Any other female journalists ever interviewed a man who got unprofessional and inappropriate all of a sudden?

Then check out this Newsweek interview where actor Jean-Claude van Damme gets super-creepy with his interviewer:

I quote:

There ‘ s a monologue in the film about being a washed-up action star. Did you improvise that?
I like structure—like driving: go past the school on the street, stay on the right side, no hitting the car, go in right, you’ll see a big church, stop and take a left, and you’ll have it. By doing this I’m giving a structure of life, a path of light, and showing what happens between me and me, which is something very beautiful.

Beautiful? Why?
I really opened myself up in “JCVD.” I peeled back the skin of the fruit, cut the pulp and then took that very hard seed. In this film I cut that hard seed, and inside that seed was a kind of liquid cream substance of the man I am, or the woman you are.

OK —
It was like being naked—I would love to be naked in front of you.

Well, I —
Not being naked being naked. I say such things in Hong Kong and they thought I was being a crazy Frenchman. Being naked of protection.

So you ‘ ve no regrets at all?
Believe me—I’ve done very good stuff and very crazy stuff, and I don’t regret the crazy stuff. So are you in New York?

Yes, I am.
And are you 27, or 32?

I ‘ m 22.
Oh, f–––. That is very young. Will you come to the premiere?

I don ‘ t know. When is it?
I don’t know. You will wear all black, a black dress and high heels?

Uh —
You can come find me, I will be the one with the very broad shoulders, dark hair and a simple suit. We can have some champagne, you and me.

Why the hell do some men think it’s okay to talk to female reporters this way?

My personal creepy interview story involves a guy who, after I accidentally drove over his lawn ornament with my car when our interview was finished, sent me an email to my work address saying that if I had sex with him, he’d forgive me.  Ew.  I reported him to the police.

Apparently folks are upset about Newsweek’s cover this week.   The cover features a somewhat unflattering close-up photo of Sarah Palin and Fox News and others think it is inappropriate. Hmm…

Also, they are upset that the article seems to suggest that Palin doesn’t have the experience necessary to be the VP.. The quote below scares me:

“The October 13 cover of Newsweek features a close up photo of the Governor with the headline “She’s One of the Folks (And that’s the problem),” and Meacham writes the accompanying cover story. Be clear about what this means: This is a direct attack on Mr. and Mrs. America. We are all too stupid to be president in the elite opinion of Jon Meacham and Newsweek magazine.”

Well yea, WE ARE! Stupid may not be the right word, but I  don’t know nearly enough about the economy to be the president. Chances are you don’t either.   I also don’t know nearly enough about foreign policy to be the president, do you?? Honestly, do you? It isn’t an issue of stupid, it is an issue of knowledge and experience.   Which you, I and Sarah Palin don’t have.

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Fareed Zakaria is bringing a new hour long program on foreign affairs and policy to CNN with GPS, an acronym for Global Public Square. The show, airing Sundays at 1PM, will feature Newsweek International Editor and Foreign Affairs expert Zakaria interviewing prominent figures from around the globe on current events and issues that affect the United States.

The purpose of the program is to fill the gap in US press coverage of international news and how it affects us here at home, which is obviously no small task given the enormous crater in American public knowledge about life outside the 50 states created by our infotainment news culture. But if anyone is up to the job, it’s Fareed Zakaria with his deep understanding of world affairs and vast experience covering international news around the globe.

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Target, where I bought Wayne’s World 1 AND 2 for $7.50, has gone one step further towards awesomeness by offering to exchange their plastic bags for reusable totes. Though I can’t find any information on Target’s website, from the “What Do You Stand For” website:

Send them your used plastic Target bags, and they will send you a coupon for a free reusable tote. They’ll even pay the postage by turning the cover of Newsweek, which features a pre-paid business reply label, into an envelope…

Target, which already prints 10 ways to reuse on the side of each plastic bag, partnered with TerraCycle, an eco-capitalism company, and Newsweek to turn plastic bags into reusable “Retotes.”

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What is Earth Day?  Let these top 10 eco-heroes guide you to a better understanding of what it means to love Mother Nature and all it’s inhabitants.   These folks take first place in history for their dedication to bringing about awareness and action when it comes to our natural world. If this top 10 sampling from Newsweek’s excellent expose on patron saints of the environment isn’t enough to whet your eco-appetite, check out these 90+ more green campaigners from the Guardian UK. Happy (early) Earth Day!

1) John Muir is often referred to as the “father of national parks, and he helped Theodore Roosevelt to create Yosemite, Sequoia, Mount Rainer, Petrified Forest and Grand Canyon national parks. He also founded the Sierra Club in 1892, and served as president until his death in 1914.

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All over the world are a growing group of bloggers posting pictures of “real people” as models and it’s influencing the fashion world to follow suit.

According to an article in Newsweek bloggers say their sites (Street Peeper, Last Night’s Party, Fashionista and Stylesight, to name a few) are both creating and responding to interest in street fashion. “The Look Book,” a collection of photographs of fashion-conscious New Yorkers originally published in New York Magazine, came out last September, and one of its subjects is already a star: André J., a bearded cross-dresser, graced the November cover of French Vogue. Merlin Bronques, who posts photos of trendy clubgoers on his blog, Last Night’s Party, has shot his friends for ads for Ben Sherman and Converse. Now real people are even strutting the catwalk”the swimwear company Lycra plucked 20 women of all shapes and sizes off the beach to model their suits at last year’s Miami Swim Fashion Week.

Fashion-industry folks say the trend of using real people to sell clothes attests to a fatigue with skinny, expressionless models in ads and on runways.

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