Dana Kennedy is a TV and print journalist based in the south of France. She is a former correspondent for ABC News, Fox News and MSNBC. She contributes to HD Net's "World Report," the Tennis Channel and Australia's "Today" show from Europe. Her writing appears in the New York Times, the Financial Times of London, the Los Angeles Times, the Boston Globe, the International Herald Tribune, People and Time Magazine.

Blog Entries by Dana Kennedy

Extra! Secrets to Being an AP Reporter for 49 Consecutive Years!

Posted July 27, 2009 | 09:57 AM (EST)


Even though I haven't worked for the Associated Press since 1993, emails from old co-workers saying "Pyle's leaving!" started coming in weeks ago. Richard Pyle, 75, retires from the AP in New York City today after 49 years as an AP reporter, beginning in Ann Arbor, MI and eventually covering...

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Gonzo Cannes: The Toughest 22-Year-Old Director at the Festival

Posted May 18, 2009 | 02:17 PM (EST)


How do you learn to make a movie good enough to be accepted at the Cannes Film Festival when you're only 22?

If you're Dara van Dusen, whose 12-minute film, Malzonkowie (Significant Others,) was one of 17 chosen from more than 1,500 for the prestigious student film competition at Cannes...

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GONZO CANNES: Can You Handle Mo'Nique?

8 Comments | Posted May 15, 2009 | 09:50 AM (EST)


Believe it, bitches. And don't forget the apostrophe. As far as I'm concerned, Mo'Nique could take Meryl Streep in an Oscar bar fight one-handed - and clean the floor with her.

She scared me to death in a movie screened at Cannes today called "Precious" that won all...

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My Ambien Dream: A Black Man Named Obama Elected U.S. President

Posted November 5, 2008 | 05:14 PM (EST)


I must be sleepwalking. I must have taken two or three 10-milligram tablets of Ambien last night instead of one. Keep me away from the refrigerator! Hide the car keys! Get me away from the computer - oops, too late.

Forgive me in advance - but I'm hallucinating.

This is...

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Neil Armstrong, Where Are You?

Posted October 10, 2008 | 03:12 PM (EST)


I chose the wrong month - during this panic and hysteria - to develop an obsession with the 1960s space program: In between watching stammering, sweating Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson not calm the nation and seeing the Dow plunge today after George Bush spoke - I've been switching...

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The Big Sting: Tales from the Jellyfish Front in the Mediterranean

Posted June 18, 2008 | 01:30 PM (EST)


AIE! What kind of word is that? Well, it means "ouch" in French but I don't like the way it sounds. When I got stung by jellyfish today in the waters off Nice, France I said OUCH loudly in the water. The French people swimming near me understood immediately.

...
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A Humble American Meets The Superrich, In-Your-Face "New Russia"

Posted June 10, 2008 | 12:38 PM (EST)


MOSCOW - How soon did I meet the New Russia?

Right after arriving at Sheremetyevo Airport. I was at passport control and called my producer. He was already in the city for our shoot for HD Net's "World Report" about the "New Russia" airing this week.

...

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Tatum O'Neal: Telling the Truth

Posted June 3, 2008 | 11:17 AM (EST)


I emailed Tatum O'Neal not long after I heard she was busted for drugs in New York City. I didn't know what to say other than: "Hang in there. Nobody's perfect."

I have her email because I've interviewed her three times since 1990 - most recently for the...

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What The Bleep Do We Know?

Posted January 9, 2008 | 12:36 PM (EST)


I went to bed last night feeling sorry for that doomed loser Hillary Clinton and woke up to see her triumphant, Joker-meets-the-Riddler smile looming from my laptop.

Did I share in the collective shame of the blogosphere today while eating the Clintonian breakfast of champions - crowq-au-vin, humble pie and...

