy Teigen


It's a food-themed cover this week, tied to Chrissy Teigen's new cookbook, with a small headline inviting us to meet George Clooney's private chef. Kate and the kids are the only story from the Guessing Game list.

Last year it was Ree Drummond, and a similar alliterative headline using the word Food. You know the editors really wanted to use the word Farm: Food, Fame & Life on the Farm. Unfortunately Ree's ranch is just too well known.

Last year at this time: Issue dated October 9, 2017
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Tuesday, September 25, 2018

Donald Isn't Having Fun - Updated


Getty Images photographer John Moore captures an unsettling picture of Donald at the United Nations. My first thought when I saw it was one I've had before, i.e., why does the president always look so weird? So awkward? So uncomfortable? I've also said before that he frequently looks old and tired, which he does here as well. Regarding this specific moment, apparently this picture was taken after Donald got laughed at by the General Assembly. Are his feelings hurt? Maybe he's thinking about his other problems, including his disgusting and unfit Supreme Court nominee, what to do about the Deputy Attorney General, not to mention the actual Attorney General, and of course, the Robert Mueller investigation.

Once again it looks like being president isn't as much fun as Donald thought it would be.

Wednesday morning update: The Washington Post website is using Moore's picture with the following caption: [The president] "prepares to address the 73rd session of the United Nations General Assembly on September 25, 2018 in New York City." Apparently Donald was feeling sad before the delegates laughed at him. The article accompanying the picture says this, referring to the laughter:

For Trump, the moment wasn't just embarrassing. It also punctured one of the core fabulist assertions of a president who has, according to Washington Post fact-checkers, made more than 5,000 false or misleading statements since taking office. (Read the article here.)
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Bill Cosby Goes To Jail - Updated

On November 20, 2014 I wrote a post titled "What I Know About Bill Cosby." I started with this:

In the early 1980s I was living in New York City and working as a flight attendant. I shared an apartment with three other flight attendants, one of whom was having an affair with Bill Cosby. I think she met him on a flight but I don't remember that part for sure. I even spoke to him on the phone once. In those pre-cell phone days, we had one landline phone and we all used the same phone number. I answered the phone one day and it was Mr. Cosby, looking for my roommate. I advised him that she wasn't home at the moment and I would give her the message. He said thank you and that was it.

Unlike rape, infidelity isn't illegal and cheating on his wife doesn't prove that he rapes women. On the other hand, when The Cosby Show hit it big in 1984 and Cosby became America's warm, wise, cuddly role model husband and father, I had personal evidence that his private life didn't match his public image. (Read the entire post here.)

The post includes a link to a December 30, 2015 Daily Beast article by entertainment blogger Mark Ebner, titled "I warned you about Bill Cosby," in which he refers to an article he first wrote in 2007. A version of that article is attached to the Daily Beast post; the most up-to-date version of it appears to be a September 4, 2017 post at Ebner's website, Hollywood Interrupted. (Read it here.) A few months before Ebner's article was posted, People ran a story dated December 18, 2006 and titled "Bill Cosby Under Fire," read that one here.

The fact that Bill Cosby was allowed to get away with so much for so long is rage-inducing today. That rage is only slightly tempered by the sight of 81-year-old Cosby being taken to jail in handcuffs.

And one more thing. In the May, 2000 issue of O Magazine, Oprah interviewed Bill's wife Camille. Mrs. Cosby, who was 54 at the time, said "I'm now in my fifties, and my tolerance level for nonsense is zero." I remembered that quote for years and wanted to be like that. No nonsense, no bullshit, authentic and real, she sounded bad-ass, in a good way. In the last few years, as the truth about her husband came to light, and she loyally stood by him, supporting his claims that he hadn't done anything wrong, I found myself thinking that Mrs. Cosby's tolerance for nonsense (or really, for bullshit and unconscionable crimes against women) appears to have increased. Did she (does she) truly believe he's innocent? There's no way to know. I wonder how she feels today.

