Lately, the life of Amy Winehouse has been nothing more than a very slow trainwreck, and quite frankly if something drastic is not done and fast I do not believe she will last the year…if she does, I will be very surprised.  However, one seemingly constant good and stabilizing influence in her life has been her father Mitch, who was by her side when she actually checked herself into rehab to clean up for the Grammys (and previous rehabbing attempts).

At the beginning, he tried and tried to get her clean, making statements such as this:

Her father Mitch Winehouse has admitted that he is terrified that she will fall into her old habits and is concerned she’ll be ‘dead in three months’. [For the record, this was at the end of June, and it is now the end of September, three months ago.]

Amy collapsed at her North London home last week and was taken for tests at a London hospital by her 57-year-old father, who later said: ‘With smoking the crack cocaine and the cigarettes her lungs are all gunked up.’

‘The only thing that can go into her lungs are fresh air. She faces a stark choice - either she sticks to it or she won’t sing again.’

‘To think this could be my beautiful 24-year-old daughter’s life is preposterous. But if drugs mean more to her than breathing properly, then so be it.

‘But the doctors have told her if she goes back to smoking drugs it won’t just ruin her voice, it will kill her,’ he said.

And this:

“She understands she has to change. All she wants to do now is to sing,” he added. [...]

“I’m saying to those drug dealers, and they know who they are, if they are supplying crack to Amy, then they’ve got to take responsibility. I don’t want her hanging out with her mates like Pete Doherty either,” he said.

And this:

In an exclusive interview with the News of the World, he said: “I want her sectioned. The situation is getting out of control. I want her off the street.”

Dismissing another stint in rehab, Mitch said: “I don’t think being somewhere for six weeks is going to cure her problems.

“I think it needs far more radical measures. We will take the bull by the horns and deal with it.” [...]

Mitch, 57, revealed: “I’ve been on the phone to Amy’s manager in Los Angeles and he’s starting things rolling. They are going to be speaking to doctors, psychologists and everything else.

“I want Amy to be somewhere where she will be safe and where no harm can come to her.

“Obviously as her dad I will try and do what’s best for her.

“Unfortunately, what I think is best for Amy and what she thinks is best for her are two different things.

“And it might be that other parties might need to be involved.

“You need all four–the psychologists, the doctor, the local health authority and the next of kin–all to decide that somebody is sectionable.

“Now is the time to exert whatever pressure we have to try to do it.

“I’ve told them she is a danger to herself. There is evidence of self-harming and she’s a danger to other people because she’s attacked someone.”

And this:

Winehouse also says his daughter’s alcohol and drug abuse caused a seizure in August. Further attacks could be life-threatening. “She could die horribly. That is not going to happen–that cannot happen,” he says.

Oh, and one more…while he didn’t say all of this, it’s about him as well as Amy:

Her second overdose was in July – when she inhaled an “inhuman” amount of hash that left her vomiting uncontrollably and hallucinating.

At the time devoted dad Mitch, 54, said it was a “bad reaction to her medication”.

Medics are worried Amy’s brain was damaged by the cannabis overdose – she displayed symptoms normally associated with schizophrenia.

The pal yesterday said: “The future is bleak, bleak, bleak.

“Mitch does everything he can to protect his daughter - but his ‘explanation’ for Amy’s hospital dash in July was just simply untrue.

“She had smoked an inhuman amount of hash which resulted in acute cannabis poisoning. You have to take a s***load of pot to suffer that severe a reaction.

“It’s thought she had been smoking it for 36 hours.

“Amy’s fits were as bad as the convulsions she had during her overdose in August last year. No one has mentioned her meth use before – but that stuff is truly nasty.

“She is in need of years of psychiatry and medical treatment if she has a hope.”