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Hillary Chokes Up -- Carla Bruni Would Approve

Posted January 7, 2008 | 06:45 PM (EST)


On first glance, steely, determined Hillary Clinton has nothing in common with the Italian-born, Parisian-bred temptress Carla Bruni, who began dating French President Nicolas Sarkozy last month and is said to be marrying him in February.

Bruni's calling card is her gorgeous baby face and well-honed aura...

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What if Bill Secretly Wants Hillary to Lose?

Posted January 6, 2008 | 12:02 PM (EST)


Before Iowa, I was rooting for Hillary Clinton. For purely emotional reasons. First, I wanted to see the first woman president in my lifetime. Second, I wanted the happy ending. I wanted Hillary to get hers at last.

I'm not someone who sucks it up and stands by her horndog...

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Tony Parker's French Fatal Attraction And Me

Posted December 24, 2007 | 04:08 PM (EST)


Have you heard about the gorgeous model in France who accused Tony Parker of cheating on Eva Longoria with her?

OK, but have you heard that people who know her say she's a fake? A scary mastermind who fabricated her relationship with Parker, fabricated a relationship with Brazilian...

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Toujours France: The Devil Likes Ear Wax

Posted December 20, 2007 | 05:58 PM (EST)


Sometimes I have to interrupt my impossibly glamorous life in France to actually live in France.

Today I could not longer stand having so much wax stuck in my ear. I was tired of cocking my head and asking people to walk on my "good side." After all, I'm not...

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In the Future, Everyone Will be Anonymous for 15 Minutes

Posted October 12, 2007 | 11:22 AM (EST)


NEW YORK, Oct. 12, 2043 - Just two years after the Experiment in Anonymous Living was launched, the project director announced that a consortium of unnamed benefactors will fund the controversial project with more than $25 billion.

More than 5 million people, mostly Americans, are on the waiting list...

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Tortured Dogs and My Problem with "Forgiveness"

Posted July 18, 2007 | 03:51 PM (EST)


After hearing about NFL quarterback Michael Vick's indictment in connection with a vicious dogfighting ring, I'm reminded how I take issue with many well-respected motivational speakers, past and present -- on at least one topic.

Meaning sometimes I find the idea of "forgiveness" -- when it involves people who commit...

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Sleepless In St. Tropez

Posted July 3, 2007 | 03:15 PM (EST)


Sure, the $6000 bottles of Dom Perignon attached to fiery sparklers were flowing at the VIP Room in St. Tropez early Monday morning.

Go-go dancers in teeny string bikinis and aviator glasses were gyrating so vigorously that sweat poured down their enhanced breasts and surfboard-flat stomachs.

The...

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Why France Needs Sarkozy - French Politics for Dummies

Posted June 22, 2007 | 11:23 AM (EST)


PARIS, France - I thought the "Fete de la Musique," a celebration of music all over Paris on June 21, would just be a festive evening. The Fete, which started in France in 1982, has since spread to dozens of countries.

I didn't expect a live illustration of the...

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His Big Fat Boring Australian Wedding

Posted June 20, 2007 | 11:34 AM (EST)


ANTIBES, France - What if the richest man in Australia, with ties to a huge movie star and Scientology, threw a splashy, $6 million, week-long wedding on the French Riviera, rented out two of the most exclusive hotels on the planet - and nobody cared?

I realized this week...

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Hey, Angelina, Sign This!

Posted June 14, 2007 | 03:14 PM (EST)


Angelina Jolie came off like the world's biggest diva Wednesday when she tried to make reporters sign Stasi-style "contracts" if they wanted to talk to her to promote her new movie.

Yawn. Could this news be any more old?

Stars and their handlers have been brandishing interview "contracts,"...

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Princess Grace: 'She's Still Very Much Here'

Posted June 13, 2007 | 03:28 PM (EST)


I doubt Princess Grace ever rode the public bus 12 miles from Nice to Monte Carlo along the Basse Corniche as I did today. I was en route to interview the curator of an international-scale exposition on her life that will be one of the summer's major events in Monaco:...

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