The New 'David at the Dentist:' Jesse, the 3-Year-Old New Jersey Governor Wanna-Be

Though this seemed manufactured -- in the way that reality shows have that manipulative and contrived feeling -- this YouTube video featuring a 3-year-old who's pretty ticked off that people keep telling him he's too young to be governor made me laugh in spite of myself.

Why Didn't Geraldine Ferraro's Passing Generate More Media Coverage?

Liz Taylor -- two-time Oscar winner, AIDS activist and philanthropist -- died last week and received a mountain of news coverage as she was considered one of the last great American movie stars from the 1950s/1960s era. And she deserved a great deal of coverage as she earned a special spot in American popular culture history. (I contributed to the coverage here on this blog in and in a column I wrote about Liz, the working mom.)

Then on Saturday, Geraldine Ferraro also died and of the three Sunday newspapers I receive in dead tree form at my house, only one newspaper – the New York Times -- ran a page one story (though it was below-the-fold) about the first female, major party candidate for the vice presidency. The Boston Globe had a page one news blurb mentioning Ferraro’s death and telling readers to turn to page B9 for the obituary, odd given that Ferraro passed away in Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston. My local newspaper, the MetroWest Daily News, didn’t even mention Ferraro on page one and ran a modest Associated Press story about her passing on page two.

By contrast, the day after Taylor died, the New York Times ran a large photo and story, above-the-fold on page one, the Boston Globe ran a photo and story below-the-fold on page one and the MetroWest Daily News ran a teaser on the top of the page, with a folder, telling readers to turn to page two for an AP story.

This just didn’t seem right to me. Sure, Taylor was a major American icon, considered a screen siren with Oscar-winning acting chops and a fascinatingly exciting life so it makes sense that she would generate media attention. As for Ferraro, whether you were a fan of her politics or not, she was a major historical figure whose selection as the 1984 Democratic vice presidential running mate “broke” the males-only glass ceiling for a national office. Certainly she deserved more coverage and attention than she received, at least with the papers I read, and on web sites I frequent (which didn't cover Ferraro as much as they did Taylor). There were days and days worth of Taylor coverage but a small fraction, it seemed, devoted to Ferraro.

According to the Project for Excellence in Journalism, Taylor's death was the third biggest news story last week, the week running from March 21-27, coming in behind the Middle East uprisings and the events in Japan. Taylor garnered 13 percent of newspaper coverage and 7 percent of overall media attention (cable/network TV, radio, online, newspapers). Ferraro died on March 26, within the period the think tank examined, and she didn't make it onto the list of top stories.
Do you think Ferraro’s death was downplayed, when you compare it to Taylor’s? Is it really all about sex appeal and the allure of the Hollywood celeb culture? 

Image credit: Time via Forbes.

Tell Me That This Provocative Trailer Doesn't: 1) Move You & 2) Make You Want to See Documentary

This documentary, Miss Representation, about the impact of the media's depiction of women in sexual terms, was featured at the 2011 Sundance film festival and is now being featured in select screenings around the country.

While it's slated to air on the OWN network -- Oprah's station -- in the fall, the filmmakers are making the DVD available to civic groups for educational purposes. From the documentary's web site:

"As one of the most persuasive and pervasive forces in our culture, media is educating yet another generation that a woman’s primary value lay in her youth, beauty and sexuality — not in her capacity as a leader, making it difficult for women to obtain leadership positions and for the average girl to feel confident herself. Stories from teenage girls and provocative interviews with politicians, journalists, academics, and activists like Condoleezza Rice, Lisa Ling, Nancy Pelosi, Katie Couric, Rachel Maddow, Rosario Dawson, Jackson Katz, Jean Kilbourne and Gloria Steinem build momentum as Miss Representation accumulates startling facts and statistics that will leave audiences shaken and armed with a new perspective."

I'm hoping to get a screener because, as a mother of a young girl, this trailer completely to got me.

Notes on Pop Culture: 'Grey's' Pulls An 'Alias' & Ferrell Goes to 'The Office'

*Warning: Spoilers ahead from the recent episode of Grey’s Anatomy*

Grey’s Pulls An Alias

If you saw the latest episode of Grey’s Anatomy, you were no doubt surprised by its final scene, which set up next week’s special “musical” edition of Grey’s slated to feature cast members singing songs which have previously been featured on the ABC drama including The Fray’s “How to Save a Life,” a tune made popular by the show.

