Category Archives: Celebrities

No celeb is safe on Kitty Time

My Night With Channing Tatum

Ah ha! I totally couldn’t resist that obnoxious title….my night was also with Jamie Foxx and the ever-classy Maggie Gyllenhaal for the DC premiere of their new movie, White House Down.

Oh, and did I mention the movie theater sized crowd also in attendance?

C’est vrai. I wasn’t alone with CT.

Though I am sure most women in the audience were imagining they were alone with him.

Me with Maria Jose from Very Busy Mama and Angelica Talan from Clarendon Moms

Me with Maria Jose from Very Busy Mama and Angelica Talan from Clarendon Moms

The evening started with a fun cocktail party at Mate in Georgetown, hosted by The Moms and the

The fabulous Thien-Kim of I'm Not the Nanny and Anne Parris of Not A Supermom at Mate.

The fabulous Thien-Kim of I’m Not the Nanny and Anne Parris of Not A Supermom at Mate.

ever-fabulous Equinox gym. After an hour of drinks and sushi, we headed to the AMC Lowe’s theater, unfortunately bypassing the red carpet, to head inside and have a chance to hear from the stars of the movie before seeing the movie.

We waited what felt like an eternity, of course, when People’s sexiest man alive is going to enter the room….until suddenly we heard the ever-familiar deep tonal voice of Jamie Foxx, bellowing into a microphone, from outside the theater, “Channing….Channing Tatum”

Everyone went nuts.

Suddenly I realized there was Maggie Gyllenhaal walking in. I had absolutely no idea she was also coming and I was blown away but her super chic pixie cut and her stunning beauty. For a minute, I forgot she was standing right behind Channing…..

 

Isn't she gorgeous?

Isn’t she gorgeous?

A few observations:

I wanted to hear more from Maggie Gyllenhaal. She plays the head Secret Service agent at the White House. In the role, she’s excellent. In real life, she’s amazing. She spoke very briefly and acknowledged that it was a crowd of “mom bloggers” and revealed she spent her time nursing a newborn in her trailer while filming the movie. We all went wild. Here’s the 15 second clip of her giving us that nugget:

Look at that smile....oh my

Look at that smile….oh my

Channing Tatum is incredibly handsome in real life.

I know.

I know.

I’ve just revealed something incredibly shocking and insightful to you. Let’s see, what else. Oh, his neck size is enormous. He’s definitely tall. He also seemed shy. Not like he didn’t want to be there or had somewhere better to be – not at all – just genuinely shy. It was sweet when he noted that he played the role of a father to a daughter in the movie and has since become the father to a daughter. We were like puddy in his hands. Here’s the clip of that moment:

Jamie Foxx has all the charm, charisma and stage presence that you

The cast of White House Down

The cast of White House Down

imagine he does. He was funny, sang easily, had fun-loving banter with his cast members, and hilariously noted that a year ago he played a slave and now he’s playing the role of President of the United States. Here’s a clip of him making fun of our boyfriend, Channing:

I think it’s safe to say that we were all star struck. There was plenty of security so we couldn’t get too close (those who are on my Facebook page know I was making threats to do inappropriate things….).

How about the actual movie?

It’s the perfect summer action adventure movie. Would it be my first choice? No. Of course not. Would I go see it with Mr. WM if I hadn’t been invited to the premiere and he wanted to go, totally. Would I walk out of there and feel good about spending the money on a sitter and the ticket price – totally. It’s an action packed, shoot ’em up, sometimes quite funny, totally mindless, though there are a few solid plot twists, summer movie.  One word of caution, however, if you are (understandably) sensitive about seeing major national landmarks being blown up and attacked – this might not be the movie for you.

Hit “Like” on the Wired Momma Facebook page for the most fun you ever will have.

