I find it fascinating and sad when I hear stories of celebrity relatives who are getting by on public assistance or who are homeless. (Actually, I haven’t heard of any homeless celebrity relative except for Tobey Maguire’s grandfather, who used to live in his car but now gets social security and has a subsidized apartment.) I don’t think it’s the celebrity’s responsibility or that they should have necessarily done something to help, I just wonder how the person to that point. Did the celebrity offer to help at all, did they not know about it, or do they think their relative should figure it out themselves? Did multiple attempts to get them help fail? You might give the celebrity the benefit of the doubt, but in Madonna’s case I tend to think that she ignored it.

As part of a story on local services for the homeless, a Michigan newspaper did a brief interview with Madonna’s 55 year-old brother, Anthony Ciccone, who lives under a bridge, returns bottles to make a living, and has suffered frostbite on his feet. Anthony told The Michigan Messenger that his “family turned their back on me,” and that he’s been homeless for over a year.

Ciccone said he’s been among the city’s homeless for a year and a half since losing a job at his father’s vineyard and winery in Suttons Bay. He said that it annoys him that some people are amused that a person from such a high profile family would end up sleeping, as he does, under the Union St. bridge.

“My family turned their back on me, basically, when I was having a hard time,” he said. “You think I haven’t answered this kind of question a bazillion times — why my sister is a multibazillionarie, and I’m homeless on the street?”

“Never say never,” he said. “This could happen to anybody.”

“I don’t have any income, I’ve got to go collect bottles and cans, do odd jobs.”

Despite the uncommon community effort to help the homeless here, there are gaps, and Ciccone was among several locals who got cold-related injuries last winter.

“They can’t do everything all the time for everybody, they just don’t have the resources,” he said. “These people that run these things are all volunteers, they don’t get paid to do these things.”

In the cold seasons the church shelters usher people out at 8 am and city rules against camping and camp fires make staying warm difficult.

“Where do you go at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning and you have no money in your pocket?”

If you spend enough time on frozen concrete without proper insulation you will get frostbite, he said. “You have no idea how gruesome it is.”

“You get nerve damage. That’s the milder stage, in the severe stage you have tissue damage, that is when you lose parts of your body.”

“I got frostbite on my feet last winter, Ciccone said. “A friend of mine lost all ten toes. Several have died of hypothermia.”

“You go and find a place to stay warm like the lobby at the jail, or you take a walk to get your feet warm and go to Meijer’s and sit in the lobby there.”

[From The Michigan Messenger via THR]

Anthony is one of Madonna’s seven siblings: she has three brothers, one half brother, two sisters and one half sister. Anthony is Madonna’s full brother, born to their mother before she died of breast cancer at just 30.

It’s probably not much of a leap to assume this guy has addiction problems which lead to him losing his job at the family winery. Madonna is worth $650 million, though. How much would it take for her to get her brother in rehab and to pay for a small home for him to stay in, even a minder to help keep him sober? He’s a grown man and of course he’s not her responsibility. She has more resources at her disposal than most of us could ever dream of, and she could make a few phone calls and ensure that her brother is safe and warm. That seems like the most reasonable and charitable thing to do, but Madonna has never been either.

The last we heard from one of Madonna’s siblings, another one of her brothers, Christopher Ciccone, published a tell all book about her called Life with My Sister Madonna. Christopher said that Madonna gave their then 97 year-old grandmother $500 a month and paid for her medical bills. Christopher said that wasn’t enough and that he wanted Madonna “to look after her. To get her a driver and a car.” Madonna’s grandmother passed away this March.

Madonna is shown in September at the Toronto film festival. Credit: WENN.com

I don’t really follow Bethenny Frankel’s career and I didn’t watch “The Real Housewives of NY” when she was on. I’ve caught some of her solo reality show and found it mildly interesting. It struck me that she doesn’t have the best relationship with her new husband, but I really didn’t care too much about it either way. The thing that made me want to repeat this story is how incredibly bitchy and mean Bethenny’s mom Bernadette is being. This isn’t new, Bettheny has spoken out in the past about her terrible relationship with her mom, and her mom has denied Bettheny’s claims. As background I’ll include some of these priceless quotes from Bethenny’s mom in a July 2010 interview with The Enquirer. She’s such a bitch, but she amps it up in this more recent interview as I’ll cover in a moment:

Speaking about her mother in a recent interview, Bethenny, 39, stated: “I don’t want her to contact us and make it toxic. I’m never going to want her in my daughter’s life.”

