Julie Pippert: Using My Words

Today on an NPR story , an actor was talking about his challenges getting roles. A common theme perhaps, but his obstacle, he said, was the fact that he uses a wheelchair. He's not bothered by the fact that the actor who plays wheelchair-bound Artie is not actually disabled, "People who have disabilities or who use wheelchairs who could still conceivably play that part should have equal opportunities to audition for those roles. And if it goes both ways, then the best actor should get the part." Another disabled performer, Alana, said that this doesn't actually happen. She said that it floors her that even open-minded producers and directors envision that disabled actors and performers should only play victims, in roles that revolve around their disability. In fact, the part usually acts out a morality play, by having the characters be charity cases, she said, heroic characters overcoming tragedy. The disability, then, is the real character, and the actor is merely pl...

Joy Behar is a sick, sick woman. She thinks that Miley Cyrus needed to drop and bare in order to appeal to an older audience. I heard her words myself. That's appalling. Miley Cyrus is FIFTEEN YEARS OLD. She doesn't need to appeal to anyone who needs to see suggestive photos of CHILDREN. Was it porn? No. Was it inappropriate? Absolutely. Miley is a lovely young girl and doesn't need to pose wearing a sheet wrapped around her apparently nude body as if...as if... I'm a mother of daughters. I know art. I even know nude art. I know beautiful photography. I'm a big fan of it for ADULTS. Of which Miley is not one. If that was one of my girls? The news headline would not be "Miley poses nude for Vanity Fair." The news headline would be "Star's mother wrings famous photographer's neck." Annie Liebovitz, you should feel ashamed. She is a lovely young girl, and you should have highlighted the youth, not the sexuality. It's not a "beautif...

So...unless you keep your news reading to high-brow or none at all (and even that's not info-blank safe these days) you probably heard that Max!m released its Unsexiest Woman Alive winner a few months ago and she's Sarah Jessica Parker. (So I'm late to the discussion party. It's still a relevant issue to discuss.) It's deconstruction time. First, let's put this magazine in its place. When I Googled Max!m, this is what I got: Crappy Soft-Porn Lad Mag that, if a man was known to read this frequently and be a big fan and believer of it, should be a real turn-off to everyone carrying double Xs (and by that I mean chromosomes, not porn rating or some other sort of size). Okay okay that's not what Google really said. It really said (and this part is actual for real true): Hot Girls, Sex, Photos, Hot Videos, Sports, Movies and Music, Celebrities Girls, Sex, Sexy, Hotties, Women, Babes, Chicks, Technology, Gear, Video Games, Hotties, Magazine, Maxim Magazine, christ...

A woman complained to a friend, "She told me that you told her the secret I told you not to tell her." "Well," replied her friend in a hurt tone, "I told her not to tell you I told her." "Oh dear!" sighed the first women. "Well, don't tell her I told you that she told me." Back when we were still single, my friend Laura and I as well as some other friends went to see a movie. Afterwards we all decided to pop in to a bar-n-grill place. We ordered food and drinks but I think (more than anything) people just wanted to prolong the socialization. As tends to happen with a larger group, the conversations became fragmented and segmented across smaller pairings of people. Laura and I sat beside each other and joked about the lead actor, who we thought was very good looking. "I wouldn't throw him out of bed for eating crackers," I joked. "Ha ha I'd even have his baby," Laura, notorious for not being keen to start ...

I like movies. I used to love movies, but lately haven't had a chance to see many. And maybe they don't seem as good as they used to somehow? Or maybe my attention span has shortened (likely). So today on a lighter note: What is your favorite movie and movie quote? I'll get started: Guy 1: I've got a question. If you know so much about girls-What are you doing at the Gas'N'Sip on a Saturday night completely alone drinking beers with no women anywhere? Guys: Choice man, Choice! Name this movie and you win a free date with the lead actor, no wait, that's my fantasy! Have a fun day! xoxo, Lesley today's wine (or other beverage): Oktoberfest Beer and for a treat, hot popcorn mixed with Hot Tamales and m&ms. oops: I forgot some of my favorite movies- In the top ten Usual Suspects Rear Window Almost Famous

Last night was the launch of this season's So You Think You Can Dance . I'm so thrilled. However, I'm not a big fan of the auditions because---although not to the same degree as American Idol which capitalizes on it disgustingly---it's really a time of humiliation for quite a few people. It would be one thing if the people were simply not good enough, but then we have people like "Sex" seriously thinking his dancing is professional level. For the second time. And that's when you get Nigel Lythgoe turning to Mary Murphy and asking, "So Mary---and I can't believe I'm asking you this---but has Sex improved for you this year?" And poor Mary had to say she was afraid not. Generally, there are plenty of tremendous dancers. I love watching dance. So I eagerly await the season: the dancers and the choreography. Maybe we will get more moments like these: One of my favorite dancers from last season, Allison, doing a solo (~minute and half): She Is...

