Mitt Romney was on the wrong end of the 2012 presidential election results . Now, adding insult to injury, his Facebook numbers are dropping like mad. A new site, DisappearingRomney (dot) com, tracks the GOP candidate’s bleeding of “Likes” on the social media site – which once topped 800 per hour – in real time . Two graphs, “Recent Like Count For Mitt Romney” and “Real Time Like Count for Mitt Romney,” illustrate Romney’s downward trajectory as it happens. 12,041,819 people like Mitt Romney. Wait, 12,041,814 … 12,041,811 … President Barack Obama, for his part, is at 33,255,180 and climbing. Not everyone is a fan, of course … namely the woman who’s Obama Facebook slur and assassination threat got her fired from her job at Cold Stone Creamery.
The gay rumors swirling around Jessica Simpson’s father Joe are continuing unabated. The latest? His alleged tryst with male escort Joey Anderson. The National Enquirer , which previously alleged Joe’s dalliances with 21-year-old boy toy Bryce Chandler Hill , now says Simpson hired Anderson. The escort even passed a lie detector test , supposedly. Joey told the tabloid, “We rolled around, kissed and gave each other oral. He seemed to have an insatiable appetite for sex and never appeared tired.” Simpson denies he is gay . Hill also denied the alleged ties to him. Anderson, however, says it happened, alright, and he’s still promoting his “services.” The escort, who is really 32 but lies and says he’s 25, offers body rubs, massages and other fun activities on a website called “Hour Boy.” He also specializes in “foot play.” Lovely. Joey’s ad describes himself as such: “An angelic face, boyish w. long hair, masculine, fit, and smooth. Educated and can hold a convers. I am fully versatile, can be dom/rough or passionate and affectionate.” His fees range from $225-2,500. Joe supposedly paid $600. Not bad. Joe has not commented on the persistent rumors except to make this announcement on his recent divorce from Tina Simpson after 34 years: “It is an amicable split and there is no third party involved,” the parents of Jessica and Ashlee said, adding that, “any other related allegations are completely false.” What do you think? Is Joe Simpson gay? Yes No How would I know?!? View Poll »
Dakota Fanning is all grown up. The actress, who rose to fame at the age of seven in I Am Sam , covers the December issue of InStyle UK and is asked for her response to the Kristen Stewart cheating scandal, considering Fanning has played a key role in The Twilight Saga’s last two films. “I just think that media frenzies like that,” Fanning tells the magazine of the attention surrounding Stewart and Robert Pattinson .” Everyone thinks they have the right to, you know, publicize the struggles and sadness and heartbreak and all of that. It’s like, ‘Why do you think you are the authority to judge people’s experiences?” It’s not a bad question. Late last week, Stewart grew angry at a reporter who asked about her stats with Pattinson.
A woman has been fired and reported to the U.S. Secret Service for a racial slur and apparent assassination threat against President Barack Obama on Facebook. According to California’s Modesto Bee , Denise Helms, 22, went OFF on the social networking site after Obama won reelection over Mitt Romney Tuesday. She called Obama the n-word, adding that “maybe he will be assassinated” this term. Just kidding? Evidently not. Helms was then interviewed by a Sacramento TV station … and she ” wouldn’t mind one bit ” if someone assassinated Obama. Helms was fired Thursday from her job at Cold Stone Creamery. Manager Chris Kegle says the comments are disgusting and have no place within the company, but the pink slip is the least of Helms’ problems right now. Secret Service Agent Scott Gillingham in Sacramento says the incident is being investigated; threats against the POTUS can lead to felony charges. THG NOTE: All you kids (and young adults with no common sense), it probably isn’t worth using the following words, whatever your intention, online: Obvious racial slurs Obvious gay slurs Slavery Holocaust Assassination Generally doesn’t go over too well, however hilarious you think you are. Just putting that out there. You’re welcome. Don’t say we never did anything for you.
