Mereja

Author: Amanda Crum

  • Caleb Moore Dies After Horrific X-Games Crash

    Caleb Moore, the 25-year old snowmobile rider who was seriously injured last Thursday during an X-Games event, has died.

    The young athlete completed several complicated jumps and flips on the heavy vehicle before the skis got stuck in the snow during a backflip landing. Moore was thrown off head-first and the snowmobile rolled over him, and though it took him a while to get up, he eventually walked off the course. He was taken to the hospital and treated for a concussion, but the injury also caused more significant damage to his brain and bleeding around his heart. Sadly, he did not survive the surgery he underwent to repair it.

    The X-Games have subsequently come under fire for pushing athletes to do dangerous stunts on heavy machinery, although this is the first fatal injury to occur at the winter games. But some say that the competitors know the risks they take on when signing up for the games, just like any athlete in any other sport.

    “In many respects, sport’s essence is about a competitive challenge. Athletes are bigger, faster, stronger, and performance is more spectacular. Part and parcel with that is the Pandora’s box of risk attached to these events. It’s called the extreme games, after all,” said Dan Lebowitz of Northeastern University’s Center for Study of Sport.

    ESPN, which runs the games, released a statement about Moore’s death, saying, “We are deeply saddened by Caleb Moore’s passing and our thoughts and prayers go out to his parents, Wade and Michelle, his brother, Colten, and the entire Moore family. He will be remembered for his natural passion for life and his deep love for his family and friends, and he will always be an inspiration to everyone he touched in the action sports community. As a result of this accident we will conduct a thorough review of this discipline and adopt any appropriate changes to future X Games.”

  • Oprah Injured Lifting Gift From Tyler Perry

    Oprah Winfrey is probably used to oversized gifts; as queen of daytime television for decades, she rose to the highest ranks of female businesswomen and became one of the richest people in the nation, which probably commands a little more effort from her friends when her birthday rolls around. But what do you get the lady who has everything?

    If you’re Tyler Perry, you get her an enormous bouquet of flowers, which she subsequently strains her back trying to lift.

    Perry apologized to Oprah on Facebook, promising a much smaller gift next year, but she took it in stride and waved it off.

    “I FEEL SO BAD…

    I like to send really large flower arrangements to people for whatever occasion. Well, I sent one to Oprah yesterday for her birthday. She strained her back picking it up. No joke! Feel better Oprah. Happy birthday. Sorry. :-( Next year I’m sending her one rose. :-) ” he wrote on Facebook.

    Oprah responded, “@tylerperry no need to feel bad, love the roses and got an extra day in bed. Can you say #icepack”.

    Perry is rumored to be collaborating with Oprah on at least one sitcom series on her OWN network this year.

  • Beyonce: Miscarriage Produced Sad Song

    Beyonce is opening up about a heartbreaking event no woman wants to go through, and says that music turned out to be the best form of therapy for her.

    Before she became pregnant with Blue Ivy, she said, she was pregnant with another child who lost the heartbeat early in the first trimester. The star said that hearing the sound of her baby’s heart had been the most “beautiful music” she’d ever heard, and to lose that was devastating.

    “I picked out names,” she said. “I envisioned what my child would look like . . . I was feeling very maternal. I flew back to New York to get my check up — and no heartbeat. Literally the week before I went to the doctor, everything was fine, but there was no heartbeat.”

    Using music as a way to overcome that emotional time, Beyonce wrote a song about her loss; it would be the first one she’d write for her album.

    “I went into the studio and wrote the saddest song I’ve ever written in my life. And it was the best form of therapy for me, because it was the saddest thing I’ve ever been through,” she said.

    Beyonce and hubby, Jay-Z, have been extremely doting parents and were fairly secretive about her pregnancy with Blue Ivy, and now we know why. They’re still highly protective of her, rarely allowing her to be photographed by the media. But, she says, keeping the baby a secret was difficult.

    “Being pregnant was very much like falling in love,” she said. “You are so open. You are so overjoyed. There’s no words that can express having a baby growing inside of you, so of course you want to scream it out and tell everyone.”

    The superstar is set to perform the halftime show at the Super Bowl this weekend, after much speculation regarding her performance of “The Star Spangled Banner” at President Obama’s inauguration earlier this month.

