Here’s my confession: I’m not any kind of animal rights activist, and yet I love animals. I love eating meat, but I know I wouldn’t want to if I saw how it was made. I know so many livestock animals are treated poorly, but you’ll only take this chicken wing from my cold, dead hand. I know so many animal rights people have their hearts in the right place, and when they start in about one of my most beloved meats, I get upset. So it is with Ginnifer Goodwin.

Ginnifer is trying to destroy Thanksgiving. Instead of eating a juicy turkey with fluffy mashed potatoes, all slathered in gravy, Ginnifer wants us to skip the whole bird-slaughter stuff. She’s become a vegan, and she thinks we should adopt a motherf-cking turkey. Now… here’s the thing. I don’t hate vegans, and I don’t hate Ginnifer for adopting all of the turkeys her little heart desires. But asking me to skip the turkey? On Thanksgiving? Seriously?

Thanksgiving may be weeks away, but Ginnifer Goodwin thinks it’s time to talk turkey. The star of HBO’s Big Love is urging the public to skip the savory poultry this holiday season and adopt a turkey instead.

Goodwin – who went vegan last year – has teamed up with Farm Sanctuary to launch the animal protection organization’s Adopt-A-Turkey Project, which is designed to rescue commercially-raised birds from ending up on the dinner table.

“After spending time with the rescued turkeys at Farm Sanctuary’s shelter and seeing how similar they are to my furry companion animals at home, I knew I needed to do everything in my power to protect these friendly and curious birds from the daily pain and suffering they endure on factory farms,” says Goodwin.

The organization has rescued more than 1,000 turkeys since 1986 by giving people the opportunity to adopt a bird, who will live at one of Farm Sanctuary’s two shelters in New York and California. For a one-time donation of $25, the turkey sponsors receive a special certificate with a color photo of their rescued bird and fun details about their new friend.

With than 45 million turkeys slaughtered each year for Thanksgiving, Goodwin wants people to consider what they’re eating for the holidays.

“With so many delicious, cruelty-free Thanksgiving dishes available, there is no reason why any living being should be treated like an unfeeling commodity,” says Goodwin. “I encourage everyone to start a new, compassionate Thanksgiving tradition this year and Adopt-A-Turkey, rather than eat one.”

[From Radar]

Fun fact about turkeys: Ben Franklin once wrote that the turkey should be America’s national bird. He wrote in a letter to his daughter: “For my own part I wish the Bald Eagle had not been chosen the Representative of our Country. He is a Bird of bad moral Character. For the Truth the Turkey is in Comparison a much more respectable Bird, and withal a true original Native of America . . . He is besides, though a little vain & silly, a Bird of Courage, and would not hesitate to attack a Grenadier of the British Guards who should presume to invade his Farm Yard with a red Coat on.” See, now if the turkey were the national bird, we couldn’t kill it or eat it. I also love the idea that Ben Franklin makes distinctions between birds “of bad moral Character” and more respectable birds.

Another fun fact about turkeys – a turkey once attacked my mother’s car. She was driving down the highway and a wild kamikaze turkey threw itself into my mother’s car, shattered her windshield and she had to be hospitalized. My point? I don’t give a sh-t if they have good moral character, they’re dumb birds and I’m going to eat them.

Here’s Ginnifer at the screening of ‘The September Issue’ at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art on September 9th. Images thanks to Johnny Louis /WENN.com .

Ginnifer Goodwin is the June cover girl for W Magazine. I think she might have pissed someone off, because the cover photo, above, is not cute. Her image is of a bubbly, positive-thinking (yet slightly neurotic) young actress, and it’s like they’re trying to make her into some kind of dark, sultry sexpot – which she isn’t. It’s not a bad thing, it’s just that when I hear “Ginnifer Goodwin”, I would never think to describe her as “sultry” or “intense”.

