Pose Like A Mannequin

ID, Don't Leave Home Without It
Ellen DeGeneres 

Tuesday was no laughing matter when Ellen DeGeneres arrived at the White House to receive her Medal of Freedom as she apparently forgot her ID. So what is a funny gal to do? Well first post a selfie outside of the Nation's Capital to prove you can't get in on Twitter with the caption:

They haven't let me in to the White House yet because I forgot my ID. #NotJoking #PresidentialMedalOfFreedom

Once inside you post an epic mannequin challenge video with such notables as Robert DeNiro & Diana Ross.

This how Ellen spent her Tuesday, posing like a mannequin and receiving a medal from Barrack Obama. Wow! All I did was take a meeting and work. Congratulations to Ms. DeGeneres for an honor well earned.

Pose like a mannequin with Ellen & the gang below -

Ellen on Twitter:
ttps://twitter.com/search/ellen+degeneres  

Puppy Love - Lady Gaga

Gaga, Koji, Miss Asia & The Pup With No Name

Oh that Lady Gaga and her intrepid Instagram ways. She just had to post a pic of herself and the latest addition to her family...a new puppy with no moniker just yet. Damn you woman name your dog before you post a public image of it! Diabolical!!!

Here is what Gaga had to say for herself:

I'm proud to announce we added a new member to the #JOANNE family 😇 I haven't named him yet but I call him both cowpig and moopig in the meantime! I chose him last moment because my best friend since I was 4 @booconnor Chef extraordinaire of @thepomeroynyc bought him, we didn't want them to be separated!

Awwwwwwwwwwww....how sweet. Be sure to check out her latest effort Joanne, because I said so, you don't need A Million Reasons, one is enough.

Gaga on Instagram:
https://www.instagram.com/ladygaga/?hl=en 

Love In An Elevator

Going Down?
Tom Ford & Richard Buckley

Have any of you seen Tom Ford's Nocturnal Animals? I've been told that I would really like it and am going to try to catch over Thanksgiving day weekend.

Here's a fun little fact to kick off your week. Did you know that writer/director of NA, Tom Ford met his husband in an elevator?

Yep, apparently it was love at first sight for he and Richard Buckley. By the time they hit the ground floor all bets were off and they knew they were meant and moved in together within a month. Talk about living it up when your going down.

Sometimes I guess you just know. 

It's just another Manic Monday kids, make it a good one!!!

NA on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt4550098/?ref_=nv_sr_2

Sunday Is For Snoopy!

Threesome
Tori Spelling, Snoopy & Jennie Garth

Call me sentimental, call me old, call me whatever you like, this image of Tori Spelling and Jennie Garth snuggling Snoopy got me in the mood for the impending Christmas Holiday.

Why? Well they remind me of my youth, duh! Also there is Christmas decor in the background, double duh! I grew up with Snoopy on all of the Charlie Brown specials and Beverly Hills 90210 was a cool show, once, so there, I've confessed. 

Yeah I know Thanksgiving is this coming week but Christmas is already in the air and after turkey day comes and goes, all bets are on Santa Claus and venison.

This most holy of photo ops took place at the Countdown to Christmas event at Knott's Berry Farm in Southern California.

Enjoy your Sunday and get Snoopy with it!

Tori on IMDB: 
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001760/?ref_=nv_sr_2
Jennie on IMDB:
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0001259/?ref_=nv_sr_1  

Saturday Sinema: Behind THE COVE

Little fish, big fish swimming in the water...

YAGI Film Inc. announces the U.S. premiere of Behind THE COVE, a documentary film rebuttal to the Oscar-winning film The Cove with week-long screenings in New York and Los Angeles, in late November (11/25/16 – 12/1/16) and early December (12/2/16 – 12/8/16), respectively.

Behind THE COVE, the 105-minute Japanese film by first time director Keiko Yagi, includes interviews with people on both sides of the international whaling dispute, including the director and antagonist from 2009’s The Cove, the Academy Award-winning film which negatively portrays the practices of fishermen in the small, remote town of Taiji in Japan. 

This is the first film to respond to anti-whaling The Cove from the Japanese perspective. While generally highly regarded, The Cove has also been lambasted by some critics for being one-sided propaganda, Japan-bashing, for lacking a basic understanding of related cultural issues, and for using deceptive filmmaking strategies. The depiction of Japanese people in the film has also been controversial.

