Plus-size model Mikel Ruffinelli boasts the world’s largest hips. Whether or not that’s a positive distinction or not depends on your point of view. The mother of four’s all-natural 100-inch curves mean she struggles to get through doorways, needs two seats on planes and has to drive a truck. World’s Largest Hips Mikel, 39, weighs in at 400 pounds . She is proud of her figure and says she does not want to lose any weight, even though she often attracts jeers. “Everywhere I go I get attention for my hips, both good and bad,” Mikel said. “When I walk down the street, I can hear the shutters going on camera phones and people laughing at me. Some people assume I’ve had surgery, but it’s all natural.” “It’s the result of having four children, but large hips also run in my family.” With apologies to Shakira , those hips – and their owner – do NOT LIE. Mikel was a normal-sized kid and in her early 20s weighed a modest 180 pounds. But at 22, she put on 50 pounds after having first child Andrew, now 18. After daughters Destynee, 13, Autumn, 8, and Justyce, 7, followed, her weight and hips ballooned, yet despite her curves, she stands just 5’4″ with a 40-inch waist. “When I travel by plane or train I have to buy two seats because I can’t fit… into one,” Mikel revealed. “It’s quite expensive. I drive a truck because it’s big enough to fit all of me.” Yet she still enjoys joining in family activities such as keep-fit routines at home and trips to the park and seaside, where she shows off her 42D breasts in a revealing two-piece. “Finding clothes to fit my bottom half is a challenge,” she said. “I have my lingerie custom-made by seamstresses.”
In a taped interview with Katie Couric, which will air tomorrow on that host’s talk show, Manti Te’o admits to at least one time when he lied about the existence of his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua. Asked by Couric whether he was in on the hoax, Te’o says no – but he did mislead reporters on two occasions after receiving a call on December 6 from someone claiming to be Kekua, who Te’o thought to have died two months earlier. Manti Te’o Interview Snippet “Put yourself in my situation,” Te’o says in a clip that aired today on Good Morning America . “My whole world told me that she died on Sept. 12. Everybody knew that.” Hence, Te’o says, why he referenced his girlfriend in two subsequent interviews, one online December 8 and again when talking to a newspaper on December 10. Appearing alongside his son, Te’o’s father, welled up and stood by the athlete. “People can speculate about what they think he is,” Brian Te’o’ said. “I’ve known him 21 years of his life. And he’s not a liar. He’s a kid.” Yesterday, Diane O’Meara came out and said it was her photo that was used in Kekua’s Twitter profile in order to fool Te’o. She also said she played no role in the scheme, but former high school classmate Ronaiah Tuiasosopo called to admit he has been behind it all.
Robert F. Chew, a Baltimore teacher and actor who portrayed one of TV’s most unforgettable characters as Proposition Joe on HBO’s The Wire, has died. He passed away Thursday of apparent heart failure in his sleep at his home in Northeast Baltimore. Chew, who also appeared in Homicide , was 52. Chew taught and mentored child and young adult actors at Baltimore’s Arena Players, a troupe he stayed with as his career blossomed through David Simon. With Chew’s help, Simon, creator of The Wire , enlisted new talent in the form of young actors who played students in the Baltimore City School system. “Robert was not only an exceptional actor, he was an essential part of the film and theater community in Baltimore,” Simon said Friday via email. “He could have gone to New York or Los Angeles and commanded a lot more work, but he loved the city as his home and chose to remain here working.” “He understood so much about his craft that it was no surprise at all that we would go to him to coach our young actors in season four of The Wire .” “He was the conduit through which they internalized their remarkable performances.” “The Wire cast was an embarrassment of riches and it was easy, I think, for outsiders to overlook some of those who were so essential as supporting players.” “Robert’s depiction of Proposition Joe was so fixed and complete that the writers took for granted that anything we sent him would be finely executed.” R.I.P.
