Demi Lovato says It’s ‘a big responsibility’ to date me because I come with ‘baggage’

Demi Lovato opens up about her healing process in the January issue of Glamour magazine.

After a tumultuous year in the public eye, Demi Lovato has taken charge of her personal life.

The singer, who was treated for an eating disorder and a very public emotional breakdown last fall, opens up in the January issue of Glamour and reveals what she wants in a significant other.

“Someone who’s not only supportive in my career but also in my recovery,” explains Lovato, 19. “It’s a big responsibility dating me. Because I come with a little bit of baggage, you know?”

Luckily for Lovato, Wilmer Valderrama doesn’t seem to mind. Though she refrains from discussing the romance, the singer is rumored to be dating the “That 70s Show” actor.

“I’m completely open. I’m honest about the journey I’ve been on, so I definitely don’t take dating lightly anymore,” Lovato continues. “And they have to make me laugh!”

In addition to humor, Lovato is also looking to find strength in her life.

As part of her healing process, the singer got tattoos to cover the cutting scars on her wrist.

“I think scars are like battle wounds—beautiful, in a way,” she says. “They show what you’ve been through and how strong you are for coming out of it. My tattoos say “Stay strong.” “Stay” on one and “strong” on the other. Now I’m able to look at them and be thankful for being alive.”

Moving forward, Lovato has turned the negative parts of her life into positives. She’s gone public about her self-described meltdown and isn’t afraid to share stories about childhood bullying in an effort to help other young women. From this, Lovato has found herself.

“I feel beautiful, you know? I feel strong, and I feel confident in who I am,” she tells Glamour. “I think that I’ve been blessed over the past year to be able to start over.” 

Porn actors may be forced to wear condoms

Michael Weinstein who is the President of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, speaks at the launch of the ‘Love Condoms’ campaign to combat the spread of AIDS in 2009.

A proposal to make Los Angeles porn actors wear condoms gained momentum this week, when a health advocacy group announced it had gathered enough signatures to put the question to voters in June.

The proposal would require the actors to use protection during sex scenes in order for filmmakers to obtain a permit to shoot within the city of Los Angeles.

The AIDS Healthcare Foundation, the group behind the drive, said Wednesday it has collected 64,000 signatures for its petition -- well beyond the 41,000 needed to get the measure on the ballot.

"Everyone understood this was an issue of worker protection," Michael Weinstein, the president of the AIDS Healthcare Foundation, told The Los Angeles Times.

Tensions between health advocates and the porn industry have simmered for years. The adult film industry largely opposes more condom regulations, saying voluntary industry standards requiring actors to undergo monthly HIV screenings are enough protection.

Pornographers also say porn viewers generally find sheathed penises less appealing than naked ones on screen and that added government regulation would undermine their industry even as it faces the combined pressures of rampant Internet piracy and economic malaise, The Los Angeles Times reports.

"Contrary to popular belief, our industry is not recession-proof," Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, a porn industry group, told the newspaper.

AIDS activists aren't the only ones trying to boost the porn industry's hygiene standards -- state officials are also looking at ways to force porn actors to suit up.

California regulators first passed rules requiring protection for workers exposed to infectious diseases transferred through blood in 1992. State regulators say the rules, developed with medical facilities in mind, apply to the porn industry.

"The regulations require that the employer use controls to protect workers from blood or seamen or vaginal secretions. Federal OSHA has the same wording," Deborah Gold of the California's Division of Occupational Safety and Health said in an interview last year with Los Angeles Weekly.

But the regulations are rarely enforced. Between 2004, after a performer tested HIV positive, and 2010, the state issued only 30 citations for condomless sex filming, Los Angeles Weekly reports.

Public health officials cited 17 HIV cases among porn actors between 1998 and 2008, according to the Los Angeles Times reports. The industry has halted production twice in the last two years to prevent the spread of the disease after two performers tested HIV-positive.

Los Angeles serves as a major base of operations for the U.S. porn industry. The only two states where porn can be filmed legally are California and New Hampshire. 

With Christian Bale hanging up his cape, who will be the next Batman?

Christian Bale, who helped revive the Batman franchise, says he will no longer star as the caped crusader.

The identity of The Caped Crusader may remain a mystery to the citizens of fictional Gotham, but fans of the Batman franchise are clamoring to find out who’ll don the iconic mask next.

Christian Bale, 37, recently told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that the upcoming “Dark Knight Rises” film will be his last, and that his decision to pull the plug on “that Batman era” stemmed from a need to move beyond the comic-book action flicks and onto other projects.

“I wrapped a few days ago, so that will be the last time I’m taking that cowl off,” he said. “I believe that the whole production wrapped yesterday, so it’s all done.

“Everything’s finished. . . . That will be the end of that Batman era.”

