Manny Pacquiao loses his crown
The boxer's anti-gay remarks lead us to take an unprecedented step: We're revoking his Salon Sexiest Man title
Steve Carell and Manny Pacquiao (Credit: AP) We’re all relieved around here that Manny Pacquiao is not really some Leviticus-quoting loon who says that gays “must be put to death” – even if that may have something to do with the fact that he admits “I haven’t read the Book of Leviticus yet.”
But it’s nonetheless disappointing that a man we at Salon bestowed our highest honor to just six months ago has proven himself so terribly unenlightened. In an interview for Examiner.com last week, one of our 2011 Sexiest Men declared of marriage, “It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.” Oh dear. Winning lots of fights? Sexy. Getting elected to the Filipino Congress? Sexy. “Donating millions to improve living conditions in his poverty-stricken nation”? Super hot. Not being down with civil rights? Bzzzzzzt!
That is why we have decided to take an unprecedented step here at Sexiest Men World Headquarters. We have in the past fought epic, bloody internal battles over men like Zach Galifianakis, Al Franken and Louis C.K. But we have never, in our sexy, sexy history, revoked a man’s title. Until now.
We understand that the Roman Catholic boxer has to be true to his beliefs, and we would never insist that falling in lock step with Salon’s own socialist, American fabric-destroying agenda is the only criterion for making the list. It’s just that we suddenly don’t feel like going a few sweaty rounds with a dude who thinks civil rights “adulterate the altar of matrimony.”
So instead we’re passing on the crown to one of last year’s runner-ups. Like Pacquiao — and our beloved first Sexiest Man, Stephen Colbert – he’s a happily married, self-described “born and bred” Catholic. But this one says, “I stay clear of declaring my political choices,” insisting humbly, “I feel like my voice is no more valuable, no less valuable than anyone else’s.”
What really makes us go weak in the knees is how he turned a bumbling, inept bag-of-wind character and made us care when he said goodbye to “The Office.” And, last summer, he took a broken, pathetic, recently divorced dad and so made him tenderly romantic (and so darn good-looking in a tailored suit) he nearly almost made us forget Ryan Gosling in “Crazy, Stupid Love.” We’ve had a thing for him since before he became a 40-year-old virgin. We’d choose him as our friend for the end of the world. How could we ever have been so blinded by that pugilistic piece of beefcake? That’s why today, we’re asking, newest Salon Sexy Man, Steve Carell, will you gay marry us?
Manny Pacquiao doesn’t want you dead
A gross misquote gets out of hand -- but the iconic boxer still has a long way to go on the sensitivity front
Manny Pacquiao (Credit: Reuters/Steve Marcus) Let’s get something straight, so to speak, right off the bat. There’s no disputing that Manny Pacquiao is not the most enlightened guy to ever put on gloves and fight for a belt. In a story for Examiner.com this past weekend, blogger Granville Ampong wrote of how the boxing champ takes issue with Barack Obama’s recent groundbreaking declaration of support for same-sex unions. “God’s words first … obey God’s law first before considering the laws of man,” Pacquiao told Ampong, in what the writer described as “an exclusive interview.” Pacquiao was further quoted explaining that “God only expects man and woman to be together and to be legally married, only if they so are in love with each other… It should not be of the same sex so as to adulterate the altar of matrimony, like in the days of Sodom and Gomorrah of Old.”
Continue Reading CloseMindy Kaling: Our sitcom dream girl
A preview for the "Office" star's new sitcom succeeds where Whitney and Chelsea fell flat
Mindy Kaling (Credit: AP/Matt Sayles) After an exhausting year of would-be TV manic dream girls trying to charm, seduce and pratfall their way into our hearts, this fall we get the woman we’ve wanted all along. Let the finger crossing for “The Mindy Kaling Project” commence!
On the surface, a sitcom about a young, kooky OB/GYN with a spotty dating history and a penchant for getting falling-down drunk doesn’t exactly scream “groundbreaking.” But it’s the presence of the woman who’s given us the fearlessly self-obsessed Kelly Kapoor on “The Office” all these years, who wrote a book called “Is Everyone Hanging Out Without Me?” and who launched her career channeling Ben Affleck in a play, that gives the show the distinct possibility of actually not sucking.
Continue Reading CloseTime magazine’s breast-feeding cover star: Is he doomed?
A provocative magazine cover doesn't mean the breast-feeding preschooler is in for a lifetime of "Got milk" jokes
The cover of Time magazine In the single, whipped-up day since Time magazine unleashed that cover story about crazed MILFs “driven” to “extremes” by attachment parenting, there’s been plenty of debate over its provocative image of blogger Jamie Lynne Grumet breast-feeding her almost 4-year-old son. And, as so often happens when adults see an image that unnerves them, that anxiety is projected onto kids. In this case, one kid in particular. Grumet’s.
Continue Reading CloseWhy Time’s cover shocks
Hint: it's not the breast-feeding -- it's the contempt
The cover of Time magazine It’s going to be a long Mom War, people.
In case you thought, nay, hoped, that the barrel-bottom had been fully scraped last week when the New York Times asked, in a query straight out of the Onion, “Has women’s obsession with being the perfect mother destroyed feminism?,” now Time magazine has upped the ante with a cover story brazenly challenging “Are You Mom Enough?”
It’s accompanied, by the way, by a picture of a hot blonde and her 3-year-old son standing on a chair to suckle her breast. Yo, take THAT, Room for Debate page! I guess Time felt it really had to bring it after uber-troll Katie Roiphe’s piece last month on why feminists just want a good spanking.
Continue Reading CloseObama goes viral, wins Twitter
The president's endorsement of gay marriage becomes a cleverly -- and intensely -- choreographed meme
When Barack Obama blew America’s mind by declaring his support for same-sex marriage Wednesday, he explained that his views on the subject had long been “evolving.” But while evolution is a process that can take millennia, social media moves with considerably more swiftness. However long it took the White House (nudged though it was by Joe Biden’s Sunday blurt that he was “absolutely comfortable” with marriage equality) to get to that place, it took no time at all for Obama’s sentiments to become a meme.
Continue Reading ClosePage 1 of 206 in Mary Elizabeth Williams