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Danielle Olipra

Danielle Olipra is a DePaul University graduate with a degree in Creative Writing. In her free time she enjoys listening to music and comedy. Once she takes the world by storm with her pen, she plans to save the endangered species of the ocelot and record a soul album.

Anne Hathaway is Engaged

Anne Hathaway engaged to Adam Shulman

Anne Hathaway is engaged to her boyfriend of three years, Adam Shulman, reports US Weekly.  The actress has been seen recently donning an engagement ring, which her rep says was designed by Shulman himself along with Kwiat Heritage.

Hathaway and Shulman began dating just months after Hathaway’s breakup from Raffaello Follieri in 2008.  They were involved for four years before Follieri pled guilty to 14 counts of fraud, money laundering, and wire fraud and Hathaway ended their relationship.

This time, it looks like Anne wants in for the long haul.  The 29-year-old Oscar nominee said “so far, it’s worked out great,” of her romance with Shulman, an actor and jewelry designer.  She also said he is “mellow” compared to her former flames. And for Hathaway, mellow is preferable to a scandal.  “Mellow doesn’t always make for a good story, but it makes for a good life,” she mused.

Read more about the couple here.

Four Occupy LA Protesters Arrested

Several hour standoff between police and protesters

Early Monday morning, LA police reopened streets surrounding City Hall after a confrontation with Occupy protestors that lasted for several hours, says The LA Times.

Police opened three main streets just after 6A.M.  Spring, 1st, and Main streets had been closed off temporarily due to protesters who were camped out in a park near City Hall spilling over into the streets.

An hour earlier, police had ordered the protestors to disperse.  While most complied with the request, police were forced to stand off with remaining protesters, several of whom threw bottles and other items at the police.  Four of them were arrested.

City Park Hall officially closed Sunday night at midnight, but as of early Monday morning, LAPD Commander Andrew Smith said there were no plans to begin evicting protesters.

Read more about Monday morning’s events here.

“Kourtney and Kim Take New York” Season Premier

Season premier showed Kim and Kris Humpries constantly at odds

Contains no spoilers.

You know how Kim Kardashian’s marriage ended, and Sunday night on the Season 2 premier of “Kourtney and Kim Take New York”, everyone saw how the speedy decline began.

According the New York Post, Kim decided to file for divorce while viewing raw footage for the show.  Kim was “absolutely mortified when she saw on camera the way that Kris was treating her.”

A trailer for the second season had shown Kim fighting with her brief husband Kris Humphries, a shot of Kim crying, and ended with her sister Kourtney asking, “Can you live with Kris?”  So if it couldn’t be figured from the preview, the season premier showed the couple as not agreeing on much of anything, setting it up for Kim’s decision to make as much sense as possible.

Despite all the negative attention swirling around Kim since her divorce, she remains focused on her future.  “Kim will be using the show to attempt to rehab her image,” a source told the New York Post.  A silly little thing like a divorce won’t keep Kim off the air, so perhaps when the divorce drama disperses, Kourtney and Kim really will take on New York.

Read more here.

Bush Gave Michele Bachmann Fashion Advice

Presidential Hopeful received a friendly tip from former President

Michele Bachmann has been a George Bush enthusiast for as long as she’s been in the public eye.  But their rapport goes farther back than the public display of affection she showed him at the 2007 State of the Union, says politico.com.

In her book “Core of Conviction”, released Monday, she reserves an entire chapter to tell the story of her first meeting with the then President.  Several months before the State of the Union, Bush had come to Minnesota to campaign with her, and “unexpectedly invited her to ride with him in the presidential limousine.”

Bachmann shares that she was worrying over what to wear for meeting him, and that she had bought a pink suit with matching accessories on the advice of her mother.  “He looked down at my pink-gloved hand and asked with a crinkly smile: ‘Why are you wearing those gloves?’”, she writes.

After explaining her mother’s wishes to Bush, she says he “thoughtfully” disagreed, “gently” saying, “Lose the gloves.”  Bachmann continues to flatter Bush throughout the book, as well as Bush’s top aide Karl Rove, who was also conversing with them in the limo.

Read more about Michele Bachmann here.

Kristen Wiig is GQ’s “Bro of the Year”

“Bridesmaids” star named “Bro of the Year” by men’s magazine

Kristen Wiig has been pleasing audiences performing on “Saturday Night Live” and in supporting film roles for a number of years, but 2011 was definitely her breakout year, notes the Huffington Post.

Wiig co-wrote and starred in “Bridesmaids”, and while the highest-earning female comedy of all time is about a bunch of girlfriends, the raucous comedy appealed to men as well, launching her into the spotlight and earning her this year’s “Bro of the Year” award.

Jon Hamm, the actor who played her vile hookup buddy in “Bridesmaids”, wrote the dedication for the award.  He praised Wiig’s ability to commit herself to a character, but also revealed that she is “incredibly shy.”