But while the English actor moves on to other things — he is set to star in Zhang Yimou’s China-set period drama “The Flowers of War” — a new Hollywood hunk will need to step in and take his place.

Here are a few potential industry heavyweights who just might be able to fill Bale’s rubber-clad shoes:

RYAN GOSLING

The of-the-moment sensitive guy (and unjustly snubbed for People’s Sexiest Man Alive title, according to fans who picketed outside the magazine’s office) can do no wrong. He loves his dog, George, stops fights in the middle of the East Village, and has a perpetual boyish smirk that does well both on and off the red carpet. Bulked up and suited up, he could make a smooth transition from super-cute to superhero.

CHRIS PINE

If nothing else, Pine has the intense gaze and jawline to pull off a brooding Bruce Wayne. And after his turn as Kirk in “Star Trek,” Pine has garnered the kind of clout in action films that will pardon him from career choices like “Just My Luck” opposite Lindsay Lohan.

HUGH DANCY

Claire Danes has a knack for darker, thoughtful roles, and her husband is no different. Dancy, who most recently starred in “Martha Marcy May Marlene” opposite new indie wunderkind Elizabeth Olsen, can shift between subtlety and straight-man almost seamlessly, and his natural charm will likely make for one dashing vigilante. 

Justin Bieber wears $1,650 Christmas ‘sweater’ on ‘Today’ show

Justin Bieber performs live on the ‘Today’ show's concert series.

Justin Bieber wore what looked like a hokey Christmas sweater during a live performance on Wednesday — but it wasn’t anything a grandma knitted.

The teen pop star crooned holiday ditties along with singing superstar Usher on the “Today” show in a $1,650 red and cream snowflake-patterned sweater coat by designer Junya Watanabe, reports the Huffington Post.

 The Fair Isle Varsity Jacket boasts wool and leather and jaunty brown buttons, according to Mr. Porter, a website that sells upscale men’s clothing.

“Blending the 1950s Americana of the varsity jacket with the tactile, heritage appeal of a Fair Isle knit, with a pleasingly modern result, this jacket is both a fashion statement and stylish enough to look good for years to come,” the site boasts. 

To boost male fertility, cut back on coffee, eat more fruit

A new study suggests men eat a diet high in fruit and grains and low in coffee, alcohol, and red meat.

To enhance male fertility during IVF treatments, a new study suggests men eat a diet high in fruit and grains and low in coffee, alcohol, and red meat.

The Brazilian study looked at 250 men undergoing a type of fertility treatment with their partners known as intracytoplasmic sperm injection, an in vitro fertilization procedure in which a single sperm is injected into an egg.

Researchers discovered that men who drank alcohol and coffee and ate a poor diet were less likely to conceive. Being overweight also contributed to lower sperm concentration and motility, and smoking affected sperm motility.

"In contrast, eating more cereal grains was associated with improved sperm concentration and motility," writes American health publication Third Age on the study on Tuesday. "Fruit was linked to a speed and agility boost in sperm."

The study, from the Fertility-Assisted Fertilization Center in Sao Paolo, was published online in the journal Fertility and Sterility on November 11.

Another recent Harvard University study found that a diet of trans-fat laden junk food can render otherwise healthy young men infertile.

Foods that have previously been shown to boost men's fertility include eggs, salmon, natural yogurt, nuts, seeds, berries, sweet potatoes, broccoli, and asparagus. 

Exercise modifies the brain to help weight loss-study report

When exercise is added to a weight-loss diet, treatment of obesity is more successful than adjusting diet alone, according to a Harvard study.

Start exercising and your brain will want to help you lose weight.

A study examining the neuro-relationship between exercise and diet has found that in addition to fostering healthy eating habits, exercise also increases people’s sensitivity to signs of fullness and satiety and helps overcome food temptations.

According to a Harvard study published for the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology, when exercise is added to a weight-loss diet, treatment of obesity is more successful than adjusting diet alone, said researcher Miguel Alonso Alonso.

Adding exercise to the program also helped weight loss subjects adhere to the diet for the long haul.

The study, based on data from epidemiological studies and announced November 23, found that one of the key factors in successful weight loss is a cognitive function known as inhibitory control, the ability to resist a strong inclination or temptation -- like overeating -- and do what is most appropriate or needed.

According to Alonso, living in an obesogenic environment -- an environment that promotes weight gain -- presents a constant barrage of stresses on these neuro-cognitive resources, leading to impaired judgement and facilitating impulses to overeat, he said.

Exercise, however, helps improve the brain’s executive functions and overcome these strains, he said.

Past studies have also shown that exercise -- in the form of table tennis -- helped children with developmental coordination disorder to improve their inhibitory control.

Meanwhile, according to fitness experts polled by WebMD.com, the most effective exercises for losing weight include walking, interval training, squats, lunges, push-ups, ab crunches and the bent-over row -- exercises that either target multiple muscle groups, are suitable for different fitness levels or help burn calories more effectively. 

