Who’s to Blame for The Bachelorette’s Slut-Shaming?

I don't think that Nick meant to hit Andi below the belt by saying
why did you make love with me, if you were going to pick the other
guy two days later.  At that point in the game why would Andi sleep
with both of the men if she was going to pick Josh?  If I were Josh,
I would have had second thoughts about the relationship, if I found
out that my future wife slept with another man two days before our
engagement.

Fox News The Five cohost Bob Beckel called The Bachelorette’s
Andi Dorfman a “slut” on his show Tuesday. It’s a demeaning
and infuriating comment that caters to double standards for
women and men, but it’s also the kind that The Bachelorette 
thrives on.

Why did Beckel make the comment about Andi and not the dozens
of women on these shows that have come before her? For those of
you who don’t keep up on reality TV news, a sort of bombshell was
dropped on an otherwise dull season of The Bachelorette Monday:
the runner-up of this season, Nick Viall, broke an unspoken rule on
Monday night: he talked about sex.

Both The Bachelor and The Bachelorette walk a fine line between
 prudishness and salaciousness by implying sex without ever
explicitly discussing it. This tricky balance comes to a head in
the third-to-last episode of each season when that season’s
Bachelor or Bachelorette can opt into sharing the Fantasy Suite
with any or all of the three remaining contestants vying for his or
her heart. The two sleep in the same room (littered with candles and.
 rose petals, though apparently not condoms) overnight, and the
cameras stop filming. Sex is implied, but any footage or discussion
 of it is edited out.

Until Monday, on the show’s live after show. “If you weren’t in love
with me, I’m just not sure why, like, why you made love with me,
” Nick said to Andi on the show, mentioning that their night together
 was, to him, “fiance-type stuff.”

Andi responded that his question was “below the belt” but reassured
him that the feelings she had shared with him were real.

(N.B. Andi shared the Fantasy Suite with two of the remaining three
contestants. Most Bachelors and Bachelorettes will spend the night
 with all three.)

The immediate reaction on Twitter was that Nick was a crazy stalker
who just slut-shamed Andi as revenge. The secondary fallout, however,
has been pointed at Andi. Enter, Fox News.

“She’s a slut!” Bob Beckel said on his show. “I’m not kidding you.
She sleeps with someone else, and then doesn’t tell the guy about it.
This is what America’s come to, this crap.”

Panelist Andrea Tantaros responded with outrage: “Are you kidding
me right now? Excuse me, Bob. You probably sleep with a different
woman every night.”

“I’m not some Bachelor or Bachelorette,” he shot back.

“Those in glass boudoirs, Beckel, those in glass Boudoirs,” she replied.

Even if Nick didn’t intend to slut-shame Andi with his question,
others inevitably picked up on his very public revelation about
their reality TV relationship and did the deed for him.

And I honestly do believe Nick did not intend any harm. Nick’s
entire M.O. this season of The Bachelor has been being skeptical
of the process in the beginning but allowing himself to become
vulnerable enough to fall in love with Andi on his “journey.” The
show also teased that Nick was notoriously bad with breakups
(this one is no exception),  and he was visibly shaking during their
face-to-face conversation.  I would like to (perhaps optimistically)
believe that Nick was truly hurt and trying to be honest about his
 feelings when he asked Andi .that question, and simply disregarded.
the show’s concocted and unspoken rule that one does not talk
about sex.

And if Nick was a woman, this complaint would never be considered
some sort of insult to a male Andi. It wouldn’t reflect poorly on Andi
if she were a man who had had sex with both contestants.
We wouldn’t see complaints on Fox News.

However, Nick’s question has a problematic undertone: he is implying
that Andi ought not sleep with someone unless she is in love with him.

And even though this franchise has aired for 12 years under the same
 premise, we still don’t like to think about the fact that people are having
sex with multiple people on this show.

Correction: we don’t like to think about women having sex on the show.

After all, the men are allowed to be “players.” In the “Men Tell All”
episode before this year’s finale, it was revealed that one of the
contestants failed a lie detector test about the number of women
he has slept with, saying previously that he had slept with less
than 20. The audience laughed. When Nick asked his question,
jaws dropped.

It’s 2014, so Andi has the right—like any other Bachelor or
Bachelorette or human being—to have sex for a myriad of
 reasons besides love. Plus, the show is also constructed to make
her develop feelings for more than one man at a time, so it
shouldn’t be shocking that she kisses or sleeps with or does
whatever with multiple men.

