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Jill Treacy

Mila Kunis named "the sexiest woman alive"

The actress is named “the sexiest woman alive” in the November issue of Esquire

Mila Kunis graced the cover of the November issue of Esquire, in which she was awarded the title of “the sexiest woman alive.” The Ukrainian-born actress has been emerging on the movie scene, starting with her thriller hit Black Swan in which she stared opposite Natalie Portman, and continues to show promising talent with last summer’s hit Ted and the upcoming Oz: The Great and Powerful.

Esquire said on its website that Mila Kunis, also known for her popular role in That 70’s Show,  is “the most beautiful, opinionated, talkative, and funny movie star that we’ve all known since she was nine.”

Beating out the likes of Anne Hathaway, Jessica Chastain, Gabourey Sibide and Katie Holmes, to name a few, Kunis joined the Esquire sexiest woman alive list with previous winners Charlize Theron, Halle Berry and last year’s sexiest woman alive Rihanna.

The Huffington Post also reported that the sexy lady could be a possibility for the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey film as Anastasia Steele. Though no release date or cast has been confirmed, Kunis may be a lead in the running for the S&M love story of the young Anastasia and businessman Christian Grey. Among the possible actors for Christian are reportedly Ryan Gosling, Alexander Skarsgard and Ian Somerhalder.

Either way, “sexiest woman alive” Mila Kunis definitely delivers for Esquire, posing topless and in tight leather pants on the cover. The November issue is due out this week.

Jerry Sandusky sentenced to at least 30 years

Former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky is sentenced to 30 to 60 years in child sex abuse case

 

Jerry Sandusky was sentenced Tuesday morning, 11 months after he was arrested on child sex abuse accusations, to 30 to 60 years in prison. This is essentially a life sentence for the 68-year-old former Penn State coach. Sandusky was found guilty in June on 45 counts of sexually molesting ten boys over 15 years, a scandal that has brought shame and consequence to Penn State University as well as the downfall of once-famed coach Joe Paterno.

Before the former assistant coach was convicted and sentence, Jerry Sandusky used his respected position and The Second Mile charity he founded to prey on young boys. Eight of the ten boys he was convicted of molesting testified at his trial and key-witness, former graduate assistant Mike McQueary, testified to seeing Sandusky raping a young boy in the locker room shower.

The former Penn State assistant coach gave a 15-minute statement in trial, rambling about missing his family and maintaining that he was not only innocent, but a victim of the families accusing him of the abuse. The statement has been described as defiant even, a similar tone to an audio statement he released on Monday. Jerry Sandusky promised in both statements to appeal his conviction after he was sentenced.

“We will continue to fight,” Jerry Sandusky said before the sentencing in his statement Monday. “We didn’t lose the proven facts, evidence, accurate locations and times. Anything can be said. We lost to speculation and stories that were influenced by people who wanted to convict me.”

It is, however, a different story for Sandusky’s victims. Three of the victims testified on Tuesday, fighting back tears and confronting Jerry Sandusky with direct glances. One talked of the images he has in his head of Sandusky’s naked body while another spoke of Sandusky’s denial and said he should “stop coming up with excuses.”

“I’ve been left with deep painful wounds that you caused and had been buried in the garden of my heart for many years,” the young man, an 11-year-old in 1998 when Sandusky lured him to the showers, said at the trial.

The third spoke directly and without reserve of the abuse he endured over many years from Jerry Sandusky.

“I want you to know I don’t forgive you and I don’t know if I ever will forgive you,” he said. “My only regret is that I didn’t come forward sooner.”

Lena Dunham gets $3.5 million for book

Actress and creator of “Girls” is among the top paid for her upcoming book

 

Lena Dunham, creator of the HBO series Girls, has signed with Random House for her highly anticipated advice book. After shopping the book around, Dunham has paired with Random House for a reported $3.5 million. The 26-year-old Emmy nominated producer, director, writer and actor is quickly moving up in the world and her literary work, titled Not That Kind of Girl: A Young Woman Tells You What She’s Learned, is her next venture.