My feathery friend, do not treat me fowl! I know...I know: what a random assortment this post is! So I'll get right to it. Kodachrome When I think back On all the crap I learned in high school It's a wonder I can think at all So Patience and I got caught up in the Science Channel the other day. We'd intended to tune in just to learn a little more about what-where-when about Space Week (starts next week). Patience has decided to become an astronaut so she can go into space and do experiments and explore. This is actually the ideal career choice for her so far. It's no stretch at all for me to picture her performing a necropsy on a gecko to observe the effects of zero gravity on the lizard after three months in space. This is why I am sending her to Space Camp this summer. She'll build and launch rockets, and build a scale model of our solar system. I wonder if it will contain Pluto. Which brings me to the trouble with science and education. Everything I learned in sc...

I like the show, Little People Big World . I like it because it's first a show about people, a family, that is done in a true documentary way. There isn't any interference from the show makers to create some lively drama, no artificial situations...or at least it doesn't appear to be. I like it second because it's a show that teaches me about a way of life I wouldn't otherwise know anything about. I find myself alternately surprised to consider something little people have to face and sympthetic because I know how something feels (e.g., parenting issues, life situations, remodeling challenges, time management and balancing acts, etc.). If the Roloffs' intent was to demonstrate that (and I loosely quote something repeated at the beginning of each show) little people can do everything anyone else can do, just in a different way, they've succeeded. If they want people to get to know them, and have the show morph from a program about little people into a program...

I need to take a brief break from the roundtable preparations to confess that...well...last night I had PURE thoughts about Sanjaya. No, don't trouble yourself shaking out your ears. I said I thought NICE things about Sanjaya. 1. I did not think he was the worst singer/performer last night. You heard me correctly: Sanjaya was not the worst. For the record, Chris was, IOO (that's "in our opinion"---"our" being me and my husband who now, after lo so many years, do share one brain). And let the record reflect it is my husband's best guess that Chris is slotted to go next. 2. Friends. God help me. Last night, I found myself almost liking Sanjaya. Why? Please. The reply to the write-in question. That was hilarious, "I'd like to see Simon Cowell sing Shiny, Happy People to display his true personality." That was like Bush level awesome unimpeachable backhanded slam. WABOOM! What could anyone---including the aforementioned Shiny, Happy Person---d...

I often wonder where the line between avaricious gossip and news reporting falls. If it falls at all. In high school I was an editor for the school paper, features as it happens. This was the best job ever. Not only did it look good on college applications, include fabulous experience, and get me straight into J-school at a prestigious university but it was also loads of fun and very glamorous. Our newspaper teacher took the newspaper very seriously. The side benefit was that Mr. G decided that even though we were teenagers, we would learn to run with the big dogs. He got us press passes and invites to real Media Events. For example, I went to movie screenings and got interviews with real Movie Stars. We covered not just school events, but community and real news, too. Back then, you typed stories on a typewriter, sent them off to the typesetter, who sent back long, wound reels of copy. As an editor, I not only handed out assignments, ran many myself, and reviewed articles, I also did ...

Updated: Momish, just for you: I'm telling you, it not only looked like a dead squirrel on his head, but he sounded a bit like the visual equivalent of roadkill. God Bless Him. And God Forgive Me. One of the more entertaining or bizarre moments on the show; I haven't decided. To speak, or not to speak: therein lies the dilemma Oy oy oy. I faced this same ethical dilemma last year when I felt very compelled to write about Kevin Covais . It's Sanjaya, on American Idol . I have something to say about him, about the show. Before leaping into the pool of cess, I have a caveat: I like to think of myself not per se as nice, but as kind: kind, courteous and respectful. Sanjay is a kid, a real kid with feelings. He's a person who deserves common courtesy, not unconstructive criticism. I think that's the really, really bad downside to reality TV: it fosters a common perception that we all get to be critics. Put something up in front of me, it's mine to critique and I have...