May 2010 Archives

Check out today's column by the Washington Post's John Kelly -- who has dug up some timeless -- also: humiliating! and/or romantic! -- prom tales throughout the ages. Highlights include: dateless students being set up by their English teacher; dinner cruise woes, and a pre-prom arrest. Check out the full article here.

Lately, there's been a lot of debate about whether or not high schools should breathalyze students to test for alcohol before they go to the prom. It's the age-old back-and-forth: insult the dignity of teenagers by treating them like criminals, or tow the hard line and make them follow the rules. Because, as everybody knows, when you force a teenager to do something, he or she always complies. Totally. The general consensus so far seems to be that teenagers who want to drink on prom night will find a way to do so. But then there's the case of this one high school, Jefferson City High, in Missouri, where the kids apparently requested the breathalyzers. So maybe I'm wrong. You tell me. Where do you guys line up on this debate?

"Oprah agreed beforehand she wouldn't be too hard on [Rob and Kristen] if they told her what was really going on," said an alleged source, who was at the taping of the episode. "Both Rob and Kristen's people and [film studio] Summit then confirmed ahead of time [Rob and Kristen] are together and are dating. One hundred percent."

The episode, in which presumably no information is revealed whatsoever, will air on May 13.

Taylor Swift, Miley Cyrus and Carrie Underwood are just three country stars to have recently signed on for the Nashville Rising benefit concert for flood recovery in the storm-ridden region. The show, which will take place at Nashville's Bridgestone Arena on June 22, was organized by Faith Hill and Tim McGraw, and the proceeds will go to the Community Foundation, which services the Middle Tennessee region. This comes after last week, when Swift donated $500,000 to the cause.

Country starlet Taylor Swift has just pledged a very generous $500,000 donation to the Nashville flood relief effort. The flood, which killed 30 people in three states (including 20 in Tennessee), ravaged the area and caused an estimated $1 billion in repair and cleanup costs. 

Kristen Stewart, the world's favorite tortured vampire-lover, appeared on the cover of the June issue of Elle magazine -- and the 20-year-old actress opened up to the magazine about her dread of the paparazzi, and the difficulty of having to fight tooth and nail for any modicum of privacy. "They're vicious," she said in the article, of the photographers who follow her every move. "They're mean. They're like thugs. I don't event want to drive around by myself anymore. It's f---ing dangerous." She says that fans' behavior can border on stalkerish: "Somebody knocked on my hotel room door and asked for a light, then said that they were a big fan," she said. "I was like, 'Do you really need me to light your cigarette? How do you know what room I'm in?' I can't be by myself, and I like being by myself."

Ever a bastion of upstanding television programming, the CW has just purchased the rights to a series called Moonlight -- not to be confused with their current vampire-themed teen drama, Vampire Diaries. No, this one is actually a show that CBS cancelled -- but the CW is going to air reruns of it anyway, along with those of the Vampire Diaries, starting June 3. I guess we know what the summer has in store for us! 

Haselteen Rumbo, a 90-year-old grandmother from Indiana, is finally going to the prom. Rumbo, who will apparently be attending this spring's event with her grandson, never went to her own prom as a high school student (she and her now-late husband weren't big dancers, apparently, and so skipped the whole thing). But she decided after seeing The Bucket List that she wanted to see what the brouhaha was all about. And it worked out well for everyone, it seems! 18-year-old Ronnie Blalock, the nice boy who issued the invitation, has been benefiting from the good deed. "A lot of girls who have never talked to me now talk to me," he said. "I enjoy the attention." Well!      

Last night, the fashion world (plus more than its fair share of celebrities) ventured out in their fanciest, craziest, most eye-catching outfits, to brave the cameras at the annual Met Costume Institute Ball -- aka, the fashion crowd's version of the prom. The caliber of the outfits, quite obviously, varied drastically. After all, playing it safe at the Met Ball is frowned upon by the elite ranks of the fashion crowd -- and so, while the highs were high, the lows were...well, you'll see. Take a look at our roundup of the great, the not-so-hot, and the outright questionable ensembles of the night.