On October 20, 2012 I met Justin Bieber for the second time. My mom and I were driving 10 hours from Michigan to Minnesota for the concert. On our way there, we had to stop because it was late and we were tired. When we got to the hotel my mom got an email “Congratulations Melissa! You’re officially invited to attend the photo meet and greet TOMORROW NIGHT, October 20th in Minneapolis, Minnesota!” My mom and I both started to jump up and down in excitement. The first time I met Justin, I didn’t get a hug because he was sick. I had made it my goal to get my hug the Believe tour. We were both way too excited to sleep now but we went to our room and got everything ready for the next day. When we got to the venue, we waited outside and after a while we saw some dancers, his bass player, and the photographer. We gave them all bracelets that say ‘BELIEVE’ on them. (We gave those to everyone on the crew we met) We also showed them the necklace that my mom made for Justin. They all said he would love it. It was finally time to go pick up the meet and greet passes and go wait in line. While waiting, I saw Dan Kanter so I went over and gave him the necklace my mom made for him and a bracelet. He thanked me and said he remembered me from the last tour because of the picture book we gave him. I almost died when he said that! We took a picture with him wearing the necklace then he said he had to go check on his friends that were going to meet Justin. In line, we met two girls who had never met him before and we told them that if us four got to go together, we would let them stand next to Justin in the picture since I already have. When we got near the front of the line, we called Kenny over and gave him a bracelet. He thanked us and told us to have fun! Now we were at the front. Just about 30 seconds away from meeting the most amazing guy EVER. When we walked through the curtain, his grandma, grandpa, and Ryan Butler were all lined up against the wall just watching everyone’s reactions to seeing Justin. They all had the biggest smiles. We walked over to Justin and he went to put an arm around my mom and said “Hi mom!!” My mom said “Hi honey! I’ve already met you, let her stand next to you,” and put the other girl in her place. We took the picture and as we were about to get rushed out. I turned to Justin and said “Can I please have a hug?” He smiled and said, “Of course! Come here!” And I got my hug. After 2 years of waiting, it finally happened. Then again, as we were being rushed out, I told Justin I had gifts for him. You aren’t supposed to be able to give him the gifts personally, but as they tried taking it from me, someone stepped in and said “No. SHE has to give that to him personally! Let her give that to him!” I gave him the necklace and the BELIEVE bracelet and he told me “Thank you.” I said “You’re welcome. My mom actually made the necklace for you.” He looked down at the necklace, then up to my mom, then back into my eyes and said “Thank you so much. This is so cool!” I told him you’re welcome and said goodbye. I walked out and completely lost it. I had just stared into Justin Bieber’s eyes. He held eye contact that whole time! And we were practically holding hands as I gave him the gift! We found out on Monday (on our way home from the concert the next day), that he put the necklace on right after we left. Scrappy also posted a picture on Sunday of him and Justin, and Justin had the necklace on again! I couldn’t believe he actually wore it. We were in shock. I also saw him on October 21, October 23, and October 24. On October 23, I actually helped 2 girls get tickets from Scooter, telling him how much they deserved to get in. It was a great feeling and I’ll never forget it. Thank you Justin, Scooter, Kenny, Dan, and everyone else I met that past weekend. I love you all and I’ll see you guys in November with your blankets! -JoHanna (@JoHannaBeliebes) Link: On October 20, 2012 I met Justin Bieber for the second time. My…
Introspective masculinity, women on top, cross-dressing PSAs , gay undertones — the James Bond franchise has come a long way in 50 years, most notably during the current era built around Daniel Craig ’s serious Blond Bond with the icy blue eyes. Behind the scenes, producers Barbara Broccoli and her half-brother Michael G. Wilson set the record straight on recent Idris Elba-as-Bond rumors and pointed to the post-9/11 shift that spurred them to take Bond from the slick reign of Pierce Brosnan to the morally-complex brand of progressive contemporary heroism embodied in this week’s Skyfall . “I think once we made the decision to go with Casino Royal e – we had the rights, and we decided to make the change after Die Another Day – it had a lot to do with 9/11 and the way the world was at that time,” Broccoli told Movieline recently in Los Angeles. “A post-9/11 world. It was a real opportunity to recalibrate.” Craig’s Bond re-set the franchise on a grittier path starting with Casino Royale , which exposed 007’s only vulnerability — his heart — and its continuation Quantum of Solace , which healed his emotional wounds with violent redemption. Skyfall , however, finds Bond unencumbered by romance; feeling his loneliness and approaching obsolescence. His new enemy is mortality itself — and Silva, the off-kilter, tech-savvy nemesis bent on revenge against former boss M (Judi Dench) played with calculated control by Javier Bardem. “They are mirror images of one another,” explained Wilson, who has produced every Bond film since 1979’s Moonraker . “They come from the same background, and in a way M has sacrificed them at one point or another for what she considered to be a greater good. But one becomes obsessed by this and it drives him. The other one goes through a funk but gets over it and comes back to defend her and the country. It’s an interesting thing about how people cope with the negative things that happen in their lives.” PHOTO GALLERY: 