Palin Family Circus News - Monday, November 22, 2010 -- Now with DWTS liveblog! -- Now with VIDEO!

Has Sarah Palin quit narrating the audio book of America by Heart? Chris Michael, comedian and artist, says so.


The Washington Post's Lisa de Moraes writes The TV Column. This morning she wrote about the controversy over Bristol Palin's longevity on Dancing With the Stars, and she has a lot of comments from the show's executive producer, Conrad Green.


The NY Daily News has talked with a dietician about Bristol's weight gain on DWTS. Update: Gryphen has weighed in on this story with his experience as a personal trainer.


Life & Style Weekly quotes named sources on Willow Palin's 1:00 AM drug buy and underage drinking. Gryphen added his insight into the Palin family's problems here. Perez Hilton has posted a story, too.


I thought The Proposal, a 2009 movie with Sandra Bullock and Ryan Reynolds, might afford people looking for Alaskan scenery an alternative to Sarah Palin's Alaska. Although most of the movie is set in and around Sitka, it was actually filmed in the Cape Ann area of Massachusetts, mostly in Rockport. There is some beautiful scenery in the movie, however. It is a romantic comedy and held my attention; it wasn't boring. The contrast between the New York office and the outdoors, wherever it was, was especially interesting.

This morning Mudflats posted "Voices from the Flats: This Movie Was Shot in Alaska." It is very informative and has an extensive list of films shot in Alaska. "The King (Salmon) is Dead. Long Live the Mine" mentions that the December issue of National Geographic is now online and links to a slideshow of Michael Melford's very beautiful photos of Alaska.


Update: I must have lucked-out or become wise before I'm old. I waited until 7:45 PST -- oops! 6:45 PST; I've retreated to an undisclosed location for the holidays and should reset my watch -- before tuning in to DWTS. Bristol started in a cage, and it was Mark Ballas who ended up in the cage! Freestyle. They received scores of 8, 9 and 8 for a total of 25; 52 out of 60 for the night. Apparently, they're going to dance again, tomorrow night? I don't regularly watch DWTS, so I am unfamiliar with the rules.

I must say that Bristol's size can depend on lighting and camera angle. Before she danced she expressed her feelings about the "haters"; obviously, Mama has schooled her on the sympathy vote. The camera panned to Sarah Palin -- in the audience, again. Jennifer and Derek are up next. Derek is very good; Jennifer not so good in comparison with Derek. The judges are more enthusiastic about their dance -- scores after the break -- it's 10, 10 and 10!

Yes, more dancing tomorrow. The leaderboard: Jennifer/Derek, 60/60; Kyle/Lacy (?), 56/60; Bristol/Mark, 52/60. Can "the people" save Bristol? Whatever the outcome, there is sure to be wailing and gnashing of teeth.

Apparently they danced twice tonight, and in my "wisdom" I missed the first dance.

OMG! Skating With the Stars is on next! When will we see Sleeping With the Stars?


Update November 23: The Hollywood Gossip has a summary of what happened last night.


Here is last night's first dance:



Carrie Ann Inabe had a little criticism of the way Bristol pointed her toes, but then said she was more "vibrant." You have to watch the video and see her say that to understand what she means. The judges were all enthusiastic about the dance. Bristol and Mark got three nines.

I am not sure why the video embeds at 240p. After it starts, it can be changed to 480p for a clearer video (there is a widget to the left of the YouTube logo, on the control panel).

People magazine has a story with backstage comments from Carrie Ann Inabe and some of the other participants, here.

PopEater's Rob Shuter writes that Sarah Palin is lobbying the show's producers to have failed senate candidate Christine O'Donnell appear as a contestant on DWTS! "Christine is not a bad idea at all," one ABC executive tells me. "After Kate Gosselin and Cloris Leachman, O'Donnell would fit right in. She certainly would be so controversial that the amount of press attention and buzz the show would get would be huge. Plus, you know they would make her dance in a witch's hat with a broomstick." That's the way it is. Isn't life wonderful?

Palin Family Circus News - Friday, October 1, 2010

Check Please! Obama & Palin May Not Be Sharing That Milkshake After All:

If it seems too good to be true, maybe it is. Archie Comics gave the world a glimpse, albeit fictional, of President Obama and former Alaska governor Sarah Palin sharing a milkshake. Now, they may have traded in their matching sweater vests for boxing gloves. This week they're not sharing desserts, but rather dishing out just deserts. ...

... The issues are scheduled for release in December 2010 and January 2011, shortly after mid-term elections. The covers featuring the spirit of bipartisanship will be available alongside the new political battle variants for both the optimists and pessimists. Voters are left to wonder if that milkshake glass is half empty or half full.