A devastated Bernadette, 59, told The Enquirer: “I have kept my silence for many years. I didn’t want to say anything about the lies Bethenny has spread about me because she is my flesh and blood…”

Bettheny has claimed that her mom was a severe bulimic and “was always drinking.” Bernadette denies both allegations.

“I never got a DUI, and I couldn’t have held down the jobs I did if I had an alcohol problem,” she said. “They would have fired me…”

“I did everything I could to bond with her…

“All through her childhood, John [Bernadette's husband] was funding her. But after that, he hit a bad patch and could no longer pay her credit card bills.

“So she went to live with Bobby. She changed her name from Bethenny Parisella to Bethenny Frankel and cut John and I off.”

Bethenny has spoken to Bernadette only twice in the past 10 years.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, July 26, 2010]

Listen to this lady. She wasn’t an alcoholic because she didn’t get a DUI and kept some jobs. That’s how alcoholics justify their addiction. She was living high on the hog with her husband, and then kicked her daughter out because they couldn’t afford her. It gets worse though. She’s moved from defending herself to trashing Bethenny and hoping that her life goes horribly wrong.

Describing her daughter as narcissistic, Bernadette says the highly strung and driven Bethenny will get what she needs from the relationship – children – before casing Jason aside.

“Right now, he is a good father, but soon she won’t need him and she will dump him,” Bernadette tells Star exclusively. “Her husband seems like a really nice guy, but it won’t last. He is really too weak for her”

Even worse, says Bernadette, Bethenny will always put money and power before everything else – including her own family.

“She sells everything because money and power is No. 1 for her, and there is never enough,” says Bernadette. “I find it amazing that she discusses having another child with her husband, but she barely has time for the first one…

“She only puts herself around people who can do something for her,” Bernadette says. “It is amazing how she turned out just like her father…”

Claims the Skinny Girl margarita was her idea
“When she was young, her godmother, Eleanor Mogavero, would come and visit, and her drink of choice was a margarita. She was overweight, so I’d make her really low-fat ones… But Bethenny would never give anyone credit – it goes against her narcissistic point of view.”

[From Star Magazine, print edition, October 17, 2011]

Holy crap! What do you do when your mom treats you like that – in public no less?! I guess you do what Bethenny does, you basically ignore the nasty wench. It’s awful that there are people like this in the world, whose hatred of everything, even their own family, just eats them up inside. I’ve had some issues with my mom, but they seem absolutely insignificant compared to this. My mom sometimes tells me what to do with my kid and I find it annoying, but she doesn’t put me down at all. This is incredible to me that there are people who talk like this about their own kids.

photo credit: WENN and Fame

It looks like there’s some “professional” rivalry between Jessica and Ashlee Simpson. The National Enquirer reports that they’re so at odds over some tween clothing line they’re working on launching together that they’re screaming at each other. Things are said to be so tense between them that Ashlee might not even go to Jessica’s wedding, whenever she’s having it. This whole story is pretty ripe considering how terribly they individually dress. Apparently Jessica’s tastes tend toward girly while Ashlee wants something closer to Avril Lavigne’s punk style. So ugly-frilly vs. ugly distressed look. Take your pick.

Jessica Simpson and her sister Ashlee… announced in June that they’re launching a joint tween clothing line, but sources say they’re now fighting like cats and dogs over it.

“Jessica and Ashlee are butting heads over the direction of the clothes,” an insider divulged.

“Jess prefers girly frills like lace and flowers. She leans more toward sexy dresses and low-cut tops. But Ashlee wants a more punk-rock look. She’s pushing for ripped jeans and neon t-shirts.

“Their disagreements have set off a virtual [war] with them screaming at each other in front of underlings…

“Jessica constantly throws her fashion success in Ashlee’s face,” the insider revealed.

