Teen Role Model?

MTV Teen Mom logo, courtesy of Flow TV

Or are the girls of MTV's Teen Mom more like teen trainwrecks?

Teen Mom is a spin off of the ground breaking series 16 and Pregnant which follows high school girls who have recently found out they were pregnant all the way through delivery and the baby's first few months. The show's themes were supposed to be more of these teen's learning that teen pregnancy is not easy, rather than glamorizing it.

Teen Mom spun off in December of 2009, following four of the 16 and Pregnant season "favorites," Maci, Farrah, Catelynn and Amber. The show chronicles the children's first years of life and their mother's struggles to maintain relationships, finish school and have jobs.

The show for the most part chronicles Maci the best, her struggles trying to keep her relationship alive with her son's father, taking classes to get a degree and maintaining friendships with friends who have moved off to college.

Amber Portwood assaulting boyfriend/baby's
father Gary. Photo courtesy of Babble

Amber's story is much the opposite. Her and her baby's father Gary fight constantly around their daughter Leah. Usually they just scream at each other until one or the other moves out. A few times though, Amber got violent, and it was caught on camera.

With baby Leah literally just feet away, MTV viewers watched as she slapped and punched him. This led to the local police department launching an investigation into her actions and charging Amber with domestic violence. 

Amber lost custody and served time in jail since and has recently had nude photos leaked of herself. 

MTV then launched Teen Mom 2, covering four all new teenage mothers from past 16 and Pregnant episodes. 

This time we followed Leah and Corey's engagement and ultimate wedding while battling health issues of one of their twins, Ali, Chelsea's tumultuous relationship with her daughter's father, Kailyn's battle to get out of her son's father's parent's house and on her own and Jenelle's custody battle with her mother over her son Jace.

Jenelle Evans' mugshot courtesy of FOX News

Jenelle lost custody of her son to her mother on the show and last October was arrested for drug possession and breaking into a house along with her boyfriend, Kieffer. She was arrested again Sunday, March 27th for her role in a viral TMZ video in which she is seen attacking another girl.

Real classy.

Maybe MTV should look into replacing these terrible examples and stop giving them the fuel to their flames. If the cameras would stop rolling maybe they would get their lives on track. 

Just a thought.

Life is a Beach.

Gottfried with the Aflac duck,
photo courtesy of Washington Post

And Gilbert Gottfried is not playing in the sand.

Over the past weekend Gottfried, the voice of the Aflac duck, made a crucial error in judgment. He posted to his Twitter account that "Japan is real advanced. They don't go to the beach. The beach comes to them."

A seemingly innocent tweet joke. But unless someone has been living under a rock since Friday, this is not a laughing matter.

An 8.9 (or 9.0) magnitude earthquake struck Japan on Friday, the 5th largest recorded in the world, and a tsunami devastated the coastline, leaving thousands missing and thousands more homeless.

A "one-two punch," delivered by mother nature herself according to Today show reporter Kari Huus.

The area is now coping with no water, no electricity and no heat (as much of the area is barely above freezing). And for those who retained their electricity, 3 hour rolling blackouts have been instituted in the area to conserve power.

According to the Today show, almost one-fifth of the country's nuclear power plants have been wiped out by the one-two punch. Workers of at least three nuclear plants have been battling to take back control of the disastrous situation according to the New York Times. Problems with cooling spent uranium fuel rods could lead to core damage and a meltdown.

Radiation level checks after radiation leaks.
Photo courtesy of Shanepowers.com

Over 100,000 people are thought to be living inside the exposure area and are advised to stay sealed up inside their homes or to evacuate the area completely. This nuclear crisis can only be compared with Chernobyl now, an accident which occurred in 1986 in the Ukraine and is the worst nuclear disaster in history.

"It's way past Three Mile Island already," said Frank von Hippel to the New York Times, a physicist and professor at Princeton. Three Mile Island was a partial core meltdown that occurred near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania in 1979.

Whether Gottfried's intentions were innocent or malicious, Aflac responded by firing him from their campaigns. Why the swift action by the insurance agency?

The Washington Post reports that 75% of Aflac's business comes from Japan. Or more simply, one in four Japanese homes buy health insurance from Aflac.

That's a large chunk of customers that Gottfried just ticked off.

Welcome to the Circus

Photo courtesy of WHYfame?

It has been said that marriage is a three ring circus:  an engagement ring, a wedding ring and suffering. While there may not be acrobats, clowns, jugglers or trained animals, one can see the Royal Wedding is shaping up to be one.

The Royal Wedding circus is set to go on stage for April 29, 2011. The golden ticket is an invitation (see below). The venue is Westminister Abbey and around 1,900 guests are invited.

So much speculation is set around who is not invited though. It's one thing for random celebrities like the Osbournes to be snubbed, but a complete other level for family to not be invited.

William's own aunt, Sarah Ferguson, has confirmed according to E! Online that she will not be attending the wedding and she never expected to receive a coveted invitation. Ferguson and her ex-husband Prince Andrew, Duke of York divorced in 1996. She is the mother to Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie, William's cousins.

Photo courtesy of luxuo

In recent news reports though, it is clear as to why she wasn't on the guest list.

Ferguson admitted recently to accepting money from U.S. financier Jeffrey Epstein according to E! Online. Epstein can be found amongst registered sex offenders in New York. As if that is not bad enough, Epstein has served 13 months in jail for soliciting an underage girl for prostitution.

Photo courtesy of Exposay

You read correctly. The Duchess of York accepted $22,000 from a pedophile.

"I know this is a gigantic error of judgment on my behalf," said Ferguson in London's Evening Standard newspaper.

Whether this is an actual error of judgment or ploy for more press, only time will tell us. Ferguson is currently filming a six part documentary, Finding Sarah, for the OWN network. The documentary will follow her "day to day problems with her weight, money and relationships," according to the OWN website.

Maybe they should cover family problems as well.