WiFi may damage sperm quality: Study

Man lying on sofa, working on laptop computer.

WiFi technology may cause a major handicap for men hoping to build a family: sperm damage.

A team of Argentine scientists led by Conrado Avendano of the Nascentis Center for Reproductive Medicine in Cordoba found that placing drops of semen from healthy men under a laptop connected wirelessly to the Internet kills or maims the little swimmers.

The scientists reported their findings this month in the medical journal Fertility and Sterility.

After four hours next to the WiFi-connected computer, 25% of the sperm had stopped moving and nine percent showed DNA damage.

By comparison, semen kept at the same temperature but away from the computer showed just a 14% drop in mobility and only 3% suffered DNA damage.

Semen placed under the computer without the WiFi connected did not experience significant levels of sperm damage, the study says.

Avendano blames the discrepancy on the electromagnetic radiation emitted by wireless communication.

"Our data suggest that the use of a laptop computer wirelessly connected to the Internet and positioned near the male reproductive organs may decrease human sperm quality," Avendano and his team wrote in this month's article, Reuters reports.

The study is not the first to sound an alarm over the potential of mobile communications technology to undermine sperm health.

A Canadian study reported last year also found evidence indicating that wireless radiation caused DNA damage in sperm.

Computers also wreck havoc on semen just by being hot.

A 2004 American study found that placing a portable computer on the user's lap could boost scrotum temperature by nearly three degrees. Scientists have established that heat damages sperm. 

Holidays bring out the worst in cyberscams 'Generous' creeps have s

Don't touch that keyboard! Holidays, the internet, credit cards and cyberscammers are a danergous mix.

Just as the FBI puts out its holiday cyberscam warning today, I get a doozy.

The email began with “Greetings. I am Mr. Alfa Abu, a chief security guard to Saif al-Islam Muammar al-Gaddafi.” Sure you are!

“He is the first son of Muammar Gaddafi,” it continued, “who is now late.” He means dead.

“In the heat of the revolution in Libya, he entrusted in my care Gold and Raw Diamond that worth several millions of Dollar.” Sure he did!

“I need the help of a foreign partner who I can move this items to for safety.” I’ll bet you do!

Dude signed it “Abu Alfa,” but his email address is frankoffice2@gmail.com. How dare he — or she — send this message to a New Yorker? We know how to bend the three-card Monte cards by the age of 6. We smell a con artist a block away. Hell, we elect con artists!

“It’s really despicable,” says Jenny Shearer, the FBI’s spokeswoman for the Internet Crime Complaint Center, or IC3. “These people are opportunists, and they’re looking for vulnerable targets.”

They seem generous enough at first, but man, do they need grammar lessons! In another email I received, David Owen said he was with the First Commercial Bank of London and wanted to give me $2.7 million, because he didn’t want the money “of my deceased client been inherited by people that doesn't know anything about him.” Like I do?

Martins Jojor wanted to send me $650,000 “so that we can share the joy after all the sufferness ” – without saying how we had suffernessed together.

Madam Ngozie Iwuala wanted to wire me $1.4 million dollars — “in US $195 bills.”

And Suncoastgirl2@yahoo in Japan for some reason pretended to be from the Ivory Coast, offering me $8.7 million because “my mother died when I was 6 and since then my father took me so special.” I don’t even want to go there, but I hope Suncoastgirl does take ESL classes soon.

Disasters always bring a spike in cyberscams, said Shearer, like the one I got from “Mr. Cristian Alberto” saying, “I lost my entire family in Hurricane Katrina in 2005 and now death is knocking on my door step and I have $59 million and nobody to inherit it.”

“I don’t know why people do bad things,” Shearer said. “This summer we announced an online cyberfraud of auto sales on eBay, in which criminals pretended to be a mother whose son was killed in the war and she wanted to sell his car cheap and fast because she couldn’t bear to look at it.”

There was no car, but several people were taken in by the tragic, though fake, story and lost thousands.

The holidays are also a peak time for e-scams, and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3.gov) today posted a list of tips for safe online shopping, including how to avoid gift-card scams.

“If you are being solicited to buy a discount gift card from some website, be cautious, you might be paying for something that doesn't exist,” said Shearer. “It’s probably safest to get gift cards from the merchant itself.

“On all this, We like to say, ‘If it looks too good to be true, it probably is.’ ” 

Winds threaten float favorites at Thanksgiving Day Parade

Sesame Street character Abby Cadabby makes her way through Manhattan in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Who’s the leader of the Thanksgiving Day parade that’s made for you and me?

It won’t be the 40-foot tall Mickey Mouse balloon — or any of the other behemoths that usually fly over Broadway — if the wind kicks up too strongly Thursday.

Right now, the National Weather Service is forecasting clear skies and a high of 53 degrees for the 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade, ie. almost perfect parade weather.