Today’s Topic: Summer Hair & Express Blowout Give Away

Spring 2011-iphone 134

We are mid-way through this brutal summer and if you are anything like me, you have crazy lion hair in the DC humidity, so in the spirit of “I am moving so you need to bear with me and accept re-posts of old posts” – today I am reminding you of this totally amazing post from last summer – complete with tips from one of DC’s best hair stylists, Denise Sharpe (and full disclosure, my hairstylist), including lessons with a flat iron and a chance to win an Express Blowout with Denise’s trained protege, Paula, or get a discount with Denise for an Express Blowout just because you love moi and you read this post. So read on, kittens.

If life’s lessons begin and end with an episode of Sesame Street , then I’m pretty sure this video wraps up how I don’t feel every summer about my hair, but really want too. In my head, on the beach or by the pool, I look like a sexy summer goddess.

Exhibit A:

Isn't this how you look at the pool?

In reality, well, quite the opposite.

Realizing I couldn’t face another summer of bad hair, I sought out some advice from my beloved hair stylist, Denise, of Denise Sharpe Hair, located in Bethesda. Denise has been a stylist for over 20 years and is also a mom to 3-year-old twin girls. So like us, she’s busy but stylish. Read on for invaluable hair and time-saving tips.

First, let’s talk about hair cut and color trends for the summer. Tell us what styles are popular right now, what looks will keep us from having bad mom hair, and what the color trends are hot for the spring and summer?

For the classic mom, a soft and side swept graduated bob is very popular, with some choppy layers to emphasize the texture of her cut. For the trendier mom, I’m doing more fringe and heavier bangs . The inception of Keratin Complex Treatments is making this style more accessible to women with wavy and frizzy hair because now they can have the fringe and the sleek bangs without the risk of too much frizz and curl. For the funkier mom, the glunge look is more popular.

Glunge? Do tell, I’ve never heard of it. Are we talking hair bands? Brett Michaels meets Kirk Cobain?

Yes! Glunge is the marriage of glamour and grunge. 80s hair band meeting 90s grunge band is spot on, but let’s think of attractive females as our visuals here, not unkempt dudes. Think Drew Barrymore meets JLo, so a loose messy tousle and this style hides kid puke and yogurt stains pretty well. Often this hair style looks unwashed, though it usually isn’t, with the help of synthetic products like pomade and dry shampoo .

So what about color trends for this time of year?

Michelle Williams’ icy blond look is very popular for blondes but it is high maintenance. It requires color about every 3-4 weeks. For red heads or brunettes, Drew Barrymore’s “St. Tropez” highlights work well for the summer. In that look, her scalp is a richer color and the ends are lighter. Also for red heads or brunettes, Kim Kardashian’s “Root Beer Float” highlights are very trendy, meaning she accents her rich dark brown color with warm reds. What’s important is to use a sulfate free shampoo on any of these treatments for maintenance.

Excellent. So moving on to the inevitable bad-hair day or when we are short on time, what is a busy gal to do?

Dry shampoo is the first thing I reach for on a day when I don’t have time to shower or wake up with bad hair. It helps revive the blowout from the day before, and I’d like to point out that it’s best for your hair if you don’t wash it every day.  Another quick fix is grabbing your child’s leave-in detangler. If you have longer hair, a side-swept braid is a good way to mask unwashed hair. A cost-effective way to clean up unwashed hair is using corn starch or baby powder. Think Julia Child and just grab a pinch of it, and you will notice how it absorbs oils and then use a wide tooth comb or paddle brush to brush your hair through. And finally, there’s always our friend the flat iron. The flat iron is perfect for working through random bed-head fly aways but also helps your hair not look so contrived; you can keep it loose and playful with the flat iron.

I’m glad you raise the issue of the flat iron. I routinely bow to the Gods who invented the flat iron. But how do I know I have the right flat iron for my hair? And are all flat irons created equal, do I really have to spend a mint because I bought mine at Target for $19.99.

