Can Michael Vick be a Role Model to Kids?

As I understand it, Michael Vick has a new job working with several Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs in Virginia where he will be involved in fitness activities. He is still serving his federal sentence and has not yet be reinstated into the NFL. I would presume that his role is to be, on some level, a role model to these kids. But what message is he supposed to pass along?

He did not stop the dogfighting until he  was caught. This was an activity that occurred multiple times over the years so he had plenty of time to decide to stop. He was not under the influence of anyone or anything to the point that he could not change his behavior. Part of his punishment is to educate these kids. You don’t want him to say that he’s only  working at the Boys & Girls Clubs to fulfill a requirement, that, if given the opportunity, he’d rather be playing football than be a role model to them. Sure he can say dogfighting is wrong and I guess that, since they are kids and may not follow the news, they won’t know he didn’t think that until he was arrested for it.

The financial reorganization plan he is working on to resolve his bankrupcy issues is structured as if his playing in the NFL in the future is guaranteed. So he’s planning to pick up right where he left off. So he can’t say going to prison really hurt him. In this ecomony, bankrupcy is practically an everyday occurance and happens to people with a lot less income than him. The bankrupcy isn’t necessarily due to his financial irresponsibility. So how does he learn and grow from this so that he can tell kids what not to do?

Sure, he was probably hanging around the wrong people and that fostered these activities. But since he’s not been out of jail long, I don’t think he can show that he knows how to avoid the bad people and pick the good people. He probably hasn’t lost familial relationships over this so he can’t say he’s suffered in that way.

Hopefully HE will learn what they may not have taught him in college, that he cannot trust that everyone he comes in contact with is there for the right reasons and that, when employed by the NFL (or any company) he is in the public eye  and must conduct him self in a manner that represents the league, the team, and himself, well. I believe that talented kids are given lots of help to get through the academics of college and as money-makers for those colleges are placated to stay with whatever attention and perks are needed. He quite possibly never learned a lot of things about how to get along in this world.

Reality Review

So the Gosselins are breaking up. It wasn’t that long ago that they renewed their vows in Hawaii. I’ve been wondering if, because the trip was free for them, they didn’t take the ceremony as seriously as they might have had they had to scrimp and save for it. Was it just something they did for the show? Did they think it would help their marriage? I had thought that they had a special bond of support, that, because they didn’t seem to have the support of their families, they relied on eachother. I guess I was wrong.

I watched Tori Spelling’s reality show when it first started jsut to see what it was like. Surprisingly, I have watched every episode. Not sure if it’s because it really is interesting or I have some personality flaw. The last few ahve driven me crazy though. At every turn, viewers are reminded that Tori has to cope with life on her own while Dean is in Calgary for 5 weeks. Literally every ten minutes, whenever the scene shifts to the next thing Tori has to do (go to NY for an appearance, go to Tampa for HSN, go back to NY for her book meeting. I guess it was all to make us feel that much more elated for her when Dean surprised her in NY on Valentine’s Day. It was touching when she saw him ans was so surprised. She admits to being a workaholic but to tell us how stressed she is having to deal with her various enterprises falls on deaf ears in my case. I realize she needs to do these things to have income, but these are some incredible opportunities the rest of us would love to have the chance to complain about!

So Kendra is engaged (getting married tomorrow!) and pregnant. Some wonder just what her relationship with Hef was all about. I’m not close to the situation (so far away that you can’t count all the stars between us) but I have always thought that he was more of a father figure to her. He can’t possibly be that active in bed to satisy 3 or more girls. Being with Hef is a great door-opener, a great opportunity to see new things, meet new people, and start a career in Hollywood. I think that’s what it was for her. He settled her down, gave her security, gave her a path to go on which it sounds like she needed from she’s been quoted as saying. I was a bit worried her show would be thin on plot, just showing how blond she can be. I think they do need some variety of people. Kendra is still the playful one with Hank as her straight man. But it’s entertaining.

Gene Simmon’s Family Jewels shows how unreal a reality TV show can be. What girl is going to let her father tell her that an old non-practicing  Jewish rock star should be her child’s godfather? For drama, they show Gene and his girlfriend Shannon rushing off to NYC to get a gift for the baby and getting to the church just a few minutes late enough to make people start to wonder if they would show at all. That show is so obviously planned. But yet I still watch.