“Ashlee also feels Jess wasn’t supportive after she split from husband Pete Wentz… She needed a shoulder to lean on and Jess was nowhere in sight.

“Now Ashlee is so angry with Jessica’s bossy ways that she’s threatening to boycott her wedding to Eric later this year,” said the source.

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, September 5, 2011]

I always thought Ashlee and Jessica were tight, so this is surprising to me. Still, if you look at how they dress it’s easy to see that there’s no way they would be able to agree on styles for a joint fashion line. The photo above doesn’t really capture how stark their fashion differences are, so here are a few candids of them out separately recently. I think the common denominator here is “fug,” though. They definitely have that in common. Oh and animal prints.

Ashlee is friends with Nicky Hilton I guess. Who knew? Who cared?

Photo credit: WENN, Fame, Pacific Coast News

This story in the upcoming issue of Star Magazine is really quite sad. I don’t feel sorry for Vanessa Minnillo’s mom at all given the circumstances, but it just is sad the way it all turned out. Someone at Star caught up with Vanessa’s mother, who is 57 and living in a trailer park in South Carolina. Vanessa’s mom Helen hasn’t spoken to her daughter in 12 years, since Vanessa was 18. Helen hasn’t seen Vanessa since she was 9, when she dropped Vanessa and her little brother off at their dad’s house for what was supposed to be a short time and never came back. I guess we know why Vanessa doesn’t speak to her mom and didn’t invite her to the wedding.

Helen Bondoc had no idea that her gorgeous 30-year-old daughter was even getting married. And when Star spoke with her exclusively at her South Carolina mobile home 12 days after Vanessa and Nick’s July 15 wedding in the British Virgin Islands, Helen struggled with her emotions.

“Oh my goodness, she’s beautiful!” Helen, 57, told Star as she grew misty-eyed while looking at photos of Vanessa and Nick on their St. Barts honeymoon.

“She’s changed so much, though I can still see that little scar on her forehead from where she picked at her chicken pox when she was a child.

“I didn’t have a clue that Vanessa was getting married. We last spoke about 12 years ago, on the phone. I just wanted to talk to her and tell her everything straight about my life. But I still think about her all the time, and I still love her dearly…”

Helen and the kids followed her husband to Turkey when he was assigned there, but they were sent back to the U.S. in 1991 after the Gulf War broke out.

Helen’s second marriage ended soon after — and so did her relationship with Vanessa after she dropped her and her brother off at their father’s house in Charleston, S.C.

“[Helen] said, ‘Keep them for now,’ ” Vincent recalls. “But she never came back.”

Vanessa has admitted that she became “sad, confused and emotional” about being abandoned by her mom but otherwise has remained tightlipped about why they’ve never ended their estrangement.

As for Helen, she tells Star: “It would be nice to have a relationship with her now, but I don’t know how she’d feel if I called her.”

And if Vanessa and Nick had kids? “It would be a happy occasion to meet my grandchildren. Whatever she’s doing today, I hope she’s happy with this man and that he treats her well. She’s still my little girl.”

[From Radar Online]

That’s terrible! Who could do that to their kids? Vanessa’s mom also claimed to have been a “hostess” and a “waitress” at two different strip clubs so I think it’s safe to assume she worked as a stripper. I don’t blame Vanessa for not talking to her mom. It just makes my heart hurt to think of someone abandoning their kids like that, but I guess it happens all the time.

E! ran a story a couple of days ago with some pretty classy quotes from Vanessa on what she thought about the fact that her new husband’s ex wife was also getting married. She used a common expression “the elephant in the room” and E! ran it with a headline that Vanessa was calling Jessica Simpson an elephant. It wasn’t accurate by a long shot, but it was funny. Vanessa said “To address the elephant in the room, yes, you know coincidentally at the same time that our wedding is going on, his ex is actually also doing the beautiful thing of getting married herself. I think she would probably pray, as much as I do, that they allow us to have our own moments.”

It’s like Vanessa wanted to say she’d cut a bitch if she stole her wedding thunder but she restrained herself and made it about the press potentially doing that, not the ex.

