CELEBRITIES & STARS HOTTEST GOSSIPS OF THE YEAR

From the Desk of: Maximillien de Lafayette. Contributors: Raymond Sew, Timothy Rozen, Duane Pinault, Marjorie Labelle, Marla Karam, Roy Manfred.

Revisiting what celebrities, stars and powerful people predicted, complained and gossiped about in 2005. Their complaints, predictions, accusations and gossips. Where they right on? Wrong? Pretentious? Off base. Judge for yourself.

Judge: Rape Victim Is 'No Day At Beach'

Prosecutors May Ask For Judge To Be Removed Prosecutors in Seminole County say they might ask a veteran judge to be removed from a rape case because of comments the judge made about the victim. Court records indicate Circuit Judge Gene Stephenson made the comment earlier this week while looking at a photograph of the victim. The record quotes the judge as saying, "Why would he want to rape her? She doesn't look like a day at the beach." Stephenson says he doesn't remember making the comment. But it's in the record.

Iraqi govt. papers: Saddam bribed Chirac"

Stern Feels Bush-Whacked End Is Near

Howard Stern says the end of his career is closer than the two years left on his contract. "I know that it's over for me," Stern said Wednesday morning. "I have been really good at predicting my career and I know when I'm outmatched. It's over for me as a broadcaster. I'm checkmated. All they gotta do is fine us and then we're gone. And there's nothing we can do about it. "But even with comments like that, Stern is not going down without a fight. For the past two days the syndicated morning man has been attacking those he feels are his oppressors - Clear Channel, the FCC and the Bush Administration. Yesterday (3/2), he was pondering the idea of a Million Moron March on Washington with a legion of his faithful fans. "Can you imagine CNN having to cover this and putting the Million Moron March up on the screen?" he joked when the idea was hatched. Stern has also started to question ties between Clear Channel and the Bush Administration and now suggests his change in heart about his support for President Bush is the real reason for him being suspended by Clear Channel. "If you don' t think me going after Bush got me thrown off those stations, you got another thing coming," said Stern. "This has nothing to do with anything I said. "Stern laughed and was miffed at the perception by the mainstream media that he wasn't on Clear Channel stations because of indecent content on his show. Discussing a clip from The Sharon Osbourne Show where she said "Apparently the talk got very raunchy when Paris Hilton's boyfriend was on," Stern stammered: "Wrong! It wasn't that raunchy. I mean, I asked some questions. I said, 'Did you ever have anal sex?' But that's nothing out of the ordinary." "Nothing that hasn't happened here every day for the last ten years," added Robin Quivers.

Livingstone says Bush is 'greatest threat to life on planet'

Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, launched a stinging attack on President George Bush last night, denouncing him as the "greatest threat to life on this planet that we've most probably ever seen". His provocatively timed comments, on the eve of Mr Bush's arrival in London tonight, threaten to create severe embarrassment for the Prime Minister. They also come with talks under way on whether to re-admit Mr Livingstone to the Labour Party before his five-year exile ends.
 

"I hate to see the American flag."

"I hate to see the American flag hanging out of every bloody station wagon, out of every SUV, every little Midwestern house in some residential area," Ian Anderson [Flute, Guitar, Bouzouki, Mandolin, Harmonica, Vocal from the band Jethro Tull] was quoted as saying in an interview published Sunday in the Asbury Park Press. "It's easy to confuse patriotism with nationalism. Flag waving ain't gonna do it." Jethro Tull is off the playlist of a classic rock station after the band's frontman criticized displays of the Stars and Stripes.
 

Asner: "I think Joe Stalin was a guy that was hugely misunderstood."

Mr. Asner, I do have a question – unrelated to the film," I said. "In your long and distinguished acting career, going back to your earliest days in Chicago all the way up to present days working with Will Farrell on 'Elf', you have had the chance to do almost anything you could ever wish to do. But if you had the chance to play the biographical story of a historical figure you respected most over your lifetime, who would it be? Remembering the sad story he had told about the poor kids in Chicago, I half expected him to come out with a political name of some sort. "I think Joe Stalin was a guy that was hugely misunderstood," said Asner. "And to this day, I don't think I have ever seen an adequate job done of telling the story of Joe Stalin, so I guess my answer would have to be Joe Stalin."

There should be more focus on the employer and less on terrorizing workers.