In the interview (story via OK! Magazine), Ginnifer is promoting Big Love (her show about a Mormon polygamist family, with Bill Paxton and Jeanne Tripplehorn). Ginnifer is also promoting her love life, it seems. She’s fresh off some kind of break-up/screwy situation with Justin Long, who may or may not have dated Ginnifer in between his on-off relationship with Drew Barrymore. When Drew and Justin got back together the last time, Ginnifer was rumored to have rebounded with some hottie in Vegas, but in this W interview, she sounds very single. She actually doesn’t talk about the vague Justin Long situation, but she does mention that toolbox she dated for two years, Chris Klein, as well as men in general:

Ginnifer Goodwin may play (one of three) housewives on Big Love, but this star shows that she definitely has a sultry side in the new issue of W Magazine with a sexy photo shoot. In fact, she even admits to a bit of trickery when it comes to the dating scene in Hollywood.

“I perpetuate rumors that I’ve dated people that I’ve never actually dated,” she tells the mag.

As for her bubbly TV personality, Margene, Ginnifer does admit they have a few things in common.

“We both have a lot of energy,” she says. “We’re both optimistic and we’re both romantics. But I am far more judgmental than she is. I read too much between the lines, whereas she reads none.” Goodwin forces a dry chuckle. “I’m exhausted by her after six months. By the end of a season, I need to shake her off.”

Ginnifer also opens up about her love life now that she and her boyfriend of two years, Chris Klein, have ended their relationship.

“I know now that there are men out there who are, for me, the whole package, who are supportive of my successes because they know I will be just as supportive of theirs,” she reveals. “I’m less tolerant of foolishness now; I know that it’s important I not tie myself up with the wrong person, because then I will miss the right person coming along.”

And for the sake of her career, Ginnifer admits being part of a twosome is important to her.

“I’m a better person in a relationship, and I’m a happier person,” she admits. “I need to come home at the end of the day and have it not be about me and my freaking hair and makeup and character motivations anymore. And I think my work is more inspired when home is safe and sound and solid, because what I do for a living is so bananas and so insecure.”

[From OK! Magazine]

I like Ginnifer because she doesn’t seem to mind coming across as neurotic and a little insecure. She doesn’t hide it behind New Age fortune cookie wisdom, she just lets it all hang out. I respect that, because she’s one of the few of the young woman in Hollywood who seems utterly normal. Maybe I’m just giving her more credit because I like her. But I think she’s a talented young actress who often gets the shaft in Hollywood because she’s not one of those cookie-cutter, wafer-thin blonde starlets. I really hope she continues to get challenging work, and I hope she finds some nice guy who respects her.

Photos are from W Magazine shot by Steven Klein, where they have many more photos from this series.

Am I the only one who feels really badly for Ginnifer Goodwin? She seems like such a sweet girl, she’s a talented actress with a pretty good career, and yet she totally gets the short end of the stick in her dating life. Chris Klein anyone? Blech.

Anyway, last month the rumors were coming hot and heavy that Ginnifer was getting serious about her friend Justin Long – the two have known each other for years, and they were both in He’s Just Not That Into You. Justin had split from Drew Barrymore last July, and Drew seemed to give Justin and Ginnifer her blessing. Every gossip site announced Ginnifer and Justin as a new couple… and then, disaster. Like in that Sex and the City episode where Charlotte throws a “one woman’s trash is another woman’s treasure” party, once Drew saw Justin with someone knew, he looked to her like a shiny new penny. Star has a little piece about Drew and Justin: Redux.

Justin Long may think he’s Drew Barrymore’s Mr. Right. But his friends fear he’s just Mr. Right Now to Drew, 34, with whom he reconnected in early March after she dumped in July. “When Drew asked him to hang out, it’s kind of sad how excited he was,” says a source. His pals like her, but they don’t think she has serious feelings for him and was just lonely.” As Star reported, Justin, 30, was sparking with Big Love’s Ginnifer Goodwin. “But his heart’s still with Drew, which is a shame,” says the source. “He’s a nice guy, but he’s probably going to get hurt again.”

[From Star, April 13th 2009, print ed.]

