Mel Gibson, 50, is set to appear on Good Morning America.
Gibson, in case you missed it, is the actor-director, whose high-profile drunken-driving arrest and subsequent anti-Semitic tirade made international headlines earlier in the year.
The TV appearance follows other efforts by Gibson to mend his personal and professional life, including participating in a recovery program, attending court-ordered alcohol-rehabilitation classes and meeting privately with Jewish leaders to understand the source of his "vicious words," as he described them.
These steps will be followed by the December 8 Disney release of Gibson’s new film, Apocalypto.
Gibson spoke with Diane Sawyer in Southern California recently for a two-part TV interview scheduled to air on Good Morning America on October 12 and 13. This is the first time he has talked to the media since his arrest.
The interview "will be a segment in the show," said ABC news spokeswoman Bridgette Maney. "It’s not going to be the entire Good Morning America."
As for what to expect during the discussion, Gibson’s publicist, Alan Nierob, would say only, "We’ll have to wait and see".
Gibson has made few public appearances since his July 28 arrest in Malibu, when he told the arresting officer: "The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world," and asked him, "Are you a Jew?" He also made sexist comments to a female deputy.
Gibson later apologised for what he called "vitriolic and harmful words."
Gibson quietly stepped back into the public eye late last month. He attended two screenings of his new movie in Oklahoma on September 21 and 22. He arrived at the first wearing a mask and wig. He did not speak to reporters.
The actor-director also appeared at a film festival in Austin, Texas, on September 22 where he showed footage from Apocalypto. He answered questions from fans, who did not ask about his arrest or recovery.
Disney spokesman Dennis Rice would not offer specifics about Gibson’s or the studio’s plans to market the movie, which chronicles the decline of the Mayan civilisation. The subtitled film features a cast of unknown actors speaking in an ancient Mayan language.
Some have criticised Gibson for not doing more outreach toward the Jewish community.
"You would think that he would also find time to say that he wants to address his terrible statements," Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre in Los Angeles, told The Associated Press this week.
"His remarks were so anti-Semitic and so hurtful to Jews. You can’t make amends for that by talking on the phone to 12 Jews you know from Hollywood."
Gibson pleaded no contest to charges of drunken driving on August 17 under a deal in which he will serve three years’ probation, pay a fine and attend alcohol rehabilitation classes. He also volunteered to make a public-service announcement about the hazards of drinking and driving.
He is scheduled to appear in court January 17 for a progress report.
Jordan Edmund, 21, now an aide to Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Oklahoma, was among the pages whom Rep. Mark Foley allegedly emailed with sexually teasing chat.
Edmund is the former congressional page whom Foley reportedly told to "strip down and get relaxed." (Click here for links to transcripts.)
Federal agents investigating the scandal are anxious also to chat with Edmund.
Foley resigned September 29 as a series of correspondences between him and teenage male pages became public.
The six-term Republican had represented Florida's 16th District.
Attorney Stephen Jones declined to discuss Edmund's contact with Foley, but said the 21-year-old likely would sit down with investigators from the FBI or Department of Justice next week.
"I anticipate that he will meet with one of them, at least, next week," he said.
Edmund is one of the former pages referred to in the ABC News report that triggered Foley's resignation. The network reported that Foley sent sexually explicit instant messages to a page now identified as Edmund, and other pages.
In one message, the user Maf54, whom ABC News identifies as Foley, asked the teen: "You in your boxers, too?"
The teen replied, "Nope, just got home. I had a college interview that went late."
"Well, strip down and get relaxed," Maf54 wrote back.
Jones would not comment on whether Edmund reported his exchanges with Foley to House officials. Jones said he had not seen transcripts of the instant messages.
"I've only read what's in the press," he said.
Jones said he is still learning details of Edmund's role but added that his client is talking to federal officials as a witness.
"He's not a suspect in any crime," Jones said. "Jordan has not done anything wrong. He is a witness. He will cooperate fully both with the investigation by the [Justice Department] and with the House."
There was "no personal relationship" between Foley and Edmund, who served as a page in 2001 and 2002 when he was a high school junior, the attorney said.
