Glosslip is excited to be a part of nationwide campaign to help eliminate the suffering of those who don’t have enough resources or money to buy food for their families. Of all the things we do here, being in a position to raise awareness for a good cause is what makes running this site worthwhile.

We will be posting about this again as the donation date draws closer, but in the meantime, please feel free to spread the word to your family, friends and neighbors about this great initiative. Here’s a press release about the program:

On Saturday, May 10, 2008 , the National Association of Letter Carriers (NALC) will collect food donations to benefit those at greatest hunger risk in an effort to fight hunger during the NALC’s annual Stamp Out Hunger! food drive.

Beyond the Call of Duty…

• The Stamp Out Hunger! drive is a nationwide effort to provide food to local food banks and pantries, which would otherwise have depleted stocks during the summer months, to help feed the hungry on a daily basis.

• The nation’s 230,000 letter carriers will be collecting food donations in more than 10,000 local communities and delivering them to food bank members of America ’s Second Harvest – The Nation’s Food Bank Network and other hunger relief organizations.

• Last year the letter carriers collected more than 70 million pounds of food from generous Americans, bringing their impressive total to more than 836 million pounds since 1993.

• Campbell Soup Company is supporting this important initiative by kicking off the food drive with a national donation of one million pounds of soup and other food and beverage items that will be donated to food banks across the country.

The Face of Hunger…

• According to the America ’s Second Harvest, 35 million Americans are food insecure, hungry or at risk of hunger. Approximately one in four people in a soup kitchen line is a child.

You Can Help…

• Helping Stamp Out Hunger! is as easy as checking your mailbox. Just leave a bag of non-perishable food where your letter carrier normally delivers your mail. Your letter carrier will then pick up and deliver the food to a local food bank. Examples of non-perishable items include:

• Canned soup

• Canned meats and fish

• Canned juices

• Canned vegetables and fruits

• Boxed goods (such as cereal)

• Pasta and rice

• To find out more about the annual Stamp Out Hunger! effort in your community, ask your letter carrier, contact your local post office or visit www.helpstampouthunger.com.

Please take part in this simple, yet tremendously kind effort to help those in need.

(Spoilers below)

GO TRACE!!!

They both have great charities, and I’m glad they are raising lots of money for them.

But I’m Team Trace, all the way!

UPDATE:  I do have to say…I agree with Trace.  Wheatgrass juice???  Black nail polish???  The Backstreet Boys are coming across like they’re a bunch of sissy-boy wussies.

Oh wait.

UPDATE:  NO WAY!  What a ripoff…Piers won a lot of money, but what a jerk!  Seriously, what a jerk!  Trump is a joke, but so is Piers, so they both should be happy.  They both love to have people tell them how wonderful they are.

Don’t worry, Trace…I know who was the real winner was.  He may have won the game, but you win in life.  You’re going home to your beautiful family…what’s he going home to?

Whoever was in charge of scheduling this little party might find him/herself out of a job on Sunday, if the Battle Of The Century erupts on Saturday.  Yes, Hollywood’s weirdest triangle–Angelina Jolie, Brad Pitt, and Jennifer Aniston–is fixing to converge in one spot for one night only:

Angie and baby-daddy Brad Pitt are on the host committee of The Night Before—a charity event held the evening prior to the Academy Awards—but Brad’s ex-wife, Aniston, is also a hostesses with the mostest. If all parties show it cold be the climax to a colossal confrontation that began three years ago when Brad left Jen in 2005 claiming it had nothing to do with Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, spent the next several months denying he had any relationship with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star, then proceeded to publicly, kiss, cuddle and raise half the world’s children with his Mr. & Mrs. Smith co-star. The two women have yet to meet since—yummy!

Well, well, well.  I wonder just how many Rolaids ol’ Brad has consumed since learning of this little date on his calendar.

Don’t get me wrong.  I’m not on Team Aniston, Team Jolie, or Team Pitt.  I think they’re all overpaid, narcissistic, self-important blowhards.  Between Angelina’s compulsion to adopt more children than most people give birth to in a lifetime (and apparently producing more of her own biological ones as well) and her conviction that she’s the only one who can save the world, Brad’s wishy-washy approach to life, marriage, his ex-wife, and his commitment vows, and Jennifer’s inability to move on already from a two-timing, lying, hit-with-the-ugly-stick loser (and I’m not talking about Vince Vaughn), they could all disappear into the background and I wouldn’t cry.

But wait…the Battle Of The Century may not happen after all:

The annual pre-Oscars party is being held this year on Saturday, February 23, at the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel, and three of the event’s hosts are none other than Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Jennifer Aniston. The event planner tells PageSix.com that all of the hosts have committed to hosting the fundraiser. However, don’t get too excited for the girls to finally throw down over Brad because Jen’s rep tells PageSix.com that she might not be able to attend.