"It instills a great deal of fear in people who are only trying to earn a living and put food on the table for their family," Pelosi, a California Democrat, told reporters on a Congressional visit to Mexico. Hundreds of workers at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. locations across the United States were arrested on immigration charges on Thursday in an investigation into contractor cleaning crews. "We think there might be a better way to go about this because the fact is that it is against the law for the employer to hire these people so there should be more focus on the employer and less in these terrorizing raids," Pelosi said. Pelosi said the Wal-Mart raids showed the need to legalize undocumented workers in parts of the economy other than just the agricultural sector.

"How is it that Bush hasn't been recalled?"

Blasting the powers that be for demonizing as "anti-American and unpatriotic" those who speak out against military action in Iraq, Mellencamp says the nation's citizens were "systematically lied to and manipulated into backing the political 'hijacking' of Iraq." "Now, each day, as the dust settles and the truth slowly surfaces, more and more people come to the inevitable conclusion of what a debacle this whole war was," Mellencamp wrote with his wife, Elaine. The singer wonders why Bush can't simply be removed from office. "The governor of California was removed from office based on finance troubles. And yet George W. Bush has lied to us, failed to keep our own borders secure, entered a war under false pretense, endangered lives, and created financial chaos," he wrote. "How is it that he hasn't been recalled? Perhaps this time we could even have a real election ... but that wouldn't fit the Bush administration's 'take what you want and fire people later' policy. Take an election; take an oil field; take advantage of your own people – a game of political Three-Card Monte."

They make a big deal out of everything as soon as you run for higher office.
"You read in the media that (Schwarzenegger) was already gushing about wanting to become governor of California 25 years ago -- today he denies that," he said. "I always say you have to stand by what you've done. Yes, I smoked grass. Yes, I had sex with more than one person. In the US, they make a big deal out of everything as soon as you run for higher office. It's time we did away with this bigotry in America." Clooney, a lifelong Democrat, also underscored his opposition to the US-led war in Iraq. "I stand by that. It was the dumbest thing that my country could have done. As an actor in the public eye, I have a responsibility. I see myself as a spokesman for all those who have the same opinion," he said, in comments published in German.

The Bush administration has continued to push a dangerous right-wing agenda.
"The Bush administration has continued to push a dangerous right-wing agenda which has included increasing encroachments on civil liberties, particularly with the questionable and aggressive use of the Patriot Act," Affleck fumed on Tuesday night when he accepted a Spirit of Liberty award from the People for the American Way, a liberal political action group, in L.A. "I accept [the award] in the hope that the absurd amount of publicity I received lately - which, as far as I can tell, is chiefly because I have a pretty fiancée - might be directed at something more significant." Affleck, who wrote his own speech, jokingly decried "the dawn of the Schwarzenegger era in American politics," comparing it with "the fall of the Roman Empire."  The actor added that he hates the Republican tax cut. Even if "I save a million bucks," he joked, "the deficit grows like [conservative commentator and gambler] William Bennett's credit line on a one-armed-bandit bender at Bally's."

Delays in rebuilding good will are costing Americans lives.

"President Bush is now urging that all parties put aside 'past bickering.' Delays in rebuilding international good will are costing Americans lives in Iraq, and billions of dollars to the American taxpayers," Lee wrote last week in a letter first reported by the congressional newspaper Roll Call. "A symbolic start to that effort would be reinstating foods in the House cafeterias and dining halls and their traditional 'American' names — french toast and french fries." But House Administration Committee Chairman Bob Ney, R-Ohio, who initiated the menu change with Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., said they'll continue to fight for their freedom fries. Ney said that the day after Jackson Lee wrote her letter the French came out with an untenable timetable for elections in Iraq, confounding U.S. efforts to win United Nations backing for the reconstruction effort. "They were noncooperative and arrogant then," before the war, "and they are again non-cooperative and arrogant," Ney said. "I haven't seen a huge change." Ney said that was originally a gesture toward the French "has become an international food fight. It means something to a lot of people."  "The whole premise behind the gesture was to support our troops in Iraq," said Lanier Swann, spokeswoman for Jones. "The congressional passion in support of them has not waned and the French position has not changed."

I don't see this as an honest administration."
"I was mad. I got angry because I don't see this as an honest administration and the right-wing media has grown and is a shill for the guy and he can rely on them to spread his lies." "The mainstream media does not have a liberal bias. . . . ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, the New York Times, The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek and the rest -- at least try to be fair."  "I'm extremely lucky," Franken said. "I'm lucky God gave me some gifts. I don't have a formal religion, even though I'm Jewish, but I've been extremely blessed. I have a wife I've been married to for 27 years and two great kids. But the idea that this is all my doing and I don't owe anything to anybody for it... That fuels the anger against people who are wealthy and equally blessed. They believe they don't owe anything to anybody else. They're entitled to their tax cut at a time when people at the bottom are losing Medicaid."

