Across the pond, Europe has been buzzing about the latest performance to debut at London’s Royal Opera House – the Anna Nicole Smith opera. The production opened a couple weeks ago and has made great fodder for tabloid reporters and drama-mongering bloggers because – as we all know in the world of pop culture – there’s a lot to say about the rags-to-riches story of the litigious Playmate whose rise to fame and troubled drug addiction has made for quite the on-stage show. And while the over the top script profiling Smith offers tremendous entertainment value, it highlights several of the deceased celebrity’s troubles that repeatedly make their way into the media even years after her untimely death. Smith’s life was a story of instability starting with her teenage years when she married and eventually divorced a fellow fast food coworker. The on-stage display of her erratic behavior is an appropriate characterization of the former reality star’s tumultuous life. Ultimately, we see in the opera how her struggles culminated with an overdose on prescription drugs that led to her death in a Florida hotel room four years ago. Although spot on in much of the Playboy model’s rise and the Read More …

While sailing their vessel on a dangerous section of the Indian Ocean last Thursday, a Danish family was captured by Somali pirates. A report issued today from the Danish Foreign Ministry lists the condition of Jan Quist Johansen, his wife, and their three children, ages 12 to 16, as being “well, under the circumstances.” A professional security firm handled negotiations with the pirates who took the hostages onto a larger ship on the Somalia coast.  One of the pirates, supposedly a reliable source with the pseudonym Muse Abdi, reported their safety.  Apparently some of these pirates consider themselves to be a kind of “coast guard.”  They can be a small, concerted band of locals attempting to scare off international travelers fishing in Somalia’s waters. Yet piracy is now responsible for 660 hostages from about 30 different ships, and the average ransom paid to release a ship and crew has reached close to $5 million USD.  Preservation of a fishing village aside, there is no place for these modern day Long John Silvers. Lady Justice would like nothing more than to match swords with them on any ship, any galley, any time…