Although her rep confirmed that Jen, who is currently filming Traveling in Vancouver, is on the host committee, the former Friends star “doesn’t know if her production schedule will allow her to attend.” Looks like we will have to wait and see what Jen — sorry, what her production schedule — decides.

Oh, come on, Jennifer.  You’ve played the “poor jilted woman” long enough.  You stay in a mindset, you start to believe it.  Stop wasting your time pining after a man who thought so little of your relationship that he succumbed to She Who Must Not Be Named’s magic vajayjay.  And if you really want a child bad enough, there are many children waiting to be adopted who would love a good home.

And Brad/Angelina?  Yeah.  Stop with the kids, already.  You have enough now.  Whatever Angelina is attempting to bandaid, she needs to work out some other way besides amassing a brood of children.  Oh, and tell Angelina she needs to stay home and actually take care of those kids.  But who am I?  I believe that if a celeb has a kid, they need to drop out of sight for eighteen years.

Not that it would be such a bad thing in this case.

Pancakes for everybody!

Well, at an IHOP, that is.  They are marking the celebration of Fat Tuesday, or Pancake Day, or (as it is more commonly known) Mardi Gras.  International House Of Pancakes delayed their celebration a week (due to Super Tuesday primaries, it was actually on the 5th), but today they are giving away free short stacks of pancakes:

Known also as Fat Tuesday or Mardi Gras, National Pancake Day dates back several centuries to when the English prepped for fasting during Lent. Strict rules prohibited the eating of all dairy products during Lent, so pancakes were made to use up the supply of eggs, milk, butter and other dairy products…hence the name Pancake Tuesday, or Shrove Tuesday.

In 2008, Fat Tuesday falls on February 5, which also happens to be Super Tuesday, on which a record number of states will hold their Presidential primaries. In the interest of embracing the democratic process, IHOP has postponed its celebration of National Pancake Day by one week, and will give away free pancakes on February 12.

Since beginning its National Pancake Day celebration in 2006, IHOP has raised nearly one million dollars to support charities in the communities in which it operates. With your help, we hope to raise $750,000 for Children’s Miracle Network in 2008!

All they ask in return is a small donation:

IHOP (NYSE: IHP), one of America’s favorite restaurants for breakfast, lunch and dinner, has announced plans to serve millions of free pancakes in celebration of National Pancake Day on February 12, 2008. The celebration is designed to bring together friends and family, as well as to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for Children’s Miracle Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to helping children’s hospitals, and other worthy causes.

2008 will mark IHOP’s third year of staging the national event, and more than 1,300 IHOP restaurants throughout the United States will once again invite guests to enjoy a free short stack of IHOP’s signature buttermilk pancakes from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. In return, IHOP guests are asked to donate what they would have spent on the free pancakes, or more, to their local children’s hospital or another worthy cause.

I can’t think of a better way to celebrate (and give to a good cause) than with a stack of wheats, can you?

The First Church Of Our Lady Of The Massive Head is going to get its own network, starting in 2009.  I can hear the flocking Oprahloonies singing and genuflecting in rapturous praise from here:

Ms. Winfrey and Discovery Communications said on Tuesday that they would jointly create OWN, the Oprah Winfrey Network, a cable television channel to make its debut in 2009 on what is now the Discovery Health Channel. Discovery Health is available in more than 70 million homes.

The new channel will not initially carry “The Oprah Winfrey Show,” the top-rated syndicated daytime talk show featuring Ms. Winfrey as host. But Ms. Winfrey said that she had the option to end that show in 2010 or 2011 and could move the talk show to the new channel then.

“Eventually that will happen, we hope,” Ms. Winfrey said in a conference call with reporters on Tuesday.

Oh, trust me, I hope that too.  Maybe she’ll get her own satellite package and then I can opt out of having her show on my television at all.  Not that I ever watch her televised cultfest, because I’m afraid whatever laser beams originate from the broadcast will shoot into my home and I’ll become a brain-dead Oprahloonie too, unable to do anything except what The Great Massive-Headed One orders me to do.

She is excited about this new venture, mainly because she’ll have control over Every. Little. Thing, unlike when she was involved with Oxygen, where she had to, gasp, be responsible to somebody other than herself:

Asked about the difference between Oxygen, which was sold to NBC in October for $925 million, and the latest venture, Ms. Winfrey said Oxygen “did not reflect my voice.” That assertion is subject to interpretation, however; Ms. Winfrey was host of a 12-part series called “Oprah Goes Online” on Oxygen. The show was sort of a primer on the Internet. She also was frequently referred to as a co-founder of the channel in news reports at the time.