What started out as a personal investigation, triggered by childhood memories of whale dishes, led first-time Japanese documentary filmmaker Keiko Yagi to the town of Taiji, the center of the whaling debate and the stage of The Cove. With no budget, limited experience in filmmaking, no fluency in English, but armed with a video camera and a strong desire to find out the truth of the matter on whaling, Yagi discovered a much bigger story than she had initially imagined.

In Behind THE COVE, Yagi attempts to present a comprehensive picture of the dolphin and whale hunting issues in Japan, which includes interviews with people on both sides of the whaling dispute, its sinister political side, what The Cove did not offer, and a unique take on the topic. Throughout filming, Yagi got to know the anti-whaling activists, who set-up camp in Taiji every year during the dolphin-hunting season. In her film, Yagi also presents the ‘voices’ of the Japanese, who usually consider silence to be a virtue. To get a balanced and greater understanding of the story, she also interviewed experts in the whaling world from Japan and overseas, including representatives from the International Whaling Commission (IWC), scientists, and researchers. As Yagi delved into the topic, specific issues with The Cove became apparent.

“Before Western environmental and animal activist concerns persecuted the animal agriculture and fishing practices of the East in such a highly publicized and critical way, you’d think they’d first take a serious look at the situation at home prior to using Japan, a quiet country, as a scapegoat, ” says Yagi. “In the U.S. alone, billions and billions of land and marine animals are subjected to deplorable conditions before they are brutally killed for food each year to satisfy the heavy meat-eating habits of Americans…. the relatively small fishing village of Taiji, in rural Japan, accounts for marine animal deaths in the thousands, not billions. To demonize such a relatively small industry abroad, when compared to the magnitude of what’s happening in – and is relatively ignored in – the U.S., seems a bit misguided and, perhaps, even racist.”

Yagi is not alone in these sentiments. David Cox of The Guardian Film Blog called The Cove a “piece of evangelism,” and subsumed that from a neutral point of view “Westerners.... kill and eat cows. Easterners eat dolphins. What's the difference?” Academic Ilan Kapoor, echoing the famous phrase by Gayatri Spivak, argues that “It's a case of (mostly) 'white men saving cute dolphins from yellow men.’”

Hirotaka Akamatsu, Japanese Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries, said “It is regrettable that this movie is made as a message that brutal Japanese are killing cute dolphins.” According to Michelle Orange, of Movieline, “As a piece of propaganda, The Cove is brilliant; as a story of ingenuity and triumph over what seems like senseless brutality, it is exceptionally well-told; but as a conscientious overview of a complex and deeply fraught, layered issue, it invokes the same phrase as even the most well-intentioned, impassioned activist docs: Buyer beware.”

Yagi further explains, “In Japan, some fishermen, particularly in remote rural areas, see dolphins and whales as just fish, consumed for centuries as part of local cultural traditions…. in China, dog meat from man’s best friend is acceptable to some as a food source…. in the bacon-loving U.S., highly intelligent and social pigs are widely considered suitable for cruel slaughterhouse practices and the dinner table. There are cultural differences as to which animals are deemed acceptable as food sources and which are not. One of the key questions our film poses is: Who gets to choose which animals are okay to eat?”

Yagi will be in attendance at a selection of screenings in both New York (Cinema Village) and Los Angeles (Laemmle Music Hall), during the film’s U.S. debut. For additional information, please visit http://www.behindthecove.com/index_en.html.

Behind THE COVE (2015, Documentary, Japan, 105 min.) –

New York Screenings:Friday, November 25 - Thursday, December 1, 2016

Cinema Village22 East 12th StreetNew York, NY 10003212-924-3364https://www.cinemavillage.com/Now-Playing/behind-the-cove.html

NYC Q&A Sessions with the Director (after the screening):• Fri. 11/25 at 7:10pm• Sat. 11/26 at 7:10pm• Sun. 11/27 at 5:10pm

Los Angeles Screenings:Friday, December 2 - Thursday, December 8, 2016

Laemmle Music Hall9036 Wilshire Blvd.Beverly Hills, CA 90211310-478-3836http://www.laemmle.com/films/40990 

Dolly Parton's "Imagination"

Pictured L-R: The Dollywood Company President Craig Ross, Dollywood Foundation President David Dotson, Dolly Parton, CTK Management’s Danny Nozell, Webster PR’s Kirt Webster, Dollywood Dir. Public Relations Pete Owens, Dolly Parton Productions President Ted Miller.

