Brad Pitt Shopping

Guli, I’m so sorry about your cat. At least your family will have time to say good-bye. 18 is a good age for a cat. That indicates to me that you always took good care of him. We lost our dog last year, and we still miss her daily. I actually took 2 days off because I was in tears constantly. She was only 5, and developed a sudden high fever that the vet said was cancer after a day of keeping her in their "ice" room to try and bring it down. I thought I was going to pick her up to bring her home, and I just brought her home to say good-bye - we all went up together and held her until the end. They are such a big part of our families. My good wishes to you and your family.

Anyone who doesn’t understand what Guli, Estelle, and Original Curious are talking about is missing a big part of life. Animals are people too — just furry and with more legs! Or like Estelle’s fish, and who was it with the grey parrot and turtles and dogs and cats? — sometimes with feathers or fins, or shells! When my beloved dog died, after 13 years, I was in bed for three days. It took two years before I could play with another dog and started thinking about wanting one again, and two years after that to find the right one. Now my new dog, also from an animal shelter, is such a joy to have in my life. Guli, never apologize for your grief. No one apologizes for their grief over a grandparent or friend. Your cat was your friend, your child, your companion, someone you lived with for years, someone a part of your life. Of course you will miss him, and let yourself feel whatever you do. Tell stories and look at pictures and remember everything wonderful and annoying and funny about your friend. And then think that they are still alive, their soul lives on, they just didn’t need that body anymore, and they are happy in heaven. Yes, I truly believe that animals have souls (people always want to say animals don’t have souls or emotions just to make themselves superior, but there is no need to, because we are all created by God). It’s people thrown out of the Garden of Eden, not animals, they are in a state of Grace and go back to the Creator and can still be with you in spirit, right there when you tell him you love him. He just can’t cuddle with you but he is part of the universe now in a much better way. Peace to you, and maybe in time, you will be able to love another furry friend. But take your time, and do it in YOUR time, don’t let anyone push you or tell you what is right for you. All the best, Guli.

Estelle and Original Curious, and anyone else who is suffering from this loss, yes it is for you, too. I have great respect and admiration for those who love their animals like you do.

# 265 | Passing Through"We didn’t really have the heart to tell it was TMI."In that scenario, it’s more than TMI; it’s TMV - TOO MUCH VISUAL! I would’ve asked for my lunch to be doggy-bagged as soon as those pictures were pulled out. You’re a better friend than I!!# 270 | Estelle"I think it’s so wonderful that you found your soulmate…(sigh)…I hope someday I will too."Estelle, you may have saw my words (actually Wong-Kar Wai) in passing to my special playmate, right? Keep your windows open for you may never know when that wind might blow in. Now, I’m going to refrain from turning it into a frat-boy or snarky joke. If you’re half as sweet & delightful as you are online, you’re going to make a man very grateful he has you in his life. # 292 | African Girl Look, AG, you’ve heard of wedding planners, right? (That might have been the better option for your cuz.) Well, there are bridesmaid relievers. Yep, you’re familiar with the doctors-in-the-wings to excuse students from big exams, employees from work to play hooky, and so on. You need someone to relieve you of your duty as a bridesmaid. I’ll tell you from experience, it first involves this wonderful and valuable word: "NO!"# 300 | Passing ThroughHalle Berry is no doubt beautiful, and she has the prettiest skin tone. But I see Halle’s beauty as one more of this world, meaning we can find women we meet in daily life as beautiful as Halle. With Angie (and again, I have in mind the pictures of her premieres for "Shark Tales"), her beauty is extraordinary. What you see is what she looked then. No airbrushing. No flattering lighting. Boy, she looked absolutely amazing (Tom and Katie’s favorite word!). # 311 | Estelle"fighter pilot by day and breast milkman by night"There’s a joke screaming in that line, but I won’t go there. :) CBS had a reporter who would go to different towns and pick a name from a telephone directory. Then, he would visit that person for that person’s tale. His premise was that everybody has a story to tell in him/her. My twist on it is that behind every face is a lifestory worth hearing. (My only caveat is don’t unload your lifestory when I’m sitting next to you in an airplane and trapped with no escape routes.) You’re proof of that with each layer of story you share with us. It’s the first time I’ve heard of a parent having to buy breast milk for his baby. Then again, I still remember that in Thailand (I believe), there was a woman who offered to breastfeed baby tigers after there was a call for volunteers. It kind of made me wonder if it weren’t just some perv zookeeper on one of his kinky fantasies. But I digress. # 316 | Estelle "5. It is important that these four men don’t know each other."Perfect! That caught a little chuckle from me. # 327 | the real tita "She is one conceited so and so and I hated her hysterical speech at the Oscars."Tell me about it, real tita. She made my skin crawl and my eyes rolled. She was so full of herself with placing her Oscar achievement as further opening the doors for people of color. What kind of arrogant bullshit was that? I’ll leave it at that since I don’t want to offend anyone. # 338 | Passing ThroughInteresting. But honestly, I wouldn’t open such an email. For one, I wouldn’t believe Brad and Angie would be that careless. They are so much under the microscope, I’d think they aren’t only running background checks on everyone but looking over their shoulders. Second, I’m extremely wary of opening up unfamiliar emails. I’ve been getting loads of emails asking for confirmation of my email with offers of free gift cards and computers - a change from all the porno spam. Thanks for the heads-up though. # 357 | Passing Through Thanks, Passing Through, for posting that Salon article. I believe that is the same one I saw on Soulie Jolie. I’ve been meaning to share that article with the gang, as well. So you’ve saved me. For those unaware of Pauline Kael, she was the most influential and revered film critic of her time and beyond. So her words had weight and importance. That she thought Angie was a brilliant actress is high praise indeed. # 362 | EstelleYeah, it was Gwyneth Paltrow who ruined "Sky Captain." It would have been far more interesting if the focus was on Angie’s character. I don’t like Gwyneth’s real personality and find her extremely ordinary in her looks. Nevertheless, I’ll watch her films because she does a lot of English period films. And I have to concede she’s a better-than-average actress. I may be one of the few, but I like Scarlett Johannsen (even if I can’t spell her last name correctly). She has a timeless, chameleon beauty that works in period and contemporary dramas. The girl definitely has the "It" factor. # 377 | African Girl It’s because of all the hype that I read Da Vinci Code. It’s based on a very clever premise that has enough historical factoids to make it work. It takes a lot of its themes from a previous book called, "Holy Blood, Holy Grail." But often, Dan Brown, gets too overly pedantic in describing so-called facts, as with the Divine Proportions. In the end, it succumbs to the cliched endings that most thrillers unfold into. # 387 | Passing Through I think I know which NYDN you’re referring to. I first read it on Google news. I felt the article tried to play it both ways but ultimately was too derisive in its painting Angie as some cunning "media *****" even as the writer admits Angie had no publicist. I believe the article was something of "saint or sinner." Because I knew how much haters jumped on anything negative, I didn’t bother to post it to the site I was hanging out at the time. But someone else wasn’t so considerate and thought the article was a glowing report. So s/he posted and it got another of the lynching mentality by the haters.

