Dear Media: sometimes I hate your guts.

PASTY LOOKING MINNIE DRIVER  TAKES HER HUGE BABY BUMP FOR A DIP!

....shame the British actress chose a rather unflattering white swimwear for her dip in the Pacific Ocean.....

This is the actual headline and intro that ran in a UK Newspaper accompanying this picture this week.
Well done UK Daily Mail. You've managed to capture every single thing that is wrong with the way women are depicted in the media. "Huge"????? "Pasty"????????? 'Unflattering????'

What a disgusting piece of misogynist crap. Not to mention bullshit. She is a pregnant woman of small-normal size going for a swim. Give her a break. I wonder what the pig who wrote those words looks like in a swimsuit?

(note to self: I really must learn to become more assertive about expressing my true feelings)

Does Naomi Campbell actually believe her own bull?

I saw an interview with this disgraceful supermodel on the weekend and I wanted to reach through my TV and slap her. The slapping part is not entirely in the appropriate spirit of what I was thinking which was: STOP MAKING BLOODY EXCUSES FOR YOUR ABUSIVE BEHAVIOUR AND TAKE RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE FACT THAT YOU ARE A VIOLENT BULLY.
In the interview, she was aggressive and wild-eyed, claiming that she'd been called "a racial name" by British Airways staff which had prompted her to abuse and assault several police offers (even though the police by her own admission had nothing to do with it). When pushed by the interviewer to elaborate, she said:
‘I was called a “Gollywog supermodel”. I don’t think that’s really fair, do you?’
No, Naomi. Name-calling and racisim is not really fair. Beating up innocent by-standers is even less fair.

When is this woman going to get some proper help and start admitting that SHE might be the problem, not the maids, the police or the rest of the world....?

So we're a bunch of fatties....

This is what the ass-end of Australia looks like. Yes, we've done it people. We've snatched the crown off the USA's head to become The World's Fattest Nation.

A new report: Australia's Future Fat Bomb, says 26 per cent of adult Australians - almost 4 million people - are now obese, 1 million more than the last calculation in 1999. That puts us ahead of the notoriously super-sized Americans, who have a 25 per cent obesity rate.

"That, unfortunately, makes us the heavyweight champions, a title we don't really want," said Professor Simon Stewart, the author of the report and head of preventive cardiology at the Baker IDI Heart and Diabetes Institute in Melbourne.

"As we send our athletes off to the Olympics, let's reflect on the fact that we would win the gold medal now in the world fat Olympics if there was such a thing. The health care system is going to be overwhelmed by weight-related hospitalisations from knee replacements through to heart attacks and strokes."

Grande Mocchacino with cream and caramel sauce anyone?

I'm up on my high horse today. Giddy up.

Here's a link to an opinion piece I wrote for the Sydney Morning Herald about the need to treat teenagers with respect when it comes to providing them with information about sex and drugs. Now there's a thought......

"When the moment comes for your child to make the decision whether or not to try sex or drugs for the first time, who's going to be there? You? A teacher? The police? A government health official?

Unlikely. So you'd better hope like hell your teenager has a solid foundation of information with which to inform his or her decision."

Read the rest here.

Newsflash: some kids take drugs. World shocked.

A drug counsellor gave a speech at a Sydney high school last week to students in years 9 and 10. At the end of the talk, a pamphlet by Sydney West Area Health Services was distributed - the cover is above.
Inside, it suggests young people should not experiment until they are over 18, know their family medical history and "use only small amounts and not too often".

Predictably, mass hysteria ensued. I heard some of it on radio this morning.
One mum, whose 15-year-old daughter attends Seven Hills High School in Sydney's west, said the booklet sent the wrong message to students.

"I'm always discussing the dangers of taking drugs with my kids. Drug use is a big concern for parents. I'm afraid of the negative impact drug use has on a child's life and I don't think it's a good thing to encourage them."

Don't mess with the pregnant lady....