What makes or breaks a good flat iron is really the edges. You want beveled edges, which means rounded, for smooth styling. If you hair is short or medium length, the beveled edges should be about an inch thick with a thin plate inside. You are looking for a square plate for hair that is longer than shoulder length. For blondes with the flat iron, keep it at the 350 temperature because blondes have delicate hair. Brunettes and natural red heads should put the flat iron temperature at 400-450 degrees. Remember that “slow and steady” wins the race with a flat iron. If you race through it at too high of a heat, you might have to repeat the process. And yes, you can purchase an inexpensive flat iron at Target or the grocery store, but it might need to be replaced in a few months whereas a more expensive one will last longer.

So what should we all have in our hair survivor kits or purses?

Depending on your hair style and length, you should pick from any or all of these 10 tips: non-elastic scrunchies like Goodie brand from the pharmacy aisle, non-butterfly flat clips for drying hair or styling hair, Bobby Pins complimentary to your hair color or hair pins to loosely pin back pieces, Rat Tail comb for sectioning or combing fringe, a thermal round brush for volume and flip, a diffuser to embrace your natural texture or curl, a blow dryer with a nozzle, pin curl clips for side swept bangs or to train new growing-in bangs to sweep over between haircuts, dry shampoo and a restylizer such as Wen lavender replenishing mist , Catwalk Curls Rock Curl Booster , “It’s a 10” miracle leave-in or Arrojo Hydromist .

Now tell me how I can possibly not have lion hair all summer long. I’ve tried every product under the sun; I spend gobs on product every summer trying to beat back the inevitable frizz and chaos that comes with DC humidity and I can flat iron to no avail, the minute I walk outside, I look like I’m wired for sound (perhaps the real reason I’m called Wired Momma…)

There are two things you can do, the Express Blowout or the Keratin Smoothing Treatment. The Express Blowout takes just under an hour, lasts for 4-5 weeks and costs between $99-$150 depending on the length of your hair. You do not need to use certain products after you get the Express Blowout, you just can’t wash your hair for 8 hours after. Some women wait a few days to wash their hair because they believe it makes the treatment last longer. But this is how you beat the humidity and keep your hair looking sleek in the summer. It’s really a perfect solution for the busy mom; you spend less time managing your hair and less money because you don’t need all the product. If you’d like a treatment that lasts longer, the Keratin Smoothing Treatment lasts 3-5 months, takes anywhere from 1.5 to 2.5 hours, depending on the length and density of your hair, and costs between $350-$500. For both of these treatments, you can get color at the same time.  One client told me that her hair was having an identity crisis after the Express Blowout because it really did stay smooth and sleek despite weather conditions. Look, why not have sleek hair and bodies all summer long, right?


Can pregnant or nursing moms use this treatment?

No. For pregnant or nursing moms or women who are environmentally conscious, we can do the Research in Beauty treatment. It is a keratin gold retexturizing treatment, free of formaldehyde and aldehydes. It lasts about 2-3 months and costs between $350-$500.

Update from Monica:

As soon as I heard about the Express Blowout, I was willing to kick an old lady down to get to the salon fast enough to try out this treatment. I had it done, waited about 12 hours to wash my hair and never believed it would work. Almost five weeks have passed and it is defying all the odds, my entire family is wondering where their mocking hair jokes have gone for the summer because I am still looking sleek and stylish – this after runs in the humidity, hours on the beach, even just walking outside. It is a summer miracle.  Also, I’ve not used any product or the flat iron because I haven’t needed too. Am I breaking up with my flat iron for the summer? I am ready to now sing “I love my hair”.

GIVE AWAY ALERT, FRIENDS:

Denise is offering 25% off to all Wired Momma readers who want to try the Express Blowout. All readers are eligible for the discount, just  mention this post to Denise when you go for your treatment. One lucky winner is going to win an Express Blowout with Denise’s protege, Paula. Entering to win is two-part: first head to the Wired Momma Facebook page, hit “Like” and either Like or comment in my post….then part two:  head over to the Denise Sharpe Hair Facebook page and hit “Like.”  The one lucky winner will be announced on Saturday July 21 on Facebook and the give-away winner can only redeem her Express Blowout on a Monday between 10-4 or  a Thursday between 11-7pm. Don’t forget, for everyone else, just mention this article to Denise to earn your 25% discount on the Express Blowout! Follow Denise on Twitter @sharpedenise for easy access to great haircare tips!