“I was not a participant in the development of the channel,” she said. “That’s why after a couple of board meetings I took myself off the board.”

With the Oprah Winfrey Network, “I will have editorial control,” she said. “I have a vision for what we want to accomplish with this network.”

Dun-dun-dunnnnnnn.  That is Oprah-ese for she wants every man, woman, and child within satellite reach to not be able to walk, talk, breathe, eat, sleep, buy books, raise children, wipe their behinds, or have sex unless it is done according to her “voice”.  Let’s face it, there are people out there who do everything according to the First Book Of Oprah, Chapter One, Verse One:  “Thou shalt have no other thoughts other than mine.”

Oh, and if it couldn’t possibly get any better, guess what?  It does!

In addition to continuing her syndicated talk show, Ms. Winfrey said she would also continue to produce programming for other outlets. A new reality show, “Oprah’s Big Give,” is scheduled to begin on ABC in March.

Gag gag gag.  I wish I hadn’t eaten my supper before reading this article.  Why does she feel the need to document and chronicle every so-called charitable thing she does with cameras?  So she can pull out the footage to prove just what a wonderful and generous person she is?  I’ll bet the people who have been recipients of her so-called “charity” beg to differ, especially those who have been on her show.  She needs to shut up and take notes from Johnny Depp.

And oh the humanity…the Discovery Channel?  Home of the almighty fine and deliciously yummy Mike Rowe?  Perish the thought!  A dirty job, indeed!

Just when you thought Johnny Depp couldn’t possibly get any cooler, he goes and does something like this.  To show his gratitude to Great Ormond Street, the hospital that saved his daughter’s life during her health scare last year, he made a generous donation of his own money as a huge thank you:

Johnny Depp secretly visited Great Ormond Street Hospital yesterday to donate £1 million [approximately $1.9 million USD] of his own money to thank staff for saving his daughter’s life.

He arrived unexpectedly at the London children’s hospital where eight-year-old Lily-Rose was treated last year when her kidneys failed. […]

In March last year, Lily-Rose spent nine days at Great Ormond Street after E.coli poisoning led to the failure of her kidneys.

She is said to have contracted the bug while staying with Depp, 43, and her mother Vanessa Paradis, 34, in a rented mansion in Richmond, Surrey, while he filmed Sweeney Todd.

Filming at Pinewood in Buckinghamshire had to be halted as her conditioned worsened so much it was feared she might not live.

And not only that, but he reprised his role as swashbuckling slurring pirate Captain Jack Sparrow to read to children at the hospital:

And on November 29, unknown to the public, Depp spent four hours at the hospital telling bedtime stories to patients dressed as Captain Jack Sparrow after having his Pirates Of The Caribbean costume flown over from Los Angeles.

Also, Disney, owners of the Pirates franchise, said they would donate £10 million (approximately $19.7 million USD) to the hospital, who is needing to raise £170 million (approximately $330 million USD) over five years for major renovations.

Most stars would have called a press conference, set up streaming video, and had giant oversized checks printed up with the amount of money donated emblazoned in a font large enough to be caught by photographers’ cameras.  And if they had shown up to read to children, they would have had made sure that a reporter was with them, dutifully chronicling every affected smile and pat on the head for posterity.  To see someone of this caliber doing this sort of charitable activity with nary a journalist in sight is truly refreshing, and a wonderful palate cleanser after the overblown events of yesterday concerning She Who Must Not Be Named.  He’s the official first recipient of the “Breath Of Fresh Air” award here at GlossLip.

I wish Lily-Rose a lifetime of continued good health.  I also wish there were more celebrities like Johnny Depp.  Who would have thought he would have come so far from 21 Jump Street?

Paris vowed to turn her life around after her jail term, and while I was initally skeptical, I think she just might actually be serious.  Here, you see her practicing being able to shimmy up a tree in case of trouble, and she’s also working on speaking in front of crowds.  She’s such a shy little thing, she needs all the practice she can get.

Well, I’m convinced.  Give her a cot, she’s a regular Mother Theresa.

I don’t get it.  I mean…I don’t get it.

I just…don’t…get it.

What’s the point?

They all look good enough, and the song is okay…but what’s the point?

I will say…wow, Sporty (Melanie Chisholm) can really sing!  I think she’s the best one on there.  And the furniture is way cool. But PLEASE cover up Geri’s abs…who cares, total nakedity gratuity!  Ick ick ick!

“Headlines (Friendship Never Ends)” is this year’s charity single for Children In Need.

