Tuesday, March 9, 2010

“Intriguing: Twitter, Conan alter her life - CNN” plus 3 more

“Intriguing: Twitter, Conan alter her life - CNN” plus 3 more

Intriguing: Twitter, Conan alter her life - CNN

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 06:15 AM PST

Editor's note: Every weekday, CNN focuses on a handful of people in the news. This is a chance to find out more about what they've done -- good or bad -- what they've said or what they believe, and why we think they're intriguing.

(CNN) -- Eric Massa: "Effective at 5 p.m. on Monday the 8th of March, I will resign my position as the Federal Representative of New York's 29th Congressional District in the 111th Congress. I do so with a profound sense of failure and a deep apology to all those whom, for the past year, I tried to represent as our Nation struggles with problems far greater than anyone can possibly imagine."

That statement is posted on the former congressman's Web site. He announced last week he would not seek re-election because of health concerns and denied reports that he had harassed one of his Capitol Hill staff members.

Massa said he was targeted because he was standing in the way of passing health care legislation, having voted against the House's health care reform bill in November. House Democratic leaders on Monday refuted his allegation.

"If you think that somehow they didn't come after me to get rid of me because my vote is the deciding vote in the health care bill, then ladies and gentlemen, you live today in a world that is so innocent as to not understand what is going on in Washington, D.C.," he said Sunday on his weekly radio show on WKPQ-FM in Hornell, New York.

Massa said the ethics investigation stems from a sexually laced conversation he had at a New Year's Eve wedding for one of his staffers, where there was heavy drinking. One staff member "made an intonation to me that maybe I should be chasing after the bridesmaid," Massa said. Massa responded, "Well, what I really ought to be doing is fracking you." He said, "Now was that inappropriate of me? Absolutely. Am I guilty? Yes." Massa said someone then reported him to the House ethics committee.

According to the biography on his Web site, Massa is a 24-year retired Navy commander, who served during several global conflicts, including the Persian Gulf War. While in the Navy, he received a terminal diagnosis of cancer and returned to the States to undergo treatment. "With the odds stacked against him," his bio reads, "he survived and is now completely cured."

CNN: Massa says Democratic leaders want him out

Massa's congressional Web site

The Rev. William Breslin: "This past week we implemented a policy that has been the most difficult decision of my life."

That's what Breslin wrote in his blog, responding to the policy of the Archdiocese of Denver, which denied a child from enrolling in kindergarten next year at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Catholic School in Boulder, Colorado. The Denver Post reports the decision follows the discovery that the child's parents are lesbians.

Jeanette DeMelo, a spokeswoman for the archdiocese, told the newspaper that schools do not ask questions about sexual orientation, but once they found out about the sexuality of child's parents, they had to address it according to their policy. She told CNN the policy has been in place for at least nine years.

DeMelo said the child is in a preschool program and will be able to complete the year. KUSA-TV in Denver reported that demonstrators showed up at the school Sunday, and some parents had planned to start a petition drive to protest the decision.

Breslin, pastor of Sacred Heart of Jesus, also posted these thoughts: "The choice could have been made to do nothing and allow a lesbian couple to enroll their child in our kindergarten. But that choice would have been against Archdiocesan policy. And when a priest is ordained he promises obedience to his bishop; and I cannot violate that vow; and I will not." He continued, "My brothers and sisters, our school is a Catholic school and our teaching on the sanctity of marriage is as clear as a bell. So, the decision I made was based on my conviction that we needed to rest on the side of backing our beliefs and our values. We need to fight for our Catholic values because here in Boulder it seems, no one else is."

KUSA: Parents start petition after school turns away lesbian couple's child

The Denver Post: Group outside Boulder church protests barring of child

Father Bill's blog: What wisdom is at work?

Archdiocese of Denver: Statement on school admissions policy

CNN: Groups protest decision not to re-enroll child of lesbians

Ben Roethlisberger: The NFL quarterback was accused of sexually assaulting a woman Friday at a Georgia nightspot and will be interviewed soon by authorities, police said Monday.

"We anticipate interviewing him at a certain point in the next couple of days," Police Chief Woodrow Blue told reporters in Milledgeville, a town about 80 miles southeast of Atlanta. Roethlisberger's attorney disagrees.

"The facts show that there was no criminal activity," Atlanta defense attorney Ed Garland said in a statement. "No sexual assault occurred. We are cooperating with the investigation. Ben is completely innocent of any crime. The truth of the events should cause this investigation to end without a criminal charge."

Roethlisberger, 28, has been the starting quarterback for the Pittsburgh Steelers for six seasons, guiding the team to two Super Bowl championships. Last year, a civil complaint filed against Roethlisberger also alleged sexual assault. He has denied the allegation made by an executive casino host at Harrah's Lake Tahoe, saying, "Her false and vicious accusations are an attack on my family and on me; I would never, ever force myself on a woman."

