Whatever the case, it’s a full 180 for Hanks, who released this statement through his lawyer:

“‘Having had an opportunity to view the camera footage of the incident this past Thursday … , I have come to the conclusion that no matter what my feelings are towards Sarah Palin, I should not have expressed them towards her daughter, Bristol Palin,’ Hanks said in a statement released by his attorney Tuesday.

‘I am very passionate about politics, and believe in equality for all Americans,’ Hanks continued. ‘I expressed my feelings in an improper manner in the heat of the moment, and allowed my emotions to get the better of me.’”

Clearly Hanks has learned a valuable lesson. Don’t say mean things about people you don’t know. And, if you are going to say those things, don’t say them about a celeb who has fans so passionate that they’ll watch an entire season of Dancing With the Stars.

Those people are cur-razy.

You can watch the video of the original encounter below:

When questioned by the interviewer whether it was acceptable to heckle a 21-year-old girl, Hanks said she was fair game because she was an adult and was in the public eye. Hanks was taken aback by her accusation that the reason he didn’t like her mom was because he had to be a homosexual, which he deemed “very derogatory.”

“She comes from a home where gays are made fun of, where blacks are probably made fun of,” Hanks fumed. “She’s a racist homophobe, in my opinion.”

“Some people may think I crossed the line, some people may think I didn’t go far enough,” Hanks added.

Watch the interview below, via TMZ:

(h/t TMZ)

Whoo! It’s Everyone Sucks Friday here at Mediaite, isn’t it?

Anyway, so here’s what happened. Bristol Palin is apparently filming a reality show (yes, everything about this story is completely disgusting) and was getting some footage at the Saddle Ranch on LA’s Sunset Strip. After she rode a mechanical bull and hung out with her friends for a while (God, reality shows are fascinating), she got accosted by some guy who starts yelling at her, asking if she rode Levi like she did the bull.

Bristol actually does a good job keeping her composure as the man yells in her face, trying to calmly ask him why he hates her mother. He comes up with some totally brilliant reasons (“She lives! She breathes!”. Then, however, Bristol decides to come up with her own and asks the guy if he hates her mother because he is “a homosexual.”

Basically the discourse between the drunk jackass at the bar and the teenaged reality show star is about as mature as one would imagine it to be. Ugh.

Of course, there is the possibility that the guy was a plant and this was a fabricated altercation to stir up excitement for the show, but I’m going to tell myself that isn’t true. Not because it’s unlikely, but because the idea of the show’s producers writing the script for this scene (“Ooh! Make him gay! And he should call Sarah Palin a whore!”) is somehow more depressing than the idea of it being real.

Anyway, watch the video below. I’m going to go watch this video a couple thousand times until I feel clean again.

(h/t TMZ)

Bristol and Johnston’s story has been told a lot of different ways now — by Bristol, by Levi, by Sarah Palin and the tabloids — each time pointedly and baring intention. And while both Bristol and Levi have been open about mistakes they’ve made (for Bristol, there were those “girly tasting” wine coolers; and Johnston, it seems, was not well versed in contraceptive), this is the first time it’s been suggested that the two might have decided together: “Let’s get pregnant!”

And so he-said, she-said and maybe this conversation actually did happen! What’s it matter at this point, though, if it was “all her idea”? His assumption that the pregnancy was meant by Bristol to serve revenge seems like a certain disavowal of responsibility on his part, like a perhaps Freudian misinterpretation of mother-daughter jealousies, and like an attempt to further stir the Palin pot — which, truthfully, has kept him fed and with publishers all these years later. It all doesn’t seem so much vindictive on his part as it does typically jejune — much like the rest of the young parent’s spits that have drawn so much attention.

Dancing With The Stars

Today, ABC announced the line-up for the upcoming (and 13th) season. The 12 “celebrity” crew, motley as ever, includes George Clooney‘s ex-girl friend Elizabetta Canalis, Kardashian brother Rob, and Casey Anthony obsessive Nancy Grace, among others. And with the competition still several weeks away, the announcement page has already attracted hundreds and hundreds of commenters, the majority of whom seem concerned to see Chaz Bono‘s name on the list.

Bono, Sonny and Cher’s only child, was born a woman but has since legally changed his name and gender. He has said in the past that his decision to change genders was “a last ditch effort,” and that he “needed a male body” and that he had “underestimated the [positive] impact my transition would have.” Now, his inclusion on the popular show makes him one of the most visible transgendered people, a position that he seems to be slowly coming around to.

DWTS viewers will have to come around as well. The hoards of angry and offended commenters swarming ABC’s announcement page voiced concern that “this will not be a family show any longer,” “anyone that obese and physically grotesque is no picnic to watch trying to dance,” and “I just don’t want that lifestyle choice continually flaunted in the media.” While many more commenters took up Bono’s defense, plenty claimed they would be abstaining from this cycle of competition.

