So much for Matt Farmer being crowned the American Idol Season 12 champion. Following a successful audition in Long Beach, Farmer has come out and admitted that he’s one giant liar. That whole tale he told? About being injured in an IED explosion in Iraq? And being diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury? And how the medication he was assigned would supposedly make him sterile, until he ended up fathering a daughter named Cadence who joined him in front of the judges? LIE, LIE, LIE. Matt Farmer American Idol Audition “It was ALL lies,” Farmer admitted to GuardianOfValor.com. “I in fact HAVE lied since a younger age and had a problem with it… “I am EXTREAMLY remorseful and VERY upset that I allowed myself to take from the hard work of the guys that i was deployed with among others. To think that I would go on a national TV show and get away with continuing a lie so big, and so deeply imbedded in my lfe [sic] and brain … Is rediculous [sic]. “Hindsight is always 20/20 … To EVERYONE but more importantly the men I served with, I AM DEEPLY REGRETFUL AND SORRY … I at no time was a sniper, was never deployed to Afghanistan, did a single tour in Iraq, and was never at any time hit or wounded by an IED” Farmer, as you might expect, has been booted from the competition. So that’s one fewer person early favorites such as Ja’Bria Barber and Seretha Guinn need to worry about.
Jill Kelley, the now-infamous whistleblower in the David Petraeus scandal, was blackmailed by his mistress Paula Broadwell, according to a new report. Kelley says she was “terrified” late last summer when he told her about an email, later revealed to be from Broadwell, and the barrage that followed. “There was blackmail, extortion, threats,” Kelley told the Daily Beast in her first interview since the Petraeus scandal erupted three months ago. The emails, as Kelley would later learn, were from Paula Broadwell , whose affair with David Petraeus triggered his resignation as CIA director. The writer was so ambiguous, Kelley “didn’t even know it was a female.” Contradicting virtually every published account of the saga, Kelley indicates that the anonymous emails did not warn her to stay away from Petraeus. And yet the press depicted the two of them as “romantic rivals.” “Think how bizarre that is,” Kelley says. One person close to Kelley says the tone of the notes – numbering fewer than 10 – grew increasingly severe and, without being explicit, threatening. Did Kelley come to suspect that Broadwell was behind them. “I never met Paula in my life,” Jill Kelley says, noting that she didn’t even know Broadwell had just published a glowing biography of David Petraeus. It seems evident that Broadwell grew jealous about what she perceived as Kelley’s relationship with Petraeus; at an awards ceremony, he kissed her on the cheek. Kelley will not speculate about Broadwell’s motivation. Her complaint to the FBI set in motion a chain of events that culminated with Petraeus, the architect of U.S. war strategy in Iraq and Afghanistan, acknowledging his affair with Broadwell. The husband of Holly Petraeus resigned from the CIA. Kelley, 37, would also find herself the subject of speculation that she was carrying on with Gen. John Allen, the U.S. commander in Afghanistan, which she flatly denies. Allen also has denied wrongdoing. Kelley bristles at those eye-catching media reports that she and Allen exchanged as many as 30,000 emails, calling the figure “outrageous.” What has been lost in the lurid and sometimes mocking coverage is the toll the scandal has taken on Kelley, her husband, and their three young children. Continue reading her interview with the Daily Beast …
David Oliver Relin, who co-wrote the 2006 book with Greg Mortenson about how Mortenson, a former mountain climber, started building schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan, “suffered emotionally and financially as basic facts in the book were called into question,” the Times says. David Oliver Relin, a journalist who co-authored the controversial best-selling book Three Cups of Tea, has committed suicide, the New York Times reports. He was 49. His family said Relin “suffered from depression” but w
“I actually asked for [Clint#39;s] permission three years ago at a Thanksgiving dinner in Pebble Beach that was attended by Alison#39;s mom Maggie [Johnson], too,” Poitras tells Celebuzz. Having been with Alison for five years, Poitras calls himself “the luckiest guy in the world,” to be engaged to “an angel.” There#39;s more excitement for Clint Eastwood! Fresh off the heels of Friday#39;s news that his daughter Francesca Eastwood was named Miss Golden Globe 2013, one of his other daughters,
Post-traumatic stress syndrome and the epidemic of suicide among Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans are not exactly popular subjects with the military community — or civilians, for that matter — but first-time filmmaker K. Lorrel Manning and actor/producer Michael Cuomo have made a tough, honest film that should spark plenty of debate over these issues. On Monday evening, the duo’s movie Happy New Year premiered in New York with a pair of special Veterans Week screenings and a reception at the Disney Screening Room on Park Avenue. Movieline Managing Director Gerry Byrne, producer Fred Zollo and Help USA Chairman Maria Cuomo Cole hosted the event, which was attended by veterans, active duty personnel and their families. Michael Cuomo gives a searing performance in Happy New Year as a physically and emotionally scarred veteran who returns from combat in Iraq to find that an even tougher battle — to regain his health, his dignity and his sense of self — awaits him with little help from the government that sent him to war. After the screening, Manning told the crowd that a chance encounter with Purple Hearts, Nina Berman’s book of photos of wounded Iraq war vets, inspired the film. The director also explained that he wanted Happy New Year to be “an apolitical film” that would convince “other veterans to be okay with saying, ‘I’m not okay.'” The movie opens Dec. 7 in New York and Manning and Cuomo say they intend to eventually expand to other cities theatrically and via video on demand. Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter.