Access Hollywood has a new interview with Nick where he again asserts that no reality show will be coming to follow-up on his wedding special. Meanwhile Nick told E! that he’d love to have kids and was “doing everything I can.” I really like the guy and wish the best for him and Vanessa. I doubt that Vanessa’s mom is going to be playing the doting grandmother when and if these two have kids though.

Photos are from 7/25/11 (airport, credit: Fame), 6/17/11 (Bachelorette part, credit: WENN) and 4/9/11 (drunk, credit: WENN)

Yesterday we linked to a story on DListed in which The Situation, that Jersey Shore tool who always goes shirtless and refers to himself in the third person, was getting called out in a series of ranting unintentionally amusing videos recorded by his dad. The Situation’s dad seemed annoyed that his kid wasn’t throwing some of his millions his way, so he made some vague accusations set to creepy mafia type music and promised to put out a tell all book. The guy even started a goofy website complete with a press release and all his videos. The Situation has responded to all of this and says that his dad is just trying to get media attention and that the rest of his family is on his side.

One day after Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino’s father, Frank, announced he is writing a tell-all book based on his son’s dark past, the 28-year-old Jersey Shore star tells Us Weekly that he is “extremely saddened by his estranged father’s actions.”

Titled Confrontation With Situation, Frank promises the book will be an explosive look at the MTV reality star’s life before he hit it big.

“I’m calling Mike on his sh*t,” Frank says in a press release. “I’ve covered up for Mike his entire life, and when I needed his help, he left me hanging. I think people should know what I know. Hardcore partying, drugs, sex, crime elements, you name it, it’s in there.”

To complement the book, Frank also filmed a series of YouTube videos, where he dissects everything from his son’s Jersey Shore castmates to a purported sex tape involving Mike.

“Some of it is funny, some of it you won’t believe, and underneath it all, well, it’s a hell of a situation, and I think you know what I mean,” Frank says. “Based on what he did to me, my attitude is ‘f*ck the little f*ck,’ and I’m not holding anything back.”

According to the Jersey Shore star’s rep, Frank “has unfortunately decided to go public to garner himself media attention. The Sorrentino family — Marc, Frank, Jr., Melissa, and their mother Linda — remain united with Mike under these hurtful circumstances.

[From US Weekly]

Aw, this actually made me feel sorry for The Situation, and that’s a real feat. He made something of himself despite being saddled with a dad who’s worse than Michael Lohan, although I guess that remains to be seen.

Here’s a link to a video of The Situation’s dad going off on the Jersey Shore cast. I’ll admit to only watching about 1/3 of it. The guy is such a nasty SOB that his shtick gets old very fast. Can you imagine if your dad was like that? No wonder Mike isn’t giving him any money. He deserves to be cut off.

This video has a lot of f and s bombs and is NSFW:

Photos are from 4/1/11, credit: WENN.com

About two weeks ago we heard the news that Katy Perry’s mom is shopping a book that reportedly gives her take on Katy’s rise to fame. Katy’s mom and dad are freelance pentecostal preachers. Advance details of the book at the time had Katy’s mom “disagreeing” with “a lot of choices [Katy] makes in her career.” I’ve heard that Katy bought her mom a facelift, and I’ve seen photos of Katy’s parents posing with her on the red carpet at the Get Him To The Greek premiere. They certainly don’t come across like typical ministers, and it seems hypocritical of Katy’s mom to shop a tell all on one hand and enjoy the perks of her daughter’s fame on the other.

Well now we have some more excerpts from the book proposal, and it sounds even worse. Katy’s mom, Mary Perry Hudson, describes how she was shocked to see Katy’s boobs hanging out in a dress. She also explains her mixed feelings about Katy’s first hit “I Kissed a Girl.” Mary felt conflicted in that she was elated by Katy’s success on one hand and scandalized by the content of her music on the other.

Teenage Dream” is a middle-aged nightmare for her evangelistic mom — who complains in a book proposal that, “no mother wants to see the top of her daughter’s boobs.”

As we reported last week, preacher Mary Perry Hudson has been shopping a proposal on how her daughter’s racy lyrics, “foul-mouthed fiancé” — now husband Russell Brand — and suggestive outfits have affected her Christian ministry.