Nick’s question actually reminds me of an incident from the last
 season of The Bachelor in which a contestant named Clare showed
up at Bachelor Juan Pablo’s room at 4 a.m. and invited him for
a swim in the ocean.  They swam—and then some. Again, the show
danced around the sex,
but it was heavily implied.

After the incident, Juan Pablo essentially slut-shamed Clare for having
sex with him—even though he consented at the time. “Maybe it wasn’t
right,” he told her on the show. “I have a daughter, I don’t want her to
see what happens, if she sees it.”

Clare (understandably) was mortified because she believed she was a
consenting adult having sex with another consenting adult. “I knew
when we were in the ocean, that it was a mutual feeling. If he didn’t
think it was right he shouldn’t have done it. I would have respected
that,” she said to the camera as she cried.

Again, the woman is blamed for seducing the man, for having sex,
for not waiting until she is in love. (Juan Pablo uses his daughter
and family as a weapon, contrasting Clare to a motherly figure
for his daughter and essentially calling her a slut.)

So if you’re a woman, it’s best not to enter the Bachelor universe.
Talk of sex is frowned upon, but inevitable. Though the show itself
doesn’t encourage slut-shaming—Juan Pablo did that all on
his own—clearly the audience wants to use the show as a platform
for slut-shaming, as happened with Nick this season. After 12 years,
tacit agreements about avoiding sex talk are breaking down. Will
 anyone try to  “pull a Nick” next season and bring up sex or even
use sex talk as a strategy? Will the producers embrace this brave
new world of candidness? If so, talking heads like Bob
Beckel will be waiting in the weeds, ready to cry “slut.”

Erin Tomasello Casting Director how to avoid a CASTING SCAM

BREAKING NEWS: President Obama says up to 275 U.S. military troops will deploy to Iraq!

BAGHDAD --

The U.S. is urgently deploying several hundred armed troops in and around Iraq and considering sending an additional contingent of special forces soldiers as Baghdad struggles to repel a rampant insurgency, even as the White House insists anew that America will not be dragged into another war.

President Barack Obama notified Congress Monday that up to 275 troops could be sent to Iraq to provide support and security for U.S. personnel and the American Embassy in Baghdad. About 170 of those forces have already arrived and another 100 soldiers be on standby in a nearby country until they are needed, a U.S. official said.

While Obama has vowed to keep U.S. forces out of combat in Iraq, he said in his notification to Congress that the personnel moving into the region are equipped for direct fighting.

And separately, three U.S. officials said the White House was considering sending a contingent of special forces soldiers to Iraq. Their limited mission - which has not yet been approved - would focus on training and advising beleaguered Iraqi troops, many of whom have fled their posts across the nation's north and west as the al-Qaida-inspired insurgency has advanced in the worst threat to the country since American troops left in 2011.

The moves come at the White House wrestles with an array of options for helping Iraq repel a Sunni Muslim insurgency that has captured large swaths of territory collaring Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led government. In a rare move, U.S. officials reached out to Iran Monday to discuss ways the long-time foes might help stop the militants known as the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant.

The conversations took place on the sidelines of separate nuclear negotiations taking place in Vienna, Austria. U.S. officials quickly tamped down speculation that the discussion might include military coordination or consultation, though Secretary of State John Kerry said in an interview with Yahoo! News that the U.S. would "not rule out anything that would be constructive."

Kerry stressed that any contacts with Iran would move "step-by-step."

Taken together, the developments suggest a willingness by Obama to send Americans into a collapsing security situation in order to quell the brutal fighting in Iraq before it morphs into outright war.

The White House said the forces authorized for support and security will assist with the temporary relocation of some staff from the Baghdad embassy. The forces are entering Iraq with the consent of that country's government, the White House said.

Pentagon press secretary Rear Adm. John Kirby said the troops on standby could "provide airfield management, security, and logistics support, if required." They could work with embassy security teams or operate as a stand-alone force as directed.

Officials would not say where the soldiers would be on standby, but It is likely they would be in Kuwait, which was a major basing ground for U.S. troops during the Iraq war.

If the U.S. were to deploy an additional team of special forces, the mission would almost certainly be small. One U.S. official said it could be up to 100 special forces soldiers. It also could be authorized only as an advising and training mission - meaning the soldiers would work closely with Iraqi forces that are fighting the insurgency but would not officially be considered as combat troops.

It's not clear how quickly the special forces could arrive in Iraq. It's also unknown whether they would remain in Baghdad or be sent to the nation's north, where the Sunni Muslim insurgency has captured large swaths of territory collaring Baghdad, the capital of the Shiite-led government.