Wednesday morning update: Camille Cosby is still standing by her man. She has released a statement in which she claims that some of the evidence against her husband was falsified. Read the statement here.
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Sunday, September 23, 2018

The Guessing Game

What will be on the cover of People this week? Just a few guesses:

Royals: Meghan gave her first public speech, with her mother Doria there to support her; Kate and William attended a wedding, George and Charlotte were in the wedding and there are very cute pictures. There's also a new HBO documentary about the Queen
Suge Knight: Going to jail
Paul Simon: Played his final concert prior to retirement
Tiger Woods: Wins his first tournament in five years
Dr. Christine Blasey Ford: I had her on the list last week and the situation surrounding her has only gotten more complicated. As I'm writing she's scheduled to come to Washington D.C. to testify on Thursday. Tonight there's also the slightest hint of a rumor that Ronan Farrow and Jane Mayer may be coming out with a story about another woman with claims against Brett Kavanaugh. Stay tuned. Regarding a possible cover story about all this, there was a similar, although not identical, situation 27 years ago:

Issue dated October 28, 1991
Image result for Anita Hill People magazine October 28 1991

Stories that appear on the new cover will be highlighted in green.

Wednesday morning update: See the new cover, featuring Chrissy Teigen, here.
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Saturday, September 22, 2018

When AJ Met Jason... Episode 5 - Updated

When I posted my update on A.J. and Jason earlier this morning, which I added at the bottom of my September 6 post (read it here,) it looked as though everyone involved had decided that discreet silence was the best option. That didn't last long and now they're, once again, fighting it out on Twitter. First Jason:


Journalist Yashar Ali responds:



And of course, A.J. weighed in too, and although I'm sympathetic to her situation, her hands are not squeaky clean when it comes to airing this mess on Twitter: 
The story is getting around: 
Wilson, Goddard and Abramson have over 1 million Twitter followers between them, and they're not the only ones tweeting about this. My bet is that Jason Miller will be off CNN sooner rather than later. How the rest of it turns out? As I've said before, it can't end well. Prior to my September 8 post, I wrote about this on August 10, 2017, May 1, 2018 and May 27, 2018.

Late afternoon update: Jason Miller's name is all over twitter, with all kinds of people making all kinds of comments. Stuart Stevens, however, was a top Republican strategist who was a key player in Mitt Romney's 2012 campaign. Here's what he has to say about Miller:
Saturday night, update #2: Some fallout this evening from this ugly story. Jason Miller is out at CNN.


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This Day In History, 1999: The Debut of West Wing - Updated

Image result for The West Wing
photo credit: digitalspy.com

Still my favorite show ever. Every year I look for a new show that will catch my interest the way this show did and no, The Bachelor doesn't count. 

To see my previous posts about The West Wing, click here and here.

Saturday afternoon update: I didn't realize it, but Sports Night, Aaron Sorkin's first network show, premiered exactly one year before The West Wing, making today that show's 20th anniversary:

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Is CNN Turning Into The Jerry Springer Show? Or Fox News?



What this tweet doesn't say, and CNN doesn't make clear:
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Friday, September 21, 2018

Meghan's Mum In The Spotlight



Yesterday Meghan's mother joined her at a public engagement, the first at which Meghan made a speech. It got a huge amount of positive press coverage, including nice pictures of Doria side-by-side with Prince Harry:
I'm wondering, how long before one or more of Meghan's unkind and resentful relatives surfaces again? 
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Wednesday, September 19, 2018

Jane Fonda

Issue dated October 1, 2018: Jane Fonda


No Bach Nation, no Matthew Perry, no Stormy. This week it's Jane Fonda and a story tied to an HBO documentary titled Jane Fonda in Five Acts. Newlywed Justin Bieber gets a sidebar story.

Read the Guessing Game post here.

Last year at this time: Issue dated October 2, 2017
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Tuesday, September 18, 2018

Another Very Bad Day For Donald

 And this time it's personal. Consider (and forgive my language, I'm quoting):

"He knows he has an unusual penis," Daniels writes. "It has a huge mushroom head. Like a toadstool... 

 "I lay there, annoyed that I was getting fucked by a guy with Yeti pubes and a dick like the mushroom character in Mario Kart...

 "It may have been the least impressive sex I'd ever had, but clearly, he didn't share that opinion."

Thus sayeth Stormy Daniels, quoted by The Guardian via an advance copy of her book Full Disclosure. (Read the article here.)

How will Donald respond? As I'm writing, just after noon Central Time on Tuesday, he hasn't, but that's almost certain to change. Stay tuned, the book comes out two weeks from today.

