White Hot: Betty White to Host SNL


Rose Nylund rocks. Actress Betty White is a white hot property right about now, a genuine A-Lister. And it only took the Beverly Hills High Class of '38 graduate half a century, give or take a little, to reach this stage. The rise of Ms. White is an interesting pop-cultural phenomenon considering that actresses Betty White's age are routinely ignored by the shallow Hollywood suits.


The pendulum swings. Tens of thousands of fans have been pushing for the 88-years young star of "The Golden Girls" to host the hip, comparatively upstart Saturday Night Live. The fans have spoken -- on Facebook -- and NBC is, ultimately, listening. On May 8, the former Mary Tyler Moore regular will host a pre-Mother's Day SNL episode also featuring appearances from six not-yet-ready-for-prime-time alumnae comediennes. "I don't know where that came from," Betty White told the Los Angeles Times, sounding remeniscent of Rose Nylund. "That came out of left field. I understand they've had all of these hits."


"The depth of feeling for her at the show and particularly among the women who are coming back was very deep," SNL's Executive Producer Lorne Michaels said in a telephone interview on Thursday with The New York Times. The buzz has been building for some time. Over the summer she played beer pong with Jimmy Fallon. This past January, Betty White won a Screen Actors Guild Life Achievement Award. A month after that she appeared in a Superbowl ad for Snickers that scored the highest with USA TODAY's Ad Meter focus groups. By March TV Land had greenlit the series Hot In Cleveland, in which she appears in the pilot. Let's face it: It's Betty White's world -- we just live in it.

Internet Nominated for Nobel

800px-Sirandou.net_cybercafe_IICD_Kita,_Mali.jpgIf you're reading this, you're online. Whether you're using a desktop, laptop, iPhone, or some other gizmo I've yet to hear about -- there are many -- you are fulfilling the daily prophesy of those who deem the Internet one of the most valuable tools of all time.


But is it a tool for peace? Yes, say some of the men and women who have the privilege of making nominations for the Nobel Peace Prize each year. The scientists, academics, former winners, and other select members of the intelligentsia had been fielding requests from groups lobbying for the Internet's nomination for months, but only last Tuesday did the committee officially do so.


Nearly 50 years ago, Marshall McCluhan described technology and the "mass media" -- a term he coined -- as "extensions of man," which enable our whims and ambitions. He could never have imagined the Internet of today, making his prescience all the more uncanny. The Internet is doubtless the most far-reaching, powerful "extension of man" created to date.


This isn't to say the Internet will win the peace prize -- there were a record 237 nominations this year -- but its nomination says a lot. While the Internet has facilitated innumerable good things, and indeed it has been used as a tool for peace, hasn't it also been used for the opposite? Each time a hate crime is committed, authorities mine the hard drives and online activities of the crime's perpetrator. For every positive the Internet facilitates, it seems to facilitate a negative.


Just this week, I logged on to Facebook to see that an old classmate from graduate school had posted a link to an article about a right-wing e-zine he just launched, Alternative Right. The article, titled "The 'New' Racist Right," posted on FrumForum.com, made a strong argument against Alternative Right for being a racist rant against anything that isn't lily white with a pronounced set of XY chromosomes.


From the comments posted, it was clear that AltRight has a number of passionate devotees. And of course, they use the Internet to rant against immigration, multiculturalism, feminism, interracial relationships, and pretty much everything else they view as a threat to their ethos of "radical traditionalism."


And that's pretty small fry, compared with other hate groups that rely on the Internet for their communication and recruitment efforts.


Yes, the Internet has done wonders for societies worldwide, improved people's lives, and been generally used in the name of progress. But isn't it also merely a tool for the wills of those who use it? A building can be used to shelter the homeless, or to build bombs. Likewise, the Internet is neither good nor evil -- it is merely an extension of mankind.


[Image: IICD from Wikimedia Commons]

Get With the Program: The first American town founded by former slaves

Time Team America.jpgNearly 150 years after the end of the American Civil War, we are still discovering the inspirational stories of courage from our nation's first freed slaves. What's possible when people are freed from the yoke of slavery? Time Team America uncovers the buried secrets of New Philadelphia, Illinois -- the first American town founded by former slaves:

"In 1836 "Free Frank" McWorter purchased his freedom from a Kentucky plantation owner and headed North. When he reached Illinois, he planted roots, started a town, and sold enough property to purchase the rest of his family out of slavery. Now farmers' fields cover this dramatic testament to victory over enslavement. The local landowners, descendants of the town's residents, and the McWorter family want to uncover what remains of New Philadelphia to commemorate its place in history. Time Team America joins in the search for the pre-Civil War schoolhouse where New Philadelphia's African American children learned to read and write in freedom."

Watch this episode of Time Team America tonight, Monday, March 15 at 9:00pm EST.


