While many entertainment blogs exist either to mindlessly fawn over celebrities or needlessly attack them for having the audacity to wear yoga pants in public, Michael K occupies a middle space. It’s not heady or intellectual, but it’s also not fluffy and dismissive – Dlisted delights in making fun of people while also loving them and celebrating the pure campy ridiculousness that is celebrity culture. Michael K also blogs obsessively about his non-celebrity favorite things like The Golden Girls or Mother’s Circus Animal Cookies (the pink and white frosted ones).

While DListed racks up thousands of pageviews per day, it differs from other celebrity blogs in that its author is not trying to collect some dregs of the fame for himself. Perez Hilton, author of the eponymous blog that lives to skewer celebrities by drawing penises on their pictures, makes the rounds as a TV pundit and does his best to ingratiate himself into the L.A. scene. Yet Michael K seems happy to continue toiling in obscurity. I know of at least three journalists who have attempted to meet him in person, but the only interview I’ve ever seen of Michael K was on The Awl.com and was conducted via email. Even the celebrity bloggers who aren’t interested in clubbing with Katy Perry often segue their web success into jobs as pundits on VH1 shows or guest columnists for newspapers and magazines. Michael K has done none of that. It’s entirely possible we’ve worked on our laptops at adjacent tables at a downtown coffee shop at the same time and never spoken to each other.

What do we know about Michael K? He’s originally from Los Angeles. He’s gay and has a huge crush on Anderson Cooper. From the Awl interview, I learned that Michael lives on Manhattan’s Lower East Side and has a very cute dog. But that’s about all we have to go on. Many Michael K junkies have a theory about who he is and why he hasn’t taken up any of the opportunities to reveal himself. Here’s mine: Michael works in the entertainment industry – perhaps at a talent agency or high-powered PR firm – and his fun side job would lose him his real one if anyone found out who he really was. However, my theory was debunked when Michael K told The Awl that he was able to make a living from his website, and even though he wasn’t becoming wealthy he was able to afford spending all day working on his blog. My friend Pauline, a motion picture researcher in Los Angeles, believes that Michael K is the queen of the cholas – the stereotypical Mexican-American women with penciled-in eyebrows and overly gelled hair whose beautiful absurdity the blogger often glorifies; Foster Kamer, the former weekend editor of Gawker.com, once wrote that he thinks Michael K moonlights as one of Yale’s Younger Poets. “I just can’t believe he’s young and hot,” said Ashley, a PR flack in San Francisco and admitted DListed addict. “I figured he was an older shlubby gay dude. He’s so deliciously jaded.”

There’s also another, more esoteric theory at play, this one regarding the origin of the blogger’s handle. It’s possible that Michael K is simply a shortened version of the blogger’s real name – perhaps he’s a Michael Kramer, or Knight, or Kane. But his name reminds some (or at least those of us with degrees in English Lit) of J.M. Coetzee’s Booker Prize-winning 1985 novel, Life & Times of Michael K. The book is the story of a young apartheid-era South African man who journeys to his mother’s birthplace. Although racial tensions in the country are a backdrop of the novel’s events, Michael is never identified as black or white. Coetzee, who won the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2003, is known for being a recluse who does very few public appearances, even declining to accept his Booker for Michael K in person. Sounds a little bit like someone else we can think of.

