Michele Tivo | Location, location | Millions of Brits stuck | Unwed Allure | Juno - 1/17/08

Thu Jan 17 11:38:46 EST 2008

- MICHELE ON JULIET AND MIKE TOMORROW ON FOX - SET YOUR TIVO
- WHEN ONE ASKS: CONFERENCE LOCATION
- MILLIONS OF BRITS ARE STUCK IN UNHAPPY MARRIAGES
- END ALLURE OF UNWED CELEBRITY BABY BOOM
- JUNO

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- MICHELE ON JULIET AND MIKE TOMORROW ON FOX - SET YOUR TIVO

Several have asked if they're taping tomorrow or if Michele Weiner-Davis
will actually be on the show.  She will be on the air Fri July 18.  Set your
Tivos.  - diane  

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- WHEN ONE ASKS: CONFERENCE LOCATION

> I heard about Smart Marriages years ago and have been wanting to go - will it
> ever be on the east coast?  I am not sure where I orignially heard about it.-
Jessica

Out of the 12 conferences, half have been on the east coast, two central (in
Dallas), two in Denver, one in Reno, and this year in SF.  We were in
Atlanta in 2006.  Were in DC four times.  Our big problem is that we've
gotten too big for most hotels.  NONE in the North East that can hold us and
we hate to move to a convention center.....rates (space/equipment/food/etc)
are always much higher which translates into higher conference registration
rates. We try to keep both conference registration and hotel room rates
affordable.  Also, in June/July anything in North (Chicago, Minneapolis,
Cleveland, Boston, Philly, etc) is their high season with impossible rates.
We got an incredible rate in SF ($115 at a downtown hotel!) by perfectly
fitting into a hole they had over July 4th weekend - we trimmed our sails to
fit (moved forward a day and lopped two days off our post-conf institutes) -
anything for that rate at that hotel right off Union Square!  Hope you can
make it.  Don't know where we'll be in '09.  Looking at Houston, Orlando,
Nashville.  - diane

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- MILLIONS OF BRITS ARE STUCK IN UNHAPPY MARRIAGES

So reads the headline reporting on a recent survey which finds tons of
misery and that people stay only because it's too expensive to divorce and
they fear the havoc and poverty of post-divorce lives.  It's not till you
reach the end of the article that you see the survey was conducted by
entrepreneurs hoping to promote their "divorce mediation" services.  Their
purpose was to find misery and they, of course, fail to offer solutions
about how to improve marriages, only affordable divorce strategies that will
help couples negotiate for perks in their divorce settlements. Sharing it as
example of how surveys are misused and how anyone that does a survey gets
treated with respect by the media, no matter how unscientific or slanted.

Daily Mail - UK
January 17, 2008 
59% of women and 51% of men DON'T love their spouses, new study reveals

The study revealed 59 per cent of women would end their marriage today if
their future financial security was assured. Meanwhile 51 per cent of men
said .....

For full article: 
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=
508804&in_page_id=1770

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- END ALLURE OF UNWED CELEBRITY BABY BOOM
Orlando Sentinel 
Sheryl P. Kurland
January 17 2008

The contrast was stark. While I was recently visiting my 97-year-old
grandmother in the hospital, the TV was blaring with a Hollywood-tabloid
show featuring stories about the dynamic duo of Britney Spears and her
little sister, Jamie Lynn. My grandmother was married 69 years before my
grandfather's passing. He called her "Miss America" every day. The tabloid
TV show was all about Britney, divorced with two children and living a life
out of control, and 16-year-old Jamie Lynn, unmarried, and going to become a
mama. 

The complete article can be viewed at:
http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/opinion/letters/orl-myword17a08jan17,0,7
021893.story 

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- JUNO

This above by Sheryl Kurland reminds me that I've received dozens of upset
emails from list readers about Juno.  I finally saw it and agree that this
incredibly popular movie is upsetting. The actress - plays a pregnant 16
year old - is up for best actress. It's a "heartwarming comedy." Plenty of
good laughs and tears at the end. Saw it on a Fri night and the show was
sold out to an audience filled with teen and pre-teen girls attending in
groups - clearly for the umpteenth time.  They have each scene memorized -
"here it comes, here it comes..."  The film casts teen pregnancy as a
"whatever"....cute and no big deal IF you just keep your wits about you.
Just "do the right thing" (i.e.give the baby to someone that can't have one)
and you'll get a warm fuzzy glow from giving someone a baby and get on with
your life, hardly missing a beat. - diane

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