[image: PBS Pressroom: Time Team America]

"The Cove" Team Comes to America

09sushi_CA0-articleInline.jpgIf you saw The Cove, which won this year's Academy Award for best documentary, you're probably glad you're not at student at a Japanese grammar school. In certain parts of that country, dolphin meat is served to children, falsely identified as whale meat. Adults, too, are often served dolphin when they order whale, a staple especially in fishing communities in Coastal Japan.


Now, the filmmakers have set their sights on sushi restaurants in the U.S., namely one in California that was rumored to be serving whale meat, which is illegal here. With stiff fines up to $20,000 and as much as one year in prison, most Japanese restaurants stick with the standards: California rolls, spicy tuna, eel, etc.


But at The Hump in Los Angeles, patrons who ordered "omakase" -- or "chef's choice" -- were being served a helping of whale along with their sashimi, edamame, and fish roe.


The sting operation actually began last October, but took time to execute. The State of California has promised swift action, but has not disclosed exactly what the punishment will be. "This isn't just about saving the whales," says the film's director, Louie Psihoyos. "It's about saving the planet."


[Image: NYTimes.com]

Barbie Gets a Job at Sterling Cooper

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First Banana Republic designs a line of Draper-inspired garments, and now Mattel has announced its plans for a line of Mad Men Barbie dolls. It's clear that retailers are taking notice of AMC's Mad Men, and fans of the show should be happy about that, right?


Well, these new vintage-style Barbie dolls, which will be available this summer in conjunction with the season four premiere of the show, might be fun for doll collectors (and since they'll retail for $74.95 each you'll need to be a collector to justify buying one) but they leave something to be desired for die-hard Sterling Cooper devotees.


For starters, the Joan Holloway doll is lacking anything even remotely resembling the lovely curves that have made Christina Hendricks (the actor who portrays her) a household name. One of the great things about Mad Men is its body diversity (at least for a television show) and it's a shame that Barbie, a doll known for her unrealistic proportions, couldn't break the mold in this case and make a doll that reflected the woman who inspired her creation.


Another great thing about Mad Men (can you tell I'm a fan?) is the character development. Over three seasons, we've watched main character Peggy Olson transform from an insecure secretary to a take-no-prisoners adwoman. So where is the Peggy doll? Again, because Peggy's physique (she is thin and without Barbie's Amazonian assets) is outside of the norm, I have to guess that, rather than rework Barbie, Mattel decided they'd leave Peggy out of the lineup. For shame!


OK, so some of this television-show-based-doll discussion is a bit frivolous, but a line of homogeneous-looking dolls like this does send a subtle message to the public. It's just that it is a very different message than the one sent by many of the characters on Mad Men who represent a variety of physical types, whose very presence on such a popular show goes a long way when it comes to body acceptance.


Also, $74.95 per doll? That's outrageous!


[Image: Pop Crunch]

Howard Stern Vs. Gabourey Sidibe


Radio shock jock Howard Stern once again put his foot in it this week. Full disclosure: I have been a fan of the locker room conversational tone of the show and its often brutal honesty for over 20 years. (Though it is not inconceivable that my enduring loyalty of the show has more to do with the fact that I got into the habit of listening daily as a hormonal teenager.) This recent frisson is yet another instance where Howard Stern and I don't agree on an issue. The morning after Academy Award nominee Gabourey Sidibe lost her bid for Best Actress, the Stern show laid it on savagely. From CNN:


During Howard Stern's Sirius satellite show on Monday morning, co-host Robin Quivers commented that Sidibe should have looked around at the Oscars and noticed that none of the other working actresses looked like her.


"What movie could she play in?" Stern questioned on his live broadcast. "You feel bad because everyone pretends that she's part of show business, and she's never going to be in another movie."


Worse, in a beyond-the-pale provocative manner, Stern called the Oscar nominated actress a "fat black chick." Disgusting. Unpardonable, even. And misinformed, since Sidibe has two movie roles and a television role in the works. Still, the question arises: Can talent outweigh size in Hollywood? Could someone as talented and pure of heart but unconventionally attractive as Sibide is build a career in a town so comically shallow?


The effects of Howard Stern's comments have, you can imagine, alighted the blogosphere something ferocious. Hollywood-Elsewhere, for example, calls the comments "needlessly cruel" (they were), adding, "Stern isn't wrong in saying that her prospects are limited." The question as to whether or not an actress of Gabourey Sidibe's size could find work in Hollywood briefly came up when Vanity Fair very publicly -- and controversially -- passed her over for their cover of "Young Hollywood." Stern, for his part, has sort of backtracked -- saying that he made those comments out of concern for Sidibe's weight. What do you think?

Miss. School Cancels Prom After Lesbian Couple Asks to Attend

Constance McMillen.jpg Being a gay teenager isn't easy. And when a gay teenager is told by adults who are in positions of authority that being gay is wrong, the seeds can be planted for a lifetime of self-hatred and hurt. We're hoping that isn't the case for Constance McMillen.


McMillen is an 18-year-old high school senior in northern Mississippi who wanted to attend her school's prom on April 2 with her girlfriend, dressed in a tuxedo, after the school released a memo saying that no same-sex couples were allowed to attend the prom together. When the American Civil Liberties Union got involved on McMillen's behalf, the school district announced on Wednesday that the prom, which was to be held at Itawamba County Agricultural High School, would be canceled.


