Jezebel

Cat Stench at Cat Lady’s House Gets So Bad It Sets Off the Smoke Detector [Hoarding]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 23:15:00 EDT

It's been a bad week for cat ladies in the news. First, a woman in Israel made headlines when her husband left her after she chose her 550 cats over him, and now a woman in New Jersey has raised (or rather lowered) the bar in the sad field of cat hoarding. In what has to be a cat lady first, it appears that the stench of dozens of decomposing cat bodies set off the fire alarm at the home of 65-year-old woman in Monmouth, New Jersey. The fire department responded to the alarm at the three-story house but found no flames. What they did find—to their great horror, no doubt—were the bodies of 36 cats in various states of decomposition. Ohhh no. That is the saddest possible ending to any cat hoarding story. May those little felines rest in peace for eternity on the big cat bed in the sky. As for their owner/captor, it's not clear whether there were any cats still living in the house, but the police chief says it's expected that the woman will be charged with animal cruelty and be given other citations. More »

May 29, 2012 [The Big Picture]

Tue, 29 May 2012 22:45:00 EDT

THE BIG PICTURE | New Delhi, India, May 29: Activists form a human chain as part of a 'Save the Girl Child' campaign. [AP]

Donatella and Allegra Versace Are a Study in Contrasts [Snap Judgment]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:30:00 EDT

LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM - MAY 29: Allegra Versace and Donatella Versace attend Glamour Women of the Year Awards 2012 at Berkeley Square Gardens on May 29, 2012 in London, England. (Photo by Stuart Wilson/Getty Images) More »

Chagas: The Scary Disease Some Are Calling the New AIDS [Diseases]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 22:00:00 EDT

Just when it seemed like all the super scary diseases had been discovered—flesh-eating bacteria, brain tapeworms, and, of course, HIV/AIDS, among many others—a new one comes along to bring fresh terror into our hearts. Introducing Chagas disease, which is caused by parasites that get into our bodies by way of blood-sucking insects. Ick. As for what it does, about one quarter of people who have it develop enlarged hearts or intestines which can eventually fail—or worse, burst—leading to death. Gaaah. Naturally, it's very difficult to treat and is normally only curable if caught early. More »

Meghan McCain Calls Adultery Deplorable, But Forgets Her Father Is an Adulterer [Meghan Mccain]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 21:15:00 EDT

Well, you have to hand it to Meghan McCain. She's just taken hypocrisy to a fascinating new level. She's got a new book out, and Politico got ahold of it. In it, she calls Bill Clinton out for having "cheated and lied" during the Monica Lewinsky affair, and says she's "never cheated on a boyfriend" because her parents raised her not to lie, cheat, or steal. Must be nice to be standing on such firm, unshakeable moral high ground. She concludes, More »

Bobby Brown Vows that Daughter Bobbi Kristina Will Never Escape His Disgusting Reputation [Dirt Bag]

Lindy West — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:55:00 EDT

World's Yuckiest Blowhard Bobby Brown responded to rumors that daughter Bobbi Kristina plans to change her last name to distance herself from him: "She can't change her last name, her name is her name. She'll forever be known as Bobbi Kristina Brown. There's no changing that, there's no taking that back." Bobby Brown made you, so BOBBY BROWN OWNS YOU. He also said that, if allegations of Bobbi Kristina's drug abuse are true, he's confident that it's just a "phase," and she's not following in her parents' footsteps. This concludes another exciting episode of Bobby Brown: Name Lawyer! [MTV] More »

Comment of the Day: F. Scott Fitzgerald Would Be Proud [Reader Roundup]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 20:00:00 EDT

After someone made a mashup of My Little Ponies and The Great Gatsby , there was only one thing left to do: rework the final line of the book, pony-style. Thankfully, Mrs. Gideon Regrets has done it perfectly: More »

Garfunkel and Oates Prove That Things Look Very Different from Either Side of 30 [Video]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:40:00 EDT

So much can change in two short years. More »

Rihanna Knows The Best Things In Life Aren't Free [Tweet Beat]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:20:00 EDT

In this edition of Tweet Beat, money buys happiness, Schmidt FINALLY meets Katie Couric, Wendy Williams courts Ricky Martin and Azealia Banks reveals a cartoonish crush. More »

Please Stop Bugging Michelle Obama About Running for Senate [Flotus]

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 19:00:00 EDT

She may have academic credentials that match her Commander-in-Chief husband, the popular appeal of Madeleine Albright circa 1999, and the fashion chops of Carla Bruni, but Michelle Obama wants to make it clear that she's not interested in running for Senate in 2016. In other news, people are already starting to badger Michelle Obama about running for Senate in 2016. I never thought I'd say this with this mental tone of voice, but Thanks a LOT, Hillary Clinton. More »

