Headlines (Scroll down for complete stories):
1. The Anna Nicole Money Trail
2. Pamela Anderson Fights for Chimp Rights
3. Barbra Streisand Bashes Bush
4. If GOP Filmmakers Were Treated Fairly . . .
5. Obama’s PR Hacks Send Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Skyrocketing
1. The Anna Nicole Money Trail
Back in 2002, Anna Nicole Smith celebrated a victory in court against the son of her late husband.
Smith won a judgment of $88 million against E. Pierce Marshall, son of the late oil tycoon, J. Howard Marshall II, for acts in which the younger Marshall had illegally interfered with Smith’s inheritance rights.
Two different federal judges found that E. Pierce's behavior had included forging documents and giving false statements to his father, and therefore $44 million in damages were awarded along with an additional $44 million in punitive damages.
E. Pierce asserted that the California federal courts did not have jurisdiction to decide the matter because a Texas probate court had already adjudicated essentially the same claims between the parties.
In 2006 that argument went up to the United States Supreme Court, which ruled in Smith’s favor and upheld the $88 million award.
But both E. Pierce and Anna Nicole passed away, and the courts ordered a “stay” on the money, freezing it until the claims could be untangled.
Ironically, on March 9, 2009, Howard K. Stern went to the U.S. Supreme Court on behalf of the Smith Estate to lift the stay and unfreeze the assets.
Shortly thereafter on Friday the 13th, California’s Attorney General Jerry Brown held a press conference to announce that criminal charges were being brought against Stern and two doctors relating to Smith’s drug use. (The Supreme Court, incidentally, denied Stern’s request to unfreeze the $88 million.)
The criminal complaint charged Stern, Dr. Sandeep Kapoor and Dr. Khristine Eroshevich with eight felonies including conspiring to furnish controlled substances, unlawfully prescribing a controlled substance and obtaining fraudulent prescriptions.
The doctors are accused of giving Smith excessive amounts of prescription drugs when they knew she was already addicted to substances.
“She was obviously addicted,” Brown said. “These doctors had a medical obligation to prescribe medicine in a professional way. Evidence will show this did not happen.”
Smith’s autopsy report stated she died due to an accidental overdose from a combination of drugs. The list of drugs allegedly furnished by the doctors to Stern included Ambien, Dilaudid, methadone and Xanax.
The story that may emerge over the course of a trial is one in which a wealthy woman was encouraged to remain under the influence of drugs so that her finances could be controlled.
We may just see the infamous clown video, taped by Stern and starring a semi-coherent Smith, end up in the courtroom.
2. Pamela Anderson Fights for Chimp Rights
Pamela Anderson is battling for the rights of Florida’s chimpanzees.
The actress-turned-activist has written an open letter to the Sunshine State’s governor, Charlie Crist. In it, she claims that chimpanzees are improperly kept in “road-side zoos.”
Anderson also warns that something like the recent chimpanzee attack in Connecticut could happen in Florida.
“With so many frustrated great apes stewing in squalid facilities in Florida, it is only a matter of time before a similar tragedy strikes your state,” she writes.
She also urges the governor to make sure “that these intelligent primates are transferred to approved sanctuaries to live out the remainder of their lives in suitable surroundings.”
Anderson’s use of the term “great ape” is the preferred one according to the international organization called The Great Ape Project, which advocates a United Nations Declaration that would confer basic legal rights on great apes including chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas.
If the Fairness Doctrine is brought back, guess this means we’ll have to have equal time for chimp chat, orangutan oratory, and gorilla gab.
3. Barbra Streisand Bashes Bush
Barbra Streisand took the occasion of the release of the new Extended Director's Edition of “Yentl” to have a coffee talk with Newsweek magazine.
The timing was perfect since Newsweek had apparently exhausted its supply of conservative turncoats eager to denigrate Rush Limbaugh.
Streisand gave the mag-turned-rag a chance to indulge in a little nostalgic Bush bashing.
When asked what it was like at the Kennedy Center Honors, Streisand said that it had been “a little strange,” adding that it was “very strange to meet George Bush for the first time.”
Newsweek went to the jugular question and inquired about what it was like to be hugged by a Republican.
“He hugged you?” the magazine asked the singer.
“I guess he knows how much I — actually, he told a friend who told me, ‘I know how Barbra dislikes me,’” Streisand said.
“He [Bush] was concerned, I think, about my reaction to him. So he was very smart,” she admitted.
Babs went even further with her flattering words, saying, “To put out your arm and say, 'Give me a kiss. Give me a hug.' That was very clever.”
4. If GOP Filmmakers Were Treated Fairly . . .
The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences Committee on Tolerance and Compassion plans to eliminate a previous designation that had been used to describe Hollywood actors, directors, and producers who were self-proclaimed Republicans.
Based on current policy changes being implemented by the Obama administration and international law, now even conservatives, Christians, and Southern white males who are known to have strong-to-loose ties with the GOP will no longer have to wear the “enemy combatant” label.
A spokesperson for the academy stated that the change of moniker was the result of an extensive review of policy relating to those with “out of favor” ideology.
“The policy alteration that we have made today meets with our standards and will serve to make our industry stronger and justicier,” spokesperson R.U. Kidding said.
It should be noted that still officially permissible under the current Academy guidelines is the label “conservative pig.”
5. Obama’s PR Hacks Send Rush Limbaugh’s Ratings Skyrocketing
The Obama White House has inadvertently done something for Rush Limbaugh that the best media operatives in the world would give their Fendi shades to be able to do for their clients.
After picking the conservative icon to be its Alinsky-style target, the Screwtape Squad has almost doubled Rush’s already staggering radio ratings.
We can only imagine that the “geniuses” will try and pin the idea on the other guy — Rahm will blame it on Gibbs, Axelrod will lay it on Biden, Geithner will cuss out Holder, etc.
The attempt to make Rush the leader of the GOP has resulted in more folks than ever being educated about true conservative principles.
Talkers magazine shows Limbaugh's weekly audience has shot up from 14.2 million to about 25 million since he was targeted by the bumbling media masterminds.
But the icing on the cake is that fewer people will now buy the idea that Rush is a ***! (Fill-in-the-lefty blank.)
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