Rocking It Out With Barack

Everyone knows how much Ellen DeGeneres loves to rock out and dance with her DJ Tony Okungbowa in the beginning of all her shows. But recently, Telepictures Productions was slapped with a lawsuit for using unlicensed songs.

Ellen has been dancing to songs during her show intro for years. I wonder why this lawsuit showed up now? Seems like something the record companies would have caught a long time ago. Maybe they are just hurting by the almighty crush of the internet and can use some cash. Remember that song back in 1979, Video Killed The Radio Star by the Buggles? Well the record companies must be singing, “The internet killed the record companies.”

Eonline reported:

Not everything can go Ellen DeGeneres’ way all the time.

It turns out that several major record companies think the dance-happy host rocks out a little too much and are suing Telepictures Productions over the unlicensed use of more than 1,000 songs on The Ellen DeGeneres Show.

You know how Ellen and in-house DJ Tony Okungbowa love their block-rockin’ beats. Per the suit, reps for Ellen said they don’t “roll that way” when the labels asked why they had not licensed the tunes.

But Telepictures doesn’t appear to be sweatin’ the copyright-infringement suit, telling reporters they have already been working with the plaintiffs to resolve their issues on “amicable and reasonable terms.”

The complaint, filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Nashville, does not name DeGeneres as a defendant. (Though theoretically this means she’s been dancing to the beat of somebody else’s drum all this time.)

Well I guess Telepictures isn’t worried, and I would imagine they have enough dough to make the record companies who filed the suits very happy.

Besides Ellen has bigger fish to fry these days. It was just announced that Ellen will be replacing Paula Abdul as the fourth judge on American Idol. Apparently, she is elated about being asked to join the panel, and said that she is not going to be mean like Simon Cowell, but rather will let him know when he is being too mean to contestants.

Sorry, I just have to say this. I don’t understand why Ellen was picked for judging American Idol besides her obvious love for music. It seems like everyone on the panel has had something to do with the music industry in their past and seems a little bit more savvy when it comes to judging?

Don’t get me wrong, I like Ellen. She has never bothered me, and I have always admired her courage — just wish she would talk to her Scientology buddies about leaving the cult) 

And as far as Idol goes…Randy what’s up dog? Jackson has always rubbed me the wrong way and I can’t stand Simon Cowell or the entire American Idol mania.

And remind me why Ryan Seacrest is famous again?

However, I have to give Paula Abdul kudos for her hits in her early 80’s singing career, (Opposites Attract, and Straight Up Now Tell Me) but sadly, he has become kind of ditzy over the years. Sorry Paula. 

Maybe Ellen will bring a sense of freshness and honesty to the show that they so desperately need. It seems that the panel has become bored out of their minds and less and less tolerant of contestants and it has become no secret that this show is steep with ”ringers” that are not the average joes off the street trying to make the rags to riches story become a reality. Even though Randy Jackson and Simon have been quoted as saying:

“Let’s sign them.” We’re out to find the best undiscovered [talent] and really herald that.”

Undiscovered talent?  HA!

There are handfuls of ringer contestants placed on this show which 
are actual struggling artists. Music executives are the ones deciding who should be the next star by marketing them on Idol. It doesn’t mean that these struggling artists don’t deserve a chance at stardom, but it makes the whole Idol contest process snarky and very deceptive.

Take David Archuleta for instance. At age 12 he won Star Search. During Idol’s first season, he met with finalists and sang for Kelly Clarkson and then within days it was arranged for him to be on the show.

Archuleta is only one example. There are MANY more ringers that have appeared on Idol who had previous talent, agents, careers, and gigs etc… Click here and feel silly for believing all the hype that surrounds Idol and their ability of actually finding undiscovered talent.

The truth is, that the days of Idol finding a total nobody off the street and having them make it big doesn’t exist any more. Which is why I wished this show was over long ago. It’s just not what it pretends to be. I think Paula Abdul got out just in time. I am waiting for her to write a tell-all book about Idol which would finally send Simon packing. *that would be totally dee-lish!*

American Idol will be starting up fresh this January with a brand new face on their panel. I doubt if Ellen is privy to all the ringers on the show. Why would they tell her? And if they did, would she agree with it? I would like to think she wouldn’t.