Cry Your Way to the Top, Ladies [Running In Heels]

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:45:00 EDT

During a speech to Harvard Business School, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg told the gathered aspiring magnates that part of her success can be attributed to ... crying at work. Record scratch sound! What?! More »

How Many Pianists Does It Take to Play 'Ni**as in Paris'? [Video]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:30:00 EDT

Seven if you're doing it right. More »

Meet the Christian, Formerly Anti-Abortion Doctor Who Now Performs Late-Term Abortions [Roe V. World]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 18:15:00 EDT

Dr. Willie J. Parker has been an outspoken advocate for access to abortion services and is also an abortion provider himself in Washington, DC. In fact, he's one of the few doctors in the country who will perform late-term abortions. He is also one of many people who is opposed to Congress's awful plan to ban abortions after 20 weeks in the District of Columbia. But Dr. Parker makes a particularly convincing case because of his history. He is a Christian who was raised in the south to be very anti-abortion. It was only after working for years as an OB/GYN that he came to be convinced that providing abortions was the right thing to do. Far from being an evil death monster, as some anti-abortion advocates might label him, he is a man of great compassion who has based his decisions on what he sees in his patients' lives, not on some inflexible ideology. The New Jersey Star-Ledger interviewed him recently, and the points he makes are an excellent reminder that the abortions happen in the real world— they're not just some theoretical thing that whores and lazy sluts do for fun. More »

Hey, Men, I'm Funnier Than You [Women At Work]

Lindy West — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:50:00 EDT

Oh, great! Let's talk some more about how women aren't funny. Science has performed yet another study of terrible people, and—surprise!—unearthed terrible results: Apparently women in the workplace are incapable of making funny jokes. Men's jokes, on the other hand, receive laughs 90% of the time. The reason? Well, science checked with conventional wisdom, and conventional wisdom explained that "Men in general are the 'funnier sex.'" COOL STORY, BROS. TELL IT AGAIN. More »

The Great Gatsby/My Little Pony Mashup You Never Knew You Needed [Video]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:30:00 EDT

Sure, in the beginning a friendship with Jay Gatsby is certainly magic, but just you wait. More »

If Women Don't Get More Interested in Tech They're Going to Get Left Behind [Notable/quotable]

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 29 May 2012 17:10:00 EDT

In an interview with Mother Jones, Jen Pahlka — web guru, "rock-star" in the computer-gaming world and founder of Code for America — explains how technology can fix what's broken in American cities. But she also talks about a tech-oriented future in which women will need to step up: More »

Mad Men: Working Girls [Video]

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:40:00 EDT

Over the years, viewers have watched the very different trajectories of the lives of Joan and Peggy. Each has navigated the choppy waters of the cultural sea change in the 1960s of women in the workplace—in which "jobs" can now be "careers"—with their own methods that are as diverse as their results. More »

Meet Your Next Superstars of Electronic Music: A Bunch of Monkeys [Video]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:20:00 EDT

Is making electronic music so easy that a monkey could do it? I don't know about that, but this group of primates have what we in the biz call the "it factor." More »

In Which Dominic Monaghan Flat-Out Accuses Matthew Fox of Being a Habitual Woman Beater [Accusations]

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 29 May 2012 16:00:00 EDT

Here's a blast from the past for Lost fans: Drama between Jack and Charlie. It began innocently enough on Sunday, when a Lost-addicted young woman named Becca made a plea to Dominic Monaghan — he played Charlie — on Twitter. She begged Monaghan to persuade his costar to sign up for the social media. More »

Beauty Comes Before Bravery for Target Girls [Badvertising]

Katie J.M. Baker — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:40:00 EDT

Pixar's upcoming movie, Brave, is the studio's first film with a female lead: Merida, a "skilled archer" who is "determined to carve her own path in life" even though she's a princess in an ancient Scottish Kingdom. Awesome, right? Target thinks so, too; the store already has a ton of Brave merchandise for little girls who want to look just like Merida. More »

How to Pee Anywhere [Lady Macgyver]

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:20:00 EDT

No matter how careful she is, no matter how her bigass purse teems with delicate, fluttery paper products and hand lotion and tampons and aspirin and band aids, there will come a time in every woman's life when she's faced with a desperate pee situation. A toilet will be clogged, a bathroom inaccessible, the line for the bar's commode buzzing with bug-eyed coke users who can't wait to spend 10 minutes in there jabbering about how they're best friends now and isn't this music awesome? She will have to take a piss in a place that isn't a traditional sit-down toilet situation, and so will you. Here's how to do it without getting pee all over yourself, getting arrested, or accidentally urinating for an audience. More »

How to Make Turtle Sex a Real Classy Affair, With Sir David Attenborough [Video]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 15:00:00 EDT