Well, anyway.  I’m pretty sure you get the idea.  Mitch Winehouse has presented himself as a devoted yet sometimes misguided parent, who tries to do right by his drug-addled daughter but who can’t bring himself to quite follow through with the tough love that Amy so desperately needs.  Like a lot of parents with problem children, he seems to make an attempt at getting Amy help, but backs down off his tough stance when she shows either a teensy bit of good improvement or a lot of bad temper.  It may be that he believes the cure is worse than the disease, so when the going gets tough, Mitch gets going…out of town, leaving Amy to her own devices.  Nobody knows the specifics, but what I do know is what I see, and I see a bright, lovely, talented young woman throwing her life down the crapper for drugs, and I see nobody in her family doing the hard, tough work that it will take to get her well again.  If there are workings behind closed doors to get her help, they need to get moving, and fast.

Dawn just did a story on Amy and a horrific night she had, ruining her goddaughter’s singing debut by hugging her and moaning gibberish into the microphone (who in their right mind would let Amy be a godparent, let alone invite her to sing with the poor child?), trying to headbutt yet another poor soul who wanted a picture, crying that she can’t go on like this, and arriving home holding her hair on and missing a shoe.  Why do people still book her, other than so crowds can point and laugh as they would a circus freak, because it is painfully obvious that she doesn’t sing any longer, she just grunts and moans and mumbles her way through sets.  Friends of Amy are so alarmed by this latest terrible chapter that they’re not leaving Amy alone, afraid that she might (purposefully or accidentally) do something bad:

The troubled singer’s mates have cancelled commitments and set up camp at her home in Camden, North London, to stay with her round the clock.

One said: “No one wants to leave Amy on her own — she’s in a very fragile state at the moment.

“Her most loyal friends are terrified she is going to do something which she can’t overcome.

“She’s been to hell and back already but some fear she’s going to get worse before she gets better.”

Amy, who is waiting for husband BLAKE FIELDER-CIVIL to get out of prison, was due to face police questioning after allegedly serving a knuckle sandwich to dancer Sherene Flash last week.

Remember Blake Whatever-Whatever?  He turned down two, count ‘em two, get-out-of-jail-free cards in the space of about a week, all in favor of staying in jail longer so that he and Amy can be together when he finally is sprung.  It seems that this was a terrible blow to Amy, as her bad behavior has gotten worse in the past couple of weeks.  She acts like a woman who no longer cares about herself or what happens to her…with her connections and money, that is a bad thing.  Even Amy herself has said that her behavior is partly because she’s depressed and lonely because her husband is in jail (although her problems predate the jail term):

‘To be honest, my husband’s away, I’m bored, I’m young,’ Winehouse tells me.

‘I felt like there was nothing to live for. It’s just been a low ebb.’

So what does daddy Mitch Winehouse do while his daughter, who has emphysema, who is prone to brain seizures, who is addicted to drugs (including that horrible killer meth), who is facing yet more police investigations because of the punching incident the other night, who’s face is falling apart, who grows more and more skeletal every day, who admits to being depressed and angry, and whom he said would not live three more months three months ago?  Why, he did what any caring, loving, attentive, worried father would do in this situation…he took to the stage:

Meanwhile, her dad MITCH made his stage debut at the weekend, performing FRANK SINATRA classics in front of a 300-strong audience in Chiswick on Saturday night.

I was told the ex-cabbie got such a great reception that he went on to sing more classic hits for almost an hour.

You have GOT to be kidding me!  This is the last straw.  Mitch needs to get down off the stage (that he’s only on because of his daughter’s notoriety) and do something for Amy.  Nobody would give a tinker’s fart who he was if he wasn’t who he is.  All he seems to be good for any more is giving long-winded interviews where he tells the world much more than he ever should, gives a statement full of half-truths or out-and-out lies to the media whenever something bad happens, and generally letting Amy destroy herself.  Every time I turn around, I see this sack of hot air giving yet another interview on what is wrong with Amy and how it’s everyone else’s fault.  Why don’t you shut up, you big windbag…I was once one of your staunchest supporters, but not any more, not if you can sing while your daughter burns.

Is it any wonder?  I no longer am surprised that Amy is in the shape that she is in, or why she continues to stay that way.  If she dies young and tragically, she’ll be immortalized with the likes of Janis Joplin and Mama Cass, worth more dead than alive.  Do you see your daughter, Mitch?  She will be DEAD soon too, and when she dies you undoubtedly will point the finger of blame at everything and everyone, but you’ll refuse to take any blame for your own actions.  You’ll sit and moan and cry in interview after interview, while at the same time pocketing the money you get for them…not to mention anything Amy leaves behind.  Yeah, you’ll be set for life, pally.

