Free Republic

The thunderous applause was still ringing in his ears when the state's new governor, David Paterson, told the Daily News that he and his wife had extramarital affairs. In a stunning revelation, both Paterson, 53, and his wife, Michelle, 46, acknowledged in a joint interview they each had intimate relationships with others during a rocky period in their marriage several years ago. In the course of several interviews in the past few days, Paterson said he maintained a relationship for two or three years with "a woman other than my wife," beginning in 1999. mo here

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) - Actress Shell Kepler, who for years played the gossipy nurse Amy Vining on the TV soap opera "General Hospital," has died. She was 49. Kepler died Friday at Oregon Health & Science University hospital, which did not give the cause of death. Kepler's busybody character on "General Hospital" was a fan favorite and enjoyed a long run, 1979-2002. In addition to her run on "General Hospital," she was also in a 1982 Joan Collins film, "Homework," and a couple of episodes of the situation comedy "Three's Company." On the side, she was a businesswoman, marketing clothing...

BEIJING--Chinese President Hu Jintao may be an avid viewer of South Korean sudsers, but different interpretations of Chinese history and Korea's founding myths may see the Korea's top skein banned from Chinese screens. Sheer popularity alone has not been enough to stop Korean Wave star Bae Yong-joon's $46 million skein "The Four Guardian Gods of the King" being blacklisted by state media watchdogs over its view of Chinese history. The mega-drama, also referred to as "Taewangsasingi," is by far the biggest TV show in Korean history and has drawn a one-in-five-plus household rating in Korea.But skein is now on China's...

Julio Severo Interview - Part 1 Severo tells how he became involved in pro-life and how Brazil has been changed since the late 1980s By Matthew Cullinan Hoffman See introductory story at http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/aug/07082811.html SAO PAULO, August 28, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com)LifeSiteNews.com: How long have you been involved in pro-life and pro-family work?  How did you get started? Julio Severo: My first contact with the pro-life message was through publications from Last Days Ministries, in 1986. Through them I learned about Americans Against Abortion (a branch of Last Days Ministries). Before, I supported abortion in cases of rape and risk of life. Later,...

David Hiller's decision to kill the Brian Grazer section this Sunday makes my continued tenure as Los Angeles Times editorial page editor untenable. The person in this job needs to have an unimpeachable integrity, and Hiller's decision amounts to a vote of no confidence in my continued leadership. I regret that my failure to anticipate and adequately address the perception of a conflict in this matter has placed Hiller -- whom I like and respect a great deal, incidentally -- and my colleagues on the editorial board in such an awkward position, not to mention Brian Grazer and Kelly Mullens,...

Science behind the Soap OperaThe cute and the shocking at Meerkat Manor Susan Milius Tim Clutton-Brock has suddenly said, for reasons not at all clear to me, "Hard-boiled egg." Perhaps it's best to ignore this. So, I ask him again in our phone conversation what he would pick as the highlights of his past 13 years of directing a field study of meerkats in the Kalahari Desert. Meerkats, a type of mongoose, cluster in family groups and share the job of raising the top female's pups. Clutton-Brock and his colleagues have published reports on meerkat behaviors ranging from altruism to...

This Thursday, the ABC TV daytime serial drama All My Children will introduce a character who was born male and is being "transformed into a woman" through hormone treatments, surgery, and psychological retraining. This is believed to be the first time an American television show has had such a "transgendering" character. Some programs in the past have had fully "transgendered" characters in the past, but you probably wouldn't remember them given that nobody watched. The L Word, on the Showtime cable network, has a character who is going the other way, from a woman to a "man." According to the...

How, I wonder, did it come to pass that we’ve become a tabloid society? I’m not just referring to those junky scandal sheets they peddle at supermarket checkout stands. They’re just a small part of it, the tip of a sleazy iceberg. In the wake of Rep. Patrick Kennedy’s traffic accident, I was reminded once again what a glutton for soap opera melodramas we’ve become. Kennedy, who has a long record of problems with alcohol and cocaine, fesses up to the fact that he was stoned out of his skull when he got behind the wheel of his car, and...

Subscribers of Comcast Cable will be ambushed tonight with Degrassi - "The Next Generation" 8:00 p.m. tonight.

