It's Not Gossip, It's Commentary
RED CARPET INTERVIEWS
The legendary Verdine White from Earth Wind and Fire talks about online streaming and the state of the music industry.
Supermodel Beverly Johnson talks about reality television as a venue for success for today’s models.
Entertainment Tonight host Kevin Frazier recounts his heated argument with his friend Ashton Kutcher.
Event host Wayne Brady talks to our friends at Oh Hair No about whether he prefers natural hair on a woman.
Actress and television host Holly Robinson Peete tells us her favorite genre of entertainment.
Actress and gospel singer Tamela Mann reveals her inspirations.
American trainer Shaun Thompson talks about the popularity of the fitness industry.
Leaders at Ebony Magazine celebrate diversity by recounting their effort as pioneers in the industry.
Here at The Dishmaster I like to preach morality. So you can imagine my rage at TMZ’s airing of Demi Moore’s 911 call. These 911 calls need to remain private. It’s deplorable to think that a celebrity cannot ask for help in private. Sure she put her marriage on display thereby inviting the public’s reaction to her divorce. But this is different. Until there’s a law against public access to 911 calls, TMZ needs to maintain their last shred of human decency.
“I’ll spend months working with an actor, and I think I spent four months with Ashton. At a certain point, it’s like, ‘This is not meant to be.'” ‘Elizabethtown’ director Cameron Crowe on firing Ashton Kutcher because of his poor acting performance and subsequently replacing him with Orlando Bloom.Want to know how to get the press off your back? — Release a statement which explicitly denies a tabloid report. In the case of Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher — neither party has taken this mature route, and they have instead released cryptic messages on twitter that border on annoying. Ashton linked to a song entitled, ‘Don’t believe The Hype,’ Demi Moore posted a strange picture of herself with her eyes closed, and a the words, “I see through you,” and then later quoted some Greek philosopher who said, “When we are offended at any man’s fault, turn to yourself & study your own failings. Then you will forget your anger.” These two should either deny the report or count to ten before tweeting. To be fair though, I have to put my judgmental hat aside and admit that I often use Facebook to take digs at my exes, especially a certain man I recently dated who ripped my heart out and ate it for breakfast. Having said that, I will dodge the hypocrisy accusations with one simple fact — I’m not famous — and I don’t have a publicist that should be monitoring my electronic behavior.
If you wondered why Charlie Sheen recently changed his tune about Two and a Half Men in support of Ashton Kutcher — your questions are answered. According to Deadline, Sheen and Warner Bros. are close to reaching a very lucrative settlement on Sheen’s 100 million dollar lawsuit. Though no contracts are signed as of yet, it certainly helps settlement negotiations when one of the parties is openly cooperative. And furthermore, if it’s true that Sheen will pocket a $25 million settlement without putting in any extra hours on set, well then I imagine he’s a happy guy. Sure it’s less than what he would have had if he kept working on the show — but getting $25 million for getting fired is a sweet deal. Oh yeah — he’s also shopping a new series — which also explains his image cleanup tour.
Of all the names thrown around to replace Charlie Sheen, Ashton Kutcher is by far the best. Though I’m unsure anyone can rescue a show that lost it’s star, Kutcher is certainly worth betting on. First, he’s a social media superstar, which will help people get excited about the transition. And second, he’s a television titan. In recent years, Kutcher has made a valiant attempt at a movie career, which has fallen flat. Some actors just aren’t meant for the movie business, and Kutcher is one of them. He’s a Television star who hit it big on ‘That 70’s Show,’ and something tells me he’ll hit it big again on this one. Plus, he’s getting paid bank, which makes his decision a win-win regardless of the outcome.
Call me a curmudgeon, but I find it extremely irritating when celebrity couples discuss how happy they are. Despite being a love-hater, I’m also superstitious, which means I wouldn’t dare publicly declare my love for someone on national television (or on facebook for that matter) for fear that the relationship will end, and those statements will be etched in time forever. That doesn’t stop Demi Moore and Ashton Kutcher though, who have been on a love parade since they got married. Watch a clip of their appearance on Piers Morgan below. Try not to get a cavity from the sugar.
It’s called a romantic comedy for a reason. If the two main characters don’t get together in the end, then it’s not a comedy. And if you use My Best Friend’s Wedding as an example I might throw something. Sure that film was “unpredictable,” but it was also horrible. Furthermore, I don’t pay good money to walk into a theater expecting a laugh, and leave the theater crying because the lead actress got hit by a bus. So what inspired this hateful tirade? Well, I saw the film No Strings Attached, which was surprisingly mediocre. I use the term surprising, because I expected it to be terrible, and left feeling pleasantly complacent. In Dishmaster land, complacent is equivalent to cheerful bliss. After I left, I read the reviews, and I kept seeing the word “predictable.” What exactly were the critics expecting? There were certainly issues with the movie, but predicting the ending was not one of them.
At the time Star Magazine published their story about how Ashton Kutcher cheated on Demi Moore, Kutcher tweeted that Star Magazine defamed his character and he threatened to sue. This isn’t the first time celebrities have sued or threatened to sue tabloids for defamation of character. So what is defamation, and why doesn’t every celebrity sue?
The first thing to understand about defamation is that celebrities can’t sue anyone who airs their dirty laundry if it’s true. When celebrities and other public figures sue for defamation, they can only win if they prove that the defamatory statement is false.
Oh what’s that you say? What is a defamatory statement? Great question. It is a statement about the celebrity which hurts his reputation. The statement must also be communicated to a person other than the celebrity himself. (So if Star Magazine called Ashton at his house and accused him of cheating, they’d be in the clear — because no one else heard it).
Given the above explanation, it doesn’t seem like it should be so hard for Ashton to prove his case against Star Magazine, right? They published the story — “Ashton Kutcher Caught Cheating…” — to the world and it makes Ashton sound like an unfaithful jerk. And of course it’s false – that Jamie Madrox look-alike would never cheat on G.I. Jane, right?
But there’s one more catch — as a public figure, Ashton must prove that Star Magazine published the statement with full knowledge that the statement was false or with reckless disregard for whether it was true or false. Sure, they probably knew they were lying and they probably do it all the time. But how is Ashton going to prove it in court?
It is hard for him to come up with photos of him NOT kissing girls. He would have to get someone from Star to blow up their own journalistic spot and say, “yeah, I knew it wasn’t true and I wrote it anyway.”
If you’ve been following my analysis, you might have come to one of two conclusions to the title of this post. Either the case is just too hard to win, or Ashton really did cheat and can’t sue a tabloid for reporting the truth. So which one is it? I have no idea, but you’re free to draw your own conclusions.
In closing, I’d like to proclaim that everything I didn’t already know, I learned from The Dishmaster.
