According to the several members of the Wasdin family the book published by Howard should be classified as fiction instead of non-fiction, because so many of the facts in the book appear to be made up.

The family recently has launched a campaign to clear the reputation of the authors deceased father Leon Wasdin.

“We are extremely dissapointed in Howard’s book” said Ron Wasdin, the brother of Leon Wasdin and the authors uncle. “Howard has lost respect with many people especially from his mother, sisters and all relatives.”

According to family members of Wasdin, many of the other facts in the book were made up and they are willing to stand together as a family to prove it. Here are some thoughts from the Wasdin family members:

Millie Wasdin (Howard’s Mother)

Howard weighed 5 pounds 4 ounces not 3 pounds and he did not come home in a shoe box. Not even a free clinic would allow that. Howard was not even born in a free clinic. I would never allow anyone to abuse my children even my soul mate; I would never allowed Leon to abuse my children.

Howard also did not attend kindergarten as he stated in his book. Leon took Howard in as his own child. He loved and raised his as his own. Leon always said, “The only steps in this family are at the front door.” Leon was always there for Howard and even served as his best man at his wedding to Michele.

Tammy (Howard’s Sister)

When I read the inserts of Howard E. Wasdin’s first memories of a child in chapter three, I was physically ill. We must not have grown up in the same house. My father instilled good values in me that I still carry today. He met all my needs, he provided for me physically and spiritually. I never went without anything. There was food on the table and there were always clothes to wear. I could always count on my father when I was in trouble. He loved me even when I didn’t do the right things.

Becky (Howard’s Younger Sister)

My memories of my daddy were when he took us in and adopted us, he treated us as equals. He was so proud. I remember my dad’s hands were firm when needed to be, but Howard did get away with more because he was the only boy.

I remember him doing things with us as a family. He took us to the park, and fishing and camping. He took us out to eat when we could afford going to restaurants. When I wasn’t close to home or couldn’t come home, I would call and he was the only one to talk me out of doing something stupid. Me and and my son Jeremy do love and miss him very much and I wish people that want to degrade him would just leave him alone and let him rest high on that mountain.

Steve (Howard’s Cousin)

I’ve only seen Howard get whipped once and it was for shooting someone with a BB gun, which he did deserve. The police officer actually told Uncle Leon to beat Howard for that. I never remember Uncle Leon being mean or abusive to Howard.

He would make you work, but it was not abusive. I don’t even remember seeing Uncle Leon drinking or even look at alcohol. Uncle Leon would go clip the watermelons and then we would go pick them up. Howard and I used to go swimming after working at the market. I remember getting paid for all the work we did with Uncle Leon. They would feed us while we were working too. I thought I had a good childhood with Uncle Leon.

Sue Wasdin (Howard’s Sister)

The book should be characterized as fiction. Several accounts about his childhood cannot be verified through anyone that was there at that time.

In Chp 3 he states his first memory was being four years old when his “Step Father” would come into the room after being on on a date with Howard’s mother. Smelling like alcohol, he pulled him out of bed and beat him until he tasted his own blood. This account is not substantiated by his mother, his other sister. and his Uncle Coy Kirkman and Aunt Louise Kirkman whom he lived with at the time. I can verify that I have never witnessed my father abuse anyone since the day I was born.

Leon, worked hard all his life to provide for his family. He was a modest God fearing man and lived for his family. He was brought up in a time where children learned values and respected their elders. He tried to teach these values to his children as well. He would give you the shirt off his back, but he expected his children to be respectful, responsible and work to their full potential.

My memories of the watermelon fields and having to pick up pecans are different from Howard’s. I remember he expected us to work but I also remember many jokes he would played on us and taking us to the open branch café. Afterwards we would go to the river to swim. I never remember Daddy getting a belt to us because we missed one pecan or if we didn’t work hard enough in the watermelon fields. I remember him telling us to go do it again and teaching us the right way to do a job, but he wasn’t abusive.