"A bunch of kids at school are really going to hate me for this, so in a way it's really retaliation," McMillen told The Clarion-Ledger of Jackson, Miss.


In a statement, the Itawamba County school district said they hope someone will organize a private event for the students, but could not hold the official prom "due to the distractions to the educational process caused by recent events." Officials did not specifically cite McMillen as the cause for the event's cancellation.


The ACLU, however, says that the school district is just trying to wash its hands of the situation, rather than treat McMillen as an equal student.


"But that doesn't take away their legal obligations to treat all the students fairly," Kristy Bennett, legal director for the ACLU of Mississippi, told The Associated Press. "On Constance's behalf, this is unfair to her. All she's trying to do is assert her rights."


The ACLU filed a suit Thursday against the school district in federal court, demanded that the prom be re-instated and McMillen be able to attend with her girlfriend.


A rural area near the Alabama state line, Itawamba County boasts a population of 23,000.


We're hoping that McMillen will not be seen as the villain to her fellow students, and that this will be a lesson to them about the harm that fear and ignorance can bring. We're proud of you, Constance, for fighting for what you believe in.


[Image: Matthew Sharpe/Special to The Clarion-Ledger]

Corey Haim, as We'll Remember Him

As a child of the late '70s and early '80s, I can't deny a soft spot in my heart for the "two Coreys": Feldman and Haim. So it was a genuine shock for me when I learned Wednesday of Corey Haim's death at age 38, presumably from an overdose of prescription drugs.


But as with Heath Ledger, Brittany Murphy, and Michael Jackson, we'll remember Haim not for his sad, untimely death, but for his public persona, and the characters he played in movies like Lucas, The Lost Boys, and License to Drive. Let's take a look at Haim at age 15 in Lucas, just two years before the actor said he tried pot for the first time, on the set of The Lost Boys. Before long, he was on cocaine, then crack, and then meds. Hard to believe watching this gem from 1986.


The Autusm Vaccine Debate Continues


Despite the fact that The Lancet, that most respectable of medical journals, recently retracted Andrew Wakefield's 1998 study that first linked the MMR vaccine to autism, high-profile celebrities and a growing movement of parents have taken to the media to argue that there is a causal link. Jenny McCarthy talked to The Huffington Post, saying, in part:


With so many kids with autism, the environment has to be to blame, and vaccines are an obvious culprit. Almost all kids get vaccines -- injected toxins -- very early in life, and our own government clearly acknowledges vaccines cause brain damage in certain vulnerable kids.


Take those simple facts, along with tens of thousands of parental reports of regression after vaccination, not to mention a growing list of court cases where our government paid claims to children with autism acknowledging vaccines as the trigger, and the case we Moms are making makes sense.


McCarthy is not alone. Doug Flutie and Toni Braxton agree. Curiously, according to Arthur Allen, the author of "Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver,'' urbane locales that you wouldn't expect like Berkeley, California and Boulder, Colorado have the country's lowest vaccination rates. "It's sort of where the intellectual hippies meet the black helicopter crowd,'' said Allen. So the fears of vaccination go deeper than a lack of trust in science.


A startling 25% of parents think -- despite medical evidence to the contrary -- that some vaccines cause autism in healthy children. Celebrities may not have medical training but they are highly visible and media-savvy. If a quarter of parents believe this, it might be time to find some common ground between the parents -- who are naturally highly anxious about their newborns -- and the science, which, quite frankly, just did a flip-flop.

Dance United

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Amy Farkas of UNICEF's sport for development arm, recently shared this amazing article with me. To summarize, it is about a program called Dance United that's designed to work with ex youth-offenders and youth at risk. The platform used is dance, but the purpose is self confidence, reduced criminal behavior, and a return to pursuing traditional education. The program has proven to be highly effective at ending cycles of criminal behavior. When harnessed properly, the power of such programs can go a long way towards ending homelessness.


We talk a lot about supportive housing and we should, but we shouldn't underestimate how much people can do for themselves, nor the power of community and activities to release self empowerment. As this article mentions, just one youth ex-offender kept out of jail and out of homelessness can save British taxpayers around 80,000 pounds sterling on average.


Lots of people don't know that the organization I work for, Street Soccer USA (before it became part of HELP USA), started as an art program and that our first team was called Art Works Football Club. Indeed, the power of relationships forged through shared experience is at the core of what we do. When human beings affirm each other, hope, dignity, and purpose are abundant and palpable. If recovery, achievement, and progress are going to take hold for those stuck in homelessness and poverty, these goals must be cast on a foundation of personal pride and purpose in life.


It no surprise to me that targeted programming around arts and sports combines creativity and discipline in a way that helps participants balance these two elements in their own lives. I am glad we as practitioners are measuring it and so thrilled that as a society we are starting to take advantage of the power of such activities to build a healthy community.


[Image: The Guardian]