If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
If you have something to say...
Say it on the Huffington Post
The Blog
Sometimes, in the sleep-deprived haze of motherhood, one forgets the obvious. I am constantly forgetting car keys, closing the clasp on my belt buckle, that the tag goes on the inside not the outside, my patience.
It's been almost a year since Take Back Boystown took off, and all of us still have so much work to do to build a better community. We need to stand together, or we need to stop calling ourselves a community.
There are no more movie stars. I blame TMZ and its reality show brethren, who have taken all the mystery out of celebrity. In movie-making, like pretty much every other business, the paradigm has changed, and we must respond accordingly.
Who doesn't love a good house party, particularly when it's for Make-A-Wish Southern Florida?
Could it be that Madison Ave and Hollywood are finally getting it right -- that audiences are eager to celebrate real-looking women, rather than plastic, youth-defying ones?
When you tune in to an episode, you can hear the same words being uttered by these women no matter what the show: "I don't like drama." Yet consistently drama is what surrounds these women and it almost seems like the ladies thrive on it.
When I saw last week that Ryan Seacrest Productions had an upcoming reality show based on the lives of wealthy LA-based Iranian-Americans called the Shahs of Sunset, I did what any self-respecting, tech-friendly Iranian-American would do.
Watching all this is lurid in a rubbernecking way. It engages a part of my brain that seems to like the base stimulation without much thinking. No lousy plots to follow. No bad acting. Just a fun-house mirror version of life.
Yes, these shows are likely making me stupider. But I am here not to disparage, but to sing the praises of the oft-overlooked Real Housewives of Atlanta, and will defend this show to my last (huffing) breath.
Knowing what's important to one another, and making an honest effort to deliver, will go a long way towards mitigating the potential downside of any unrealistic expectations surrounding Thanksgiving.
The one thing I've learned is that money can't buy you class; but it definitely can buy you a spot on a reality show. If that's what you truly want.
Jersey Shore is just as much of a "freak show" as anything P. T. Barnum put together. "Markedly unusual or abnormal" -- yes, I believe that does sum up Snooki and company, if only for their otherworldly tans.
In a free and open society, such as ours, citizens are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Unfortunately, that leaves room for a lot of future criminals and blossoming psychopaths to cross the line without prior intervention or restraint.
I can no longer stand to watch a program that -- while brilliantly produced and written with respect to entertainment value -- perpetuates a horrible stereotype about women: that they are hysterical, unhinged and conniving.
This sexy primetime soap about the personal and professional lives and loves of three upscale women in Atlanta may at times be lighter than air, but the same can be said of much summer escapist fare.
The women I most admire are not pinnacles of Class. I do not admire Princess Kate or the First Lady, or even my mother. With Mob Wives , I'm getting reprogrammed with tenets of womanhood I've searched cable television for my entire life.