"I'm certain there was no physical involvement between Jordan and Mr. Foley," Jones said, adding that the messages "read like some of the novels that are on the market, but I don't know if they're true or they have been edited."
The Drudge Report on Thursday reported that two people close to Edmund said he goaded Foley into the exchange as a prank.
Jones said a prank could not be ruled out, "But it sounds like a piece of fiction."
"I don't want to say that there might not have been an element of a practical joke in it, but it seems pretty serious on its face," he said. "I think we have to treat it seriously and let the facts speak for themselves."
Jones said Foley was "obviously a man in anguish, and I wouldn't want to add to his anguish by anything I say, and I don't think Jordan would." He further said Foley had a good reputation, "aside from this incident."
Jones is no stranger to high-profile cases. The prominent Oklahoma attorney counts Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh among his previous clients.
The attorney also has contributed $5,000 to the campaign of Rep. Istook, who is running for Oklahoma governor.
Edmund described himself on MySpace.com as "deputy campaign manager for Istook." And described himself as a U.S. House page from September 2001 to June 2002. "He said he is straight."
Istook reportedly urged him "to cooperate fully with law enforcement" and the House Ethics Committee." and is quoted as saying:
"This is a young man who is bright and hardworking.
"He does not deserve the public embarrassment that he now faces.
"What he needs and deserves is Christian compassion," Istook said.
Edmund met with attorney Jones on Wednesday, presumably to retain a good lawyer.
Jones, a criminal attorney, claims: "Jordan was a minor when the alleged events described in the media occurred."
Representative Mark Foley of Florida may soon be on the receiving end of his own legislation to protect minors from sexual offense. The Republican, who was up for reelection, resigned after various groups revealed a number of sexually charged messages allegedly sent by him to teen boys. Reports have alleged that the boys in question were under 18.
"I am deeply sorry and I apologize for letting down my family and the people of Florida I have had the privilege to represent," Foley said in a statement.
The politician did not elaborate on what he was apologizing for or for what he had done wrong.
ABC News was more forthcoming, publishing a number of text messages purported to have been sent between Foley and young congressional pages.
Navigate to another web page now, if homoerotic jock strap chatter is too hot for your tastes.
One text message series published by ABC had Foley asking a page "what you wearing" and, after being told that the boy had a T-shirt and shorts on, replying "love to slip them off you."
Things got more salacious from there.
Maf54 (7:53:45 PM): in your shorts and polo shirt?
Teen Male: (7:54:06 PM): no athletic shorts and t shirt…had soccer practice today
Maf54 (7:54:15 PM): ummm nice
Maf54 (7:54:30 PM): jock strap too
Teen Male: (7:54:41 PM): not in soccer
Teen Male: (7:54:42 PM): lol
Maf54 (7:55:09 PM): what do you wear then
Teen Male: (7:55:20 PM): just our boxers and shorts
Maf54 (7:55:34 PM): good
Teen Male: (7:55:37 PM): lol
Maf54 (7:55:42 PM): shows your package then
Teen Male: (8:33:29 PM): ya slow things down a little im still young…like under 18 dont want to do anything illegal…im not 18 till feb 23
Maf54Maf54 (8:33:43 PM): i know..
Maf54 (8:33:50 PM): nothing will happen
Maf54 (8:34:04 PM): just dreaming
You can see the full transcripts of the various other chats here.
Foley’s public disgrace and resignation is the latest episode in an investigation already in place over e-mails (available here), which Foley had allegedly sent to another page.
The politician’s sexual blunder has derailed a bustling career. Foley most likely would have been reelected to the House of Representatives in November.
Now, however, Republicans have been forced to find a replacement on short notice.
One of Foley’s shining legislative moments came just months ago. The "Foley child safety" legislation passed through the senate as he introduced still another bill attacking the Internet child porn industry.
"For too long our nation has tracked library books better than it has sex offenders," Foley said in July.
"That day is coming to an end… We are closing loopholes that sex offenders and pedophiles have used to prey on children.”
One part of the legislation sponsored by Foley demands a new, mandatory 10-year sentence for specific sex crimes against a child.
If prosecuted and found guilty of a a sexual offense against a minor, it will be interesting to see if Foley will be sentenced and held to the higher standards he has proposed.