Again it’s not that these struggling artists don’t deserve a chance at making it big, or should I say bigger…. it  just seems wrong to promote the show as finding undiscovered talent. It is also sad for the other contestants, as it gives them even less of  a chance of making it in to the finals.

As quoted by Vote for the Worst  back in January of 2008:

So were the auditions just a formality this year? Because we’re fairly sure that if you have a Grammy winning duet with Alicia Keys, a band that opened for Britney Spears, or a prior relationship in show business, you probably weren’t waiting in line like the rest of the people who mistakenly assumed American Idol was a competition to find “the best undiscovered talent in America”. Then again, we all know what happens when you assume.

Count me out as far as tuning in to this “struggling artist ringer showcase”. Sorry Ellen, but at the very least, I hope you have a lot of fun on Idol cheering on the next pre-picked ringer!

Ellen DeGeneres is a well-liked figure in Hollywood and by her viewing public, but her recent actions have brought her more flak than Iggy ever did.  Her decision to continue with her show in the wake of the writer’s strike has brought the wrath of the WGA down on her head:

That move sparked an inter-union brawl between AFTRA and the WGA after DeGeneres — who belongs to both unions — opted to continue working on her daytime talker during the past week.

The fight came into the open Friday, when the WGA East issued a press release blasting DeGeneres for continuing to perform comedy in violation of strike rules: “Ellen said she loves and supports her writers, but her actions prove otherwise.”

AFTRA topper Kim Roberts Hedgpeth declared in a letter to WGA East chief Mona Mangan that DeGeneres is required to work.

“As you know, AFTRA members such as Ms. DeGeneres who are working under the AFTRA Network TV Code (which covers ‘The Ellen DeGeneres Show’) are legally required by the no-strike clause of that contract to report to work and perform their AFTRA-covered responsibilities,” she wrote. “Ms. DeGeneres, along with thousands of entertainment-industry workers represented by AFTRA and other unions who are bound by similar no-strike clauses, are also reporting to work as legally required.”

But Mangan said DeGeneres is wrong: “Beyond any issue of membership, there is the obvious ethical issue, which is clearly present in Ms. DeGeneres’ decision to write and produce a show without writers in the face of an industrywide walkout by 12,000 writers.”

Ellen had sat out one show in support of striking writers, but came back the next day with this explanation:

I’ve got to say this is a strange show for me to do. This is weird. Weird. It’s a weird show. Channeling Johnny Carson all of a sudden. [Imitates Carson] “Very Weird. Weird. Weird.” Here’s what the deal is. It’s ’sweeps’, which is a very important time in television. That’s when you do your best shows, your funniest material, you pull out all the stops and you’re doing everything you can because you want everybody watching. Now at this moment, we’re in the middle of this strike. There’s a writer’s strike going on, and here in Los Angeles it’s a huge story. I don’t know where you live, but it’s a huge story in Los Angeles. I want to say I love my writers. I love them. In honor of them today, I’m not going to do a monologue. I support them and hope that they get everything they’re asking for. And I hope it works out soon. In the meantime, people have traveled across the country. They’ve made plans. They’re here. I want to do everything I can to make your trip enjoyable and give you a show. Otherwise you’d just be wandering around and circling Bob Hope Drive.

But wait, there’s more…

Ever wonder what your favorite celebrity wears for Halloween?  Wonder no more, we here at GlossLip have scoured the world searching for your favorite star trick-or-treater!  See who gets the good candy after the jump!

But wait, there’s more…

 

The Smoking Gun today released the contents of several emails concerning Iggy the dog, who now has a new home.

They start with Portia emailing Marina on September 11 and updating her on Iggy’s progress, saying that he is “incredible” and that it was “hard to let him go” (to the trainer for training).  Iggy spent some time with a trainer and was neutered.

Next, Marina writes back and ask about Iggy on October 12.  Portia emailed back the next day and said that they tried very hard to work with Iggy but that it just wasn’t working out, due to there being too many workmen in and out, different employees every day, and all the things associated with moving.  She said that since the hairdresser expressed such a desire for Iggy, that they went ahead and gave the dog to her about two weeks earlier.  She said she wanted to ask Marina about changing his information, and that they had reached this decision after a lot of thought.