With their complaints, these vocal fans have broken through the show’s be-sequined gleam, underneath which we find a much darker fabric, woven with not just dance and smiles, but also intolerance and politic. A dance competition it might be, but light fare this is not. Nor is this the first time a competition show has drawn-up such feelings. As Tim Molloy points out on The Wrap,

“Gay American Idol contestants have opted out to announce their sexuality, perhaps out of concern about alienating intolerant viewers. And Bristol Palin’s Dancing casting two seasons ago led many to vote for or against her based on her mother’s politics. If Americans quickly vote Bono off the show — or keep him on despite a middling performance, as they did with Palin — it could reveal plenty about attitudes toward transgendered people.”

An audience’s pre-existing values tend to influence the way they watch– and the way they vote. It will be interesting to see if Bono’s effort, for which he’s already begun training, will actually have an effect on ratings.

In an official statement, GLAAD suggests that the inclusion of Bono, along with former Queer Eye Carson Kressley, has “created prime-time firsts that reflect the growing acceptance of gay and transgendered people in America today.”

H/T The Wrap

Johnston alleges that Track Palin, the elder (and rarely seen) son of Sarah Palin, was forced by his mother to enter the army once she was announced as John McCain‘s running mate in 2008. One possible reason Palin wanted her son out of the way? Mercede says that Track, whom she dated briefly, “did OxyContin but mostly cocaine.” She adds that Bristol, with whom her brother has a young child, is a “sociopath” who would routinely steal her parents’ credit cards, send nude photos to admirers and use poor, poor Levi as a prop:

She literally took Levi from a hunting trip and flew him to the Republican convention. He didn’t have a choice. … She doesn’t care, as long as she’s going to the top. But it’s screwed my whole family up. Levi was a prop, and once they didn’t need him he was out the door.

Mercede also claims that Bristol and Levi had been trying to conceive “for months,” and that their teen pregnancy was, in fact, very much planned.

And then there’s this (anonymous) claim about Sarah herself, via The Fix:

The Playboy story goes on to recount much sketchier allegations against Sarah Palin, who is still debating a presidential run. The author cites an anonymous source who “makes the incredible claim to have snorted coke with [Sarah] at the Mug Shot [a local bar in Wasilla] and points to the very spot on the bar where said lines were cut up.”

Ok then!

Whatever Track did or did not do in his spare time in the past, however, he’s guaranteed a busy future: Reporter Joe McGinniss, who is writing a book about the Palins, blogged that the 22-year-old and his wife, Britta, welcomed their first child this weekend. Track is now father to a little girl — Kyla Grace Palin. So far, the couple has not released photographs of their new child.

h/t The Fix and People.com

Maher began his monologue with a Rep. Bachmann migraine joke, and a fairly mild one at that. Sometimes, she is incapacitated as much as once a week, reports say, but Maher added– “Even scarier news– sometimes she’s perfectly fine.” He then added a pretend good-natured “I kid the MILFs of the Republican right” before going after Palin for her son Track‘s new child.

“Sarah Palin in the news this week– became a grandmother again, or for the first time, who knows?” he joked, likely a reference to the conspiracy theories surrounding the birth of her fifth son Trig, though if alluding to that, this would be Palin’s “third” grandchild, so the joke didn’t exactly make sense. He clarified that the child was not Bristol‘s, and then added exasperatedly, “do they not have condoms up there? When they say ‘don’t retreat, reload,’ they are not fucking around.” And, as no Palin bashing is complete without an intellect joke, he concluded, “If Bristol Palin really wanted to teach her family about abstinence, maybe the place to put that information wasn’t a book.”

The segment via HBO below:

It appears it wasn’t as much the content of what he said that he regretted, but that he entered into an arena he didn’t need to. He tells GQ that he isn’t a “political comic” and that he always liked having credibility with the right wing and getting good notices from people like Andrew Breitbart (For instance, unlike many other edgy comics these days, some of C.K.’s best television appearances are on the Middle America-favoring Tonight Show while this typically thoughtful scene from his own show depicts the arrogance and silliness of both political spectrums). Therefore, he hated that Big Hollywood was now pegging him as some kind of “gatekeeper of Obama.” He also explains that the only angry letter he’s ever responded to was from a Palin fan and father of a Down Syndrome afflicted child.

Don’t think, however, that this means C.K.’s gone soft on Palin herself. He’s still not a fan:

“We sat there suspended for a moment in earnestness, looking at each other over the table like, Life, huh? It’s just a bunch of relentless punches to the junk. And then he added: ‘All that other shit, though, saying Palin had a Chinese family in her vagina and whatever, I don’t regret that. It’s comedy. I have said many indefensible things onstage. It’s fucking comedy. Plus, I do believe if she got elected, she’d really Hitler up the place.’”

It’s an interesting read from an interesting man and you should check it out. And, once again, if you’re not watching his FX show yet, you’re the one who should be apologizing in nationally-published magazines.

