CONFRONTING THE PAST

Paula Deen on Today: ‘I Is What I Is’

By Miz J

PAULA DEEN SAT DOWN WITH MATT LAUER this morning on the Today show. The 13-minute segment focused on the celeb chef’s past use of a taboo racial slur. Deen insisted she’d only used the “N” word word once after being robbed at gunpoint, a claim that counters her testimony at a deposition. Deen also backpedaled some more, commenting on the use of the ‘N’ word among kitchen help:

‘DON’T GIVE UP’

WGN

Homeless Georgia Teen Graduates Valedictorian Of High School Class

By Elizabeth C.

CAN WE GROW THIS GIRL’S SPIRIT IN A LAB TO INOCULATE OTHERS? Because Chelesea Fearce’s willpower provides her amazing resistance to failure.

The 17-year-old Forest Park, Ga. student just graduated valedictorian of her Drew High class despite spending much of her high school years bouncing in and out of homeless shelters, sometimes even living in the family car. Her mother Reenita Shephard says and her children ended up in a shelter after she was laid off from her job. But she also gets credit for inculcating the value of education. “I read to them a lot,” she said. “I took them to the library. Everything around me was a learning experience.”

Despite the extraordinary odds against her, Fearce graduated with a 4.466 GPA “and scored 1900 on her SATs despite having to use her cellphone to study after shelter lights were turned off at night,” the New York Post reports.

“I just told myself to keep working, because the future will not be like this anymore,” she told Atlanta’s WSB-TV. “…It makes you more humble.”

LITERARY FELINE?

Now Published Author, Henri Le Chat Noir Destined To Become New Salinger

By Elizabeth C.

“RETREATING INTO HOSTILE SOLITUDE” CEMENTED J.D. Salinger’s mystique,” author Lionel Shriver claimed about the famed writer of the American classic, Catcher In The Rye.

“The hermit option,” he opined, “is the ultimate publicity ploy.”

Replace “hermit” with “angsty” and you arrive at the succinct ruse of Henri Le Chat, the Nietzschean feline famously frustrated by the search for meaning.

“I neither control my tail nor fully understand its machinations,’‘ he laments. “Do not assume that a playful tail indicates a playful cat.”

OUT OF THIS WORLD OPPORTUNITY

Three Fans Pay $3.8 Million To Ride Leo DiCaprio’s Rocket To Space

By Kyra Senese

WHO SAYS MONEY CAN’T BUY HAPPINESS? Three fans of Great Gatsby star Leonardo DiCaprio collectively shelled out $3.8 million for the right to ride his rocket to space.

And, no, that is not a euphemism.

The well-heeled fans will accompany the star on a “once-in-a-lifetime” trip to the heavens aboard Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic. The trips were auctioned off Thursday and Friday at the Hotel du Cap-Eden-Roc to raise money for the amFAR Cinema Against AIDS Charity. The winning bidders will train for three days with DiCaprio in Texas.

POT, WHO YOU CALLING KETTLE?

Instagram

Frances Bean Cobain Attacks Kendall Jenner On Twitter As ‘Self-Absorbed Idiot’

By Elizabeth C.

FRANCES BEAN MAY BE THE SPITTIN’ IMAGE OF HER FATHER, but she’s inherited her mother’s potty mouth.

The 20-year-old daughter of rockers Kurt Cobain and Courtney Love threw a hissy fit on Twitter Tuesday directed at Kim Kardashian’s little sister Kendall Jenner. Seems the aspiring Victoria’s Secret angel had the audacity to to tweet “just wish things could be easier sometimes mann.”

That’s all she said, with no context, just an exhale. But it was enough to stir the trolls, among whom Frances apparently mingles. Because she tweeted an angry response to Kendall’s perceived effrontery, calling her a “f-king idiot” and “self-absorbed.”