According to a new report, Alexandra del Pilar dated Notre Dame linebacker Manti Te’o for a couple months toward the end of last year. And get this: she actually exists! TMZ has uncovered evidence, in the form of anonymous quotes; Twitter posts; and, most damning of all, photos, that make it appear as if Te’o struck up a relationship with del Pilar – a 21-year old student at St. Mary’s College in Indiana – some time in mid-November. Why is this significant? According to the Manti Te’o girlfriend story, Lennay Kekua – who we now know never existed – passed away on September 12. Therefore, the fact that he reportedly got involved with del Pilar just a few weeks later – and recently split with her – doesn’t speak well to the star’s credibility, lending credence to the theory that Te’o was in on the giant death hoax. Earlier today, an insider told ESPN that she was told by Ronaiah Tuiasosopo that he set Te’o up and the athlete played no role in the scheme. What side are you on? Do you think Te’o was the victim of a Catfish hoax? Yes, the poor guy! No, he was in on it! View Poll »
In one of the stranger, more elaborate death hoaxes to hit the Internet and way beyond, a new report suggests Notre Dame star linebacker Manti Te’o’s girlfriend did not die this year, as had been previously reported. In fact, she never even existed. Some quick background: Te’o was a Heisman Trophy finalist who led Notre Dame to an undefeated regular season. On September 12, news broke that his girlfriend, Lennay Kekua, passed away from leukemia. The story became national news three days later after Te’o starred in an Irish victory and said Kekua encouraged him to play. Kekua’s funeral took place on September 22, with Te’o not in attendance and with the above message displayed across television screens, supposedly proving that this was in accordance with his late girlfriend’s wishes. But now Deadspin has come out with an elaborate article that alleges there is no record anywhere of Kekua’s death: no obituary, no funeral announcement, no mention in the Stanford student newspaper. Moreover, there is no record of her life . University records do not show anyone named Lennay Kekua enrolled at Stanford; there is no record of her birth and, in perhaps the most confusing and troubling report, the photo above is reportedly NOT of Kekua. Deadspin claims it got in touch with a woman from Torrance, California who, upon being shown the image, replied over the phone: “That is a picture of me from my Facebook account.” The article goes on to explain why Te’o likely played a role in this hoax. Deadspin says it has reached out to the athlete for comment, but is yet to get in touch with him. It’s certainly one of the more unusual stories we’ve come across in recent memory, considering the elaborate conspiracy that would be at work here by one of college football’s most respected players… if it is proven to be true, of course. We’ll update this post as more news breaks.
How do you raise the made-up celebrity gossip bar if you’ve already made Kate Middleton pregnant a dozen times before she actually was, and then it turns out she is? Claim Jennifer Aniston is also pregnant, of course! In Touch Weekly , everybody! FINALLY! The two most anticipated celebrity babies have been conceived! Only one of them has actually had an egg fertilized, of course. For Kate, who is feeling better but still hospitalized with morning sickness , pregnancy is no joke. For Jen, it still sort of is. She is engaged and happy with Justin Theroux, but don’t expect a baby anytime soon. Expect her instead to laugh this off as usual. The celebrity gossip tabloids have, about 125 times now, made Jennifer Aniston pregnant, and for 125 times and counting, her rep has shot them down. The actress herself even poked fun at this trend in a Smartwater ad. So meta. Although that bump does look pretty good on her. Get crackin’ Justin! Jennifer Aniston Security Tapes Leaked
The frantic 911 call placed by Jovan Belcher’s mother after the NFL player’s girlfriend was shot Saturday has been released, and is not for the faint of heart. Belcher’s mother begged her son’s dying girlfriend, Kasandra Perkins, to stay alive while pleading for an ambulance shortly after the athlete shot her. Jovan Belcher 911 Call “She’s still breathing but please hurry,” a distraught Cheryl Shepherd says on the recording of her 911 call with Kansas City emergency dispatchers. “I don’t know how he (inaudible), they were arguing, please hurry.” She also is heard encouraging Kasandra Perkins to stay alive. “Stay with me, the ambulance is on the way. Stay with me Kasandra, stay with me,” Shepherd yells, adding that the bleeding Perkins is “just barely” awake. When a dispatcher asked about Belcher, Shepherd says only: “He left.” When police arrived at the couple’s home at about 7:50 a.m., they found Perkins’ body on the floor of the master bathroom with multiple gunshot wounds. The Kansas City Chiefs linebacker, 25, had murdered Perkins, 22, at their home, then drove to Arrowhead Stadium and shot himself in the head. He and Perkins have a three-month-old child. Jovan Belcher ‘s suicide took place in front of Chiefs general manager Scott Pioli and Coach Romeo Crennel. The tragedy has set off widespread debate – and even a strong Bob Costas gun control statement – and turned the NFL world on its head for the past week. Our hearts go out to Cheryl and her grandchild.