Everything that Bush touches turns to manure.

Alec Baldwin came bearing a gift when he attended a fund-raiser for House Democrats in Texas: a box of dog biscuits for Republican Gov. Rick Perry. "I wanted to give this to Tom DeLay's lap dog, Rick Perry," the actor said Tuesday. "I thought maybe he had worked up a big appetite up there on the Capitol so Governor Perry, AKA Tom DeLay's lap dog in the Texas state Legislature, this box of dog biscuits is for you and I hope you enjoy it while you're toiling away at a redistricting plan." Democrats have been opposed to the move and a few of them joined Baldwin as he launched into a tirade about redistricting, the California recall and Arnold Schwarzenegger, the Republican Party leadership and the Bush administration, of which he said half of its members were either stupid or sociopath.  Everything that Bush touches turns to manure in public policy and they're coming down here and they're telling Rick Perry what to do," Baldwin said.
I am sure I am more patriotic than the current president.

Penn, who has been awarded a Donostia prize in Spain for his career contributions to the cinema, made perfectly clear he was not in sympathy with President George W. Bush's politics, particularly on Iraq. "I am sure I am more patriotic than the current president we have in the United States," said Penn. "I don't think you can have credibility as an actor unless you say what you really think. The people of the United States have an obligation to speak."  "If being a rebel means not accepting people who are narrow minded then I'd rather be a rebel," Penn admitted.

I always feel a bit more human when I come to Canada.

American actor and activist Martin Sheen had kind words for Canada when he received an award for being a Christian role model, the CP reports. "Every time I cross this border I feel like I've left the land of lunatics," Sheen said Saturday, adding he was "proud" of Canada for not entering the Iraq war. "You are not armed and dangerous. You do not shoot each other. I always feel a bit more human when I come here." Sheen, who has been outspoken recently in his opposition the U.S.-led war in Iraq, was in Windsor to receive the Christian Culture Gold Medal from Assumption University. The university will offer a new scholarship in his name.

It's time to impeach the president.

"It's time to impeach the president and get a man in there to get us out of this mess," the Boss allegedly roared, according to FreeRepublic.com's Kristinn Taylor, co-leader of the group's D.C. chapter. He suggested that Bush be replaced by fellow E Street bandmember Clarence Clemons. Springsteen reportedly followed his impeachment exhortation with complaints about past and present elected leaders who have misled the country. During a Boston performance this past Wednesday, Springsteen prefaced his rendition of "Born in the U.S.A." with a statement he termed "a public service announcement" about holding our political leaders accountable. Last April, Springsteen defended the Dixie Chicks after lead singer Natalie Maines said she was ashamed that President Bush was from her home state of Texas. "To me, they're terrific American artists expressing American values by using their American right to free speech," the Boss insisted on his Web site.

BAGHDAD, Iraq. - Documents from Saddam Hussein's oil ministry reveal he used oil to bribe top French officials into opposing the imminent U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. The oil ministry papers, described by the independent Baghdad newspaper al-Mada, are apparently authentic and will become the basis of an official investigation by the new Iraqi Governing Council, the Independent reported Wednesday. "I think the list is true," Naseer Chaderji, a governing council member, said. "I will demand an investigation. These people must be prosecuted." Such evidence would undermine the French position before the war when President Jacques Chirac sought to couch his opposition to the invasion on a moral high ground. Al-Mada's list cites a total of 46 individuals, companies and organizations inside and outside Iraq as receiving Saddam's oil bribes, including officials in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, the United Arab Emirates, Turkey, Sudan, China, Austria and France, as well as the Russian Orthodox Church, the Russian Communist Party, India's Congress Party and the Palestine Liberation Organization.

 

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We've got the weakest president in all my 50 years of public service.

"I said no I can tell you this categorically, we've got the weakest president and weakest government in the history of my 50 years of public service. I say weak president in that the poor boy campaigns all the time and pays no attention to what's going on in the Congress. Karl Rove tells him to do this or do that or whatever it is, but he's out campaigning. And I really don't think our friend Mark Sanford likes the job. As a result the state and the country – your state, my state, our country – is headed in the wrong direction with respect to our finances. You can see it at the state level. They are firing a thousand teachers." And at the national level, we've got Enron accounting galore. The President said two weeks ago on page one of his budget report that we have a $455 billion deficit at the end of next month; that's when the end of the fiscal year terminates. The truth of the matter is, you turn to page 57 of the report and you'll see it's $698 billion. And he admits to a $700 billion deficit, so you can see why the market goes down. Everyone sees who invests that there's no reason to invest because the interest rates are going up and you can't carry your investments.

