jimblr.com

A 10 year old girl from my old neck of the woods, in South-East England was less than pleased with her first attempt on the new Wii Fit game when the machine unabashedly told her that she was ‘fat’. Not exactly the best of things to say to a 10 year old girl, that is for certain.
The game has a Body Mass Index (BMI) measuring capability, but it is obviously not very accurate, or polite. The girl at 4′ 9″ and 84 lbs is a healthy and active little girl that just wanted to have some fun. Nintendo have apologized and said that the machine was intended to measure the BMI of adults and not children, though there are no warnings.
Nintendo’s exergame is already an International smash hit in Europe and Japan and the game is set to release in the US on May 19th.
Perhaps, before the much anticipated release stateside, Nintendo may want to consider a pre-call to readjust the game settings, and for that matter the nomenclature, before facing an unpleasant appetizer of countless tearful little girls followed by a plethora of Wii fat lawsuits from angry parents for dessert.
Pass the custard someone.

redherring.com

‘97. Simon Bossell. A researcher investigating the extinction of small creatures meets a woman whose cabin is infested with odd creatures. (R) (2:00) SCI-FI: Wed. 3 A.M.
‘06. Justin Long. After trying and failing to get into college, a high-school senior and his friends fool parents and peers by creating their own university. (PG-13) (1:30) HBO: Sat. 4:30 P.M. (CC)
‘88. Kelly McGillis. A lawyer crusades for her client, the victim of a barroom gang rape. (R) (2:00) LIFE: Thu. 2 P.M. (CC)
• Addicted to Love
‘97. Meg Ryan. A man and a woman meet by chance, then collaborate to spy on their exes, who are live-in lovers. (R) (1:45) ENC: Thu. 2:20 P.M. (CC)
• The Adventures of Robin Hood
‘38. Errol Flynn. The Sherwood Forest outlaw and his men save King Richard and Maid Marian from Prince John and Sir Guy. (PG) (1:45) TCM: Sat. 4:15 P.M. (CC)
‘97. Nick Nolte. A small-town sheriff becomes unhinged, thanks in part to his abusive, alcoholic father. (R) (1:55) MAX: Thu. 2:45 A.M. (CC)
• After the Storm ‘01. Benjamin Bratt. A loner and a wealthy businessman try to recover treasure from a sunken yacht off the coast of the Bahamas. (R) (2:00) WGN: Sat. 2 A.M. (CC)
• Age of Consent
‘69. James Mason. A New York artist goes to an island on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef and hires a girl to be his model. (R) (2:00) TCM: Mon. 2:15 A.M.
• Air Force One
‘97. Harrison Ford. Demanding the release of a political prisoner, a terrorist and his gang hijack the U.S. president’s plane. (R) (2:30) TNT: Sat. 11:30 P.M. (CC)
‘94. Brendan Fraser. Attention-hungry musicians decide to grab the media spotlight by taking staffers at a popular radio station hostage. (PG-13) (1:35) STZ: Sun. 1:15 P.M., Fri. 2:20 P.M., 5:20 A.M. (CC)

post-gazette.com

Carrie Underwood - with opening act Jason Michael Carroll - will play Toledo for the first time. Tickets for the June 10 show at the SeaGate Convention Centre go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. They’ll be available at the SeaGate box office, 401 Jefferson Ave., at Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 419-474-1333. Prices range from $35 to $55.
( ASSOCIATED PRESS )
Even cranky, sarcastic Simon Cowell liked her. “I think you’re very good,” he said at the end of her audition for the 2005 edition of Idol, later giving a number of high-profile interviews in which he raved about her likability and talent.
And this summer Underwood - with opening act Jason Michael Carroll - will play Toledo for the first time. Tickets for the June 10 show at the SeaGate Convention Centre go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday. They’ll be available at the SeaGate box office, 401 Jefferson Ave., at Ticketmaster outlets, www.ticketmaster.com, or by phone at 419-474-1333. Prices range from $35 to $55.
She grew up on a farm near tiny Chekotah, singing in church, and performing at typical small-town America gigs like Lions Clubs, festivals, and fairs. Not content to simply sing, she learned to play guitar and piano, but that didn’t keep her away from her school work because she also was salutatorian of her high school class.
The album sold more than 6 million copies and reached No. 2 on the Billboard Top 200 and No. 1 on the country charts.
Underwood was a star. But just to make the story better, in the midst of her rise, she went back to college and completed her degree, scored big with the PETA people, and made a few return trips to perform on Idol.
The followup to “Some Hearts,” last year’s “Carnival Ride,” was more of the same both musically and in its chart success, but with a bit more emphasis on power ballads. It was No. 1 on all the important charts and allowed Underwood to secure her spot as this decade’s successor to Faith Hill and Shania Twain.