(If the trainer had Iggy for about nine days, as has been reported, and Portia and Ellen gave Iggy to Cheryl about two weeks before October 12, that would mean that Iggy had lived at Ellen’s home for about ten days, give or take…time to discover if the dog would fit in with her other pets.)

But wait, there’s more…

 

Iggy, the adorable little dog at the center of the Ellen Degeneres/Mutts and Moms debate, has found a new home:

The talk show host’s former pet, Iggy, was placed with a new family earlier this week, a spokesman for the agency’s owners confirmed.

He adds, “We’re not revealing the family’s identity to protect their privacy. The dog is fine.”

You can read all the articles I’ve done about Ellen and Iggy here.  My feelings still stand, I still believe everything I’ve wrote, and I hope that this agency is investigated.

 

The police are now saying that they may have made a mistake in letting Marina Batkis leave with Iggy the dog.  In the video shown here on TMZ, law enforcement now admits that there should have been a different resolution.  It all came down to the microchip.  Had Marina changed the microchip when she should have, the police would have been able to enforce the status quo….which basically means that Iggy could have stayed at the home of the hairdresser while the parties concerned figured out a resolution.  The policeman tried to negotiate a peaceful resolution to this without removing the dog, as you see on the video.  Not knowing everything that Mutts and Moms was involved with doing, I think he was doing the best he could to make a decision based on the information he had available to him.

And the video also shows someone running out of what is assumed to be Marina’s home with a dog under her shirt (I put an arrow pointing to it) and refusing to say what is going on.  Iggy?

The contract Marina is trying to hold Ellen to may be void anyway, as Mutts and Moms did not have a license at the time this all happened.  Plus, she entered the home of the hairdresser under false pretenses, asking the family to fill out an app and saying she was coming to do a home inspection, only to swoop in, scoop up the dog, and refuse to put him down…just to take him back and put him in a cage.

You can read the entire series of posts I’ve written on this saga here.

This woman appears to be an obsessive control-freak with a form of animal hoarding who is more interested in her rules and regulations and steel-trap applications than she is about taking care of dogs.  I wonder just how many dogs she has living at her home in a residential area?  And how many do live in cages?  I’d love to see photos, before she gets around to changing them all about.  There is help available for people like this, but they have to want it…if this is what they are, they have to be willing to change.  Until they do, the animals will suffer.

UPDATE:  You know it’s bad when the President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States speaks out against you:

Ellen acknowledged she shouldn’t have given Iggy away, but it’s clear she had genuine concerns about providing the pooch with a good home. Ellen has a long and consistent record of being on the side of animals, and that counts for a lot in a case like this. She has the interests of Iggy at heart.

Mutts & Moms was too rigid, even though I am sure they are very fine and dedicated people. They were a slave to form and forgot the real-world circumstances. They lost their chance to have Ellen serve as an advocate for them and for animal adoption, instead turning a potentially positive event into a distressing experience for all involved, including Iggy.

 

According to Access Hollywood, they are:

According to the California Secretary of State’s Web site, the Mutts & Moms corporation has been suspended since December 2006 when they failed to file a “statement of information.”

Access Hollywood has verified the corporation is still suspended as of today.

The “statement of information” is a document that lists who their officers are. However, as soon as the form is submitted, the agency can revive their corporation. [...]

As a result of the suspension, enforcing the contract with Ellen and Portia may be impossible for the agency, as both the original adoption of Iggy and the date the agency reclaimed possession of the pet happened after the suspension began.

Access Hollywood has placed a call to Mutts & Moms, as well as their attorney, for comment. No response was received at the time of publication.

Woah!  Big news on the Iggy front!

I certainly hope that someone in a position of power is looking into this.  Iggy needs to go home, and these so-called “animal rescuers” can get called on their histrionic, egotistal, and obsessive behavior.  This so-called “agency” needs to be investigated, and soon, before Marina Batkis can move her animals around…or, I should say, move their cages around.  Five dollars and a Starbucks says that Iggy is in a cage somewhere.  Please, someone in Animal Control out there, investigate these people!

