The Insider: Contributed by LeylaLey

Gwen Stefani- What does your babys name mean?

LeylaLey — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 17:14:11 GMT

Denise Truscello/WireImage.com us_weekly995:http://www.usmagazine.com/news/why-gwen-stefani-named-her-son-zuma-nesta-rock By naming their newborn son Zuma Nesta Rock, Gwen Stefani and Gavin Rossdale “have proven decisively that they’re masters in choosing names that are both highly unusual and carry a lot of personal meaning,” baby name expert Pamela Redmond Satran, co-author of The Baby Name Bible, tells Usmagazine.com. “They’ve continued their own place-naming tradition by naming their son after Zuma Beach in Malibu,” Satran explains, citing a profile of Rossdale which said he had an epiphany that began his career. “He was standing on Zuma Beach in the early morning after working all night as a production assistant on a music video and was quoted as saying he realized he was wasting his time,” Satran says. “He drove up the coast, slept in his car, and started making the moves that would launch his career.” Zuma is also the name of a 1975 album by Neil Young and Crazy Horse. Nesta, meanwhile, was Bob Marley’s first name before an immigration official switched it with his middle name, Robert. “This name obviously links to big brother Kingston’s and is another nod to Jamaica and reggae,” says Satran. Bob Marley’s son Ziggy used Nesta as a middle name for his son, as did his other son Rohan, who has a son named John Nesta Marley with singer Lauryn Hill. The name Rock “needs no explanation,” given that the baby’s parents are rock stars, Satran says, and the fact that we’re “long overdue for a Rock Hudson-inspired revival.”

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Bristol Palins real baby daddy??!

LeylaLey — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:57:02 GMT

We are skeptical! YOU decide!!!

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Madonnas Like A Virgin dedicated to The Pope (VIDEO)

LeylaLey — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 16:42:42 GMT

Madonna’s “Sticky & Sweet” tour came to Rome on Saturday, Sept. 6th. In front of a crowd of over 60,000 people, Madonna dedicated her song “Like a Virgin” to the Pope by saying, “I dedicate this song to the pope, because I’m a child of God. All of you are also children of God.” According to Reuters, “Italian newspapers gushed over the singer’s electric performance and called the dedication a surprising provocation.” Watch:

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McCain temper!

LeylaLey — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 05:38:30 GMT

On Sunday, McClatchy Newspapers published a story on Sen. John McCain’s oft-discussed temper, detailing one incident in which McCain allegedly pushed a woman in a wheelchair. According to McClatchy’s report, in 1996, McCain was met in the Senate office halls by a group of family members of POW-MIAs who had been pressing him to pursue more information on their relatives. Six people present have written statements describing what they saw. According to the accounts, McCain waved his hand to shoo away Jeannette Jenkins, whose cousin was last seen in South Vietnam in 1970, causing her to hit a wall. As McCain continued walking, Jane Duke Gaylor, the mother of another missing serviceman, approached the senator. Gaylor, in a wheelchair equipped with portable oxygen, stretched her arms toward McCain. “McCain stopped, glared at her, raised his left arm ready to strike her, composed himself and pushed the wheelchair away from him,” according to Eleanor Apodaca, the sister of an Air Force captain missing since 1967. McCain’s staff wouldn’t respond to requests for comment about specific incidents. It’s impossible now to determine whose recollection of these events is accurate. But Democrats clearly continue to see McCain’s temperament as a potential electoral liability. Appearing on CNN’s Late Edition on Sunday, Sen. Barbara Boxer argued that McCain’s hot-streak is a legitimate campaign issue that should dissuade voters from electing him commander in chief. “Just listen to what some of his Republican friends have said about him,” said Boxer. “Thad Cochran, a Republican conservative senator from Mississippi says the thought of John McCain in the White House sends cold chills down his spine. I don’t agree with Kay Bailey that everybody loses their temper like that. And I think we’ve all seen it happen. It’s not rational when it happens. And because John McCain raised the issue, he actually raised it and says he has the temperament — you know, I think it should be on the table. And anyone watching, you know, Barack Obama stay as cool as a cucumber under the most unbelievable scathing attacks can see that.”