In exciting Kate Upton news….she’s dating Detroit Tigers’ Justin Verlander….at least according to my homies over at CELEBUZZ …..which may not be exciting to you…but is to me…cuz I love seeing really popular and underserving models find love that they can get knocked up and fat with…living a millionaire lifestyle with pro Athlete cock….to compensate for having little talent, skills, or education other than a rockin’ set of sloppy, floppy, amazing tits I’d like to knead, pull, prod and jerk off on, but I am not a millionaire pro Athlete…. I do hope her relationship makes all her fans turn on her…giving her a bit of a reality check….reminding her that she’s replaceable and that there are hundreds of other average faced tall chicks that are just as busty, jacked up on the same hormones in the food, who haven’t had their metabolism slow down by turning 21 and who haven’t gone off to college to gain their freshman 40….cuz they won the lottery instead…. Haters gonna hate..but I’m not hating…Terry Richardson dropped some pics of her and her tits from a magazine shoot and I’m into them…
Olympic swimming champion Ryan Lochte is still weighing offers from TV networks and producers as his stock continues to rise following the London games. “I’ve been lucky enough to get all these proposals,” the athlete told Celebuzz, adding that there’s one network in particular that he has his eyes on: E! “Yeah, we’re talking to them right now,” Lochte said. For what? His own reality show. “Pretty much, they follow me on my normal day, just training, doing my own fashion line,” the 28-year-old described. And as for why he thinks the show would be a hit against all other reality TV fare, Ryan said, “It’s real. It’s not fake or anything like that.” Not Keeping Up With the Kardashians in other words? Sold! “It’s gonna be me, me being myself,” the hunk continues. “And I’m pretty much going to show the world that and my new fashion line.” With gratuitous shots of Ryan Lochte shirtless , we assume. The 11-time Olympic medalist hasn’t been shy about his aspirations to break into reality TV, and has even been rumored as the next Bachelor . What do you think Ryan’s best option would be, if any? [Photo: WENN.com]
The London Olympics may be winding down, but this has been a games rich with intrigue and suspense. As the slightly more private intrigue and suspense taking place in the athlete’s village heats up, it’s time to look back at some of the athletic — and cinematic — achievements that wowed us these past weeks. For some of these moments, a 10-minute Bob Costas TV segment simply isn’t enough — only a feature film will do! With that in mind, here are five Olympics 2012 stories that, with a little positioning from Hollywood’s ace screen (re)writers, could become the next big popcorn blockbuster. [Previously: London ’12 hopefuls whose life stories would make great biopics .] 5. Usain Bolt: The Faster He Runs After Bolt’s Jamaican training partner Yohan Blake bested him in the 100m and 200m sprints at their country’s Olympic trials in July. he arrived in London beneath a cloud of speculation that he’d passed his prime. But the naysayers ended up eating Bolt’s dust when, hilarious histrionics in hand, he coasted to a second gold medal in the 100m. Blake took the silver. The Pitch: No one in Hollywood wants to see people run — unless, of course, they are running away from other people. With guns! The obvious answer is a crime thriller — reminiscent of Perry Henzel’s 1972 Reggae-soaked classic, The Harder They Come , which starred Jamaican music great Jimmy Cliff. The plot would center around a heist in which two competitive but ultimately friendly partners steal all the island’s gold and silver, but leave the bronze behind for the Americans as a consolation prize. The Stars: Bolt is too big of a personality for any actor to get right. He’s also the kind of head-turning personality that would put asses in seats. He should play himself, and Jamie Foxx could do justice to Blake. As for a love interest, how about Beyonce in the role of women’s 100m gold medal winner, Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce? The Director: Roger Donaldson ( The Bank Job ) 4. Missy Franklin: Step Up 4 Gold There was plenty of buzz surrounding the 17-year-old sweetheart from Colorado, and Franklin did not disappoint. Winning four gold medals (100m Back, 200m Back, 4x200m Free, 4x100m Medley), one bronze (4x100m Free), and setting the world record in the 200m Back, only Michael Phelps had more success in the London pool. (He matched Missy’s four golds while also taking home two silvers.). Franklin’s winning personality also scored big points and cemented her role as one of America’s new favorite Olympians. Beginning with that infectious “Call Me Maybe” video and continuing through her victory-lap interview with Costas — where she drolly remarked that she and her fellow swimmers hadn’t had any fun at all — Missy and her enormous smile stole our national heart. The Pitch: Think teen dance movie where Missy and her swimmer pals have to team up to save the community swim center from an Australian real estate developer. Throw in a few dance numbers and you’ve got a hit. The Stars: Emma Stone’s megawatt smile can almost do justice to Missy’s big ol’ grin. Chris O’Dowd should play the Aussie developer because he’s everywhere right now. And, of course, an obvious cameo by Missy Franklin fan Justin Bieber would round things out nicely. The Director: Jon M. Chu ( Step Up 2: The Streets , Step Up 3D ) 3. Women’s Doubles Badminton Scandal: The Disqualified In one of the 2012 Games darker moments, boos rang out in London when two sets of Women’s Doubles Badminton teams deliberately attempted to lose their matches. They were looking to