Entertainment: March 2008 Archives

The Daily Mantra would like to applaud pop star George Michael for his appearance on Eli Stone, (which stars Johnny Lee Miller as a lawyer with a higher calling in the title role). In the past, the publicity shy singer/songwriter has even refused to promote his own records, so when he stepped into the limelight for a cameo appearance on last week's installment of the hit ABC spiritually-charged legal drama, we knew it was for reasons beyond mere music and ticket sales, for Michael is a man who knows how to use his fame wisely.

In the episode in question, Stone represents a girl who was expelled from school for protesting about its abstinence-only sex education program by playing Michael's 1987 hit "I Want Your Sex" over the speaker system during assembly. In the show, Michael comes to her rescue, and funds her legal challenge to the expulsion; In reality, the singer used the high-profile TV appearance to challenge America's hypocritical, and highly misleading, policy of abstinence only 'sex education.'

"An abstinence only 'sex education' program is an oxymoron," said Michael from the witness box. "Abstinence can only be a choice if you have all the facts." One fact that's glaringly absent from such programs is that condom use is an effective option to protect against both pregnancy and disease. The silence is deafening, not just in our schools, but in the third world, where the poorest people on our planet have paid dearly, many with their lives, thanks to the deadly combination of AIDS and our no-sex dogma, which comes hand-in-hand with all U.S. government funded sexual health programs.

The AIDS issue is very close to Michael's heart. Michael's lover, Anselmo Feleppa, died of an AIDS-related cerebral hemorrhage in March 1993. "I Want Your Sex" was released in 1987, when Michael was still firmly in the closet (the singer came out to his parents shortly after Feleppa's death, and to the public in 1998). To dispel misconceptions about the anti-promiscuity but pro-sex song, which was banned by many radio stations due to its explicit lyrics, Michael recorded a prologue for the video in which he stated "this song is not about casual sex." During one of the scenes in the steamy video, which featured celebrity make-up artist Kathy Jeung, Michael is seen writing "explore monogamy" on her body in lipstick.

"It was inspired by a relationship. Like most of my work it was autobiographical," said Michael in response to a question posed by Stone's boss and trial colleague Jordan Wethersby (played by Victor Gaber) during cross-examination about the origins of the song. When asked if the song encouraged promiscuity, Michael responded by saying, "It's just the opposite. Ironically I wrote the song about abstinence and I was very much in love with someone at the time."

"When I wrote it we were in year six of the AIDS crises, a crisis that Ronald Reagan did not even address publicly until there were over 21,000 people dead, and what the government is doing right now, funding federal programs that tell children that condoms don't work, is killing people all over again."

To quote Mr. Wethersby, "Thank you, Mr. Michael." We rest our case. How many more of us will be caught 'praying for time' with HIV-infected loved ones before the state gets the church-infected dogma out our publicly-funded education programs and lets pragmatism take its course.

Love Guru Pitka introduces the Laws of Happiness from his forthcoming book If You're Happy and You Know It . . . Think Again in this Mini Sutra #1 video short.


Mariska Hargitay

Some light-hearted enlightenment courtesy of The Love Guru, a.k.a. Pitka (a.k.a. Mike Myers).


Click HERE if you want to skip the enlightenment and head straight for the "curious vibrations."


We'll have more valuable lessons from Pitka tomorrow.

Talk about mixed messages. The rather inappropriately named Arts & Education channel is promoting the new series of Gene Simmons' Family Jewels with the tag line "One man, 4800 women?" Ironically the promotional campaign for the third series, which starts tonight, kicked into high gear (with the release of the rather sick widget pictured below which compares the mating habits of several animals, including Simmons) the same day a government CDC report came out that revealed that one in four teenage girls has an STD. The results are even more shocking when you consider that only 50% of the girls surveyed even admitted to having sex. The statistics were even worse for African American female teens, with nearly half having an STD (think about it, that means that statistically speaking 100% of black teenage girls who admit to being sexually active have an STD).

"The national policy of promoting abstinence-only programs is a $1.5 billion failure, and teenage girls are paying the real price," said Planned Parenthood Federation of America president Cecile Richards in an AP interview. While our schools and doctors operate a "don't ask don't tell policy" due to confidentiality concerns, since parents would have to be told of any positive STD results, America's teens are having sex, picking up potentially life-threatening diseases, and find it hard-to-almost-impossible to get treatment because of our current laws, and the fear of church-driven parental retribution. This mass head-in-the-sand policy is clearly not working, and in the meantime we have A&E glorifying one gross (male) individual’s inordinate amount of sexual conquests, while promoting a reality TV show about a family. Don't get me wrong, I'm no prude, but we need a reality check, some balance, and some real arts and education here.

As we previously reported, Paris Hilton was only acting spiritual when she went out on the town in West Hollywood last Saturday night with a suspicious looking personal guru in tow. The shaman was soon revealed to be a shyster, a bit part actor whose previous credits include CSI, My Name Is Earl, and, our favorite, The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. Very spiritual.

Turns out the whole stunt was set up by Punk'd star Ashton Kutcher for a new TV show he's producing that premieres on E! this Sunday. The eight part series, entitled Pop Fiction, offers celebs the chance to turn the tables on the paparazzi.

In an interview with USA Today, Kutcher's Pop Fiction production partner, Jason Goldberg, claims that about twenty celebrities, including several A-listers, were in on the joke, and participated in similar stunts, though he's being tight lipped as to the names. He says that interest amongst stars wishing to exact sweet revenge on the out-of-control media was "pretty heavy."

"You're speaking their language. We live in a culture that's driven by media and obsessed with celebrity, to the point where they don't have private lives anymore," said Goldberg. "Two people going out to eat turns into, 'They're engaged.' It's a feeding frenzy. It's dangerous and it's irresponsible in some cases."

Goldberg claims that many media outlets have been duped over recent months, so it'll be interesting to see which stories we've read turn out to be fakes. Perhaps this explains Mike Huckabee's presidential candidacy, since surely that was never anything more than a joke.

"We're having fun," says Goldberg, "but we want to say to people, 'Can you really believe everything you read and see?' "

Quirky Icelandic singer Bjork set Chinese chatrooms alight after she shouted "Tibet...Tibet" at the end of a performance of her rousing song "Declare Independence" at a show at the Shanghai International Gymnastic Center last night (March 3, 2008).

The song was originally written about the Faroe Islands and Greenland (who are bound to Denmark), and features the lyrics, "Start your own currency/ Make your own stamp/ Protect your language / Declare independence/ Don't let them do that to you."

Danwei.org, an English language site, translated some of the comments from angry Chinese fans. "If she was yelling free Shanghai, that would be great! Free Shanghai! Free Shanghai!" said one fan. "Those who put on the show should be severely fined and not allowed to bring this kind of trash in for performances," wrote another forum participant.

An earlier dedication of the same song to Kosovo during shows in Tokyo last month led to the rescinding of an invitation to perform at the Exit Festival in Serbia. While it's unlikely Bjork will be invited back to China anytime soon, it seems her comments did serve a purpose. "I don't understand, why do Western stars give a shit about Tibet. Isn't Tibet ours?" wrote one confused Chinese concertgoer. Inspiring people to ask the right questions is a good place to start, and is the intension behind much good, bad, ugly, and noisy art (click HERE to listen to the song and you'll know EXACTLY what I mean).