And one more thing: If, like me, you have no idea what Mario Kart is, Esquire provides this helpful graphic. The mushroom character, named "Toad," is on the right:

image

Read the Esquire article here.
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This Day In History, 1987: Fatal Attraction




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Monday, September 17, 2018

The Guessing Game - Updated

What will be on the cover of People this week? My guesses:

Stormy Daniels: Stormy has written a book that comes out October 2
Meghan Markle: Assisted with producing a cookbook in support of women affected by the Grenfell Tower fire in London. It would be two covers in a row for Meghan but People might go for it
Christine Blasey Ford: The woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of assault during high school comes forward
Bachelor Nation: Jordan and Jenna have broken up over her cheating, she says it's fake, Grocery Joe is on Dancing With The Stars, short-haired Bekah, from Arie's season, is pregnant and Amanda Stanton got very drunk in Las Vegas, allegedly physically abused her boyfriend and ended up getting arrested. Yikes. And, oh yeah, the first night of filming for Colton's season is this Thursday
Justin Bieber: Married. This is my best guess for the main cover story
Paul Manafort: Pleaded guilty, he's forfeiting about $40 million in cash and property, he must tell Robert Mueller everything, and he can't make money by writing/tweeting/podcasting etc. about his activities. And he's still going to, or, rather, staying in, jail
Elizabeth Smart: Doesn't want her captor released from jail
Matthew Perry: Hospitalized for three months for gastrointestinal issues, he has now apparently returned home
Alan Jackson and/or his son-in-law: His son-in-law died while helping to rescue a young woman
Soon Yi Previn: Talking about Mia and all the various issues surrounding their extended family, including husband Woody Allen
Richard Gere: Going to be a father again at age 69
Mike Seidel: The Weather Channel meteorologist is taking some heat for a video where he's struggling to stay upright during hurricane Florence, while two men casually stroll behind him

Stories that appear on the new cover will be highlighted in green.

Wednesday morning update: See the new cover, featuring Jane Fonda, here.
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Saturday, September 15, 2018

This Day In History, 1965: Lost In Space


The date in the future when the Robinsons blasted off on their adventure? October, 16, 1997:
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Friday, September 14, 2018

Another Bad Day For Donald

There's big news in Donald's world today, notwithstanding his staff's efforts to insist that Paul Manafort's guilty plea has nothing to do with him. There's a tidal wave of info and commentary about this, of course, here's what has caught my eye so far:

First, someone in my Twitter feed dug up this, from NBC News and dated January 30, 2018, just before Donald gave his first State of the Union address:

He's decided that a key witness in the Russia probe, Paul Manafort, isn't going to "flip" and sell him out, friends and aides say. He believes Robert Mueller, who heads the investigation, can be crushed if necessary without being fired. (Read the entire article here.)

From Caitlin MacNeal at Talking Points Memo:

The plea agreement reached between Paul Manafort and the special counsel’s office requires Manafort to cooperate “fully, truthfully, completely, and forthrightly” with the government on “any and all matters” identified by the government.

Though early reports on plea deal negotiations indicated Manafort was hesitant to agree to a deal that required his full cooperation, the agreement reached is broad and sweeping in outlining the former Trump campaign chairman’s obligation to cooperate, with zero exceptions.

The plea agreement filed Friday afternoon requires Manafort to attend all meetings requested by investigators regarding his participation in or knowledge of criminal activities. He must also give the government all documents and materials related to the investigation and participate in directed "undercover activities." Manafort is also required to testify in legal proceedings and must always give "complete, truthful, and accurate information.

From Josh Marshall, also at TPM:

Paul Manafort’s team has been putting out disinformation about this deal for a couple weeks now. I don’t put this out as a criticism or not. It just is what it is. And frankly, in a purely pragmatic light, it made a lot of sense to do that. This had to be secret until the last possible moment, especially from the President. He needed the element of surprise. And he got it.

If you’re a regular reader you know that I’ve been wrestling for like a week with what was going on here. Was Robert Mueller really going to make a plea deal that didn’t include cooperation? When securing cooperation seemed certainly to be the point of the entire exercise? How could that be? There were a slew of news reports and all of them either clearly said that Manafort’s cooperating was not part of the investigation or that it was not clear whether cooperation was part of the investigation.