David Petraeus has surprisingly and abruptly resigned as director of the CIA. The decorated former chief of U.S. Central Command cited an extramarital affair. “After being married for over 37 years, I showed extremely poor judgment by engaging in an extramarital affair,” Petraeus’ resignation letter said. “Such behavior is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organization such as ours.” “Teddy Roosevelt once observed that life’s greatest gift is the opportunity to work hard at work worth doing.” “I will always treasure my opportunity to have done that with you and I will always regret the circumstances that brought that work with you to an end.” The retired four-star general had a distinguished 37-year career in the military before joining the CIA, commanding forces in Iraq and Afghanistan. Petraeus, 60, has been widely praised by both sides of the political aisle. He took the helm of the CIA in September 2011; his sudden resignation came as a surprise, just days after President Barack Obama won reelection . President Obama said in a statement: “By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation, helping our military adapt to new challenges, and leading our men and women in uniform through a remarkable period of service in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he helped our nation put those wars on a path to a responsible end.” “As director of the Central Intelligence Agency, he has continued to serve with characteristic intellectual rigor, dedication and patriotism.” Obama accepted Petraeus’ resignation Friday.
As protesters in Pakistan, Indonesia and Afghanistan raged against the anti-Islam film Innocence of Muslims over the weekend, the media was also awash with photos and video of the Egyptian immigrant first tied to the crude inflammatory video, Nakoula Basseley , as he was escorted from his Southern California home looking like the Elephant Man so that he could be questioned by police. (See the video after the jump.) Basseley, who was first identified as Sam Bacile — a pseudonym that calls to mind the word “imbecile,” — covered his face with a white scarf and wore a newsboy’s cap on his head to protect his identity. His appearance didn’t remain hidden for long, however. Both the New York Daily News and the New York Post have run a picture of Basseley, sans disguise, sitting with one of the actors in Innocence of Muslims , Anna Gurji, who has been talking to a number of media outlets, and wrote a letter to the horror/fantasy writer Neil Gaiman about how she and her fellow cast members were duped by Basseley. (Gurji also notes in her letter to Gaiman, which he posted on his website, that The Happy Hooker Goes Hollywood helmsman Alan Roberts (a.k.a. Robert Brownell) was the director of Innocence of Muslims.) Basseley, who’s reportedly a 55-year-old Coptic Christian who immigrated from Egypt, does not have the face of a man who sparked a wave of violence that led to the deaths of U.S. Ambassador to Libya J. Christopher Stevens and three other American diplomatic staffers. What’s that they say about the banality of evil? Follow Frank DiGiacomo on Twitter. Follow Movieline on Twitter.
