Celebrity News

OK, I started the week by declaring Ask A.B. a "Michael Jackson Free Zone," but this is now worth a post ...

Let me get this straight — as the party struggles to defend the stimulus program amid staggering job loss and more ominous economic news, and to hold a coalition together on healthcare as the public plan threatens to derail reform, Democrats are going to put up a fight about Michael Jackson?

Seriously? Read more...

It is remarkable in itself that when Sarah Palin comes down to the Lower 48 to go to a baseball game with Rudy Giuliani, she remains in the press for a month.

It is interesting as well that this has taken place as a parallel event to a funeral of a popular dancer whose celebrations and remembrances are dragging out longer than Washington’s, Lincoln’s, Kennedy’s, Gandhi’s or Victoria’s. Maybe things begin where they end. Here is a thought to her and her delightful Alaskan family from another free spirit and a neighbor in the Northwest who was thrown to fame and fell victim to it as well: Read more...

I didn’t watch the Michael Jackson memorial service. I didn’t boycott it, exactly, but I actually had some work to do, so I didn’t turn on the television to catch it.

I know. I can always watch the replays or catch it online. I think I will resist that urge, however.

Michael Jackson was a weird dude. Yes, he made some really cool music. My favorite song was “Billie Jean,” a song about a guy who is trying to explain away a child who was conceived out of wedlock. Nice values, eh? Read more...

Many of us grew up as huge fans and were consistently affected by his music and persona for much of our lives.

Hearing the news of his shocking death has quickly reminded us of our own mortality and imminent death. The world was absolutely crushed when the reality set in that he was gone too soon and would never return. This will deeply resonate within the now-seemingly hollow spot Michael Jackson left in the hearts of followers across the globe who grew up with the pop star-turned-tragic figure — one that even the masterful craftsmanship of Shakespeare couldn’t create. Read more...

When I left for my vacation (a Disney cruise for the whole family — back to that later), history was being made in Iran. As I was getting ready to come home last night, the new history being made was the news that Mark Sanford was in Argentina and not in Appalachia. And tonight, the story is all about Michael Jackson, who apparently died of a heart attack.

The attention span of the American media last about 30 seconds. And that makes Mark Sanford the luckiest man in the world. Read more...

At first, he seemed like the perfect candidate. He’s the most popular TV doc ever: CNN’s handsome, articulate, energetic, personable Sanjay Gupta. He’s both a noted neurosurgeon and a media star. Who better to serve the nation as surgeon general?

I admit, when I first heard that he was Obama’s choice for surgeon general, I had a heart flutter. Perfect choice! But then other voices, who knew Sanjay Gupta better than I, started speaking out. Read more...

He just couldn’t leave bad enough alone. Getting away with murder(s) was not enough. This time, the scene changed, and so did the key characters, except O.J. Johnny Cochran is gone to his maker. Judge Ito replaced by a low-visibility, no-nonsense judge. The glow is now gone from the younger, untouchable star.

The bizarre administration of justice finally worked its way. Nullification in Los Angeles was replaced by overreaction in Las Vegas. The man is finally there for all to see, shackled hand and foot, in prison-issue garb, whimpering before a judge, who was sipping her Slurpee while the prisoner begged for forgiveness. Read more...

I can’t believe Obama would be so stupid as to appoint Hillary Clinton to secretary of State, and I think he’s only sending this out through his probe droids to create the appearance of fairness. Also, because like so many people, he’s afraid of her. (Those laughing lessons ... ) But I hope he remembers that first law of politics, which is the first lesson of everything. That thing in Newtonian or Buddhist law or something that says a force creates its equal and opposite counterforce.

According to this law, if Obama appoints Hillary, the Republicans will probably come back with Ted Nugent in 2012. Those of us who have had the great good luck to have lived in Michigan know well The Nuge. We have seen the bumper stickers telling us to teach our kids to hunt so they can eat. I’m kind of afraid of The Nuge because he swears a lot and makes “Fedzilla punks squirm and turn into a puddle of sweat and drool.” I’m not sure what Fedzilla punks are, and hope I’m not one. But he has a more agreeable laugh than Hillary’s and in a toss-up I’d probably go with him. Read more...

The news that former senator and two-time presidential candidate John Edwards gave a speech at Indiana University and will participate in a public debate against Karl Rove in San Francisco this evening took many by surprise.

The revelation that Edwards engaged in an extramarital affair with a former campaign staffer, possibly fathering a child with her at a time when Elizabeth Edwards very publicly suffered from cancer, rocked the political world. Former Edwards campaign staffers still shudder when his name is mentioned in their presence. For many, their former boss — someone they admired and whose campaign they poured their hearts and souls into — is persona non grata. Read more...

I first heard the Rev. Jesse Jackson speak in a Chicago hotel ballroom in July 1968, shortly after Sen. Robert F. Kennedy's assassination and just three months after the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King.

We were an audience of largely white college students fresh from the anti-Vietnam War presidential campaigns of Sen. Eugene McCarthy and Mr. Kennedy. By then we all knew that Mr. Jackson had been in the parking lot talking to Mr. King when the horrible shots rang out and Mr. King fell, mortally wounded. Read more...