toledoblade.com

No less a harbinger of ‘what’s hot’ than Perez Hilton who has predicted that L.A.-based singer/songwriter Katy Perry will be “one of the breakout stars of the summer” when Capitol Records releases her debut album, One of the Boys, on June 17th. Perry will also join the traveling rock circus that is the 2008 Vans Warped Tour, for the entire trek this summer.
One of the Boys is a sharp and witty pop-rock gem filled with candid tales of neurotic ex-boyfriends (”Hot N Cold,” “Ur So Gay”, “Mannequin”), crazy road trips with friends (”Waking Up in Vegas”), and figuring out who you are along the way (first single “I Kissed A Girl,” “Fingerprints”). While the album displays Perry’s feisty, girl-power swagger, it also reveals her more vulnerable side on such regretful ballads as “Lost,” “I’m Still Breathing,” and “Thinking of You.”
“I think people can appreciate a songwriter who shows different sides, and this album has many different colors,” Perry says. “I can write my share of angry break-up songs but I wanted to balance it out with fun, summertime songs. But there are also sad songs about loss and making the wrong decisions. It’s been blood, sweat, and tears making this record. I’ve put everything into it and I feel like it’s my baby. When people listen to it, I hope they will understand where I’m coming from as a person.”
To showcase her sharp, observational lyrics and big, charismatic voice, Perry worked with a host of noted producers and collaborators, including Greg Wells (Mika, Natasha Bedingfield), Glen Ballard (No Doubt, Alanis Morrisette), Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), Dr. Luke (Kelly Clarkson, Avril Lavigne), Max Martin (Leona Lewis, Robyn), Sam Hollander & Dave Katz (Gym Class Heroes, Boys Like Girls) and Butch Walker (Pink, The Donnas). “You can’t get better than these guys,” Perry says. “I feel like the luckiest bitch in town right now.”

ultimate-guitar.com

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OF course the scars persist — how could they not? High school is four years of molding, reflection and, occasionally, brutality. Even those left mostly untraumatized by the experience are still shaped by it. Years on, it remains fertile turf for emotional excavation.
On two shows, those pains are brought to the fore: “High School Confidential” on WE (10 p.m. Mondays) tracked a group of young women, Michael Apted style, as they made their way through high school between 2002 and 2006; “High School Reunion” on TV Land (10 p.m. Wednesdays) takes the long view, reuniting select members of one school’s class of 1987. In each case, high school stings; time does little to staunch the wound.
That much is clear on this season of “High School Reunion,” which brings together 14 former students from J.J. Pearce High School in Richardson, Texas, outside Dallas. (The show previously aired for two fitful seasons on the WB, with different schools participating.)
This is a close-knit crew, and for the most part, high school bonds have helped shape their social lives. A few of the reunioners are close friends — only a couple describe themselves as former outcasts of any sort. Their preexisting bonds facilitate a host of profound interactions. The group rallies around Matt, the former jock who lost his wife to liver failure six months prior. His friends stay ready with good cheer, and Yvette, a divorcée, bonds with him about being a single parent.
Deanna, the former popular girl, has become the marrying kind and is coming off her fourth husband. In Justin, the former pipsqueak who’s now hulking, she might have her eyes set on a fifth. On Day 5 (!) of the reunion, while Justin’s still getting used to the idea that Deanna is even talking to him, she makes a sly reference to marriage.