  • Dan Marino Love Child: “I Take Full Responsibility”

    Dan Marino has openly admitted to fathering a “love child” with Donna Savattere–a former CBS Sports employee–in 2005 and says he’s taken full responsibility for her ever since, despite the fact that his marriage to wife Claire is as solid as ever.

    “This is a personal and private matter. I take full responsibility both personally and financially for my actions now as I did then. We mutually agreed to keep our arrangement private to protect all parties involved. My wife and I have been married for almost 30 years and have six children together. And we continue to be a strong and loving family,” he said in a statement.

    Marino made the statement after The New York Post broke the news. The admission comes just days ahead of the Super Bowl, where Marino will be broadcasting. Savattere has been quiet about the affair, but Marino has reportedly paid dearly to keep his daughter a secret, with figures ranging in the millions of dollars.

    “They had an affair, and she had a baby,” said a source. “Everything was on the down-low and secretive.”

    dan marino love child

    Image: Adriel Reboh/Patrick McMullan.com

  • Trayvon Martin Case: New Photos Emerge

    George Zimmerman’s defense attorneys have requested that his trial be delayed so they can have more time to prepare.

    The request came after prosecutors took their time turning over evidence, according to Zimmerman’s attorneys. If the request is granted, the second-degree murder trial will be pushed back from June to November.

    “The state has virtually unlimited resources to prosecute George,” Zimmerman’s defense attorney Mark O’Mara said. “To finance his defense, however, George relies on the generosity of individuals who believe he is innocent.”

    Since the fatal shooting of teenager Trayvon Martin last spring, Zimmerman has claimed he shot in self defense and started up a website to solicit donations in order to help with the costs of his lawyers.

    The case sparked national debate about whether the shooting was racially motivated, and many were outraged that Zimmerman wasn’t arrested immediately following the death of Martin due to his claim of self-defense. He has reportedly gone through hundreds of thousands of dollars already between funding his lawyers and hiring security, since he was on the receiving end of several death threats. O’Mara says he wants to get his client on a more even keel as far as how much he can invest in his defense.

    “The state seems to have a bottomless pit as far as the experts and the money they’re willing to put forth into the case,” O’Mara said. “I would just like to be on equal footing with them and we need a very aggressive defense because of the way the state is viewing this case, the aggressive nature they’ve taken.”

    The defense also released a new photo of Martin recently which was taken closer to the time he was shot; O’Mara said it was unfair to let the public continue to believe that he was as young as the photo which was spread throughout the media made him appear.

    Zimmerman is scheduled for a hearing in April, in which he will argue that he acted in self-defense. The judge has said the trial will be at least 45 days after that.

    Image: WKMG Local 6 Orlando

  • Real-Life “Jaws” Off Hamptons Coast, Is Being Tracked

    A great white shark is currently prowling close to the shoreline on Montauk, and a group called OCEARCH is keeping tabs on her whereabouts just in case she decides to get closer.

    There were several shark sightings reported last year due to warmer-than-usual weather–one attack in Cape Cod left a man wounded but alive–but because the water is so frigid this time of year, it’s highly unlikely anyone will be affected this time around. Still, because of the shark’s size–16 feet long and nearly 3,500 pounds–OCEARCH is keeping a close eye on her.

    Mary Lee, as she’s been named, was tagged last September in Cape Cod and later made her way down to Florida, but she’s managed to swing back up north in a fairly short amount of time.

  • Coke Ad Called Racist By Arab-American Group

    A new Coke ad, which is set to air during the biggest money-making opportunity for the nation’s advertisers–the Super Bowl–is being described as racist by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, who want to see it either changed or taken out of the commercial lineup completely.

    The ad features an Arab man walking through the desert and being passed up by a group of cowboys, Vegas dancers, and several others in a race to get to the soft drink. Part of the problem, the ADC says, is that Arabs are continually depicted in a stereotypical way in American ads; the other issue is that the commercial was presented as a way for audiences to participate in an online vote to see who of the group should reach the Coke first. The Arab man wasn’t an option.