I was none too pleased to see what happened in that final scene shortly after Arizona, who spent the episode being bitterly jealous of baby daddy Mark, proposed marriage to Callie on their way to a weekend away together: An Alias-like car crash. During the final moment of the fourth season of the spy drama, pregnant Sydney Bristow and Michael Vaughn had been discussing marriage while driving to a romantic, weekend getaway when they too got into a surprise car crash, although they were intentionally struck by someone as opposed to in Grey’s where Arizona accidentally smashed into a truck in front of them. (I reviewed the episode for CliqueClack TV.)

That being said, I’m very curious as to how this musically themed episode, slated for March 31, is going to play out. Will it be god awful or kind of cool?

ABC has released the first few minutes of that new episode. Warning: The video, courtesy of TV Fanatic, is graphic.

Notes on Pop Culture & Politics: Stewart Questions Libyan Intervention, Liz Taylor's Best Films & New 'Mad Men' Season Delayed

Jon Stewart Takes on U.S. Action in Libya

After taking a week’s break from broadcasting, Jon Stewart stormed back to The Daily Show this week and quipped incredulously, “When we left [the air] the world’s two biggest trouble spots were Wisconsin and the set of Two and a Half Men.”

Not only did he question why, when we’re already engaged in two wars, we’ve now added a third skirmish to our slate of military responsibilities, Stewart asked, “Aren’t we also out of money? . . . You can’t simultaneously fire teachers and Tomahawk missiles.” Wonder what's going to have to be cut from the federal budget in order to fund the United States' role in enforcing the Libyan No Fly Zone? Or how much taxes will have to be raised.

Another interesting question which I heard on Morning Joe yesterday: If the United States is going to act as though we're the world's police force, why are we only selectively walking the beat? A commentator asked why the United States is getting militarily involved in Libya on behalf of protecting innocent civilians who want to live freely but didn't with Egypt, Sudan, Iraq, Yemen, etc.?


Image credit: Boston Globe

What Were Liz Taylor’s Best Films?

Learning that Elizabeth Taylor has died of congestive heart failure and seeing those photos of her in her heyday cropping up on sites all over the web, when she was – get ready for this cliché which you’re going to hear a bazillion times over the course of the week – “the Angelina Jolie of her day,” has sparked my desire to watch a few Taylor flicks. But which ones?



Calling Liz Taylor aficionados: Which were her best films? Which ones would you recommend that I see?

New Mad Men Season to be Delayed

Seriously people? I mean really . . . how long do you expect Mad Men fans to patiently wait and drum our fingers atop our desks while the folks at AMC, Lionsgate and show creator/runner Matt Weiner debate the terms of the award winning show’s return?

Mad Men’s very first episode aired in early July 2007, I remember seeing its premiere because I was on vacation at Cape Cod the time and stumbled upon an ad for it while watching The Godfather on AMC and decided to give it a try.

Now, according to an article in today’s New York Times, we learned that the show may not return to liven up the vast wasteland that typically is summer TV. We may have to wait until 2012:

“In the meantime Mad Men actors like John Slattery, who plays Roger Sterling, are in a bind, expecting that they will be called back to work but unsure when that call will come. While walking the red carpet at a premiere of his new film, The Adjustment Bureau, last month, Mr. Slattery remarked to reporters, ‘I’m looking for a job.’”

Image credits: Boston Globe, AMC.

Notes on Politics: Are You a Knowledgeable Citizen?

As we have watched horrific and violent news play out across the globe – armed conflicts in Iraq, Afghanistan and now in Libya where U.S. soldiers are risking their lives – as well as observe the multi-pronged disaster unfolding in Japan (earthquake, tsunami, potential meltdown of damaged nuclear plants), government officials have been called upon to make a number of important decisions. Here in the United States, our officials must decide whether we should continue to put our troops in harm’s way to hold Gadhafi’s army at bay (or send a barrage of missiles in his general direction). They need to determine when to completely remove our troops from Iraq – meaning everyone outta there – and what to do in Afghanistan, where soldiers have been engaged for going on a decade. Never mind the whole national debt issue . . .

And we, the citizens, are the ones who put those officials there. We do so by listing to presidential, congressional and senate candidates’ promises, examine their backgrounds, policy stands and decide whose judgment we’d prefer to rely upon in moments of crisis like we're facing now.

But what if the people who are doing the voting have no idea what the heck is going on in the world? Only 61.6 percent of eligible voters voted in the 2008 presidential election, but are they among the people who know at least a little something about current events? Newsweek/The Daily Beast has come out with some statistics that really make me shudder and wonder about our citizens' grasp of American history and the workings of our government.

Newsweek got 1,000 U.S. citizens to take the U.S. citizenship test. The results sure are dispiriting:

“[Twenty-nine] percent couldn’t name the vice president. Seventy-three percent couldn’t correctly say why we fought the Cold War. Forty-four percent were unable to define the Bill of Rights. And 6 percent couldn’t even circle Independence Day on a calendar.”