Does it matter that a blogger won’t reveal his identity? After all, Perez Hilton was a cult favorite when he ran the late PageSixSixSix.com, but by the time he relaunched the site under his own name he was also getting an assistant (his sister), talking about himself in the third person, and posting pictures of himself at exclusive events posing with famous people. Now, Perez is one of the most widely disliked pop culture figures in the country, and his blog has taken a steady decline in quality and timeliness as he devotes himself to other projects like putting together a boy band and launching a new fashion-centric website. It’s possible that Michael could go the same route if he were to out himself, becoming less and less of an enigma as he got invited to guest commentate on entertainment shows or landed a six-figure book deal. After all, the only thing Americans love more than elevating someone from obscurity to fame is trying to knock them back down again – the Australians call this phenomenon “tall poppy syndrome.” If you never become popular, it’s a lot harder to suffer from a backlash. Blogging’s hallmark, the thing that immediately separated it from the traditional print style of reporting, has been its first-person approach. Most successful blogs – Dlisted being no exception – are based around a charismatic writer whose personality engages the audience. Could you see the New York Times leading with a story about how celebrities need to stop fucking saying “over the moon” all the time whenever they’re happy about something? Or the Wall Street Journal ever devoting ink to random L.A. famewhores like Phoebe “Chicken Cutlets” Price? Part of what makes blogs – and, in particular, blogs like DListed – more fun is their conversational tone. As a result, it’s easier to feel like we “know” a particular blogger, who writes dozens of posts a day and makes references to their own life, interests, and hobbies than it is to feel like we “know” Maureen Dowd or David Brooks. And when we feel like someone is our friend, it’s almost a sort of rejection when they don’t want to be our friend in return. By essentially refusing to “be our friend” by appearing in the media and giving us insights into his personal life, Michael K’s low-key media existence could be an insult. But there’s another take – sometimes a blog is just a blog. If Michael K owes us anything, it’s the hilarious and clever content he manages to produce in staggering quantities each day. And we pay him back in pageviews, ad click-throughs, and devotion.

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Anderson starts off by saying how none of the segment went as planned – explaining that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also supposed to be a part of the discussion but that she had fallen and broken her elbow and was unable to attend. He also added that he was meant to interview Angelina in person but that horrible weather had diverted his flight straight back home (his re-telling of the flight was pretty humorous!).

Luckily, they were able to set up a satellite feed and they did the interview that way so they could talk about the more than 42 million refugees around the world. He kicked things off by asking if there’s one particular refugee crisis that is more alarming to her than the rest and Angelina said that Pakistan is at the top right now, mostly because although it’s so recent the numbers have been climbing so rapidly – at a pace of 100,000 displaced people per day, pushing past two million in total.

Anderson then asked Angelina if her kids worry and how she explains to them all that she’s doing when she goes to these regions. I loved her answer; she said that she just tells them that there are families all around the world that aren’t as fortunate as they are, children that aren’t as lucky and that it’s important to go to these places and understand what’s going on so that they can be helped.

He also pointed out that there’s a danger of getting to a point where you keep hearing the same story over and over, and how to keep in mind that each person is an individual (I think he was sort of getting at how to avoid becoming jaded and still being able to listen to each person’s story as their own). Anderson asked Angelina if anyone ever really sticks out in her memory and she told the story of a 15-year-old boy who had lost his entire family and had been shot in the back, leaving him paralyzed. She pointed out that we all complain of so many little things on a daily basis and this boy who had lost everything was so full of life and good spirit. She broke down momentarily saying that he had passed away and that she often wondered what he could have been under better circumstances.

I don’t know how she holds it together when she’s there.

I actually had to pause the video to have an emotional moment myself when Angelina spoke of an 8-year-old girl in Tanzania who fled with her little baby brother after seeing the rest of her family killed right in front of her; she carried him and ran through the jungle, eating fruit along the way and fled for two weeks before finally arriving at a refugee camp. A year later she saw the little girl again and she was like a tiny woman despite her age, taking care of her brother at the camp and just showing remarkable, gracious resilience.

Speaking to Anderson of her own family, she said that she hopes to provide a good education for her own children, and not just when it comes to the basics of math and writing; she wants her children to go out into the world and meet the same people, the same children that she does so that they too can learn about the world and how other people live, to carry on trying to help others. The Jolie-Pitt kids are going to grow up to be the most compassionate kids in the world.

And yes, Anderson asked about her children too. He mentioned there are a lot of birthdays coming up and how do they handle that at home. Angelina laughed – she always seems so pleased to discuss her kids as long as she’s able to discuss the big issues first – and said they have so many kids right now that it’s just a big year-long birthday and they rotate it. She also said the older kids now help to plan the parties for the younger ones, which sounds cute!