Random House expressed their excitement in working with Lena Dunham, comparing the book to the likes of iconic writers that came before her.

“In the tradition of Helen Gurley Brown, David Sedaris and Nora Ephron, Dunham’s book will offer frank and funny advice on everything from sex to eating to traveling to work,” Random House said in a statement.

The proposal for the book, a supposedly humorous account of Dunham’s personal and professional life, is said to have caused a high bidding war because of the clever and engaging content Lena Dunham offered. The New York Times reports that the 66-page proposal included visuals and humor, reminding publishers of Tina Fey’s memoir Bossypants.

Random House said in Monday’s statement that it was “thrilled” to work with the author and looks forward to her future endeavors as well. Random House Editor-in-Chief Susan Kamil said Lena Dunham is “fresh, wise, so assured. She is that rare literary talent that will grow only from strength, to strength and we look forward to helping her build a long career as an author.”

If it’s anything like Girls, the Lena Dunham book is sure to be witty, honest and incredibly entertaining.

Facebook hits 1 billion users

The social networking company reaches one billion users, growing 45 million since last June

 

Facebook Inc. announced Thursday that it has reached one billion monthly users last month. The company hit 1 billion on Sept. 14 at 12:45 p.m. pacific time. The site is up 45 million users since June, and where it took six years to gain the 500 million users in 2010, it took less than two to double it.

“This morning, there are more than one billion people using Facebook actively each month,” Mark Zuckerberg wrote on his Timeline. “Helping a billion people connect is amazing, humbling and by far the thing I am most proud of in my life.”

With a billion users, Facebook now connects every 7th person in the world. The social networking site began in a college dormroom at Harvard University and first claimed fame in North America, but now can boast most of its growth abroad. Less than 20% of Facebook users are American or Canadian. While that 20% of Facebook users accounts for 48% of advertising revenue, countries in Asia and South America are seeing rapid growth of Facebook interaction.

When discussing the company’s income, Matt Lauer of NBC’s Today asked creator and Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg why Facebook wasn’t “killing it” even at one billion users, reported the Chicago Tribune. Zuckerberg responded with, “I think it depends on your definition of ‘killing it.’ I mean we are making billions of dollars.”

Billions of dollars and a little over a billion users put Facebook shares at $22.23 on Thursday. 

Jason Russell opens up about meltdown

The non-profit founder and filmmaker talks to Oprah about his meltdown last March

 

Jason Russell, co-founder of the non-profit Invisible Children and director of the viral “KONY 2012” video, is finally opening up about his public meltdown last March. Known for his films and raising awareness for the two organizations, Russell was also seen having a very public and very naked meltdown in the streets of San Diego last spring. Quiet until now, Jason Russell sat down with Oprah Winfrey for the Oct. 7 episode of Oprah’s Next Chapter to talk about what happened and where he is now.

Last March, Jason Russell, only a few weeks after the “KONY 2012” video went viral and garnered over a hundred million views, was caught on tape running down a street in San Diego naked, pounding the pavement with his hands and yelling at passing cars. Russell was detained, taken to a medical facility and the breakdown was said to be due to exhaustion. 

“It’s really hard to explain if people who have never had an out-of-body experience, but it really wasn’t me. That wasn’t me. ” Jason Russell says in an excerpt from the episode about his meltdown. “That person on the street corner ranting and raving and naked is not me, that’s not who I am. … Talking to myself. Ranting. Raving. Talking about good versus evil, God and the devil. I mean it was just very out of control.”

Invisible Children came on to the scene in 2004 to raise awareness about the Ugandan children terrorized by a violent rebel army and KONY 2012 hit the social media world in early 2012 to raise awareness about the rebel leader Joseph Kony. The sudden fame and pressure apparently had an effect on Jason Russell, resulting in the meltdown.

