Author: Sean Patterson

The 48th Academy of Country Music Awards were held this weekend in Las Vegas. While co-host of the ceremonies Luke Bryan walked away with the Entertainer of the Year award, singer Miranda Lambert won four different awards Sunday night, shutting out Taylor Swift, who was nominated for five awards.

Lambert, who is famously married to ACM Awards co-host Blake Shelton, won awards for both writing and performing the song “Over You.” The song also won the Single of the Year Award. Lambert also won the award for Female Vocalist of the Year, an award she has won for four years running. Reba McEntire and Loretta Lynn are the only other artists to have won the Female Vocalist of the Year award four or more times.

Lambert was also nominated for Entertainer of the Year, the award that Bryan won.

“I can’t comprehend anything that’s happening right now,” said Lambert shortly after the awards ceremony. “I actually voted for, I was rooting for Carrie [Underwood], because I’m such a fan of hers and I’m so jealous of her voice and her legs and everything else she has.”

Reuters is reporting that seven people have died in a brewery accident in Mexico City. Beer company Grupo Modelo stated that seven workers were killed in an accident involving a tank that was being cleaned and receiving maintenance. The details of the accident have not been released.

According to the report, a Grupo Modelo spokesperson stated that, “Modelo is deeply sorry for this accident and will support the affected families permanently.”

Grupo Modelo is the maker of beer that included Modelo, Pacífico, and Corona. Corona is the best-selling beer from Mexico, and the top imported beer in the U.S. Last summer, Anheuser-Busch InBev (ABI) announced that it would fully acquire Modelo for just over $20 billion. ABI is the maker of the best-selling U.S. beer, Bud Light.

In January 2013, the U.S. Justice Department filed a civil antitrust lawsuit to block the merger. The Justice Department claims that the U.S. beer market is highly concentrated, with 39% of beer sales in 2012 going to ABI, and another 7% going to Modelo. There is worry that ABI, which is a price leader for the U.S. beer industry, is seeking to eliminate competition from Modelo, which “aggressively” prices its imports.

Documentary Filmmaker Les Blank has died at the age of 77.

Blank’s son, Harrod, reported to the San Francisco Chronicle that his father died of bladder cancer on Sunday at his home in Berkeley, California. Harrod is also a documentary filmmaker.

Blank directed more than 30 documentaries and documentary shorts during his 40-year career. Many of his documentaries focused on nice music and musicians, including films about blues singers, Appalachian music, Cajun music, polka, tamburitza, and Hawaiian music. Blank also took on other documentary subjects such as director Werner Herzog in the moviea Burden of Dreams and Werner Herzong Eats His Shoe. Blank’s final film was All in This Tea, which follows a California tea importer who searches for organically grown “boutique tea.”

Though Blank had been creating movies since 1960, it was the documentary short The Blues Accordin’ to Lightnin’ Hopkins that propelled his documentary career. Blank went on to found an independent production company called Flower Films.

(Image courtesy Petr Novák, Wikipedia)

John Cena has become the WWE Champion yet again. He won the title during this weekend’s Wrestlemania 29, where the wrestler faced off against The Rock. This is the 11th time Cena has held the WWE Championship belt.

The main event at this year’s Wrestlemania was set when Cena won the 2013 Royal Rumble back in January, earning a shot at the title. The Rock also won the WWE Championship from CM Punk at the same event. Since then, the Rock/Cena rematch was heavily promoted by the WWE.

The Rock and Cena also met during the main event of last year’s Wrestlemania. That match was billed as a “Once in a Lifetime” match, and saw The Rock beat Cena in a surprise victory.

In other Wrestlemania news, WWE wrestler Jack Swagger had his Wrestlemania match against Alberto Del Rio, despite being arrested in February on DUI, speeding, and possession of marijuana charges in Gulfport, Mississippi. Del rio defeated Swagger to retain the WWE World Heavyweight Championship belt.

Ex-Porn Star Jenna Jameson is back in the headlines, but not for her movies or book.

According to a Los Angeles Times report, Jameson was arrested this weekend on charges of misdemeanor battery. According to police, Jameson is accused of hitting an unnamed person at a house in Newport Beach, California on Saturday evening.