Jamie Spears stepped in and took over his daughter’s life, got her in a hospital (against her will, she was totally incapable of making any sort of decision), made her STAY there (none of this wussy checking in and out every few hours), took over her finances, made sure she kept her appointments with the court, got her the medical help that she so desperately needed, and now look at her.  Brit’s career is back on track and while Brit isn’t out of the woods yet, she’s a lot closer than Amy is.  If Jamie Spears can do it, why can’t the family of Amy Winehouse?  Of course, at the moment I don’t think I’d want Mitch anywhere near Amy’s money, but there’s got to be somebody that could control it.  But who am I kidding?  Her friends have to babysit her while her own father is off on a stage somewhere making money off his daughter’s coattails.

Amy is not in her right mind and possibly has brain damage from the drugs.  Yes, Amy has to decide to help herself, but while I’ve been saying that all along I’m not sure Amy is Amy any more.  I think the drugs have taken over her brain and there’s no rational thought process there, and that goes double if she has brain damage.  There’s no way she can make any sort of informed decision concerning her own well-being, at least not right now.  Somebody needs to step up and save this girl from herself.  Would people stop loving her to death and do something?

On the bright side, with the practice Mitch is getting, he’ll be in fine voice to sing at Amy’s funeral.

WHY do people have to do this?  WHY do people have to butcher the National Anthem?  WHY must they think they are on American Idol or something and do things to it that were never meant to be done?  Mariah Careyitis has infected entirely too many singers today, professional and otherwise.  They think volume (and lots of it) plus horrendous vocal runs plus some twitching equals good singing.  No, it makes you sound like a cat in heat with a fish bone caught in its throat.  (No, I didn’t mean to make a cat/kat pun.)

And what’s with the “I’m all that” head bobs and hair flips and finger points?  Was this supposed to signify feeling?  She looked like she was having a seizure.  They make medication for that, you know.  You can’t hide a lack of vocal talent with runs and hiccups and tics and sexay gyrations.  And you don’t look cool, you look like a moron.

This is why I will listen to the first few notes to see what is going on, and then mute the television whenever it is performed at a sporting event I am watching…very, very few singers or musicians can do it and do it right.  It’s a hard song to do and if you can’t do it properly you just look stupid.  You know, this isn’t a showcase for your supposed vocal styling or dance moves.  This is supposed to be a reverential moment to honor our country.  IT’S THE NATIONAL ANTHEM!  GET UP THERE, SING IT CORRECTLY, AND SHUT UP WITH THE CRAP!

It would have been an act of kindness and national pride if one of the defensive ends from either team had just shot up and taken her out at the knees.

Now THIS is how you do the National Anthem…properly, reverently.  With actual talent.  It isn’t about you the singer, it is about the words and the patriotism behind them.  Oh, and it helps to have a strong voice and extended range.  This is Daniel Rodriguez singing.  (btw, I was there for this performance…it raised goosebumps on my arms.  People around me were in tears.  No, I didn’t take this video.)

Disclaimer:  Great.  I should point out that no, I don’t think every rendition of our National Anthem should be done by opera singers.  I just happened to hear this live and thought it was good.  I like all kinds of music and when a non-opera singer does the Anthem well and not screw it up, I’m all for it.  Does that about cover it?

moar caek and earplugs to dlisted

Forget the middle class who have to struggle to both pay bills and put food on the table, forget single parents who can’t get insurance for their sick child, forget schools that have had to cut programs to make ends meet, forget the elderly who must make the choice between their medications and their rent, forget people who have to take a second or third job just to pay for their gasoline…P Puff Puffy Diddy Daddy Diddly Doobie Donut has to fly on a commercial airliner!

