I remember hearing about Rielle Hunter’s pregnancy through the drunken, gossipy grapevine of politicos on Super Tuesday of 2008. Pollsters and pundits were huddled down in drab enclaves at Manchester, MA drinking holes to avoid the bitter cold. Dennis Kucinich had just finished some pub beef something-or-other in the booth next to me. Right then, a fiery HuffPo blogger slid into the seat across from mine, and spilled: “John Edwards knocked some woman up. She’s having the baby and they have a cover-up story. No one in the press is saying anything because of Elizabeth’s cancer, but we all know.” He swooped back out.

There had been some tabloid speculation about Hunter before this, but few Americans knew or investigated. After hearing about the lovechild, I naturally watched with fascination as the saga eventually panned out. On February 27, Hunter had the baby. In July, the National Enquirer broke a story about Edwards visiting his new daughter at the Beverly Hilton (see above photo). After many public denials, Edwards finally admitted to paternity of Hunter’s child in August 2008. Since then, almost everyone involved has said their piece, and it only gets more interesting.

Very little, however, was said by Hunter while this was all going down, which is why Newsweek recently penned a story praising the “quiet dignity” of the mistress of a terminally ill woman’s politician husband.

GQ nabbed her first official words on the matter, a transcribed Q&A that weighs in at nearly 10,000 words (that’s what happens when you hold it in for so long!). Within the interview, she candidly addresses the flaws in others’ accounts, professes her love for Edwards, and talks timeline. In an effort to save you time reading, I’ve boiled her tale down to the important stuff:

1. Hunter calls Edwards “Johnny,” which is apparently the name on his birth certificate.

2. Hunter firmly believes that Mr. Pantsonfire never lies to her.

3. Elizabeth Edwards is scary as shit. She’ll chop your motherfucking dick off.

4. Hunter did not recognize “Johnny” as the famous, powerful John Edwards when she first met his gaze from across a hotel lobby.

5. Everybody else is lying! Except “Johnny,” who apparently only lies to everyone else.

6. Hunter was never given any hush money.

7. Okay, well, Hunter did receive money, in various forms–but considered that to be a normal, kosher, understandable part of people taking care of her and “Johnny.”

8. Hunter believes her webisodes about the real John Edwards are “pretty good.”

9. Edwards’ discovery that his mistress was pregnant with a girl? “He thought that was very cool.”

10. Hunter does “not fit into a box,” but “there’s no crazy” about her.

11. Edwards was supportive of her spilling the beans to GQ.

12. Andrew Young sucks.

13. Hunter and Edwards have a profound, lighthearted, honest connection.

14. Edwards isn’t really the dishonest, plastic, geeky politician guy we think he is. Rather, he’s “HOT.”

15. Rielle Hunter is only a mistress by circumstance.

and

11. She thought the article’s accompanying photo spread, for which she posed seductively on her lovechild’s bed with nothing but a dress shirt and string of pearls on—uh, WHAT?, were surprisingly “repulsive.”

Hunh. Kinda liked her better quiet.

[via HuffPo]
[Newsweek: The Quiet Dignity of Rielle Hunter]
[GQ: Hello, America, My Name Is Rielle Hunter]

Source

Feast your groins eyes:

YES, GODAMMIT, WE WANNA SEE YOUR BLEEPS!!!

Thanks, Erica!

Age: 41

Hails from: Silver Spring, Maryland

Occupation: Filmmaker, Founder of Coffee Party USA

Known for: Partying down. In a moment of frustration, Park posted a Facebook status update rejecting the “disproportionally effective” actions of the Tea Party movement. She wrote, “We should just start our own party, call it the Coffee Party or the Smoothie Party—anything but Tea.”

For many people that would be a fleeting statement, followed naturally by something like, “Annabel Park is looking forward to a great weekend!”

Instead, the “Coffee Party” idea took root, and with the aid of Park’s producing partner Eric Byler, grew and grew and grew. No longer just a clever phrase, the Coffee Party has become a movement of its very own–one that does not attack government officials or constituents but the mishandled American political system. The Coffee Party’s Facebook page now boasts over 160,000 fans and the official site presents a bright call to action, asking Americans from all political leanings to calmy organize, debate, speak up, support candidates… civic engagement without all the petty fighting.

Through their online venues, the Party launched its first National Coffee Day last Saturday, which included meetings in over 350 coffee shops in 44 states. See photos on their Flickr page or video below:

Doesn’t a cup of joe sound pretty nice right about now?

[Join the Coffee Party on Facebook]
[Coffee Party: Wake Up And Stand Up]
[Newser: Coffee Party Founder Calls For A Friendlier Process]

Source
Thanks, David and Aviva!

Celebrity Baby Blog also reports that Padma has said she’d be “delighted” if her daughter became a chef, “as long as she was a good one.”

Hear that, little baby Krishna? NO PRESSURE.

[Celebrity Baby Blog: Meet Krishna Thea Lakshmi!]

Last night, I had a dream that I was sitting at a sushi bar, watching the chef work with his knife before me. He sliced two slim pieces of soft, red flesh and placed them gently on balls of warm sushi rice. He leaned over the bar and laid the two sushi pieces on the wooden platform in my reach, an inch away from a small pat of wasabi and wet pile of dusty-pink pickled ginger.

“This is whale,” he said, looking me in the eye. “No soy sauce.”

Taken aback, I said, “No. Thank you, no whale please.”

“Whale,” he said, now stern. “You eat it. Chef’s special Omakase.” He tightened the grip on his Shun knife.

“No. I can’t. I can’t,” I whimpered, overwhelmed suddenly by fear.

