Katy Perry: No Make-Up...

It is a new month and, more importantly, a new year. I have, admittedly, been a little slow out of the blocks in 2011. This has been a combination of things; enjoying the holidays before moving to Collarenebri, watching the test cricket on television, and an internet plan that counted teh playing of online games as part of one's download content. A change of plans has meant that I can now focus on the important stuff, blogging.

So, to catch up a little. It was nice to wake up on New Year's Day to find out that the most important story to lead off the new year was one that involved Russell Brand taking a mobile phone picture of his wife, Katy Perry, and posting it on Twitter. Nope, this was not a nude picture or the obligatory celebrity full-frontal I am a star happy snap, but rather it was a picture of Ms. Perry (or is that Mrs. Brand) without her make up on.

The photo has that rabbit in the headlights startled look about it. It sort of looks like the "I am just waking up so get that f*&king mobile phone out of my face" shot.

This got me wondering why this was news at all? Admittedly, Perry is a well-groomed celebrity with a very well-controlled public persona that she maintains. This includes always being well-made up on the make up front.

However, the publication of this photo is a good thing. If nothing else it shows all the fans out there that Katy Perry is just a regular girl with regular features and regular skin. Yep, under all that make up she is just like most other people. Although, most other people do not get on Sesame Street or wear Elmo t-shirts in quite the same way!

Anyway, goodbye 2010 and hello 2011!

Fashionable Veeps -- The Palin Cost

Choosing a Vice Presidential candidate does not come cheap when you are clothing a family of five kids and getting them looking all dapper to hit the campaign trail. The Republican National Committee has found this out as it has spent more than USD 150,000 since late August. Now, this is funny in that truly perverse kind of a way. The Republican ticket has been claiming how in touch it is with the problems facing America and ordinary citizens.

The problem as I would see it is that there are not many citizens earning that sort of money that they can be dropping more than 150K on accessorizing. Some of the bills that have been filed in public financial expenditure statements include an almost 50K shopping spree at Saks Fifth Avenue, a more than 75K bill from Neiman Marcus, and almost 5K in hair and make-up expenses.

This has caught the interest of campaign finance experts who have been quick to suggest that personal use items such as clothes and make-up are generally prohibited. Simply, campaign funds are not and cannot be used for personal items.

The RNC's initial response was to blow the whole thing off as politicking. However, the most recent response of the RNC has been to suggest that all of the goods that have been bought for the Palin's are going to be donated to charity after the campaign. In this case it seems that the Salvation Army store could be in for a windfall. It is not often you pick up Saks and Neiman goodies at bargain basement prices.

There is little doubt that the Democrats should get some good yards out of this one as the Democrat financial expenditure statements do not include any similar spending.

At least now the people, the citizens, those that are going to be casting ballots know how much it has cost to keep the Palins looking good!