Watch the clip with Bristol from NBC below:

About that night, Pinsky presses Palin on whether the sex was consensual, or, perhaps, date rape. Asking about Palin’s intoxication, he says “in California, that would be a rape. Is it the same in Alaska?” Later, he asks “did it feel like a rape?” Palin insists she consented, and points to staying with Levi Johnston as proof–something Pinsky suggests many teens do.

The interview airs tonight at 9 p.m. on HLN.

Watch it here, from HLN:

We might as well be doing good things. And, hopefully, with my book and with this new show coming up, it’ll be doing good, positive, productive things.

The next show that I’m going to be doing will be with Chris and Kyle Massey and we’re going to be doing a reality show and it’s charity-based and it’s going to be out of California.

The internet helpfully informs us that Kyle Massey is a Disney Channel star that you might recognize from such shows as Cory in the House and That’s So Raven. His older brother, Chris Massey, has acted on Nickelodeon’s Zoey 101, once home to another famous young mom, Jamie Lynn Spears. An attempt to appeal to a younger demographic, perhaps?

Bristol shares that her son, Tripp, will also be featured on the new show and that the experience will teach him “to give back.” It’s due to air this November on Biography.

Take a look at her full interview, via Fox News:

Rickles went utterly berserk when Palin recounted the story of sneaking out of her home and losing her virginity while drunk. Later, Leno asked Palin if she knew her mother’s decision on whether or not she’d be running for President. The younger Palin had gotten into a bit of trouble for her previous comments about this very topic but, this time around, she kept relatively mum:

You know, I don’t know. It’s something that we’ve definitely addressed, but it’s just up to her, ultimately.

When Leno followed up by asking if there was any reason Sarah Palin shouldn’t run, Rickles jumped in immediately: “Because she could lose.”

Rickles continued injecting humor into an otherwise mild interview by dramatically rolling his eyes when Leno asked whether Sarah Palin’s kids were “stunned” when they discovered their mother had been chosen to be John McCain‘s running mate in 2008.

Now, we previously hoped that, based on their chemistry and banter, Ed Schultz and Micheal Steele would get a show together. And that’s inching ever closer to reality. So, now: Can Rickles and Palin have a show together? Pretty please?

Watch the clip, courtesy of NBC:

Walters first addresses the already much discussed issue of Palin’s intoxication when she lost her virginity. Palin once again asserts that she wasn’t raped, sticking to what has almost become a script for her book tour. But then Walters dives into her most awkward statement: ”it must have been okay then, because you kept having sex with him”. Gah! Palin doesn’t falter though, saying, “we did it that one night and I just figured you know, if I did it once I guess it’s okay to do it again because I’d already broken my moral code.”

She then goes on to say that she will not have sex again before marriage, to which Walters counters with “so let’s say there’s no one you’re really crazy about until you’re 30″ to which Palin obviously says she’ll wait for that special someone.

As someone who is closer to Palin’s age than Walters’, I can’t help but find this segment pretty cringe worthy. It’s like your Grandma asking you about sex! My insides are curling up in shame just thinking about being in Bristol’s place. But Palin handles herself pretty well and is actually relatable. Who hasn’t endured an awkward sex talk? At least most of us haven’t had to deal with the humiliation of doing so on live television.

Check out every seat shiftingly uncomfortable moment below:

Ablow wonders whether Maher’s diatribe stems from an overarching hatred of women.

This guy needs his head examined, so it’s good that you called me in. Bottom line is, here’s a guy… You have to understand, her book is called Not Afraid of Life. Here’s a guy who never saw a life he didn’t question. For euthanasia. For the death penalty. For abortion. This is somebody who’s not affiliated with life at all. No children. So you have to look at him and say, “You know what, why is he so hostile toward women?” He has a deep-seated, it seems, hatred, to some extent, of women. Frequents the Playboy Mansion. All the girls that he dates – the women he dates – they have to be supermodels.

Bottom line is, you really have to wonder: Is he projecting onto her?

Ablow also notes that Maher “is very much divorced” from the “beauty” of birth, as evidenced by his comment about a baby “falling out” of Bristol, and that he seems to want to believe that “all women are sluts,” and so wouldn’t be able to believe that Bristol slept with her boyfriend out of anything other than lust.

Now, I’m generally not a fan of armchair psychology, because so much of it is based on pure speculation. Besides, it’s difficult, if not completely impossible, to gauge whether pundits like Maher are being completely genuine, or whether they are making wild, broad, sensational statements to drum up viewership or sell books or push movie tickets. Maybe Maher is a corrupt, twisted creep of a person whose heart resembles the floor of a Coney Island public restroom during the height of summer. Or maybe he’s a thoughtful and intelligent but somewhat ruthless individual who wants to play his viewers and others in the media to his benefit.