A little damage control was in order after Bristol Palin on Underage Bar Visit: Nacho Problem! cropped up. What to do? Bristol Palin Stays Fit With McDonald's (PHOTOS):

Bristol Palin took a break from waltzing around the Dancing with the Stars rehearsal studio to grab a little McDonald's in Los Angeles on Wednesday. Before you balk, know that the budding ballroom star only had a salad! ...



Jake Tapper's "New Chief of Staff, With Alaskan Roots, Not Liked by Sarah Palin" has some background information about why Sarah Palin hates Pete Rouse, President Obama's new Chief of Staff. It's very conspirational stuff, according to Palin:

... After Rouse was mentioned as a potential replacement for Emanuel, Palin tweeted: “Alaska's Pete Rouse (@ least he claims to be ‘Alaska’)finally comes out of the shadows; Obama looks to appt him COS;strange doings in the WH.”

She added: “(Rahm's the smart one...bailing before Nov) Now, check out possible COS Pete Rouse. His background, voter reg in AK,etc. It's a small world.”

After Palin resigned her governorship, Palin adviser Meg Stapleton told TIME that attacks against the governor and her family were from the White House.

"A lot of this comes from Washington, D.C. The trail is pretty direct and pretty obvious to us," Stapleton told the magazine, alluding to The Thumpin' [The Thumpin': How Rahm Emanuel and the Democrats Learned to Be Ruthless and Ended the Republican Revolution]. "It's the Sarah Palin playbook. It's how they operate.” The magazine wrote that “Palin and her Alaska circle find evidence for their suspicions about the White House in the person of Pete Rouse, who lived in Juneau for a time before he became chief of staff to a young U.S. Senator named Barack Obama. Rouse, they note, is a friend of former Alaska state senator Kim Elton, who pushed the first ethics investigation of Palin, examining her controversial firing of the state's public-safety commissioner. Both Rouse and Elton have joined the Obama Administration.”

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told TIME that “the charge is ridiculous. Obviously there is no effort ... From my vantage point, a lot of the criticism she is getting from others seems to be generated from self-inflicted wounds."


Self-inflicted wounds, indeed.


Update: Here are twelve large photos of Bristol Palin looking very brainy, and a little like her mom in those glasses! Won't the hens be disappointed? She doesn't look pregnant.

Palin Family Circus News - Friday, September 3, 2010

The Hollywood Gossip writes:

The author of a blistering Vanity Fair article on Sarah Palin says his attempt at a positive piece went so awry, he couldn't even include all the bad stuff he found out.

"The worst stuff isn't even in there," Michael Joseph Gross said on MSNBC.

"I couldn't believe these stories either when I first heard them, and I started this story with a prejudice in her favor. I have a lot in common with this woman." ...

... You can read the Vanity Fair article yourself and draw your own conclusions, but he paints Palin as an abusive, combative figure with an extreme ability to lie.

"This is a person for whom there is no topic too small to lie about," he said of the ex-Alaska Governor and mother of Bristol Palin. "She lies about everything."

Meghan McCain has nothing on this. As for Palin's political future?

"If we decide to let her keep lying and getting away with it, she's gonna still be around," he said. "But if we start returning to the standard that a politician has to talk with people, and a politician has to tell the truth, then she's outta here."

"Because she can't stand up to that." ...


This must be the msnbc video THG referred to:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

While looking for that video, an interview with Gross on "Hardball" was found:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

In The Washington Post's "A limp response from Palin," Ruth Marcus, while she says, "As it happens, I think Palin had a legitimate beef with the Vanity Fair piece. It was very short on identified sources. You could hear a lot of axes being ground in the background," criticizes Palin's response:

... There are sexist aspects to the commentary about Palin, as with other female politicians. Sometimes sexism is imagined or overplayed; sometimes it is real and deserves to be called out. A new campaign, Name It, Change It, has been launched to expose such episodes.

Fine, but women politicians have to keep to the high road if they don't want men making fun of their high heels. Impotent and limp? No male politician accused a female reporter of being hormonal or frigid.

Governor, there were any number of other adjectives you could have used. You didn't need to go there -- and you shouldn't have.

Doesn't Palin's response to the article confirm one of the article's major points? That Sarah Palin has a foul temper?


Hey! These guys understand Sarah Palin:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

msnbc's First Read blog has adopted a new policy on reporting Palin's Facebook posts and Twitterings.


A Jay Leno tweet has Bristol on his show tonight.


People magazine has the before and after pictures (of Bristol Palin's dance practice).


And, dont miss "Bristle Dance."