2004 Could Bring Bush's 'Impeachment.

The good news is that in November of 2004 the American people will have a chance to both impeach and remove George W. Bush in one step. "The good news is that in November of 2004 the American people will have a chance to both impeach and remove George W. Bush in one step." Graham insisted somewhat bizarrely that Bush's 16-word State of the Union address reference to Iraq seeking uranium from Niger was critical to the administration's case for making war on Iraq.  "It was central because the rationale of going to war was that the United States' people were under an imminent threat," he told Fox News. NewsMax.

Race remains a significant factor.

Jesse Jackson said Wednesday the Bush administration's reluctance to deploy troops to war-torn Liberia proves that race remains a significant factor in the way America relates to the world. "We are turning our backs on Liberia," the civil rights leader said in an interview, noting that hundreds have died there this week alone. As Jackson spoke, U.S. officials said a Nigerian commitment to deploy two battalions as part of a larger international force will bring the United States closer to direct involvement. Liberia remains a killing field on the back burner," Jackson said. He said he saw no benefit for Africans from President Bush's five-nation visit to the continent two weeks ago, calling it a fly-by tour that featured lots of discussion on assistance but no concrete commitments. He said U.S. agricultural subsidies are causing serious damage to African economies.

We're the most annoying, boisterous creatures in the world.

Hollywood beauty Kate Hudson won't be winning prizes for patriotism anytime soon - she's sick of Americans. After three months filming Le Divorce in France, Kate admits she has developed a dislike for her country folk after running into Americans in Paris and London. She explains, "Sometimes I'll be walking down the street and I'll hear some American and I'll just go, 'Of course they hate us, of course they can't stand us. We're the most annoying, boisterous creatures in the world.' I mean we come in and we eat mounds of food, and we're like, 'Where's the ketchup for our French fries.' I'm like, 'Shut up.'"

President Bush rushed to take credit for the killing of the Hussein’s sons.

"With President George W. Bush’s popularity in the polls plummeting and U.S casualties in Iraq rising, the Bush administration has desperately needed something to change the subject from the president’s State of the Union scandal. The killing of Saddam Hussein’s brutal sons provides convenient, yet temporary, political cover from the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of new revelations about the questionable State of the Union claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa. President Bush rushed to take credit for the killing of the Hussein’s sons, but let surrogates fall on their swords for his own questionable justification for invading Iraq in the first place. "With President George W. Bush’s popularity in the polls plummeting and U.S casualties in Iraq rising, the Bush administration has desperately needed something to change the subject from the president’s State of the Union scandal. The killing of Saddam Hussein’s brutal sons provides convenient, yet temporary, political cover from the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of new revelations about the questionable State of the Union claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa. President Bush rushed to take credit for the killing of the Hussein’s sons, but let surrogates fall on their swords for his own questionable justification for invading Iraq in the first place." With President George W. Bush’s popularity in the polls plummeting and U.S casualties in Iraq rising, the Bush administration has desperately needed something to change the subject from the president’s State of the Union scandal. The killing of Saddam Hussein’s brutal sons provides convenient, yet temporary, political cover from the ‘drip, drip, drip’ of new revelations about the questionable State of the Union claim that Iraq was trying to buy uranium from Africa. President Bush rushed to take credit for the killing of the Hussein’s sons, but let surrogates fall on their swords for his own questionable justification for invading Iraq in the first place.

The United States should not be assassinating anybody.

We have a law on the books that the United States should not be assassinating anybody," Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-NY, told Fox News Channel's "Hannity & Colmes."" We tried to assassinate Castro and we paid dearly for it," the Rangel contended. "And when you personalize the war and you say you're killing someone's kids, then they, in turn, think they can kill somebody. "When an incredulous Sean Hannity expressed dismay at Rangel's comments, the Harlem Democrat shot back, "How can you get so much satisfaction that two bums have been killed? We got bums all over the world and some in the United States." Then Rangel mocked the U.S. military's success in killing the two Hussein heirs, saying, "I personally don't get any satisfaction that it takes 200,000 troops, 250,000 troops, to knock off two bums.

The longer we don't find anything, it's likely they destroyed it all in '91".