calendarlive.com

Gov. Eliot Spitzer had at least seven or eight liaisons over the last several years with prostitutes supplied by an international call girl ring based in New Jersey, according to sources familiar with the investigation into Spitzer’s relationship with the ring.
The liaisons between Spitzer and a number of different prostitutes occurred around the country, including in Washington, D.C., and Florida, the sources said. For each encounter, Spitzer paid several thousand dollars, the sources said; The Associated Press cited a source that said the total could be as high as $80,000.
The circumstances of Spitzer’s alleged dealing with the ring were uncovered by agents from the IRS Criminal Investigation Division and the FBI, tracing the flow of money from Spitzer’s bank accounts to business fronts for the ring, conversations overhead on wiretaps, the governor’s travel records and informants who worked for the ring.
A transcript of wiretap conversations revealed that he allegedly arranged for the Emperors Club to send a prostitute from New York City to the Renaissance Mayflower Hotel in Washington, where he planned to stay Feb. 13 before testifying to a congressional committee. The transcript is part of a federal complaint.
Spitzer ended up as the subject of an investigation into the prostitution because his bank branch in Manhattan turned him in to the Internal Revenue Service as someone who might be engaged in suspicious currency transactions, according to sources familiar with the investigation.

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A LBANY, N.Y. - Gov. Eliot Spitzer resigned in disgrace Wednesday after getting caught in a prostitution scandal that shattered his corruption-fighting, straight-arrow image, saying: “I cannot allow my private failings to disrupt the people’s work.”
Spitzer made the announcement without having finalized a plea deal with federal prosecutors, though a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation said he is believed to still be negotiating one. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the case.
“Over the course of my public life, I’ve insisted, I think correctly, that people regardless of their position or power take responsibility for their conduct. I can and will ask no less of myself,” Spitzer said at a Manhattan news conference with his wife, Silda, at his side. He left without answering questions.
Spitzer will be replaced on Monday by Lt. Gov. David Paterson, who becomes New York’s first black governor. He also will be the state’s first legally blind governor and its first disabled governor since Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Paterson said in a statement that he was saddened, but would move forward. “It is now time for Albany to get back to work as the people of this state expect from us,” he said.

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New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer stumbled badly and the hypocrites of this country have risen to smite him. We encourage, by our watching, cable television programs and movies glorifying guys and gals jumping into bed with each other. Our courts defend Internet pornography as protected speech under our Constitution. We teach our kids that we are descended from apes and lesser animals and thus have no transcendent moral values to which we are accountable. We define what some in our society consider murder as reproductive rights. We dismiss the dalliances of a former president with a young woman as a private matter and not affecting his presidency.
So what exactly did Spitzer do that was so wrong? The legacy we’ve given our kids is a tiger called post-modernism and they have it by its tail. Dare they let go?
To the apologists for Eliot Spitzer who say that prostitution is not really a crime since it is the “oldest profession in the world” and “boys will be boys,” let us be clear. Little girls do not grow up dreaming of becoming prostitutes.
Prostitution is an abusive and demeaning crime perpetrated primarily by men in more powerful positions on vulnerable women and girls. The pimps and johns who promote and feed this crime use these women and girls simply as objects despite the terrible long-term health, emotional and financial consequences to these individuals of being used as an object. We must be clear this is not a victimless crime. By doing so, it perpetuates a horrible stereotype that women enjoy it and men have the right to it.

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One of the key reasons why pressure is building on the New York state governor Eliot Spitzer to resign after being caught using a high-class call-girl is that the scandal is not helping the Democrats in general - he was considered by many in the party a future presidential candidate - and it's not doing Hillary Clinton any favours in particular.
The Clinton campaign team is all too aware that the image of Spitzer's wife Silda standing motionless at her husband's side, as he issued a statement acknowledging that he had let his family down, has brought back memories of Hillary's troubles with her errant husband.
Republicans meanwhile have been having a field day, threatening to impeach 48-year-old Spitzer if he didn't stand down within 48 hours.
This is not the first time Spitzer has caused Hillary Clinton problems during her campaign. It was Spitzer's proposal to allow illegal immigrants to get driving licences that tripped up Clinton in one of the early debates with Barack Obama and John Edwards at the end of October.
If and when Spitzer does resign, the job will pass under New York state law to his deputy, David Patterson. He will be the state's first African-American governor.

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