Emma Watson Threatens to Make Phoenix Her Last Harry Potter
Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has threatened to drop out of the final two movies in the big-screen adaptations of the children’s book series.
Watson, who is earning a reported $1.8 million (GBP1 million) for playing HERMIONE in the fifth movie Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, admits she is reluctant to sign on for the films as she will be 20 by the time they are completed.
The 16-year-old actress says,
"I don’t know yet.
"Every film is so huge and it’s a long time.
"I love to perform, but there are many other things I love doing."
According to sources, all other Potter characters have already been signed up to appear once again in the movie adaptation of the sixth novel Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, including the seventh and final novel by author JK Rowling, excluding Watson.
Ashton Kutcher decided to put on a brave face and test his limits with inanimate objects in the country’s capital last week. The former "That 70s Show" star made a recent trip to Washington, D.C. with his wife Demi Moore, hoping to do a little bit of sightseeing and to embark on an unforgettable adventure - and that he did.
During his few nights stay, Ashton decided to bare his butt for Abraham Lincoln’s entire stone fixture to see. He also exposed his naked butt to other surrounding stone worthy public figures and got a good laugh out of it.
According to StarPulse, Ashton said he wanted to test security and see if any of the nightshift personnel would stop the funny guy from mooning the 16th President of the United States. However, Ashton was only left disappointed with their loose security measures.
He explained, "Demi was taking the picture and we were out there and I just wanted to see how good their security was. It’s not very good. Nobody stopped me from mooning the monuments."
Mooning Lincoln is not so daring, Kutcher. Take a risk, Ashton. Trying baring that ass in the House of Representatives. Now that’s risky.
In other news, Kutcher did help capture the top two box office spots this last weekend.
The animated "Open Season" — which sees Kutcher providing the voice of a hapless deer, alongside Martin Lawrence voicing a tamed bear — came in first with a $23 million U.S. take.
Kutcher also grabbed second place as a student rescue diver in "The Guardian," an action-packed flick co-starring Kevin Costner. "The Guardian" brought in $17.6 million from Friday through Sunday.
The top five was rounded out by "Jackass: Number Two," which slipped from the top spot, followed by new arrival "School for Scoundrels" in fourth place and "Jet Li’s Fearless" in fifth
The most challenged book of the 21st century (at least so far) won’t catch you by surprise.
It’s not about sex, the object of many a challenged book. It’s not about gore; at least, not much. Is it about evil and witchcraft?
Despite varying opinions about its subject matter, you don’t need a clue about which book is #1 on this list, do you?
For 25 years, the American Library Association has kept track of the books that have been most frequently challenged by people who want to decide what other people get to read. These readers petition to have books they don’t like taken off the shelves at public libraries and schools.
Another Banned Books Week in the United States has come to an end, and the new list of most challenged books is out.
For the years 2000 through 2005, the Harry Potter books top the list. The stories of the orphaned wizard who goes to Hogwarts school may seem innocuous to some, but they’ve been popular books for teachers and parents who look for engaging books to inspire young people to value reading.
Now, without further delay, the 10 most challenged books of the 21st Century (so far) are:
1. Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
2. "The Chocolate War" by Robert Cormier
3. Alice series by Phyllis Reynolds Naylor
4. "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck
5. "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou
6. "Fallen Angels" by Walter Dean Myers
7. "It’s Perfectly Normal" by Robie Harris
8. Scary Stories series by Alvin Schwartz
9. Captain Underpants series by Dav Pilkey
10. "Forever" by Judy Blume
For more information on this topic, these books or their authors, visit www.ala.org/bbooks.
Susan Ralston, a key aide to presidential political strategist Karl Rove resigned Friday after a congressional report showed she had extensive contacts with disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff and accepted tickets to sporting events and concerts from him.
Ralston is a special assistant to President Bush who used to work for Abramoff. She submitted her resignation less than five weeks before congressional elections in which corruption and scandal are emerging as major issues.
Critics have pointed to Ralston as evidence that Rove - and thus Bush - are possibly closer to Abramoff than the White House has acknowledged.
