Famous stand by their choices – at least for today
Posted: Feb. 21, 2008
Steven Spielberg is at it again, accidentally giving
Hollywood a good name.
When the director quit as artistic adviser to the Beijing
Olympics to protest China's economic support of Darfur, his act of
conscience momentarily threatened Hollywood's worldwide reputation
as a hotbed of sleaze and self-absorption.
Fortunately, China's state-run media leaped to the defense of the
La-La Lady's bad rep: It condemned "a certain Western director" for
being "very naïve," brought on "because of his unique Hollywood
characteristics."
"This renowned film director is famous for his science fiction,"
huffed the China Youth Daily. "But now it seems he lives in a world
of science fiction, and he can't distinguish a dream from
reality."
Thank goodness we have China to remind us to keep the fires of
contempt burning for Tinseltown.
Shedding fur
Aretha Franklin's appearance at the Grammys keeps
repeating like an overworked song chorus.
Last week, we talked about how Franklin temporarily lost her
title as "Queen of Soul" at the awards show when Beyoncé introduced
Tina Turner as the "queen."
This week, it's the People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals
who are trying to dethrone her - for wearing a fur coat to the
gala.
"Music lovers may think of you as a 'queen' but to animal lovers,
you are a court jester," PETA guy Dan Matthews wrote in an open
letter, released to the media. "Why not shed the old-fashioned look
that adds pounds to your frame and detracts from your beautiful
voice?"
Oh. So it was the coat.
Hmmm.
Shedding Jenny
Kirstie Alley and Jenny Craig parted ways this week.
Alley, you may recall, shed many - ahem - "coats" on the Jenny
Craig diet after she starred in her 2005 Showtime reality series,
"Fat Actress." About a year later, she appeared on Oprah Winfrey's
talk show, wearing a bikini, and showing off her new 145-pound
body.
Now that she has become an "accidental" inspiration to others who
want to lose weight, Alley intends to capitalize on it.
"This was something I did not bargain for, or foresee happening,"
she is quoted as saying on ImNotObsessed.com. "Nevertheless,
it is something I've grown to embrace and something I intend to
continue to pursue."
How? By creating her own diet, complete with Jenny Craig-style
meals, "that will help millions of people end the seemingly never
ending fatty roller-coaster ride," she told People magazine.
And Alley's gonna ride that baby right to the bank.
Shedding clothes
Now we come to two bizarre Marilyn Monroe look-alike stories.
First up is Lindsay Lohan, who agrees to "re-create"
Monroe's famous nude portrait shot just weeks before her death in
1962. Photographer Bert Stern took the iconic shot of Monroe - and
he took the new shot of Lohan, now on the cover of New York
magazine.
Lohan is clad only in a sheer pink scarf. She told the media that
she had no moral qualms about the assignment.
"I didn't have to put too much thought into it," she added.
What a surprise.
Next up is some guy in Vegas (where else?), who found a poster of
a blond he believed to be Marilyn, posing as a hitchhiker in nothing
but heels, with a cigarette in her mouth.
The 73-year-old retiree and his wife spent four months
researching the origin of the picture, The Associated Press reports,
even calling in Marilyn "expert" Chris Harris to identify it. Harris
promptly called a press conference to announce the find to the
world.
It took an intrepid AP reporter to recognize the "discovery" as a
blowup from Madonna's 1992 book, "Sex."
"Who wins here? Madonna, of course," Harris told the AP upon
realizing his mistake. "She really looks like Marilyn Monroe."
Maybe Lindsay should pose as Madonna posing as Marilyn?
Or is that, as Marilyn said in "The Seven-Year Itch," just "too
icky"?
Shedding bad image
Tyra Banks and Heidi Klum are giving models a good name, an
ecstatic Sandy Dumont (yes, she's a former model) wrote on
Models.com, a Web site devoted to the latest modeling issues,
whatever those may be. (One of its Web categories is actually called
"Feed," without an inch of irony attached. Turns out the title
refers to a daily digital feed of urgent modeling news.)
In naming Banks the "fourth sexiest" model, Dumont writes that
the TV talk show host, like Klum, is a "hard-working,
three-dimensional" woman who hasn't disgraced herself "with drugs or
bad boyfriends."
Notice the positive use of "three-dimensional."
Shedding a rumor
Eric Bana told paparazzi this week that Natalie Portman
and Scarlett Johansson "indeed do get along really well,"
thereby dashing a rumor that the two dislike each other and were
this close to having a girl-fight.
Bana stars with Portman and Johansson in "The Other Boleyn Girl,"
which opens next Friday.
"Why is it that people in the media hate the idea that actors
working together is possibly true? I hate to break it to you but
actors really do love each other."
What's this? People in Hollywood getting along and "loving" each
other?
Where's the Chinese media when you need it?
Based on reports in Associated Press, the World Entertainment
News Network, ImNotObssessed.com, People.com and the New York Daily
News.
From the Feb. 22, 2008 editions of the Milwaukee
Journal Sentinel
Have an opinion on this story? Write a
letter to the editor.
Don’t miss one more day of local
news and money-saving offers! Subscribe
Today! 