So Ginnifer was jettisoned so Justin could go back to Drew. But now Ginnifer, trying to show she’s nobody’s victim, is stepping out with a new man. The guy’s name is Joey Kern, and I had to look him up. His most famous roles have been in Cabin Fever and Grind. He’s kind of B-list – or perhaps C-list. But he is pretty cute, in that dirty, hipster way that’s the trend right now.

Forget those rumors about Ginnifer Goodwin dating her He’s Just Not That Into You co-star Justin Long — the actress has been getting close to another Hollywood hunk — Cabin Fever’s Joey Kern.

The couple, who have only recently begun to go public with their romance, made the rounds together this weekend in Las Vegas — and they couldn’t keep their hands off each other!

First, on Friday night the twosome attended the a performance of O at the Bellagio. Witnesses tell OK! that they were quite cozy during the show, but that Ginnifer “kept Joey at arm’s length” when they went backstage to meet the cast afterward.

But it was a different story altogether on Saturday, when Ginnifer and Joey headed over to Prive in Planet Hollywood to check out a Michael Jackson impersonator. “They were kissing and hugging the whole time,” one source tells OK!.

Things only heated up as the evening drew on and the couple moved to a more private area of the club. “They made out passionately in their personal booth… Ginnifer beamed ear to ear as Joey caressed her,” the eyewitness tells OK!. “They never left each other’s side as they took photos. He even gave her a little dance lesson to Lil Wayne’s ‘A Milli.’”

Partiers tells OK! that Joey and Ginnifer enjoyed a little makeout session on the dance floor and that the chivalrous actor lent her his coat when she looked like she was getting a chill. “She was so smitten and happy!” one observer says about Ginnifer.

Finally, around 3am, the happy couple made their exit. Seems pretty safe to say this romance is definitely on!

[From OK! Magazine]

Good for Ginnifer. I hope she’s out there having fun with all of the cute hipsters she can find. Even though I don’t know for certain exactly what happened between her and Drew and Justin, I really suspect Ginnifer was probably treated in a less than stellar way. Justin Long might be a nice guy, but it’s kind of sad to think that two pretty, talented women like Drew and Ginnifer were at point fighting over his affections. There are plenty of fish, et cetera. Both Ginnifer and Drew could do better.

Here are Justin Long and Drew Barrymore walking around Venice Beach with some friends yesterday. Images thanks to Pacific Coast News. Ginnifer Goodwin shown with Joey Kern at LAX on March 30thth. Images thanks to BauerGriffinOnline.

The rumors about He’s Just Not That Into You co-stars Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long have been swirling for a few weeks. Some sources reported that the two had simply been friends for years, and it grew into something more while filming and promoting HJNTIY. Some sources have their mutual friend Drew Barrymore playing matchmaker. In any case, the two are officially dating now, according to Star Magazine and The National Enquirer.

In the comedy He’s Just Not That Into You, the dating life of Ginnifer Goodwin’s character, Gigi, is mostly a disaster area. But she’s luckier in love off screen: Ginnifer is now getting cozy with her old pal (and Drew Barrymore’s ex) Justin Long, who plays the guy Gigi finally finds happiness with in the movie.

At Vanity Fair’s post-Oscars party, Ginnifer and Justin “were very close. She was stroking his arm, he was kissing her cheek, and they held hands all evening,” a source tells Star. “They were trying to be cool, but it was obvious they’re a couple. They even left together.”

Granted, Ginnifer, who broke it off with Katie Holmes’ former fiancé, Chris Klein, in December, insisted in a May 2008 interview that her nearly decade-long bond with Justin was too “familial” to turn romantic. But an insider reveals: “She’s always secretly had a crush on him.”

From Star Magazine

Even though I think Ginnifer Goodwin could do better, she’s had some bad luck with boyfriends, so Justin might be a step up. He seems like a nice guy (maybe a little bland?), and he’s still friends with his ex-girlfriend Drew Barrymore, so at least she gives him the seal of approval.

