Rider Strong of Boy Meets World fame has become a man. So to speak. He’s engaged to longtime girlfriend Alexandra Barreto, E! News reports! Strong proposed , his rep said, “with a handmade ring he created himself.” The actor (and jeweler, somehow) first met Barreto on the 2006 series Pepper Dennis , then also worked together on a campaign video for President Obama. The rest was history. Strong recently said he will not be a main player on Girl Meets World , the Boy Meets World spinoff starring Ben Savage and Danielle Fishel. “At this point, I have no official involvement,” he said. “There might be a chance to see some of the BMW cast in a guest spot, and I think it would be nice to find out where our characters have been all these years.” That’s too bad, but there’s always hope for a cameo from Shawn Hunter down the line. In related news … Danielle Fishel is engaged too! The gang’s growing up!
Cheddar Bay Biscuits or healthcare? Red Lobster And Olive Garden Profits Down Ever since Darden Restaurants — the owner of the Olive Garden and Red Lobster chains — first announced its anti-Obamacare campaign, the company has had a tough couple of months. Via ThinkProgress : Darden admitted as much when it revised its predictions for latest quarterly earnings down in December, attributing the drop to “recent negative media coverage on Darden and how we might accommodate healthcare reform.” The decline in traffic comes despite the company’s efforts to revamp the menus and marketing for its flagship chains. At Olive Garden, the company rolled out an updated advertising campaign and introduced more light and affordable dishes. At Red Lobster, it added options for people who don’t like seafood. The negative press led the company to reverse course on its threat to shift employees to part-time status to avoid covering them under Obamacare. The latest report on Darden’s earnings prove that was a good move, since the restaurants did take a turn for the worse as a result of their bad publicity. Its net income fell 37 percent Well, if around half of Americans support the president, including Obamacare, then it makes sense that being a greedy azzhole about it will potentially annoy half your customers. Annoying half your customers isn’t a good business decision.
Kim Kardashian is taking a stand, people! She’s fighting back against the injustice that affects her most: Instagram’s new Terms of Service agreement. The company is under fire these days for language that implies it could sell its users’ photos without compensation – and despite the Instagram co-founder issuing a statement to clarify this misconception, sources tell TMZ that Kardashian isn’t buying it. Easily the most popular person on that service with 5,726,343 followers ( Justin Bieber is second at 4,366,729; President Obama third at 1,834,079), Kim is reportedly telling friends that she may leave if the policy isn’t altered. And she’ll take her nearly six million fans to another photo-sharing agency. It stands to reason that family members Khloe, Kylie, Kendall and Rob would follow Kim elsewhere, with each of these reality stars also ranking in the Instagram Top 10. The moves actually would be a severe blow to the company, which raises the question: If you run an organization that mostly services Kim Kardashian and her siblings, should you re-evaluate your life choices?
President Barack Obama squared off with an unexpected adversary this week. A White House photo released for Time magazine – which named Obama Person of the Year 2012 this week – shows the president goofing around with the son of a staff member. This little Spider-Man gave him all he could handle on October 26: Fortunately for Obama, he was able to escape the superhero’s wrath, and went on to defeat Mitt Romney in the 2012 presidential election just two weeks later. The little kid should take solace, though. He may have a shot to supplant Andrew Garfield when the reboot the Spider-Man franchise again in like two years.
