Thursday, October 11, 2007

What Everybody's Not Doing In Hollywood!

A few months ago I wrote a piece on the current "Baby Bump" trend in Hollywood and how it's hip to be "round" these days. From Nicole Richie to the newest addition, the beautiful Halle Berry, Hollywood ladies are pregnant and loving it. I turned on the all great and powerful Oprah the other day because her episode was the big "baby announcement" by Halle Berry. In the midst of her joy she proudly declared she found no need to be married to have a baby and Oprah nodded her head accordingly with full support.

Oprah has been with her "Partner Stedman" for over 20 years and she's absolutely opposed to marriage. Stars like Goldie Hawn and Kurt Russell & Susan Sarandon and Tim Robbins have been setting the "no marriage" trend for years now. The latest announcement came from comic actor Jim Carey about his romance with Jenny McCarthy. "We're never getting married so we never have to get divorced." I'm sure that's sending a great message to Jenny's 4 year old son.

Speaking of messages, what is this the "summer of free love 1967?" Have we evolved so far as to think that marriage is an outdated cliche? It seems to me that Hollywood is setting the tone that marriage is something only the homosexual community wants to do. The gay stars are thrilled about the prospect of marriage but the traditional male- female couples could take it or leave it.

Now I know I've said this before but we as Christians can't hold non believers to our moral standards because they have no accountability in their lives higher than themselves and maybe their press agents. But does that mean we have to think it's ok for celebrities like Oprah to be championing the un-wed mothers and making it seem "Strong –n- sexy" to be just living together and making babies? I'm sure young people have enough struggles today with all the wrong choices laid out before them. It's got to be confusing for an average young American girl who gets pregnant and feels totally alone and fearful to think "Well Halle Berry can do it. Why can't I?" What's next? Will today's moms "to be" start thinking that having the father in the picture is unnecessary?

I write to you to give you food for thought about what we're taking from Hollywood and how we may be letting those values or lack thereof slowly sink into our everyday consciousness? It's something to think about. We can't let our guard down and we have to just be careful and pray that we're doing the best we can to set a Godly example for our future generations right here at home. That's how we are going to help these kids change the world for God, one conversation at a time.

Kerri Pomarolli is an accomplished actress, published author, contributing writer in many magazines, veteran of television with credits that include The Tonight Show, Comedy Central, General Hospital, ABC, FOX, TBN, CNN Headline News and ABC Family. She tours extensively throughout the U.S. and Canada performing comedy and inspirational speaking. She currently resides in Los Angeles with her husband, comedian Ron McGehee.

Thursday, October 04, 2007

Top Ten Worst Places to Take a First Date with a Christian

(This is from Kerri's new book "How to Ruin Your Dating Life", available on amazon.com and bookstores nationwide published by Nav Press)

1. Your ex's wedding.

2. 6 Day Church retreat ...couples only pre-marital getaway.

3. Monastery weekend with full vow of silence.

4. Your church youth group's latest rendition of "Chicago"

5. Your church's senior citizen's latest rendition of "Cats"... Memories...

6. Your long awaited bar mitzvah at age 25.

7. Your flag dancing ministry recital with audience participation.

8. The early bird senior buffet at your grandma's retirement home where all the food has been liquefied.

9. Bingo night at the Catholic Church after Father Willie serves communion.

10. Christian "Rockaroke Karaoke" where you're the host.

11. Your church single's group annual square dancing and hayride festival.

12. "Carmen the Champion" on ice.

13. The local Stryper Cover Band "Stripper" (they are not quite saved).

14. Your parents' basement to watch your old football videos from 7th grade, the one day you got play; followed by your mother's slide show of your naked baby pictures.

15. A relaxing day at your house looking at old photo albums of you and all your ex's, sharing all the gory details of every break up.

16. Your group therapy session "How to get over your spiritual bondages with God".

17. The Christian Star Trek Convention "Live Eternally and Prosper".

My Ankles and Other Things I Miss

I love this pregnancy stage of my life because it's allowed not only my waistline to expand but also my vocabulary. I'm learning all sorts of new terminology such as the latest term "Cankles!" Yes, I am the proud owner of "Cankles" which can be defined when a woman's ankle and calf meld together in a mass of swollen tissue and her anklebone is no longer recognizable. It's a really pretty. I mean what woman wouldn't t want to glance down and realize her anklebone is completely missing?