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Michelle Williams seeks peace and normal life for Matilda

LeylaLey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:34:31 GMT

photo by Dan Estabrook MICHELLE WILLIAMS has an Academy Award nomination, the open adulation of major filmmakers and a résumé that is striking in its worldliness and creative ambition. But if her career has seemed to progress almost inconspicuously, it is partly because of its introspective bent — small movies, subtle performances — and partly because it has lately existed in the shadow of her personal life. Ms. Williams’s maturity and capacity for quietly wrenching pathos were apparent even on the teenage soap “Dawson’s Creek,” on which she played the troubled Jen Lindley. In her film roles she has revealed a gift both for screwball comedy (“Dick,” “The Baxter”) and bruising emotional drama (most memorably in her Oscar-nominated performance as the spurned wife Alma in Ang Lee’s “Brokeback Mountain”). She has repeatedly taken chances on under-the-radar indies (“The Station Agent,” “The Hawk Is Dying”) while catching the attention of auteurs like Wim Wenders (“Land of Plenty”), Todd Haynes (“I’m Not There”) and Martin Scorsese (the forthcoming “Shutter Island”). But Ms. Williams, who turns 28 on Tuesday, has become a very public figure for reasons that have little to do with her work. While shooting “Brokeback Mountain” in 2004 she fell into a much-chronicled romance with her co-star Heath Ledger. Stalked by paparazzi, their every move monitored in the gossip pages, the couple set up house in Brooklyn and had a daughter, Matilda. They separated last summer, but the tabloid scrutiny did not let up and if anything has intensified since Mr. Ledger suffered a fatal drug overdose in January. Source: NYTimes/DENNIS LIM

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Brad Pitt - Sexy, Happy and Sleepy

LeylaLey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 02:05:11 GMT

Can anyone be more handsome, more giving, more lovable, more REAL, than Brad Pitt? Brad Pitt in Toronto Photo by: Mark Blinch / REUTERS / Landov Brad Pitt will have audiences laughing out loud as a knucklehead fitness employee in Burn After Reading, but what makes PEOPLE’s two-time Sexiest Man Alive chuckle in real life? “My kids,” Pitt, 44, told PEOPLE at the Toronto International Film Festival gala screening Friday for his new Coen Brothers comedy also starring George Clooney. Speaking of his kids with Angelina Jolie, newest additions, eight-week-old twins, Knox and Vivienne, are great, he added. “Everyone is healthy,” said Pitt. “No sleep though.” He added to reporters: “Sleep is something you long for, but it’s alright. We’ll get it.” Despite the lack of shut eye, costar and Oscar winner Tilda Swinton advises Pitt not to worry. As a mother of twins herself – 11-year-old daughter Honor Byrne and son Xavier Byrne – she tells him: “It gets easier! And it’s true.” And what kind of dad does she think her movie star friend is? “He’s fantastic,” said Swinton. Costar John Malkovich chimed in: “He was very doting with his daughter during shooting on a couple of days I was there. He’s very much a present parent.” Pitt and Jolie have six kids total contributing to the giggles: Maddox, 7, Pax, 4, Zahara, 3, and Shiloh, 2. Source: People Magazine/Paul Chi

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Lohan and Ronson at Fashion Week NYC

LeylaLey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:19:28 GMT

Actress Lindsay Lohan, left, and Samantha Ronson attend the Charlotte Ronson 2009 Spring Collection in Bryant Park during Fashion Week in New York on Saturday, Sept. 6, 2008.(AP Photo/Peter Kramer) NEW YORK (AP) _ Nobody draws attention like Lindsay Lohan and gal pal Samantha Ronson. The duo sat in the front row for the Saturday morning presentation of Ronson’s sister Charlotte’s spring collection at New York Fashion Week, where they were immediately swarmed by photographers who brushed past other famous folks like Sean Lennon to get shots of the actress and DJ. Lohan sported a denim dress and blue pumps, and wore her blonde hair pulled back in a bun; Ronson had on a black T-shirt and a gray skinny jeans and vest _ she usually incorporates a hat into her rocker look, but this time she opted to show off her pixie haircut. They stood up for a standing ovation when Charlotte Ronson appeared on the runway after the show, and made a quick exit as media chased them backstage (where they hid in a VIP lounge). Actress Emma Roberts, the niece of Julia Roberts, joked that she was stuck in a “Lindsay traffic jam” as she tried to leave the crowded event. In-demand music producer Mark Ronson _ brother of Charlotte and Samantha _ deejayed the music at the show. He declined comment when asked about the buzz over Lohan and his sister, but said he was proud of his family. “I think we’re just all driven and love what we do,” he said of his siblings.

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Sarah Palin? George Bush in Lipstick!