President Barack Obama has been named Time’s 2012 Person of the Year. The publication said, in announcing its choice for the annual cover story : “We are in the midst of historic cultural and demographic changes, and Barack Obama is both the symbol and in some ways the architect of this new America.” “In 2012, he found and forged a new majority, turned weakness into opportunity and sought, amid great adversity, to create a more perfect union.” Obama won a second term in the White House last month, withstanding a challenge by Mitt Romney and varying degrees of foreign and domestic tumult. The short list of runners-up for the Time distinction: The late Malala Yousafzai, a symbol of the struggle for global women’s rights Mohamed Morsi, Egypt’s new president Renowned physicist Fabiola Gianotti Apple CEO Tim Cook Obama also won the magazine’s POY honor in 2008. Last year’s winner was The Protester, an amalgam of those who sought change around the world. Mark Zuckerberg won in 2010 and Ben Bernanke in 2009. North Korean leader Kim Jong Un won Time ‘s reader poll for 2012 … thanks to 4chan trolls. Do you agree with Obama’s POY selection? Yes. He’s the perfect choice. No way! Someone else! View Poll »
TMZ reports radio stations began pulling the song from playlists in order to avoid offending any listeners. Although Ke$sha may see the song as a celebration, most folks might be offended by the title alone. The website explained the last time a song dropped this drastically was when the Dixie Chicks were banned from country radio after coming out against President Bush. According to Entertainment Weekly, “Die Young” was topping the charts at number three when the Sandy Hook massacre occurred
Before The Voice Top 3 performed for the last time Monday, the NBC show kicked off its finale with a tribute to the victims of Friday’s Connecticut school shooting tragedy. Coaches Christina Aguilera, Blake Shelton, Cee Lo Green and Adam Levine were joined by ALL the Season 3 contestants for a stirring rendition of “Hallelujah.” Leonard Cohen’s song, also popularized by Jeff Buckley’s amazing cover, is emotional on an average day. In the wake of the Newtown shooting ? Amazingly so. As the fab four sang lead, their proteges provided backing vocals and all held name cards of the victims and their ages. Watch the moving video below: Hallelujah – The Voice
The University of North Alabama confirms it has kicked a player off the team after he fired off a racist slur in a Tweet about President Barack Obama. Coaches made the move after Bradley Patterson complained that Obama’s Newtown speech pre-empted Sunday night’s Patriots-49ers NFL contest. University sports publicist Jeff Hodges said the school found that there’s no question the tweet was issued by Patterson, and that he used a racial slur . Patterson joined the University of North Alabama team as a walk-on after the fourth game of this season. He has now been issued his walking papers.
THG unveils its 10 finalists for its prestigious, arbitrary, 6th Annual Celebrity of the Year award. These stars provided us with their best, their worst, their naked pictures, sex tapes (sometimes) and scandals (often). This month, THG honors that greatness. We kicked off the countdown at #10 with Adam Levine, then moved on to Honey Boo Boo at #9, Kim Kardashian at #8 and President Barack Obama at #7. Now we present Celebrity of the Year Finalist #6 … Kate Upton! Kate Upton “Cat Daddy” Dance See above. Yeah. Need we say more? We need not. But we will anyway. U.S. Congress might want to invite the curvaceous model to join their recent fiscal cliff negotiations, because this is a one-woman stimulus package! Since being named SI ‘s 2012 cover girl, Kate has captured a nation’s attention, attaining “it” girl status and all the glory and scrutiny that goes with it. Numerous ad campaigns and more revealing photo shoots followed, and with each, men across this great land were enraptured with her natural beauty. The fun-loving, carefree and surprisingly self-aware Kate’s bubbly personality only contributes to her status as America’s #1 crush at the moment. Some people have criticized her weight, and her looks overall. We don’t really have to offer much of a rebuttal other than to direct your eyes below. Click to enlarge many more Kate Upton photos !
GET THESE IDIOTS OUTTA HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Westboro Baptist Church To Protest Newtown Funerals The scum of the Earth, Westboro Baptist Church , controversial group known for protesting outside funerals of slain U.S. service members, announced that it will picket a vigil for the victims of Friday’s Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting … Via HuffingtonPost reports: Shirley Phelps-Roper, a spokesperson for the group and, like most members of the organization, a relative of the group’s founder, Fred Phelps, announced on Twitter on Saturday the group’s plan “to sing praise to God for the glory of his work in executing his judgment.” It is unclear when the group plans to protest, although a tweet from Margie Phelps implied that it would be during a vigil that will be attended by President Barack Obama on Sunday evening. Members of the Westboro Baptist Church say that America is being punished for its acceptance of gays and lesbians. In recent days, Phelps family members have sent tweets about the Connecticut shooting that have said “God sent the shooter.” Not surprisingly, the group’s announcement was met with resistance online. A Change.org petition asking for Connecticut officials to prevent the group from protesting has been launched, and users of the social news and link sharing site Reddit have been discussing ways to stage a counter-protest. Meanwhile, efforts by the computer hacking group known as ‘Anonymous’ are allegedly attempting to take the Westboro Baptist Church website down through what is described as #OpWestBoro on Twitter. However, as of 8:30 EST, the church’s website is still working. A YouTube video, purportedly from Anonymous, warns Westboro of being targeted by the hacktivists. THIS IS JUST DISGUSTING!!!!!!!!!!! These people are not Christians nor is this the work of God, Allah, Buddah or anything resembling morality or goodness. The word Christian means to be Christ-like and Jesus Christ was a loving person. So it’s basically an oxymoron, for example saying “That good person shot 27 angels in the school.” and “The WBC are Christians.” To sign the petition to legally recognize The Westboro Baptist Church as a hate group click HERE