Hamm and Wiig team up again as husband and wife in “Friends With Kids,” which will grace theatres in the coming months.

Read more about Kristen Wiig here.

Will Black Friday Ruin Your Thanksgiving?

Black Friday encroaches on Thanksgiving; protests planned

Stores that used to close to observe the Thanksgiving holiday are now opening their doors to offer deep discounts, observes the Washington Post.  Will the holiday eventually be overrun by the need to buy those Christmas gifts?

When Doug Matthews,  a 49-year-old chef from New Jersey, made a blog post about his frustration with Christmas and shopping overshadowing Thanksgiving, he didn’t know it would spark the “Respect the Bird” campaign on facebook.  The group now has 2,500 people pledging to not let this year’s Black Friday “gobble up” their Thanksgiving.

Some subscribe to the same adage with a different agenda in mind.  The group credited with sparking the Occupy movement, Canadian anti-consumerist magazine Adbusters, isn’t new to the idea of a Black Friday protest.  For years, they’ve promoted “Buy Nothing Day”, an effort to not purchase anything on the biggest shopping day of the year.  And with the Occupy movement growing larger by the day, some occupiers have informally announced that they will protest shopping malls and corporate stores.  Their goal is to “bring the economy to a halt on the one day they won’t be able to ignore” them.

While Black Friday and Cyber Monday showcase deals too good to pass up, many are resisting, refusing to let consumerism take away their holiday.  How will you choose to spend your Thanksgiving?

Read more about the “Respect the Bird” campaign and Black Friday protests here.

Polio Increase in Nigeria

Cases of polio increase four-fold in the last year

This year, 43 cases of polio were reported in Nigeria, a drastic increase from 11 cases last year, reports BBC News.

Thomas Moran, an official from the World Health Organization said “Curbing the polio virus in Nigeria is key to eradicating the crippling disease in Africa.”

In 2003, the northern Nigerian state of Kano backed Muslim religious leaders in opposing an immunization program on the claim it was a Western plot to make people infertile.  Health experts say this led to many people becoming infected by polio, and the clerics and state government dropped their opposition to the immunizations.

While the current numbers show a notable increase, Moran serves as a reminder that the number of infected is still low.  “You can call it a four-fold increase, but it is still very low transmission in a country as large as Nigeria with almost 50 million children under five,” he said.

Nigeria is one of four countries in the world – along with Pakistan, India and Afghanistan – where polio is still a major health risk.

Read more facts about polio here.

Michelle Obama and Jill Biden ‘booed’ at NASCAR

First Lady and Jill Biden ‘booed’ by NASCAR fans

Racing fans ‘booed’ Michelle Obama and Jill Biden while they were grand marshals during NASCAR’s final even on Sunday, reports CBS News.

Obama and Biden were at the Homestead-Miami Speedway to promote the organization Joining Forces, which promotes the hiring and training of veterans.

It’s reported that Sgt. Andrew Barry, a veteran of the Afghan and Iraqi wars who now volunteers at an Orlando, Fla., veteran’s center, was cheered for by the crowd, but that the tone changed when the First Lady and Dr. Biden were announced.

Despite the episode at the final event, the women were received in a warmer manner at the pre-race driver’s meeting, reportedly receiving a standing ovation.

Michelle Obama had also spoken at a barbeque for military families, hosted by  NASCAR and Joining Forces.  She commended the children of military families for their “sacrifice of being strong while their parents are away.”

Read more about Sunday here.

Lady Gaga’s Old Apartment For Rent

Lady Gaga’s former Lower East Side digs up for grabs

According to US Weekly, the New York Realtor Citi Habitats has listed Lady Gaga’s old one-bedroom apartment for rent, and plugs it as “the place where Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta got her start in the NYC music scene.”

Located at 176 Stanton Street, the Lower East Side apartment is in the middle of the city’s hottest clubs and bars, and is available to rent for $1,850 per month.

Lady Gaga admits that the New York music scene shaped her, and that living alone was crucial to her developing as an artist.  “I wanted to live alone — live in solitude with my music,” Gaga said. “I wanted to read poetry and be overly dramatic about everything and that’s what I did.”

When Gaga lived in the neighborhood, she paid $1,100 for the unit with help from her father.

Read more about the apartment here.

Mila Kunis Attends Marine Corps Ball

Mila Kunis attends ball with Afghanistan veteran

On Friday, Mila Kunis attended the Marine Corps Ball in Greenville, N.C., says the Washington Post.  Her presence fulfilled a promise she had made to Sgt. Scott Moore in July.

The “Black Swan” star hasn’t made a public statement about the evening, but spokesman Capt. Scott Sasser said, “It was a great experience for everybody.”

Moore had asked Kunis to the ball from his base in Afghanistan via a YouTube video, which has been viewed over four million times.

Justin Timberlake, who starred with Kunis in “Friends With Benefits”, and Kristen Cavallari were also in attendance.

Read more about the evening here.