Suffice to say: His comments about Bristol don’t help his case, nor do they help his image. If this young woman and her mother are, as his weary head shakes and dramatic sighing seem to indicate, so silly and frivolous and unworthy of the attention they receive, why dedicate time to eviscerating the sexual experiences of a girl looking back on her teen years?

Look, I don’t know whether Maher hates women. I don’t know if he has deep-seated mother issues, or if he’s replete with self-loathing. And I don’t care. The psychology behind Maher’s comments is not the issue. Maher is simply a symptom of the culture we live in, where pundits are permitted – and expected – to hate others because they hate their political beliefs or what they represent. His comments don’t have anything to do with him as a person, and they likely have nothing to do with Bristol herself. This is simply a case of ideologically opposed public figures playing their parts to entertain an audience. And people like Maher will continue to feed into this cycle until viewers decide to change the channel. Until then, he’ll continue to say hateful and sometimes cringe-inducingly awkward things about the sexual proclivities of a teenage girl, and strangers will attempt to give him psychiatric assessments without ever having spoken with him.

Instead of bread and circuses, we have Triple Double Oreos and Real Time with Bill Maher. Slightly less blood, but just as gruesome.

Watch the segment, via Fox News:

Palin’s visit to Iowa has prompted a new wave of questions about her presidential aspirations, as some in the state have suggested she would be taking the opportunity to meet with certain caucus-goers.

Singleton, who is the driving force behind Organize4Palin, told the British paper that now is the ideal time for Palin to run:

She’s the right person at this time. If you look back at Churchill’s time, in 1938 Churchill was unelectable, in 1940 he was indispensable.

I can’t see her sitting this one out. The stakes are too high. It goes back to 1940. Can you see Churchill sitting it out? It’s unthinkable. Can you see George Washington in 1776 sitting it out? Unthinkable. He wanted to be back on his farm but they said we need you to be president of the republic.

The paper also offers a revealing look at Palin’s reaction to comments her eldest daughter, Bristol, made to the hosts of Fox News’ Fox & Friends. You’ll recall that Bristol, who is making the media rounds to promote her new book, shared that her mother “definitely knows” whether or not she’ll run in 2012, but that “some things just need to stay in the family.”

Palin offered her response to her daughter’s “revelation:”

I texted Bristol, I said, “Honey, what did you say this morning on some news program?”

She said, “Oh, mom, you’ve got to watch the interview. You know how they take everything out of context.” I said, “You remember Bristol what we talk about on the fishing boat stays on the fishing boat.” I don’t know what she said.

As for the woman at the center of all this speculation? Palin is still keeping mum about her plans.

h/t The Telegraph

I think she dresses a lot like my mom. But a lot, a lot of women have done that the last few years. I do think it’s odd, you know, seeing people with red blazers with their hair up with glasses.

I don’t know if she’s wearing glasses but you want to be “Hummmm, do you think that people don’t notice you’re dressing like my mom?”

Oh, girl.

h/t Popeater

And in this interview she didn’t hesitate to say she “absolutely” wants her mother to run for President, specifically because their family will always get attention regardless, so they might as well do something good along the way. Yet even though the million dollar question of whether or not Sarah actually will run remains a mystery, Bristol provides one interesting nugget on whether or not her mother has made a decision:

“You know, she definitely knows. We’ve talked about it before. But some things just need to stay in the family.”

Brian Kilmeade eager for more information, joked in response “consider us family.” Therefore to recap, Bristol wants Sarah to run, and the Palin family already knows what Sarah’s decision will be. The only question remains is when Sarah shares that news with the rest of us? And yes, everyone is anxiously waiting.

Watch the clip from Fox News below:

“You have a pretty gutsy family,”Hannity told he as he began his interview, confessing that, while he was “really dumb” as a teenager, he would never reveal the mistakes he made in his youth in the book the way the younger Palin has. Palin explained that she saw her book as a form of service: “I know that putting it all out there… that will eventually help somebody.” She noted that she made many mistakes and “owns up” to them, clarifying once again that, while admitting she remembered little about her son’s conception, “I’m not accusing Levi [Johnston] of rape or anything like that,” but just analyzing her behavior “through older and wiser eyes.”

Hannity also asked her about her relationship to Meghan McCain during 2008, and Palin was very quick to distance herself. “We come from two completely different worlds,” she said of Sen. John McCain‘s daughter, noting that, unlike McCain, “I do things for myself. I’ve had a job since I was really little.” She also mentioned the fact that her hobbies were far different from McCain’s: “I don’t know if she goes out hunting and fishing and stuff like that.”

While the odds of Palin having to interact with McCain anytime soon are slim, the political world may be at her doorstep still, as she said she wold “absolutely” campaign for her mother should she decide to run, a decision that has yet to be made publicly. “What happens at our kitchen table stays at our kitchen table.”

The segment via Fox News below:

Palin is addressing those concerns, telling USA Today that the drunken encounter was “a dumb decision,” and sharing that she had agreed to it with the hope that she and Johnston would one day marry:

I’m not accusing Levi of date rape by any means. I’m just honestly looking back on it with the eyes of an adult. That was five years ago, and I’m realizing that it was a dumb decision.

