The Scoop: With the news of the California Supreme Court's ruling in favor of gay marriage, Ellen Degeneres announced on her show that she and Portia de Rossi plan to tie the knot.
Here's my only concern - about 2 years ago, I remember Brad Pitt saying that he and Angelina Jolie would not get married until gay marriage was legal. I pray that they don't try to steal all the thunder. To be quite honest, I'm more excited about Ellen and Portia getting married than Brangelina anyway.
Are you in? Here's the deal, I'll be at Axel's Bonfire on Grand Avenue in St. Paul at 5:30 today for a MS Challenge Walk Happy Hour. Come and join me in learning about the 50 mile 3-day walk that I'll be doing September 12-14. Join my team and I promise we'll have all kinds of fun while we walk together to move toward a world free of Multiple Sclerosis!
I'm excited to spend the summer training for the walk in this beautiful weather! I really want you to join me - I hope to see you at Axel's Bonfire on Grand Avenue in St. Paul, otherwise, just join the team by going here.
The Scoop: Due to his excessive stage dad-ery, Jeff Archuleta (father of American Idol front runner, 17 year-old David Archuleta) has been banned from rehearsals. American Idol sources say they are under strict confidentiality and are not allowed to talk about the matter, but it is speculated that this drastic decision was made as a result of the competition last week. American Idol incurred licensing costs for the use of Sean Kingston'**** "Beautiful Girls" when Jeff Archuleta insisted that his son use the lyrics during his performance of "Stand By Me" (which is sampled in the Kingston hit).
Colleen says: Oh, stage parents. Having been involved in performing from a very young age, I have encountered countless stage parents. Here's the difference between an involved parent and a stage parent: involved parents support their kids, they volunteer to do things like sew costumes, take part in fund-raising, and any other services that they can provide for the good of the entire group. A stage parent does none of that, they only make a whole lot of noise about their own child. They constantly push their children to be the best, better than everyone else, what they wish they could have been.
This is my favorite thing that stage parents do - they mirror their child's performance while they are doing it. If you've never seen this, I'll do my best to explain it. They literally do their own little mini-performance of what their child is doing opposite their child. They excuse it by calling it "supportive" or "helpful", it's really sad... like they are re-living their own stage dreams that didn't pan out. They look like little puppeteers.
I had heard that David Archuleta had a stage dad. I was bummed because David is so talented, and one thing I know about kids with stage parents, they don't succeed without the direct involvement of their parents. Or, if they do, they will go absolutely crazy without their parents pulling the strings of their careers (I'm not naming any names, Britney Spears). I'm actually anxious to see how David does without his father influencing his every move. Stage parents are almost impossible to please because it has nothing to do with the kids - it has to do with what the parents wish they could have become or what kind of credit they can take for their kid's talent. What a mess.
Here's my unpopular opinion: I think all parents have a wee bit of stage parent in us. (Yes, I'm including myself). What I mean is, I think we all make the mistake of thinking that our children are a complete reflection of us. If they are "good" - that's because we taught them to be good, and if they are "bad" - we have no idea what went wrong, but we didn't raise them that way. The notion of free will or individual personality get lost in this, but I believe it's one of the reasons parents are so hard on themselves. It's a slippery slope when it comes to our children to expect them to be perfect reflections of us. Certainly we all feel good when we hear a compliment that our child is so well behaved, or that they look just like us, but it's important to remember that if they are naughty - it's not our fault. We do our best to correct the problem, we discipline, we have our talks, but they ultimately are responsible for how they respond. This is why I get really chapped when people blame the parents for every bad decision a child makes (I mean specifically older children who presumably have impulse control).
I'm still pulling for David Archuleta (now more than ever).
And I'm entertaining any great stage parent stories!
The Scoop: Heather Mills (formerly of McCartney fame) is reportedly in talks to join the cast of the next Celebrity Apprentice. The show will once again be fronted by business tycoon, Donald Trump. This would not be the first reality show for Mills, she was contestant on Dancing With the Stars during the show's fourth season.
Colleen says:
Are we done with regular Apprentice? Are we going for another round of Celebrity Apprentice because the first round didn't do its job of boosting ratings? That makes sense.
This show is going to end up on VH1 Celeb-reality in a heartbeat.
I don't look forward to this attempt at career revival at all.
Remember when the Apprentice was good? That one season?
The Scoop: Will Ferrel and director Adam McKay are planning to reprise the role of 1970s news anchor Ron Burgundy in Anchorman 2. McKay told website collider.com that the two are "dying to do it" and that the only thing that would stop them from recreating the role would be if the original cast would not sign on. Ferrel and McKay don't seem to be worried because they are all good friends.
Colleen says: I'm so on the fence here. I generally think sequels are lame. I'd rather jus****ch the original Anchorman over and over again.
However, I LOVE WILL FERREL (there... I said it). Not everyone loves him, and you're entitled to your own opinion, but I can't get enough of him. I'd totally see the movie, and then I'll just talk about how the first on was better. That seems painless.
In any case, whenever I see these movies where you can tell the whole cast is really tight and that most of the funny parts of the movie came from them screwing around on set, I think about how fun it would be to work in that type of creative environment. It must not feel too much like work. These guys are doing what they are passionate about - being funny on film, and they are having fun doing it. I bet they don't wake up in the morning and say things like, "I have to work today," or "work is really stressing me out." Sure, they have pressure like everyone else does, deadlines and whatnot, but they are doing what they love.
I think everyone has the potential to get there. Okay, maybe not there... I don't think we all have the potential to be in Anchorman. I think we all have the potential to find a job that doesn't feel like work. A job that feeds us spiritually and not just puts food on the table. We all deserve that! Fear is what gets in the way of our taking the leap. What would you do if you knew that you could not fail? Why aren't you doing it? It doesn't have to be your profession or your only source of income - it just has to be there, to quell the stress of the rest of life. Get out there and get passionate!
