How Are Reality Stars Who Gained Fame Because of Sex Tapes Really Different Than Porn Stars?

How Are Reality Stars Who Gained Fame Because of Sex Tapes Really Different Than Porn Stars?

What do Kim Kardashian, Paris Hilton, and Kendra Wilkinson have in common with Linda Lovelace, Traci Lords and Jenna Jameson? They all made money and achieved fame because of performing sex acts on video.  The only real difference is the latter three women openly worked in the porn industry. Kardashian, Hilton and Wilkinson feigned outrage and surprise that a former partner would release sex tapes to the media – and then capitalized on the “embarrassing experience” to publicize their reality TV shows, become household names, and earn mountains of cash.

It is for this reason, more than any other, that it is truly unfathomable to me that these individuals have become media stars.  Would HLN have delayed reporting on real news to announce that a porn star had given birth?  Would countless clueless young women clamber to Sears to buy clothes designed by a porn star?  Do porn stars fill the pages of  “celebrity magazines"? I think not!  Then why do these reality TV personages who, arguably, can’t act, sing, dance, recite poetry, play a musical instrument, create anything artistic, or do anything other than shop, interest so many people?

I think I’ve answered my own question. Porn stars don’t make a fortune; they aren’t on the covers of OK or People or whatever other publications are sold at the supermarket check out line or available to peruse surreptitiously at the beauty salon or dentist’s office; stories about their giving birth does not usurp the elections in Iran; and nobody wants to follow their fashion choices.  What they do have in common is self-exploitation.  But I can respect the woman who is honest about it. 

Disgusted by the Morphing of HLN to Infotainment!

Disgusted by the Morphing of HLN to Infotainment!

For many years I relied upon CNN’s Headline News for my news fix.  While the headlines were often repetitive, the first 24/7news network provided, well, news.  Not so any more.

This morning my husband and I tuned in to HLN to see what had happened in the world while we slept.  Apparently NOTHING happened with the exception of Kim Kardashian giving birth and HLN preparing to host the Daytime Emmy awards on Sunday evening.  When did Kim Kardashian usurp hard news stories such as NSA snooping into the phone records and online social media of ordinary citizens?  And why is HLN hosting the Daytime Emmy awards? Or any awards show for that matter? 

Granted, the signs have been flashing at me for quite some time.  Did Headline News become HLN because its target audience can’t spell out the network name any longer? Or could it be because HLN no longer focuses on news? Instead, HLN provides infotainment – that tragic cross-contamination of news and entertainment, which is heavily skewed towards entertainment. Now, HLN creates its own version of news.  HLN made media stars of Casey Anthony and Jodie Arias with the nearly non-stop coverage of these cases.  HLN created the travesty of the Trayvon Martin debacle, which should have been a local story. Instead, HLN helped to create a media maelstrom that may well result in one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in recent history.  Would HLN have even noticed this shooting if the alleged vigilante had been African American and the victim Caucasian? I think not.

Ever since the network began its faux journalistic news programs such as the awful Nancy Grace and Jane Velez-Mitchell rants, I’ve started to veer away from the former CNN Headline News.

Really, if I want my daily dose of trash, I’ll read the Daily Mail! HLN – should focus on…NEWS!

Honoring My Parents Who Just Celebrated 58 Years of Marriage

Honoring My Parents Who Just Celebrated 58 Years of Marriage

My parents, Richard & Eileen Copeland, were married June 12, 1955 at St. Bridget’s Catholic Church in Logansport, Indiana.   Yesterday they celebrated their 58^th wedding anniversary. 

While they have endured their trials and tribulations over the years, they have not only survived, they have thrived. They still laugh together and actually like each other. In their years since retiring from teaching, they have embraced life to the fullest. They have traveled the world, continue to volunteer in their community, support their church, enjoy the Indianapolis symphony, love their friends and mourn their losses when they pass, exercise their bodies and minds, read voraciously, and keep positive outlooks on life.