My father loved holidays and time together as a family. Daddy would surprise us when we were young by stopping by amusement parks and taking us to the Alligator Farm. I remember numerous camping trips, fishing trips and just drives down a dirt road. His smile and his jokes made the worst days bearable.

As a little girl I would go everywhere with him and sit on his tractor while he plowed and planted the fields. I remember as he walked and left foot prints in the sand I would jump to try to walk in his footsteps. This is still true today; I hope to be just half the parent he was. He taught me so much and always helped me when I was down. If it hadn’t been for his love and support, I don’t know if I would be here today.

These are some of the memories that differ from the book. There are also numerous others I could discredit in Howard’s book regarding his childhood. If you were to investigate you would find other information about Howard’s life that doesn’t add up. The real reason why he was asked to retire from the Seal Team and other accounts about his dishonesty and why he isn’t allowed back in Cambell County, Tenn. I am not here to bash him but I do want everyone to realize that this book is not nonfiction and should be classified as fiction.

Thanks,
Sue Wasdin

TMZ:

I have multiple mortgages. This house actually was my most expensive mortgage. … When the market went down, the house went down too and it was just worth nothing. … I just decided to let it go, give it back to the bank. It wasn’t a situation where they came and took it from me . I felt like i didn’t want to pay that much money a month for a house I’m never at. … I just didn’t feel like it was a good investment. …

NPR basically observes that he’s a celebrity strategic defaulter. Who knows how many more homeowners will be inspired by his sticking it to the bank.

(Wall Street Journal)In just one week on NBC, the detectives on “Law and Order” investigated a cash-for-clunkers scam, a nurse on “Mercy” organized a group bike ride, Al Gore made a guest appearance on “30 Rock,” and “The Office” turned Dwight Schrute into a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling.

Coincidence? Hardly. NBC Universal planted these eco-friendly elements into scripted television shows to influence viewers and help sell ads.

The tactic—General Electric Co.’s NBC Universal calls it “behavior placement“—is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show.

Unlike with product placement, which can seem jarring to savvy viewers, the goal is that viewers won’t really notice that Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycle bin, or that a minor character on “Law and Order: SVU” has switched to energy-saving light bulbs. “People don’t want to be hit over the head with it,” says NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker. “Putting it in programing is what makes it resonate with viewers.”

TV has always had the ability to get millions of people to mimic a beloved character. Ever since Carrie Bradshaw on “Sex and the City” stopped in at the Magnolia Bakery, fans of the show wait in long lines for the once-quiet shop’s $2.75 cupcakes. When Jennifer Aniston as Rachel on “Friends” cut her hair, salons across the country reported requests for the shaggy, highlighted, layered look known as “the Rachel.”

This is the power of persuasion that NBCU hopes to tap. “Subtle messaging woven into shows mainstreams it, and mainstreaming is an effective way to get a message across,” says Lauren Zalaznick, president of NBCU Women & Lifestyle Entertainment Networks, which oversees the effort.

Since fall 2007, network executives have been asking producers of almost every prime-time and daytime show to incorporate a green storyline at least once a year. The effort now takes place for a week in April and November. Starting April 19 this year, 40 NBC Universal outlets will feature some 100 hours of green-themed programming, including an episode of the Bravo reality series “Millionaire Matchmaker” in which a 39-year-old tycoon with an eco-friendly clothing line goes into a rage after his blind date orders red meat.

In June, NBCU plans a week in which programming will emphasize healthy eating and exercise: The idea is that viewers will watch the shows and then spring into action. “It’s about incorporating a marketer’s message into a thematic environment,” says Mike Pilot, president of sales and marketing at NBC Universal.

While the network says it tries to incorporate green programming throughout the year, the special emphasis twice a year creates an “event” that provides opportunities to advertisers, an NBC spokeswoman says. For instance, a Wal-Mart ad focusing on locally grown produce ran this past November after an episode of the medical drama “Trauma” in which emergency medic Rabbit rescues a window washer dangling precariously from a building; medics are alerted to the situation by a man sitting in his hybrid vehicle.