007 MINGLES WITH ROYALTY AT THE SKYFALL PREMIERE In a franchise known as much for its suave but patriotic spy hero as its insanely evil and flamboyant villains, Skyfall dares to contradict both tropes. Bond, for the first time, questions whether queen and country value his service, his sacrifices, and his very life, while Silva, it’s revealed, actually has a pretty good reason to seek vengeance. Skyfall asks a question relevant to today’s global military interests: Who is to blame when the few are sacrificed for the good of the many? “We wanted to create a complex story, and the whole point is that things aren’t black and white anymore,” said Broccoli. “As M says, they have to operate in the shadows. You don’t know who the enemies are. You have to fight on a very different playing field than when there was a more specific world order. Ultimately it comes down to individuals and the spirit of self-sacrifice for the greater good, and that’s what Bond is about. It’s about heroism.” That heroism isn’t exclusively reserved for James Bond, either. Broccoli and Wilson see the role of women in Skyfall as part of a larger legacy of 007 heroines in various forms — mostly shapely ones, embodied in five decades of Bond girls — that stems from writer Ian Fleming’s own wartime experiences. “You have to understand that in his experience during the war, women were very active and part of the resistance, part of the war effort,” said Broccoli. “So he saw women as being very heroic and courageous. And I think when you look at the early films, that’s very evident in the characters — they’re all very strong characters. Some of them have had some hardship, but they all go about their missions with a real determination. Many times they sacrifice themselves for Bond, and I think that’s something that definitely came out of his experience in the war.” PHOTO GALLERY: MEET BERENICE MARLOHE, SKYFALL ‘S NEW BOND GIRL Bond’s women, of course, weren’t always written with strengths to complement their overt sexualization. “I think that there was a period in time in the films when the women became more window-dressing,” she admitted. “But certainly in the last five or six films there’s been a real effort to make them as complex and interesting and heroic, or as bad and evil as the villain. And casting Judi Dench as M, making her the authority figure, has given that relationship between Bond and M a lot more complexity. But I think the films have evolved the same way society has evolved. I hope that they’ll continue to evolve.” Could there conceivably be a female Bond one day? “Everything is possible,” teased Wilson. That said, Bond is a man, and will probably stay that way. Broccoli, who produced the Equals campaign PSA, which featured Craig as 007 dressed in drag , cautioned against getting too carried away with the possibilities. “It isn’t about interchanging men and women, it’s about giving people an equal kind of opportunity,” she said. “So there’s certainly the possibility of having a female heroic figure that is like Bond, but just to interchange them — I don’t know what the point would be.” As for the notorious Skyfall scene in which Bond and Silva share a flirtatious exchange , Wilson and Broccoli are amused by fan speculation about 007’s newly fluid sexuality. “I think they’re trying to psych each other out,” Wilson said of the scene. A game of chicken, so to speak, I asked? “Yes!” he replied. So maybe the producers aren’t quite ready for an openly bisexual Bond, or a lady Bond. They’re also not jumping to replace Craig in that bespoke Tom Ford suit either, despite a report that Idris Elba was being courted to become the first black 007. Broccoli set the record straight. “I love Idris and I met him on something else,” she explained. “We are very happy with Daniel Craig [laughs] and I always say I can only be in love with one person at a time.” “Daniel Craig is James Bond,” she continued. “It’s not even… we can’t even think about it. It’s like going down the aisle to get married and looking for your next husband. It doesn’t work that way. But [Elba] is a phenomenal actor. With Craig signed on for at least two more Bond films, we likely won’t see a new Bond come into the picture for a few more years. But could the future of Bond ostensibly be color-blind? “Oh, absolutely,” said Broccoli. “Why not?” Read more on Skyfall and celebrate Bond’s 50th Anniversary with all things 007 . Follow Jen Yamato on Twitter . Follow Movieline on Twitter .
Can You Guess Who This Is Every now and then, celebs take a trip down memory lane and share rarely seen back-in-the-day photos from before they were ballers and bangers and were just innocent lil crumb snatchers. Can you guess which serially-shirtless ladies man this is in the pic above on the right? Just incase you can’t, we’ll help you out. Yep, it’s Trey Songz. Before the little guy on the right was making love faces at big-booty video chicks and models, he was just a young man with a koolaid smile and a dream. You can also check out Mr. Hawaiian silky shirt in the next installment of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise that hits theaters early next year. That’s a sneak peek in the photo above. Twitter
Can You Guess Who This Is Every now and then, celebs take a trip down memory lane and share rarely seen back-in-the-day photos from before they were ballers and bangers and were just innocent lil crumb snatchers. Can you guess which serially-shirtless ladies man this is in the pic above on the right? Just incase you can’t, we’ll help you out. Yep, it’s Trey Songz. Before the little guy on the right was making love faces at big-booty video chicks and models, he was just a young man with a koolaid smile and a dream. You can also check out Mr. Hawaiian silky shirt in the next installment of the Texas Chainsaw Massacre film franchise that hits theaters early next year. That’s a sneak peek in the photo above. Twitter