The report states that the person Jameson is accused of hitting made a citizen’s arrest on Jameson and called police. A court date has been set for a hearing on the matter and Jameson was released on her own recognizance.

This is the second arrest in one year for Jameson, who was arrested in May 2012 on D.U.I charges. In that incident, the former porn star drove into a light pole, fueling numerous “pole” jokes on Twitter.

Jameson began acting in pornographic movies in the early 90s and quickly became one of the most-recognized porn stars in the world. Following her porn career, Jameson went on to found the website ClubJenna, which manages porn star websites. In 2004 she published an autobiography titled How to Make Love Like a Porn Star: A Cautionary Tale, which covers her early career in porn and became a New York Times best-seller.

(Image via Twitter)

Covering thousands of square miles in Southern Florida with wetland sawgrass and trees, the Everglades are not a particularly welcoming environment to become lost in. One Ohio family found this out the hard way this week when they became lost while airboating.

According to a report from CBS Miami, Scott Schreck and his family took a camouflaged airboat through the Everglades this week and went missing. The Schrecks, who are from Seville, Ohio, took a wrong turn on their journey and were unable to find their way back. The family of five ended up spending the night in the Everglades, with rain pouring down on them.

The CBS report states the family were found by authorities who had mobilized a search for them that included airboats, airplanes, and helicopters. The Schrecks were located by helicopter after rescue workers heard them blowing an air horn.

Despite their night in the wilderness, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission Officer Jorge Pino told CBS that the family is “in good condition.”

The past few months have been big for celebrity pregnancies. Duchess of Cambridge Kate Middleton became the tabloids’ dream princess last December when it was revealed she is pregnant. Around the same time, reality TV actress and amateur porn star Kim Kardashian also announced she was pregnant with R&B star Kanye West’s child.

Since the announcements, celebrity gawkers in the U.S. have kept a close eye on both women’s “baby bump.” Now, another celebrity will be added to the “baby bump” watch list.

TMZ is reporting that actress Halle Berry is pregnant with her second child. The publication cites “sources connected with the actress” as stating Berry is around three months pregnant with a boy. The father is reportedly Berry’s fiance, actor Oliver Martinez.

Berry and Martinez became engaged in 2012. The 46-year-old Berry has been married twice before, to Major League Baseball player David Justice and R&B singer Eric Benét. She has one daughter, named Nahla, with Canadian model Gabriel Aubry.

Berry is currently set to reprise her role as Storm in the upcoming X-Men: Days of Future Past.

(Image courtesy Tom Sorensen/Wikimedia Commons)

The last few weeks have been significant for the gay rights movement. In mid-March Republican U.S. Senator Rob Portman became the first sitting U.S. senator to publicly endorse gay marriage. This was followed by the U.S. Supreme Court hearing two different gay marriage-related cases in one week, sparking the red equality symbol movement on social media and leading to the usual online debates.

Now it appears that even professional sports will become part of the gay rights movement in the U.S. In addition to Mark Cuban’s recent statement that he would be “honored” for the Dallas Mavericks to have the first NBA player to come out as gay, rumors have now surfaced that several NFL players will soon be coming out of the closet.

Linebacker Brendon Ayanbadejo was released from the NFL’s Baltimore Ravens this week. As an outspoken advocate for gay rights, speculation centered on the rumor that Ayanbadejo’s release was related to his views. However, in an interview with the Baltimore Sun this week, Ayanbadejo stated that this was not the case, and that the Ravens organization had always supported his outspokenness on the issue.

Ayanbadejo went on to say that gay NFL players will soon be coming out of the closet. In fact, he told the Sun that “the groundwork is being laid” for as many as four NFL players to come out simultaneously, to reduce the pressure on any one player.

“I think it will happen sooner than you think,” said Ayanbadejo.

When the story hit, Ayanbadejo took to his Twitter account to defend his views and set the record straight:

(Image courtesy Keith Allison/Wikimedia Commons)

It seems that Michael Sheen isn’t the only thing actress Rachel McAdams has gotten rid of these past few months. The Mean Girls actress was spotted this week without her famous platinum-blonde hair.

According to an US magazine report, the actress has instead dyed her hair a bright shade of red. She was spotted as a redhead while visiting Disneyland with friends and family.