Ginnifer’s most famous relationship thus far was her two-year thing with Chris Klein. The two broke up last year, and he gave some quotes to the press post-break-up that made him seem like a real jerk. They started dating soon after his ex Katie Holmes hooked up with Tom Cruise, so that might have been a factor in his overall bad behavior.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Justin Long are shown at the Australian premiere of He’s Just Not That Into You on 2/9/09. Credit: WENN

Marie Claire has a new interview in their March edition with some of the stars of He’s Just Not That Into You. They all talk about dating, naturally, and Jennifer Aniston expresses skepticism about online dating. This isn’t surprising, because she’s said in the past that Facebook is “like dancing with the devil.” Ginnifer Goodwin and Drew Barrymore also say they’re wary of meeting people online.

Marie Claire: You all have, um, colorful dating pasts. If you weren’t celebrities, how would you choose to meet men?

Drew Barrymore: Drunk in a bar. No, wait – kidding!

Jennifer Aniston: I’d have to be dragged out to places. Well, like I am now.

Marie Claire: No Match.com? No Facebook?

Jennifer Aniston: No, No, No. The Internet freaks me out.

Ginnifer Goodwin: I think it’s the Devil. We’re pack animals! We’re supposed to be connecting face-to-face.

Jennifer Aniston: The Internet warps reality. If you’re an Internet person, real life will fall short of what you have been privy to online – sexually, emotionally. It’s so unreal and gives you this sense of order where there isn’t any. You can’t drag and paste life!

Marie Claire: You don’t feel you can get to know someone onelin?

Drew Barrymore: You think people tell the truth about themselves? Every guy is 6’4″ with a huge schlong. That’s why people love it so much. Internet does
not equal sodium pentothal.

[From Marie Claire, print edition, March, 2009 via Gossip Rocks]

Considering the men these women have dated, they would all do well to vastly increase the pool of available guys by looking online. Aniston’s biased view of the Internet just shows her lack of experience with it. It must be hard for celebrities to date, though, and contacting guys through Match.com isn’t quite as easy when you’re famous.

Jennifer Aniston expressed love for the analog world – she said she saves answering machine tapes of her exes, including her ex husband, and likens it to saving love letters. She didn’t quite use the “ex” prefix for Pitt, though:

Drew Barrymore: I remember when I first started dating, the big thing was Radioshack answering machines. It was such a huge deal to run home and check your messages. And when you could actually check from another phone? That was, like, the craziest thing ever!

Jennifer Aniston: I still have the cassette tapes of messages from my first boyfriend, my second boyfriend, my husband… it’s like saving love letters.

[From Marie Claire, print edition, March, 2009]

Maybe Aniston is one of those “verbal” people, to use some dime store psychology, as opposed to “feeling” or “visual” types. It would explain why she fell in love with a musician, as unsuitable as he is. She may be more sound-oriented than most and misses her exes’ voices. I wonder how much she listens to those tapes. It seems a bit strange to me, but I do save love letters, and if it had occurred to me I might have saved some answering machine tapes. Those e-mails my college boyfriend sent me are long lost, though.

The publicity rounds for He’s Just Not That Into You have started, and the girls are telling it like it is. And by “telling it like it is” I mean complaining about the lack of tradition and over-all difficulty in officially, seriously dating someone… anyone, really.

The quotes coming out of this junket are sort of funny. Scarlett Johansson is definitely the quiet one, probably because she’s the married one. Drew Barrymore and Jennifer Aniston are more vocal with their complaints about the modern dating landscape, with both taking the obvious sides based on their personality. Drew, ever the daisy-covered optimist, sounds wistful and hopeful. Aniston, a bit more of the self-help-book-quoting pessimist, sounds like she’s sort of whining.

Jennifer Aniston may have been out with some hot Hollywood hunks in her time, but she reckons the dating game these days isn’t exactly easy.

“I think it’s just hard to date,” the actress told Extra, while discussing her new romantic comedy movie He’s Just Not That Into You.