She also offers a revealing glimpse into the new career that ultimately stemmed from her decision to have premarital sex with Johnston – that of the poster girl for abstinence:

I hate the word abstinence. My mom knows I hate that word, everyone knows I hate that word. People think that I’m just “abstinence only, do not have sex.” No. If you’re going to have sex, practice safe sex. But the best option to prevent teen pregnancy is to not have sex.

Of course, simply because Palin now describes that first encounter as a “decision” and not rape does not necessarily mean Alaska statutes concerning sexual offenses agree that she was capable and legally able of giving her consent.

Take a look at video from Palin’s USA Today interview:

Thank you to reader Cory for the tip.

Yes, thanks to the Dancing with the Stars appearances and this new book and the like, Bristol Palin is very much a public figure, and criticism comes with the territory. But this was more than criticism, and occasionally it hit uncomfortable territory. For example, Bristol Palin’s book inspired this op-ed, but Maher’s opening salvo was:

“Bristol Palin has to admit that the reason she fucked Levi over and over until a baby fell out is because she liked it.”

Emphasis ours. Judging by that linked Washington Post column, Maher’s trivializing of the Palin-Levi situation may have been a serious misstep. And the segment kept being somewhat squirm-inducing, with Maher cracking that the working title of the book was Whoops, There’s A Dick In Me. Maher even took the shine off one of the better jokes (“They’re not birth control pills if they’re shaped like Fred Flintstone“) by including a patronizing “hon” before delivering it.

And yet…we were left torn by the clip you’ll see below, because for all the uneasy moments, as far as the actual jokes themselves went (especially after the Bristol stuff ended), this was one of the better Real Time segments you’ll see. There was a natural flow to the proceedings – one gag led into another smoothly, and many of those gags hit the mark.

There was the mocking the early stages of the last Republican presidential debate for turning into a contest to see “who’s made more babies than an Al Green CD on repeat.” There was the line about how if the Duggar family (stars of this program) had 19 cats instead of kids, “their show would be called Hoarders.” We’re just afraid that the Bristol Palin vitriol reached such a level that no one will care about anything else. Video, via HBO:

Every time we saw Meghan, she seemed to be constantly checking us out, comparing my family to hers and complaining. Oh the complaining.

That pot and kettle look kind of cozy together, no?

Bristol also has a healthy dose of ire reserved for McCain’s mother, Cindy McCain who, she shares, offered to be the godmother of her child, a move that rubbed Bristol the wrong way. She adds that the McCains often traveled with lots and lots of Louis Vuitton luggage, various cell phones, and a slew of helpers and assistants.

In her book, Bristol also reveals that, though underage, she had been drunk on wine coolers when she lost her virginity to then-boyfriend Levi Johnston. ” I didn’t know,” she writes, “that girly flavored wine coolers were just as likely to get you drunk as the hard stuff.” She notes that the two remained intimate despite having pledged to stop, and that Johnston cheated on her often throughout their tumultuous relationship. When he learned she was expecting a child, he simply said that it “had better be a [fish]ing boy.”

But the book isn’t all criticism and gossip. On a more positive note, Bristol devotes some page space to chronicling her charitable work:

Palin describes seeing an 8-month-old boy at a cholera treatment center whose mother had recently passed away. The baby’s father was caring for him and six other children. She writes, “I could tell by his emotion and urgency that he was trying to give the baby up for a chance at life.”

“I actually offered to take the baby home,” she continues, “but you obviously can’t just pick up a child and take him out of the country! (It felt wrong to leave him there, though, whatever ‘the system.’)”

Will you be picking up Palin’s book?

h/t ABC News

Hot off her star turn on ABC’s Dancing with the Stars, Bristol Palin has landed her own show. Or, as the New York Post puts it, “Bristol Palin’s assault on the reality show world continues.”

BIO has announced the deal, describing the latest Palin family TV adventure as a 10-episode half hour series (sadly, it’s still untitled) that puts single mom Bristol in Los Angeles, where she cares for son Tripp, works at a charity, and lives–seriously–with two former child stars turned singers:

Cameras will bring viewers an exclusive look at Bristol’s private life, the network says.

“Her personal life has been playing out in the media for several years, but this will be the first time she’s opening up her real life, with her son and her friends the Massey Brothers,” A&E and BIO’s executive vice president of programming David McKillop said in a statement.

According to a source within the WHCA, the demand for tickets to this year’s dinner was at an all-time high, with 360 requests for tables submitted, out of only 262 available tables. The demand was so high that some dues-paying members of the Association weren’t even able to get a single seat, although the source says these were all organizations that only signed up recently. “We can’t have people joining just so they can go to the dinner.”