exploit a loop hole in the tournament’s round-robin format that allowed the lower-placed team to face an easier opponent. It might have worked, too, if only the two South Korean teams, the Chinese team, and the Indonesian team were any good at losing. Instead, they made a mockery of the Olympic spirit, and the Badminton World Federation tossed all four squads from the tourney — a draconian but ultimately proper punishment. The Pitch: As funny as this bizarre Olympic episode was to watch, no one can take more than a few minutes of such pathetic play at a time. So it makes sense that this story be told in flashback, through the thrilling guise of a courtroom drama. A plucky young prosecutor going head to head with a brilliant defense attorney who has been spending more time hitting the bottle than the law books could keep the audience in suspense all the way to the, um, verdict. Throw in an action-packed subplot involving shuttlecocks — with high intensity cutaways in the third act — and a box-office winner (about purposely losing) could be born. The Stars: Amy Adams as the plucky prosecutor alongside Matthew McConaughey as the down on his luck defenseman could help bring in the female audience as well. The Director: Alexander Payne ( The Descendants ) 2. The U.S. Women’s Soccer Team’s Defeat of Canada: Up…And In! In what’s being called the most incredible head-to-head team event of these Olympic games, the USA women’s soccer team fell behind three times to Canada, only to emerge victorious in overtime. A stoppage time header by young superstar Alex Morgan just barely sailed over the outstretched fingers of Canadian goal keeper Erin McLeod to win the match for the US and save the team from a decisive penalty shoot out (which cost them the World Cup against Japan last summer). On Thursday, the U.S. women got their rematch with Japan and payback with a gold-medal win. The Pitch: As most soccer fans know, it’s really tough to get Americans to go to a soccer movie. (We’re still waiting for a worthy third entry in the Goal series; that travesty they named Goal 3 does not count). As a result, we’re going to have to think outside the box on this one. Since movie audiences do seem eager to watch cute animated talking animals do just about anything, Pixar should get on board to make the first CGI animated Olympic movie. The Chinese could be portrayed as pandas, the Japanese as tanukis, the Canadians as moose and, well, the Americans would all be foxes. The Stars: An impressive array of young female voice actors from Vanessa Hudgens to Mila Kunis. Of course John Ratzenberger would have a part as the stodgy old groundskeeper. Let’s make him a walrus. The Director: Pete Docter ( Up ) 1. Archery Emerges As A Crowd Pleaser Quiver Every Olympics, one fringe sports transcends its fringe-iness. In Vancouver, it was curling. In London, archery kicked it up a notch. After the US men’s team defeated the favorite South Koreans in a wild semifinal, they eventually took silver on a final-arrow bullseye by the Italians. Given that the sport’s Olympic rise parallels its popularity in Hollywood with the recent archery mania in Hollywood — The Hunger Games , Brave , Hawkeye in The Avengers and, heck, even Moonrise Kingdom — and chances are this one’s getting greenlit. The Pitch: London has been the setting for plenty disaster actioners ( 28 Days Later , Doomsday , Attack the Block ), so why not one more? In this movie, a bio-weapon targeting the Olympic Village could turn all the athletes into bloodthirsty (and particularly fit) zombies. Relegated to their distant location at Lord’s, the archers find themselves the only athletes unaffected and must use those crazy teched-out bows to bring the zombie invasion to its knees. Bullseye! The Stars: Jennifer Lawrence and Jeremy Renner are the natural choices to lead the hero archers. The zombies could be a veritable who’s-who of athletes turned actors, from Gina Carano and Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson to Bruce Jenner and Bob Uecker. The Director: Danny Boyle ( 28 Days Later ) …Wait! We can’t stop there! Here is one bonus pitch, sure to be the biggest blockbuster of Summer 2014! The U.S. Women’s Gymnastics Team: The Fab Five With three gold medals, (Gabby Douglas’s All-Around, Aly Raisman’s Floor Exercise, and the Team All-Around), one silver (McKayla Maroney’s Vault), and one bronze (Aly Raisman’s Balance Beam), the U.S. women’s gymnastic team’s Fab Five will be hailed for generations to come. But the competition wasn’t without controversy. A new rule kept World Champion Jordyn Wieber out of the All-Around while an obscure tie-break rule cost Aly a bronze in the same competition. She got her retribution in the end when the team appealed her score in the Balance Beam, won the appeal, and was given a tie score for third. This time the tie-breaker worked in her favor and Aly took the medal. The Pitch: With the success of The Avengers and buzz over an upcoming Justice League , team superhero movies are all the rage. So what could be more fitting than the Fab Five putting aside their differences and defeating those pesky Russians? Then, after the Russian are vanquished, the real enemy emerges: evil gymnastics judges! The Stars: Keke Palmer as Gabby, Shailene Woodley as Jordyn, Raquel Castro as Aly, Liana Liberato as McKayla, and Jodelle Ferland as Kyla Ross. ABC Family, here we come! The Director: Kathryn Bigelow ( The Hurt Locker ) Ryland Aldrich is an admitted Olympics addict averaging 17 hours of daily viewing. After the games wrap up Sunday, he’ll go back to his normal life as Festivals Editor at Twitch , counting down the (542) days to Sochi 2014. You can read his film festival coverage at Twitch and follow him on Twitter @RylandAldrich .