“It’s not like we’re kids. We’re not ‘dating’. We all have these ideas and these pictures of what love’s supposed to look like.”

Meanwhile, Jen’s female co-stars in the film, Drew Barrymore, Scarlett Johansson and Ginnifer Goodwin, say they all quite enjoy a traditional night out.

“I like dinner. I like to be asked on a date,” said Drew. “I like tradition.”

“Dating to me is like you’re with somebody and you’re committed to them,” added Scarlett, who married actor Ryan Reynolds last year. “And you have date night, and it’s romantic.”

From The AP Hosted by Google

Some sources have Aniston asking Drew out to dinner after Drew says that bit about liking “tradition.” For me, it’s impossible not to like Drew. She’s such a girly-girl, so upbeat and funny, and someone who really wears her heart on her sleeve. Even if that means showing up on the cover of People magazine every time she has a new boyfriend, declaring her love “for real” or some such nonsense. I hope they give Ginnifer Goodwin a chance to talk more – I’d love to know what happened between her and Chris Klein.

Here’s Drew at the Golden Globes on the 11th. Images thanks to Bauer-Griffin.

Two people who you may only marginally care about or have any interest in have broken up. Big Love star Ginnifer Goodwin, 30, and douche Chris Klein, 29, called it quits after two years. Someone confirmed the news to People, and I would bet it was Goodwin, who finally realized she could do better:

A Goodwin pal tells PEOPLE that the split was mutual and amicable. “They realized they wanted different things,” says the friend. “In the long run, the relationship wasn’t going to work.”

With a busy winter ahead for Goodwin, 30, who returns to HBO’s Big Love in January and stars in He’s Just Not That Into You, opening in February, the actress plans to enjoy the single life for the time being, says her friend: “She’s not interested in dating anyone just yet.”

Klein, 29, is also busy with work, returning to big screen in Street Fighter in February.

[From People]

Chris Klein had an interview with Elle published in late 2005 which reads like a parody of something an obnoxious high school quarterback would say before losing his girlfriend to a romantic nerd in a teen movie. It’s apparently legitimate, though, and makes you hope he was just talking crap and wasn’t serious:

ELLE: Are you cool with it if a woman you like gains a few pounds?

CK: I’m not tolerant of that at all.

ELLE: So do you tell them to lose weight?

CK: When a woman isn’t feeling good about herself and you combine that with her period, eventually she’ll ask you if you like her body. You have to say no.

ELLE: Don’t you think they’re just looking for you to say, “You look beautiful to me, honey.”

CK: If they do, it’s placating. I don’t placate.

[Elle via lumana.com, confirmed at PopSugar]

As for his thoughts on marriage, Klein compared it to getting sucker punched:

ELLE: If you had to commit to the number of women you’d like to sleep with before you marry, how many would it be?

CK: I think that for every dude the number is massive, and it just takes that one chick to punch you in the face, and all of a sudden you’re walking down the aisle, whether you like it or not.

What kind of self esteem does a woman have to have to stick around for two years of that? I guess we know why Katie Holmes could think Tom Cruise is so “amazing” after having to deal with that kind of misogyny.

There’s one consolation – Klein is losing his hair and maybe along with it his manufactured mojo, too. A lot of guys gain hotness when balding sets in by working with it and shaving their heads. Klein is clinging to the past by growing his thinning hair long, though, and is gradually losing what little appeal he did have before he opened his mouth.

Ginnifer Goodwin and Chris Klein are shown on 6/17/08 in the header. Credit: PRPhotos. He is shown below on 11/16/08. What a difference. Credit: WENN

A scene from “Big Love” from HBO.com
Actress Ginnifer Goodwin plays one of three wives of Bill Paxton’s character on the HBO series “Big Love.” She said that her character on the show is not from the same “world” as the polygamist sect that was raided by authorities after abuse allegations. Goodwin says that “Big Love’s” version of polygamy is “sugar coated,” and that it’s meant for entertainment. She also briefly mentioned something that been getting a lot of attention by the media lately, the style of the women’s hair and clothing, calling it “compound chic”:

“My character does not come from that world,” the 29-year-old actress told PEOPLE. “She’s married into a family who come from that world but are no longer a part of it. My clothes on the show are a little outdated, not my personal taste, but certainly not ‘compound chic.’ ”

Nonetheless, Goodwin noted that violence and abuse is “certainly implied” in the critically acclaimed show.