Ralston’s association with Abramoff was highlighted in a recent House Government Reform Committee report that listed hundreds of contacts the lobbying group had with the White House. The Bush administration insider, who is in her 30s, had been Abramoff’s administrative assistant and, after Bush took office, assumed the same post with Rove.
"She recognized that a protracted discussion of these matters would be a distraction to the White House and she’s chosen to step down," deputy White House press secretary Dana Perino said in announcing Ralston’s resignation. "We support her decision and consider the matter closed."
Rep. Henry Waxman of California, the top Democrat on the House Government Reform Committee, said he suspects the White House is trying to make Ralston a scapegoat.
"There is a lot that we don’t yet know about the assistance that Ms. Ralston provided Mr. Abramoff from inside the White House, but there are also many unanswered questions about the assistance that higher-ranking White House officials appeared to provide Mr. Abramoff," Waxman said.
"The vast majority of lobbying contacts and meals with White House officials documented in the report were with White House officials other than Ms. Ralston," Waxman said.
Abramoff has pleaded guilty to fraud and now is now cooperating with prosecutors in an influence peddling investigation that has enveloped Capitol Hill even as lawmakers, facing Nov. 7 elections, struggle with the fallout from a scandal involving former Rep. Mark Foley’s salacious messages to teenage male pages.
The latest Associated Press-Ipsos poll found that about half of likely voters consider corruption and scandal in Congress very or extremely important, and about two in three of those said they would vote for Democrats in House races.
Perino said Ralston, a political appointee who has played an instrumental role in organizing and choosing presidential event sites, was respected by her White House colleagues and will be missed.
The committee’s report - based largely on Abramoff’s billing records and e-mails - listed 485 lobbying contacts with White House officials over three years, including 10 with Rove. The report indicated that Abramoff and associates lobbied on behalf of more than 20 individuals for administration jobs and only was successful once.
According to e-mails, Abramoff and his team offered White House officials tickets to 19 sporting events and concerts, and Ralston was the most frequent recipient.
She received tickets to nine events from 2001 to 2004: four Capitals hockey games, one Baltimore Orioles baseball game, two Wizards basketball games, and Bruce Springsteen and Andrea Bocelli concerts, the report said.
The report did not make clear whether Ralston or other White House officials paid for any of the tickets. In one case, Ralston wrote to Abramoff saying Rove "has to pay" for the tickets he received to an NCAA basketball playoff game. The White House said Rove paid for the tickets.
In another instance, Ralston wrote an e-mail saying she was "willing to pay" for Capitals tickets, but Abramoff replied: "No problem, and you don’t have to pay."
After an Aug. 23, 2003, Orioles game that Ralston attended, she e-mailed Abramoff: "Thanks for the tix to the game last night. Our guests had a terrific time. (W)e had fun and appreciate your generosity."
The federal gratuities statute makes it a crime to give anything of value to a public official for any official act performed by that official. Officials under scrutiny for accepting gifts often defend themselves by saying they did so out of friendship. Ethics rules prohibit federal employees from accepting gifts unless given because of personal friendship.
E-mails reviewed by the committee also indicate that Abramoff and Ralston discussed business plans more than once.
In February 2002, for example, Ralston, Abramoff, and Abramoff partner Ben Waldman had an e-mail exchange about a business opportunity involving leasing an aircraft.
In November 2002, Ralston e-mailed about the possibility of forming a defense or homeland security-oriented company, acknowledging, "I . . . lack the experience to run the day-to-day operations of a defense company."
She added that "it would take a significant amount of money for me to be lured away (from the White House) so unless you’re really serious and can make it worth my while, let’s wait until 2005."
Abramoff responded, "I am not in a position to offer you serious money for this right now."
In a city where celebrities can walk to the grocery store and get treated like any other New Yorker, Mr. T - the ’80s icon from "Rocky III," "The A-Team" and countless stay-in-school videos and public-service announcements - is like the Pied Piper. He steps onto a mid-Manhattan street to get his photo taken for a tabloid, and everyone from little old ladies to young Asian guys, truck drivers to theater people, all flock to say "Hi," take his picture, have their pictures taken with him and get his autograph - one guy, improbably, on a baseball.