The WHCA accepts applications, and checks, for whatever the number of seats requested, then divvies them up according to several factors. WHCA board members get first dibs, followed by those organizations which participate most heavily in pool coverage, and those that travel most frequently with the President. This can lead to some unhappy campers, as World Net Daily‘s 2010 lawsuit illustrates. WND requested three tables to fete correspondent Les Kinsolving, but was only granted two tickets. Kinsolving, the second most senior correspondent, will not be attending this year.

Of those members who do get to attend, many have had to scale back their own guest list to accommodate larger outlets, who can lock up as many as seventeen seats, many for non-press interlopers like Justin Bieber, Alec Baldwin, and Bristol Palin. While not the most egalitarian approach, such star wattage helps to make the dinner a buzzworthy affair.

For the workhorses who actually cover the White House, the dinner is something of a mixed bag. CBS radio’s Mark Knoller, a Twitter superstar and leading contender for Press Corps “Dean,” relishes the “chance to see old friends and colleagues,” but in addition to the perpetual nightmare of parking in DC, doesn’t care for “the Golden Globes aspect of the dinner. Unless I get Anne Hathaway to be my guest.”

Mother Jones‘ David Corn isn’t a big fan of the overcrowding, or the strained availability of tickets. Asked why he thinks the dinner is such a hot ticket for celebs, Corn theorizes, “Their lives are empty and meaningless? Or could it be the food?”

Perhaps the toughest cookie in the press corps, AURN’s April Ryan, looks forward to the dinner as a welcome reward for hard work. “It is really like a break after a continual study for what seems like a masters degree that never comes. We have to know every topic daily in a matter of minutes, and then pepper the President and/or administration officials for answers that matter to the public.”

For Ryan, the worst thing about the dinner is the “curse” of a glamorous night. “About 5 thousand people are packed into very small rooms for pre receptions trying to make it down the hall without getting your gown stepped on, or stepping on another fabulous creation.”

She doesn’t see a problem with the megawatt guest list, either. “Since I have been covering the White House for the past 14 years, it has alway been a major deal for politics and Hollywood to meet,” she says. “They follow us and we follow them. It seems like the natural order of things to me.”

Ryan doesn’t agree with critics of the dinner’s glitzier aspects, and notes the positive effects of such luminaries on the coverage of the dinner. “People come me out in large groups and wait in the Hotel lobby to see their favorite celebrity, and all the entertainment cameras are there, and the event is being aired on C-SPAN.  And, has anyone stopped to think some of the celebrities may actually have a connection with some Correspondents?”

Progressive radio host Bill Press, part of the “Professional Left” clique (along with Corn) in the briefing room, sees the dinner as a unique opportunity. “Last year, I met Joy Behar. I’m a huge fan. Since then, I’ve been on her show several times, and she’s been on mine. Great networking!”

Not every celeb sighting is a joy, though. Press’least favorite part of the event is “running into total jerks who don’t belong there and should never have been invited, like Donald Trump. I also don’t like seeing people I otherwise admire make whores out of themselves by inviting jerks like Donald Trump.”

Inevitably, events like these lead to criticisms that the press corps is “too cozy” with the administration it covers. Knoller allows that “In some cases, the criticism is right on target,” but others, like Corn, scoff at the idea.

“It’s very difficult to be cozy in a room full of 3000 people,” Corn begins. “In other words, I don’t think the media swallowed the Bush administration’s bogus case for war in Iraq because once a year reporters shared an evening in a cavernous ballroom with a handful of government officials who misrepresented intelligence to push a phony argument for the invasion.”

Huffington Post’s Jon Ward, late of The Daily Caller and The Daily, thinks the criticism is just overblown. “I like parties,” he says. “Parties are good. People who get all tense about parties maybe need to go to more of them.”

Press sees the criticism as sour grapes. “Those who criticize dinner as administration getting too cozy with media are those who couldn’t score a ticket,” Press says, adding, “Frankly, I’d rather see more people from administration and fewer from soap operas.”

If anything, the dinner is a demonstration of how much each White House needs the press corps, not the other way around.

The ever-increasing celebrity glare is both a blessing and a curse, raising the dinner’s profile, and with it, that of the work done by the press corps, but also diluting the journo-centric vibe of the event. Hopefully, a beneficial balance will be struck, but at the very least, we hope that folks remember this event the next time someone tries to suggest that we ain’t got no reason to live. No ticket for you!

Yeah, it looks like a person can get paid quite a bit for a little “Do as I say, not as I do” preaching.
From the Associated Press:

“Tax documents show unwed mother Bristol Palin earned more than $262,000 for her role in helping raise awareness for teen pregnancy prevention in 2009.

The most recent data for The Candie’s Foundation that’s posted online by research firm GuideStar shows compensation at $262,500 for the now-20-year-old daughter of former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice presidential nominee.”