Sir David Attenborough was on The Graham Norton Show recently where he was asked by the host to add his famous voice to a popular viral video of a tortoise making sweet sweet love to a shoe. Suddenly, the whole thing seems a lot more highbrow. More »

German Vogue Shows Supermodels Without Photoshop [NSFW] [Fashion]

Jenna Sauers — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:30:00 EDT

June is the first month in which Vogue magazine is supposed to live up to the strictures of its new "Health Initiative," a voluntary attempt at self-regulation by the fashion bible's 19 international editions. Vogue will, as of this month, no longer "knowingly hire" models under the age of 16; it will no longer "knowingly hire" models "who appear to have an eating disorder"; and it will be an ambassador "for the message of healthy body image." How is the brand doing so far? Well, Vogue Germany opted to mark the transition by running an un-Photoshopped Peter Lindbergh spread featuring 11 prominent German women of various ages — including actors, models, and the editor-in-chief of the magazine herself. Vogue calls the pictures "unvarnished, unadulterated, pure." While not exactly groundbreaking — we've seen Lindbergh shoot supermodels in black-and-white, without Photoshop, before — the spread is an interesting counterpoint to the over-'Shopped ladymag new normal. Will Vogue keep its commitments? That remains to be seen. But these pictures sure are pretty. More »

Etsy Forces Us to Examine What 'Handmade' Means [Etsy]

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 29 May 2012 14:10:00 EDT

Next month, Etsy will mark its seventh year in business, and the company is now worth a whopping $600 million. But this impressive growth comes with issues: Namely, the fact that a small portion of the stuff in the so-called "handmade marketplace" is not exactly handmade. More »

Cannes Comes to a Close With One Last Glamour Parade [Good/bad/ugly]

Tracie Egan Morrissey — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:50:00 EDT

After a week's worth of elaborate evening gowns the 65th Annual Cannes Film Festival ended with the closing ceremony at which jury member Diane Kruger looked like Scarlett O'Hara before the war. More »

The Victoria's Secret Sexy List Is Chock-Full Of Skinny Blondes [Victoria's Secret]

Dodai Stewart — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:30:00 EDT

Its reason and purpose is unclear, but Victoria's Secret has created a list. The 2012 What Is Sexy? List awards distinctions like Sexiest Summer Style, Sexiest Summer Glow, and Sexiest Tweeter. You know, the stuff legends are made of. It's silly, sure, but it's also very telling. The company, whose customer is primarily young women, lists 18 categories. One grouping, Sexiest TV Cast, features brunettes: The cast of Pretty Little Liars. Everyone else on the list is blond. Well, Jessica Chastain and Emma Stone have been redheads. But still. More »

Female Drug Cartels Prove Women Can Be Just as Good at Mass Murder as Men [Crime And Punishment]

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 13:10:00 EDT

Hooray! Girl power! A new generation of female leaders of Mexican drug cartels are proving that women are just as capable of being bloodthirsty sociopaths with no regard for human life or decency as their male counterparts! You've come a long way, baby. More »

How to Feel When an Impossibly Promising 22-Year-Old Passes Away [Rip]

Katie J.M. Baker — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:30:00 EDT

I think it's safe to say that most of us would have been at least a little bit jealous of Marina Keegan before last Saturday. She was a 22-year-old recent Yale graduate about to start a job as an editorial assistant at the New Yorker in a few weeks — before then, her plan was to revise the musical she had written, set to run at the New York International Fringe Festival later this summer. More »

David Beckham Is the First Man to Make the Cover of British Elle [Video]

Jenna Sauers — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:10:00 EDT

A shirtless and soaking wet David Beckham appears on the cover of British Elle. As promised, Beckham is the first man to score a solo cover of the women's magazine — ever. Inside, the soccer star says such insightful things as, "How would I sum myself up? I don't know, I prefer other people to do that. Erm, a little bit shy. I don't know what to say, I hate describing myself." [Elle UK] More »

Terribly Dumb Sting Operation Claims It Captures Planned Parenthood Endorsing Sex-Selective Abortion [Video]

Erin Gloria Ryan — Tue, 29 May 2012 12:00:00 EDT

A newly-released undercover sting video by the Top Secret Junior Adventurer Club known as Live Action shows a Planned Parenthood counselor in Texas instructing an actor pretending to be a pregnant woman woman on how to obtain an abortion if she finds out that her fetus is female. The anti-abortion rights group, known for its dramatic black and white footage, sad piano music, and embarrassing hack job sting operations against abortion clinics, triumphantly claims that this video shows that Planned Parenthood supports sex-selective abortion, and They Must Be Stopped. More »

The Kardashians Just Can't Keep Up With Where Los Angeles Is Located [Kardashians]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 11:10:00 EDT