The first axiom of the Trump/Russia scandal is that the Mueller office does not leak. It’s really that open and shut. So by definition, all the reporting came from Manafort and/or his legal team. As someone who fell for the ruse, it is almost beyond belief that they could pull this off: have reporting come out about plea negotiations but plausible claim that, and make people think that, it was a plea without any agreement to cooperate. And yet, there you have it. Pretty much they pulled it off.

The really relevant point wasn't news media coverage per se. It was what the President and his lawyers knew. It seems pretty clear they were duped too. They did not see it coming. There were many bad things that could have happened if this were telegraphed far in advance, as Michael Cohen - with a very different set of facts - was doing. In the end, Trump was like Tony in the final episode of The Sopranos. he never saw it coming. 

From Jennifer Rubin at the Washington Post, referring to the news that Manafort has flipped:

 That’s the news Trump never wanted to hear. The prospect of just such a deal is why his lawyers reportedly dangled the promise of a pardon in front of Manafort’s lawyers. A plea deal that could put the Russians inside Trump’s campaign blows to smithereens the notion that only low-level, non-players or those distantly related to the campaign had Russian connections. Trump, who was praising Manafort to the heavens just weeks ago, will find it hard (but not impossible) to now smear him as a liar. (Read the rest of the article here.)

 An intriguing tweet from Lawrence Tribe:


And a response from Jennifer Rubin:


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Thursday, September 13, 2018

CNN's Monthly Power Rankings: September, 2018

CNN is out today with what they're calling their third "monthly power rankings" among potential 2020 Democratic candidates for president. I haven't seen or posted about the first two lists but I'll try to keep up going forward. Here's how the list looks today:
  1. Elizabeth Warren
  2. Kamala Harris
  3. Joe Biden
  4. Kirsten Gillibrand
  5. Bernie Sanders
  6. Cory Booker
  7. Amy Klobuchar
  8. Eric Garcetti
  9. Steve Bullock
  10. Beto O'Rourke
To do a little demographic sorting, four out of the 10 are women (Yay!,) two are African American, two are over 70 years old (Saunders, 77 and Biden, 75) and one turns 70 next June (Warren.) The youngest is Beto O'Rourke, who will turn 46 on September 26. Who's he? He's the Democratic candidate for a U.S. Senate seat in Texas, running against incumbent Ted Cruz, with at least the possibility of pulling an upset. To me, putting him on a top 10 list feels like a bit of a stretch, but here's how CNN explains it:

 Yes, we know that O'Rouke is currently just a House member in the minority party. And that he is still less than a 50-50 bet in his challenge to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) this fall. BUT -- and yes, it is a big "but" -- if O'Rourke does beat Cruz, he will immediately be touted as one of the hottest things in Democratic politics. And buzz like that you simply can't buy. Plus, O'Rourke has already proven he is a remarkably strong fundraiser; he has brought in $23 million in less than two years even while refusing all donations from political action committees. (Read the article here.)

 I've added Beto to my master list of potential candidates. 
  1. Joe Biden (Former VP)
  2. Michael Bloomberg (Former mayor of New York City)
  3. Peter Buttigieg (Mayor of South Bend, Indiana) added Sept. 8
  4. Cory Booker (New Jersey senator)
  5. Sherrod Brown (Ohio senator)
  6. Jerry Brown (Governor of California)
  7. Steve Bullock (Governor of Montana)
  8. Julian Castro (Former secretary of Housing and Urban Development) 
  9. Mark Cuban (Businessman, owner of the Dallas Mavericks)
  10. Bill de Blasio (Mayor of New York City)
  11. Tulsi Gabbard (Congresswoman from Hawaii) added Sept. 8
  12. Eric Garcetti (Mayor of Los Angeles) 
  13. Kirsten Gillibrand (New York senator)
  14. Luis Gutierrez (Congressman from Illinois)
  15. Kamala Harris (California senator)
  16. John Hickenlooper (Governor of Colorado) 
  17. Eric Holder (Former Attorney General)
  18. Robert Iger (Businessman, Chairman/CEO of Disney)
  19. Jay Inslee (Governor of Washington)
  20. Tim Kaine (Virginia senator, 2016 VP nominee)
  21. Jason Kander (Former Secretary of State of Missouri)
  22. Amy Klobuchar (Minnesota senator)
  23. Mitch Landrieu (Mayor of New Orleans)
  24. Terry McAuliffe (Former governor of Virginia)
  25. Jeff Merkley (Oregon senator)
  26. Seth Moulton (Congressman from Massachusetts) 
  27. Chris Murphy (Connecticut senator)
  28. Martin O'Malley (Former governor of Maryland, ran in 2016 primaries)
  29. Beto O'Rourke (Texas Congressman, running for the U.S. Senate) added Sept. 13
  30. Deval Patrick (Former governor of Massachusetts)
  31. Tim Ryan (Congressman from Ohio) added Sept. 8
  32. Bernie Sanders (Vermont senator, registered Independent, ran in 2016 primaries)
  33. Howard Schultz (Businessman, former CEO of Starbucks)
  34. Tom Steyer (Businessman) added Sept. 8
  35. Elizabeth Warren (Massachusetts senator)
  36. Mark Zuckerberg (Businessman, founder of Facebook)
Days until the mid-term election: 54 
Days until the presidential election: 782
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Wednesday, September 12, 2018