“EAT IT,” he said. And suddenly we were no longer at a sushi bar but in a cavernous black room, with him pinning me against a chair while shoving large, bloody pieces of whale meat into my mouth. “EEEEEEAT IIIIIT!”

The nightmare, of course, stemmed from a week of reading about the recent bust of Santa Monica sushi resto The Hump, an eatery known for serving exotic sushi. The place was busted after two undercover females with a lipstick camera ordered the $600 Omakase menu and requested whale, then were awarded eight pieces. They pocketed samples of the meat and later had them analyzed, identifying the meat as that from the endangered sei whale.

LAT describes the resulting charge:

Named in the complaint, filed in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, were Typhoon Restaurant Inc., owner of the Hump, and chef Kiyoshiro Yamamoto, 45, of Culver City.

The illegal sale of a marine mammal product is a misdemeanor that carries a maximum penalty of one year in prison and a maximum fine of $100,000 for an individual and $200,000 for an organization, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.

The story only gets worse as it develops–from speculation that the meat may have been creepily procured from the trunk of a white Mercedes to web evidence that The Hump has also served endangered sea turtle. We don’t even want to think about how hard they must have been pushing bluefin, sheesh.

All we know is, nothing tastes good enough to render extinct. Shame on both buyers and sellers–what a nightmare.

[NYT: Sushi Spot Is Charged With Selling Whale Meat]
[LAT: Santa Monica Sushi Restaurant Charged With Illegally Selling Whale Meat]
[The Pacific WildLife Foundation: Sei Whale Conservation]

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Thanks, Maris and RJ!

Children of Invention: Two kids are left to fend for themselves after their mom gets thrown in the clink for participating in an illegal pyramid scheme.

Both cities offer Q&A sessions with filmmaker and talent. See showtimes below:





Look, we know everyone’s busy… but there’s a small window (barely a week!) to see this film in the theater and prove that we’re willing to put our money where our mouths are in supporting the Asian American film community. So lez do it! More screenings occuring across the country are listed here.

Most importantly, the movie is awesome. You definitely want to see it. View the official trailer here.

Alrighty then, see you all at the theat-uh! We’ll be the girls in the back with popcorn all over the front of our shirts.

[Children of Invention - Official Site]

Source

But of course, someone did. Hank Chien, a 35-year-old plastic surgeon from New York, started playing the game after seeing the film. He recently broke the standing record, held by longtime recordholder Billy Mitchell, with 1,061,700 points in two and a half hours. The score was 10,000 higher than Mitchell’s.

The Kong-querer

Now, I applaud Chien for adding something new to his already illustrious resume and accomplishing in roughly two years what took other men a lifetime. But there’s something about this that strikes me as downright cruel. Look at Chien–he’s a winner! Kinda cute, prestigious job, two degrees from Harvard, an East Side apartment in Manhattan. This victory is just another notch on his excellence belt.

But the dudes he’s left in the dust have lost their only “big win.” What the hell are they gonna do now?

[via Gothamist]

Source
Thanks, Jasmine!

BRADLEY COOPER: Ken Jeong’s penis on my neck was very normal. Ken came up with that idea that day.

CHELSEA HANDLER: I bet he did.

BRADLEY COOPER: He said, Hey, Todd, I’d like to be naked. And he’s like, Yeah, sure, whatever. And then I didn’t realize…the part I play in that scenario, was that I get, like, neck herpes from it. But he hid it well, so it was okay.

CHELSEA HANDLER: Well, he’s Asian, so…

Watch HERE.

There’s a lot I could say about this–like, how it’s exactly the kind of unfunny hacky tripe people have come to expect from Chelsea Handler–but I’m just going to let the hate mail that’s going to get heaped on this chick do all the talking.

(psst…Here’s her Twitter profile.)

[AOL TV: Bradley Cooper Dishes on Ken Jeong's Penis]

We’re not sure how someone who actually knew the late great Bruce Lee and came into contact with his philosophical deepness could become such an anti-gay, anti-abortion, anti-science, fearmongering toolbag…

…but no one’s perfect, right Chuck?

From the Top 50 Chuck Norris Facts:

When you say “no one’s perfect,” Chuck Norris takes this as a personal insult.

[Chuck Norris Facts]

A mentally ill homeless man in Ningbo, Zhejiang Province, has become an instant fashion icon in his country after an amateur photog took his picture and posted it on the internet. He’s been nicknamed “Brother Sharp” and, according to China Daily, his “rugged style” is now being copied by the “pampered post-90s generation.”

The Chinese aren’t the only ones interested in Brother Sharp’s “style.” BlackBook had this to say about him in “Actual [my italics] Homeless Man Inspiring Fashion in China”:

Whether it’s the nonchalance, the layering, or the dabbling in women’s wear, homeless attire has become bizzarly [sic] enticing to hipster Millenials. After all, if there’s one thing fashion and hipsters both adore: it’s irony mixed with just a bit of shock and awe. Besides, isn’t homeless chic really just the epitome of inconspicuous shopping? Seems right up the alley of another exhausted reference: the recession.

Um, ewww, and, um, gross.

This story does have a silver lining, however. Because of the stir “Brother Sharp”–real name, Cheng Guorong–has created in China, he’s been reunited with his family, who lost touch with him back in 2003. Hopefully he’ll now get the care he needs, even if it’s at the expense–god forbid–of fashion.

[China Daily: 'Most handsome' vagabond wins cult following through the cyberspace]
[China Daily: Brother Sharp returns home]
[BlackBook: Actual Homeless Man Inspiring Fashion in China]

Thanks, Irwin!