CNN: Police to interview Roethlisberger over sex assault allegation

Sara Killen: The 19-year-old from Fowlerville, Michigan, uses the Twitter name of LovelyButton, and as of last Friday, she had 17,112 people following her. That's because former "Tonight Show" host Conan O'Brien announced that he had decided to follow just one person on Twitter.

The high-haired comedian has some 590,000 Twitter fans. WDIV-TV in Detroit reports that O'Brien's random decision to follow Killen apparently has changed her life.

A Florida computer dealer sent her a new $3,000 Apple computer in exchange for a mention on her Twitter page. She said that she and her fiancé, John Slowik Jr., were postponing their wedding because they couldn't afford it. But now she told the TV station, "A Detroit company gave us a limo, a woman from New York is making me a handmade dress and vineyard in California is sending us three cases of wine."

Killen told the Los Angeles Times, "I'm trying to be careful and stay positive through it because people will take you down very, very quickly so I've been trying to avoid that."

She and Slowik plan to marry on September 25. She told the paper, "There's a lot of weird people. People keep telling me to dump him (points at John) and marry them."

WDIV: Michigan woman is Conan's Twitter pick

Los Angeles Times: Conan Twitter tracker: How Conan met Sarah

What makes a person intriguing?

There are people who enter the news cycle every day because their actions or decisions are new, important or different. Others are in the news because they are the ones those decisions affect. And there are a number of people who are so famous or controversial that anything they say or do becomes news.

Some of these people do what we expect of them: They run for office, pass legislation, start a business, get hired or fired, commit a crime, make an arrest, get in accidents, hit a home run, overthrow a government, fight wars, sue an opponent, put out fires, prepare for hurricanes and cavort with people other than their spouses. They do make news, but the action is usually more important than who is involved in the story.

But every day, there are a number of people who become fascinating to us -- by virtue of their character, how they reached their decision, how they behaved under pressure or because of the remarkable circumstances surrounding the event they are involved in.

They arouse our curiosity. We hear about them and want to know more. What they have done or said stimulates conversations across the country. At times, there is even a mystery about them. What they have done may be unique, heroic, cowardly or ghastly, but they capture our imaginations. We want to know what makes them tick, why they believe what they do, and why they did what they did. They intrigue us.

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My Life as Liz Season 2 MTV Video - Gather.com

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 06:15 AM PST

Will there be a My Life as Liz season 2?  My Life as Liz MTV aired season 1 episode 9 last evening with the title "The End of the Beginning".  The My Life as Liz season finale focused on Liz's plan of moving to New York.

The big question is whether this truly was the end of the show or will there be a second season?  Lots of fans would love to know!  "My Life as Liz" premiered on MTV January 18, 2010.  The show is about a small town Texas girl, Liz Lee, in her senior year of high school.  Liz is funny, bold and sometimes snotty, viewers have grown to love her and would like to follow her escapades to the Big Apple.  Will MTV keep the Liz juice flowing?

 

http://media-files.gather.com/images/d30/d266/d746/d224/d96/f3/full.jpg

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Funeral service held for Osmond’s son - MSNBC

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 06:30 AM PST

PROVO, Utah - Marie Osmond's 18-year-old son was remembered at a funeral service Monday with fond words, laughter and music from his famous singing family.

Michael Bryan's uncle, Donny Osmond, also appealed to God in an opening prayer.

"Bless my sister," he said, breaking into tears. "Bless my sister and her family."

Bryan was then memorialized by six of his seven siblings as a lighthearted person and a deep thinker who had a brilliant sense of humor and a kind, generous heart.

"He was a man of his word. He wasn't a talker, he was a doer. He was reliable," Bryan's sister Rachel Blosil, 20, said, struggling to express herself through tears. "He knew my hopes, he knew my dreams, my secrets, things that nobody knows. He was my best friend."

Police in Los Angeles have said Bryan died Feb. 26 from an apparent suicide after jumping from the eighth floor of the Metropolitan apartment building. An official cause of death is pending the results of an autopsy and toxicology tests.

Police said Bryan left a note but have provided no details about its contents.

One of five children adopted by Marie Osmond, Bryan previously used his adoptive father's last name, Blosil. Records from Utah's 4th District Court, however, show a judge had granted him an October 2009 petition for a legal name change.

Marie Osmond and Brian Blosil divorced in 2007 after two decades of marriage. She also has three other children from marriages to Blosil and first husband, Stephen Craig, whom she divorced in 1985.

In 2007, Marie Osmond said her son had entered a rehabilitation facility but did not disclose what he was being treated for.

About 450 mourners attended Monday's services at a chapel near the Provo temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, including church President Thomas S. Monson, who offered words of comfort to the family.

Bryan was a first-year student of apparel manufacturing at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising and had planned on a career in retail marketing and design, according to a biography of his life read by the family's Henderson, Nev.-based church bishop, Gary C. Milne.

The life sketch, a traditional part of Mormon funeral services, described Bryan as a hardworking, self-motivated person who loved sports, the arts, traveling and a good meal — from sushi to Peking duck and Italian pastas. An accomplished musician, Bryan played five instruments and wrote his own songs. He was also dedicated to service and since high school had been working with special needs children, Milne said.