The only potential hitch is that the forecast also calls for wind speeds of 15 mph and gusts close to 24 mph.

“That could have an impact on the parade,” meteorologist Joe Pollina warned Monday.

Wind speeds exceeding 23 mph or the gusts stronger than 34 mph would ground Sailor Mickey, Snoopy, Hello Kitty, Spongebob Squarepants and the eleven other gigantic balloons, Macy’s spokesman Orlando Veras said.

But he’s not expecting that will happen.

“Every year at this point there’s a prediction of high winds and every year the balloons fly,” said Veras.

The last time any of the balloons were grounded because of high wind was back in the 1990s, said Veras.

And before that, a helium shortage during the 1940s forced organizers to improvise — they filled the biggest balloons with air and suspended them from moving cranes for the parade down Broadway, Veras said.

“We are monitoring the weather closely,” he said. “And even if the winds were too strong, there would still be 44 other smaller balloons in the parade.”

Also, added Veras, who is to say the beloved Sailor Mickey balloon will lead the parade?

“We haven’t announced the parade line up yet,” he said. “We keep that a secret until Thanksgiving morning.”

Wind guidelines were put into place after a 1997 accident involving a runaway balloon left a Manhattan woman in a coma and three other people injured.

“Our decision of whether the biggest balloons fly is based on current wind conditions about an hour before the parade starts” at 9 a.m., Veras said.

Each of the big balloons is escorted by a police officer who monitors wind speeds on the ground and can order it deflated if things get hairy.

This year, two brand new giant balloons will make their debut — Julius the sock monkey and B, the balloon boy.

Also this year, the opening ribbon will be cut by 20 children whose parents were killed in the Sept. 11 attacks. They too will march in the parade.

BEST STREET VIEWING

For the best curbside view of the 85th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, stake out a spot at the following locations:  

• Central Park South
• Central Park West
• Seventh Ave. between 59th — 48th Sts.
• Sixth Ave., between 42nd and 34th Sts.  
• And avoid Times Square, Macy’s warns.

BEST TV VIEWING

New Yorkers who don’t want to brave the crowds can watch on the parade’s official TV outlet, WNBC/Ch. 4.

Starting at 9 a.m., it will have Matt Lauer, Al Roker and Ann Curry leading viewers through the event from outside Macy’s in Herald Square.

CBS’ coverage will be based in Times Square and hosted by Kevin Frazier, co-host of “The Insider,” and “Entertainment Tonight” correspondent Christina McLarty. 

What To Do If You're In An Accident

Drive long enough and the odds are pretty good that you'll be in an accident eventually. No matter how vigilant and aware of your surroundings you are, some other driver isn't and will create a situation where your vehicles collide. So what are you supposed to do after you've been in an accident? What do you need to do to protect yourself and to make sure that you and your vehicle are taken care of?

1) Be Safe

If the accident is minor and the cars are still working, move them out of the main flow of traffic. Every year you hear stories of fender benders that turn into something worse because another vehicle hits the stopped cars, so make sure to put out road flares and reflective warning signs, even if you are on the side of the road. Unless the cars are disabled there's no reason to not move them to a safer location to continue the process - this protects the cars and you.

2) Exchange Information

Get the other person's personal and insurance information. If the person that was driving wasn't the person that owned the vehicle be sure to find out the relationship between them (friend, family, etc) and get the owner's information as well. Be polite, and never admit fault, even if you believe it to be yours.

3) Document What Happened

Take down notes of your account of the incident while they are fresh in your mind. Take pictures of the vehicles, the damage, and where the accident happened if you can do so safely. If there were any witnesses to the accident be sure to get their information as well, as they can be helpful if there's a dispute over what happened.

3) File A Report

Depending on where you are, and their current priorities, the police may not be able to send an officer to the scene of your accident for a statement and to file a report. If that's the case, be sure to file one on your own with the police department as your insurance company may use it as a reference.

4) Call Your Insurer

Once you've returned home be sure to call your insurance company. They'll want the information you gathered from the other driver as well as information about the accident. This process will be easier if you know what coverage you have, so it doesn't hurt to look that up before making the call.

5) Don't Be Afraid to Get a Lawyer

You may not need a lawyer. If the accident is minor, insurance agrees to cover the damages, and there are no injuries, it's fair to assume everything will be taken care of and there's no need to involve lawyers. If, however, there are disputes about who is at fault, or if the accident was severe and there are injuries, especially lingering ones that will require extended care, it may be necessary to retain the services of a personal injury attorney. Remember that just because you contact an attorney doesn't mean you have to go to court, so there's no harm in at least reaching out to make sure you're protected and that you will be taken care of in the long term, not being brushed aside by the insurance company making a quick offer to settle. Call personal injury lawyer for consultation at 877 824 0343/866 943 0897/877 855 3715