TresSugar

Should Snoop Dogg Be in the Soap Bizzle?

GiggleSugar — Fri, 09 May 2008 15:00:00 -0700

He made a name for himself as a Grammy-winning rapper, took the English language by storm (for shizzle!), and then went the reality TV route to show off his domestic chops. He's a versatile dude, but who would've ever seen soap operas in Snoop's future? Not only is he doing the acting and performing thang on two episodes of One Life to Live (aired today and yesterday), he also recorded a new theme song to introduce these shows. Roll the credits, listen up, and let me know what you think of Snoop's new career move. (For more on the story, click here.)

TMI? Woman to Broadcast Baby's Birth on Live TV

TresSugar — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 06:00:00 -0800

It started out as a blogging gig for a moms-to-be site, but 23-year-old Lynsee, a teacher from Minnesota, decided to take it a step further. Along with her mother, husband, and midwife, she's going to have a cameraman film her giving birth while it's broadcast on live television. (No graphic shots, however.)

Although her husband Anders was hesitant at first, he finally agreed to it. "We wanted to share this experience," said Lynsee. "If I were in a classroom, I'd be teaching about development. It was a way for me to teach . . . A way for me to use myself as a textbook."

I find it odd that Lynsee asked to keep her last name private for this news story but is going to have someone film and broadcast to strangers one of the most private experiences of her life. (But maybe that's just me.) Is giving birth on television for strangers to watch TMI?

Do Tell: Is There Anything You Really Regret?

TresSugar — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 04:00:00 -0700

I stumbled upon the amazing confession site Isoregret.com and was moved, perturbed, and amused by the things people revealed they regretted in their lives.

From the admissions almost all of us can relate to ("I so regret fooling myself, and him, into thinking I loved him"), to the ones I hope none of us will never relate to ("I so regret ever marrying that douchebag of a man . . .and I also regret not killing him . . ."), these regrets are definitely compelling.

Is there anything you really regret in your life?

Ask a Gay Woman: I'm Bisexual - How Do I Come Out?

TresSugar — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 16:00:00 -0700

Conventional Wisdom is a different kind of advice column. Your questions will be answered by people from all walks of life rather than by advice experts. If you have a question you'd like answered on Conventional Wisdom, you can submit it here.

This week, an out and proud gay woman helps a 16-year-old girl figure out how to come out. After you read her answer, be sure to check out TrèsSugar's Lesbian and Bisexual Support Group in the community, as well as TrèsSugar's Group Therapy group where I found this question.

Today's question: "I'm a 16-year-old girl who's currently in a relationship with a boy. I'm taking college classes along with my high school ones, and I have poetry that's published. People tell me everyday that I'm gorgeous and absolutely amazing. My downfall? If they knew I was bisexual, I would be alone. I've come out to three of my gay friends, but that's it. I was voted most optimistic for favorites, but people don't know how really miserable I am. I'm in love with a girl, and I want to give myself to her completely. To kiss her, to hold her. But I don't want to be hidden, and I don't want to lose everything I have. HELP ME, I'M BEGGING. Signed, Tormented."

To hear what a gay woman has to say, read more.

Dear Tormented,

I know what you are going through is hard and scary. When I was growing up I felt very confused about the intense feelings I had for other girls, and I couldn't even admit to myself that I was bi or gay, let alone anyone else. So first and foremost I just want to say that you are very strong and brave to admit these feelings to yourself and reach out. Please don't take your fear as a sign that you can't handle this - if you couldn't handle it I think you would have buried it way down and not even bring it up as a possibility. There are a few different things about your worries that I want to address:

First, before you decide how to handle your feelings about this other girl, you have to figure out your feelings for your boyfriend. Do you really want to be with him? Or are you just being with him because it is safe and simple? It is too hard to figure out how you are feeling about your sexuality and the girl you say you are in love with if it is all wrapped up with shame and secrecy about possibly cheating on the person you are dating. If you know deep down that it is someone else and not him you want to be with, then break up with him. You don't have to tell him all the details of why you are ending it - just that it isn't working for you right now. Then you can have some space and time to think through the issue of your bisexuality without the anxiety of betrayal.

Secondly, I am not sure exactly what kind of community and family you are living in, so it is hard for me to address how real your concerns are that you will lose "everything." It sounds like you have some gay friends, which means people are out in your community and you have some support, so I think you should consider that maybe after the initial shock this wouldn't be as devastating as you think. Definitely it is still not the total norm, but living in fear that you won't be accepted is making you miserable, so I am not sure that finding out that certain people will be fine with it and others won't be could be that much worse. But I think you need to talk to some people you trust to help you figure out how to best handle your specific situation. If there is a gay and lesbian community center in your town you could get some confidential advice from someone. There are also some good websites: Sex Etc. (a website about sex run by and for teens) and this Planned Parenthood teen talk blog.

The most important thing is to know that you are absolutely not alone with this, that a lot of people go through this, that you will be OK, and that there is a lot of support for you out there.

Signed,

A Gay Woman

Flashback: Found Footage of Anne Frank

TresSugar — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 13:00:00 -0700

Many of you spoke about how moved you were when you read Anne Frank's diary for the first time and what a lasting impression the sensitive teen's life and words had on you. Prepare to have your heart break a little when you see the following video.

The Anne Frank Museum in Amsterdam recently posted the only known film footage of Anne Frank. The film clip, shot on July 22, 1941, records the wedding of a woman who lived next door to the Frank family. You can catch a glimpse of Anne watching from the window of her apartment; she would die of typhus in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp just a few years later in 1945.

After Anne's diary was published and made her posthumously famous in the '50s, the couple recognized her in their film and contacted her father Otto Frank. They have since given the museum their longer version of the clip. One can only wonder what the impressionable and romantic Anne was thinking when she watched this couple get married. To see an interview with Otto about Anne's diary, read more.