In sharing their memories, Bryan's siblings painted a portrait of a close-knit family, where laughter and music — along with whipped cream fights in the family kitchen and other games — were often present, with Bryan at the center of the fun, despite his sometimes quiet manner.

"He was an intricate part of our family," said Stephen Craig, 26, the eldest of Marie Osmond's children." Each member of our family and every person here is better for having met him."

In somewhat of a jest, each of Bryan's siblings proclaimed themselves to be their brother's favorite.

"My brother Michael loved me the most," said 7-year-old Abigail Blosil, who drew laughter from the congregation as she launched the friendly, family competition. "My brother wrote a song about me that said I made him very happy. See, he did love me the most."

In brief remarks, Marie Osmond expressed her gratitude for the outpouring of support and prayers she said she's felt since Bryan's death. Marie Osmond expressed pride in all of her children and acknowledged the presence of Bryan's birth mother, "who gave me the greatest gift."

"Thank you for those beautiful 18 years," said Marie Osmond, who had not planned to speak at the service.

The service ended with a traditional Mormon hymn, sung sweetly by Marie Osmond and her famous brothers — Alan, Merrill, Jay, Wayne, Donny and Jimmy. The eldest Osmond brothers, Tom and Virl, who are deaf, accompanied the family by signing the words.

Bryan's silver coffin was interred at the East Lawn Memorial Hills Cemetery in Provo. At the graveside, the family scrawled handwritten messages onto orange balloons before releasing them into the air.


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The Hollywood Stars of the Hollywood Politicians--Reagan, Arnold ... - Los Angeles Times

Posted: 09 Mar 2010 06:30 AM PST

....Especially given the parallel development of media such as radio and television that emphasize such similar skills.

Could a shy, circumspect Abraham Lincoln, arguably our greatest president, ever get elected looking like that on TV? If William Howard Taft ever waddled onstage for a modern political debate, the cameras would always need a wide shot to cover his 335-pound bulk inside a 54-inch waistline. To see the enthusiastic Teddy Roosevelt speaking emphatically and boldly gesticulating is one thing; to hear his far-from-profound voice on early recordings is, well, disappointing.

None of that mattered to William Harrison Hays, a Hoosier-born politico who was chairman of the Republican National Committee and became the Karl Rove of his day—1920. He managed the successful White House campaign of....

.... Warren Harding, the first sitting U.S. senator ever to be elected president (John F. Kennedy and Barack Obama being the only others).

As a reward, Hays briefly became postmaster general before being lured away to become the first president of the Motion Picture Producers and Distributors of America, precursor of the Motion Picture Association of America.

As the prim, proper Republican, Hays' job was to renovate the soiled image of the infant movie industry in the wake of the Roscoe "Fatty" Arbuckle scandal to confront mounting demands for censorship. From his efforts evolved the Hays Code, an often vaguely-defined, hazily-enforced but often-denounced guidelines for moviemakers that was in one form or another to last until the current age-based G, PG-13, etc. system of movie ratings developed in the 1960s.

Helen Gahagan (later, Helen Gahagan Douglas, as in Melvyn Douglas' wife) made only one....

... major movie, "She," in 1935, playing the role of a lost city's queen. In 1944 she was elected as a liberal Democrat representing California's 14th District. Politically, however, she is best-known for her successful 1950 primary challenge of fellow Democrat incumbent Sen. Sheldon Downey, seeking a third term.

Their bitter, party-splitting competition and critics' suggestion of her leftist leanings were later used successfully in the general election by none other than Richard M. Nixon, then two years out from becoming Dwight Eisenhower's vice president. (The vacant Gahagan House seat, by the way, created the political opening for someone named Sam Yorty.)

Click the names of these political stars for full biographies. Ernani Bernardi, for instance, was....

.... a big-band saxophonist and longtime Los Angeles City Council member.

Wendell Corey was a stage, movie and TV actor who served as president of the Motion Picture Academy of Arts and Sciences, was on the board of the Screen Actors Guild and in 1956 was elected to the Santa Monica City Council as a conservative Republican, believe it or not.

George Murphy was a dancer-actor who parlayed those skills and that fame into one term in the U.S. Senate as a conservative Republican. He started his career as a Democrat like someone else with a Hollywood star whose name rings a faint bell, Ronald Reagan, an actor who turned his B-movie skills into selling refrigerators, cigarettes and conservatism before becoming California's governor and then the 40th president.

Arnold Schwarzenegger married into a Democratic family but terminated the gubernatorial career of Democrat Gray Davis in 2003 as a "Colliefornia" Republican to become the Golden state's 38th governor. But Schwarzenegger is one who can never run for president due to his Austrian birth.

We're holding an open space for Clint Eastwood, who amazingly as of 2010 has no Hollywood Star for acting, directing, music, sharpshooting or being the former mayor of Carmel, Calif.

-- Andrew Malcolm

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