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Tag: Awards

Chinese Muslim Activist Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

China counted on Rebiya Kadeer, a Muslim businesswoman-turned-activist, fading into political irrelevance like most exiled Chinese dissidents when she left for the United States last year. But it may have miscalculated.

Kadeer, 58, an ethnic Uighur jailed for more than five years in China for providing state secrets to foreigners before her exile, won a Rafto Prize for human rights in Norway in 2004 and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.

“Rebiya Kadeer champions the rights of western China’s Uighur ethnic group and is one of China’s most prominent advocates of women’s rights,” Annelie Enochson, a Swedish parliamentarian, wrote in nominating Kadeer for the prestigious Nobel award.

“Kadeer has also used her resources as founder and director of a large trading company in northwestern China to provide fellow Uighurs with training and employment,” Enochson wrote in the nomination, a copy of which was sent to Reuters by e-mail.

Sounds like a pretty impressive woman. And given that only 12 women have won the prize since 1901, it’s nice to see more female nominees.

Thanks to Matt for the link.

Posted in Uncategorized

Rejoice!

The Bulwer-Lytton Contest winners have been announced!

The winner:

Detective Bart Lasiter was in his office studying the light from his one small window falling on his super burrito when the door swung open to reveal a woman whose body said you’ve had your last burrito for a while, whose face said angels did exist, and whose eyes said she could make you dig your own grave and lick the shovel clean.

Jim Guigli
Carmichael, CA

Oh, He Did NOT Lick Lt. Uhura!

From Jennifer at Chaos theory, a story on why Andy Dick is disturbed and should stop being hired as a “comedian:”

August 15, 2006 — KOOKY comedian Andy Dick went bonkers at the Comedy Central roast of William Shatner on Sunday night – licking the faces of Farrah Fawcett, Carrie Fisher and Patton Oswalt before biting Post reporter Mandy Stadtmiller on the hand during a bizarre backstage meltdown.

Dick’s face-licking frenzy began after Oswalt made a crack about the scraggly star’s rollerskate-licking turn in Jessica Simpson’s video, “A Public Affair.” Dick retaliated by unleashing his tongue on Oswalt’s face before turning it on Fawcett, Fisher and “Star Trek” actress Nichelle Nichols during the taping at the Radford CBS Studio in Studio City, Calif.

Note that, other than Oswalt — who made the crack — all of his victims were women. I doubt he’d try that with Leonard Nimoy. But a woman who was persuaded not to quit her job by MLK because her role was so groundbreaking, and who inspired Dr. Mae Jemison to become an astronaut? Hey, she’s just a woman. It’s safe to assault her.

Backstage at the after-party, a drunken Dick groped an appalled Stadtmiller, tried to kiss her, proclaimed his love for her and finally bit her hand.

“Baby please,” Dick repeated six times. “Put in something nice,” he said after urinating in front of the horrified journalist in his dressing room and offering her cocaine.

“They’re so mean,” he ranted. “I’m not weird. Maybe I’m a little weird, they make me out to be a monster, I’m not a monster . . . I just want to have fun, baby please.”

Does this situation remind you of anything? The assault on a female reporter, the freaking out over what the reporter might write, the bizarre behavior and sense of entitlement, the fake remorse?

But of course it gets worse:

Dick, who performed his roast routine dressed in full Trekkie regalia, said that he downed two vodka cranberries to give him the courage to talk to fellow roaster Fawcett – of whom he said, “I’m going to [bleep] the [bleep] out of. Put that in Page 6, 7 and 8, that’s how big my [bleep] is.”

Well, at least he didn’t have his lawyer vouch for the size of his equipment.

Explaining to Stadtmiller why he urinated in front of her, Dick said, “You know why I don’t close the door? Because then people think I’m doing drugs, and I want you to know I’m just normal.”

And why did Dick go on his licking spree? “I was doing it because I was desperately trying to tie the show together like a fisherman with tuna, and you’re a little piece of fresh tuna,” Dick told Stadtmiller. “But thanks for asking. Do you want me to lick your face now?”

The comments about Fawcett are especially creepy. He probably figures that just because he beat off to her poster in the 70s that he was entitled to [bleep] the [bleep] out of her — and that she was a bitch for (undoubtedly) being rather unhappy about the situation when he assaulted her.

Long story short: this guy is seriously unbalanced, and the industry needs to stop rewarding him with attention and money. It’s not like he’s funny, either.

A Real Hot Fundraiser

Jessica Valenti from Feministing invites everyone to a party/fundraiserto honor the REAL Hot 100, which list includes our own real hot little Jill Filipovic.

Here’s the info:

The REAL hot 100 is celebrating 2006’s hottest women with a big old party in New York City. It’s going to be an amazing event, so get your ticket now!

