Strollerderby : fame

TV Producer Seeking Urban Home Birth to Film

Miriam Axel-Lute — Mon, 29 Dec 2008 21:28:00 GMT

Producer Zach Marion is looking for someone planning have a home birth and due in January or early February to add to the birth stories in an upcoming Discovery Health Network show promoting midwifery and home birth.

Since the two already on board involve organic coffee growers in Hawaii and a couple planning to erect a "birth teepee" in Utah, he suggests that maybe a more urban birth setting would round out the trio.

Unsure about having a film crew at your birth? (I hope, frankly, that you are at least a little unsure.) Marion knows strangers can be disruptive but says in filming dozens of births for "House of Babies," he and his crew have become practiced at fading into the background and becoming "a fly on the wall." Not to mention blurring out the bits network TV doesn't want to show in high-def.

So if you're due at the right time and want to do your part for home birth awareness (especially, say I, if you are not the "stereotypical" home birth mom), give Marion a ring. It'll mean dad won't need to worry about the camcorder.

Photo by mil8, via Flickr.

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Billy Ray Cyrus: My Daughter’s Nudity is Like Stomping in Poop

Cole Gamble — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:00:00 GMT

Wha??

Billy Ray, he of the ever expanding soul patch, made his first public statements about his daughter Miley’s photo shoot debacle on the ‘Today’ show. And artfully enough, he was able to employ a poop metaphor.

According to Billy Ray, he was as surprised as everyone else to see Miley’s revealing photos, but figured there was little to be done about it.

My dad always told me the more you stomp in poop, the more it stinks. so I was just, 'OK, this happened. We got to deal with it.'"

When asked why he then posed shirtless with his daughter draped on top of him in a midriff baring top, Billy said "I'm sorry, if I offended somebody. That's just a daddy who loves his daughter a whole lot." I don’t think your helping your cause here, Billy.

Celebrity Tips For Losing the Baby Weight! (BARF)

Kelly Mills — Fri, 16 May 2008 20:33:00 GMT

Omigod, Forbes has this ah-mazing article on how celebrities lose the weight right away after they have their cute little babies. Oh, sure, the article acknowleges right away that famous mamas have all this pressure to drop pounds immediately, and that can be frustrating for regular old moms to watch. And yeah, we'll all admit celebs have personal trainers and chefs and full-time nannies and so on to help with the baby weight loss endeavor. But that doesn't mean we common folk can't learn from celebrities, right?

And the first big thing we learn is that celebrity weight issues must make money for mags, because this article has about as much substance as JLo's postpartum dinners. You know what we are supposed to take from the lifestyles of the rich and famous moms? 1. Be motivated, just like those poor famous people who have tons of cameras documenting every postpartum jiggle; 2. Breastfeeding will help you lose weight--except some celebs say it won't; and 3. Get fit before you conceive, and maybe exercise carefully during pregnancy. Gosh, that is sooo insightful and helpful, I'm sure we've never heard anything like that before. Next you'll be telling us we should "burn calories" and "eat healthy"! Thank gawd we have the chance to worship at the altar of fame, because we gain so much!

Can I share something with you? The focus on post-partum weight loss among the A-, B-, and C-listers is idiotic. These people start with a genetic advantage, have every resource available to make weight loss a primary life goal, and are sometimes shedding the pounds in unhealthy ways and at a dangerous rate. Screw. This. Shit. If you care about dropping the baby fat, at a minimum tell yourself "Nine months on, nine months off." And better yet, just enjoy your newborn, because you have time to lose the weight, and your infant is only going to be this little and precious for the blink of an eye.

Church Sponsors 30-Day Sex Challenge, Parents Rise to the Occasion

Kelly Mills — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 20:40:00 GMT

Doug and Lorena Webber have gained a small measure of fame for answering a challenge at their church. The Relevant Church asked married members to commit to have sex every day for a month, while single members were supposed to abstain. The idea was marriage improvement and so on, and while I'm not a religious person, for once I'm considering a conversion. The Webbers have a toddler and a newborn, so you know, thanks for making the rest of us look bad, guys.

What was the response to their 30 days of marital magic? Their phone was ringing off the hook, which is the last thing you need when you are trying to meet a challenge. Doug was offered free coffee at his Starbucks, someone asked for his autograph, and people he hadn't heard from in years got in touch with him. It sounds like it was all just short of strangers forming a high-five line on the street. And the couple report that their marriage did improve, that they communicated better, and they learned about each others' needs (no, not like that, I mean the need for honesty and time together.) Hey, maybe we could do a challenge like that here! Um, but let's start next month, because we're tired.

Seinfeld Says He Was Joking About Cookbook Author As Killer

Kelly Mills — Tue, 26 Feb 2008 22:31:00 GMT

Jerry Seinfeld's lawyers asked a judge to throw out a lawsuit filed by Missy Chase Lapine, author of a cookbook with many similarities to Jessica Seinfeld's "Deceptively Delicious: Simple Secrets to Get Your Kids Eating Good Food." We've covered this one for a while, and you might remember that it all kinda started when people began noting that "Deceptively Delicious," published in October of last year, seemed an awful lot like "The Sneaky Chef: Simple Strategies for Hiding Healthy Foods in Kids' Favorite Meals," which came out six months earlier.

