This week, Kim Kardashian became the butt of criticism over a picture she posted of herself holding a cat, on Twitter. Apparently the oversized peach on stilts grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, and this raised concern that she might be hurting the pet.

Here’s the deeply offensive picture:

I know. Sickens you, doesn’t it? Of course PETA, weighed in:

Kim Kardashian isn’t the only person who mistakenly thinks that because a mother cat picks up her kittens by the scruff of the neck that a supportive hand under the rump isn’t needed.

Right. However, the other animal group, SPCA says the hold is pretty much fine – and that’s where I get all my advice when I potty-trained Bill. (more…)

- Summer, 1987:  In a stunning and unprecedented move, President Walter Mondale has stepped in and saved the Broadway musical “42nd Street” from eviction at the Majestic Theatre.  The theatre’s owners had earlier announced that they were using a standard clause in the production’s booking agreement and had given an eviction notice to the show due to low ticket sales.  Subsequently, the theatre owners have also announced that in January of next year, the Majestic will be the new home to British import “The Phantom of the Opera.”

But, in an effort to “save American jobs” and keep an American musical from having to make way for an imported show, President Mondale has deemed “42nd Street” “too big to fail”: “This show has been running since 1980 and has been providing jobs for hundreds of working families in New York.  My administration is determined to keep this production running and to keep these long-suffering, union workers on the job,” the President said. (more…)

While we’re in the business of revealing secrets from the entertainment industry, let me add a whopper for you all to chew on:  Most people who work on Broadway hate Andrew Lloyd Webber.

That’s right.  Despite creating more employment and wealth than any single person over the past three decades, the genius behind Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, Starlight Express and Phantom of the Opera is secretly (and sometimes not so secretly) reviled.

When I first experienced the anti-ALW bias, it was all about his music.  Just like being a PC person or a Mac person, or a Beatles person or a Stones person, you were either an Andrew Lloyd Webber person or a Sondheim person.  Within the snobby theatre parties his shows were labeled as too commercial or his songs too repetitive.  While ALW wrote a show about Jesus and Joseph and an adaptation of T.S. Eliot poems, Sondheim wrote about Georges Seraut, Sweeney Todd and presidential assassins.

ALW was too simple and accessible, Sondheim was challenging and esoteric.  While ALW was temperamental and demanding, Sondheim was friendly and engaging.  And, not coincidentally, while ALW’s shows ran for years and years and made fortunes and sold-out, Sondheim’s shows rarely recouped investment.  (more…)