The longer the United States and Britain occupy Iraq without finding weapons of mass destruction, the more conceivable it is that Baghdad destroyed them after the first Gulf War in 1991, chief U.N. weapons inspector Hans Blix said on Monday. Blix, to retire next week after heading inspections before the U.S.-led war on Iraq began in March, also spoke critically at a think tank meeting of one of Washington's key arguments for overthrowing Iraq President Saddam Hussein. "It is sort of fascinating that you can have 100 percent certainty about weapons of mass destruction and zero certainty of about where they are," Blix said at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York

I am innocent" and "will fight to clear my name.

Martha Stewart took her defense straight to the public Thursday, writing on her Web site and in a newspaper ad in USA TODAY, "I am innocent" and "will fight to clear my name" in a federal insider trading case that pressured her to step down as head of her retail and media empire.The queen of home decor resigned late Wednesday as chairwoman and CEO of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), which made her a fortune and stamped her style on everything from magazines and TV screens to bed linens and bath towels. She plans to stay on as creative chief and a member of the board. The U.S. Attorney in Manhattan hit Stewart and her former broker with nine criminal counts, accusing them of conspiring to fool investigators. The Securities and Exchange Commission filed separate civil charges against Stewart and her broker, accusing them of inside trading.

GOP Agenda is like Nazi Germany.

Reno spoke about visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany as a child and learning what had happened. Reno spoke about visiting the Dachau concentration camp in Germany as a child and learning what had happened.She looked right into the the audience and told them that's why she was there. She had no intention of just standing by. "And don't you just stand by," Reno said.

I am embarrassed to be an American.

“I despise him [President George W. Bush]. I despise his administration and everything they stand for....""To my mind the election was stolen by George Bush and we have been suffering ever since under this man’s leadership....". "There has to be a movement now to really oppose what he is proposing because it’s unconstitutional, it’s immoral and basically illegal...." "It is an embarrassing time to be an American. It really is. It’s humiliating.”

 

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Gest: "look what Liza did"

Liza Minnelli's estranged husband David Gest dropped his trousers in a TV interview to show injuries caused when the star allegedly beat him. David Gest undressed when an interviewer asked if he had any bruises. 'Well, let's put it this way,' Gest replied. 'This is the last reminder of what she did with her hands.' He then stood up and pulled down the front of his trousers to show a mark on the top of his leg. Gest claimed Minnelli, 57, had beaten him before during their 16-month marriage but the last time was more violent. 'She'd hit me before but never over and over and over and over into the head,' he told Dateline NBC in the US. The 50-year-old said he would never be the same again after having up to 80 injections in the head to relieve the pain from the beatings.

Dean Calls FCC Probe of Breast Incident 'Silly'

Howard Dean, a physician and a Democratic presidential candidate, on Monday dismissed as "silly" a government inquiry into whether indecency rules were broken during the broadcast of the Super Bowl halftime show when pop diva Janet Jackson's bodice was ripped to expose her right breast. "I find that to be a bit of a flap about nothing," the former Vermont governor said. "I'm probably affected in some ways by the fact that I'm a doctor, so it's not exactly an unusual phenomenon for me." During the break in the National Football League's championship game, singer Justin Timberlake reached for Jackson as they sang a duet and tore off part of her black leather bustier.

"Kennedy Says Iraq War a Political Product"

The Iraq war was a "political product" marketed by the Bush administration to win elections, Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, D-Mass., said in a speech Wednesday. As a result, Kennedy said, Bush and the Republicans in Congress "put the state of our nation at risk, and they do not deserve another term in the White House or in control of Congress." In a speech sponsored by the Center for American Progress, a liberal advocacy group, Kennedy said the Bush administration's decisions to target Saddam Hussein, go to war in Iraq and transfer sovereignty to the Iraqi people have all been made for Republican political gain and timed to influence American elections in 2002 and 2004. Kennedy said the administration's march to war in Iraq did not make America safer, but instead has given Osama bin Laden and al-Qaida new life and made the war on terrorism harder to win.

Albright: Bin Laden Comments Were "Tongue-in-Cheek"

Former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright insisted Wednesday that she was just kidding when she wondered aloud whether the Bush administration is holding Usama bin Laden captive, waiting to break him out at the best political moment. It was a "tongue-in-cheek comment and was not intended in any other way," Albright told Fox News. But witnesses to Albright's comment said the ambassador did not appear to be joking Tuesday when she suggested President Bush may reveal bin Laden's capture as an "October surprise" before next November's presidential election. Albright was in the Fox News studio's green room waiting to appear on an evening program when she made the remark.

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