UPDATE:  The Insider captured this image yesterday of a woman coming out of the home of the woman who owns Mutts and Moms.  She’s running with what appears to be a dog under her sweatshirt, could this be Iggy?

If it is, this is really sick, and goes a long way to confirm my suspicions of animal hoarding and obsessive behavior.

Ellen is saying that she is no longer going to speak out about Iggy on television, because the whole thing has gotten out of hand:

“Let me just say this, it’s gotten out of hand,” DeGeneres, 49, says on her NBC talk show in a segment set to air Thursday, according to the Associated Press. “I want nothing, nothing more than that dog returned to that family. But you don’t resort to violence. So anybody out there, please stop that. Please don’t threaten or do whatever.”

I’m not going to rehash the whole story, because I’m getting carpal tunnel typing all that stuff out.  If you’re interested in reading my thoughts on the matter, you can click here for all the articles.  In a nutshell, I believe that Marina Baktis appears to have a form of animal hoarding disguised as animal rescuing, she is too obsessive/compulsive in her adoption procedures, and she took Iggy under false pretenses in asking the family to fill out an application and then coming to the home only to swoop up Iggy and hold him for two hours without food, water, or potty break.  Okay, I gotta stop or I’ll get all upset again.

First, let me say this:  Ellen, love ya.  But what did you expect?  You have fans out there who are, to say the least, crazazy.  It’s the same with any big star.  And anyone who would call, email, whatever, and threaten violence against the owner and/or her store and/or her animals, their kibble done gone stale.  But famous people attract this sort of obsessive devotion and that is sad.  In this day and age, where Chris Crocker’s “LEAVE BRITNEY ALONE!” video made him an instant celebutard, I’m sure that there were people who sought to make a name for themselves through this tragedy.

And secondly, let me say this:  Any of you out there who did threaten violence, made death threats, whatever….what did you really expect to accomplish?  Do you not realize that is illegal?  If you were just trying to scare Marina into giving the dog back, congratulations…you just made the case for this woman to say how put-upon and persecuted she is.  If you actually intended to go through with it….well, there’s nothing I can say to help you.  You need professional help.  What did you expect…to be the savior of Iggy?  “Look at me, I saved Ellen’s dog, what a wonderful person I am!”  You’re as bad as Marina.

There’s been enough heartache in this to go around.  There’s absolutely no reason to resort to violence.  There’s better ways of handling this than that.  I thoroughly believe her rescue agency needs to be investigated by professionals, and the sooner the better so she doesn’t have time to move things around, like the dog crates she keeps the dogs in.  She gives reputable animal agencies a bad name.

I will say this…anyone who has adopted a dog from this organization, you’d better make sure the microchip in your dog is registered to you.  Otherwise, we might be hearing more stories like this.

Well, it’s come to this.  Iggy the dog has a new home, and it is not with Ellen’s hairdresser.  People is reporting:

Seacrest got DeGeneres on the phone during his KIIS-FM radio program in L.A., and said to her, “I heard this morning that this dog, Iggy, is now with another family.”

DeGeneres replied: “Yeah, that’s what I just heard, too. The statement was, ‘Finally, it’s in a safe home.’ Which is an unbelievable statement. I mean, the whole situation is surreal. I can’t even begin to tell you the disbelief.”

Citing the attorney for rescue agency Mutts & Moms, The Insider reported Wednesday that the dog has indeed been placed in a new home.

However, contrary to stated terms, Entertainment Tonight is reporting that rules were not always followed by Mutts and Moms:

Sources tell ET that while the agency claims Ellen broke her contract by giving him away to a trusted co-worker, the Mutts & Moms owners themselves have not followed all the rules set by their company. They allegedly did not require Ellen or her partner Portia DeRossi to fill out an application, nor did they change the registered owner information as they said they would.

Additionally, it is said the contract in question does not contain an age clause, another reason given by Mutts & Moms for taking back the dog.

Our sources also tell us the family Ellen gave the dog to — her hairdresser, her husband and their two pre-teen daughters — did fill out an application online when the dog took up residence with them. It was at that time the agency said they would come out to inspect their property as part of the adoption process. Instead, they reclaimed the dog and calling the police. As Mutts & Moms were officially registered as the owners by the chip, authorities turned over custody to them.

