Am I Still a Whore if the Money Goes to Charity?

Today someone sent me an email with a link to an online petition. It supports legislation to get better services for women with breast cancer. Obviously good, right? Unless you dig really deep, like feeding orphans with birth defects, it's hard to find a better cause.

I completed the online form, including the mandatory email address (yes, using my spam address, duh) clicked "submit" and waited for my confirmation.

Imagine my surprise when I was thanked by Lifetimetv.com, and encouraged to watch their show with a character who has breast cancer. The petition is part of a marketing campaign!

(Okay, I blithely overlooked the Lifetime header on the first page. Meh, life is short. Who has time to read the edges of websites?)

So now I'm torn. Do I forward the link to help a good cause (the legislation, not the dumb ass show) get more exposure? Or do I protect my friends from marketing shills collecting emails for nefarious purposes?

Is it better when you give it away for free? Here. You may decide for yourself.

Hold this superglue. Now cough.

Last Friday we attended the kick-off of the "Fabulous Fashion in Film Festival" at the Castro Theatre, with special guest hosts Santino (aka Satan-o) and Jeffrey from Project Runway.

Santino did his Tim Gunn/Andrae/Red Lobster impression. Tattoo-necked, baby mama-dumping Jeffrey was ungracious, sneering, and not particularly smart.

He claimed his bad-boy schtick was a part he played for the camera, but his horns and pitchfork were still in evidence, despite the lack of key grips and best boys. Jeffrey mocked the talentless Daniel Vosovic and Chloe Dao, saying he only auditioned for PR because his friend Santino had been featured in a previous season. Uh uh. Uh uh! Do not even start in on my little Daniel, he of the floppy hair and crushed Muppet nose.

The film was fabulous, naturally. But when the host announced that a local actor would portray PR icon Tim Gunn, Cat's scribbled note was exactly what I was thinking: "Provincial." San Francisco: please. An actor playing a reality show host is Dubuque-worthy.

I can not wait for season 4.

Who Cast Germaine Greer on Celebrity Big Brother?

Add it to the list of things I must have missed while living in a cave. Back in 2005 Germaine Greer, seminal feminist, Ph.D. and author of The Female Eunuch was on that nadir of reality shows, Celebrity Big Brother UK.

I'm speechless.

Granted, she walked out after six days. And indicted the show for being bullying and psychologically damaging. But then she appeared on a couple of spinoffs. Even guest starring as herself on Extras isn't enough to make up for that kind of behavior.

Where are the feminist role models? This is how we wind up with Britney and Linsday and Bratz dolls. Thank God for Danica McKellar (yes, Winnie) and Math Doesn't Suck. Even though, actually, it does suck.

Flame Stitch Journal

If you've ever self-identified as a writer and you have lazy parents/friends/co-workers/pets, you have received a journal as a gift. In fact, you have stacks of them--gilt, cloth, leather-bound, anime--there are piles of blank journals spilling out of your umbrella closet and hardware drawer. You probably even burn some in the winter when you've run out of firewood.

And yet: this letterpress notebook from Dauphine Press is so lovely I 'd want to carry it around with me at bars and in taxi cabs. Especially now that my custom shark notebook is kaput, I need something pretty enough to inspire me to write more and better.

Countdown to my birthday: 43 days. You know where to go.

Enroute to "The Women," part deux

Destination: The Mission to the Castro Theatre
Fare: $9
Conversation gold: "May I tell you something? I really like your style of dress. You're very covered. It shows you respect your body as a woman. In my country, we like women with respect."

Enroute to "The Women"

Destination: Downtown to Castro Theatre
Fare: $17
Conversation gold: "I don't need to wear no seatbelts, driver was decapitated by one!" accompanied by (mock) demonstration.

Rosalind Russell

Because she was tough, funny, smart and stylish.

Because she titled her autobiography Life is a Banquet.

Because she is Auntie Mame.

Because her eponymous cocktail (two parts Aquavit, one part Noilly Prat) was also created by her. She contributed the recipe to the Stork Club Bar Book in 1946; it's now numbered among the "101 Cocktails that Shook the World."

Because she was one of seven children (check: Catholic) from a Waterbury, CT family, and if you've been to Waterbury--or even driven near it--you realize what a feat it is to escape at all, much less escape in fabulous heels and shiny brooches.

Because she was a dame.

(Image of Rosalind Russell's grave courtesy of www.seeing-stars.com)