“Even your boy is being affected by gas prices!” Sean “Diddy” Combs said in the video (warning: salty language on the video), which was filmed at an airline gate as he entered a plane. “As you know, I do own my own jet and I have been having flying back and forth to L.A. pursuing my acting career. Now, if I’m flying back and forth like twice in a month, that’s like $200,000 or $250,000 round trip. I’m back on American Airlines right now. OK? Your boy Diddy right now is on American Airlines.” [...]

In order to help the New York-based impresario keep up his presence in Hollywood, Diddy also begged his “Saudi Arabian brothers and sisters” to send him some oil for his jet before saying that him flying commercial proved that gas prices were too high.

“Look I’m at the gate right now,” he said. “We need to do something about, so tell whoever the next president is that we need to bring gas back down.”

He earnestly looks into the camera and says, “This is really happening!”

Well now it’s gone too far.  Gas prices and the economy have had me upset for quite some time, but now…now it’s all reached a head.  What is this world coming to when a rap mogul such as Puffy P Duffy has to fly first class back and forth twice a week?  Do you realize that he can’t sip his champagne in the privacy of his private jet any longer?  Do you realize that he must breathe the same air as other passengers?  The horrors!

He claims it is a joke, but the beast has been loosed and there is no turning back now.  This just proves that the continuous torrent of indignity that has been dumped upon the American people must stop.  When someone of the stature of Dingleberry P Puffmeister has to fly commercial, then it’s time to stand up and be counted.  And I’ll get right to that, as soon as I figure out whether my budget will allow me to have ketchup soup or bologna sandwiches for supper this week.  Hey, look what I found in the back of the fridge…a cheese slice that only has one hard spot!

(video NSFW)

What a shame.  Anyway…call the manicurist, because somebody done ticked off Little Miss Thang Axl Rose, and you don’t mess with Axl, because he will cut you.  I mean it.  He will break off one of those braids and totally mess you up.

Seriously…the FBI had to come in and do Axl’s dirty work for him, arresting a blogger who streamed some of the songs off the long-awaited Chinese Democracy album:

FBI agents arrested 27-year-old Kevin Cogill on Wednesday morning on suspicion of violating federal copyright laws. Cogill appeared in court in the afternoon wearing a T-shirt; his girlfriend sat court and afterward said, “Rally the troops,” but declined further comment.

Federal authorities say Cogill posted nine unreleased Guns N’ Roses songs on his Web site in June. The songs were later removed.

In later posts, Cogill wrote that the FBI had questioned him and asked his readers if any of them knew a good attorney. He was represented Wednesday by a federal public defender.

According to an arrest affidavit, Cogill admitted to agents that he posted the songs on his Web site. Prosecutors said Wednesday the leak could result in a “significant” financial loss for the band.

And the album sitting in some studio not being released for ten years isn’t costing the band anything, I’m sure.  There’s a smart move…let’s make an album, but let’s not release it!  That should really get the dough rolling in!

In case you’re wondering just why the album hasn’t hit the stores yet, it’s because Axl and his former bandmates are at odds and he’s pretty much burned his bridges with them.  It’s reported that the album has cost $13 million to make…and it still sits on a shelf somewhere, gathering dust.  There is one song that you will reportedly be able to hear legally, though…Shackler’s Revenge, supposedly to be released in the video game Rock Band 2.  I’ll head to my nearest Wal-Mart and listen for some teenage kid to screw up the demo.

No, the guy shouldn’t have streamed what wasn’t legally his (no word on how he got the music to start with).  But come on.  Shouldn’t the FBI be doing something like searching for the complete strangers who have little Caylee Anthony, like the family asked?  (btw, that’s sarcasm)

But hey…does this mean that we all get a free can of Dr Pepper now?  I mean, some of the album has been released, does that count?

(I know, I know…but so many memories of my misspent youth!  Happy Friday!)

Well, it makes sense…if Madonna (whom I take all my political advice from) is going to compare John McCain to one of the worst dictators of one of the most horrendous killing machines of the modern age, then we should compare Madonna to one of the worst environmental disasters of the modern age.  Hyperbole?  Exaggeration?  Perhaps…but she started it, so neener neener neener.