 

This is Amanda Bourque. Amanda is 9 months pregnant. This week, in Canada, Amanda witnessed a car swerve onto the footpath and send garbage cans flying into the air. Convinced the car was being driven by drunk or a toddler, she decided it was vital to get the car off the road as soon as possible.

"I was like, 'Oh no, buddy's got to stop'. I wasn't letting him get away. I couldn't let him just keep driving like that and possibly kill somebody."

So she gave chase in her car. YES, SHE GAVE CHASE IN HER CAR. For ten minutes she trailed the driver who repeatedly tried to dodge her until he eventually crashed into another car. Amanda - our hero - used her own car to sandwich him in until the police came. She was right. The driver was drunk and the police arrested him.

Now she's being hailed as a national hero in Canada. About her heroic efforts, Amanda said: “I was so mad that he tried to run me off the road, just absolutely furious. And being hormonal, it’s a little bit worse.”

I hear you girlfriend, I hear you.

 

Somehow? I can't imagine Carrie carrying one of these in her Fendi clutch.

   

I didn’t know whether to gag or giggle when a press release for Poo-Pourri landed in my inbox. Here’s the sell:

“You know the scene, it's Friday night and you're at a swanky new lounge with friends.  A couple drinks in, you need to visit the loo (that Thai takeout you had for lunch is starting to kick) - only to find that it's a unisex situation. Luckily you have Poo~Pourri, so the young Brad Pitt look-a-like in line behind you will never know!” Poo-Pouri is the “before-you-go” bathroom spray made with essential oils and “formulated to prevent rather than mask, embarrassing odors.”

I went to see Sex & The City and I wore a tracksuit.

Yes, I did. I somehow feel this is a betrayal of Carrie but it was the middle of the day and have I mentioned I'm pregnant so I'm going to use that as my excuse.
Anyway.
I'm not going to spoil it for those of you who haven't seen it. Run, I say, run.

[AND I'M POSTING A FROCKWATCH SPECIAL LATER TODAY WITH EVERY FASHION STILL I CAN FIND FROM THE FILM]

However, one other thing I will say is that you've got to love a movie in which our heroine wears 81 DIFFERENT OUTFITS. All of which are perfection.
Last week, when the movie came out, I did a lot of radio interviews about why SATC is such a phenomenon. These were the reasons I gave, feel free to add your own:

1. SATC was ground-breaking in that it brought women's magazines to life. All the stuff women talk about together in private and which had never been featured in mainstream media outside the confines of Cosmo, Cleo etc..... that girl-talk mix of sex, relationships, fashion, career and self-help. How refreshing it was - and how delightful it still is - to see that reflected so accurately on TV.

Should Dolly magazine be banned for girls under 15? Noooooooooooo.

What will be the right age for your daughter to read Dolly magazine? This is a question I had to answer a lot – publicly and privately – when I was editor-in-chief of Dolly and the answer was never straightforward.

In short? Dolly is aimed at girls aged 14-17 with readers on either side of that core. Do girls as young as 10 or 11 pick it up occasionally? I’m sure they do. Little girls have big sisters. But the magazine is absolutely not directed at girls that young. Never has been. So what is an appropriate age?

Well, it depends on the girl.

It’s certainly true that as an adult, the further you get from a particular life stage (in this case, being an adolescent girl), the harder it is to recall what that stage feels like from the inside.

Read the rest of this post at Essential Baby, here

Over 30 and single? You must be miserable, huh.

UK Agony Aunt and Life Coach (lordy I'm glad she's not coaching me!), Dr Pam Spur has published an article in the Daily Mail declaring all women who are single and over 30 are miserable and also liars if they claim to be otherwise. She writes:

"...do you believe any single woman over 30 is being honest when she claims to be happy that way? I don't.

What's really going on behind that confident demeanour and fulfilled exterior is crushing loneliness and desperation.

Single women become adept at playing the isn't-life-grand game.

They have to do it around men so they don't appear desperate."