Seriously? OMG! WTF?

Robbie Williams has vowed to quit smoking. The singer, who smokes up to 60 cigarettes a day, has already given up drugs and alcohol and now wants to kick another unhealthy habit. Robbie – who was fined £60 for smoking onstage in Australia last week – is so desperate to quit nicotine he has even planned to visit a hypnotist on New Year’s Eve. He said: "I want to give them up for good in 2007. Seeing a hypnotist on New Year’s Eve seems a good idea to me." The ‘Angels’ singer has made several attempts to give up cigarettes in the past including a fitness drive last summer. However, Robbie gave into temptation after just a few weeks – because he was worried about piling on the pounds. He admitted at the time: "I smoke loads and I really don’t want to anymore. But I’m terrified of giving up. I’m a fat bloke inside this body and the minute I stop smoking, I will put on weight." Robbie’s tour rider includes four packets of cigarettes and four ashtrays.

ISE 

OMG 60 cigs a day. My lungs just felt his pain. As someone who used a hypnotist to quit smoking, I highly recommend it! Best thing I ever did and I hope one of the best things he does!

Miss USA Tara Conner, who had come under criticism amid rumors she had been frequenting bars while underage, will be allowed to keep her title, the Miss Universe Organization announced Tuesday. The organization is owned by Donald Trump and NBC. "I’ve always been a believer in second chances," Trump said at a news conference. He and Conner met earlier Tuesday morning. Conner, who hails from Kentucky, won the title in April and has been living in New York. Recent media accounts of heavy drinking brought a storm of criticism, since she was underage at the time. She turned 21 on Monday. If Conner had been dethroned, her title would have been taken over by first runner-up Miss California Tamiko Nash.

AP (story) and Miss USA (photo) 

Who saw that coming? I think he did the right thing. Now her platform will be all about anti-alcohol and drugs and rehab. Much more interesting than World Peace. Plus she has helped to create interest in Miss USA again because seriously who knew she was Miss USA before this whole thing happened? 

U.S. growers produce nearly $35 billion worth of marijuana annually, making the illegal drug the country’s largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday. The report, conducted by Jon Gettman, a public policy analyst and former head of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws, also concluded that five U.S. states produce more than $1 billion worth of marijuana apiece: California, Tennessee, Kentucky, Hawaii and Washington. California’s production alone was about $13.8 billion, according to Gettman, who waged an unsuccessful six-year legal battle to force the government to remove marijuana from a list of drugs deemed to have no medical value. Tom Riley, a spokesman for the U.S. Office of National Drug Control Policy, said he could not confirm the report’s conclusions on the size of the country’s marijuana crop. But he said the government estimated overall U.S. illegal drug use at $200 billion annually. Gettman’s figures were based on several government reports between 2002 and 2005 estimating the United States produced more than 10,000 metric tons of marijuana annually. He calculated the producer price per pound of marijuana at $1,606 based on national survey data showing retail prices of between $2,400 and $3,000 between 2001 and 2005. The total value of 10,000 metric tons of marijuana at $1,606 per pound would be $35.8 billion. By comparison, the United States produced an average of nearly $23.3 billion worth of corn annually from 2003 to 2005, $17.6 billion worth of soybeans, $12.2 billion worth of hay, nearly $11.1 billion worth of vegetables and $7.4 billion worth of wheat, the report said. Gettman said the 10-fold increase in U.S. marijuana production, from 1,000 metric tons in 1981 to 10,000 metric tons in 2006, showed the country was failing to control marijuana by making its cultivation and use illegal. "Marijuana has become a pervasive and ineradicable part of the economy of the United States," he said. "The contribution of this market to the nation’s gross domestic product is overlooked in the debate over effective control." "Like all profitable agricultural crops marijuana adds resources and value to the economy," he added. "The focus of public policy should be how to effectively control this market through regulation and taxation in order to achieve immediate and realistic goals, such as reducing teenage access." Riley said illegal drug use was a "serious part of the economy," but he rejected the notion of an economic argument for legalizing marijuana. He said marijuana use was an "inherently harmful activity" with serious physical and mental health consequences. He said more American teens were in treatment centers for marijuana dependency than for all other drugs combined.

Reuters

Imagine if the legallized marijuana how much they could make?

"American Idol" executive producer Cecile Frot-Coutaz promises a big event midway through the coming season of the red-hot talent show – but she won’t say what it is. "If there’s one thing that makes ‘American Idol’ so big, it’s a huge event," she told the Daily News. "Something we’re working on is a big-event show, sometime in the middle of the season, something that will blow America away," she added. Hard to believe the folks behind "American Idol" can get the show any bigger than it already is. When it’s on – and it’s only around 19 weeks a year – the show is the biggest thing on the small screen, generating huge Nielsen ratings and daily water-cooler buzz. Each season the show rolls around, there are gentle warnings that the audience level will drop. And, each year, the show does better. "American Idol" returns with two-hour editions on Jan. 16 and 17 at 8 p.m. Few shows have had the run "American Idol" has and remained as strong. But Frot-Coutaz said a drop is not out of the realm of possibility. "Look," she said, "it’s always in the back of your mind. The only thing we can do is make the best show we can and find the best talent as possible. The rest, some of it is up to Fox and how they promoted it. The rest is the competitive landscape. If we keep giving [viewers] something entertaining, it will be fine." While most of the world goes into a slow-down mode this holiday season, the folks at 19 Entertainment and FremantleMedia North America, which produce "Idol," are in overdrive preparing the early editions of the show. "We’re in production pretty much year-round," Frot-Coutaz said. "We start our casting in August." This time of year, she admitted, gets a bit tense. "It’s that time when you get apprehensive about how it’s going to launch," she said. "We keep our fingers crossed." The early episodes are "great" she said, with some of the best audition shows ever. They key, she said, is mixing the good people with the truly bad ones, like, say, William Hung. "There’s some great talent out there," she said. "But there’s also some people who are delusional about their talent, too. That’s the beauty of an open call – everybody comes. Everybody thinks they’ve got a great voice."

New York Daily News

I wonder what it going to be? I have to know? What? What? What? Could it be a double elimination? Getting rid of Paula? A live concert? Bring someone back? What?

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