So what makes me make that comparison?  In her concerts on her “Sticky and Sweet” tour, Madonna has been showing rather heavy-handed videos comparing McCain to people like Hitler and Mugabe (and comparing Obama to people like Gandhi and John Lennon) and has made noises to the effect that she and her family have begun to change the way they operate so as to better show her concern for the planet.  Well, as long as it doesn’t affect her tour:

The 45 concerts are expected to generate more than 1,635 tons of carbon pollution in travel alone.

The emissions generated by the singer’s tour are equivalent to that created by 160 Britons in an entire year and equal to the emissions generated by leaving a standard 100 watt lightbulb on for about 4,000 years.

She will fly to 37 venues for the Sticky & Sweet tour in just under four months, transporting a team of 250. The string of 45 concert dates starts in Cardiff tonight.

Environmental experts calculated that by flying between concerts in Europe and then the United States, Madonna will rack up 95 tons of carbon in her private jet alone.

According to website Carbonfootprint.com, her 250 staff would generate 1,080 tons flying on commercial planes. There would be 460 tons of carbon from her heavy cargo.

Among the 250 personnel who will travel with her to every event are nine wardrobe assistants, 12 seamstresses, a 12-piece band, a chiropractor, personal trainer, masseuse, 16 caterers and around 100 technicians and dancers.

Four large freezers will also be constantly on hand to carry ice packs to soothe the aches and pains of Madonna and her dancers.

Thirty wardrobe trunks will be transported to each venue containing the singer’s massive wardrobe which is made up of more than 3,500 items.

Her annual carbon footprint is also the equivalent of 14,000 people living in Malawi, which is where she adopted her newest child from.

And if that wasn’t enough, the same video montage that features McCain and Obama also features shots of the Earth being harmed and destroyed, interspersed with the aforementioned heavy-handed shots.  Just in case you didn’t catch the subtlety the first time around.  Because, of course, Madonna is all about subtlety.

Like I’ve said before, McCain is no Hitler and Obama is no Gandhi.  Both candidates have their strengths and weaknesses.  Both candidates have done things right, and both candidates have done things wrong.  All this sort of thing does, her obvious preference for one over another and using major hyperbole to make her point, is create even larger chasms and dividing lines in a country which should be trying to pull together.  And like I’ve also said before, she hasn’t even made it to the US yet…do the people in Wales really care about McCain versus Obama?

And quite frankly, all it does is make Madonna look even more silly when she comes out in support of living moar green.  I guess it’s okay to talk the talk but not walk the walk, as long as you’re a mega-millionaire superstar.  “Do as I say, not as I do” is undoubtedly her daily mantra.

If Madonna wants to continue her proselytizing, then she needs to make sure she’s out of her so-called environmentally-friendly green house before she starts to throw naturally-gathered unwashed stones.

(big hattip and moar caeks to Deceiver)

50-year-old Madonna kicked off her latest shameless grab for publicity (or as she likes to call it, a world tour) by showing a montage of images designed to show the world her opinions about certain people:

Amid a four-act show, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe’s authoritarian President Robert Mugabe - and the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. Another sequence, shown later, pictured slain Beatle John Lennon, climate activist Al Gore, Mahatma Gandhi and finally Barack Obama.

The montage accompanied Get Stupid.  So let’s compare McCain to Hitler, Obama to Gandhi…obvious much?

Look, I don’t give a crap who she votes for, as long as she votes.  (Of course, she’s lived most of the past several years in the UK, which last time I checked was not part of the United States, but who am I to quibble?)  However, it really ticks me off to see performers be so blatant and over-the-top about joining the political mudslinging and promoting one candidate over another.  McCain has his faults, but he’s no Hitler…Obama has his strengths, but he’s no Gandhi.  Why didn’t she just use MS Paint to draw horns and a Hitler mustache on McCain and a halo and smiley faces on Obama?

I’m not saying celebs shouldn’t have opinions or be free to share those opinions, but when they start to get an inflated idea of their own importance in the matter…well, let’s put it this way, does Madonna really think she’s going to influence the election results with her not-so-subtle tactic?  Who does she think she is?  Yeah, like I’m going to seek political advice from a pop singer in hot pants.  The closer we get to the election the more of this stuff we will see.  Some celebs really do have an exaggerated idea of who they really are.