McAdams broke up with British actor Michael Sheen this past February. The two reportedly met on the set of Woody Allen’s Midnight in Paris.

McAdams rose to fame with roles in the Tina Fey movie Mean Girls and the Nicholas Sparks movie adaptation of The Notebook. More recently, she starred in the romance movie The Vow, in which she (and her brunette-colored hair) re-learns to love her husband (played by Channing Tatum) after an accident causes her to suffer amnesia.

(Image courtesy Attit/Wikimedia Commons)

As Kate Middleton’s baby bump grows larger, speculation about the Duchess of Cambridge’s due date has reached a fever pitch. In January it was officially announced that the Duchess’ due date is sometime in July.

This week, the scope of the due date has been narrowed even further.

According to an E! News report, Middleton spoke with the press in Glasgow, telling them that “mid-July” is when the baby is expected. “It’s around mid-July, but apparently babies have their own agenda,” the Duchess is quoted as saying.

The Duke and Duchess were in Glasgow this week as part of a two-day tour of Scotland. The couple met with Prince Charles today at Dumfries House in Ayrshire, Scotland, where they were scheduled to participate in the opening of a new Outdoor Center.

With the tipping point on gay marriage already reached and even conservative commentators such as Bill O’Reilly admitting that gay marriage supporters have a “compelling argument,” it now seems inevitable that gay marriage is on the fast-track to legality.

As the arguments continue to rage online, at least one person is looking ahead to what gay marriage will mean for marriage in the future. Actor Jeremy Irons this week appeared on HuffPost Live and discussed his views on gay marriage.

The Oscar-winning British actor expressed his concerns over what changing marriage might mean in future courtrooms. Irons pointed out that in Britain gay couples could enter into a “union” that would give them rights of marriage without the name. He then goes on to explain in a convoluted way what he foresees happening.

“It seems to me that now they’re fighting for the name, and I worry that it means somehow we debase or we change what marriage is,” said Irons. “I just worry about that.”

The actor stated that he thinks “the lawyers are gonna have a field day with same-sex marriage.” As an example of what he worries about, Irons brought up taxes and incest. In particular, he worried that, since he doesn’t consider same-sex incest to be incest, a father could marry his son to pass on his estate tax-free after death.

“It’s not incest between men,” said Irons. “Incest is there to protect us from having inbreeding, but men don’t breed…so incest wouldn’t cover them.”

Though his rambling comments sparked even more online debate, Irons himself stated that he doesn’t feel strongly one way or the other about gay marriage, and that “it’s lovely to have someone to love.”

(Image courtesy Avda/Wikimedia Commons)

Summer is coming, and so are the comedies.

One of this year’s most anticipated comedies is This is the End, a movie in which celebrities play caricatures of themselves during the apoclypse. The movie is partially written by Seth Rogen, who also wrote the hit comedy Superbad. This is the End will be Rogen’s directorial debut.

In addition to Rogen, the cast includes pretty much everyone you would expect Rogen to hang out with in Hollywood. James Franco, Jonah Hill, Jay Baruchel, Craig Robinson, and Danny McBride seem to round out the main cast, while a large number of cameos are sure to fill the movie.

Sony this week released a red band trailer for the movie, giving moviegoers a glimpse of the apocalyptic mayhem at the beginning of the flick. The trailer also spoils a few of the early cameos, such as when Michael Cera slaps Rihanna on the ass and gets smacked in retaliation, or when a certain British actress shows up to rob the survivors. Also, a few celebrity deaths are spoiled, but some of the bigger cameos are sure to remain under wraps for the premiere.

Earlier this week, The Walt Disney Company announced that it has closed down the LucasArts games studio and laid off a large number of employees. While layoffs and studio closings in the games industry have not been rare over the past year, the closure of LucasArts came as a shock to many gamers who remember classic games such as Maniac Mansion, The Secret of Monkey Island, and a plethora of Star Wars Games. Today it has become clear that Disney is not limiting its layoffs to its newly-acquired LucasFilm properties.

According to a Reuters report, Disney will be expanding its layoffs to its studio and consumer products divisions. According to Reuters’ unnamed “two people with knowledge of the matter,” the layoffs will begin within two weeks and will primarily affect marketing and home video units, though the “animation wing” will also be affected.

