Diamonds, Engagement Rings & Diamond Jewelry in popular culture

Two things are generally accepted truths about Megan Fox: she is exceedingly beautiful and she can’t act to save her life.  But she’s great at getting press.  Rumors of her possibly getting another acting role cause tsunamis of media attention.  The most recent is of the actress (and I use the term loosely) possibly starring in a movie about Hall of Fame pitcher Old Hoss Radbourn called “Fifty-Nine in ‘84”.  She might be playing his seductress.  It’s a role that suits her.  She has become famous not for her skills, but because men enjoy picturing her naked, and they are willing to pay to see a film in which she might flash some skin.

Megan Fox: Making sure the media is still following.

She is also famous for her ability to steal the spotlight.  Everyone loves a Hollywood wedding, and wearing her engagement ring from former 90210 star Brian Austin Green in June kept the cameras on her.  They had broken up, but reunited and then got married a month later in a private ceremony.  Was it just a wave of love that swept the couple into a quickie wedding?

Probably not.  Brian Austin Green, prior to meeting young Megan, had been engaged to and had a child with actress Vanessa Marcil.  Their breakup was about as ugly as a breakup can be.  But they share a child, and they clearly don’t have issues using him against each other.  Marcil was engaged to CSI:NY star Carmine Giovinazzo, and had undoubtedly told her ex about their upcoming, very private wedding—to ensure that her son would be in attendance.  When Megan found out, she must have pitched a hissy fit suitable of a spoiled 24 year-old.  Clearly, she wanted to eclipse Green’s 41 year-old ex-fiancee’s wedding and have one of her own.  So she worked her sex-kitten magic on Green and decided to beat Marcil to the punch.

So they had their romantic ceremony on the beach in Hawaii, with only Green and Marcil’s son in attendance.  Then they released the photos and video to every press outlet on earth.

When Marcil and Giovinazzo got married in their own small ceremony a few weeks later, it became barely a footnote to the media, since they decided not to make a big deal out of it.  So far, not one photo of the wedding has been seen in magazines or online.  But was taking the high road just the way the couple rolls?

Probably not.  It had the lovely effect of making their love seem so pure and intimate (which it might very well be), but also made Fox and Green look like attention-seeking media whores.

That the weddings happened so close together is suspect at the least.  It won’t take long to see whether the attention-seeking Fox plans to stay in a peaceful, press-less marriage, or whether she’ll need some more controversy to keep herself going.  It’s not like directors and producers are lining up to give her juicy acting roles.

Does anyone have a stopwatch?

Although I had guessed that Mel Gibson would be using rehab as his “Get Out of Jail Free” card, it seems that young Lindsay Lohan has beat him to the addict punch.  After being sentenced to 90 days in jail—despite several costume changes and obscenities subtly painted on her fingernails during the trial—Lindsay has checked herself into a “Sober House”.  But not before getting herself a new lawyer.  She scored the services of Robert Shapiro, former member of OJ Simpson’s “Dream Team”, who also happens to own the facility in which she will be staying in her effort to avoid going to jail.

Ah, the magic of fame and addiction.

Lindsay Lohan: Too Famous for Jail

So Lindsay, who is only 24 but looks about twice that, is playing the “poor little me” game because she says she is terrified of being in jail.  The thing is, jail is supposed to be terrifying.  That’s one of the things that is meant to deter people from behaviors that will land them there.  Apparently, she didn’t consider that when she broke laws as easily as fingernails (with or without the “f-word”).  She wasn’t thinking about the unpleasantness of incarceration when she didn’t attend several of her court-ordered alcohol education classes; she wasn’t thinking about jailhouse cuisine when she was snorting coke and partying it up in Cannes; she wasn’t thinking about living in a Twitter-free concrete cell when she posed for less-than-respectable photos to promote the upcoming movie Machete.

She was busy thinking about how cool she is, how hot she looks licking the barrel of a gun, how great it is to walk out of a trendy boutique—without paying—with almost $17,000 worth of goods that includes a gold ring encrusted with rough and baguette diamonds.  A girl’s gotta look right for her court date, no?

Although her previous lawyer maintained that Lindsay was “substantially in compliance” with the terms of her probation, the judge seems to be as moved by this as, well, just about anyone with common sense.  When you get pulled over for DUI a few times and every LA cop has knows how many freckles you have, “full compliance” is probably the way to go.

With Robert Shapiro on her side, she may get her dream of serving her time in rehab while still taking her prescriptions for adderall, Zoloft, trazadone, and the ultra-powerful painkiller dilaudid (for a “dental problem”).

Now THAT’S celebrity rehab.

It’s a proud moment in a mother’s life when her daughter’s babydaddy, after saying all kinds of nasty things to the press and then showing his goods in Playgirl magazine, decides that he’d like to come back into the family fold.  Perhaps this would have been a better-timed decision if it happened while the aforementioned mother was a Republican vice-presidential candidate.  Sarah Palin was already mocked mercilessly in the press for not being the sharpest knife in the drawer, and then it came out that her unmarried teenage daughter was knocked up by a mullet-wearing good ol’ boy whose greatest accomplishment involved Guitar Hero.  That was pretty much the last nail in the coffin.

