MamaPop™

And the Highest Earning Dead Celebrity Is...

Who is the highest earning dead celebrity?

I would have guessed Michael Jackson, but I would have been wrong.

Eric Braeden Leaves Young & the Restless, Takes Lady Tickler with Him

By Michael Roe

Where were you when you heard that Eric Braeden is leaving CBS’ top-rated The Young & the Restless as of November 2? Here, just a second ago? Devastating, I know. I’m so, so sorry. My mom didn’t prepare me for the news, either. She just blurted... You were being sarcastic? I don’t heart you. Anyway...

Apparently, Sony wanted to drastically cut Braeden’s salary. 68 year old Braeden’s response?

“What? I didn’t hear what you... hold on... let me turn up my miracle ear.”

Once he was able to hear them, and a minute or two of time required for him to process the information and remember where he was had passed, he proceeded to tell them what they could do with their offer. I’m sure it involved the suits’ Wiis. And, I’m sure Sony was all like, “Uh, Nintendo makes the Wii, Eric. We make the PlayStation.”

“Take your Wii, and shove it up your PlayStation! Now, kindly leave, or I will have you thrown out.”

He was in their office. It was awkward. Like, Hover-Round bumping into the boardroom table, getting all lodged and knocking over pitchers of water onto Sony VAIOs awkward.

The point is, Braeden was born in Germany, and you don’t take a German lightly, especially if that German has a moustache and, at 68, has nothing to live for lose.

Anyway, oh, what a moustache it is. Was.

Uma Thurman is having a Royale with Cheese

The Bride is having a royal wedding.

Almost.

I love Uma Thurman. Always have, always will. She is an excellent actor and a stunning woman. Hell, she was married to Gary Oldman which to me is wonderfully insane, then to Ethan Hawke, who apparently likes nannies and that makes no sense at all when you are married to Uma Thurman, so I'm glad he's gone.

She has always remained graceful in the press and appears to be a fine parent of two children. Now Uma is engaged to multi-millionaire Arpad Busson and I'm very happy for her. Rich is good.

Just Say No, No, No: Amy Winehouse's New Line of Greeting Cards and Wrapping Paper

So I'm wondering how the product meeting went, the one where they came up with the idea to market a line of Amy Winehouse greeting cards and wrapping paper. I'm thinking someone suggested a line of flasks, or perhaps a perfume that smelled like a combo of cloves and Jack Daniels. Then someone else threw out the idea of a line of hand towels and the room fell silent and the head of the marketing department shook his head and told everyone to go to lunch before he fired their asses.

Then just as everyone was deciding whether to go to Applebee's or HomeTown Buffet one of the new guys, the one who was real quiet during the entire meeting, piped up and said, "Hey, how about a line of Amy Winehouse greeting cards and wrapping paper?" Everyone started clapping and hoisted the guy on their shoulders and now that guy is president of the company.

Okay, that's probably not how it went because that idea is absolutely awful.

Sharon Osbourne's IRS Problems are Taxing

Sharon Osbourne is many things. She is a promoter, a reality television star, married to the Prince of Darkness, an author, a talk show host, a cancer survivor, a mother, one of the 25 richest women in Britain and a tax evader.

I'm thinking those last two probably go hand in hand, because  if you owe over $435,000 in back taxes you must be making some bank.

I'm 36 years old and I feel confident that I haven't paid $435,000 in taxes in my entire career as a taxpayer.

Did I tell you what kind of fine $436,026 in back taxes will land you?

Jon & Kate Plus Hate 8: The Season Premiering

Yeeeeeah. So that was, in a word, awkward.

For the record, I'd never been interested in the whole Jon & Kate soap opera -slash- televisual phenomenon before last night, so please pardon me if my ignorance shows here. But after the epic media blitz the TLC network punished all of us with over the course of the past week or so, I came to somehow feel certain that it was my duty -- both as a critic of pop culture and as an American citizen -- to ingest the damn thing.