Happy summer . . . love your hair. . .

Feminist Moms, Attachment Moms, Celeb Moms- Spin the Wheel

Like a game of roulette, lately it seems anyone could spin the wheel and land on a parenting technique and consequently, drive yourself crazy trying to live up to its standards.

Spin the wheel to land on the latest parenting trend

Don’t breastfeed for a year, you are giving yourself over fully to the evil “tyranny off the baby” which Ann Crittenden poignantly notes has replaced patriarchy, according to the new French feminist tome “Conflict” written by Elisabeth Badinter. Don’t succumb to the pressures of placing the needs of a child before your own, don’t give in to the all-consuming demands of parenthood. You owe yourself more than that. It’s all or nothing. There is no gray area.

Or maybe you’ll land on being “mom enough”, the attachment parenting philosophy oh-so-conveniently invented by a man, Dr. Sears, that defines motherhood perfection as giving over every part of a woman’s self to her child for as long as possible – nurse the baby on demand, sleep with the baby, wear the baby. Sleep, breathe, eat, be the baby. If you don’t do this, your child won’t be happy. He won’t be well adjusted. He won’t know that you LOVE HIM. Oh, and make sure you don’t let him cry. There’s certainly no other research out there proving that crying a bit can actually be good for a baby.

If you’re really lucky, you could land on some of the celeb parenting trends, some even popular in developing countries:  January Jones (dry up your placenta, have someone turn it into a pill, then eat it) or better yet, Alicia Silverstone’s preference for pre-masticating – that’s right – chew up your kid’s food then push it into his mouth.

“Here you go darling, let me pass you some soft, gooey bread, I’ve added some Hepatitis B to give it an extra kick. You can thank me later, after all, all the kids in rural China get their food this way, so why shouldn’t you?”

Pre-masticating is rivaled only by everyone’s favorite bombshell supermodel, Gisele’s claims of “elimination communication” – where her baby was potty trained at 6 months old. I’m for sure going to take the word of a spoiled, wealthy super model that she was so attentive and hands-on, that she was able to potty train her child two years before the rest of us. She’s hotter than all of us, so why wouldn’t she be better at parenting, right?

Totally makes sense.

There was a time when all the talk over these parenting techniques made me crazy. Now I’ve decided I absolutely love it. You know why? Because it’s fun to talk about people who are radically different from you. I will never breast feed a child until he is four, let alone put him on the front cover of a magazine doing it. I will never wear a baby constantly. I like to

BE
FREE

from my children. I like to get away from them. And then come back to them because I missed them.

And though my 3-year-old totally believes in pre-masticating, it’s crazy I know, but somehow I’m able to resist the chewed up food she so graciously deposits into the palm of my hand and instead of placing it into my mouth, I toss it in the trash.

As for elimination communication, apparently I #failed that parenting trend too because I just last night got rid of all the overnight diapers – we are officially just now – at 3.5 a totally diaper free zone. Sure, we were diaper free during the day but not at night. Gisele has a better body than me (just barely of course) and also is better at potty training than moi.

C’est vrai.

She’s better than you too. It’s okay.

As for the tyranny of the baby, that 10 pound human oppressing you? What Ann Crittenden writes in American Prospect really resonated with me:

“Badinter is tackling here a profound dilemma: how to reconcile the increasingly burdensome responsibilities of parenting with the pursuit of one’s own personal fulfillment. “In a civilization that puts the self first, motherhood is indeed a challenge, even a contradiction,” she writes. But Badinter fails to grapple with the conflict inside women themselves and with what we might call the paradox of selflessness. Sacrificing one’s own interests for the sake of others can be a deep source of fulfillment. (As the late Texas Governor Ann Richards once said, “Why should your life be just about you?”)”