    “The Coke commercial for the Super Ball is racist, portraying Arabs as backward and foolish Camel Jockeys, and they have no chance to win in the world,” Imam Ali Siddiqui, president of the Muslim Institute for Interfaith Studies, said.

    Coke insists they are an all-inclusive brand and that it is never their intention to push away a potential customer base, but Abed Ayoub of the ADC says that’s exactly what they’re doing.

    “What message is Coke sending with this?” he said. “By not including the Arab in the race, it is clear that the Arab is held to a different standard when compared to the other characters in the commercial. Coke should understand and respect their consumers and have a better understanding of the market they are sharing,”

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    The ADC hopes to speak with the company in order to get the ad changed before Sunday.

  • Kristen Cavallari Doesn’t Want Son To Follow In Dad’s Footsteps

    Kristen Cavallari, who is new mom to 5-month old Camden, says she isn’t sure she’ll let him play football when he’s older, despite the fact that his dad is Jay Cutler.

    Like any new mom, Cavallari is worried about her baby getting hurt and says she might try to steer him in another direction if he shows an interest in sports.

    “Maybe a sport that isn’t so aggressive…maybe baseball — something where he doesn’t have to get hit,” she said.

    The former “Hills” star admits, however, that she might not have too much say in the matter, anyway.

    “At the end of the day, I think if he wants to play football, I don’t know if I’m gonna have too much control over it,” said Cavallari. “You know, how can your dad be a football player and you tell them that they can’t do it?”

    For now, though, Cavallari and Cutler are enjoying being new parents and are trying not to worry too much about the future.

    “He’s such a sweet little baby, he really is. And he just got his first tooth, which we’re excited about, and we started feeding him last week, so it’s been a lot of fun,” she said.

  • Amber Rose Has A Huge Belly But No Stretch Marks

    Model Amber Rose, who is about to pop any day now after nine long months of pregnancy, shared a photo of her belly on Twitter and proudly declared that she has no stretch marks.

    Rose and fiance Wiz Khalifa plan on having a natural birth at home, and Rose has opted out of pain medication. She frequently posts on Twitter about the pregnancy and recently talked about the thing that has annoyed her most over the past several months.

    The happy couple are due to become parents on or around February 24th.

    amber rose

  • Melissa Gilbert Engaged To “Revenge Of The Nerds” Actor

    Melissa Gilbert, who got her start in the business playing Half Pint on “Little House On The Prairie” and most recently had a stint on “Dancing With The Stars”, is now engaged to fellow actor Timothy Busfield. This will be the third marriage for both.

    Gilbert went through a painful divorce from her second husband, actor Bruce Boxleitner, in 2011 and said the hardest part was knowing what it did to their children.

    “It’s been hard on the kids and that’s been hard to watch but ultimately everyone’s going to be fine,” said Gilbert. “Everything takes time.”

    Gilbert and Busfield have known each other for several years and have maintained a friendship, but recently decided to pursue something more. The couple reportedly got engaged over the holidays. Let’s hope she knows about this little gem, because no marriage to Timothy Busfield would be complete without multiple references to that time he played an electric violin with a gaggle of Nerds.

  • Jason London Arrested, Poops In Cop Car

    Jason London, the actor most people may know as Randall “Pink” Floyd from “Dazed and Confused”, got himself into some trouble recently after he allegedly sneezed on a bouncer at a club, refused to apologize, punched said bouncer in the face, and was subsequently arrested for disorderly conduct. I’m guessing dropping a big deuce in the back of the police cruiser didn’t help his case, either.

    London allegedly had quite a bit to say to the cops who arrested him after they were forced to give him a “knee strike” to make him cooperate. According to TMZ, he was verbally abusive before defecating in his pants.

    “Guess what fa**ot? I f***ing love this. I f***ing own you guys so hard. I’m rich and I’m a motherf***ing famous actor! F***ing look me up, bitch. It smells like s**t in your car and your breath smells like diarrhea,” he reportedly said.

    But London took to Twitter to set the record straight, saying the TMZ report is a lie, right down to how the altercation began.

    This might be a good time to point out that Jason is not to be confused with his identical twin brother Jeremy London, who starred in the Kevin Smith flick “Mallrats”. Not a good situation to be in when you look just like the guy who crapped in a cop car….