The gastro-intellectual aftermath? Something akin to acute psychic indigestion.

Times They Are Ka-Chingin': Bob Dylan's Old Poem Brings in New Cash

You know that stack of your kid's drawings and stories that you have on your desk, and how you can't figure out what to do with any of it?  You don't want to throw them away yet there they are, taking up valuable space that you could be using for more important things like say, deli platters. I don't know how many times I've been dying for a ham sandwich and then get disappointed when all I have on my desk is a crayon drawing that says, "I love you mommy."

Beef Supreme: American Gladiator Coming to the Big Screen

Crappin. You. Negative. American Gladiators, the gold standard of spandex and foam and jousting and steroids, is going to be adapted into a full-length feature film.

Factory Farming Partially to Blame for Swine Flu?

I am already so sick of hearing about swine flu. On the off-chance that this really is the pandemic that wipes us all out, I will gladly accept many I-told-you-sos. For now, I'm leaning toward believing that it's a "glamorous" story that the media can beat to death.

It is a serious issue, though, particularly for people living and working in Mexico, who have been the hardest hit by the illness. As of today, 152 deaths and 1,600 illnesses are believed to be swine flu.

Residents and workers near a Smithfield Foods plant in Perote, Mexico, think that the factory-farming giant may be at least partially to blame for the outbreak.

Woody Allen and American Apparel in Legal Fisticuffs; Pop Culture Writer Utterly Confused

About a year ago, Woody Allen sued American Apparel for using his image on their billboards without his permission. Things have since gone downhill.

Viewing the Sex and the City Movie a Year After the Fact

I had a pretty rough week last week. My 9 to 5 was extremely hectic, I have big projects coming up for both classes that I'm taking this semester, I haven't seen my kid or my husband in what seems like forever, and I'm so SO worn out that when I do have time to catch up on homework on the weekends, all I want to do is sleep and watch crappy TV. Anything to get my mind to stop goinggoinggoing about all that I should be doing.

So when I saw that the Sex and the City movie was now on OnDemand, I eagerly turned it on, ready to revel in some mindless but funny and entertaining antics from the four ladies who gave me such joy in the rosy early 00s.

Lauren Conrad's Clothing Line Is On A Break

Okay, so the economy sucks and people are losing jobs and houses and our local Linens n' Things went out of business and there's now an entire shopping center occupied by a bunch of random stores subletting the space called Furniture n' Things and Lamps n' Things and Factory Second Measuring Spoons n' Things and anyway, it's all just too depressing and real out there. So I feel a little badly for reveling in some schadenfreude today about Lauren Conrad's clothing line officially filing for failure.

But you know what? I also just learned that Paris Hilton broke up with that one guy and is now dating some other guy and I had NO IDEA, which means I'm really growing as a person and expanding my interests and finally living a life that does not involve knowing who Paris Hilton is specifically fucking at any particular time. Therefore, I'm rewarding myself with this:

My Kid Could Paint That...Maybe

As you're probably aware, the majority of the staff here at MamaPop fall somewhere in the spectrum of "parent bloggers." Some of us write almost exclusively about our children, and some of us write about other stuff with a dash of, "Oh, yeah, I have a kid," thrown in. Regardless of the amount of parenting material on our blogs, nearly all of us have been accused, whether individually or as a group, of exploiting our children, either for profit or attention.

Our response to that is, of course, "Pshaw." You don't have to believe me, but I can tell you that that's just not the case, especially when you get to see some potential examples of exploitation that will make you squirm. I'm referring to folks like Jon and Kate Gosselin who have a particularly nauseating approach to family life in the spotlight and who are coming under increasing scrutiny. I'm also referring to the far more complicated case of Mark and Laura Olmstead and their daughter Marla.

Biggie Smalls Tells Lil' Kim to "Just Do You" Plus Thumbs Down On Notorious Movie

In an interview with RapRadar, Lil' Kim was asked if she thinks Notorious B.I.G. would've been pleased with Notorious, the recently released film about his life.