It is unclear whether Pixar Animation Studios will be affected by the layoffs. Walt Disney Studios just announced this week that Pixar is creating a sequel to Finding Nemo due out in 2015, titled Finding Dory.

Reuters’ sources stated that Disney began conducting an internal review last year to identify jobs that have become superfluous due to technological improvements or recent acquisitions.

Back on March 28, Rich Products Corporation issued a recall for Farm Rich-branded products such as Mini Quesadillas, Mini Pizza Slices, Philly Cheese Steaks, and Mozzarella Bites. The recall was issued over concerns that the food could be contaminated with E. Coli, and included nearly 200,000 pounds of frozen food made between November 12, 2012 and November 19, 2012. Rich Products stated that it would continue to work with the Food Safety and Inspection Service.

This week, the recall has been expanded to include over 10.5 million pounds of frozen snacks.

Rich Products has voluntarily recalled all products produced at its Waycross, Georgia plant with “Best by” dates from january 1, 2013 to September 29, 2014. The recall includes all sizes of Farm Rich-branded Mini Quesadillas, Mini Pizza Slices, Mozzarella Bites, Mini Bacon Cheeseburgers, and Philly Cheese Steaks. Other products from Farm Rich, such as Mozzarella Sticks and Stuffed Pretzel Bites, are made in separate plants and are not part of the recall.

The recall was expanded when the source of the contamination could not be determined. Farm Rich called this “unacceptable” and voluntarily recalled everything made in the Georgia plant.

“It saddens us deeply that anyone has become ill after consuming Farm Rich products,” said Bill Gisel, CEO of Farm Rich. “When it became apparent to us that despite the expertise of the USDA, FDA, the scientific community and our own experts, that identification of a specific cause was not going to be a simple or short process, we decided to act proactively to expand the recall.”

No reports of sickness due to the products have been reported. Farm Rich has stated that customers can call the company’s customer relations helpline to receive a refund or replacement of the potentially-contaminated products they have had to throw out.

Though a majority of Americans are now overweight and are predicted to get larger in the coming years, those who are overweight still have to contend with body image issues on a daily basis. While the magazine section at the grocery store is well-known to be a place where body issues will be confronted, a department store is generally not expected to criticize people’s weight.

This week, one Target shopper stumbled onto what seemed to be a tacit criticism of overweight people. Susan Clemens was shopping on Target’s website when she noticed that the color for a plus-size dress was listed as “Manatee Gray.” She checked the non-plus-size version of the dress and found that the same color was listed as “Heather Gray.”

Clemens tweeted her findings and, as these things tend to do on the internet, it began to spread. The comment sparked debate over whether the garment industry disapproves of overweight people, while also fueling a debate about how women are portrayed in media.

Within a day Target responded to Clemens, telling her they had a team looking into the matter. The store later told Forbes that “Manatee Gray” is a color used for many different products, and that in this particular case the people responsible for creating the listings had not communicated properly. Though the proper color for both sizes of the dress is “Manatee Gray,” the color is now listed as simply “Gray.”

Target has issued a direct apology to Clemens via Twitter:

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated 45 years ago today at a motel in Memphis, Tennessee. The civil rights leader was in the southern city to support an ongoing strike by the city’s sanitation workers. King was only 39 years old when he died.

King was born in Atlanta in 1929 and attended a seminary in Pennsylvania before becoming a pastor in Montgomery, Alabama at age 25. He went on to lead the 1955 Montgomery Bus Boycott and founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Throughout his career he organized nonviolent protests throughout the south and helped to organize the 1963 March on Washington. King was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964.

The day before his death, King delivered his “I’ve Been to the Mountaintop” speech, which contained references to the threats of violence that he routinely received.

While mourning the news that beloved film critic Roger Ebert has died, Twitter users are also remembering the assassination of King and conveying which message of King’s meant the most to them:

[Author’s Note: Cory Booker is the current mayor of Newark, New Jersey]

[Author’s note: Nicolas Maduro is currently the interim president of Venezuela.]

In 2011 two men were arrested in England for plotting to rob and murder pop star Joss Stone.

According to a report in The Telegraph, the men, Junior Bradshaw and Kevin Liverpool, have been convicted on conspiracy to to cause grievous bodily harm and conspiracy to rob. Liverpool has been sentenced to life in prison, and will serve a minimum of 10 years and eight months. Bradshaw’s sentencing was postponed.