The troops would fall under the authority of the U.S. ambassador in Baghdad and would not be authorized to engage in combat, another U.S. official said. Their mission would be "non-operational training" of both regular and counter terrorism units, which the military has in the past interpreted to mean training on military bases, the official said.

However, all U.S. troops are allowed to defend themselves in Iraq if they are under attack. Already, about 100 Marines and Army soldiers have been sent to Baghdad to help with embassy security, according to a U.S. official.

The three U.S. officials all spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to publicly discuss the plans by name.

Obama made the end of the war in Iraq one of his signature campaign issues, and has touted the U.S. military withdrawal in December 2011 as one of his top foreign policy successes. But he has been caught over the past week between Iraqi officials pleading for help - as well as Republicans blaming him for the loss of a decade's worth of gains in Iraq - and his anti-war Democratic political base, which is demanding that the U.S. stay out of the fight.

While the White House continues to review its options, Iran's military leaders are starting to step into the beach.

The commander of Iran's elite Quds Force, Gen. Ghasem Soleimani, was in Iraq on Monday and consulting with the government there on how to stave off insurgents' gains. Iraqi security officials said the U.S. government was notified in advance of the visit by Soleimani, whose forces are a secretive branch of Iran's Revolutionary Guard that in the past has organized Shiite militias to target U.S. troops in Iraq and, more recently, was involved in helping Syria's President Bashar Assad in his fight against Sunni rebels.

In the short term, the U.S. and Iran both want the Shiite-led government of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki stabilized and the Sunni-led insurgency stopped. But in the long run, the United States would like to see an inclusive, representative democracy take hold in Iraq, while predominantly Shiite Iran is more focused on protecting Iraq's Shiite population and bolstering its own position as a regional power against powerful Sunni Arab states in the Gulf.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said any discussion with Iran would concern ways that Iran could help press al-Maliki's government to be more inclusive and treat all of Iraq's religious and ethnic groups equally.

Any talks with Iran "would be to discuss the political component here and our interest in encouraging Iraqi leaders to act in a responsible, nonsectarian way," she told reporters. "Certainly a discussion of that is something that we would be open to."

Why The Arsenio Hall Show Was Canceled

Arsenio Hall was supposed to spend the week of June 2 in New York City, touting the upcoming second season of his late-night talk show on The View, Howard Stern's SiriusXM radio show andLate Show with David Letterman.Instead, he was in Los Angeles, packing up boxes, bidding adieu to his staff and sharing via social media his disappointment over his show's cancellation. "I dreamed that they picked up my show for Season 2, then changed their minds and canceled the show," he tweeted to Magic Johnson. "Had to be a dream." Indeed, despite renewing The Arsenio Hall Show in February, CBS Television Distribution surprised Hall and his staff at the end of May by reversing course and canceling the show.

Arsenio was on a scheduled break when the decision came down, which means Hall didn't get a chance to produce a farewell show. "Most of my team went on vacation after celebrating our 2nd year pick up...and returned to cancellation," he tweeted. Fans were dismayed, and Hall's exit strikes a blow for diversity in late night. "In my five years in the cast of a network comedy, Arsenio Hall and George Lopez were the only late night talk shows couches I was welcomed to," Communitystar Yvette Nicole Brown tweeted. What happened?

1. Arsenio was losing its time slots. Tribune Broadcasting was a partner in the show, but when even its flagship New York station, WPIX, moved Arsenio from 11 to 11:30, it was clear others would follow. The real blow came when CBS got word that one of the nation's largest local station operators, Sinclair Broadcast Group, was set to downgrade Arsenio out of the 11pm—midnight period. Insiders say CBS then crunched the numbers and realized advertising revenue would take a huge hit.

2. The audience just wasn't there. After opening strong, Arseniodropped 60 percent in the key demo of viewers ages 18-49. "You can't be the fourth choice out there," a show insider says. CBS Television Distribution said in a statement, "While there are many loyal fans of the show, the series did not grow its audience enough to continue."

3. It needed a new showrunner. Executive producer Neal Kendallexited soon after the show premiered and was never replaced; CBS executive Eric Pankowski ran things in the interim. The studio had planned to hire a showrunner with a strong comedy background, but execs opted not to spend the money necessary to bring in a new production team.

4. It was struggling creatively. Insiders always believed it would take at least a year for Hall to get comfortable. Arsenio made big waves with such episodes as the one devoted to Prince, but it struggled to book other big-name guests.