Meghan

Issue dated September 24, 2018: The Duchess of Sussex


It's Meghan again this week, her 10th main cover story since her engagement was announced last November. I've had Meghan, and her trouble-causing father Thomas, on the guessing game list several times in the last few weeks, but not this week. Thomas Markle has actually been pretty quiet over the last couple of weeks, in fact, at least for the moment, everyone appears to be behaving themselves.

Based on the teaser story currently posted at people.com, this cover is more about selling magazines, which Meghan's face on the cover obviously does, than about any actual news. The article mentions her recent trip to Toronto and quotes royalty watcher/writer Ingrid Seward, who says that Harry and Meghan's upcoming trip to Australia and New Zealand will be Meghan's "chance to shine" and that "everyone will want to meet her." That's pretty weak tea. Once they return to England, at the end of October, I'm expecting that the next big news will be that Meghan's expecting.

I had been thinking that Dead Celebrity Burt Reynolds would probably be the main cover story but he only gets a sidebar, as does Serena Williams.

Last year at this time: Issue dated September 25, 2017
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Tuesday, September 11, 2018

"It's Not A Double Fist Pump Day"

"Donald Trump Sparks Backlash for Doing a Double Fist Pump as He Arrives at 9/11 Memorial Service"
 
 photo credit: Evan Vucci/AP/REX/Shutterstock

I'm not the only one who's finding this picture disturbing. It's currently the top story at people.com, with the headline above and this:

Donald Trump is facing widespread social media backlash after he was pictured greeting supporters with a triumphant double fist pump as he arrived to a 9/11 memorial service on Tuesday, the 17th anniversary of the terror attacks.

The president, 72, along with his wife, First Lady Melania Trump, 48, were in Pennsylvania, on their way to pay their respects to the fallen heroes of United Airlines Flight 93. (Read the story here.)

And yes, that second sentence is awkward. It should be either "The president and his wife were in Pennsylvania..." or "The president, along with his wife, was in Pennsylvania..." As frequently happens, People could use the services of a good editor. 
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A Solemn Day Of Remembrance? - Updated

Not for Donald, apparently. This picture was taken today, on his way to the Flight 93 memorial:
Reuters got the picture, too:

photo credit: Reuters/Kevin Lamarque

Maybe Donald is remembering how he went on the radio on 9/11 (yes, on
the actual day,) to brag that his building at 40 Wall Street was now the
tallest building in New York City. If you have the stomach for it, you can
listen here:



 Or maybe he's remembering the $150,000 in taxpayer funds he received
for (non-existent) damage to his building:

 Trump applied for and received $150,000 in state funds intended to help 
small businesses affected by the attacks, despite the fact that his
business was not affected. 

 The fund was supposed to cover uninsured losses for small businesses,
but Trump somehow received $150,000 in taxpayer money; his
application cited "rent lost," "cleanup," and "repair." Yet none of
Trump's properties were actually damaged in the attack.
(From a story at the Washington Post, read it here.)

 Or maybe he's just counting the years before sending out this poignant and
heartfelt tweet, complete with an exclamation point:

Update: There's also a hurricane coming, a dangerous one pointed right
at the east coast of our country:


When I first saw those words, tweeted by someone in my Twitter feed, I
thought it was satire, mocking the president for his juvenile speaking
rhythms. Nope. That's how the president of the United States described the coming hurricane.

Wednesday afternoon update: Cartoonist Ed Wexler weighs in:


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