Clay Aiken is gay, 90210 is still on the air - and someone cares about this?

Ok, more time away from the political shakeup of the Presidential election race, and the potential shakedown to the public and economy from the trillion dollar bailout.

So, what’s going on in the world of entertainment that is worth discussing?

There is news about Clay Aiken being gay. Not rumors which have existed since he first appeared and killed brain-cells on the profoundly bewildering success American Idol. This is an admission that he is gay by the performer himself.

Honestly I didn’t want to know about his private sexual practices. My life would never have been affected had he never said anything. If anything I am concerned by his admission in regard to the artificially inseminated child that he has. Because I strongly believe that if a person cannot have a child via nature’s process they should not have a child at all.

Though I must say that when a fan of Aiken wrote this comment I was taken aback

"This is really shocking news as I had no idea he was gay," read a comment posted by "Sheridansq." "And now I have to deal with this. I am not sure what to say to people who know I was a fan. ... I didn't go to work today and am not answering the telephone."

Seriously people. If you are so homophobic as to be afraid of going to work because people might know you are a fan of an artist you have serious personal problems. His sexual preferences have nothing to do with his ability to sing a song. Just as a sexual preference has nothing to do with any career. I like Freddie Mercury and his band Queen, and Elton John’s early songs. What the hell does that mean besides I like good rock n roll?

Beyond that what else is worthy of a few moments of reading?

Well the new 90210 will be extended to 22 episodes for the season, so it isn’t cancelled yet. I am still hoping it dies soon. But for those fans that the show must have since it has been extended, I have news.

It seems that Brandon (Jason Preistley) and Dylan (Luke Perry) will be on the next episode. Well in a sort of grab-ratings-in-a-lie kind of way. Neither actor will be on the show, as both had the good taste (and future career hopes) to deny the show. So instead we learn that Brandon writes emails, and Dylan will make a phone call. Amazing that they are so technology-friendly.

Best yet, the phone call of the ex-boyfriend of 2 of the original shows stars seems to start a fight. That’s brilliant. Jealousy over a phone call from an ex. There’s drama for you. Why do people watch this show?

Well that’s a bit of quick blurbs. I know something far more important, or at least interesting, is happening in the world of entertainment and celebrities. I’m just off my pace at the moment. That has to be the reason because someone has to be more interesting than this garbage.

Teen pregnancy: the Hollywood connection

I recently noticed a couple of things about various celebrities and entertainers that are either giving birth, pregnant, or otherwise in an issue with their children. It’s been hard to not notice this of course, just scanning cable channels will give you all the facts you could care less about (or at least I do) in 15 seconds or less.

But there is a bit of other news that factors directly with that. Far less covered or mentioned is the fact that teen births are up. Not a lot but up all the same.

In the past year we got to hear about Jamie Lynn Spears. Very young, unwed, and now a parent. The fact that she is currently engaged to the father of her child does not change the fact that she was unwed when she got pregnant at 16. The fact she is looking to live in Louissianna to give her child a “normal life” belies the fact that it’s really not possible since she is so young, no matter what money she has made or her celebrity status. In fact, if we look at most young Hollywood entertainers, the money and celebrity status make them even less normal than their peers. Adding a baby just ups the ante on this.

Yet she is being placed on magazine covers like she won an Oscar Award.

Of course there is always the older Britney Spears. Hollywood fame, money, and celebrity status has done wonders for her. I’m sure her children won’t be the least bit screwed up, nor have any affect on their cousins.

Then there are the older celebrities. Matthew McConaughey just received a healthy 7 lb 4 oz son. He is unwedded to the mother. Nicole Kidman just had her 6 lb 8 oz daughter. She is unwedded to the father Keith Urban. Jessica Alba had her daughter recently and is unwedded. Nicole Ritchie and Halle Berry can say the same. And Clay Aiken can’t even say that he has a girlfriend he got pregnant. His friend/producer Jaymes Foster was artificially inseminated and though they are not a couple will share parenting.

Can Hollywood get any more screwed up?

Now I know there are feminists and others that will say this is all positive. That it shows women can raise their kids without help. That each of these couples love each other (with the exception of Aiken I suppose) and that is all that matters.

Bullshit.

I know women can be great mothers and raise children by themselves. I know because my mother is a strong Black woman that raised me and my siblings. Her 4 children have all gone to college, 2 own houses, all are well-employed and successful. And she did this on an income most would be shocked to know of. Suffice to say there were days mom did not eat.

But that is a great success story. And my mother had her first child (me) in a world that was far different than today [and my mother is still 30, don’t you dare question her age]. Then the world was kinder, people cared and helped to a degree. Kids playing on the block had every parent on the street watching out for them. Today you’d be lucky to have someone notice your kid exists (if they aren’t doing something wrong to that person’s property).

And children today are having kids in numbers that are unprecedented. It’s not just a few girls having kids without any fathers. It’s most of them. And they don’t have skills, unless you consider text messaging a skill. And like most of the youth today they are clueless. [Sorry to my young readers, but on average the youth of today have the common sense and abilities of 6th graders back when I was young.]
And their numbers are increasing.

“In 2007, 57 percent of children were white, non-Hispanic, 21 percent were Hispanic, 15 percent were black, 4 percent were Asian, and 4 percent were of all other groups. …

The report describes a long-term increase in the unmarried birth rate between 1960 and 1994, followed by a "relatively stable" unmarried birth rate between the mid-1990s and 2002 and a rapid rise since 2002. A related measure, the proportion of births to unmarried women, also saw an increase; 38 percent of all births were to unmarried women in 2006, up from 37 percent of births in 2005….

The adolescent birth rate (among married and unmarried adolescents) increased from 21 births per 1,000 teenage girls ages 15–17 in 2005 to 22 births per 1,000 girls in 2006. The 2006 increase was the first seen in this measure since the increase between 1990 and 1991…”

Do the numbers sound huge? Well look at in a different way. There are roughly 22,500,000 teenagers in the nation right now (my quick math). If we just look at girls we get about 11,475,000. That means about 546,000 are pregnant right now. That is larger than virtually every city that I have a reader in, across the globe.

Is this all the fault of Hollywood? Of course not. But when children are making pacts because they want attention and think being pregnant is cool, and Jamie Lynn Spears is on the cover of magazines I see a correlation.

50 years ago there was a shame to being an unwed mother. That was wrong. But Hollywood supported that image. Today Hollywood supports the thought that being a teenager and pregnant is the new James Dean. That is equally wrong.

Maybe it won’t sell as many magazines, or get people to watch the latest celebrity news show, but how about we admonish this reckless action in Hollywood. Just a little. Or do we have to wait for the unwed daughters of the Hollywood moguls and Congress to get pregnant (or god forbid infected with an STD like AIDS – another factor that is connected) before anything is said??