Scoring Sunday’s Nuptials: From Blogger to Bride in 31 Days

Blogging will inevitably keep me isolated and alone from the rest of the world forever. But in this week’s NYT Weddings & Celebrations, Weddings Expert Phyllis Nefler notes someone who blogged themselves to happy matrimony! *Cries in fetal position.*

Want a boyfriend? Start a blog! It worked for Tamara Duricka, who had her own personal Year of Magical Thinking at age 30 when she suffered two breakups and the death of her dog. Wanting “a gimmick” to “pull herself out of a funk,” she did what any early thirtysomething with creeping malaise and a career in media would.

She started a blog.

Called “31 Dates in 31 Days” (and hosted on Blogspot, natch) Duricka’s project involved going on 31 dates in 31 days. Because this was not ‘Nam, this was dating, there were rules:

Each date lasts at least 31 minutes.
Each date costs less than $31.
Dates will take place in a public setting.
No drugs.
No alcohol (Yes, seriously. None.)
No married men.
AND… date #31 (Valentine’s Day) will be a second date!

Faced with these dealbreaking set of restrictions, it should come as no surprise to any of you that the man who ultimately wiggled his way into the Valentine’s Day second date was … a Mormon. (Which reminds me, by the way: there was not nearly enough Sarah in last week’s Big Love, and I hear she is not really going to be in the show much this season. Is this true? This is really upsetting. Also, how hot is Ben getting?)

And “about 70 dates later,” Duricka found herself engaged. Julia Allison, there’s hope for you yet! Time to revive that 24 dates in 24 hours thing that never happened!

But a word of warning: despite hoping to turn her blog into a book, Duricka has yet to find a publisher. Might I suggest HarperStudio?

Back in ancient history, before people wrote anonymous blogs, they were just dudes with pen names. Like this father of the bride, who landed a column in Esquire magazine under his pseudonym of Stanley Bing while climbing the corporate ladder at CBS in his day job under his real name, Gil Schwartz. (“Since then, he has also written for newspapers, a cigar magazine, Seventeen and, most recently Fortune, current home of Bing’s monthly business column.” Man, I miss Old Media sometimes!) Anyway, he climbed the corporate ladder pretty high: he’s now the chief communications officer for CBS. Meanwhile, here I am blogging on Gawker—under the name of a Shelley Long character in a roundly-panned (but cult classic!) Lateighties movie—about Gil-Stanley Schwartz-Bing’s daughter Nina getting married to a Google employee. This, folks, is progress.

The featured couple this week is really attractive and nice-seeming. I really like the bride’s veil-hairnet thing, and they are one of those great opposites-attract pairs: she’s a Quaker girl who used to pose so her parents could sculpt her, and is now a NBC anchor who wakes up at 2:30 every morning; he, a “wild-sounding cousin” of her friend who “wore earrings, listened to hip-hop, had lots of girlfriends, did flips on snowboards and persuaded his father, Eric S. Nathan, to put a trampoline in the living room.”

Aren’t they cute? When the groom wanted to ask her parents for permission to marry her, he fooled them at first by saying he needed a loan. And the dad opened his checkbook and everything! It’s like that thing in A Bronx Tale about reaching over and opening the car door, kind of.

Maybe not. Here, read this paragraph and feel happy.

Once they started dating, Ms. Low and other friends began noticing some changes in Mr. Nathan. He invited people over for wine and cheese, for instance, instead of brownies from a box. “Erika was the first girl who made him nervous,” Ms. Low said.

May we all find the one who makes us nervous. What’s the Quaker equivalent of mazel tov? Oh, probably complete silence.

Elsewhere, some well-intentioned parents tried to set their friends’ 24-year old aspiring comedienne daughter up with their 29-year old son, but the plans backfired when she ended up with his 38-year old brother instead; if I were this couple I would see how many structures at the Lapidus family summer camps I could christen (come on, the ceramics studio?); and if I may offer a bit of constructive criticism to Alexandra Johnson, Harvard graduate-cum-”store planning analyst in Manhattan for J. Crew”: this is a photo I took of your SoHo store last year; as you can see, it is indistinguishable from a photo of my hall closet. Get your shit together, sister!

This week’s matchup:

Margaret Ashton Bensfield, Edward Matthew Sullivan

• The wedding was officiated by an Episcopal priest: +1
• The bride graduated from Vanderbilt and received a master’s degree in French from Middlebury College: +1
• The groom graduated from Duke and received an MBA from Harvard: +4
• The bride’s mother is named “Llewellyn W. Bensfield” and she is “a trustee of the Protestant Episcopal Cathedral Foundation”: +2
• Both fathers are partners in Washington law firms named “Miller & Chevalier” and “Williams and Connolly”: +2

TOTAL: 10

Allison Kay Deutermann and Robert Thomas Dennis

• The bride is keeping her name: -1
• The bride graduated magna cum laude from Penn and the groom graduated magna cum laude from Harvard: +13
• The bride received a Ph.D. in English and comparative literature at Columbia: +1
• The groom received a master’s degree in creative writing from Florida State: +0 [Ed. What, no love for Keith Gessen?]
• The groom works at Bridgewater but is “also a poet whose work has appeared in the Paris Review, Fence, and Tin House”: +1
• The bride’s mother taught elementary school: +1
• The groom’s father “retired as a career counselor with the University of Phoenix” (isn’t that school online? Please tell me his dad just posted job descriptions to chat rooms!): +1

TOTAL: 16

Why are you still reading this? You should be blogging.