LeylaLey — Mon, 08 Sep 2008 00:05:29 GMT

Do you know the difference between George Bush and Sarah Palin? LIPSTICK! ———————————– A core Democratic talking point against Sarah Palin is beginning to take shape: she is, critics say, the female counterpart of the current President of the United States, not only in terms of policy and social conservatism, but even personality. “She’s not a bulldog in lipstick,” said one female Democratic operative, referencing a line from Palin’s convention speech. “She’s George Bush in lipstick.” From her hard-right stances on abortion and contraception and the deep affection she engenders from conservative evangelical leaders, to her involvement in a possible “abuse of power” scandal in Alaska and even her charming demeanor, some see in Palin the second coming of the 43rd president. The Palin-as-Bush theme comes just in time: with less than two months before election day, Democrats have a limited window to define McCain’s vice presidential pick in the eyes of voters. Her relatively sparse record, particularly on key national issues, made finding a line of attack more difficult. And the McCain campaign’s efforts to paint the media coverage of Palin as sexist, and to link the Obama campaign to that coverage, only complicated matters further. Obama himself made the Palin-Bush comparison during his Sunday appearance on ABC’s This Week, calling her “somebody who may be even more aligned with George Bush - or Dick Cheney, or the politics we’ve seen over the last eight years - than John McCain himself is.” Later, Robert Gibbs, senior aide to the Democratic nominee, fleshed out the case in an interview on CNN. “Sarah Palin doesn’t think climate change is man made. Both John McCain and Sarah Palin want to outlaw abortion, even in the case of rape and incest. I’ll let you decide who you think is extreme, but you’ve got a candidate in Sarah Palin who says she’s against the bridge for nowhere, but she campaigned on it. She says she’s against lobbyists getting pork for her state when she hired a lobbyist to get pork for her state. And now she stands in the way of an ethics investigation to look into her actions that was approved by the Republican legislature. I’m telling you…she’s going to fit in just great at Washington because that’s what happening right now.” Moreover, on a relatively high-profile environmental issue, Palin actually went to court to take on the Bush administration from the right, objecting to the president’s decision to list polar bears on the endangered species list. (The UK Independent, in its understated form, noted that Palin “has an environmental policy so toxic it would make the incumbent, George Bush, blush.”) The McCain campaign’s reply to this message was summed up by Nancy Pfotenhauer, who responded to Gibbs on CNN: “That is a total crock, Robert, and you know it.” McCain staffers say the ethics investigation in Alaska will find Palin did nothing improper, and that she has worked against earmarks as governor. Unfortunately for McCain, however, it is not only Democrats who see ties between Palin and the current President. On Saturday, former Bush speechwriter David Frum wrote on his National Review blog, “George W. Bush had very slight executive experience before becoming president. His views were not well known. He won the nomination exactly in the same way that Palin has won the hearts of so many conservatives: by sending cultural cues to convince them that he was one of them, understood them, sympathized with them. So that made everything else irrelevant in 2000 - as it seems again to be doing in 2008.” But in the end, Frum wrote, Bush lacked “important aspects of leadership which is how we got into the mess from which he needed to rescue the country and himself.” Source: Pitney @ HuffingtonPost.com

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Akon hits woman at concert!!

LeylaLey — Fri, 05 Sep 2008 00:06:42 GMT

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Otep Shamaya speaks out about Palin!

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 22:15:33 GMT

From Otep Shamaya’s official blog: “Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin attacked Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama’s experience as a community organizer stating that her experience as a mayor outweighs his because being mayor of 9000 people had “actual responsibilities.” Ignoring the tremendous flaws in this line of disparital thinking such as while she was auditioning for a job as an ESPN sportscaster, Obama was getting his Harvard Law Degree …. OR ….. that most volunteers that help feed the homeless or attend to the poor and sick and disabled have more on their plates in a single DAY than an Alaskan mayor of a city of 9000 has in a year. But a rather astute viewer replied last night, noting Palin’s faith, the fact that she is being touted as the Christian Right’s candidate, and that she is a Governor and Obama was a community organizer: “Jesus was a community organizer and Pontius Pilate was a governor.” Check. Mate.

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Palin Had Affair, Says Enquirer