Is It Unseemly That Filmmakers Are Calling For Polanski's Release?

TresSugar — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:00:00 -0700

There's no question that Roman Polanski is one of the greatest living directors. It's also clear that he's had tragedy in his life: he survived the Holocaust as a child in Poland and grieved the murder of his pregnant wife Sharon Tate by Charles Manson followers in 1969.

But no matter how mishandled his legal case was in the '70s after he plead guilty to having unlawful sexual relations with a 13-year-old after giving her champagne and part of a quaalude - he has evaded punishment and lived a life of luxury as a celebrated artist in Europe for over 30 years. I was taken aback when I read that 138 people in the film industry, including Woody Allen and Martin Scorsese, have signed a petition voicing their opposition to his recent arrest in Zurich, Switzerland, on his way to a ceremony honoring him.

Is there something unseemly about a group (largely made up of men) in a notoriously sexist industry standing up for someone who hasn't been punished for his sexual crime against a child? Is the fact that Polanski is an artist somehow a mitigating factor? I found it particularly galling that Woody Allen - who had an affair with his partner Mia Farrow's adopted teenage daughter and is now married to her - spoke out about what film producer Harvey Weinstein is calling "a terrible situation"? But that's me - what do you think?

Rent-a-Friend Business Booming in Japan

TresSugar — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 01:00:00 -0700

One of my favorite episodes of How I Met Your Mother involves Barney and his hired "family." The eternal playboy (played by Neil Patrick Harris) wants his mother to think he has settled down, so he pays actors to play his wife and son, concocts an elaborate backstory with details including his son's "catch phrase," and plays along for years every time he visits his mother with his fake family in tow.

Well apparently, Japan has turned this sitcom plot into a reality. Japanese rent-a-friend companies allow people to pay for pretend friends, relatives, work colleagues, or even best men! Sometimes single mothers hire fake husbands so kids stop bullying their children at school for having absent fathers!

Just like Barney's family, the "agents" are trained to know an extensive backstory. If rentees give any hint that they're aren't really the people they're pretending to be, it could mess up the clients' lives. Creepy! Apparently the need to look like everything is perfect in your life is so important in Japan that some people are willing to rent these actor-CIA-agent hybrids for about $250 per appearance.

While it might be tempting to hire a stand-in boyfriend for awkward situations, like when you're the only single girl invited to a dinner party filled with couples, this still seems strange to me. What do you think?

Photo courtesy of CBS

Astrology: Do You Believe in Saturn's Return?

TresSugar — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 15:00:00 -0700

If you're anywhere between 27 and 30 and have ever had, oh, a problem, someone might tell you not to worry - or, actually do worry. It's all part of a perfect celestial storm known as Saturn's return. Taking about 29 years to orbit the Earth, Saturn returns to the place it was in at your birth every 29 years. This means one thing to astrologers - rebirth!

Birth is painful; rebirth isn't much better, especially considering Saturn is a sign of growth. Astrologers believe Saturn's return represents life changes: the first time it returns in your late 20s, you enter adulthood. The next time, around 60, you enter maturity, and the final time, at 90, you enter the wisdom of old age. None of it comes easy.

So what does Saturn's return mean for those approaching 30? It's out with the old and in with the new: self-examination, career changes, bad relationships ending, good relationships deepening, and, hey, maybe you'll have a baby! To which I say, these are all things that happen anyway.

Yet, Saturn's return is all over pop culture. No Doubt named its 2000 album Return of Saturn as Gwen Stefani approached her 29th birthday; there's a book - Surviving Saturn's Return - about it; and then there's this amazing blog that connects Saturn's return with events in celebrities lives. It's quite morbid, actually, blaming Annie Leibovitz's money troubles and the deaths of John Hughes, Heath Ledger, and Julia Child on the return of Saturn.

Sound about right to you, or should the idea return to outer space?

Source Flickr User LarsOh

Hugh Hefner Documentary - Would You Watch It?

TresSugar — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 03:00:00 -0700

What's the first thing that pops into your mind when you hear the name Hugh Hefner? Sex, I'm sure. A new documentary wants to add "civil rights activist" to the list of things the Playboy icon is known for. Hugh Hefner: Playboy, Activist and Rebel presents Hugh as a champion of gay rights, women's liberation, and racial integration.

Here's Hugh describing his legacy:

"One of the things I find really curious is when people say I've lived an amoral life. From my perspective, it's quite the contrary. I feel I've lived a very moral life. I've been on the side of angels from the beginning.”

One such angelic anecdote: when two of his Playboy nightclubs in the South were racially segregated, Hugh bought them back and integrated them. As for women, the man who tells his current twin girlfriends apart by a birthmark says: "I was a feminist before there was such a thing as feminism." Hugh's Playboy Foundation has funded legal battles for birth control and abortion access. Of course one could argue that Hugh has this influential role only because he made a fortune objectifying women for the entertainment of men.

Would you be interested in learning more about Hugh's life as a so-called activist?

Do, Dump, or Marry? Tom Brady

TresSugar — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 08:30:00 -0700

Tom Brady is definitely a hottie. In an interview for September's Details, the New England quarterback reveals that he fancies himself a family guy, too. Tom, who already has one son with his ex Bridget Moynahan and is expecting another with wife Gisele, says he ultimately wants four or five kids.

For those of you who are skeptical of Tom because he began dating Gisele while Bridget was pregnant, Tom had something to say about that, too. He explained:

"Life is not living in the suburbs with a white picket fence. . . . Somehow our American culture has made it out that that's what life needs to be - and that if it's not that, it's all screwed up. It's not. You go through life and you try the best you can."

OK then! Would you want Tom in your life?