I love Gwen Stefani.  To me, everything about her is glamorous, punky and spirited and independent all at the same time.  She seems remarkably down to earth, and also very ambitious.  I also love the fact that she is actually a “triple threat” but has never been put in to the “diva” category like JLo and other multiple talented women who can tend to get on your nerves just for the sheer opulence of their life and how everything seems to be “overdone” to the hilt all the time.

Her new album, Sweet Escape is just another reason why she’s been so successful thus far.  She continuously pumps out hits because they really hit a note with the dancer in us, and the secret part of us that loves “fun music”.  Not only that, her sounds are always original, and they usually create a plethora of copycats (think Fergie, nelly furtado, etc. who have all produced music that sounds very similar to Gwen’s unique sounds and tastes).

Gwen Stefani morphed into a style icon from a punky, rasta punk image with a fun twist because she had that bleached blond patinum hair and she wore really cool clothes ( remember when she used to dye her hair pink?) And yet somehow she still managed to keep her style about her, and make it her own. 

Now with her new album, there are several songs I like, including the title track “Sweet Escape” which is one of my favorites on the album, and there are others on there too that are noteworthy, except just maybe one or two that were just not my taste.  Check it out though, she’s got some serious talent and pumps some fun tunes!

Alec Baldwin.  I don’t know whether to feel sorry for the guy that an incredibly embarrassing and not most shining moment personal voice mail message was released in definite malicious intent, or whether to feel more sorry for his daughter with actress Kim Basinger, Ireland, for having to endure the publicity that her father talked to her this way. 

The fact is, we don’t know what’s going on behind the scenes here.  Alec was apparently very hurt by the fact that his daughter appears to favor her mother, but he definitely shouldn’t have said the nasty things he did to a twelve year old girl.  Also, I’m not so sure, but if Kim Basinger did have anything to do with the release, should she really have done this, out of respect both to her daughter and her ex? 

Even though they are involved in a bitter custody battle over their daughter, it seems dirty all the way around.  I really hope their daughter isn’t too damaged by all this.  What are the kids at school going to say? 

I mean I don’t know a person who doesn’t know about and hasn’t heard this call, so I’m sure it’s made the rounds among her friends.  And what a delicate age that is, to have something that embarrassing and private aired. 

Boy, I’d feel like an idiot for saying all this if it ends up she’s the one who wanted it released to get back at dear old dad!  It’s a sad situation….my heart goes out to her and obviously there is a lot of pain in this celebrity split. 

Lisa Rinna, the unusually pouty lipped soap star turned fashio maven, wife to Harry Hamlin and mom, is now going to be the replacement for Joan and Melissa Rivers to host the red carpets and comment on fashion and maybe even be as big of a pain in the butt as Joan was.  Joan is 73 years old, and there’s no telling why she was replaced, but age may have played a part. 

Although you’d never know her true age thanks to the advent of face and skin pulling.  She’d probably be much better looking without that plastic, frozen look on her face though!

Joan has basically made a career as being an outspoken, say-anything type of persona and a lot of people don’t like her, but you gotta give it to her, the lady’s been around in showbiz forever.  At 73 years old she’s still hangin’ with the young, hip Hollywood crowd, although she may not always be the most welcome guest admittedly!

Rosie O’Donnell, another outspoken woman who’s made a career out of sometimes being obnoxious and controversial, notably once ribbed Joan for having too many facelifts and said she does even look human any more once when Joan ripped someone a new you know what for what they were wearing.  I agree with Rosie on that one!

The rumors are true, I guess about young actor Shia Labeouf playing a role - although as yet undetermined at this point.  He’s the kid that played the young kid on that movie that we’ve all since forgotten about from “Holes” I believe, although I have to check my sources!  He actually looks like a very young Russell Crowe, and if he’s half as talented, this 20 year old kid will have a great future in film and whatever other acting endeavor he happens upon. 

Ahh, I just looked him up on the trusty old IMDB, and he indeed did star in Holes, but the other place I recognized him from was the movie that I think I may have been one of the only people that liked it, “Constantine”.  He was Constantine’s sidekick (played by Keanu Reeves, one of my favorite actors, only in certain kinds of movies, he’s admittedly not the most versatile actors, I know this). 

Gosh, to be only twenty years old and be working with some of the biggest film making legends, ie George Lucas and Steven Speilberg must be a real honor.  Not to mention he’s working with a very talented actor, Harrison Ford, who I think looks younger than his sixty something years.  I can’t wait for this new movie.  Means I’m gonna have to get a new DVD set though, I currently have the 3 disc set, which was all they planned on making for the longest time! 

This is one movie I’m truly pumped to see in the theater.  Bring it on Lucas and Speilberg! 

Bravo to Tobey McGuire, who catapulted to instant overnight success as a big box office actor with the making of the first Spider Man movie, the most successful comic book adapted franchise to date which spawned the making of countless other comic book based movies that tried to duplicate the success and the relatability of the Spider Man movies, but most failed.

My boyfriend sure does love this trend of comic book movies.  He’s an avid comic reader, and he also collects original comic art, so for him this era of film making is practically a dream come true.  Mcguire has somehow managed to escape the throngs of paparazzi that so many other stars of his caliber have to deal with, and yet he seems so normal, with a fiance and a baby, both of whom you barely ever see.

McGuire has said in interviews that he refuses to discuss his personal life, and that anything about his movies he’s trying to promote is fair game, but his private life is off limits.  And that’s how celebrity privacy is achieved.  Voila.  Paris Hilton should learn from Tobey McGuire.  Oh wait, she loves all the attention, forget it.

Tobey reportedly hasn’t yet signed on for another Spider Man movie after this summer’s Spider Man 3, and he hasn’t really let on whether he intends to or not.  He has said he likes to play diverse characters though, so maybe this is it for him.  I’m sure he’ll find success in whatever movies he acts in, because he truly is a gifted actor with great diversity. 

YouTube, the immensely popular video website, where anyone can upload pretty much anything they want, unless it’s unacceptable material (this seems somewhat subjective though), is in hot water with Thailand over a video mocking one of their leaders.  Wow, it’s a good thing the US doesn’t work like that.  Talk about opressive.  Thank God for free speech.

To boot, officials over in Thailand blocked YouTube until they could be promised by the still in it’s youth video company that could come up with a technology to edit out any individually offensive videos.  I’d say that’s an awfully tall order, but I’m sure it’s one the video company is thinking of doing just to appease a huge audience. 

Can you believe that insulting the monarchy in Thailand is considered a criminal act, and is prosecutable?  Google, who owns YouTube apparently exercised it’s US rights of anti-censorship and refused to remove the video clip (good for them). 

I still wonder how YouTube makes it’s money.  I mean, I know they were bought out by Google, and Google has some serious geniuses that can figure out how to make money in advertising in almost any medium, but how many ads are really served and clicked on YouTube? 

Maybe it’s a lot more than I can imagine, but I just think that for such a huge engine of public interest that gets millions of hits a day, it would be able to be exploited for profit a little more than it currently is.  But much kudos to YouTube.  They’ve taken a concept and revolutionized it, and the name in itself is pure genius, I think!