EVENTS: 3rd ANNUAL BET HONORS IN WASHINGTON D.C.

The 3rd Annual BET Honors was held at the Warner Theatre in Washington D.C. on Saturday night (January 16th). Whitney Houston, Queen Latifah, and Sean “Diddy” Combs were among the people that were honored at the Gabrielle Union hosted event.

The show will air on February 1 at 8pm on BET and also features performances from: Stevie Wonder, Jennifer Hudson, Mary J Blige, India.Arie, Patti LaBelle, Maxwell, Trey Songz and more.

Jessica Biel Covers US Vogue February 2010

Actress & Justin Timberlake’s on again off again girlfriend Jessica Biel wearing Ralph Lauren graces the February 2010 cover of US Vogue.  The cover was shot by Mario Testino. 

Below is a glimpse of the interview by Jonathan Van Meter:

On her parents: Her father, Jon, worked for GE for many years and ran his own business consultancy in Boulder. "He is extremely motivated and ambitious," she says. "I get those qualities from him." Her mother, Kim, grew up one of six kids in a small town a few hours southwest of Denver where Jessica and her parents both own cabins on adjoining properties. Her mother’s side of the family is part Native American: Those crazy-high cheekbones are shared by her younger brother, mother, and grandmother.

On her run of bad luck with great directors. Cameron Crowe cast her in Elizabethtown, a film that flopped on a grand scale, and David O. Russell gave her the lead in Nailed, based on Kristin Gore’s novel Sammy’s Hill, about a woman with no health insurance who gets a nail lodged in her head and goes to Washington to fight for justice. "Jess was tired of being cast as merely sultry and was more than ready to throw down for all the weird behavior a nail in the head gives her character," says Russell. "She auditioned and went for it—she is fearless." Gore (Al’s daughter), who co-wrote the screenplay with Russell, spent three months with Biel on the set in South Carolina. "I think her range is something that has yet to be discovered by the larger world," she says. "She also has this preternatural self-assurance." The production shut down because of money problems with just one thing left to shoot: the scene where Biel gets the nail shot into her head. That was in 2008, and with each passing month it grows ever less likely that her most challenging film work to date will make it to the screen. 

To read the rest of the interview visit Vogue.

Cate Blanchett: A Streetcar Named Washington D.C.

Cate Blanchett goes for a morning walk with a friend on Saturday (November 7) in Washington D.C.

The 40-year-old Aussie actress is in town performing her critically acclaimed play, A Streetcar Named Desire. Last weekend, Cate attended the opening night reception of the play held at the Kennedy Center’s Embassy of Australia in D.C.

A Streetcar Named Desire continues through Nov. 21 at the Kennedy Center. The show is sold out!

The Killer Inside Me looks like an awesome film….if your into screwing and killing (w/video)

Check out this nearly six minute trailer for the new movie, The Killer Inside Me, staring Jessica Alba, Casey Affleck and Kate Hudson. Great to see Jessica loosen up a bit, thought she was going to be the next UN embassador for something the way she’s been carrying on down in Washington DC. This movie looks like 2 hours of softcore porn, abuse of women and murder. Sounds like a killer date with Chris Brown:)

Click here to view the embedded video.

RANDOM PICS: FEFE DOBSON PERFORMS IN D.C.

Canadian pop rock star Fefe Dobson performs at the unveiling of the OMEGA official countdown clock to celebrate the 100-Day countdown to the 2010 Olympic Winter Games in Vancouver at the Embassy of Canada on Wednesday, November 4th in Washington, DC. Fefe’s third studio album, Joy, is expected to drop on March of 2010.

Jay-Z Announces 2010 North American Tour Dates

Young Jeezy will open; tickets go on sale November 13.
By MTV News staff

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Jay-Z


Photo: Larry Busacca/ Getty Images

Mere hours after Jay-Z rocked the MTV Europe Music Awards in Berlin, he announced the North American dates for his 2010 BP3 Tour via a press release from promoter Live Nation. The tour will begin on February 22 in Houston, with more dates to be announced soon.

Young Jeezy is scheduled to open all dates on the tour, tickets for which go on sale beginning November 13.

The first leg of the tour is still under way, with dates in Fresno, California (Saturday), Los Angeles (Sunday), Austin, Texas (Tuesday) and Champaign, Illinois (November 12).