To start, I have some thoughts in wishing to entertain you. Understanding MATH Uncertainty=how long your wife tells you she will shop before you both entering the mall Certainty=the actual time you two leaving the mall Unknown and independent variables=what your wife wants next Dependent variables=what you must do next Implied number=the correct way to understand what she told you Step functions=her way to indicate a numerical measurement from times to times Imaginary objects=what she expects from you Absolute minimum=what you can expect from her Superior Court of California County of Sacramento Case # 05FL04999 I am writing a true...

Caracas, Jan 27 (EFE).- Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Friday that rumors about his plans to wed a soap-opera star were an attempt to tarnish his image ahead of the December presidential vote, when he plans to seek re-election. After denying any romantic relationship with Venezuelan actress Ruddy Rodriguez, Chavez postulated that the U.S. "empire" and its Venezuelan "lackeys" were behind what he called a disinformation campaign. Chavez, a self-styled "revolutionary" who is a staunch ally of Cuba's Fidel Castro, regularly criticizes the United States for having an "imperialist and interventionist" position toward Venezuela. "The campaign has already begun to...

<p>In response to questions about the MD4BUSH affair, in which a democrat operative got an aide to the governor to comment online about infidelity rumours of Baltimore Mayor Martin Omally, the Governor became angry over the double standard. "When this thing broke I had cameras and mics stuck in my face, now that it seems MD4BUSH is a democrat operative working in conjunction with a major media outlet...its a set-up...where are the cameras now?"</p>

ATLANTA — Runaway bride Jennifer Wilbanks, whose three-day disappearance led to a nationwide search and more than a week of tabloid headlines, has entered a medical treatment program. The location of the program and its likely duration were not disclosed. Wilbanks "entered a highly regarded, inpatient treatment program on her own volition to address physical and mental issues that, she believes, played a major role in her 'running from herself,' as she described in a public statement last week," family spokesman Sammy Smith wrote in an e-mail. Wilbanks initially told investigators that she had been abducted, a story that quickly...

Desperate Housewives, Adult Escapism By Kevin Fobbs May 2, 2005 First Lady, Laura Bush, speaking before the White House Correspondents Dinner this past weekend, elevated a highly popular nighttime television soap opera Desperate Housewives to another level of popularity, when she humorously referred to it in her remarks. She said if those desperate housewives who make up the fictional make up of the neighborhood portrayed on Desperate Housewives think their desperate housewives.... well she really is a desperate housewife. When you think about it, this hit television show offers many of the same creature comforts that its 1960's counterpart offered...

Just heard on Fox....so sad.

<p>There is a pic of Evita and Lurch under the headline, which currently is unclickable. More news to follow, I would gather.</p>

President Bush is squeezing in some campaigning before the political spotlight turns to next week's Democratic National Convention in Boston. Bush's twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were to accompany him Tuesday. It's the first time they have made joint appearances with their dad on the campaign trail, although they each have traveled separately with him on other outings. The twins also will take part in an online chat Friday on Bush's re-election Web site. Bush flies to re-election rallies in Iowa and Missouri, toss-up states that he and Democratic rival John Kerry are fighting hard to win this year. Bush...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Suddenly, John Wayne (news) isn't trendy anymore. A politician in Southern California's Orange County has suggested that the community's John Wayne Airport might be a more appealing destination for travelers and a better emblem of the region if it had a name that traded on a popular TV show: "The O.C. Airport." "The O.C.," a drama about the lives and loves of some oversexed teenagers in the affluent, conservative region south of Los Angeles, became a breakout hit for broadcaster Fox this season. Orange County Supervisor Chris Norby raised the idea before his colleagues of changing...

The ACC announced Tuesday that a vote for expansion might not occur until later this month, but regardless of the outcome the Big East is going to be proactive about its future and pursue a 16-team league, a source told ESPN.com. At least one source close to the Big East said the conference wouldn't stand idle waiting to get raided again by the ACC or another league. The source said the Big East cannot remain a fractured 14-team league in basketball and eight teams in football. The financial issues would still be divisive if the league remained as is even...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Daytime television viewers -- considered to be among America's most conservative audiences -- will see their first on-screen lesbian kiss next week, ABC television said on Monday. The kiss will take place during the April 22 episode of the Emmy-award winning soap opera "All My Children," making what ABC said would be a first in the world of daytime television. It comes in a scene featuring gay teen character Bianca Montgomery (Eden Riegel), who came out as a lesbian in 2000, and her new friend Lena (Olga Sosnovska) who "in a moment of truth and true...