Imagine with Dolly Parton...

Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library, which began as a small community outreach in Parton’s native Sevier County, Tennessee, has evolved to become the largest literacy program in the world. In December, the “little literacy program that could” marks another impressive milestone—one million books gifted to children around the world each month.

To celebrate the unprecedented success, Evey Johns, a two-year-old from Conway, Arkansas who just enrolled in the Imagination Library, has been randomly selected to receive a $30,000 college scholarship. The announcement was made by Parton during her Pure & Simple concert tour stop in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee on Nov. 15. Proceeds from the concert benefit the Imagination Library.

“I thought long and hard about the best way to honor our achievement of reaching a million children a month,” Parton said. “The Imagination Library is all about inspiring dreams, so what better way to pay tribute to this moment than by helping one special child pursue her college degree. I’m thrilled that today I can let the world know that precious little Evey Johns from Conway, Arkansas will receive a $30,000 scholarship for the college of her choice.”

The scholarship will be held in a special account and distributed to Johns when she enrolls in college. Over the next 16 years, the amount of scholarship should grow to nearly approximately $50,000. Johns is enrolled in the Imagination Library in Conway thanks to the local affiliate in her area, Arkansas Preschool Plus.

“The thought of our daughter Evey going to college has been just that—a thought,” explained Evey’s mother, Connie. “Now, due to the enormous kindness and generosity of the Dollywood Foundation, that thought has now become a reality. Our family now has the means to develop a solid plan for our daughter’s future education. Thank you all so much for this unbelievable opportunity for our daughter.”

In 2016, the Imagination Library and its local partners will gift nearly 11.5 million books to children from birth to age five in participating communities in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom and Australia. To date, the Imagination Library, which is administered through the Dollywood Foundation, has provided more than 85 million books to children around the world.

Arkansas Preschool Plus is just one of the many local affiliates the Dollywood Foundation works with to provide books to children. To provide the Imagination Library, a community must make the program accessible to all preschool children in their area, and the community pays for the books, promotes the program and registers the children. The Dollywood Foundation manages the delivery of books to children’s homes.

Arkansas Preschool Plus enrolls 960 children in Conway, Faulkner and Perry Counties. Currently, nearly 15,000 children are enrolled in Arkansas. The Imagination Library currently is working with elected officials, foundations and corporations in Arkansas in an effort to make the program available to all children from birth to age five in the state.

About Dolly Parton's Imagination Library:
Founded in 1995, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is a book gifting organization that has, to date, mailed more than 85 million books to children in Australia, Belize, Canada, United Kingdom and the United States. Each month, the program currently mails more than one million specially selected, high-quality, age-appropriate books to registered children from birth until they start Kindergarten in participating communities. Dolly envisioned creating a lifelong love of reading in children, preparing them for school and inspiring them to dream. Recent studies suggest participation in the Imagination Library is positively and significantly associated with higher measures of early language and math development. Penguin Random House is the exclusive publisher for Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library.

Michael's Musings

Who's Your Daddy?
Michael Shinafelt

The second or third sign of fall weather is happening right now in Los Angeles. The other times it happened the following week after it went back up to 90 degrees. We'll see if this time it will stick, in the meantime it's Thursday, time for me to do my usual sounding off!

Remember when just last year Helena Handbasket was the name of a Drag Queen and not the place the United States was headed?

Can anyone recommend a place that makes sturdy dog tags for people?

Kendall Jenner reveals why she deleted her Instagram account...and I now have one, and aren't you happy?!

Madonna is going to do Carpool Karaoke with James Corden... Tricks! Not! 

FYI - I'm not political, I'm anti-asshole 

“Wickedness is a myth invented by good people to account for the curious attractiveness of others" - Oscar Wilde

Walk away from the Xanax

Doing lunch today with lovely Pin-Up Girl Traci Lords

Name something that makes you say "yes"

I'm going to start yelling Oedipus instead of Motherfucker and see if anyone catches on

Today is Rhonda Bernstein's Birthday, wish her a happy one would ya?

My brain is starting to spin, time to sign off. Have a terrific day and check me out on Twitter & Instagram at:

https://twitter.com/MShinafelt
https://www.instagram.com/michaelshinafelt/