According to the Telegraph report, the pair were found near the singer’s home with a “samurai sword” and knives. At one point the criminals asked a mailman for directions to Stone’s house. The amateur criminals were reported to have had notes outlining a plot to behead Stone and dump her body in a river.

The motive for the men’s plot isn’t entirely clear, though notes written by the men contained references to the British Royal family. The writings referred to the fact that Stone had been invited to the Prince William’s wedding in 2011. The men also mentioned Eminem, Beyonce, R. Kelly and Chris Brown.

Stone’s mother addressed the media after the convictions, thanking supporters on her daughter’s behalf and expressing relief that the men are behind bars.

Last week, conservative Fox News star Bill O’Reilly seemed to defend the supporters of gay marriage, saying that they have a “compelling argument.” At the same time, the pundit criticized opponents of gay marriage, stating that they haven’t been able “to do anything but thump the Bible.”

Now, O’Reilly is having to defend his comments against a backlash of Christians who feel the host was criticizing their religion. O’Reilly brought conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham onto The O’Reilly Factor to provide a warm body to whom he could further explain his comments.

“If you’re going to stand up for heterosexual marriage and exclude gay marriage, if you’re going to do that, you’ve got to do it outside the Bible,” said O’Reilly. “You can’t cite the Bible, ’cause you’ll lose if you do it.”

Ingraham told O’Reilly that she thinks his comments are “disrespectful” to Christians. O’Reilly went on to try and explain that he makes a distinction between Americans’ privately held beliefs and how public policy should be made, insisting that he meant no offense to Christians. He also went on to double-down on his “thump the Bible” comment.

“There are Bible thumpers, and all they do is say, ‘I object to gay marriage ’cause God objects to it,” said O’Reilly. “You don’t win a policy debate in America with that.”

Emma Watson has denied rumors that she has been case in the role of Anastasia Steele in the upcoming Fifty Shades of Grey movie adaptation, but that doesn’t mean she’s shying away from racy roles.

This week, the star graces the cover of British GQ in a Pretty Woman-inspired dress that shows off a large portion of Watson’s bare skin. The photo portrays Watson as her character from the upcoming movie The Bling Ring. In the movie she plays Nicki, a fame-chasing, despicable character that Watson told the magazine she “hated.”

“The character is everything that I felt strongly against – she’s superficial, materialistic, vain, amoral,” said Watson. “She’s all of these things and I realised that I hated her. How do you play someone you hate? But I found it really interesting and it gave me a whole new insight into what my job, or my role as an actress, could be.”

As much skin as Watson shows in the new GQ, it turns out that the GQ photo shoot isn’t even the most racy one the actress has participated in. A new book by photographer James Houston titled Natural Beauty will soon be released, which features photos Watson posed for while topless. Though the photos don’t appear to actually show the actress’ bare breasts, Watson previewed them recently on Twitter:

(Photo Courtesy GQ)

Is it finally coming? Finally, really, in real life coming?

Those are the questions that have been surrounding the rumored (at this point mythic) Apple HDTV. Yearly predictions about the manufacture and shipping of an Apple ‘iTV‘ have repeatedly been proven false.

Last year, cable companies were (plausibly) blamed for the product’s delay after pressing for a large amount of control over content during negotiations with Apple.

At the beginning of 2013, analysts began switching up their game, predicting that the iTV would not be appearing during the coming year.

This week, Topeka Capital Markets analyst Brian White has been quoted by BGR as saying, once again, that the iTV will launch in the second half of 2013.

The analyst states the HDTV will 60 inches, with smaller sizes also available. He goes on to speculate that the device will come with an “iRing” finger interface device for the TV and a portable 9.7-inch tablet-like “mini-iTV” which can display content from the larger screen. White prices the TV set packages at around $1,500 to $2,500.

So, those are the latest rumors about the fabled “iTV.” There’s even a possibility that they could even be accurate this time, but gamblers would be wise to place their bets elsewhere. The Brian White who outlined this week’s rumors is the same Brian White who relayed rumors that Sharp would begin shipping LCD display panels to Foxconn at the end of last summer.