Behavior placement gives marketers extra incentive to advertise at a time when digital video recorders equip viewers with an unprecedented ability to skip commercials, says Jason Kanefsky, a media buyer at Havas’s MPG. “You’re not forcing your way into a program in any shape or form,” he says. “You’re just nodding your head at a program.” ABC, CBS and FOX have plenty of product placement but haven’t taken the step into behavior placement, network spokesmen say.

TV writers and producers are less enamored with behavior placement. Already on the hook to create holiday-themed episodes and accommodate marketers in other ways, some producers and writers grumble about additional demands. Requests for green-themed storylines come at the start of the year when programming executives sit down with producers and lay out which company-wide themes and holidays they will be working into shows.

Producers do have some leeway. “The Office,” for example, embraces Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas but refuses to incorporate Easter since it isn’t part of office culture.

Angela Bromstad, president of primetime entertainment at NBC, says her only specific request is that writers incorporate something related to the environment into a storyline and not make it a throwaway line of dialogue. “We haven’t had any pushback,” she says.

Paul Lieberstein, an executive producer on “The Office” who also plays the character Toby Flenderson, says he was thinking about making Dwight a superhero called “Recyclops” before network executives ordered up an environmental storyline.

“In this case it fell right into the realm of what we do,” Mr. Lieberstein says. “We’d have to say no if it hurt the integrity of the show.”

“Heroes” creator Tim Kring says behavior placement is easier than incorporating a specific brand, which is what the science-fiction series about ordinary people with superhuman abilities, recently did for sponsor Sprint Nextel Corp. This past fall, members of a carnival loaded a pickup truck with recyclables as Masi Oka, in the role of Hiro Nakamura, talks about giving back to the Earth. “Someone has to pay for our big, expensive television shows,” Mr. Kring says.

Armed with its own data showing consumers are wiling to spend more if a brand seems eco-friendly, NBC in 2007 launched “Green Week,” the programming component of a larger “Green is Universal” corporate campaign. That effort brought in an estimated $20 million in advertising revenue from 20 sponsors, according to industry estimates. Many new clients, including the nutrition bar Soy Joy, came on board, NBC says. In April 2008, the network added another week of green-themed programming, when network logos go green and on-air promos tout NBC’s support for the environment. But there are no obvious cues to alert viewers to the green emphasis in programming.

To court advertisers targeting specific demographics, NBC researchers conduct regular focus groups. Viewers are broken into categories based on their favorite shows and their level of concern about the environment. “Alpha ecos” are mostly women who drive hybrids, eat organic and watch the Bravo channel. “Eco-logicals” are older viewers who have “traditional Midwestern values,” drink Diet Coke, drive domestic cars and love basic-cable channel USA. When PepsiCo Inc.’s Sun Chips brand launched a compostable chip bag, executives wanted to reach young, edgy consumers who watch “30 Rock.” Pepsi purchased a skit starring Kenneth, the show’s lovable page. It will run during a commercial break of an eco-friendly episode this fall. “This audience has a tendency to be a little more cynical about blatant product placement,” says Gannon Jones, vice president of marketing for PepsiCo’s Frito-Lay unit.

Product placement on TV dates back to early soap operas sponsored by Procter & Gamble Co. Programming has been trying to get across messages, like Don’t Smoke or Say No to Drugs, for almost as long. In the 1970s, libraries nationwide saw a spike in interest after the “Happy Days” character Fonzie got a library card. Last year, a character in the top-rated telenovela on NBC Universal’s Telemundo, “Mas Sabe el Diablo” (“The Devil Knows Best”), had a job recruiting Latinos in New York City to participate in the 2010 Census. (Telemundo voluntarily took on the message for a group that is historically undercounted. It ran its efforts by Census authorities to make sure it had the details right.)

The messages NBC gravitates toward tend to be fairly innocuous. For instance, climate change may be controversial, but people can agree that taking care of the environment is a good thing. Same with diet and exercise: It may be controversial to ask people to quit smoking but people don’t argue with taking better care of your body.

