Tuesday, April 29, 2008

Miley Cyrus Picturegate 2008

Everyone is freaking out over Miley Cyrus's "racy" pictures, most recently in a "Vanity Fair" spread. I've seen a couple of the shots and the main cover is not bad in my opinion. OMG news at 11, Miley Cyrus has a back! The more offensive picture is Miley with her daddy, achy breaky heart and mullet aficionado Billy Ray. Miley is showing midriff and draped across her dad and the overall effect is creepy and vaguely sexual. I don't care if you want to lie on your teenage boyfriend's lap or share candy with your slutty looking friend or expose your lime green bra to the public Miley. But a little bit of career advice for you: don't pose in pictures where you look like lovers with your father!!! It weirds people out!

If for some reason, you are really interested in Miley's photo shoot with "Vanity Fair," here is a slideshow.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2008/06/miley_slideshow200806

9021-Ho: Shenae Grimes join the 90210 spin-off

I kid, I kid. I'm a huge "Degrassi: The Next Generation" fan. How is it that Canadians go there so much better than the rest of us?

It was just announced that Shenae Grimes of Degrassi will be joining the 90210 spin-off playing Lori Loughlin's (Aunt Becky) wholesome teenage daughter who moves to Beverly Hills. It was the role that was rumored to belong to Hilary Duff and is also probably the Brenda Walsh role back when Aaron Spelling cared about Brenda being remotely likable.

http://community.tvguide.com/blog-entry/TVGuide-Editors-Blog/Ausiello-Report/Ausiello-Scoop-Shenae/800038498

For those of you unfamiliar with the genius that is Degrassi, Shenae (you gotta love a white girl named Shenae!) plays/played Darcy, the super-religious cheerleader who gets herself into sticky situations. Now these sticky situations go beyond finding "the perfect cheer." Our girl Darcy took racy pictures and posted them online and some creepy old dude came to her house. Then she went on a ski trip where she got drugged, raped, and may have gotten an STD? She hid what happened from mostly everyone and also attempted suicide (or at least considered it). She then tried to hit on her teacher who she had confided the truth about her situation to, then subsequently got him suspended when he tried to get her to talk to her parents about her issues. In a rage, she chopped off a clump of her hair. Eventually, she cleared the teacher but I'm not sure if she ever told her parents the truth (I missed quite a few episodes the last season). Darcy is not my favorite Degrassi character, but I think Shenae is pretty and a decent actress so this is a good opportunity for her. She resembles Lori Loughlin and I think I'd rather see break through to the masses in the U.S. than that annoying chubby girl who plays Paige on Degrassi (who was featured in that Antonio Banderas dance movie). I still won't watch the 90210 spin-off though because I'm really way too old to watch such drivel. As is, I can only comfort myself with the knowledge that I am Degrassi fan because it's "foreign". And umm, I only watch "Gossip Girl" for the scenes of NYC.

Mentiroso Mentiroso Pantalones en Fuego?

So if you are like me, you have probably read a few Augusten Burroughs "memoirs." I started out with "Dry" one summer because the Monmouth County library was out of my first choice, the far more famous, career making book "Running with Scissors." "Dry" was fine but I was always peeved at the fact that in reviews or book blurbs, people kept comparing Burroughs to David Sedaris. Let's be frank, that is outrageous. Burroughs is nowhere near as funny or clever or charming as David Sedaris (plus I think it's pretty much clear in Sedaris's work that he is a flagrant exaggerator). "Dry" revolved around Burroughs' plummet into the bowels of addiction with his alcoholism tanking his lucrative advertising career as well as his ability to entertain in the home (I seem to recall his apartment was flooded with red wine bottles and he went to a meeting with fancy jewelry company clients with the scent of booze coming out of his pores. Cue Summer Roberts "umm ew"). "Dry" had a few amusing observations and passages, but overall was just a decent read. There is something about Burroughs' style and stories that seem very manufactured and false. This was further confirmed when I finally read "Running with Scissors." I didn't get the hype with this book. It had more humor than "Dry" but even more so I felt somewhat deceived. Burroughs is so detailed and precise and his life is so unbelievable that.......I just don't believe it. Of course, you need to take every memoir with a grain of salt. Details are fudged, memory fails, stories are subject to your interpretation of events. No one goes around with a video camera and a tape recorder 24/7 in the hopes of one day writing a precise memoir. However, with all the recent attention heaped upon James Frey and Margaret Seltzer, people are scrutinizing memoirs and viewing them with more distrust than ever before. These are sort of thorny issues. What is the line between exaggeration and misrepresentation of facts? Is it when living people are falsely portrayed? Is it mixing up names and dates and places?

When I heard that Burroughs is coming out with a new book focused on his harsh and oftentimes difficult relationship with his absentee father, I felt these old feelings of annoyance rise to the surface once again. While before, I was not too keen on his style and not that interested in anything he had to say about his life, I now felt as though I wanted to see him exposed. Sure, there was that "Vanity Fair" expose in 2007 that shed light on the lawsuit brought against Burroughs by the family that is featured in "Running with Scissors", but I needed more. Burroughs denies fictionalizing or sensationalizing his memoirs despite the fact that he must now call them "books". These denials are what perturb me. Yesterday, NYMag arrived and the headline said something to effect of "Augusten Burroughs get the Polygraph Treatment". Now, yes maybe I'm too literal a person, but I thought for a minute the man was finally undergoing a polygraph test. I'm not a proponent of the polygraph typically. There is a reason why results are inadmissible in court and you can certainly pass/fail questions due to nerves or skill, so they aren't scientifically foolproof. However, I thought it would be very juicy indeed to pin Burroughs down. Unfortunately, it's just the writer of the article's internal polygraph that fluctuates throughout the article. Blah! Can anyone make this man take a polygraph?!? Can we get some crossover promotion with St. Martin's Press and "Moment of Truth"?

What do you all think about Augusten Burroughs? Are you guys fans? Do you think he's a liar? Does it matter?