Craig Ruvere

For some odd reason, I now find myself looking at the obituaries in the newspaper on a semi-regular basis. Thankfully, I never find my own name in there, but the practice does freak me out sometimes. I feel like a senior citizen, checking to see if any of the dearly departed are friends or acquaintances I need to pay my respects to. What I have found however, is a very discouraging trend – the age of those listed in this section is getting younger and younger. Sure there’s a handful of those fortunate enough to reach the age of 78, 85 and just the other day 94. But over the last week, I’ve also been humbled to find a loving wife and mother who was only 45, a cherished son…

Nowhere but in America would we allow a drunken, drug-using, name calling, girl hitting and all around reckless character to get paid $1.2 million dollars for his work on a half hour television sitcom. Except if you're Charlie Sheen. I’m talking of course about Charlie Sheen from CBS’ “Two and a Half Men” - the newest Hollywood bad boy. He’s now ranting and raving to anyone who will listen, after the network and production company agreed to cancel the remainder of this season’s production schedule, due to inappropriate and lude comments he made on a popular radio show. Shocking isn’t it? Are ratings and advertising dollars so important to television studios that we’d allow this clown to show the world that this kind of behavior is not only acceptable, but…

From the Tony’s, to the Oscar’s to the Grammy’s, award shows all practice a familiar pre-ceremony tradition as the stars make their way inside the auditorium – critiquing their wardrobes. It's all about fashion and style. My favorite is the way they phrase it – “So who are you wearing?” Who are you wearing? Shouldn’t that be “what” are you wearing, because the last time I checked there wasn’t another human being draped across their shoulders like a sweater on a preppy dresser. But then again, I never really understood society’s fascination with what is and is not considered fashionable. To me this common red carpet tradition screams marketing ploy. Designers get their names spewed across the airwaves for free and soon hundreds of thousands of fashion conscious individuals flock…