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 17:31:13 GMT

Palin Had Affair, Says Enquirer Just as Sarah Palin was preparing to speak at the Republican convention in St. Paul (more on that momentarily), word bubbled up that the National Enquirer alleged in its print edition that John McCain’s running mate had an affair with a business partner to her husband. With the sensational charge, the supermarket tabloid is gambling the measure of respect it has earned from more buttoned-down media in the wake of its reporting on John Edwards’s affair with a campaign staffer, which was partially admitted to be true by Edwards himself. And early signs are that it may lose that gamble: The Enquirer issued a wishy-washy statement to the Huffington Post addressing its charges only in the context of other allegations, rather than backing them head-on: “The National Enquirer’s coverage of a vicious war within Sarah Palin’s extended family includes several newsworthy revelations, including the resulting incredible charge of an affair plus details of family strife when the Governor’s daughter revealed her pregnancy. Following our John Edwards’ exclusives, our political reporting has obviously proven to be more detail-oriented than the McCain campaign’s vetting process.” The McCain camp issued a full-throated denial and threatened to sue, though it’s worth noting that Edwards at first outright denied the Enquirer’s affair charges in late 2007. The Enquirer promises a fuller report next week. Will the traditional press discuss the story in the meantime? Probably not. Though some publications seemed to regret their silence during the Enquirer’s reporting on the Edwards affair, the tabloid had more evidence then on Edwards than it does now on Palin. Edwards was seen going into a hotel where his mistress was staying, and ran from reporters when he was confronted hours later as he tried to leave. And he failed to reiterate a real denial of the charges. Hopefully some enterprising news outlets will at least attempt to investigate the Enquirer’s allegations, however. Now’s your chance to shine. Anchorage Daily News! [Huffington Post]

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Sarah Palin or Pinocchio Palin?

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:59:05 GMT

By JIM KUHNHENN, Associated Press Writer ST. PAUL, Minn. – Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and her Republican supporters held back little Wednesday as they issued dismissive attacks on Barack Obama and flattering praise on her credentials to be vice president. In some cases, the reproach and the praise stretched the truth. Some examples: PALIN: “I have protected the taxpayers by vetoing wasteful spending … and championed reform to end the abuses of earmark spending by Congress. I told the Congress ‘thanks but no thanks’ for that Bridge to Nowhere.” THE FACTS: As mayor of Wasilla, Palin hired a lobbyist and traveled to Washington annually to support earmarks for the town totaling $27 million. In her two years as governor, Alaska has requested nearly $750 million in special federal spending, by far the largest per-capita request in the nation. While Palin notes she rejected plans to build a $398 million bridge from Ketchikan to an island with 50 residents and an airport, that opposition came only after the plan was ridiculed nationally as a “bridge to nowhere.” PALIN: “There is much to like and admire about our opponent. But listening to him speak, it’s easy to forget that this is a man who has authored two memoirs but not a single major law or reform — not even in the state senate.” THE FACTS: Compared to McCain and his two decades in the Senate, Obama does have a more meager record. But he has worked with Republicans to pass legislation that expanded efforts to intercept illegal shipments of weapons of mass destruction and to help destroy conventional weapons stockpiles. The legislation became law last year. To demean that accomplishment would be to also demean the work of Republican Sen. Richard Lugar of Indiana, a respected foreign policy voice in the Senate. In Illinois, he was the leader on two big, contentious measures in Illinois: studying racial profiling by police and requiring recordings of interrogations in potential death penalty cases. He also successfully co-sponsored major ethics reform legislation. PALIN: “The Democratic nominee for president supports plans to raise income taxes, raise payroll taxes, raise investment income taxes, raise the death tax, raise business taxes, and increase the tax burden on the American people by hundreds of billions of dollars.” THE FACTS: The Tax Policy Center, a think tank run jointly by the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, concluded that Obama’s plan would increase after-tax income for middle-income taxpayers by about 5 percent by 2012, or nearly $2,200 annually. McCain’s plan, which cuts taxes across all income levels, would raise after tax-income for middle-income taxpayers by 3 percent, the center concluded. Obama would provide $80 billion in tax breaks, mainly for poor workers and the elderly, including tripling the Earned Income Tax Credit for minimum-wage workers and higher credits for larger families. He also would raise income taxes, capital gains and dividend taxes on the wealthiest. He would raise payroll taxes on taxpayers with incomes above $250,000, and he would raise corporate taxes. Small businesses that make more than $250,000 a year would see taxes rise. The AP report also showed how Palin’s champions have exaggerated the Alaskan governor’s ‘acheivements’: MCCAIN: “She’s been governor of our largest state, in charge of 20 percent of America’s energy supply … She’s responsible for 20 percent of the nation’s energy supply. I’m entertained by the comparison and I hope we can keep making that comparison that running a political campaign is somehow comparable to being the executive of the largest state in America,” he said in an interview with ABC News’ Charles Gibson. THE FACTS: McCain’s phrasing exaggerates both claims. Palin is governor of a state that ranks second nationally in crude oil production, but she’s no more “responsible” for that resource than President Bush was when he was governor of Texas, another oil-producing state. In fact, her primary power is the ability to tax oil, which she did in concert with the Alaska Legislature. And where Alaska is the largest state in America, McCain could as easily have called it the 47th largest state — by population. MCCAIN: “She’s the commander of the Alaska National Guard. … She has been in charge, and she has had national security as one of her primary responsibilities,” he said on ABC. THE FACTS: While governors are in charge of their state guard units, that authority ends whenever those units are called to actual military service. When guard units are deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan, for example, they assume those duties under “federal status,” which means they report to the Defense Department, not their governors. Alaska’s national guard units have a total of about 4,200 personnel, among the smallest of state guard organizations. FORMER ARKANSAS GOV. MIKE HUCKABEE: Palin “got more votes running for mayor of Wasilla, Alaska than Joe Biden got running for president of the United States.” THE FACTS: A whopper. Palin got 616 votes in the 1996 mayor’s election, and got 909 in her 1999 re-election race, for a total of 1,525. Biden dropped out of the race after the Iowa caucuses, but he still got 76,165 votes in 23 states and the District of Columbia where he was on the ballot during the 2008 presidential primaries. FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOV. MITT ROMNEY: “We need change, all right — change from a liberal Washington to a conservative Washington! We have a prescription for every American who wants change in Washington — throw out the big-government liberals, and elect John McCain and Sarah Palin.” THE FACTS: A Back-to-the-Future moment. George W. Bush, a conservative Republican, has been president for nearly eight years. And until last year, Republicans controlled Congress. Only since January 2007 have Democrats have been in charge of the House and Senate. [Image via AP.]