Among the citizenship test’s other questions: What was the Constitutional Convention? Who was the president during World War I? With which countries did we fight during World War II? How many House seats are in Congress? What did Susan B. Anthony do?

Good grief. I’d be willing to wager that the 29 percent of the people who didn’t know that Joe Biden is our vice president are more likely to know who Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber are, and probably spend oodles of time on Facebook.

Wait. It gets worse.

“In March 2009, the European Journal of Communication asked citizens of Britain, Denmark, Finland, and the U.S. to answer questions on international affairs,” Newsweek reported. “The Europeans clobbered us. Sixty-eight percent of Danes, 75 percent of Brits, and 76 percent of Finns could, for example, identify the Taliban, but only 58 percent of Americans managed to do the same—even though we’ve led the charge in Afghanistan. It was only the latest in a series of polls that have shown us lagging behind our First World peers.”



What’s the answer? Mandatory civics classes in schools? Maybe trying to persuade people to turn off mindless reality show programming and save some brain cells for the news rather than The Situation and Snookie? If we started expecting, as a rite of passage, that entering adulthood means that people are expected to be engaged citizens, not people who exist only in their own bubble, disconnected and uninformed about the activities of their local, state and federal government officials at all levels, would that make any difference? Perhaps we should make Schoolhouse Rock videos regular viewing for our school children, and gently suggest that their parents watch along them too? Or does Charlie Sheen have to run for vice president for folks to start paying attention?

If you took the test, how do you think you’d do?

The End of 'Big Love'

The End Of Days Show

I’m unhappy that Big Love is ending its run, though based on the way the last episode went – an unbelievable mess – it may be a good time for the show to end before the writers pull something even more outrageous out of their hats than they already have.

Still, I miss the early days, when the show was really an examination of the meaning of family and marriage by looking through the lens of a complex polygamist family. The first couple seasons were so strong, provocative and deftly crafted, the quality of those seasons made the ham-handedness from the last two seasons starkly stand out as aberrations.

This final season has had its moments – LOVED Barb’s foray into feminist, independent thought and action, enjoyed seeing Margene try to resurrect herself as a businesswoman – but the finer moments have been overshadowed by silly theatrics: Did Cara Lynn REALLY have to have an affair with a 37-year-old teacher? Did Alby REALLY have to try to have Don killed in an ice fishing shack? Did Ben REALLY have to sleep with Rhonda, who's now a stripper? Did Bill REALLY have to stand in front of a Juniper Creek building in full view of a bank of news cameras, as it was implausibly being destroyed, in insane short order, per orders of the state?

The 25-minute video above, featuring interviews with the show’s stars and creators, reminds me of some of the drama’s better days as we head into the series finale on Sunday. HBO released a couple of clips from scenes from the finale including the one below, which at least indicates that they'll be a little lightheartedness in the episode.

Ep. 53: Scene Clip - On the Road

Notes on Pop Culture: 'The Good Wife,' Sad About Miley, Fey & Motherhood, 'Mars Needs Moms' (But Hates Dads)

Image credit: CBS

 The Good Wife: Sleazy Male Pol Skates While Female Pol Gets Put Through the Wringer

During my blogging break, several pop culture subjects were still rattling around in my now under-caffeinated brain (it’s a long story) . . . including a storyline on one of my favorite shows, The Good Wife which has been, to my dismay, treating Peter Florrick like Eliot Spitzer.

My pop culture column criticized the show for its harsh treatment of a fictional female candidate while allowing the disgraced politicians to flourish:

"What I find particularly interesting is that the female candidate, [Wendy] Scott-Carr has been absolutely pummeled in this race throughout the season, while the other [male] candidates haven’t, at least not to the degree that she’s been attacked.


. . . For a show that holds up Alicia Florrick as its haloed hero -- as the betrayed wife and mother who’s risen from the humiliating ashes of her husband’s incarceration and scorchingly public marital infidelities after she’d paused her own career for her family, having Alicia play the loyal, responsible moral compass -- it’s been dispiriting to watch this fictional political campaign where Peter Florrick, a man who did his best Eliot Spitzer impersonation, seems to be neck-and-neck with someone whose biggest flaw was having hired a nanny whom she didn’t know was in the country illegally.


It’s as dispiriting as watching the real Eliot Spitzer -- who resigned his governor’s post in disgrace nearly three years ago after his own call girl scandal came to light – be rewarded with a CNN primetime talk show, Parker Spitzer, and then seeing CNN fire Kathleen Parker, his female, Pulitzer Prize winning columnist co-host, in what some called a move that smacked of sexism.”