Lil' Kim has been very vocal about her opposition to the film. However, she was now asked to speculate about Biggie's potential opinion of the film, had he not been shot dead in 1997 (and what I mean to imply here but will make explicit to fully illustrate the scope of Lil' Kim's stupidity: dead people do not really have opinions about movies).

Lil' Kim first assured the interviewer that she is "a very spiritual person". This is one of my favorite distinctions. People will tell you they're spiritual as opposed to religious, meaning that their unorthodox God thinks it's totally dope when they flash their tits in everybody's eyeball or when they spread their legs to flash that animal print. Get money! Usually, when someone assures you that they're very spiritual, they're getting ready to tell you some crazy shit that doesn't make any sense. Lil' Kim did not disappoint.

"I know for a fact he's not happy." Lil' Kim is not here talking about her opinion of what Biggie might think. Lil' Kim knows what Biggie does think for a fact. She knows this because, via her super potent spiritual powers, Biggie told her in a dream.

I'm totally serious. Lil' Kim goes to sleep. And then Notorious B.I.G. talks to her in dreams. AND THEN, Lil' Kim presents this dream content as representative of what Biggie thinks. Sometimes when I write, I make things up. But I swear to you that I did not make this up. Biggie Smalls tells Lil' Kim factual stuff in her dreams. And it's all made possible by her highly spiritualized nature. I know I'm being redundant. It's like I don't believe myself. I'm trying to convince myself that Lil' Kim really said these things and meant them and didn't expect us to laugh until we cried.

Quote of the Obvious: "This Woman Is Nuts."

Nadya Suleman lost her SECOND publicist over the weekend. Victor Munoz quit Friday night, and US Magazine had his parting shots at her up by Saturday.

"It just got to be too much," he says. "It's pretty much a free for all over there right now. They are freaking out right now.

"Not to sound arrogant, but those people depended on me for everything," he continues. "You have no idea what I’ve had to do for these people.

"Nadya got real greedy. This woman is nuts," he adds. "This I can say: what ultimately destroyed the business arrangement was personal reasons."

He's busy meeting with lawyers today to go over his contract and confidentiality clause (i.e. finding out if he's allowed to further trash talk her to the media). Oy.

Source

Ladies, I'm pleased to announce that by this time next year, the average woman's wardrobe in these United States is going to get substantially more fabulous. Why? Because Christian Siriano -- winner of "Project Runway" Season Four and the archetype of every woman's ideal gay BFF -- is presently in the process of creating a line of shoes and handbags for Payless ShoeSource.

Yes, I did just say Payless ShoeSource.

Look no further than the Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition.

Forget silly concepts like math! Forget boring your children with the tedious task of keeping track of how much pretend money they have DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THEM! Forget teaching them to count by fives and tens! Or that THIS house costs THIS much, and you only have THAT much, so you better wait until you have THAT much before you buy it! Dude, that's such outdated thinking.

Christian Siriano Wants You To Payless For Shoes (Har, Geddit?)

Ladies, I'm pleased to announce that by this time next year, the average woman's wardrobe in these United States is going to get substantially more fabulous. Why? Because Christian Siriano -- winner of "Project Runway" Season Four and the archetype of every woman's ideal gay BFF -- is presently in the process of creating a line of shoes and handbags for Payless ShoeSource.

Yes, I did just say Payless ShoeSource.

Looking For the Perfect Gift to Teach Your Child About the Financial Crisis?

Look no further than the Monopoly: Electronic Banking Edition.

Forget silly concepts like math! Forget boring your children with the tedious task of keeping track of how much pretend money they have DIRECTLY IN FRONT OF THEM! Forget teaching them to count by fives and tens! Or that THIS house costs THIS much, and you only have THAT much, so you better wait until you have THAT much before you buy it! Dude, that's such outdated thinking.