If you can’t afford to come (it is a fundraiser, after all), then please pass the info along to folks you know in New York. We want to make the inaugural party one to remember, so all your support is much appreciated!

Here’s the info:

Saturday, August 12, 2006
9:00 PM to 2:00 AM

KFMK Galleries
515A West 29th Street
New York, NY 10001

Hope to see your hot selves there!

I’m Really Really Hot

Exciting news: I’m one of the Real Hot 100! I’m actually really surprised. I’ve been reading about all the nominees, and have been absolutely blown away by the work that women across the country are doing. These women are film-makers, activists, DJs, athletes, teachers, survivors, doctors, lawyers, researchers, businesswomen, organizers, journalists, volunteers, mothers, musicians, educators, performers, designers, artists, writers… not to mention that other hotties include bloggers Amanda Marcotte and Deanna Zandt.

So thanks, Real Hot 100! And thanks to my friend Jessica Wakeman (another awesome NYU feminist hottie who also contributes to Feministing) for the nomination.

Be sure to head over to their site and check out all the fabulous nominees. It’ll brighten your day.

We Shill For Votes

Feministe is up for several Koufax awards this year, and although we’ve always been bridesmaids, we’re hoping to edge out for the finals.

The voting is supposed to end at midnight tonight, but I hear that Wampum is extending the voting period for another 24 hours since the servers went down during a power outage and upgrade. Don’t take my word for it. Vote tonight!

I’m honored to be nominated with so many other folks out there, and so long as Kos doesn’t win anything I’m a happy camper.

Just Like the Oscars, Except Sane

Fametracker gives away awards with some actual relevance to recipients who actually deserve them.

And brings some snark to the question of Katie Holmes and her continued existence as an entity independent of the creepiest husband this side of Travis “Double Indemnity” Frey:

Katie Holmes seemed like a promising choice: true, she’s hooked up (for now — or not, if Life & Style is to be believed) with our Famous Person of the Year, which suggests that her fame is built on a solid foundation — or as solid a foundation as is possible when it’s tethered to the left ring finger of a complete nutter. But then again, her next movie (Thank You For Smoking) is about to come out, and she’ll be unable to attend any of its premieres because she’ll be too pregnant (or “pregnant,” if your own common sense is to be believed) to travel; Sir Nutter has already started to choke off any fame she has independent of himself, as evidenced by the fact that her next project post-Smoking is nothing — all the better for her to watch the nanny raise her “child” while she studies her Dianetics.

And handicaps future Oscars hosts, with some choice words for the Academy’s evident selection criteria:

We like DeGeneres a lot — it’s hard to be funny when you’re so determined to park it in the middle of the road, and she manages it admirably — and she certainly has taken over Rosie O’Donnell’s mantle as America’s Favourite Non-Threatening Lesbian. But the Academy may not want to risk the possibility that she’s been a radical separatist sleeper agent, just waiting to get onstage at the Kodak to agitate for same-sex marriage or cheaper U-Haul rates or whatever it is the gals want these days.

Seriously. Billy Crystal is edgier. Way edgier. I mean, Lea DeLaria, sure, but Ellen’s the tofurkey cream-of-mushroom casserole to her habanero shrimp skewers.

They also have a post on Oscar-nominees-turned-TV-shows.

And on the least essential films of Spring. Look for them at next year’s awards ceremony!

Oscar Picks

I’ll be working on a group project instead of giving my full attention to the Academy Awards, but hopefully it’ll be on in the background so that I can see who wins and, more importantly, what everyone is wearing. I just hope there are some good shots of my personal style icon, Sienna Miller. Cross your fingers for me. I can’t wait to see her as Edie Sedgwick.

Of course, as Samhita at Feministing points out, it’s not exactly the greatest Oscar year for the ladies. From Newsweek:

‘Brokeback Mountain.” “Capote.” “Crash.” “Good Night, and Good Luck.” “Munich.” This year’s Academy Award nominees for best picture offer thoughtful contemplations of the world, past and present. A mostly male world, that is.

Why does it matter that female-driven stories are absent from this year’s top-nominated films? For one thing, the combined box office grosses of this year’s nominated films lag behind any single summer blockbuster, and this could translate into lower ratings for the Oscar telecast. The overwhelming “maleness” of these films might well be a factor.

Beyond this, the nominations matter because they hint at a larger disparity endemic in the film business: the ongoing underrepresentation of women onscreen and behind the scenes.

She’s right: The world presented in the movies is completely centered on the male existence. It’s important to keep that in mind.

But because I’m feeling particularly shallow right now, find my Oscar picks below the fold.

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