The second leg will make stops in Dallas; New Orleans; Atlanta; Greensboro, North Carolina; Washington, D.C.; Boston; Pittsburgh; St. Louis; Indianapolis; Denver; Los Angeles; and more, according to the press release. Additional day of show and on-sale information will be announced shortly for stops in East Rutherford, New Jersey; Uniondale, New York; Atlantic City, New Jersey; and Detroit.

Citi cardmembers will have access to presale tickets beginning Tuesday through Citi’s Private Pass Program, and will also have access to VIP Ticket Packages.

Jay-Z’s 2010 North American tour dates, according to Live Nation:
» — 2/22 Houston @ Toyota Center
» — 2/23 Dallas @ American Airlines Center
» — 2/25 New Orleans @ New Orleans Arena
» — 2/27 Atlanta @ Philips Arena
» — 2/28 Greensboro, North Carolina @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex
» — 3/3 Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
» — 3/7 Norfolk, Virginia @ Scope Arena
» — 3/11 Boston @ TD Garden
» — 3/16 Pittsburgh @ Mellon Arena
» — 3/19 St. Louis @ Scottrade Center
» — 3/20 Indianapolis @ Conseco Fieldhouse
» — 3/22 Denver @ Pepsi Center
» — 3/24 San Jose, California @ HP Pavilion
» — 3/26 Los Angeles @ Staples Center

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Whoops, Barack Obama Forgot to Care About the Gays Again

Congratulations to the National Organization For Marriage, a group dedicated to making sure a large segment of the population cannot get married, on their successful campaign to scare people in Maine.

NOM raised a zillion dollars or so from hateful bigots across the nation whose names they refuse to disclose, which is, of course, a violation of state campaign finance law. But if it works, who gives a shit? 53% of Maine voters agreed that if the gays get married, they will attempt to force the children to learn, in public schools, that gay people exist, and that they should not be beaten to death for crimes against God.

Once again we learn the shocking truth that putting the civil rights of minority groups to a popular vote does not work very well. Crazy, right?

Here is a classic sketch from The Dana Carvey Show that is more relevant than ever, again:

Rihanna – ‘Wait Your Turn’ Music Video Premiere!

Rihanna has premiered the music video for her latest single, “Wait Your Turn (The Wait Is Ova),” off her new album Rated R, out November 23rd!

The music vid was shot in Washington Heights, New York City on October 16. Yep, the eye patch video shoot!

Don’t forget to tune in on Thursday to hear Rihanna speak out about the Chris Brown incident from February. She’s also on the cover of Glamour next month.

Click inside to watch Rihanna’s newest music video…

In a Terrifying Alternate Universe, Vice President Sarah Palin Claims Victory

On election night, Sarah Palin threatened to “go rogue” by delivering a speech someone else wrote for her, but John McCain refused so she didn’t. Now you can read the addresses — both concession and victory — she would’ve given.

The Daily Beast has an excerpt from Sarah from Alaska, a new Palin bio, with the speeches writer Matt Scully wrote for her on election night: A concession speech in which she lauded “black citizen” Barack Obama for winning, and a victory speech in which she announces that her husband will thenceforth be known as “the First Dude.” Reading the victory speech is chilling in a Man in the High Castle sort of way—what if McCain/Palin really did win the election, and we’re all just characters in a blog or something? Trippy.

The speeches were never delivered because a) Palin lost, and b) vice presidential candidates don’t deliver election night concession speeches in America, a tradition with which Palin was unfamiliar because she’s from Alaska. McCain had to personally intervene to tell her she couldn’t have the podium, and his staffers brought the house lights down when Palin stayed on the stage to take photos with her family for fear she’d grab the mic.

Anyway, they’re both horrible speeches with the maverick-y touches we’ve come to know and love from Palin, like a reference to an immigrant from a South American nation called “Columbia” (maybe it’s spelled phonetically) and a lack of clarity as to whether it had been 68 or 69 days since she joined the campaign (both speeches mention both figures).

From the concession speech:

If he governs America with the skill and grace we have often seen in him, and the greatness of which he is capable, we’re gonna be just fine. And when a black citizen prepares to fill the office of Washington and Lincoln, that is a shining moment in our history that can be lost on no one. Barack Obama has achieved a great thing, for himself and for our country, and I congratulate him. God bless you and your beautiful family, President-Elect Obama.

From the victory speech:

It’s not always easy in politics to see the best in our opponents. But we have seen the grace and skill of Barack Obama, and the grit and determination of Joe Biden. By his nomination and extraordinary campaign, Barack Obama has achieved a great thing, for himself and for our country, and for that America will always honor him. I say God bless you, Senator Obama, and your beautiful family.

Of course, these days Republicans pay her cash money to talk ahistorical counterfactual nonsense, so who’s laughing now, Johnny Mac?

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