Jessica Simpson must really want to be on the cover of something other than Us Weekly, because she apparently agreed to an interview with Dear Doctor Dentistry & Oral Health magazine.
In it, she talks about her work with Operation Smile, a health group that provides free plastic surgery to kids with facial deformities in third-world countries. Specifically, she reminisces about a trip she took with them to Africa to 2005 (coincidentally, the last year she did anything noteworthy whatsoever):
“My experience in Kenya with Operation Smile was incredible. To witness the truly miraculous transformations in the lives of so many desperate needy children was both powerful and personally rewarding.”
Sounds touching, right?
But wait… MSNBC has the real scoop.
[A] source who was involved in planning the original trip was surprised to see references of any kind resurface. “She went on a wildlife tour at one point instead of visiting the hospitals she’d committed to seeing. The press was so, so bad,” said the source. “She backed out of PSAs that were supposed to run afterwards. I guess the lesson is that she and Joe (Simpson) really never cease to amaze.”
And that is why she deserves the cover of Us Weekly.
This Sunday on Discovery’s brand-new channel Planet Green, Leonardo DiCaprio is debuting a 13-part series about Greensburg, Kansas. Greensburg was completely destroyed by a tornado last year and is rebuilding itself, in the words of the New York Times, as “the nation’s first Platinum city, the highest certification green design can attain.” Here’s Leo, telling us what’s what:
“We are in the Environmental Age whether we like it or not,” Mr. DiCaprio wrote in an e-mail message. “Unfortunately, our government has failed to respond to this monumental issue in the way they should. Until we become less reliant on foreign oil and put aggressive environmental policies into action, it will be towns like Greensburg, Kan., taking matters into their own hands on a grass-roots level. I am excited that my production company gets to be a part of a moment in American history where one town has decided to set the example for the green building movement.”
Now, it’s nice that he’s doing something to help a struggling community to rebuild. And if it just so happens to fit in with his little pet cause, good for him. (”Oh my God, it’s actually called Greensburg? That’s perfect!”) But his Olympian arrogance is a bit tough to take. Just as a reminder, here’s another glimpse at how Leo is reducing his own dependence on foreign oil:
What, he powers that estate with good intentions? Not to mention his insistence on flying around on private jets, and all the other planet-destroying luxuries he can afford. As Counterpunch (hardly a bunch of right-wingers) put it: “Using Leonardo DiCaprio to tell people to ‘recycle, reduce and re-use’ is kind of like asking a crackhead to promote cocaine abstinence.”
I’ll start listening to Leo’s blather about saving the planet when he shrinks his carbon footprint to no more than 10 times my own.
Everyone knows about Wal-Mart’s longstanding refusal to carry albums they consider not to be family-friendly.
Victims of the policy include John Cougar Mellencamp, who had to edit out a devil on an album cover; Nirvana, which was forced to change the name of the song “Rape Me” to “Waif Me” (I know, what?); and Sheryl Crow, whose album was summarily banned from the store’s shelves because of the song “Love Is A Good Thing,” in which she sang “watch our children as they kill each other/with a gun they bought at Wal-Mart discount stores.”
But because the nation’s biggest retailer accounts for more than 10 percent of CD sales in the country, most musicians are willing to release a sanitized version to be sold there.
So it comes as a bit of a surprise that the store has signed veteran rockers AC/DC to an exclusive agreement for their upcoming album.
Obviously this can’t be the long-awaited greatest hits compilation. Otherwise we could look forward to such anthems as “Highway to Heck,” “She’s Got Guts,” and “You ***** Me All Night Long.”
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