The figure was first discovered and reported on by Palingates, the self-proclaimed “Sarah Palin Watchdog Team,” which points out that Candie’s, the clothing company that runs the foundation, is slightly less concerned about teen abstinence when they’re selling their clothes. The Palingates writers also seem to think the amount Palin is collecting is a little overly high which is clearly ridiculous. Sure, it’s a lot of money, but it’s nothing when you consider what Bristol had to do to get it. Seriously, most people would need a cool million before appearing in a skit this creepy and poorly written with The Situation.

Check out Bristol’s past appearance on The Today Show discussing her advocacy group below:

Here’s one humble suggestion. Maybe there would be fewer out-of-wedlock pregnancies if there were more sex education, including abstinence and safer sex. Even Bristol knows that.

Also, stop calling it “wedlock.” Sounds like something you get from stepping on a rusty nail.

(h/t)

Host Greg Gutfeld was particularly certain of the fact that the excuse given for her speaking event to be canceled– that the $17,500 speaking fee was too high– was a ruse to cover up political disagreement. “They pretend it’s about money,” he argued, “but really, it’s about ideology.”He also identified it as a trend against “any woman that presents a view that isn’t liberalspeak or politically correct,” both views with which he found an ally in panelist Bill Whittle. To him, for conservatives, “the wedge is going to be you’re either evil or you’re stupid” unless you’re a Palin, in which case, both. Whittle was the lone panelist to feel comfortable with the asking price on Palin as a speaker, arguing that a speaker is only worth “what a speaker draws,” and the details don’t matter to the asking price.

While most of the panel seemed comfortable with the idea of Palin speaking about abstinence, the fact that she was getting so much money out of it to begin with seemed questionable to some, namely S.E. Cupp, who summarized Palin’s career as “the definition of falling ass-backwards into money” (the panel then reflected for a moment on how nice it would feel to literally fall ass-backwards into a pile of money). Despite admitting that she supported Palin’s efforts, Cupp found the price “a little steep” and, which Gutfeld jokingly accused her of mere professional jealousy, “I have avoided getting pregnant and I want to be rewarded!”

During the Half-Time Report, Andy Levy jumped into the mix to defend Palin as a speaker from Remy Spencer, the lone panelist who objected to Palin as a speaker given her past. “Isn’t that the same as recovering drug addicts?” Levy argued, noting that one can warn others not to behave badly after having engaged in bad behavior. Spencer replied that she was uncomfortable with comparing pregnancy to drug addiction, and looked around to find a better female role model worth a $17,500 speaking fee. She didn’t have to look too far, nominating Cupp for the job (and the money, to which Cupp had no objections whatsoever).

Speaking of drugs and illegitimate pregnancies, Red Eye‘s ever-eligible Bill Schulz rounded out the segment with a friendly solicitation to “single moms out there looking for a drug addict”– “Call me, ladies!”

The panel discussion and Half-Time Report via Fox News below:

Palin was initially asked to speak about abstinence as part of the school’s “Student Sexual Responsibility Week.” Palin, as you might know, became a single mother to son Tripp at age 18, then carried out a very public break-up, engagement, and re-break-up with her child’s father, former amateur hockey player and part-time nude model Levi Johnston. As if this wasn’t enough to convince young people that abstinence is preferable to having sex with men who refer to themselves as “Ricky Hollywood,” she also commands several thousands of dollars with her speaking engagements, telling the young and impressionable to save it for marriage.

Students created a Facebook petition in their effort to have the school cancel Palin’s appearance, although they insisted that their issue was with the amount of money being spent on her talk, and not with Palin or her views – although some did have some concern about her “lack of expertise” concerning abstinence.

Instead of Palin, students had the opportunity to listen to Dr. Katie Plax, Washington University School of Medicine’s head of adolescent medicine and associate professor in its Department of Pediatrics.

Ed. note – thanks to Greta Van Susteren for graciously permitting us to to use the photo that she took!

You are a paid member of the “lame stream media” you’re always referring to, mom. Fire all of your ghost writers and tweet for yourself :(

That frowny face cuts like a mothereffing knife, Bristol.

Update: the updates to Bristol Palin’s Facebook page appear to come from an iPhone platform, and this Twitter feeds appear to be updated via Android, suggesting that that this is a fake Twitter account (unless she got a new Android phone for Christmas.)

There is definitely the possibility that Bristol’s feed was somehow hacked (which, given the mostly critical media attention the elder Palin is contending with right now, isn’t all that unlikely.) There is also a decent chance that this is not, in fact Bristol Palin’s account (though her previous tweets appear to support the fact that it is in fact hers — though at this point this is unconfirmed.)

So if in fact this Twitter feed does belong to Bristol, the statement can be read as either an impassioned plea for her mother to practice what she preaches and resist succumbing to hypocrisy, or a rather naïve Tweet by a young person unaware of the fact that her mom kind of sort of already has a lot on her plate right now without having to deal with public criticism on the part of her daughter.

If this is a fake Twitter account, then the individual behind it is brilliant for developing a rather ingenious “long con.”