Okay, so a few weeks ago Paris Hilton did this interview with Newsweek, in which she talked about her planned philanthropic trip to Rwanda in coordination with a charity called Playing For Good.  Founder Scott Lazerton said that the trip would be filmed as part of a new reality series:

She’ll be traveling with a little-known children’s charity called Playing for Good. “She’s using her celebrity and the cameras that follow her for the good of humanity,” says Scott Lazerson, the organization’s founder. Let’s not forget the good of Lazerson, and Hilton. Turns out that he’s filming the trip in hopes of selling it as a reality show called “The Philanthropist,” featuring various selfless celebrities who rescue the world’s poor.

But hold up a second, don’t pack those Gucci bags with Snickers bars just yet:

“Due to the restructuring of the Playing for Good Foundation, the philanthropic trip to Rwanda that the foundation had previously planned with Paris Hilton has been postponed,” the organization said Thursday in a statement.

Now comes word that the planned reality series was an unplanned fiction, or at the least a gross overstepping of his boundaries.  It seems that Lazerton has been given the old heave-ho as part of the “restructuring”:

A charitable organization on Friday denied that a planned trip to Rwanda it had organized for hotel heiress Paris Hilton, and which has been postponed, would have been filmed as part of a reality television show. […]

A spokesman for Playing for Good said Lazerson was no longer associated with the Spanish-based charity, the group never planned to tape Hilton’s trip in order to sell a reality TV show and nor was Hilton linked to any such reality TV show.

Uhm, yeah…when you boot out the founder, I’d say that falls in the category of “restructuring”.  How much you wanna bet this Paris thing had something to do with it?  Sounds like major backpedaling to me, to avoid a potential embarrassing situation.  My guess is that they received a bunch of negative press after this interview.

So will Paris still go, if there aren’t cameras following her?  Has it occurred to her that she can still do philanthropic work without someone there documenting it all for posterior posterity?

So will there ever be a Paris in Rwanda?  Watch this space!

Talk-show host and media mogul Oprah Winfrey was put in an incredibly awkward and humbling position when she was forced to apologize to parents and student at her Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy in South Africa this past week. Abuse allegations surfaced at the school, including sexual abuse when it was revealed a “dorm parent” on staff at the academy fondled a student, choked a student and cursed and screamed at students. Both the principal and the “matron” have been placed on leave pending further investigations. Here’s more from an article in the NYD News:

Oprah canceled appointments and flew to South Africa twice in the past few weeks after allegations that one of the matrons fondled a girl and that other pupils had been physically abused.

One pupil has said a matron grabbed her by the throat and threw her against a wall. Girls have also said the “dorm parent” swore and screamed at them, assaulted them and sexually fondled at least one girl. The alleged incidents came to light when one of the pupils ran away from the school because the reported abuse had become intolerable.

South African police and the Family Violence, Child Protection and Sexual Offenses Unit are now investigating.

Oprah, who has spoken openly about being abused as a child, gave the girls her personal telephone number, her e-mail address and her postal address so that they could contact her around the clock.

I am NOT an Oprah Winfrey fan. While she’s undoubtedly talented, powerful and wears many hats - she also comes across as very arrogant, self-serving and can be deceptively manipulative. To be perfectly honest, Oprah seems like a major control freak.

But, with all that being said, I have genuine sympathy for Oprah having to deal with these kinds of issues. There is no doubt she feels terrible that these young women were exposed to someone who clearly was ill-suited to be working with children. The academy isn’t even a year old (it opened in January 2007) and Oprah used her own vast wealth and resources to build the facility. Clearly Ms. Winfrey wanted to give these young women an opportunity to excel and succeed in a country with a very negative history of oppression toward blacks and certainly women in general.

Africa is a continent which can use all the charitable works the Western world has to offer, but this kind of negative attention may make some who wish to be philanthropic think twice. Oprah does NOT deserve to have her efforts to do good turn into some kind of embarrassing backlash, yet, that’s what has happened:

A tearful Oprah Winfrey begged for forgiveness Sunday as she met the parents of students at her all-girls academy, which is reeling from lurid allegations of sexual abuse.

“I’ve disappointed you. I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry,” the talk show queen told families in an emergency meeting at the South African school in Henley-on-Klip, south of Johannesburg.

By lending her name to the school, the onus is on Winfrey to make sure proper screening and employment practices are being used when hiring staff for the school. Obviously a bad apple slipped through. This type of oversight has happened to Oprah before. Like here and most recently here.

Rest assured though, there will be severe repercussions for those who humiliate the Oprah. Remember James Frey, the author of A Million Little Pieces? No?

Exactly.