Tatu Is Tired of Trying to Shock You
It looks like girl group Tatu won't be French kissing each other onstage any time soon. Not since they fired their manager, Ivan Shapovalov, anyway. Lena Katina, 19, and Julia Volkova, 18, complained that Ivan seemed more interested in drumming up scandal (big surprise) than making music. A typical Tatu performance often included shock antics like hundreds of young girls stripping down to their underwear and making out onstage-remember last year's MTV Movie Awards? "I'm sure our fans would rather hear new songs and new albums than new scandals," Julia told a Russian newspaper. Tell that to Britney.
Catfights Are So Last Year
The latest bout in the yearlong battle between Britney and Christina has come to an end. After months of making digs at each other through magazine and television interviews, Christina sent a "deeply personal" letter to her former Mickey Mouse Club co-star calling for a truce. "Let's be friends again. We're both deep in this music business, which can get nasty. People take things we say out of context. But we're more similar than we are different — with the same worries and concerns," Christina reportedly wrote. It looks like Round 3 goes to Ms. Aguilera. Now if she would just make up with Kelly Osbourne.
Virginity for Sale
While students throughout England and Wales protested higher college tuition fees, Rosie Reid decided to create her own form of financial aid. The 18-year-old freshman at Bristol University put her virginity up for sale on eBay. "I am devoting too much time to paid employment and not enough to studying. I'll leave university 15,000 [$28,341] in debt. That's why I am taking this drastic action," the social policy major told the BBC.
Even more disturbing than the auction itself, was the amount of men who responded to the ad. Reid received 400 bidders in three days. After eBay pulled the ad, Reid closed the auction on her own personal Web site to the highest bidder at 8,400 pounds ($15,882) last week.
Reid may now have the money for her tuition, but she might have to use it for bail if she gets arrested. Her auction is currently under investigation. "It's a strange one because it's a gray area. I think it's probably illegal because it's like soliciting, but we are taking legal advice over the matter," says a spokesman for the Avon and Somerset police.
Purity or Political Propaganda?
The students at Boone High School in Florida are tired of talking about sex. That's why they joined hundreds of other public and private schools in declaring Valentine's Day the "Day of Purity." Spearheaded by the conservative religious organization Liberty Counsel, students dumped the traditional Valentine's Day colors of red and pink in favor of white T-shirts and handed out brochures on abstinence to their peers. One teenager who supports the change is "M.B.," an 11th grader from Georgia. Quoted on the Liberty Counsel Web site, she says: "I am a teen who has already committed to being pure, but this kind of stuff sure helps to reinforce my beliefs and commitment."
Coincidentally (or not) the Day of Purity arrived just as President Bush sought to increase federal funding for educational programs on abstinence. "In today's culture, students are bombarded with the message that they should become sexually active at a young age and to experiment with their sexual preferences. The Day of Purity offers the youth who strive for sexual purity an opportunity to stand in opposition to a culture of moral decline," states the site.
Liberal groups like the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network, however, are concerned about the larger message the Day of Purity sends. "This program has a narrow view of what students need to have safe and healthy lives. Abstinence-only education is not realistic. We advocate that students get the information they need to be safe," says GLSEN communications director Joshua Lamont. Check out www.lc.org/dayofpurity.htm or www.glsen.org to find out more.
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