Winning

This Charlie Sheen impression is pretty uncanny...

I have to admit, I'm of two minds about the whole Charlie Sheen meltdown.

On the one hand, I find it sort of hypnotizing. (As someone at the Post said, "Charlie Sheen is our Egypt.") Celebrity meltdowns are rarely this entertaining. Lindsay Lohan, for example, is more painful to watch than entertaining.

The Mel Gibson meltdown was, at first, extremely fascinating. Only an utter fool could be surprised that in the privacy of his home, Gibson was a barbaric antisemite, racist and misogynist. The fact that every day, more and more pearls were uncovered was great. However, when I actually listened to the tapes of his phone calls -- the rage, the violence, the insanity -- I suddenly wasn't fascinated any more. I was simply disgusted.

At least Charlie Sheen seems to be enjoying this breakdown. At least he's going out with style. At least he's got a pair of porno actresses to keep him company in his Hollywood palaces.

On the other hand...

I would be enjoying this fully if I didn't believe that Sheen is, in fact, a violent man who abuses women. It's an impossible fact to overlook.

Celebrity Republicans

BuzzFeed has a list of 40 celebrity Republicans...

Most of them were the ones you'd expect.

I mean, who didn't know that Sly Stallone and Jon Voight vote Republican?

However, there were a few surprises.

James Earl Jones is a Republican? For real? As is LL Cool J? And Sarah Michelle Geller?

The only name that sort of broke my heart was Adam Sandler. I already sort of knew he was one. He's included a number of ridicuously suck-upy bits about Rudy Giuliani in his movies. (Giuliani had a cameo in the otherwise fine Anger Management.) And I seem to remember him saying some kind things about George W. Bush.

But Sandler can't break my heart over his political leanings...

Cary Grant already beat him to it when he addressed the Republican National Convention in 1976. (Not that Grant was some kind of nut -- he defended his friend Charlie Chaplin from the charges that he was a Communist and condemned McCarthyism. And according to wikipedia he made the immanently sensible statement that movie actors should avoid discussing politics.)

Of course, if this list were talking celebrities from the beginning of Hollywood, it sorely lacking. Not only is Grant absent, but so is Jimmy Stewart and (runner up for my favorite celebrity Republican) John Wayne.

Nevertheless, it was deeply satisfying for a Democrat like me to see who clocked in at number 40:

Mel Gibson.

Mistaken jewbilation

Like many Jews I have a habit of counting up Jewish celebs.

When a celebrity comes along who has a Jewish sounding name, or a face that could only come from shtetl Poland, I'm the first to go to wikipedia and check them out. (We have a weird need to make sure our brand is still good. Don't ask why, we just do.)

Last night I thought I had a doozy: Austalian snowboarder, Torah Bright.

Granted, she doesn't look Jewish. (In fact, she looks really not Jewish.) And snowboarding is just about the least Jewish sport known to man.

But with a name like "Torah"? I mean, the chances sound pretty good to me. And she's Australian, which has always had a pretty decent sized Jewish population. I was about to get very excited...

Turns out, Torah is a Mormon.

Oh, well...

(That being said, who the hell names their child "Torah"?)