Recently in Entertainment Category

"I'm goin' to Disneyland!"

...Or so went the story of what champions used to say to the camera after winning the world championship. In an inspiring twist to a great evening for Gotham, New York Yankees Manager Joe Girardi provided the icing on a great night by performing a Good Samaritan act on his way home.

So, instead of being in a wild celebration in need of a designated driver, Girardi was being good and doing good, at the same time!

It seems that on his way home from winning the World Series, Girardi was on a "curvy stretch of highway on the outskirts of New Rochelle. He came upon a car wreck and stopped to help a girl involved in it. The full story is here.

"She had no idea who I was," Girardi told a radio interviewer.

It turns out the "she" was Marie Henry, 27, of Stratford, Connecticut, who said Girardi "sprinted across three lanes of traffic to come to her aid."

A Yankee spokesman later said "A lot of people know him as 'Joe Girardi, the manager of the New York Yankees,' but Joe is someone who puts other people first.The easy thing would have been for him to just drive by. But I think it shows a lot about his character."

I think it's a neat story, and also points out an interesting fact: that there are probably thousands upon thousands of wonderful and heroic acts of character that Americans take on every day, week or month, but it seems to make the news when someone famous does it. I don't mind so much--because anything that's positive is good news by me--but it's just a thing, that when someone famous does it, it's news.

With all of the negative stories about sports stars today, I love hearing a great story about a good guy. It's a welcome change of pace. I'll add, though, a nod going out to all of those who know a story will never be written but they do the right thing anyway. And I hope a story such as Girardi's rescue of Ms. Henry spurs us all on to become a little bit better version of ourselves, starting with the next chance we have to do something selfless.

Oh, yes, and one more thing: it amazes me how much people use the term "Good Samaritan" to describe such acts, but don't dive into the rest of the Jesus story quite as seriously. But that's for another post! Way ta go, Joe Giradi! Nicely done.

Vanity Fair magazine has a long tradition that's being made into a book. I suspect it'll be a movie before too long! There's just something wonderful and inspiring about getting to know other people better, whether it be stars, friends or even ourselves.

Readers of Vanity Fair know that the back page has long been given over to the "Proust Questionnaire," which asks personal questions of celebrities. The "Proust Questionnaire" dates back to an English parlor game in the 1800's, where--in a pre-TV society--Brits would gather and ask questions designed to reveal more of oneself than they otherwise might.

Vanity Fair took the idea and has been putting the questions to celebrities for decades, and now there is even an interactive version There is also an online interactive version where you can compare your answers to those of the stars.

Some of the best ones have now been compiled into the "Proust" book by Graydon Carter. Sometimes the answers seem contrived, sometimes authentic, and sometimes surprising. A sampling:

At first, the pilot of the relaunched 'V,' the reimagining of the 80s sci-fi classic about alien visitors endearing themselves to humanity only to further their nefarious plan, wasn't catching my attention. Sure, the effects were out-of-this-world, but I was beginning to worry that this reimagining was going to be a "Stargate: Universe:" a refurbishment of a franchise trying to cash in on the gravitas of the award-winning "BattleStar Galactica," but losing the cheesetastic melodrama that made it so watchable.

The original "V" miniseries and subsequent series, which aired on NBC, was an allegory about the dangers of fascism (hello Niazi-esque red and black uniforms, swastika-like emblem, and a youth auxiliary movement!)--and some would say a critique of the Reagan Era, The redux rests comfortably and firmly in its post-9/11 reality. And while at least one writer suspects that the new show is a condemnation of the Obama Administration (kudos to the writers for the ominous "universal healthcare" shout out from the Visitor's leader), it seems more likely than not that the genre's liberal bent will out and the resistance will be hope we can believe in, so to speak.

But I just wasn't taking to the characters that we have seen so often on other shows: the suspicious FBI agent tracking terrorist cells, the man with a secret past, the doubting priest. In fact, it made me long for the network's canceled-too-soon "Invasion."

How long, I wondered, would it take for these story threads to be woven together and when, when would the Visitors be revealed to be evil space lizards? Because for all of the sci-fi genre's portents as thinly veiled socio-political allegory, 'V' is really about rodent-eating reptiles bent on destroying humanity--that's what those of us who fondly hold the original series close wanted to see. And that's what, ultimately, was delivered.

Here are three reasons to suspect that you're a fame-a-holic. One, your life is a disaster. Two, even when you come to terms with your mistakes and apologize to those you've hurt, you have a microphone clipped to your lapel. Three, you have turned your life over to your spiritual counselor, Rabbi Shmuley Boteach.

Yesterday Jon Gosselin, erstwhile star of "Jon & Kate Plus 8" finally admitted he had a fame problem at a strange self-denunciation ceremony held at Boteach's West Side synagogue. "I don't sing. I don't dance. I'm not a Nobel peace-prize winner," he told the special gathering, hosted by Boteach. "I just had eight kids and I had a show on TLC."

But Gosselin has a way a to go before anyone would call him truly in recovery. Though he swore off dating his girlfriend, Hailey Glassman, until his divorce from Kate was final and recognized that he had embarrassed his wife publicly, it's a bad sign that Gosselin can't seem to get off-camera. Instead of being guided by what his celebrity rabbi calls "the moral obligations inherent in celebrity," Gosselin might try a different sponsor to help him into anonimity. Paging Kevin Federline?

Some movie lines melt our hearts. Others make them flutter with excitement. Can you match the famous movie quote to the classic film it's from? Test your movie quote knowledge here on Beliefnet.