Still, do viewers really want their TV sets reminding them to recycle and go to the gym? Executives say the more seamlessly integrated the behavior is, the less it feels like the show is trying to manipulate. “The last thing you want to do is not reach the audience in the right way and make them mad at you,” says NBCU’s Ms. Zalaznick. Viewers don’t mind if “you do a little good in the world, and you’re still making your show.”

For its first televised ad campaign, Vermont-based cleaning product manufacturer Seventh Generation Inc. paid NBCU to use Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott, stars of Oxygen’s reality series “Tori and Dean: Home Sweet Hollywood,” in a vignette about organic gardening that will run later this month during a commercial break. The corresponding episode will feature the couple gardening and composting. Dave Kimbell, Seventh Generation’s chief marketing officer, says the company doesn’t use product placement but sees behavior placement as a more effective way to express the brand’s values and “create a dialogue” with consumers.

The trick is to not turn off viewers by being lectury or too obvious, producers say. “Late Night with Jimmy Fallon” had a segment that urged viewers to turn off their lights for five seconds to conserve energy. But each time the lights went out in the studio, a Latina janitor screamed “Ay dios mio!” and a gunshot went off killing a member of the Fallon cast. “At that hour people just want to laugh and have fun. They don’t want to be preached at,” the host says.

But the Web site TMZ reports that it’s not an actual school play.

Filmmaker Marc Klasfeld — the man behind dozens of music videos and commercials, as well as some indie films — and his production company Rockhard Films put the whole fudgin’ thing together

“It was produced in L.A. within the last few weeks and the audience members were a mix of cast family members, colleagues and friends,” TMZ reports. “As for Lil’ Tony and his co-stars, they were selected through a casting agent known for finding child actor lookalikes for adult stars.”

“You deal coke and you kill people…that’s wonderful tony.”

“I got a fudging junkie for a wife.”

“You son a B”

“Her words are so rude and I can’t fudgin have a baby with her.”

“I’m leaving you mother-fudger.”

Klasfeld called up Entertainment Weekly to talk about his production.

How did the idea come about?

This particular idea, I just thought it would be interesting. I thought it was funny. I thought it was satirical. I love viral videos. I’m a huge fan of viral videos. I’ve made a ton of them, and I’m always watching them. And I thought this would be nice fit into the kind of YouTube arena of viral videos. And I was right.

How did you get permission from their parents?

It wasn’t a problem at all. I’ve worked with kids many times. And I have a casting director that I work with all the time. And he helped me cast the kids. And the parents were 100 percent supportive. Particularly the lead kid. The parents are professional. They get it. [Kids are] subjected to things much worse than this every day. So it’s a little bit shocking to us [to see] some of the outrage. Though there has been a lot of positivity around this, it’s just kind of weird, because there is more violence in the Avatar trailer that’s aimed at children or in violent video games. But the parents were completely on board.

A lot of people were upset because they thought it was real. What did you think about that?

Again, I enjoy making provocative art. I like stirring debate and causing conversation. You’re going to get two sides of the coin no matter what you do. People are going to love and hate everything. People loved and hated Avatar. People loved and hated the Jennifer Aniston movie. And people love and hate this. I guess that’s a part of having something that’s successful out there. There’s got to be certain people that hate it for people to love it.

What did the kids think about it? Did they know what they were doing?

They’re seven to 10 years old. Again, to them, they have heard the f-word. They’ve seen more violence in their everyday lives for as long as they can remember. So for this, they’ve seen worse things than this all the time. So this wasn’t that big of a deal for them.

The commercial starts off with a bunch of oiled up naked guys, which I’ll say is pretty much what is expected from an underwear commercial but something about Calvin Kleins X commercial is different. The first words out of the models mouth is “Hey, HEY YOU….wanna see my D!#k?”