The Kardashians are not known for their book smarts, but you'd think that the producers of their show would at least know a thing or two about basic geography. Apparently not, because as someone on Reddit pointed out, the show woefully misrepresented where Los Angeles is on the map. I did a bit of quick research in my kollection of Keeping Up with the Kardashians episodes (my head hurts from hanging so low in shame), and this hilarious error was made in episode 10 of last season. Instead of leaving from Los Angeles en route to a family vacation in Bora Bora, it seems the Kardashian Klan actually left from central Mexico. Maybe this explains why Bruce Jenner never seems to know where he is. More »

6-Year-Old Girl Preps for Scripps Spelling Bee Debut as Youngest Contestant Ever [Kids These Days]

Madeleine Davies — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:50:00 EDT

At only six-years-old, Virginia girl Lori Anne Madison has become the youngest person to qualify for the Scripps National Spelling Bee in its entire 87-year history. Madison began reading at the age of two and has been taught at home by her professor mother since being told that she was too "advanced to attend" her school's gifted program. Having competed in spelling bees since the age of 3, she is approaching Scripps with confidence and hopes to walk away with at least one trophy. When asked how she feels about going up against a group of contestants who, on average, are about twice here age, Lori Anne responded, "I am not scared. Definitely not scared." More »

Women 'Depend' on Social Media While Men Use the Internet to Get Smarter and Richer [Internet]

Katie J.M. Baker — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:25:00 EDT

Women can't imagine living without Facebook and Twitter while stoic men would totally be able to do without, since they only use the internet for, like, banking and "supplementing their learning," bro. More »

Vogue Fails Miserably at Capturing the Athleticism of Olympic Athletes [Vogue]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 10:00:00 EDT

Hot on the heels of making a pledge to be "ambassadors for the message of healthy body image," Vogue has made its June issue the Olympic edition, complete with Olympians on its cover. Sounds great, right? You might think this is a great chance to showcase the bodies of these athletes in action, to prove that powerful, athletic bodies are beautiful and worth aspiring to. Just kidding, this is obviously a time to dress the lady athletes up in fashionable outfits and a time to stick a model awkwardly into shots with a bunch of ripped male athletes. Oh, Vogue, never change. More »

Ceiling Fan, Meet Cat. [Video]

Cassie Murdoch — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:30:00 EDT

This brave kitty is so close to achieving glory in his leap for the ceiling fan, but unfortunately he makes just one tiny miscalculation. Oh well, he gets extra credit for not being dumb enough to jump onto it while it was moving. More »

Rihanna and Brooklyn Decker Want to Frankenstein Their Bodies to Create a Sexy Monster [Video]

Luke Malone — Tue, 29 May 2012 09:00:00 EDT

Have you ever wondered what celebrities talk about when sequestered away making a movie on location? Well, when it came to Brooklyn Decker and Rihanna on the set of Battleship it was tits and ass, apparently. Gushing, we hope drunkenly, about how amazing each other's bodies were, the pair decided that while they were both doing okay in the physique department a few adjustments would be welcome. "We are envious of each other's bodies," said Decker. "We decided that I'm going to borrow her butt for a day — and she's going to borrow my breasts." Though the thought of their bodies Frankensteined together creates an interesting mental picture, Decker will have to get used to her breasts getting flashed around – as Rihanna is wont to do with her own. "Because I'm such a tomboy, I hate showing off my body," added Decker. [Us] More »

Uh Oh: Radioactive Bluefin Tuna Appear on the Coast of California [Wtf]

Cassie Murdoch — Mon, 28 May 2012 23:55:00 EDT

This sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie, but, alas, it is real: There are now radioactive Bluefin tuna swimming off the shores of the United States. How did they get that way? It happened as a result of the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Dai-ichi reactors that was set off after the huge earthquake in Japan in March of last year. More »

Hilarious Kid Wakes Up From Surgery Acting Like a Drunk and Very Dizzy Frat Boy [Video]

Cassie Murdoch — Mon, 28 May 2012 23:00:00 EDT

It pretty much never gets old to watch kids coming out of their drug-induced haze after medical procedures, and Matt here is no exception. He has just woken up from having surgery on his arm, and the meds are making him a little bit loopy. His adoption of various characters—from confused frat boy all the way to drunken valley girl and back again—are hilarious, but his "I just farted. You know what I'm sayin'?" really tops off the whole experience. If only adults were half this entertaining when high. More »

Bar Refaeli Has a Girl Crush on Jennifer Lawrence But Pledges to Marry Justin Bieber [Notable/quotable]

Cassie Murdoch — Mon, 28 May 2012 22:15:00 EDT

Model Bar Refaeli is the number one lady on Maxim's Hot 100 list and could probably have her pick of romantic partners, but it seems like she's already made her choice. The 26-year-old, who last dated Leonardo DiCaprio, says she's nursing a bit of a lady crush on Jennifer Lawrence: More »