“We’re acutely aware of what goes on in real life,” she said. “Ours is a sugar-coated version. But we feel we are educating. We find the human story very compelling.”

[From People.com]

I’ve seen most of the first season of “Big Love,” and the show is incredibly entertaining and well done, but of course hunky Bill Paxton makes polygamy seem more glamorous than it is. Good for Goodwin for saying that it’s not like real life, but she was gracious about it and surely didn’t offend her employer.

Teen boys are routinely kicked out of the cult with nowhere to go
The case of the raided polygamist compound in Eldorado, Texas has captured the interest of the media. There are allegations of pregnant teenage girls as young as 13 married off and pregnant by husbands in their 50s. It’s not just the teen girls who suffer in the insular society of the cult. CBS News has an interview with a young man pushed out by the cult. He’s called a “lost boy,” which is a term for the young men kicked out by the sect for minor indiscretions because they serve as competition for the older men trying to monopolize the women. Brent Jeffs is the nephew of leader Warren Jeffs, and he spoke about how young boys are just dropped off in town after they’re kicked out, and they often have no one to call and nowhere to go. He was interviewed along with a woman who runs a nonprofit organization that strives to help these “lost boys” abandoned by the cult.

Polygamist men defend their practices
CBS News also has an interview with some of the men from the sect. They said they don’t abuse children and that girls are not married off until they’re mature. One member said “a few years back, the law in Texas allowed a girl to be married when she was 14,” and that “”I have taught my children to be morally clean. They have no contact, no sexual contact until they are of a mature age. And none of my children have been touched in that way. None of them have been abused in that way.”

It really broke my heart to see interviews with the women separated from their children. All children under five were allowed to stay with their mothers, but 416 children over the age of five were removed and are under state custody. There are court hearings about whether they should be placed in foster care, and it seems as if everyone was considered guilty before these families were given a chance to show that their children are safe and well cared for.

If one child is at risk, they should all be removed, according to Texas Attorney General
MSNBC has an interview with Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott, and he said that “if these children, young girls under the age of 16 have been victimized by being sexually assaulted by men in this compound it means that not only the girls who were sexually abused, but all of the children in that compound are potentially victims and it will be critically important to separate those children from that criminal kind of situation.” He said “This is treated like any other situation where there is a sexual assault of a child in a home” and explained that if one child is abused that all the other children are removed because they are also at risk. He said that they can’t live with someone who can potentially harm them. The ACLU has said that this case brings up basic Constitutional issues about whether people are secure in their homes with their families “absent evidence of imminent danger.”

You kind of understand that they’re trying to stop this cult that abuses teen girls, but it seems there must be some kind of compromise that can be reached so that the mothers can be with their children. Meredith Viera reported that more than 300 attorneys have volunteered to represent these children for free. Hopefully some kind of legal solution will be reached soon, because it seems much better than sending these hundreds of kids into the foster care system.

Polygamist Women don’t cut their hair, like to keep it up
I went off on a bit of a tangent there, this case has been fascinating me for a while and I wanted a chance to report on it. As for the women’s hair and clothing that I mentioned earlier, AP has a story that they don’t cut their hair “because they believe they will use it to wash Christ’s feet during the Second Coming.” Their long pioneer-looking dresses “are meant to show modesty and conformity,” and may help stop competition in an environment in which one man has many wives.

Meredith Viera also asked one of the older women about her hair, and she got embarrassed and said “it just keeps it out of our face so we can see… we like to have long hair and have it done up”