One Can Only Imagine The Excitement Sarah Palin Feels To Have This Young Fella Back In The Family.

Levi Johnston was undoubtedly strong-armed into his previous engagement to young Bristol Palin.  One can only assume that, given his proven inability to operate any birth control device, someone helped him slip the engagement ring on her finger.  That engagement fell apart shortly after it became clear that Sarah Palin wouldn’t become second-in-command, and there was no immediate “family values” display to uphold.

But it seems that, after months of arguing over custody of little Tripp, love blossomed once again for the now-19 year-old Bristol and 20 year-old Levi.  He declared his love for her in a very romantic text message.  “I miss you. I love you. I want to be with you again”, he wrote, according to Bristol, although it more than likely read: “I miss U.  I luv U.  I want 2 b w U”.  So they got engaged again two weeks ago, but didn’t tell anyone because they were afraid of what their parents would say, in yet another display of the maturity that makes them great role models for young people.  The Palins did release a statement to the Today Show this morning, stating, “”Bristol at 19 is now a young adult. We obviously want what’s best for our children. Bristol believes in redemption and forgiveness to a degree most of us struggle to put in practice in our daily lives.”

Sarah Palin’s enthusiasm was clear as a bell.  She is obviously ecstatic about the upcoming nuptials, which the kids plan to have within the next six months.  Proud as a peacock, that Grammy Palin.

Although Levi’s acting career seems to have stalled after his naked frolic through the pages of Playgirl, he has landed a gig doing something oil-related in Alaska.  Part of the conflict during the custody meetings related to his inability to maintain child support payments.  Bristol, on the other hand, will be making some serious bank by making speeches about (not kidding) abstinence for young people.  She’ll pull in between $15,000 and $30,000 per appearance.  The couple also made some cash to appear on the cover of US Weekly, although those details are being kept under wraps.

As for the plans for their future, Bristol Palin has said that she will be content to live with Levi near their native Wasilla.  With the money she makes, there is no doubt that they will be able to afford to live in a place where they can see Russia from their house.

It wasn’t so long ago that Mel Gibson was seen as a fun-loving, charming family man.  Okay, so it was about 20-something years ago, but still, it’s hard to forget him being the adorable, sweet, mildly self-destructive Martin Riggs in the Lethal Weapon movies, opposite Danny Glover.  He was married to the same woman even after he became famous, fathering seven children with his wife, and proudly keeping to the vows from his very Catholic wedding.  He was the unattainable blue-eyed Aussie that women everywhere adored.

Then some things started to change.  People began to see him a little differently with the 2004 release of Passion of the Christ, which some said indicated that he didn’t seem to like Jews very much.  Then, after his 2006 arrest for DUI, he apparently not only blamed Jews for all the wars in the world, but also called a female police officer by various colorful names relating to her girl parts.  In a much earlier interview, he claimed that some of his publicized homophobic remarks were things he shouldn’t have said out loud, but he had been having a bit to drink and said inappropriate things to a reporter.

From Beloved Movie Star to Cult Leader in 20 Years or Less.

Yeah, it would have been much better if he kept his racist, sexist, homophobic comments to himself.  But considering that he made his first public apology for such behavior in 1991, his small-mindedness seemed to have no effect on his career.  He was, after all, Mel Gibson, and his sense of entitlement could eclipse the moon.

Apparently, things started to go south for the raging blue-eyed bigot sometime around 2006.  Perhaps Apocalypto was prophetic in more ways than he had imagined.  His marriage was a wreck and he soon took up with the beautiful Russian singer Oksana Grigorieva.  When it came out that she was pregnant with his child last year, rumors of a big engagement ring exploded all over the internet.  There was just one tiny thing in the way: Mel was still married, and made a big point of being so very Catholic.  His wife filed for divorce anyway, and his little lovechild was born in October of last year.

Now, he and Grigorieva are involved in what has been described as a “bitter” custody dispute over daughter Lucia.  “Bitter” doesn’t seem to be the right word.  The former golden boy is being investigated for physical abuse, and has even let some less-than-flattering words get recorded for all the world to hear.  He uses words like “whore”, and threatens to fire one of the Latin-American housekeepers, using a word that nice people simply don’t say.  Somehow, he kept his rant going to include the “N-word”, perhaps not wanting to leave any ethnic group unscathed.  Now he says that Grigorieva has threatened to let all of the recordings go public, and that just isn’t fair.

Poor Mel.

Will he blame this all on the drink and go to rehab, as celebrities tend to do when they get caught doing outrageously stupid things?

The ultra-conservative, religious father of eight really isn’t helping his cause at all.  One can only hope that the judge in his custody case is a minority.  Or just someone with common sense.

Good luck with that, Mel.