If someone came up to you on the subway and said “Hey you wanna see my d#$k?” You would normally call the police. Not to mention that men who go around saying these kinds of things normally are required to have their names put on the sex offender list and wouldn’t be allowed withing 1000 yards of a school.

“You know you want to see it. C’mon I’ll show you mine if you show me yours. You like that sh!t…come a little closer….you wanna f!@k me? Ya baby its all about the Calvins…

Many viewers actually feel a little bit violated or were offended after watching this ad. So to Calvin Klein: Get a hint man, no means NO. I don’t want to see it. Sexual harassment isn’t ok at work or school and its not ok on TV commercials.

Next time you may consider buying Fruit of the Looms when you’re in the market for a pair of underwear.

Vote With Your Dollars

vs.

The 39-year-old claims a pilot ejected him from the Southwest Airlines flight from Oakland to Burbank, California, saying he did not fit in a single seat.

Smith complained about the incident on his Twitter account saying: “I’m way fat, but I’m not there just yet.”

Southwest issued an apology to the director via Twitter and its website.

In a statement titled Not So Silent Bob – a jovial jab at the Silent Bob character Smith plays in several of his films – the airline said: “We would like to echo our tweets and again offer our heartfelt apologies to you.”

The statement continued: “Our pilots are responsible for the safety and comfort of all customers on the aircraft and therefore, made the determination that Mr Smith needed more than one seat to complete his flight.”

Airline challenge

It added it accommodated the director on a later flight, offered him a $100 (£64) voucher and apologised by phone.

The airline said its customer of size policy states travellers must be able to fit safely and comfortably in one seat or must purchase an additional seat.

However, Smith insists that he was able to put both armrests down and buckle his seat belt.

He challenged the airline to bring a row of seats on to a US chat show for him to prove he fit into them.

“If I don’t fit, I’ll donate $10k (£6,380) to charity of your choice. But when I do (& buckle the belt as well)? 1) You admit you lied. 2) Change your policy, or at least re-train your staff to be a lot more human & a lot less corporate,” he wrote.

Smith, who also directed the 1997 film Chasing Amy, directs the forthcoming Bruce Willis movie Cop Out.

source: BBC NEWS

The 41-year-old former “Diff’rent Strokes” actor was booked into the Utah County Jail Sunday, said Santaquin police officer Shawn Carter.

He said early Monday that he didn’t have details on the warrant or know if Coleman was still being held. He said more information would be released later in the day.

The Salt Lake Tribune reported that Utah County Jail records show he was arrested after police received reports of a disturbance at his Santaquin home.

The actor was arrested in Utah in 2008 after a man claimed Coleman tried to run over him in a parking lot when he tried to take a picture with the child star. The case was reportedly been settled out of court.

More than 15 years in the making, and costing in excess of $300 million, James Cameron’s eco-minded epic ‘Avatar’ is like nothing you have ever seen. It unfolds on a digitally created sylvan world called Pandora that is straight out of your trippiest, most phantasmagorical dreams. City-sized rock formations hang miles above the ground supported only by vines; underwater plants glow like giants’ irises; seeds pulsate through the air like jellyfish. And the fact that you can see the whole thing in razor-sharp 3D means that these images by turn envelop you and dance before your eyes.

It is on Pandora that the Canadian-born director’s first mainstream film since 1997’s record-breaking ‘Titanic’ pits mankind against the peaceful, spiritual, forest-dwelling Na’vi people. Their land sits on a priceless mineral deposit that ‘we’ want. And, to help us get it, the army recruits a young paraplegic soldier, Jake (Sam Worthington), to infiltrate them by linking his mind to one of their bodies, genetically bred by the army for the purpose.

So, the ‘real’ Jake lies wired-up and unconscious, at HQ – but, while in this state, he is able to move among the Na’vi, befriend them, and earn their trust. Essentially, he’s a very elaborate spy, but one who, in time-honoured undercover-cop-goes-native fashion, falls in love with one of his supposed enemies (Zoë Saldana) and begins to wonder if he’s really on the right side.