Hey look, Brad’s New Orleans’ effort made BBC:http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/4930620.stm

I know this is a Brad thread, but it’s been pretty quite regarding BAMZ+1 updates. Denise Richards is having some SERIOUS problems with Charlie Sheen. Check it out. Brad/Angie you are so LUCKY you found one another!!!http://tmz.aol.com/article2?id=20060421102409990001

# 412 | COLD HARD MATHI heard the Denise Richards story on E!’s Daily 10. I’ve always suspected Denise would have a hell of sordid tales to tell, but she blew me away to what she was holding back. Good gracious!!

Susie, please do tell. Is Nick implying that Jessica did cheat on him? I thought it was interesting of the publicized quote by Nick that Adam Levine assured him he didn’t do anything with Jessica while she was with him. That means to me, Adam did play around with Jessica after the separation. Apparently, he just treated her as another of the tissues to be tossed aside. It’s interesting when no-name musicians make it big and start playing the field. Adam dumped his then-girlfriend who was with him before he made a name. And now, James Blunt has ditched his then-girlfriend.

# 408 | cindy2-thank you…;), I will have my window open…:)you know, my father told me that if you were just a regular soldier, not much money monthly, and most of the soldier have wife and children and these young soldiers can barely survive with just a soldier salary, so my father offer the money to help out, eventhough they would gladly help us out for free…it was a way of respect from all parties, I think. And thank you for sharing the story of your cats…those cats were lucky to have you, but the way you talked about them, I feel you were lucky to have them as well.I saw his concert last year, my new favorite singer ffor the moment. To everyone in this Bamz+1 family.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yms7TD5JrRw&search=michael%20buble

# 418 | Estelle Estelle, you have a great dad! You should try to write down all those stories you have about your family. Some day your future children can be delighted and entertained by the tales. And when your memory falters, you will have those memories forever pressed on the pages or hard drive, if you will.

I am trying to decide which of these remarks offers the most potential for a 5-minute-celeb-gos-blog-amusement:Let’s see. Would it be:1, "You can probably count on one hand the number of women Brad’s been involved with."or2. "We’ll probably have a vice-chair as well on the jury to help Brad. There will be a lot of experienced people on there as well as Brad." What do you guys think?

Calling all Brangelina and Bamz fans. Link to http://www.nationalledger.com/artman/publish/article_27265198.shtml