FULL HOUSE

The Show With Vinny: A$AP’s Love Is On The Menu

By Karen Malmquist

HOLD ON TO YOUR HATS, BECAUSE it’s about to get super family-friendly up in here. On Thursday’s The Show with Vinny, the family meets rapper A$AP Rocky and British pop superstars The Saturdays, and it’s a love-fest rivaling even the sappiest Full House episode.
A$AP Rocky (no relation to Ke$ha) is about to drop by the house. Vinny’s mom Paola is starting to get out of control when she says she doesn’t know what a rapper is. How can she not know the difference between a rapper and a singer?

Vinny actually practices saying hello to A$AP in front of his bedroom mirror, so it must be a relief when the guy arrives and is totally cool.

PRESCIENT

Susan Powell Video Hints At Missed Opportunity For Escape

By Elizabeth C.

EVEN AS POLICE CLOSED THE INVESTIGATION INTO THE disappearance of Utah mom Susan Powell, just-released documents — including a poignant video of Powell accounting her belongings — hint at missed opportunities for her escape.

Susan Powell was last seen alive December 6, 2009, the day her husband Josh claimed he took their two young sons on an impromptu camping trip during a blizzard. Although he was fingered as a suspect in her disappearance two weeks later, her was never officially charged. But he did lose custody of his sons, and in 2012, four days after he was ordered to undergo psychosexual evaluation, he locked a social worker out of a supervised visit, bludgeoned the boys with a hatchet and set the house on fire. All three died in the blaze.

On Monday, West Valley, Utah police announced they were closing their investigation. “No stone has been left unturned,” West Valley Police Chief Mike Powell told reporters. He reiterated that investigators believed that Josh Powell was “definitely involved” in his wife’s disappearance.

In a letter kept in a safety deposit box, she wrote: “For mine and my children’s safety I feel the need to have a paper trail at work which would not be accessible to my husband. I want it documented somewhere that there is extreme turmoil in our marriage.”

She ended the note warning, “”If I die, it may not be an accident, even if it looks like one.”

‘THE MTV EFFECT’?

Something To Celebrate: U.S. Teen Birth Rate Drops Dramatically

By Elizabeth C.

SOME GOOD NEWS FOR THE U.S. DOMESTIC LANDSCAPE: The Centers For Disease Control reports the number of teenaged pregnancies has been halved in the last 20 years, down to 31 live births per 1,000 teens from 62 births per 1,000.

The most dramatic drop was among Hispanic teens who reported 34 percent overall fewer pregnancies between 2007 and 2011. Among black teenagers, the rate fell 24 percent during the same period; white teens recorded 20 percent fewer pregnancies.

Geographic differences still prevail, though, with Southern states reporting the highest numbers of teen pregnancies. For a detailed breakdown on regional differences, check out “The New Geography Of Teen Mothers” at The Atlantic.

A BEEFY REWARD

Credit: Washington Post

Cleveland Hero Gets Free Burgers For Life

By Elizabeth C.

FOR CLEVELAND “HERO” CHARLES RAMSEY, FOREVER’S A GOOD TIME FOR THE GREAT TASTE OF BURGER. That’s because 14 Cleveland-area restaurants have joined forces to create the “Chuck Card” to provide him free burgers for the rest of his life.

Ramsey is the colorful character who regaled the nation with a play-by-play of how he helped kidnapping victim Amanda Berry break free from the decrepit house in which she was held prisoner for nearly a decade. That dramatic rescue led to freedom for Berry, her 6-year-old daughter born during her captivity, as well as two other women kidnapped, tortured and sexually abused.

PROM KING

Obama Looks Superfly In His High School Prom Photo

By Elizabeth C.

SLOW CLAP FOR JAY CARNEY AND HIS TIME BRETHEN FOR PULLING THIS TRICK OUT OF THEIR HATS ON BEHALF OF the prez: Just when Obama needed a swift kick back to likability now comes release of his 1979 prom photo in which he’s looks superfly.

Obtained “exclusively” by Time, his press secretary’s former employer, the photo shows the Prez tricked out in white jacket, blue tie and shirt, and a short afro. His biggest accessory is his disarming smile. He’s accompanied by best Punahou School bro Greg Orme and his date Kelli Allman (née McCormack), as well as his own date, Megan Hughes, then a student at the Hawaii School for Girls at La Pietra, Time reports.