And Jessica Simpson is going to show us all the extremes people will go to for fashion and good looks. I’ll watch because she’s another person who interests me. Interesting coincidence that the movie she said was a factor in her decision to divorce Nick is at about the same time he and his girlfriend Vanessa break up. I watched the movie to see if I could figure out what in it was so key to her. I think it was when Noah says (it’s not an exact quote) “What do YOU want to do? Not what your mother thinks, not what (the fiance) thinks. What do YOU want?” that made Jessica think just what did she want… She is so close to her parents that she probably thought about what they wanted, so this gave her permission to think for herself. I woudl think they are so different that they would not try too imitate star-crossed lvovers, but who knows…

Sean Avery hasn’t learned to be normal

I would waste little time debating whether Sean Avery’s head-slap on Tim Thomas (4/4/09) was intentional – well-behaved mature people would be given leeway on this type of thing but Avery is not one of those people. His motives should always be questioned and the evilest of intentions should be suspected. There should be an “Avery” rule, that he gets double the penalty for whatever he does and anyone retaliating to his actions gets no penalty. Retaliating against something is usually the way to assert yourself and let the other person know you aren’t taking any crap. Avery’s brain thinks it’s funny when you retaliate and will just amp it up more since he knows he can get to someone. For him, the opposing player’s retaliation is a Pavlovian reward. Perhaps players should focus their retaliation on his teammates, who might get so sick of being victimized by his bad behavior that no team will want him (I wouldn’t want to see that but it seems like a way to get him out of the league) . I can’t think of any particular hockey skills he has that would benefit a team anyway. I wonder how these behaviors would manifest themselves in the real world. Would he be in and out of jail for petty crimes? An abuser? A stalker? A psychopath?

Gosselin & Hayes

The season finale for Jon & Kate Plus 8 is Monday. The season opener for a similar show, Table for Twelve, follows. I’ve seen just a few episodes of Table for Twelve, the Hayes family of 3 sets of multiples (10 kids), and I’ve liked what I’ve seen. People will think they are copy cats of the Gosselins, but they live a blue collar life compared to what is almost a white collar life in the Gosselin house. The Hayes’ lives haven’t been invaded with invites to attend special events or see special things, from the episodes I’ve watched. Check it out to see what you think.

Gosselin Gripe

I recently watched an episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 where Jon and one of his daughters went to Utah to ski and snowboard, and the rest of the family went to see Sesame Street Live. Now maybe they are making tons of money and can afford both of these things. But they had their own box at Sesame Street Live and those typically are unaffordable. Plus they got to meet all the characters afterwards. Kate talked about how the kids were tired and they were just making their way to their car as though she didn’t know this was going to happen. But they were the only attendees in the hallway with the characters. And the characters gave them each a goody bag of stuff. That is not something regular people get.

Maybe the show people knew they were going to be there and wanted to do this. Maybe she really didn’t expect it. But I think it was probably part of the conversation when the offer for the nice seating was arranged. I kind of like that Kate didn’t say they got special attention because, although acknowledging it is fair to the viewer, it just bugs me that they get stuff for just being on TV and hearing it would be annoying.

I’m guessing that Jon didn’t have to pay for the Utah accommodations. And, to my cynical eye, it looks like the ski place closed the tube run so just they could be on it. How nice for them.

Yes, it’s reality, their reality.

I complain because I’m jealous. Maybe I should quit complaining and try to figure out how I can get some special attention and have people giving me stuff left and right.

Natasha Richardson’s Death

I was unusually saddened by Natasha Richardson’s death. It’s not that it’s because she in particular is dead. I am stunned that what sounds like an innocuous fall could result in death. How easy it seems to be. People will say she should have worn a helmet or that the ambulance workers should have not been sent away without seeing her. The ski resort staff obviously knew what could happen, but do most lay people? It seems like a greater effort should be made to make people aware of the dangers of a head injury and what symptoms to look for.

When news first came out that she had been hospitalized and was considered to be brain-dead, my mind turned to the practical matters. After alerting her family about her circumstances, someone would need to get her things from her room and check her out of the hotel, maybe return a rental car, cancel upcoming appointments. Practical things that must be hard to do when faced with what was going on. Now any staff she employed, personal assistant or publicity people and others, are suddenly out of a job.

Although the ski resort says they followed protocol in how they treated her, I’m guessing they will be sued. It would be to point out that they should do more in the future to prevent this type of death. Things like having educational materials to give to people who may have suffered a head injury so they know what to look for, or to requiring helmets for all skiing and lessons, or even xraying everyone who falls.

It’s so tragic to know that this could happen to anyone. I wish that she could have lived to be able to use her noteriety to teach others what could happen.