My husband and I have often mused that we want to be like my parents when we grow up.  I admire their vitality, pragmatism, and celebration of life. My brother and I both have friends who would love to be adopted in adulthood by these two dynamic people.  Everyday that I wake up and have both of my parents in this world with me, I feel blessed.

Happy Anniversary, Mom & Dad!

Alcoholism, the Fatal Disease ~My 2nd Example in a Year

Alcoholism, the Fatal Disease ~My 2^nd Example in a Year

Last summer I wrote a sad tribute to a good friend who’d succumbed to the terrible disease of alcohol addiction, which is an insidious, progressive disease for which there is no cure, only remission.

This weekend I learned of the early death of a former significant other from alcoholism.  Like any person with an innate curiosity, a Saturday morning procrastinating to avoid beginning major preparation for the upcoming Gettysburg events, having expended my online shopping budget for the pay period, and finding nothing of interest in The Daily Mail, I decided to Google myself, my husband and people I used to know.  That is when I came upon the brief obituary of a former boyfriend that I know had at least four 4) unsuccessful stints in rehab and at least one stretch as a guest of law enforcement for failing a breathalyzer test.  But the addiction was stronger than any sense of shame, loss, health problems, family, or desire to be sober.

Because the obituary was starkly brief, listing only the dates of birth and death, I suspect the death was self-inflicted.  I was not surprised to learn of this person’s untimely death at the age of 50. 

This was an unhealthy relationship that I had before I found my own recovery in Al-Anon.  I tended to seek out troubled souls who I thought needed fixing and then try to fix them. Yikes! That was insane. Fortunately, I sought out Al-Anon for the second time. And this time I worked the program. I found a road map for healthy living, for finding my spirituality, for letting go of resentments, and for learning to care for myself. It saved me.

The experience, strength, and hope that I found in my Al-Anon groups in Frederick, Maryland helped me heal, rediscover my self-respect, and gather the strength and awareness I needed to divest myself of the unhealthy relationship. I had been afraid to break up with this individual for the fear that he would die and I would blame myself.  But I learned I don’t have the control of life or death of another human being with the disease of alcoholism. He had his higher power and I had mine. Taking care of myself meant I had to be free of the toxic relationship. So, I did what I had to do.  And ultimately, I found love, and joy and peace and serenity and contentment in a healthy relationship.

The Responsibility of a Pet Owner

The Responsibility of a Pet Owner

A man in Frederick County Virginia was sentenced to 6 months in jail for animal cruelty. In a fit or pique, he shot and killed his neighbor’s pet cat. While I applaud the judicial system for holding this individual responsible for his actions, what he did was in reality no crueler than what many irresponsibly thoughtless people do on a daily basis.

My husband and I live in the country at the intersection of two rural roads.  It seems that on a regular basis during kitten season, we find helpless kittens abandoned on our property that somehow make their way up the hill and through the woods to a welcoming bowl of food, clean water, and a safe place to hang out. Some stay permanently. Some eat, sleep and tie up their little belongings in a kerchief and move on down the road.

Today we had another refugee show up, a kitten that is barely six weeks old, scrawny, scared, hungry and looking for love. She approached the other cats in the yard that reacted with indifference, angst, or fear. She sought out Molly Cakes, who seemed to bond with the interloper a bit.

We tempted the kitten with food and captured her with a modicum of difficulty, a few hisses and scratches. We cleaned her face and gave her some canned food. We’ll quarantine her from the other cats for about 10 days. There are no fleas. If she proves healthy, we’ll take her to the vet and have her spade. She’ll have a home at the Harrington Cat Sanctuary. As my husband said, I would be deemed a crazy cat lady, but he is a kindly gentleman with a sanctuary for cats.

Today is his birthday and this kitten is God’s gift. Please, if you take an animal into your home, be prepared to care for it, make sure it does not have kittens, and understand it is a responsibility for the life of the animal. Abandoning a cat or dog or rabbit in the country is just as cruel the actions of the man going to jail for shooting his neighbor’s cat. Animal abuse and abandonment is just unacceptable.