Besides, she was in Cardiff.  Which is in Wales.  Which, again, not part of the United States.  Do the people there care about who is in the US elections?  Do they even know the difference between Obama and McCain?

Of course, what do I expect from a woman who would perform a song while on a lighted crucifix wearing a crown of thorns?  Maybe she really does believe she has powah.  If I want election commentary I’ll look it up somewhere else.  Shut up and sing.

Anyone of a certain age knows Bob Geldof, either as the lead singer of the Boomtown Rats or as founder and organizer of Band Aid, Live Aid, and Live 8, respectively.  He’s long been a champion of the impoverished and starving in Africa, and funds raised from his various charity works have gone to help the poor in that country (although some would argue that the funds also backed, albeit inadvertently, the Derg military junta in Ethiopia).  Some in the press have taken to calling him “Saint Bob” because of his humanitarian efforts.  Never one to shy away from controversy, he has used his polarizing nature to bring the spotlight to his chosen issues.

But at what price?  His former lover and wife, Paula Yates, left him in 1994 for Michael Hutchence of INXS, who was found hanged in his motel room in 1997.  She herself died of a drug and alcohol overdose in 2000, and Bob (who had full custody of he and Paula’s three daughters together), took custody of Paula and Michael’s daughter, Tiger Lily.  His three daughters with Paula, Fifi, Peaches, and Pixie, have been in and out of the spotlight in varying degrees for various minor and major scrapes.  And now there is news that Peaches, 19, has had a quickie Vegas wedding to a rocker she barely knows:

The 15-minute ceremony last week had only one witness and Peaches is reported to have told her father only two hours beforehand.

Mr Drummey, 23, has remained in the U.S. where his unknown band, Chester French, are rehearsing for a concert.

There is mounting speculation the wedding was a stunt to promote Drummey’s band who are about to release an album and are currently touring America. [...]

Days earlier she is said to have left her previous boyfriend Faris Badwan, singer in the English band The Horrors.

Peaches said in last weekend’s Sunday Times she had a tattoo of a noose and a book dedicated to Badwan, which she explained ’symbolises me being owned by [him], for him to have a rope around me’.

But by last Tuesday she was marrying Drummey - who bears a striking resemblance to her father - at the Little White Wedding Chapel in Vegas.

While news of a rush-rush hush-hush wedding can cause any parent nightmares, it seems this is just the latest adventure in the life of Peaches.

But wait, there’s more…

Jennifer dumped John. John dumped Jennifer. Who the hell cares and how does this qualify as news on CNN?

I blame Jennifer Aniston for dating a piece of human garbage like douchey-crooner John Mayer. Clearly Jennifer has the world’s WORST taste in men. Her habit of dating incredibly immature guys, who have a long and checkered history of being afraid of commitment is probably not in her best interest, but none of this excuses John Mayer from running his yap to the paps about who broke up with whom.

Jennifer, as the CNN video reports, is a pretty private person and tends to keep mum on her personal life to the paps. And who can blame her? With Aniston’s heartaches played out in the press for years, and years, AND YEARS (Brangeloonies anyone?), why would she give the media more fuel for their humiliation pyre?

But alas, there’s no accounting for class. Or decorum, or taste, or dignity, apparently.

I hope Jennifer learns a valuable lesson from this. Anyone willing to date Jessica Simpson is probably someone Aniston should cross off her list of potential suitors.

As for you John Mayer, can you do us all a favor? Shut your flapping meathole before it ends up looking like your destined-to-be-diseased weenis. Ask yourself John, in what way are you improving the world? If you are “waiting for the world to change,” how about your start with yourself you attention-obsessed mouth-breather.

Julia Child grew up to become not only a pioneer in bringing French cuisine to everyday people but a leader of foodies everywhere.  Turns out, she was not only an accomplished author of many cookbooks and a chef who managed to make fine cuisine attainable to the masses, but before she became famous as a gourmet she also worked for the OSS (the precursor to the CIA) in WWII:

Operatives, stationed around the world, are believed to have studied military plans, helped form propaganda against the enemy and worked to infiltrate enemy ranks.

