April 2008 Archives - Bitten and Bound

Tiffany Shepherd Bikini Mate, Science Teacher Fired

Apr 302008

Tiffany Shepherd was a high school science teacher in Florida’s St. Lucie County School District until very recently. School administrators fired the 30 year old single mother of three young children. The school board says the dismissal is based upon poor job performance but Shepherd is crying foul.

It all started when the young woman and her husband divorced in early 2008. In order to make ends meet, Tiffany secured a part time job working for Gil Coombes on weekends. Coombes and his wife run a charter fishing boat operation called Smokin’ Em Charters. The charter’s website offers up charter services for bachelor parties as well as for groups of varying sizes that are interested in inshore and offshore fishing.

Shepherd and a few other attractive women are employed as bikini mates. The women mingle with the paying customers and some are reportedly topless. Tiffany says that she keeps her bikini firmly in place and doesn’t believe she is doing anything inappropriate. She makes $600 for two days of fishing, which was more than what she could earn during a full week at her teaching job.

The conflict occurred, according to Tiffany, when the charter service displayed sexy photos of the bikini mates on the website that they use to advertise their business. Shepherd believes that administrators in her school district were put off by her moonlighting and that they trumped up the poor job performance charges as a way to sever ties with someone who didn’t meet their standards.

The district indicates that Shepherd missed 30 days of school this year and received two written reprimands prior to being fired. Looks like the young woman will have to take on a few more days of fishing each week in order to support her youngsters, now that the school system has cut her loose.

Katie Holmes Goes to Scientology Boot Camp

Celebrities, Katie Holmes, Magazines, Tom Cruise 3 Responses »

Apr 302008

Tom Cruise has sent his third wife, Katie Holmes to spend 3 days at a Scientology boot camp, or as they call it, Gold Base. The base is a well kept Scientology secret in Hemet, Calif.

In the latest issue of Star magazine, they are saying that at the base the wanna-be Scientologists are shown the ropes. An insider into the much scrutinized religion said:

It included various tests, confession sessions, tons of reading and physically challenging purification processes. Tom insists that auditing and purification practices are incredibly beneficial to Scientologists at all levels.”

Fact of fiction? We are not sure but I hope someone is secretly video taping the ~~brain washing~~ training. Word is that trainees are also put through a lie detector test. Hopefully they don’t ask her if she thinks her husband is a boob. The truth could get her into trouble. Continue reading »

Can Oprah Humanize Tom Cruise?

Celebrities, Oprah Winfrey, Tom Cruise 2 Responses »

Apr 302008

Tom Cruise and Oprah Winfrey have gotten together for their first face to face meeting since the ‘couch’ episode nearly three years ago. We all remember the crazed celebrity jumping up and down on O’s beige sofa – as if it were a trampoline. Oprah traveled to Cruise’s Colorado mountain retreat last weekend to tape a segment for an upcoming show.

Oprah has her work cut out for her if she intends to humanize the fallen star. Much has happened since that epic television moment that caused Oprah’s eyes to roll. Cruise has married Katie Holmes and the couple have a two year old daughter Suri. The actor and his production company got the boot from Paramount Pictures when their executive team grew disenchanted with his odd behavior.

Seemingly undaunted by these temporary setbacks, the actor partnered with Paula Wagner, CEO of United Artists. Their lackluster inaugural project, Lions to Lambs, was directed by Robert Redford and starred Redford, Cruise and Meryl Streep.

Cruise alienated (no pun intended) both Brooke Shields and Matt Lauer when he took the NBC host and the actress to task on the subject of psychiatry and the evils of postpartum depression drugs. Lauer was labeled glib and ignorant by the self proclaimed authority. Shields, who wrote a book about her experience with postpartum depression following the birth of her first daughter, was drawn into the fray but took the high road in her response to Cruise’s rant.

Andrew Morton launched an unauthorized biography detailing Cruise’s relationship with Scientology and how it has affected all aspects of his life and the lives of those with whom he has had a relationship. Morton infers that Cruise is near the top of the Scientology hierarchy, in terms of status. To add fuel to that firestorm, several Scientology videos were unearthed that showed a much younger Cruise engaged in full religious spiel.

A USA Today/Gallup poll, taken on the heels of Cruise’s mounting woes, showed that half of those surveyed gave Cruise a 50% unfavorable rating (better than Bush but still in the tank). Marketing Evaluations, another reputable pollster, indicated that Cruise’s ‘Q’ score, a combined rating of fame, popularity and likability, took a 40% plunge amid the controversy.

According to People magazine, Oprah’s taped Colorado interview and snowmobile adventures with Cruise will air on Friday, May 2nd. Cruise will also appear on Oprah’s show in Chicago on Monday, May 5th. That segment is being staged to commemorate the 25th anniversary of his breakout film Risky Business.

It should be interesting to see if Cruise can muster some positive press from the two media opportunities.

For more photos of Oprah and Tom during the interview, CLICK HERE.

Paula Abdul’s “Strangest Show Ever” on American Idol (Video)

American Idol, Paula Abdul, Video 3 Responses »

Apr 302008

Paula Abdul’s latest bizarre behavior on American Idol has fans crying fowl and the internet abuzz with renewed speculation that the show is fixed.

Last night Idol changed up the format a bit, having the contestants sing two songs each, and limiting the judges critiques until after all five finalists completed their first song. This seemed to throw Paula into a tailspin, leaving her dazed and confused as she stammered “Oh gosh, we’ve never had to write these things down, uh, fast enough,” before telling Jason Castro, “Jason, first song, I loved hearing your lower register, which we never really hear, um… the second song, I felt like your usual charm wasn’t – it was missing for me. It kind of left me a little empty.”

“The two songs made me feel like you’re not fighting hard enough to get into the top four,” she said, before being informed that Castro had only performed one song.

The judges have made frequent comments about sitting in on rehearsals, so perhaps Paula’s notes had come from earlier in the day, but it doesn’t explain her increasingly bizarre behavior. I know there is a lot of speculation about drugs and alcohol, but I’m thinking along the lines of dementia. Something is definitely off here.

At the end of the show, Simon Cowell commented “This was officially the strangest show we’ve ever done.”

View video below.

Kate Hudson Named People Magazine’s Most Beautiful

Celebrities, Kate Hudson, Magazines 1 Response »

Apr 302008

Stunning actress Kate Hudson has been named People magazine’s ‘Most Beautiful Cover Girl’. Obviously it is not hard to see why the lovely 29 year old was chosen. The sleep deprived mother of four year old Ryder shows no evidence of the ravages of motherhood.

Growing up in the business with her mother Goldie Hawn and long-time boyfriend Kurt Russell, Kate decided at an early age that this was the business for her. The young actresses breakout performance on the big screen was her unforgettable role in Almost Famous in 2000. She won a Golden Globe for Best Supporting Actress for that body of work. Not wanting the industry to think that she had an ‘in’, Kate worked her butt off to prove that she could also make a name for herself on her own.

Telling the magazine that she grew up with 3 brothers and leaned toward the tomboy side, she always had a dress on. The dress was almost always dirty and her knees scraped and body bruised but there was something she loved about being able to twirl around in a dress. Continue reading »

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