A very happy belated birthday to Prince Harry of Wales, the UK’s most eligible bachelor, who turned 28 over the weekend (September 15). Hip, hip, hooray for H! For a guy nicknamed The Spare and often living in Prince William’s shadow, he’s a mover and shaker. And we’re not just talking about Prince Harry naked photos . Great Britain’s Olympic Ambassador and Royal Air Force pilot was just deployed to the front lines in Afghanistan, where the Taliban is targeting him specifically. It’s been a rough stretch for the royals lately, with Harry’s naked picture scandal in Vegas, followed by the hullabaloo over Kate Middleton topless photos last week. That and being on the front lines of the fight against terrorism certainly gives the family a lot to think about, but we’re confident they will all pull through just fine. Sometimes, we’re at our best when we’re battling adversity, and the public seems very much on the side of their beloved royals, so that should be comforting too. Anyway, in honor of HRH’s birthday, enjoy these Prince Harry pics:
Deployed to a volatile outpost in southern Afghanistan where U.S. Marines routinely face a mix of skirmishes and hidden explosives, Greg Buckley Jr. sensed that an attack was imminent. And he knew that it would come from within. The 21-year-old Marine was posted to Garmsir in Helmand Province, where he was training local security forces as part of NATO’s planned withdrawal in 2014. It was during a static-filled phone call to his father over the summer that the Long Island native mentioned a run-in he had with an Afghan trainee while on guard duty. When friends become enemies The encounter marked the first in which the Buckley family’s eldest son seemed to sense something was wrong, according to what he told his family in phone conversations and a letter. “The guy turned around and said to Greg, ‘We don’t want you here. We don’t need you here,’” his dad said. “Greg turned around again and said, ‘Why would you said that?’” according to Greg Buckley Sr. But the trainee apparently wouldn’t relent, repeating the phrases for hours over the course of a night in which the young Marine was on guard watch. “Greg said, ‘I thought I was going to lose my mind,’” his father said. “Pitch black out, and all he kept saying over and over again is, ‘We don’t want you. We don’t need you. We don’t want you.’” “It was just tormenting for him.” The two men then finally confronted, yelling until a group of officers brought them apart, he told his father. “One of his superiors came over and had Greg apologize to the guy,” said the elder Buckley. The 21-year-old agreed and extended his hand, but the man refused. About a month later, Greg phoned his father again. “He told me if I have to stay here until November… I’m not going to come home.” Greg also asked his father to prepare to tell his mother and his two younger brothers that he’d be killed. “I don’t understand,” his father said. “Out in the field?’ “No, in our base,” Greg replied. 4 NATO troops killed in ‘insider’ attack in Afghanistan On August 10, 2012, Greg Buckley Jr. was gunned down by the very forces he had been training, just days after learning that he was to head home early. “It was only two days he had left there in Afghanistan,” his father told CNN. The phenomenon is known as “green-on-blue,” due to a color-coding system used by NATO. It has become disturbingly more frequent in Afghanistan, with more than 50 NATO troops killed this year by local forces, the first time that’s happened in a single year in the U.S.-led war. Last year, 35 people died in such insider attacks, and even less the year before, according to NATO figures. The killings have prompted suspensions of training new recruits while eroding the trust between NATO and its Afghan allies. The gunman involved in Greg’s death attacked from inside his outpost and killed two other fellow Marines, his dad said. But Greg Sr. said his son had informed his superior officers that “one day they are going turn around and turn those weapons on us.” CNN cannot independently confirm that Greg informed superior officers. Calls and emails to NATO’s International Security Assistance Force in Afghanistan were not immediately returned. More than a decade after the war began, the Buckley family is now struggling to cope with the loss of its eldest son. More than 2,000 other U.S. service members have been killed in Operation Enduring Freedom. “It’s not really day-by-day,” said Greg’s mother, Marina Buckley. “It’s more minute-by-minute.” Back in Oceanside, the Buckley family on Friday attended the town’s first home football game, where their fallen son had intended to watch his youngest brother play varsity for the first time. “Greg was supposed to be home for this game,” said Justin, 17, who wore the number 30 on his back, Greg’s old basketball number. “I would tell him I love him and I miss him.” The senior running back, who dawned a camouflage jersey along with his team, broke to the outside on Friday for a 25-yard score that helped cement the Sailors improbable second-half comeback against top-ranked East Meadow. After crossing into the end zone, Justin raised his hand to salute — honoring his fallen brother. CNN
A billboard featuring a meme-style juxtaposition of President Obama and Aurora shooter James Holmes has garnered a great deal of attention, very little of it positive. The billboard, located in Caldwell, Idaho, features a picture of Holmes, accompanied with the text “ Kills 12 in a movie theater with assault rifle, everyone freaks out.” Juxtaposed is a photo of Barack Obama, with the text: “Kills thousands with foreign policy, wins Nobel Peace Prize.” Check out the controversial billboard below: The sentiment is similar to one of Heath Ledger’s memorable Dark Knight quotes , in which he says no one would blink if he announced a “truck load of soldiers