Everyone gets a turn - which is rarer than you’d think with less-than-A-list celebrities, who can transform sentiment and nostalgia into long green at autograph shows. Even considering he’s doing promotion for his reality series "I Pity the Fool" (TV Land, premiering Wednesday at 10 p.m.), in which he becomes a personal Dear Abby for people (mostly in the metropolitan area), there’s nothing begrudging or fake about it: At a lunch interview earlier, Mr. T (born Laurence Tureaud) led a reporter, a publicist and a stylist in saying grace. The man’s a Christian who practices what he preaches.
And he does preach. Long, excited answers spill out as if he’s got too much to say for one lifetime. Maybe that’s from being a cancer survivor, diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma in 1995 at age 43. Maybe it’s from growing up one of 12 children in the Robert Taylor Homes housing project on Chicago’s South Side. Or maybe it’s from being a novelty - two-time "World’s Toughest Bouncer" on the 1980-81 Bryant Gumbel competition series "Games People Play" - who was plucked from obscurity into movies, pro wrestling and playing Sgt. Bosco "B.A." Baracus in the lighthearted adventure series "The A-Team," stretching his 15 minutes of fame into more than two decades of (yes, we’re actually saying this) making people smile through both his onscreen persona and his largely anonymous charity work.
Frequent contributor Frank Lovece wrestled with Mr. T’s long answers, one paragraph at a time.
"I Pity the Fool" has people writing letters to Mr. T, asking help with their families, careers, relationships. Why write to Mr. T instead of, say, Santa Claus?
Glad you asked that. See, everybody knows Mr. T is real. Santa Claus ain’t. So you never know what you’re gettin’ in that Santa Claus outfit. You could have a pervert dressed up like Santa Claus. You could have a child molester. Also, Santa Claus can’t make them visits. Only God is omnipotent and omnipresent - being there at the same time everywhere. So parents are lyin’ about Santa Claus. One thing that my father taught us: We allow no Santa Claus in our house. ‘Cause if we believe in God, what is Santa Claus?
I tell people the reason why I never believed in Santa Claus is, No. 1, I lived in the projects. There was no chimney. And No. 2, if we catch a white man in a red suit in a black neighborhood, he’s in trouble! And his reindeer are in trouble!
Reindeer steaks tonight!
Yeah! And we gonna cut them antlers off, we gonna put ‘em on my car hood! (Laughs.)
The first couple of episodes, you help an unmotivated Nissan dealership in Jamaica and a family in Suffern, N.Y. Have the people you helped gone back to their old ways?
The guys in the car dealership, they got my home address and my home telephone number. Not my agent’s number. I’m gonna tell you why. Because if I was just to do this show to get the ratings and then say OK, see you later, I’d be like rapin’ them. Trish, the mom in Suffern, her father was sick. So they asked me would I go to the hospital to visit her father. I said I’d be more than happy. They said, "Mr. T, you got a three-hour lunch break." So I went to the hospital . I said, "Trish, this is what I do, this is who I am. God put me here to help."
When I go to the schools to speak to the kids, after I speak, I give the teacher my number, and the principal. Then I would call ‘em back. "How is Billy doin’? Is he OK in class? Has he been tyin’ his shoes up lately?" Or, "How’s that little girl doing who lost a parent?" Follow-up. That’s what separates me from everybody else. I’m sincere. I don’t just go through the motions: "OK, the camera’s gonna be there, I’m gonna speak for the camera." If the camera’s gonna be there, I don’t want to be there. The people can call me personally.
In the ’80s, there was a Mr. T action figure from Galoob.
That’s right, bro’. We had three sizes. Two sizes didn’t speak, and the third size, you pull the string, guess what it said? "I pity the fool." Then it says, "Stay in school."
Is it fun to say "Galoob?"
Y’know, I very seldom said the name. When I was promoting the doll, I didn’t say, "This doll from Galoob." I liked the company, but I told them I’d call it "Mr. G."
You have any words like "Galoob" that are fun to say?