In the full proposal obtained by Page Six, she describes her horror at Katy’s outfits: Backstage at a concert, “Katy stepped out from behind the changing doors in a tiny risqué costume. No mother wants to see the top of her daughter’s boobs . . . My first instinct was to order her back behind those doors and demand she put something else on . . . However, I had no problem letting my eyebrows say what I wouldn’t allow my mouth to utter.”

“I recognized the psalmist gift in her performance. Yet she sang out, ‘I kissed a girl, and I liked it,’ while thousands joined her. One part of my heart soared . . . the other part broke for the thousands of hungry souls being fed something that didn’t nourish their spirit, but fed their flesh.”

Mary compares her mother-daughter relationship to the conflicts between Billy Ray Cyrus and Miley Cyrus, and Jon Voight and Angelina Jolie, “whose children have risen to fame and live contrary to their parents’ beliefs.”

Mary also frets, “Oh, dear God, how can I save her from all this? The money, the fame, the network, the people surrounding her, how can I compete?”

She also sets out: “This memoir is . . . not Christian proselytizing or a Katy Perry tell-all.” But in a note about target markets, she writes, “Fans of Katy Perry and Russell Brand will flock to the bookstores to snatch up a copy . . . either through curiosity or obsession, to get a glimpse of their stars through Mary’s eyes.” A rep for Perry didn’t get back to us.

[From The NY Post]

On some level I get it, you can’t control what you kids do and when they veer pretty far from your beliefs (whatever they are, it’s not like I share this lady’s sentiments at all) it can be hard to take. They’re you kids, though, and you need to take it up with them, not the public. Airing family dirty laundry to make a buck is in no way a Christian value.

Also – how is it that big a deal to see your adult kids’ boobs? I don’t get the shock and awe over some damn cleavage. It’s incredibly closed-minded to say “No mother wants to see the top of her daughter’s boobs” as if everyone in the world has the kind of irrational fear of the human body that she does.

Mary was quoted a couple of years ago as saying a about Katy’s “I Kissed a Girl” song that “she knows we disagree strongly with what she is doing and the message she is promoting regarding homosexuality which the Bible clearly states is a sin.” (To be fair, those quotes were in the Daily Mail and could have been fabricated.) As so many of you pointed out in the comments, the Bible is full of conflicting information that people use to tray and further whatever agenda they have. I’m sure she can come up with a few quotes that help her justify selling out her daughter in order to make some cash and get a taste of fame on her own. She’s just doing it to spread the word of God, right?

Thanks to GradStudentEatingHotPockets for the link to “Why Can’t I Own a Canadian“!

Photos are from 5/25/10 and 8/25/10 of Katy’s parents. They’re shown at the Get Him To The Greek premiere and on the set of Arthur with Russell Brand. Credit: WENN.com Katy is shown out dress demurely in Manchester, England on 3/22/11. She’s also shown performing in Paris on 3/8/11. Credit: Fame.

I’ve heard that Katy Perry’s parents are super religious – her dad was a “freelance” pentecostal preacher, but she’s said that they are supportive of her music career and I’ve assumed they’re somewhat liberal culturally. A profile of Katy in 2009 claimed that in the 60s her mom dated Jimi Hendrix and her dad dealt LSD with Timothy Leary, but some of you pointed out how fake and made up that sounds, like a publicist’s dream.

In an interview with Glamour UK last year, Katy joked that her mom had an inappropriately flirty relationship with her husband Russell Brand (he was just her fiance at that time). She also told Rolling Stone around that time that her parents regularly speak in tongues and claimed that “it’s a secret, direct prayer language to God.” And we heard unconfirmed stories that Katy bought her mom a facelift and her dad was super excited about it. So I basically put all that together and got the impression that Katy’s family was very religious, but was happily living off some of the millions she’s siphoning to them and was fine with her career and choice of a marriage partner.

Now there’s news that Katy’s mom is shopping a book, and that she’ll state that she “disagrees” with her daughter’s choice of career. It’s probably just a mild disagreement, but it still doesn’t sit right with me.

Katy Perry’s preacher mother, Mary Perry Hudson, is shopping a book about how her pop-star daughter has impacted her Christian ministry, and admits that while she’s proud of Katy, she “disagrees with a lot of choices she makes in her career.”