But wait, there’s more…

 

In the continuing saga of Iggy the puppy (I won’t go into the backstory here, you can read it on the site), Ellen has told radio host Ryan Seacrest that Mutts and Moms are, at best, inconsistent with their agency policies:

In an exclusive phone conversation with E!’s Ryan Seacrest Wednesday, DeGeneres reiterated her dismay over the dog being taken away, and denied that she had been deliberately trying to disregard the agency’s policies, saying, “The whole situation is surreal.”

“I will say this: we never filled out an application. We never had a home evaluation,” she told Seacrest, indicating the agency was somewhat unpredictable about adhering to its own rules.

Aha.  So all this crap about home inspections and applications is just that…crap.  Yes, Portia signed an agreement that had Ellen’s name on it…but an agreement is a far cry from an application.  MaM is making it sound like there are an entire series of hoops that have to be jumped through to adopt a dog, when in reality it seems like all you have to do is show up, pick out a dog, and sign an agreement.

I mean, get real…if this woman was so good at picking out the perfect home, couldn’t she have seen in advance that the dog and Ellen’s cats wouldn’t mix well?  Or that the dog would be a bit too hyper for Ellen’s household?  No?  Right…because you can’t predict these things until the dog is actually in the home for a while.  Which, wait a minute, he was with this other family for two weeks, and had blended in perfectly.

Even the local Pasadena Humane Society said they would not have removed the dog from the home.  And apparently Marina Baktis has filed a police report because of the harassment (please, people, stop it…there are better ways…you’re endangering the whole process as well as breaking the law).

On the video located at Access Hollywood, you can hear dogs in the background barking.  Not just one dog, but lots of dogs, many dogs.  It also seems, from the video, that this woman shelters many dogs who have medical issues that require medication or they will die (her words, not mine).  She’s had to have them taken to the vet and had a two thousand dollar bill for medical services for these dogs because she has not been able to properly medicate these dogs due to the stress of this case.

Now, these are just my thoughts, take them for what they’re worth.  There is a very real problem among some people called “animal hoarding”.  They truly believe they are doing a good deed, but in reality they are prolonging the misery of the animal.  It ranges from one end of the spectrum, which is collecting many animals and trying to find them homes, but being hypervigilant about it, to the other end of the spectrum, which is collecting and keeping more animals than they can care for and ignoring their physical needs to the point that the animals are in real danger.

I am NOT saying this woman is putting any animals in danger.  I am NOT saying she is ignoring their physical and medical needs.  I am NOT saying that I know for certain that she has animal hoarding tendencies.  What I AM saying is that she seems to be entirely too hypervigilant about where these animals go…attempting to pick out the perfect home, with no children under fourteen, and only she can be the one to make that decision.  Nobody else can make that decision.  She alone knows what is best for these animals.  It is a form of obsessive/compulsive behavior.

Let’s face it.  As much as we do not like to think about it, every animal reaches the point where keeping it alive is just cruel, due to physical ailments.  And YES, some animals can live full and happy lives while taking medication every day, but for some it is just prolonging the suffering, and who is best to make that decision?  Is this woman a licensed vet?  Does she have some sort of animal degree?  If you are prolonging an animal’s life who needs this amount of care every day, just who are you thinking of….the animal, or yourself?  If you’re to the point of you have to give the animal medication or it will die (her words, not mine), are you doing it for their good, or to make yourself look good?  “Look at me, without me these poor animals would not have a good home, without me these animals would die, aren’t I a good animal rescuer?”

I think Mutts and Moms needs to be investigated far beyond just the Ellen DeGeneres puppy.  Is there a limit on how many animals one can keep in a residential area?  I am interested in how many animals were behind that fence.

I am an animal lover, I have been involved with animals for years now, I even rescued my own cats as kittens, and all of this pains and angers me.  This woman is acting in an obsessive, power trippy, uncaring, selfish way.  Ellen screwed up.  She apologized profusely.  What more do you want?  I know…she wants to make her point.  Okay, you’ve made yourself sick, you’ve upset a family, you’ve upset Ellen, is that enough to get your point across?  You made your point, lady, now be a decent person and just GIVE THE DOG BACK.