Now, it wouldn’t be too hard to be sniffy about this film. It has been hyped to the stratosphere, which is always offputting. It is overlong, the script sometimes teeters on the edge of foolishness, and James Horner’s score is button-pushing gloop (insofar as such a thing is possible). Oh – and subtle, ‘Avatar’ is not: the parallels with modern Western foreign policy are rammed home with bulldozer finesse, as is the eco-message.

But the film’s heart is firmly in the right place. The performances are committed. And, for heaven’s sake, just look at it. The ‘motion-capture’ technique that sees Saldana, Worthington and the always-welcome Sigourney Weaver rendered as 10-feet-tall, azure-skinned, dreadlocked Na’vi is astonishing. Every few seconds, something simply wonderful materialises on screen. And more than one of the set-pieces had this observer unwittingly scrunching up his pad in excitement rather than dutifully filling it with notes – certainly, those in search of a cinematic thrill-ride will be in seventh heaven.

‘Avatar’ is also intriguing for echoing other Cameron films’ mistrust of corporate greed (see ‘Aliens’ and both his ‘Terminator’ films), and still moreso for continuing one of modern cinema’s grandest love-hate relationships with technology and our excessive faith in it. Both his ‘Terminator’ pictures saw machines that man had created try to take over the world; in ‘Titanic’, a very different kind of machine killed more than 1,500 people. And here, Cameron basks in high-tech, ‘Aliens’-style military hardwear in the movie’s earlier scenes, only to turn us ferociously against it by the close.

Above all, though, ‘Avatar’ is big-budget mainstream filmmaking of the most lovingly and imaginatively rendered kind. Go and see it at the largest, loudest 3D cinema you can find, turn a blind eye to its shortcomings, and you’ll be in for a treat.

Telegraph.co.uk

We need an old priest and a young priest, and a very very young priest. This kid will either grow up to be a Southern Baptist Minister, or the lead singer of a death metal band.

In the past we’ve covered many disputes between artists and labels, where the latter is being accused or even sued for using songs without permission. Just a few months ago Latin America’s biggest artist, Alejandro Fernández, sent the police to a Sony Music office to confiscate over 6,000 CDs that the label refused to return, and this is just the tip of the iceberg.

The labels have made a habit of using songs from a wide variety of artists for compilation CDs without securing the rights. They simply use the recording and make note of it on “pending list” so they can deal with it later. This has been going on since the 1980s and since then the list of unpaid tracks (or copyright infringements) has grown to 300,000.

Growing tired of the labels’ piracy, a group of artists have filed a class-action lawsuit in Canada against four major labels connected to the CRIA, the local equivalent of the RIAA. In October last year Warner Music, Sony BMG Music, EMI Music and Universal Music were sued for illegal use of thousands of tracks and at present the case is still underway.

How and why this blatant copyright infringement could go on for years is a mystery, but the labels’ double standard has been picked up by the plaintiffs as well. “The conduct of the defendant record companies is aggravated by their strict and unremitting approach to the enforcement of their copyright interests against consumers,” the artists argue in their claim for damages.

The suit is still ongoing but already the labels have admitted to owing at least $50 million for infringing the rights of artists, and this figure could grow as high as 6 billion. So who are the real pirates here?

Torrent Freak

Pomplamoose Music Jams out to Michael Jackson’s Beat it

Visit their Myspace Here

Lohan, 23, was partying at the Crown Bar in Los Angeles Nov. 6, and, according to one onlooker, caused quite a scene when asked to ante up for her drinks.

“Lindsay stormed into the kitchen and grabbed two bottles of really expensive champagne. She finished both bottles with a friend. When the bartender gave her a bill, she had a meltdown,” says the source. “She was yelling at him and screaming profanities at everyone. The bar insisted she pay, so she had to call a friend with her credit-card information.”

Before the actress left the club around 2:30 a.m., the onlooker says, “She was crying and wanted to go home. She kept saying ‘I don’t pay for drinks! This is ridiculous! I’m freaking out!’ ”

Read More: People Magazine