Hudson shopped the proposal, seen by Page Six, to New York’s literary agents hoping to land a publishing deal. “This memoir is her story, in her own words. Mary and Keith Hudson have been Christian Evangelists long before the world every heard of Katy Perry,” the proposal begins.

Following her debut single, “Ur So Gay,” the raunchy singer’s career took off with her smash hit “I Kissed a Girl.” She flaunted bust-bearing outfits and sexy bad-boy husband Russell Brand while comparing her upbringing to “Jesus Camp” and recalling speaking in tongues and channeling messages from God. Perry admitted kissing girls before marrying confessed sex-addict Brand.

Perry told Rolling Stone last year, “Speaking in tongues is as normal to me as ‘Pass the salt’ . . . It’s a secret, direct prayer language to God. My dad speaks in tongues and my mom interprets it . . . I wasn’t ever able to say I was lucky because my mother would rather us say that we were blessed. Deviled eggs were called ‘angeled’ eggs.”

Her mother’s proposal states: “Amid a torrent of negative reports from tabloid magazines and entertainment shows, Mary Hudson wants to tell ‘her story’ and dispel a lot of rumors. Katy’s success has impacted her ministry in both negative and positive ways.

“She loves her daughter very much and is very proud of her accomplishments, but disagrees with a lot of choices she makes in her career. This memoir is to set the record straight. It is not Christian proselytizing or a Katy Perry tell-all. It is the story of Mary Perry Hudson.”

Co-writer T.L. Gray told us, “We currently have interest from a couple of different agencies, but have not signed with anyone . . . Mary also just completed a Christian book called ‘Joyful Mother’ that will be released soon from Destiny Image . . . we’ve been playing around with a few different titles.” A rep for Perry didn’t get back to us.

[From The NY Post]

Back in 2008, Katy’s mom supposedly told the Daily Mail that she Katy was promoting the “sin” of homosexuality with her first single, “I Kissed a Girl.” Mary Perry Hudson is quoted as saying “Katy is our daughter and we love her but we strongly disagree with how she is conducting herself at the moment.

“But the Bible also promotes understanding and forgiveness, which I keep reminding myself.”

I thought those quotes had to be fake at the time, but given this latest news maybe she really said that. It’s a shame because I thought Katy’s parents weren’t so closed minded.

Photos are from 5/26/10 at the Get Him To The Greek premiere. Katy’s parents are also shown out with Russell Brand on 8/2/10. Katy is also shown at the German launch of her perfume on 3/11/11. Credit: WENN.com

Last week, Halle Berry’s older half sister, Renee Berry, told In Touch that she thought Gabriel Aubry needed a better chance to co-parent his daughter Nahla. She said “You don’t get your wings by holding grudges… I hate that she’s going through with this custody battle. I’m sure it’s difficult for both her and Gabriel, but they should remember that the child comes first… If he wants to be a father, he should be allowed to do so.”

Renee, 51, has a new interview with The Daily Mail and she doesn’t pull punches when it comes to her relationship with Halle and some of the things that Halle has said about her father. Halle’s dad had Renee with another woman before he met Halle’s mom. The way Renee tells it, their dad liked to drink and he did spank them, but he wasn’t abusive like Halle claims. Renee also says that Halle has cut herself off from their side of the family, and that the would love to meet Nahla.

The actress’s half-sister Renee Berry, 51, accused the Oscar winner of cutting off the African-American side of her family.

Renee, a food service worker from Alabama, is desperate to reconnect with her famous sister, especially when she is going through such a difficult time in the courts.

Renee is the daughter of 44-year-old Halle’s late African-American father Jerome and Edwina Taylor – who broke up with him shortly before he started dating the actress’ mother Judith Hawkins.

Although Jerome and Judith split up when Halle was just four years old, Renee remained ‘very close’ to the future Hollywood star while they were growing up – despite cutting herself off from her father after the divorce.

Renee told the Daily Mirror: ‘I’m sad to say it seems like she does not want anything to do with us. I have not spoken to her in about five years.

‘I tried to contact her through her website, to congratulate her on her Oscar, but no one got back to me.

