Amy Winehouse (boobs), Tracy Morgan (butts) and Miss Pole Dance, The Week in Review

Come on, admit it. You are feeling guilty pleasure from reading a certain "news item" while there is at least a small voice in your head questioning why you are reading it at all, why you clicked on a story that, thank God, no one saw you click on. But you simply couldn't resist. In the old days, if it was in the newspaper, it wasn't really something you chose. It was there in black and white so you read it, cover to cover just like you always did. But to be honest, in the old days, the kinds of stories we are talking about rarely made it to print. So I thought it would be fun to peruse the Huffington Post at the end of the week to see what's up on the site and what stories got the most attention. So here goes.

On the Home Page, we read about Tracy Morgan who loves "Women's Butts". Click on the story on the Entertainment page to find out that he was referring to anal sex and how much he likes it and how his women like it, too. 67 Facebooks, 19 Tweets, and 290 comments.

Also on the Home Page, Sienna Miller makes her Broadway debut with "lukewarm" reviews for the play but "unanimous on her physical appeal". Seems Sienna is less promiscuous than the New York Times thought, something to do with a correction as to those with whom she was just friends and those with whom she did not engage in "romantic flings". The keyword in the article that linked to the Times correction was "not-so-slutty Brit". (I swear, the not so slutty part was hyphenated.) 10 Facebooks, 18 Tweets, and 299 comments.

Home Page links to the Style Page for the Miss Pole Dance Argentina 2009 story, Sexy or Scary? You might be interested to know that the winner also won Brazil's Miss Pole Dancer 2009. 64 Facebooks, 37 Tweets, and 56 comments

Now on to the Most Popular on HuffPo.

ESPN Analyst in Sex Scandal starring former NY Mets GM, Steve Phillips, and his 22 year old production assistant including a scanned copy of the letter she sent to Mrs. Phillips. 942 comments

Bronson Pinchot's take on some folks he has worked with including Bette Midler (bitch), Denzel Washington (cruel), and Tom Cruise (homophobic). 99 Facebooks, 45 Tweets, and 641 comments

Drunkest Guy Ever featuring convenience store video of, you guessed it, a really drunk guy buying beer. A whopping 1597 Facebooks, 121 Tweets and 507 comments (some of which question whether he was really drunk or just bucking for an Academy Award)

And then there was the "Jill Biden Reveals Great Gams in New York" with 12 Facebooks, 13 Tweets and 326 comments and Chuck Todd's baseball bet involving shaving his goatee if he lost or something like that with 23 Facebooks, 19 Tweets and 190 comments. This just in, Chuck decided not to shave after all, choosing instead to donate $1000 to charity.

And my personal favorite, "Amy Winehouse's Dad Thinks Her New Boobs Are 'Fantastic'" with 7 Facebooks, 5 Tweets and 84 comments.

These stories are surrounded by many others, more serious in nature, about important issues in politics, media and the world. And it is comforting to assert that many, many readers are following and caring about those stories without commenting, tweeting or facebooking at all. But if we do have a look at this week's popular news, we can get a glimpse into our own culture. So we relate to drunkenness and are hot for sex and celebrities. Whether it be new boobs, anal sex, great gams, not-so-slutty Brits (ok, I just love that hyphenated phrase), or the obligatory sports sex scandal, this is who we are and what we like right now. That doesn't mean it always has to be that way. Does it?

 

 

Comments

[Oldbull 56]

I don't know about you, but I, personally, like to read HP starting from the home page and with an eye for the serious stories first. After that is done and I'm thoroughly depressed by what's going on out there, I move on to stories that are a lot more light-hearted or tabloid fluff. Kind of like moving on to the comics in a regular newspaper. When it comes to sharing what I have read with my friends, I am quite sure that most of them would prefer something light hearted as opposed to indepth news reporting... As for commenting, well, I usually look to see how many comments an article has prior to commenting since I won't read thirty or forty pages of comments, so why add mine to the mix? I think everyone likes something light mixed in with the heavy when it comes to reading news and as long as there have been celebrities, we've had gossip mags and gossip columns. I am sure cavemen probably painted dirty pictures on their cave walls, humans like sex :) Lastly, as long as there have been sports, there have probably been scandals. So it may always be this way, but I wouldn't worry, I still watch documentaries, read National Geographic and get a newspaper, so all is not lost, and I'm sure that I'm not alone.