“My ring, you can see, is clean, clean, clean, and then there’s the street corner,” Jason Russell said, showing Oprah the meltdown damage his wedding ring endured. “You can see how hard I was pounding. You can see the dent. That to me, slamming my hands as hard as I can on the ground, like I don’t know who that was. Like I don’t, I can’t—I look at that video and I think, how sad for him.”

The full episode will be aired this Sunday on OWN.

Jim Lehrer was 'pwned' in debate

President Obama and Mitt Romney walk all over Jim Lehrer in the first presidential debate

 

Jim Lehrer, debate moderator for the first presidential debate of the campaign season, is receiving harsh reviews for losing control quite early and quite frequently during Wednesday night’s debate. Republican Mitt Romney had his way with Lehrer while President Barack Obama blatantly ignored him. No matter which political party triumphed last night, commentators across the board seemingly all agree on Lehrer’s incompetence and inconsistency.

From asking extremely open ended questions (no wonder candidates wandered off to their own topics), letting Obama and Romney banter way past time limits and seeming “a bit overwhelmed,” as commentator Laura Ingraham tweeted, Jim Lehrer may have been regretting coming out of semi-retirement to moderate his 12th debate. Some were more direct about Lehrer’s performance. Richard Kim of The Nation wrote that Jim Lehrer “got utterly, totally savagely pwned.”

The criticism, unfortunately, is not unfounded as Lehrer’s performance does bring up basic questions like, why have time limits if they can be so easily ignored? At one point, Jim Lehrer tried to contain the topic and make aware the time limit, but Romney brushed him aside.

“Excuse me, excuse me. Just so everybody understands, we’re way over our first fifteen minutes,” Lehrer said.

“That’s fine isn’t it?” Romney asked.

“It’s okay. It’s great. No problem,” Lehrer said, to which the audience had a short laugh.

Another question may be, why have a moderator when the president of the United States can clearly tell time (except, not really)? After telling President Obama his time was up, the president replied that he “had five seconds before you interrupted me” and proceeded to talk for 30 more seconds.

Many have said that 78-year-old Jim Lehrer went in with a goal to stay out of the way of the debating candidates and let them do their thing, but most agree that some sort of control could have been good.

Border Patrol agent dies in shooting

A deadly shooting near the border in Arizona has left one dead and another wounded

 

A Border Patrol agent was killed and another was wounded during a shooting early Tuesday morning in Arizona. The agents were on patrol in Naco, Ariz. when deadly gunshots broke out around 2 a.m. The first agent was killed, and the second was shot in the ankle and buttocks and was airlifted to a hospital.

The shooting, although authorities are not sure how or why it happened, was initiated when the Border Patrol agents went to investigate after one of the many sensor alarms located on the border was triggered. Not much is known about what happened between the Border Patrol agents and the attackers during the shooting. Cochise County Sheriff’s spokeswoman Carol Capas said they’re not even sure if the agents returned fire. The FBI is also investigating the shooting and declined to comment on whether guns or bullet casings were found where the incident occurred.

The fatal shooting is the first since the 2010 death of Brian Terry, a Border Patrol agent who was killed during a shooting also near the border. The December 2012 shooting was linked to a government operation investigating gun-smuggling across the border. The government allowed people suspected of illegally buying guns to walk away with the intention of tracking them into Mexico. Instead, two of the illegally bought guns were found at the location of Terry’s shooting. The Border Patrol station in Naco was recently named after Terry in wake of his death.

Twenty six Border Patrol agents have died while on patrol since 2002.

Names of the border patrol agents involved in the shooting have not been released yet. The occurrence took place about 100 miles from Tucson on the desert border of Arizona and Mexico. 

Seth MacFarlane and the Oscars?

The creator of Family Guy and Ted is a surprising pick to host the Academy Awards

 

Seth MacFarlane has the Oscar world buzzing as the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences announced Monday night that he would be the host of the next Academy Award show. The decision shocked many as Seth MacFarlane is best known for his animated projects, including but not limited to Fox’s Family Guy, American Dad!, The Cleveland Show and the summer blockbuster comedy Ted, in which he voiced the sassy but endearing teddy bear Ted. But, he was apparently seen as a step in a new direction for the Oscars, hopefully bringing in a younger and possibly more engaged audience.