Sarah Palin’s own Twitter account has been quiet in the wake of this weekend’s shooting in Tucson, Arizona save for a link to her official Facebook page, on which the former Governor issued an open letter of condolence to the victims.

Screen capture of the tweet:

Griffin said she particularly hopes get conservative-leaning “View” co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck‘s attention’s in the hopes of becoming a “Hot Topic” on the daytime talk show, which consists of women yelling, often about things.. A noble goal, certainly.

Particularly interesting to us was Griffin’s admission that her mother believes she is dating Fox News Channel’s O’Reilly. Time to break out the mistletoe.

Watch the clip from CBS Late Late Show with Craig Ferguson Below:

Kathy Griffin getting booed by troops for calling Bristol Palin “The White Precious” below:

(h/t NewsBusters)

The caption says Palin “has her hair done” during the visit, but another photo reveals that the alleged “hairdresser” was actually Bristol Palin. However, while Palin may have a point about the coverage surrounding her trip, I think she’s off-base about the photo.

AP writers took pains to point out that Palin’s visit was “tightly stage-managed,” and that she “avoid(ed) crowds and the press,” and that she was accompanied by Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren. Given that they had little access to Palin, there wasn’t much else for them to report, but Palin could certainly be forgiven for taking exception to the “stage-managed” characterization.

The AP also reported that, while Palin didn’t take any questions at a press conference, she did create “confusion.”

At the news conference, Palin created some confusion when she referred to a potential drawdown of U.S. assistance to Haiti.

“I know that there’s been some discussion of U.S. aid perhaps being lifted from this area,” she said. “Again – not to get political – but if some of the politicians would come here and see the conditions, perhaps they would see a need for, say, a military airlift to come bring supplies that are so needed here.”

It was not clear what she was referring to, and a Palin spokeswoman declined to elaborate.

This could be seen as something of a “gotcha,” I suppose, since Palin’s main point here seems to be that those in power should see the situation firsthand before making (possibly hypothetical) judgments. She seems to be trying to convey how deeply the visit has affected her.

Time MagazineOnline focused on how quick Palin’s trip was, and led with the fact that she had a Fox News crew with her. The unsubtle suggestion is that Palin is opportunistically exploiting the Haiti tragedy to get some good press.

It seems to me that there are plenty of good reasons to criticize Sarah Palin, but I fail to see how her visit to Haiti falls into that category. She appears to be trying to do something good, and if you can’t bring yourself to commend her for it, you certainly shouldn’t crap on her for it. Even if all she does is get a few more dollars flowing down to Haiti, that’s more than most of us can do. If you don’t like Franklin Graham (who became a somewhat controversial figure in the “debate” over President Obama’s religion), and you can’t see past it to donate to his charity, then find one you do like.

As for Palin’s outrage over the photo, though, I think she picked the wrong battle to fight here. The caption should, indeed, be corrected, but I seriously doubt the error was deliberate. For one thing, I’ve hung out with a lot of news photographers, and they are as apolitical a bunch as you’d ever find. Shockingly so. The photographer in this case, Chery Dieu-Nalio, is a native Haitian, and probably a freelancer. There’s an excellent chance he didn’t recognize Bristol Palin, or that the photo was captioned by someone else who neglected to cross-reference the other photos to determine that it was Bristol.

Be that as it may, there is still plenty of judgment to go around, and it’s not pretty. Give her a chance to do some good.

Samaritan’s Purse posted the following video of Palin’s Haiti visit:

Update: According to a source with firsthand knowledge of Palin’s Haiti visit, the “Fox News Crew” referenced  in this AP story actually consisted of one member of Greta Van Susteren’s staff, producer Justin Wells.

Mama Grizzly Sarah takes ninth place for the highly rated premiere of Sarah Palin’s Alaska. Bristol’s best moment–dancing in a gorilla suit–got her one notch higher into eighth place. That puts both Palins ahead of “The Jersey Shore Takes Miami,” but behind such classic reality moments as The Amazing Race‘s watermelon to the face moment (5th).

Here’s the full list:

1. Simon Cowell’s American Idol sign off
2. The Real Housewives White House crashers
3. A look behind the curtain for The Hills series finale
4. The premiere of Bridalplasty
5. The Amazing Race “watermelon incident”
6. Sister Wives Investigated
7. A Death in the Family on Deadliest Catch
8. Bristol Palin Dancing in a Gorilla Suit
9. Sarah Palin’s Alaska Premiere
10. The Jersey Shore Takes Miami

Other notable names from TIME include John McCain winning “Top Tweet” for this classic: “@Sn00ki u r right, I would never tax your tanning bed! Pres Obama’s tax/spend policy is quite The Situation. but I do rec wearing sunscreen!”

And–more Palins, people–Sarah Palin and Levi Johnston took honors for “Top Feud,” and Palin won again for “Top Overreported Story” for Being Sarah Palin.