Noam & Rory

I finally checked out who Noam Chomsky is. Why did I need to know? Do you remember the poster on wall of  ‘Gilmore Girl’ Rory’s room (college or home I can’t remember)? It said Noam Chomsky. You see it occasionally through the years and it is a memorable name.  I’d heard the name before and knew it was someone important in some ‘world view’ kind of way. He’s a linguist and an anarchist. So I see the relevance of a person who wants to go into journalism having a poster of a linguist on her wall. The fact that he’s an anarchist must mean something to someone involved with the Gilmore Girls, but since the girls never venture far from Stars Hollow geographically or via the plotline, I think it was not a vision into one of the character’s personalities.

I watched a repeat of the episode where Lorelei agrees to marry Max while at dinner at her parents’ house. You see her calling Max in a panic about where they will live and all the other things they hadn’t yet discussed. She quotes something Luke said verbatim. Because she’s talking about the future, you and Max both see where this conversation is going, but you don’t see her verbally agreeing to marry him. You see her walking back into the dining room but hanging back at the threshold long enough to catch Rory’s eye and nod. Both she and Rory know what this means and are excited jumping around while her parents wonder what is going on.

I sometimes just watch things at face value and don’t always see the domino effect others’ actions have on people. But I think there was a reason why Lorelei agreed that night to marry Max. When she and Rory arrived at dinner, her parents were excited to tell them that they knew that Rory was in the top 3% of her class. A special dinner was to be planned and gifts given so she got some nice attention.

I think Lorelei agreeing to marry Max was a reaction to her daughter’s attention. Not in a vengeful way, she didn’t tell her parents that night and steal the spotlight. But Rory had the positive attention of her grandparents, a bright future ahead of her, and she was growing up. Lorelei needed to feel good about something too. It was also a reaction to Luke’s response to the news.  When she told her good friend Luke about the news, he was less than enthused and supportive. I think she wanted him to tell her what she couldn’t tell herself or needed his approval. She defended the relationship while he raised questions about it.

Of course we know that Lorelei and Max do not end up ‘happily ever after.’ And it is for the better.

True Love – Celebrity Style

So Kendra Wilkerson has jumped from a ‘relationship’ with Hugh Hefner to being engaged to Hank Baskett. Was she ever really in love with Hef? Is she in love with Hank? I personally think Kendra has more of a respect for Hef because he brought some order to her life and gave her experiences she’d never have otherwise. I don’t think they had a romatic relationship.

Remember when Benjamin Bratt was with Julia Roberts and all seemed right in the world? Then they broke up, he got into a relationship with Talisa Soto and then married her? Was the relationship with Talisa a relief after the high profile relationship he had with Julia?

Another example, Ben Affleck and Jennifer Lopez. They had a very public relationship then quickly found others after it ended. Is it the media attention that gets in the way? Is plain Jen Garner the true love of Ben’s life? Didn’t she know who he was and who he dated before they met? How did she come to decide that she loved him?

We were supposed to believe Jessica loved Nick. But then she suddenly ‘grew up’ and knew he wasn’t the one for her. See my other posts for more about what I think of her.

Do stars really know what true love is? Or are they just having relationship after relationship because they tire or get bored of who they’re with? Do actors become actors and need to play roles and do PR stuff because they aren’t comfortable with themselves or need constant change? As much as I’d like to earn what they earn and get the perks they do, I think you need to be a certain kind of person to want to live that life.

Madonna & Parenting?

I hear Madonna doesn’t want her soon-to-be ex-husband to let the kids watch tv or read newspapers. I know there’s a lot of bad going on in the world but they should be taught to read and watch with a critical eye so that they can become engaged in the world’s activities. Perhaps she is hoping they will spend their time engaged in the world around them, rather than zoning out to TV or fantasizing about the lives of others while reading newspapers. I suppose she doesn’t want them growing up being part of the crowd whose idolization her income depends on.

From what I read, Madonna was very affected (effected?) by the death of her mother and did not accept her step-mother. It’s a curiosity to me now to she that she has 3 children who will have unstable relationships with their parents, including one who was removed entirely from his biological family and culture. Does she not think they will suffer in the same way she did?

It’s Jessica who needs saving!

I want to be nice and I want to be well-written. But I don’t have to be either if I don’t want to…

Jessica Simpson dated Nick Lachey because he needed saving? She’s really not in touch with herself if she thinks that! He catered to her neediness, treated her like the diva she grew up to be. She sang about how he let her be herself. I think he did more for her than she ever could for anyone. Now she’s being ’saved’ by Tony Romo. Seriously, does she think love is all about saving and being saved? That’s romantic but in reality a person needs to be able to have their own identity and not feel incomplete without another person. She can say he’s supportive of her and her endeavors, as she should be of his. She can say she appreciates the many aspects of his personality, as he should of her. But enough with this ’saving’ business!