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Angelina not WANTED in Britain!

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:28:55 GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Angelina Jolie might ooze Hollywood glamour, but if she’s armed and looking dangerous, the actress is not welcome in Britain. Britain’s media watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), has banned two posters of Jolie promoting the film “Wanted” after upholding complaints that the images of the gun-toting actress glamorized the use of guns and violence. One poster showed the actress crouching and holding a gun pointing upward while the other showed her lying on her back across a car’s hood, brandishing guns. The ASA said it had received 17 complaints from people who thought the ads were irresponsible because they glorify and glamorize gun crime at a time when there is increasing public concern in Britain about it. Some also complained that the posters for the high-tech action thriller co-starring James McAvoy and Morgan Freeman were unsuitable to be seen by children.

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Cindy McCains $300k Outfit!

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 16:25:14 GMT

Cindy McCain’s $300,000 Outfit by Vanity Fair September 4, 2008, 10:29 AM One of the persistent memes in the Republican line of attack against Barack Obama is the notion that he is an elitist, whereas the G.O.P. represent real working Americans like Levi “F-in’ Redneck” Johnston. It caught our attention, then, when First Lady Laura Bush and would-be First Lady Cindy McCain took the stage Tuesday night wearing some rather fancy designer clothes. So we asked our fashion department to price out their outfits. Laura Bush Oscar de la Renta suit: $2,500 Stuart Weitzman heels: $325 Pearl stud earrings: $600–$1,500 Total: Between $3,425 and $4,325 Cindy McCain Oscar de la Renta dress: $3,000 Chanel J12 White Ceramic Watch: $4,500 Three-carat diamond earrings: $280,000 Four-strand pearl necklace: $11,000–$25,000 Shoes, designer unknown: $600 Total: Between $299,100 and $313,100 Wow! No wonder McCain has so many houses: his wife has the price of a Scottsdale split-level hanging from her ears. (All prices except Laura’s shoes and Cindy’s watch are estimates, and the jewelry prices are based on the assumption that the pieces are real.)

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Dave Navarros Spread TV

LeylaLey — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 00:11:41 GMT

The talented Dave Navarro hosts his very own Internet T.V. talk show - Dave Navarro’s Spread TV. The show is an hour-long talk show in which Mr. Navarro interviews celebrities and authors such as Gene Simmons, Otep Shamaya and her band OTEP, Margaret Cho, Moby, Elvira, Perez Hilton, Neil Strauss, Daisy De La Hoya, Pauley Shore and others. The show is very conversational. Dave doesn’t prepare questions for guests. People come on and talk about what they want to talk about. Dave has a great knack for talking and he can elicit great conversations out of people. “The goal initially was to put together a show that could be seen by people on the Internet and we have achieved that goal,” Mr. Navarro said. “I’ve already done TV and with the Internet there is no FCC regulation, the show goes into instant-on-demand so if you miss a show you can check it out immediately following and see pretty much any show you want. And we have the final say in terms of who is on the show with guests and such, and as a result we have become good friends with a number of interesting people and have gone on to work with then and be personal friends, while hopefully entertaining people. And that is good enough for me.” http://www.maniatv.com/shows/spread-entertainment

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