‘We would love to meet Nahla. We are desperate to understand why Halle is so upset, why she feels she cannot be with us.’

In interviews over the years, Halle has alleged Jerome was a violent alcoholic who beat her mother Judith in front of her and sister Heidi.

In an interview two years ago, Halle said: ‘I saw my mother battered, and could not do anything to stop it.

‘My father was tyrannical, lashing out at her for no reason. I felt the effects that had on our family – I’ve experienced what these women have gone through.’

Renee claims Halle was angry with her when she made a public plea to visit Jerome when he was dying from Parkinson’s Disease.

Despite Halle’s negative memories of her childhood with Jerome, Renee paints a very different picture of their father as a ‘good man’.

She said: ‘My father never beat any of us. He would spank us from time to time, but he never abused us. He liked a drink or two, like anyone else does, but he was not an alcoholic.’

[From The Daily Mail]

I hate that I’m defending Halle but both Halle and Renee could be right about their dad. It’s possible that Renee remembers it one way and Halle remembers it another, or that their dad was abusive to Halle’s mom but not to Renee’s mom. Also, the stuff about being estranged from the “African American” side of their family was written by The Daily Mail and Halle’s sister didn’t directly say that. She just said that she’s upset that Halle hasn’t talked to her in over five years. Halle is not the most stable or reasonable person but we don’t know the history there. Her sister seemed earnest about wanting a relationship with Halle and her quotes weren’t that sensational. The fact that Renee is so willing to talk to the press makes me question her side of the story, though.

Halle Berry was at the Costume Designers Guild awards last night in Beverly Hills and she looked amazing. That draped red dress would earn her best dressed at the Oscars. It’s gorgeous.

Photo credit: WENN.com

There was a lot of buzz at this year’s Sundance festival over a previously unknown, younger Olsen sister named Elizabeth, 21, who starred in two films. According to the National Enquirer, this is causing some rivalry with her older more famous twin sisters, Mary-Kate and Ashley, 24, who never really made it in films after they did that New York Minute movie in 2004. Mary Kate has had some roles, most notably in The Wackness in 2008 with Ben Kingsley, but her film career never really took off like her sisters is about to.

The twins are boiling with jealousy over their younger sister’s astounding success at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

Elizabeth Olsen, 21, had crowds abuzz with her starring roles in two films – “Silent House” and the highly praised drama “Martha Marcy May Marlene.”

But rather than being thrilled for her newfound stardom, Mary-Kate and Ashley, both 24, are “filled with envy and regret over their failing to make the transition to big feature films,” an insider told The Enquirer. While the twins have earned a fortune with a media empire and as achild stars in their high-grossing family movies, they’ve never been able to break through to become successful in serious films, as their less-famous sister has now done.

“Mary-Kate and Ashley expected to fall into more mature project as they got older, but sadly that hasn’t materialized…”

Meanwhile, Elizabeth already has another big-time project in the works – teaming up with heavy hitters Robert De Niro and Sigourney Weaver for the thriller “Red Lights.”

Added the insider: “Mary-Kate and Ashley love Elizabeth. But they hate being eclipsed by her.”

[From The National Enquirer, print edition, February 21, 2011]

The article barely mentions the Olsen Twins’ fashion business, but they’re really raking it in with their high end line, The Row. Kaiser reminded me that “They are legit fashion designers, completely accepted within the fashion community” and that they’re strict about their manufacturing and make sure that everything is made in America. I never got the impression that they were hankering for movie careers, but Mary-Kate has certainly been acting in the occasional film and TV show. It’s not like they need the money, but I could see them resenting how their little sister is suddenly making it big when they saw their film careers fizzle out.