Before you assume anything, you can always review some of the details of the book scandal here, but how did Mr. Seinfeld get involved? He went on Letterman and compared her to the killers of John Lennon and Martin Luther King, Jr., and his lawyers say it's clear he was kidding. I have no doubt he was joking about that, but personally, I'd be more pissed by the fact that he basically said Lapine was after Jessica because she's famous and that crackpots and stuff like this are part of being a celebrity, and there was no "ha ha" in that. Well, Lapine is suing for "copyright and trademark infringement, and made slander and defamation claims." I guess we'll see if using fame to pimp a book has any kind of price tag--and I mean for Jessica, who didn't mind the being a celebrity so much when it meant tons of free publicity for the cookbook.

Does Britney Make You Feel Like a Good Mom?

Kelly Mills — Sun, 18 Nov 2007 15:32:00 GMT

Earlier this week Bonnie Fuller told us Britney serves a valuable purpose: She makes us regular, guilt-stricken moms feel better about ourselves. "Yes, we may feed our kids pizza for dinner, miss mid-week soccer matches and fake that we actually baked brownies for the school fundraiser. But we have never, no never, used our kids as paparazzi bait—and we have practically taken college-level courses to make sure we strapped our babies into their car seats correctly." Pizza and faked brownies...Is that all you got? Wow, I have yelling and, well, all kinds of better-left-unnamed stuff to top that. Great, now the glow I could have gotten from Britney has been completely wiped out by the minimal crimes of other moms. Thanks.

Angelina Jolie and Madonna also ought to be helping assuage the mom woes, according to Fuller. But I'm sorry to report none of it does it for me. I think it's a combination of the fact that I'm weirdly protective of Brit-brit (though I do revile her mom a little), and that my method of dealing with maternal guilt is to shut it away in a tiny box with a very tight lid and only release it in crying jags around the holidays. I also find righteousness only offers me teensy relief, because the minute I haterate on someone I often catch myself doing something comparable. (You should have seen what I did on the red carpet the other day, oh my lord...) The famous mom balm just ain't cutting it here. But perhaps it works for you?

Hollywood Power Players Show Their Kids How To Be Creeps

Kelly Mills — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 21:29:00 GMT

Here's a lovely story: Hollywood big shots use their power and position to take their kids to advance screenings of children's movies and shows and so on. Okay. But as it turns out, these parents sometimes have to weasel and threaten to make sure Junior gets a first look at the latest kid flick. And even worse, a kind of one-upping and power playing has become part of the allure for some on the A, B, and C-lists. Check it: "A lot of these parents simply want to be heroes at home. Still, as with most matters involving the inner workings of the entertainment business, this jockeying carries a heavy flavor of status and bragging rights." Um, gross. Feeling all special because you have the power to get your kid into the latest film screening is lame, but it's equally as lame to go all out to try and impress your own children. Note to industry folks: we are supposed to be raising and caring for our kids, not bowling them over with our star pull, okay? "Look honey, Daddy's a bigshot!"

I wish that was the end of it, but naturally, there's more ick to come. There's tales of kids having to smile pretty for the camera on the red carpet, because naturally the studios love the celeb offspring at screenings since it gets the film publicity. Fame-whoring your youngsters is obnoxious. And worst of all, creeps (like Pat O'Brien of show The Insider) have no problem bumping the little people out of their seats, or making celebs with less fame power move to worse seats when a hotter commodity comes knocking with brood in tow. In short, the spawn of the Hollywood elite are getting front row seats to lessons on acting like a total asshole.

Teen Angst Times Ten For the Famous

Kelly Mills — Mon, 24 Sep 2007 20:06:00 GMT

You couldn't pay me enough to be a teenager again. Between the drugs and the horrific relationships and the mean kids and the really bad clothes (I won't even go into the hair) it's no wonder I felt utterly insecure and ansgt-ridden, and I can't imagine my experience was all that unique. So honestly, I feel for these celebrity kids who star in shows on Disney and Nickelodeon. They get all the freakiness of the teen years captured and dissected in the media, plus they are supposed to be role models for our kids. Oh, and worry about future earning potential. Bleugh.

I know someone is gonna say, "Poor babies, all rich and famous" but I doubt it's a sweet life. And aside from the fawning and critiquing they get during their formative years, they have to worry about their image more than most teens, and that's saying something. Does a Miley Cyrus' pregnancy rumor upset her fan base? Are Vanessa Hudgens' naked pics gonna hurt her chances of playing squeaky-clean roles? Lord, if what I did as a teenager impacted my adult career, I think I'd probably be scrubbing toilets for a living right now. And I really don't like to hear these kids parroting agent-speak: "Disney definitely sets up a fan base for you" and "I see myself with my own show." I don't doubt there are good parents out there trying to give their famous kids a balanced life, but I know I'm relieved my adolescence didn't get played out in the limelight.