Child, whose books and TV show introduced French cooking to the American public, applied for the spy post after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941.

Then age 28, documents show she revealed to her future employers that she’d lost her previous job in the furniture industry after she could not get on with her boss.

She worked as a research assistant and file clerk, then worked directly for OSS chief Gen. William J. Donovan. She also was involved in a project to develop a shark repellent, to stop sharks from exploding underwater mines.

Later, she was posted to Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) where she met her husband Paul Cushing Child, also an OSS operative. She moved with him to France and later trained in French cuisine and opened her famed cooking school.

She wasn’t the only one…there were other famous people on the list:

– Acclaimed movie director John Ford, whose skill as a videographer qualified him to manage wartime spy photography.

– Chicago lawyer [Arthur] Goldberg, whose early legal work with labor unions made him an attractive spy candidate to rally European labor unions to help with the war effort, years before President Kennedy appointed him to the Supreme Court.

– And [Arthur] Schlesinger, who spent much of his time with OSS working in London as an intelligence officer and writer on the political staff, producing reports on political activities.

“His understanding and familiarity with the political history of European countries, achieved by years of study and firsthand observation … admirably qualify him for this responsible work,” one OSS official wrote about Schlesinger, who became a noted historian and one of Kennedy’s closest advisers.

The records show that Ford left his successful Hollywood life as a movie director to become a secret agent in 1941, later rising to serve as [Chief William J.] Donovan’s chief adviser. He was cited by his superiors for bravery, taking a position to film one mission that was “an obvious and clear target.” He survived “continuous attack and was wounded” while he continued filming, one commendation in his file states.

Ford already had won three of his four Academy Awards for films directed before joining OSS, including “The Grapes of Wrath.”

Long before Lawrence Tisch took over CBS, he had a fascination with breaking secret codes, working on them as a hobby in his home, one OSS record shows. Tisch was hired as an OSS agent to work on cracking enemy codes because of his skills.

Other names include Red Sox catcher Moe Berg; actor Sterling Hayden; John Hemingway, son of Ernest Hemingway; and Kermit Roosevelt, grandson of President Teddy Roosevelt.

It makes me wonder if any of the current crop of Hollywood stars would be likely to help behind the scenes if their country needed them to.  (What am I saying…we can’t even get many of them to help in front of the scenes and/or go entertain the troops, certainly not like Hollywood stars have done in the past.)  I’m sure there are a few who would want to help, but sadly I believe that the majority would not.  Either there wouldn’t be enough press to follow them around and record their good deeds done so unselfishly, or they’d be too busy packing their bags for another country, since this one stinks so bad they can’t stand to live here one more second, and they repeatedly tell you so with no fear of being shot on sight for speaking out against the government.

Hey, for any of you stars who think America is such a horrible place to live, I hear there’s a great country just south of Russia you might check out.  Well, as long as you don’t mind loss of basic freedoms, mortar holes, bleeding babies, and crying mothers, plus I’m sure they’ll rebuild the homes and businesses in another decade or so.

Hayden Panettiere is known as a champion of the beleaguered whales and was recently a hostess of a charity dinner to raise money for the Whaleman Group, but when it comes to sparing some of her own greenbacks for the people of the world…well, not so much.  It seems when she was taking a break from the San Diego Comic-Con, a homeless guy approached her for some change and guess what happened?

While the Heroes cutie was outside taking a break, a homeless man approached her and asked for some change. When Hayden reached into her purse and realized the smallest bill she had was a twenty, she asked him if he could break it!

“When he said no, she apologized and assured him that she would find him later,” the source says.

Way to help protect your own species, Hayden.

I realize that when you visit/live in a large urban area, you’re going to be approached by people wanting money.  Sometimes they are benign, sometimes it can get scary.  But it seems like this wasn’t a frightening situation (besides, I’m sure she had “people” there).  And if she didn’t want to give the guy money, she just had to say so.  But would it have been such a hardship for her to spare a tiny bit of her stacks of money with someone less fortunate?

Isn’t asking a homeless person to break a twenty kind of like making change in the offering plate?