The first time I chopped a nice frontal fringe, I was in college. I never knew the hard times that came with growing out your bangs because, well, I never had to. So I saw my stylist and cut some bangs because the regular old blonde needed an update. But until today, I never realized the statement my bangs were making. I thought I just needed a change.

Apparently bangs say so much about you, that the New York Times felt the need to write an article about it. Oddly, older women aren’t jealous of the tight, svelte bodies of their younger counterparts. They’re jealous of their bangs. Read More »

The only reason I hesitate to proclaim LL’s career completely dead is because comebacks are so big these days. She could land herself a E! series, or maybe even some giant Barbara Walters special where she cries. There’s a chance Lindsay could rise again.

But just in case she doesn’t, Hollywood had better start looking for new big-boobed starlets.

A New York Times article (yup, even the grand old NYT is digging through Tinseltown garbage these days…) claims now that Lindsay has been arrested twice, she’s basically uninsuriable. And when you’re uninsuriable in Hollywood, everything fades to black.

If a production company can’t be sure a star will show up for work or stay out of jail, it’s unlikely she’ll be hired. One missed day can mean hundreds of thousands of dollars down the drain, and almost no actress is worth that kind of anxiety. Combine Lindsay’s unpredictable behavior with her less-than-stellar film record, and you’ve got a girl who can be (and most likely already has been) replaced.

Poor Things, a small independent film (that was supposed to begin shooting shortly) in which LiLo had only a supporting role, was recently plagued by rumors of an early demise after Lindsay’s first rehab stint. Since the starlet was arrested a second time, the movie’s producer claims the film is “moving on” – supposedly without the troubled star. Read More »

Once again, I have underestimated human nature’s obsession with sex and nudity. My little naive self actually thought that the bums in Knocked Up were the only people who thought they would be able to make money off of a silly website idea featuring celeb’s private parts in all forms. They had a sudden reality check when their hopes and dreams were killed by an already existing site…Well, it turns out that fantasy site is, in fact, a real website (mrskin.com) that saw a 35 percent bump in visitors when the movie was released. But, the New York Times reports that it definitely was not struggling previous to the movie publicity.

Just last year MrSkin.com had a revenue of 5.3 million dollars! What blows my mind is that most of this money comes in from subscribers who pay 30 dollars a month to access the site. Really?? Maybe my current unemployed frugal status causes me to react very strongly to that statistic. Read More »

If you’re anything like me (extremely poor and continuously sweaty from no AC), dinner has turned into a can of PBR, hummus and baby carrots.

The summer heat and lack of money melt my formerly creative inner cook, and even though I’m slightly decent at preparing a meal, all I can think to do is eat apples, fry eggs and drink beer.

Even worse than cooking in the summer heat is cooking for one. It’s depressing. There are always leftovers and really, who wants to make an elaborate meal if you’re the only one eating it?

Which is why I was so excited to see these 101 simple summer meals that can be prepared in 10 minutes or less.

I’m all for using fresh ingredients and keeping it healthy, but sometimes recipes that call for a dozen different fresh components just end up rotting in the fridge.

These meals, however, don’t require too much and really do spark a little creativity in the kitchen. I’m so pumped about having so many new ideas that I’m already planning how I can use my leftovers (see #89).

Here are some of my favorites: Read More »

“Mom!” Paris Hilton is reported to have shouted when the judge ordered her back to school, “it’s just not fair!”

Celebrity moms are everywhere these days, from Kathy Hilton giving TMZ an hour by hour update of her daughter’s recent jail time, to Dina Lohan—aka the “Orange Oprah”, aka A Horrible Role Model—exclaiming to Entertainment Tonight that she goes out and parties with her daughter.

It’s not just famous moms and daughters who are spending more time together. A recent article in the New York Times reports “social, demographic and technological changes have made it more common for adult daughters to keep their mothers’ apron strings tied tighter — and for longer,” say researchers who study the transition into young adulthood.

Cell phones, the internet, even AIM are becoming common ways for daughters to talk to their mothers, allowing a connection much more prevalent than ever before.

“There is a higher level of dependence,” Vivian Gadsden, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania Graduate School of Education, explains in the article. “In that way [young adults] are very much a product of this period in our history.” Read More »

As if you needed any more convincing that the War in Iraq isn’t going as well as they’ve been trying to tell us, a new article in the New York Times highlights the growing stress on soldiers as they endure longer and more repeated tours.

It’s not a new discovery that combat induces anxiety, trauma, and even depression in soldiers, but the new decision by the Bush Administration to lengthen many tours from the traditional one year to 15 months causes concern among many, especially when it comes to the misplaced combat anger directed at civilians.

According to the article, the Pentagon’s new survey suggests that “extended tours and multiple deployments, among other policy decisions, could escalate anger and increase the likelihood that soldiers or marines lash out at civilians, or defy military ethics.” Another sad fact, as recorded by the Pentagon, shows “suicide rates for soldiers in Iraq from 2003 to 2006 were 16.1 per 100,000, compared with the average Army rate of 11.1.” Read More »

Did The Matrix spur the Columbine shooters? Was the Paducah, Kentucky high school shooter inspired by The Basketball Diaries? Did Virginia Tech’s shooter Cho Seung-Hui kill because of what he saw in OldBoy (a violent Korean film made in 2003)?

In a recent Time.com article, author Richard Corliss wonders if it’s more than a strange coincidence that one of the pictures Cho took of himself where he “looks fierce and holds a raised hammer” is very similar to a shot in Korean director Park Chan-Wook’s film.

Just because he raises the question doesn’t mean Corliss actually believes there is any connection. In fact, he challenges anyone who thinks these movies are somehow responsible for the aforementioned shooting sprees to “explain why [everyone else] who saw Oldboy, and The Matrix, and Saw, didn’t do the same.” Read More »

As I was browsing the internet on a snowy Sunday, I came across something that really made me wonder if AIM usage has reached a new level. Each Sunday newspapers such as The New York Times and The New York Post publish a section on weddings and highlight different couples. And I’ll admit it, I’m a devout reader of the NY Times wedding section. Not because I plan on getting married ANYtime soon, but because it’s more of a fantasy aspect in college to read about couples that found each other while both working on PhD’s at Ivy League schools or met while searching for a cure to cancer, yada yada yada. I mean, a girl can dream right?

Carrie Bradshaw once said the wedding announcements in the Times are “the straight woman’s sports pages,” and I would have to agree.

But, the Post has also started a wedding section that features more, ahem, “normal people.” The couple highlighted this week met on the internet (okay, thats fine and becoming more acceptable recently). So, for some reason, the husband thought it would be okay to propose over the internet! On AIM! Read More »