Elizabeth Olsen is shown in the header in an image from “Silent House” and in an image from “Martha Marcy May Marlene” below. She is also shown on 1/22/11. The Olsen twins, Mary-Kate and Ashley are shown on 11/1/10. Credit: WENN.com

Kathy Hilton (Paris’ mom), her sisters Kyle Richards and Kim Richards

We saw Kyle Richards light into her sister on Thursday’s shocking and uncomfortable-to-watch episode of The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills. Kyle called Kim an alcoholic, repeatedly called her “insane” and told her that she would cut off all support that she and her husband, Mauricio, were giving her. Kyle also got way too personal and brought up their deceased mom. “Mom had to die worrying about you and stressing about you and leave this shit on my shoulders, after everything I’ve done for you.” The thing is, Kyle pursued Kim to continue an argument with her after Kim tried to leave Taylor’s party. Kyle made sure the driver didn’t let Kim leave, and went down there with the sole purpose of berating her sister. It was mean and bullying, no matter how much of an addict Kim is or what the backstory is between them. When you have a fight with family you step away from the situation and come back when you are ready to make up. That strategy makes for better family relations, but not better reality TV I guess.

Now Kyle has issued a statement on that fight, but despite some inaccurate headlines about it she never apologized for what she said to her sister. She just said it shouldn’t have happened that way:

It shouldn’t have gone so far – or become so ugly.

So says Real Housewives of Beverly Hills star Kyle Richards of her nasty blowout that left her on the serious skids with sister Kim in the season finale.

“The events that transpired that evening were quite unfortunate and should never have occurred on or off camera,” the reality star, 42, said in a statement released Friday by Bravo. “There are a lot of elements to the story that viewers didn’t see.”

She adds: “This has been difficult for our entire family as we both said and did things that we regret. My sister and I love each other very much we want to move forward and put this behind us.”

In the clash in a limo, Kyle called her older sister, 46, an alcoholic and threatened to revoke any aid – apparently financial – that she and her husband provide. Kyle also said she’d stop covering for Kim amid allegations of alcohol.

Kim and Kyle will discuss the matter further in a reunion special hosted by Andy Cohen on Jan. 27 at 9 p.m. on Bravo.

[From People]

I might not be as informed about this fight as some of you as I watch this show on iTunes and don’t have access to the after-show commentary. Kyle has a new blog entry up about the fight and what went on, and it’s pretty much the same sentiment from her – we don’t know went on with their family or behind the scenes and there’s a lot more to this story. Never does she apologize and she focuses more on how she feels. Here are some segments:

The tension between Kim and me was never about her not “having my back” in New York. There is so much more to it than that. I didn’t want to come out and say what it was that was really bothering me because this is a private family matter. It would have saved me a lot of criticism, believe me, but it’s not just my story to tell. It’s Kim’s story too.

After this horrible argument between Kim and I, we didn’t speak for a long time. My heart was broken and I suffered an incredible amount of anxiety and panic attacks. Next to losing my mother, this was the most difficult time of my life. It is so difficult for me to even write about it now.

The details of what happened with Kim after that night, is her story to tell. I will not go into that here. I do want to say that I have learned a lot about my sister and myself during the taping of this show. I have been able to look at our relationship from an outsider’s point of view. I’ve realized that my pain and worrying about her comes off as anger. It was not helping Kim or our relationship. I love my sister and only want the best for her. Kim knows that.

[Kyle's blog on BravoTV.com]

What is the story – that Kim supported her whole family by giving up her childhood to Disney and then went a little batty because of it? I don’t foresee any backstory that could explain why Kyle attacked her like that. Kim is a scared little thing, and she’s probably very frustrating to deal with but that doesn’t excuse the way Kyle treated her.

Oh and as for the other women, Kyle says she feels bad for Camille “being an unwilling participant in a divorce has to be profoundly painful,” and that it’s too bad that Cedric and Lisa had a falling out but “I had a feeling things would turn out this way and warned Lisa.” Are you kidding me? Kyle was seen fawning all over Cedric at that party for Lisa’s daughter. Kyle is a duplicitous person and now I do believe Camille that Kyle was taunting her by asking if anyone would be interested in her without Kelsey. It doesn’t excuse the way Camille behaved afterwards, but I believe her.

In lighter RHOBH news, check out this comparison on TMZ between Adrienne and Taylor and the Wayans brothers in White Chicks. I love Adrienne but this was too funny. She also has these strange bits of glittery string in her hair. What is up with that? At Gawker they say she has pom poms in it.

Look at Kyle in this ridiculous peacock dress. She so thinks she’s the sh*t.

Credit: WENN.com