While he is well known in the comedy realm, Seth MacFarlane is famous for specific reasons. A creator, writer, voice-actor extraordinaire resume makes him a well-respected man, though he may not be too recognizable by face as he comes out from behind the scenes to host the awards show. Pulling from his recent SNL performance, Time magazine also suggests Seth MacFarlane may be a bit “stiff” and not able to make the audience feel comfortable.

On the plus side, he seems to conquer anything he puts his mind to. Seth MacFarlane started drawing Fred Flintstone and Woody Woodpecker cartoons at just two-years-old, attended the Rhode Island School of Design and graduated with his senior thesis “Life of Larry” eventually inspiring Family Guy. The 38-year-old is also a classically trained singer and can really belt it out.

MacFarlane is definitely a surprise choice and many are eager to see how well the event fares with the funny-guy host, but he seems to have a good grasp on how to approach hosting the Oscars and what tone he needs to aim for.

“It’s a very specific ceremony with a very specific tone,” Seth MacFarlane said. “The challenge will be to keep it funny, keep it lively and stay true to what it is I do. But at the same time adapt to the tone of this event. It’s a challenge but I’m looking forward to it.”

Comedy, classical singing and Family Guy voices should make for a fun night. Oh, and the actor and movie awards should be interesting, too. 

Real-life anime girl goes to extremes

A Ukrainian girl spends hours taking on the appearance of a Japanese cartoon character

The real-life anime girl, also known by her new Japanese name as Fukkacumi, is going to the extreme with her latest look and style. Anastasiya Shpagina of Ukraine apparently spends hours in front of the mirror perfecting her make-up, hair and outfits so as to resemble an anime character, or Japanese cartoon character.

Along the lines of the real-life Barbie doll, the real-life anime girl has taken to severely altering her appearance to resemble an anime character and has a YouTube tutorial video explaining her make-up procedure for the transformation. The 19-year-old has big doe eyes, thick eye make-up, sculpted eyebrows and brightly colored hair. She reportedly weighs about 85 pounds and is looking to get down to a weight that allows her to have the same shape as an anime character.

The 5 foot 2 inches real-life anime girl says that people on the street are generally alarmed when they see her and that Japanese tourists try to talk to her but do not speak Russian. Her Facebook fan page has almost 13,000 likes, and the tutorial video has over a million views. When the real-life anime girl was compared to a Barbie doll, she replied, “I am not like a doll, a doll is like me.”

Mars rover discovery reveals ancient streambed

Mars rover Curiosity found an ancient streambed that once held water

 

The Mars rover Curiosity has made another incredible discovery. The rover found a streambed where water once flowed near its landing site. A study of the ground near the Martian equator revealed a possible history of fast moving water over Mars’ surface with hip-deep areas of water flow.

NASA scientists came to the conclusion that the mars discovery revealed water flow on the now dry and dusty planet’s surface after analyzing stones and pebbles near the Gale Crater. Scientists saw that some of the stones were rounded and large, indicating long periods of time spent in fast moving water. William Dietrich, Curiosity co-investigator, said the pebbles indicated the movement and depth of the water.

“From the size of the gravel it carried, we can interpret the water was moving about 3 feet per second, with a depth somewhere between ankle and hip deep,” Dietrich said. So, not only was there a presence of water, but it had movement and was in fact transporting matter across the Red Planet’s surface. Dietrich went on to say, “This is the first time we’re actually seeing water-transported gravel on Mars. This is a transition from speculation about the size of the streambed material to direct observation of it.”

The time period of the water flow is not yet known, but Dietrich believes it to be “beyond the thousand-year timescale.”

The Mars rover Curiosity discovery, needless to say, is proving the Mars mission to be quite successful. Curiosity is about 50 days into its two-year mission in researching the Gale Crater.