As political lobbyist, evangelical Christians are perhaps the most powerful single force in American politics today. One such church leader actually says he has weekly phone contact with the Bush White House. Now with the film "Jesus Camp," Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing take a look at what Evangelical America believes, preaches, and teaches in their on homes, churches, and summer camps to their own children.
Shot over a year amid the gray tangle of interstates and truck stops that typify the semi-rural Midwest, and later at the "Kids on Fire" evangelical summer camp at Devil’s Lake, N.D., the Grady-Ewing documentary boasts a remarkable cast of characters.
We meet Rachael, a 9-year-old believer whose evangelical fervor prompts her to interrupt her family’s bowling outing to present a bemused young woman with a pamphlet and an offer of salvation.
You meet Levi, a charismatic 12-year-old whose preaching skills already have surpassed those of many adults. He, like many other evangelical kids, is home-schooled, in his case by his mother, who instructs him on the dangerous absurdity of liberal theories such as global warming and evolution.
Becky Fischer, a round, genial, stunningly intense woman with short, aggressively styled hair, is a Pentecostal children’s minister in Missouri and leader of the "Kids" camp whose passionate belief in Jesus is matched only by her dedication to turning children into foot soldiers in America’s culture war.
"Harry Potter is an enemy of God," she proclaims during one children’s sermon. "The devil goes after the young, which is why I’m trying to warn you."
Fischer’s ministrations make one thing clear:
Fear and self-righteousness are key weapons in the war for young minds. And make no mistake, these people truly believe they are engaged in a war, not only for their children’s souls, but for the soul of the entire country.
George W. Bush is their ally in this war, they believe, giving "credibility," as Fischer says, "to the Christian faith."
There are so many things to fear, which is perhaps why Christian extremism (as portrayed here) looks and sounds so much like any other kind of religious fanaticism.
"I want to see these kids laying down their lives for the Gospel in the same way fundamentalist Muslims do," Fischer explains. Muslims are referred to as "the enemy," or used as a pretext for teaching really young children that entire segments of the world’s population are doomed to hell.
According to the film, 43 percent of evangelicals accept Christ as their savior before the age of 13.
That being said, Rachael and Levi, along with Tory and other camp participants, boast social skills anyone would envy: They’re all supremely self-confident, verbal and seemingly fearless when it comes to speaking their minds. Already, at 9 or 12, they have unshakable faith and are eager to disseminate it.
The film’s subject matter, as well as scenes of school children speaking in tongues and weeping hysterically, will undoubtedly cause some uncomfortable seat-shifting among liberal audiences.
And while the overall tone of the movie is very pro-child, some of the more intense worship scenes suggest that these congregations are emotionally abusing their kids, or at the very least, brainwashing them.
Criticism from evangelicals is harder to predict. While one could accuse Ewing and Grady of presenting a negative portrayal of Fischer and her followers, Fischer herself would disagree. Speaking with reporters after the movie screened at the Tribeca Film Festival, she reported being generally very pleased with the representation of her faith, and praised Ewing and Grady for their sensitivity.
Grady and Ewing did strive for balance. The film counters Fischer’s dogma with outtakes from Air America’s Mike Papantonio, himself a Christian, who expresses disbelief and occasional horror at the tactics of the evangelical movement. This does not by any means present a 360-degree view of religion in America, or even of evangelical Christianity. But it does succeed in capturing the visceral desire and unflagging political will of one zealous religious movement.
Ladies, and perhaps somes men, are still drooling for this great Dane.
Eric Dane has joined the cast of ABC’s hit medical drama Grey’s Anatomy as a regular. Dane plays plastic surgeon Dr. Mark Sloan, aka “McSteamy,'’ a role he originated in a guest appearance last season. Dane returned to the series as a regular in the final scene of Thursday’s Grey’s. It marks Dane’s second co-starring stint as a hot young doctor on an ABC medical drama. Several years ago, he played Dr. Wyatt Cooper on the network’s Gideon’s Crossing.
Now in the final seconds of a recent Grey’s Anatomy, viewers gasped when the Adonis-like actor walked out of a bathroom barely wearing a towel and aptly living up to his nickname "McSteamy."
The scene instantly turned Dane, who plays Dr. Mark Sloan on ABC’s hit show, into the talk of television.