Amen. Sacrificing our own interests for the sake of others is the daily ritual called life, isn’t it? Setting aside the pregnant teen or two, are there really that many women out there who willingly get pregnant and actually don’t realize that what’s about to happen is a major life adjustment where you are no longer the most important thing that everything revolves around? And while that is the taxing, draining, exhausting, raw nerve part of parenting, especially very young children, it’s also the rewarding, fulfilling, heart-warming, amazing part about it. They go together, those two extremes. Hence our chronic confusion. The constant push-pull between your own needs and the needs of your child. It is what it is. Look, I’ve called my own kid my oppressor but I still don’t view my life as living under the tyranny of the baby. Get over yourself, is what I want to say about that.

And speaking of getting over yourself, I now call up the Dr Sears view of the world,attachment parenting.  I thought there was some really great advice in this month’s Washingtonian article Type-A Parents Run Amok.  In terms of attachment parenting and never letting a child cry, Ms. Weaver, a clinical social worker explains that children need to learn to cry and parents need to set boundaries: “kids can really benefit when they’re forced to experience an emotion. Otherwise the message is ‘you have an uncomfortable emotion, which is too hard to live with, so let’s quickly find ways to fix it…children need to learn to tolerate their feelings – to know how to process anger, sadness and frustration.”

Unless as an adult, you go through your days and months and years only experiencing happiness and joy, then isn’t it  obvious that though they are tiny small humans, babies and young kids also deserve and benefit from experiencing a range of emotion?

My absolute favorite part of the article was when Dr. Levy, a local pediatrician, said “Sometimes less is more in parenting. Read a magazine while you’re in the playroom.”

Now that’s something I CAN do, Doctor. That makes me mom enough.

So while my kids are playing, I’ll keep reading about all these absurd extreme forms of parenting that my guess is, the tiniest percentage of the American public actually practice, then I’ll send some emails and write some more blogs about it.

Cause I’m that good of a parent. What do you think? Are you mom enough?

“Like” WM on FB if you’re good with good enough parenting.

WM Reading: Train Wreck Edition

Busy week….spring break officially started for my younger one…so instead of a full post from moi today, you get link love.  Don’t you love getting a glimpse into the mind of  moi and what piques my interest on the vast inter web?

C’est vrai. I know you do. So without further a due……

Reality Star/Train Wreck Michelle Duggar….sees no problem with having 19 children and believes the population of the world could all fit shoulder-to- shoulder in Jacksonville, Florida.

I can’t make this shit up.

Overpopulation Anyone?

My issue with her isn’t about population control, it’s about pretending like you have the time to raise each kid. Who is she kidding? You have that many kids, it means the older kids are raising the younger kids. I can’t be convinced otherwise. But I’d love for someone to try to convince me.

January Jones ate her placenta. And despite what you might think, placenta eating in the United States, while common in other cultures, is not a new trend with today’s hippie yuppie or attention-seeking celebrity…in fact, a quick search of Al Gore’s vast inter web revealed this really helpful list of recipes, which dates back to Mothering Magazine in 1983, should you choose to nosh on your own placenta.

And just when you thought it had been made clear to mothers everywhere, ad nauseum, that we are role models and influencers for our young girls on how they view their own bodies and develop healthy relationships with food, Vogue published this article about an insane and horrible woman who put her 7-year-old daughter on a Weight Watchers Diet.

I judge. Oh, clearly, I love to judge this week.

Final thing – by now you probably know that I am thrilled to be part of the debut of Listen To Your Mother DC on May 6. Last night we had the first cast read through and I was blown away by the talent, the stories and the other women in the show. It will absolutely be a lovely afternoon and I hope you come – men and women – not just mothers! DC is a town of talented writers and they will be on display on May 6. Don’t miss it!!!

To keep up with the other news of the weird and irrelevant that I love to read, be sure to Like the Wired Momma FB page because I post everything there…and more…