I was sitting at my friends house at a bar b que the other day and I felt a tingling sensation in my ankle area. I'm quite used to the fact that in this summer heat my feet can become swollen and I look like a hobbit from Lord of the Rings. I have a term for it. I call it "Frotto Feet!" It freaked me out at first but after talking to 45 friends and looking up 21498175059258 blogs and articles on the subject online I see that swollen feet is a normal occurrence. I don't like it but at least I know I can't die from it. I do refuse to believe the rumors that my feet might actually grow a whole shoe size during pregnancy and not shrink back. That would be a crime of epic proportions on several levels.

First and foremost I love my shoes. To part with them would be such sweet sorrow. I've gone to great lengths to collect my gallery of size 6 ½'s. Second of all, my mother is a size 6 shoe. And on a good day I can squeeze into some of her cute shoes without too much pain. But my mother taught me that beauty and pain sometimes go together and if the shoe hurts we might still want to wear it. Healthy attitude? Probably not! Cute shoes on Kerri? Definitely yes! Like mother like daughter. We've been shoe shopping and bonding since before I could walk. Is it any wonder that my daughter Lucy already owns 47 pairs of shoes and she's not even born yet? No it's not!

I have had to make some adjustments in my choice of shoes during these last months of pregnancy. I've learned my lesson the hard way of course. I didn't think it would be that bad an idea to continue wearing the high heeled red sandals that matched my cute maternity outfits when I was performing on stage standing and kicking for over an hour. Also, I'd be on my feet after shows greeting all the people and signing books looking adorable in my cute high-heeled shoes. It would hit me right about when I sat down in the car that my feet were in such pain and were so swollen I'd barely be able to walk for the next 24 hours. Did I learn this lesson in one night? No way! I tried to change to other types of strappy sandals with less of a heel but still the pain would come so badly at the end of the night I would be forced to think about changing up the shoe wardrobe. It's gotten so bad that last week I had a women's show and I wore these flat black slip-ons my mom gave me and even they were too tight. What's my next step? Nike tennis shoes and a dress? I have a wedding to go to this weekend I have no idea how I will solve this problem. It would be a disgrace to my family name if I didn't wear something cute and strappy with my cute maternity dress. Ron, my husband, has never understood why we women put ourselves through such physical torture to look beautiful and stylish. I think he has a point but I'm not going to admit that to his face. I don't know why we do the things we do either.

So back to my barbeque story, when I looked down and felt the tingling in my ankle area I realized that now not only my feet were looking swollen but so were my ankles. This was something I thought "would never happen to me!" I HAD CANKLES! I saw that my anklebone was missing. I'm serious, missing! I couldn't find it amongst the swollen tissue. My ankle just sort of melded into my calf area in one fatty glob. I started surveying everyone else's ankles in the room (men included) and I could clearly see they had visible anklebones. I did not! This was seriously freaky and I ran to the bathroom to think this situation over. I remember my friend Rene telling me about this odd occurrence. Even though it happened to her and some of my friends I still wasn't happy to be joining that pregnancy elite club. Who wants CANKLES? They're ugly! They're even a bit painful at times. I thought this through in the bathroom and remembered the only advice I'd heard to combat this issue was to "have the baby" and then the swelling would go away. It's not like you can really massage the fluid away. That's what's really going on. It's fluid that's collected down at the bottom of your legs for some reason. I think it's because we have different circulation when we're pregnant from carrying all that extra weight. I don't know the scientific answer. I also heard that elevating your feet as much as possible could help reduce swelling. My Dr. friend says that when you elevate your feet its best if they are as high as possible even above your heart. I've tried to do this but honestly..."how much reality TV can I watch in one sitting?" I keep getting up to do things and organize and clean. So if possible kick up your feet and enjoy some Nick at Night re runs or whatever suites your fancy. Tell your hubby to make dinner because you're doing this "for the baby!" Oh yeah, tell him that doing laundry is causing the swelling to get worse as well so he better start learning to separate whites from darks as soon as possible. If this ploy works for you. Please contact me immediately. I want to shake your hand!