"The response has been overwhelming," says Dane, whom some will regret learning, is married, for now, to Rebecca Gayheart from Fox’s Vanished. He adds, "My wife liked it."
Grey’s is off to a strong third-season start. The premiere drew 25.4 million viewers, and last week’s episode drew 23.3 million. The third installment, "Sometimes a Fantasy," airs tonight at 9 ET/PT with Dane now a regular cast member.
"I get to talk," he assures.
Most recently seen in X-Men: The Last Stand, Dane says it took six takes to get the sexy scene right. "I was there for like seven hours that day," he says. "It was a brand-new towel, and it did not want to stay."
Although he was afraid the towel would drop while the cameras were rolling, Dane says he wasn’t actually naked. His underwear was cut and double-stuck to his skin to make it appear as though he had nothing on under the towel. He artfully showed some hip.
It was more than skin that caused viewers to catch a breath; the scene was another turn in a double love triangle. Dane emerged during an emotional moment between Dr. Derek "McDreamy" Shepherd (Patrick Dempsey) and wife Addison (Kate Walsh) discussing their crumbling marriage, a union doomed by his affair, prompted by her cheating some time ago — with Dane’s character, Derek’s former best friend.
Dempsey, who remained fully clothed in the scene, "was really funny," Dane says. "He kept asking me when my calendar was coming out."
To get those six-pack abs, Dane, 33, says he "eats right" and goes to the gym three or four times a week to work with a trainer.
"The scene was pretty jaw-dropping," says Sarah McLaughlin, a TV comedy writer and blogger at ivillage.com’s TV Cocktail. "Everyone’s talking about it."
McLaughlin’s jaw isn’t the only one that dropped. Even the writer responsible for the scene, Krista Vernoff, says on Grey Matter, the show’s writers’ blog at abc.com, that she, too, was surprised.
"I wrote it. And still, when I first watched the cut, my jaw dropped with giddy surprise when I saw him emerge from that bathroom. Love me my McSteamy."
More than 800 comments have been posted in response to Vernoff’s blog posting. Words viewers often used: "loved" and "gasped," along with mentions of "yum" and "holy cow."
And some complained their DVRs cut off just as Dane entered, causing them to miss his hot scene. ABC says the episode officially was booked until 10:02 p.m., although some local cable carriers might not have updated the guide information from the usual 10:01.
Mel Gibson, 50, is set to appear on Good Morning America.
Jordan Edmund, 21, now an aide to Rep. Ernest Istook, R-Oklahoma, was among the pages whom Rep. Mark Foley allegedly emailed with sexually teasing chat.
Edmund is one of the former pages referred to in the ABC News report that triggered Foley's resignation. The network reported that Foley sent sexually explicit instant messages to a page now identified as Edmund, and other pages.
Harry Potter actress Emma Watson has threatened to drop out of the final two movies in the big-screen adaptations of the children’s book series. 
Ashton Kutcher decided to put on a brave face and test his limits with inanimate objects in the country’s capital last week. The former "That 70s Show" star made a recent trip to Washington, D.C. with his wife Demi Moore, hoping to do a little bit of sightseeing and to embark on an unforgettable adventure - and that he did.
In a city where celebrities can walk to the grocery store and get treated like any other New Yorker, Mr. T - the ’80s icon from "Rocky III," "The A-Team" and countless stay-in-school videos and public-service announcements - is like the Pied Piper. He steps onto a mid-Manhattan street to get his photo taken for a tabloid, and everyone from little old ladies to young Asian guys, truck drivers to theater people, all flock to say "Hi," take his picture, have their pictures taken with him and get his autograph - one guy, improbably, on a baseball.
As political lobbyist, evangelical Christians are perhaps the most powerful single force in American politics today. One such church leader actually says he has weekly phone contact with the Bush White House. Now with the film "Jesus Camp," Rachel Grady and Heidi Ewing take a look at what Evangelical America believes, preaches, and teaches in their on homes, churches, and summer camps to their own children.
"Harry Potter is an enemy of God," she proclaims during one children’s sermon. "The devil goes after the young, which is why I’m trying to warn you."