Image credit: Marie Claire

 Sad About Miley

My daughter’s reaction to Miley Cyrus’ photos in the March issue of Marie Claire -- juxtaposed with Miley’s father Billy Ray’s interview in GQ (he said he feared for his daughter and that the Hannah Montana show destroyed his family) -- prompted this column on how sad I felt for my daughter, for Miley and her dad.

“[I feel badly] For the father who somehow lost the ear of his multi-millionaire daughter and who has to helplessly watch while she makes decisions which he thinks will harm her; for the teen star – who’s still a minor who can’t legally drink in those bars she’s been photographed in – and comes across as a kid who’s surrounded by a bunch of people giving her advice on how to sex-up her image at age 17 and who doesn’t have the wisdom or the courage to say, 'No;' and for my daughter, who looks at all of this and wonders what it means for when she’s 17 or 18 and whether the world will expect her to be like Miley."

When Miley hosted Saturday Night Live soon after she appeared on the Marie Claire cover, her opening monologue included a snarky song about how what she’s done (the infamous bong video, the pole dancing included) and suggested that what she’s been up to hasn’t been as bad as, say, the antics of Charlie Sheen or Lindsay Lohan so back the “bleep” off, like, okay?! I’m not, like, perfect, ya know!

That's Right, I'm Back . . . and Winning (Even Without the Tiger Blood)

Charlie Sheen's Winning Recipes from Charlie Sheen

I’ve returned from my self-imposed blogging break fresh and ready to go and, still, frankly, in awe of the odd specter that is now Charlie Sheen, an irresistible car wreck from which I, and scores of others, cannot help but watch, no matter how dirty you feel after you've watched him (or followed him on Twitter).

I’ve finished editing my top secret manuscript (Winning! . . . I’ve been invoking the self-proclaimed warlock’s exclamation pretty frequently, much to my own personal dismay and shame) and have dispatched it to some folks who I trust to tell me whether they think it’s publishable or total bunk. With my manuscript out of my hands for the time being, I’m back to the business of writing about all things pop culture and politics here on this blog . . .

Big Love’s Almost Over

I'm going to start with the second-to-last episode of Big Love. As far as I'm concerned, the end can't come soon enough as I've now lost my faith in the show's writers. Don't get me wrong, I used to call Big Love one of my favorite shows. I was fascinated by its unique twist on the suburban family and on the subject of what it means to be a wife and a husband, particularly when there's more than one wife in the picture. I thought the show was at its best when it had a smaller, home-based focus and examined the relationships between people and what happens when your vision of what makes a family conflicts with the view held by society.

Then the Big Love writers got bigger, wilder storylines in their minds. And they just couldn't help themselves. They started writing more and more eccentric, out-there stories, trying to (artificially) amp up the tension more and more, pour on the violence and the insanity until it got to the point last season when it was just ridiculous.

I had hopes that this season would improve. It started off promisingly, but, as with last season, it's gone to far afield and my expectations for the series finale are pretty darned low right about now, which is a damned shame. (I did a more thorough episode review on CliqueClack TV.)

Any Big Love fans in the house? What have you thought about its last season? What do you want to see in the finale?



Now Reading . . . Jane Eyre

During my blogging break I finally finished reading A Tale of Two Cities for the very first time. I slugged through the first 30 or so pages, impatient for the story to seize me in its grasp, when it, at last, become entertaining. The twists and turns that it took came as a surprise to me and now I finally get all those “Madame Defarge” references people have made in political contexts. They’re not complimentary.

Completing the Dickens classic made me hunger for another classic. Seeing the preview for the latest cinematic incarnation of Jane Eyre made my selection for me. When I was but an ungainly, awkward, too-tall of a junior high gal, I read Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre multiple times over. But since that was a very long time ago, I realized, once I started reading Jane Eyre, that I’d forgotten 90 percent of what happened in the book.

As I waded through the first 60 pages, I was taken by how many similarities there were between the 10-year-old orphaned Jane – unloved tortured, abused (physically and emotionally) by her aunt and cousins, made to watch while her cousins celebrated holidays and open presents while she was excluded – and Harry Potter. It was eerie. (I’ve got Harry Potter on the brain because my husband and I are still reading the J.K. Rowling series out loud to our 9-year-old son. We’re almost done with the fifth book, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.) Harry too was an orphan, treated abysmally by the Dursleys, reared by them to think he was wicked and bad, and, in the human world, he too was poor, though his parents had money in the wizarding world. However, I’m sure, if I have any shred of memories left from my previous readings of Jane Eyre, that the similarities between Jane and Harry will end shortly as I continue reading.

It's good to be back!