5. Failure is the nature of syndication. Syndicated shows are subject to the whims of stations that want quick results and have itchy trigger fingers. (WPIX wasted no time replacing Arseniowith Seinfeld repeats.) There's a reason there hasn't been a major syndicated late-night talk show in years. In a bit of irony, the most recent one that worked was the original Arsenio Hall Show, which was squeezed off the air in 1994, more than five years after its history-making launch. John Ferriter, Hall's current executive producer, tells us he's talking to Hall about what the host would like to do next, including whether to pursue a new home for his show. But for now, the Dog Pound is closed.  SAD!

BOBBY'S OSCAR PICKS

The country is in an uproar over who will take home an Academy Award this year. This is the first time I can remember that the Academy did it right with whom they chose to honor. The 86th annual Academy Awards will air at 7 p.m. EST Sunday on ABC. The list of nine Best Picture nominees showcases how impressive the film industry was over the past 12 months. The artistry, subject matter, stories and performances that make up these hopefuls are some of the best ever captured on film. Best Picture nominees include “American Hustle,” “Captain Phillips,” “Dallas Buyers Club,” “Gravity,” “Her,” “Nebraska,” “Philomena,” “12 Years A Slave” and “The Wolf Of Wall Street.” “12 Years A Slave” illustrates the power of the human spirit. My pick would be 12 Years A Slave Up for Best Actress this year with Bullock are Amy Adams (“American Hustle”), Cate Blanchett (“Blue Jasmine”), Judi Dench (“Philomena”) and Meryl Streep (“August: Osage County”). I’m going with Amy Adams for her role in American Hustle, Her body of work could warrant her the win, as Oscar voters tend to look beyond the nominated role when handing out Academy Awards. For Best Actor Matthew McConaughey, Christian Bale (“American Hustle”), Bruce Dern (“Nebraska”), Leonardo DiCaprio (“The Wolf Of Wall Street”) and Chiwetel Ejiofor (“12 Years A Slave”). Matthew McConaughey has Best Actor in the bag for “Dallas Buyers Club. Best Supporting Actress nominees, including Sally Hawkins (“Blue Jasmine”), Jennifer Lawrence (“American Hustle”), Lupita Nyong’o (“12 Years A Slave”), Julia Roberts (“August: Osage County”) and June Squibb (“Nebraska”). Lupita Nyong’o will win. Supporting Actors are Barkhad Abdi (“Captain Phillips”), Bradley Cooper (“American Hustle”), Michael Fastbender (“12 Years A Slave”), Jonah Hill (“The Wolf Of Wall Street”) and Jared Leto (“Dallas Buyers Club”). Leto was amazing, and will win! WHO DO YOU THINK WILL WIN?

'Friends' Star Lisa Kudrow Loses $1.6 Million Lawsuit

A verdict has been reached in the civil lawsuit filed against Lisa Kudrow by her former manager, who claims he is owed residuals from her days on "Friends." A 10-2 decision was reached in favor of Scott Howard, who was Kudrow's manager from 1991 to 2007, saying the actress was liable for breach of contract, KABC reports. The jury awarded the plaintiff $1.6 million for past and future economic losses. The legal dispute began in 2008, a year after they parted ways, when Howard, sued Kudrow for refusing to pay him more than $50,000 in fees from her earnings. Howard claimed in court last week that in 1991, the two made an oral agreement that Howard would receive a 10 percent cut of Kudrow's income she obtained or performed while he was her manager.. He added that when he and Kudrow split after 16 years of working together, the actress stopped paying him. He argued that Kudrow owes him a percentage of what she earns on "Friends" reruns and other projects. In a statement, Kudrow’s attorney Gerald Sauer said, "The jury’s verdict is merely one step in the legal process. This case ultimately will be resolved at the appellate level. Ms. Kudrow has faith in the judicial system, and she believes that the eventual outcome of this contractual dispute will be in her favor." In a statement of his own, Scott Howard’s attorney Mark Baute countered, "What generally happens now with unsophisticated actress clients is they overpay for filing a frivolous appeal that has no chance for success. The verdict is rock solid, and we look forward to collecting 10 percent, 16,000 dollars a month, in post-judgment interest while their frivolous appeal is pending. We will collect that interest for two years, which is how long it will take for the Court of Appeal to affirm this jury's righteous verdict." In court documents, Kudrow had claimed she had "no obligation to pay Howard" a commission after the two ended their professional partnership. Attorneys for Kudrow countered that Howard was the actress's manager, not her agent, and thus is not entitled to a commission. Kudrow, 50, starred from 1994 through 2004 as Phoebe on "Friends." She began the show as one of the lowest-paid actresses among the show's six stars – earning $13,500 per episode. Starting in 2004, Kudrow earned over $1 million for each of the show's final 18 episodes. ABC News'