In closing, Anderson asked if Brad and Angelina have plans for more kids and without hesitation she said yes, they love kids and both want a large family so they never say no.

The interview was fantastic, even if they weren’t able to sit in the same room together this time. Anderson Cooper is amazing, he’s always been my favorite on CNN and he does his job exceptionally well.

Enjoy!

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I like Jolie’s message of hope. Celebrity interviews often emit a vampire-like quality, as breathless interviewers feed on stars’ personal tragedies and setbacks and the celebrity-victim comes across as the latest pouty facelift with a story that says, “Poor me.”

For Jolie, the focus is on the truly poor, and the many things Americans can do for them if they open their wallets. She sees the suffering, but also she sees the resilience of people who have endured unspeakable loss — yet it is not too late to help them.

Now, Angelina, think of little girls in this country who see you as a role model. Marry your baby’s father.

Does she like Angelina Jolie or not – you decide. I am pretty sure she is unimpressed with Anderson Cooper.

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It is always tempting to dismiss an actor’s passionate embrace of charity work as a gimmick — method giving. But on Tuesday night Angelina Jolie gracefully slipped past viewer cynicism, speaking with candor and self-deprecation about the plight of third world refugees, a cause that led her to give birth to a daughter in Namibia last month. When CNN’s Anderson Cooper marveled that she gives away a third of her earnings, Ms. Jolie laughed. “Yes, well, I have a stupid income for what I do for a living,” she said.

They thought Anderson was maybe trying too hard to put himself on her level, but I really don’t think that arguing about his motives is the right thing to do. Let’s applaud them both for bringing such great attention to such important causes.

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Donation to Namibia hospitals – they asked what the situation was in the hospitals and donated the money to pay for the machines they need.

Dr Sanjay Gupta on public heath of refugees.

How you can help:

www.unhcr.org/donate

800-770-1100 (in the U.S.)
41 22 739 8111 (outside of the U.S. – Geneva, Switzerland phone number)

What a show – this was very eye opening. I have heard of all of the different situations going on in all of the different countries – but to see it all right in front of me, in one big show was very enlightening and I am thankful to be more aware of what is going on in our world.

I hope you all got to watch and were as moved by the show as I was.

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Angelina also works with refugees in the U.S. – unaccompanied minors fleeing violence and abuse with no legal representation. Many of these kids have been sexually abused and have found themselves in our court system and Angelina Jolie feels that the US has missed these kids.

Southwest Key Program in Arizona is for children who have come across the border alone.

Congo story – unimaginable brutality “We will never be broken” – Unreal.

Zahara – mother died of AIDS – was very sick when she came home with Angelina – couldnt hide it from the press. Angelina felt guilty taking Zahara and not the others. She said when she was thinking about adopting Zahara – I loved Ethiopia, Brad loved Ethiopia…

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Uganda Case Study

Angelina Jolie has visited 20 countries in her 5 years as UN Goodwill Ambassador including Uganda, Sri Lanka and the Sudan.

2nd Hour:

She seems to really think what she and Brad are going through is so minor compared to what the refugees have gone through. The amputee refugee camp affected her most significantly and made her make life changes.

She read a book about the UN because she liked the idea of the UN so much – and the chapter on refugees was what inspired her to decide to choose them as her cause.

She was: Shocked > Wanted to save the world > Angry

A child is orphaned every 14 seconds.

Sudan: 6 million people rely on outside aid.

Donations outside of the U.S. call: 41 227 39 8111

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Angelina remembers with tears in her eyes the first child she met in Sierra Leone that did not live beyond the next day.

To Donate to the UNHCR – 800-770-1100 (in the US) <--I missed the outside of the U.S phone number

Gave a short history of Maddox and Zahara's adoptions from Cambodia and Ethiopia.

Why Namibia? She loves Africa, wanted to be in a part of the world that was wonderful for the rest of the family.

Birth experience - breech, cesarean, Brad was in the OR, it was lovely. She was terrified Shiloh wouldnt breathe - was afraid everything was going to go wrong.

She was prepared to have to give M and Z extra attention, but it has gone well, although Zahara is a little jealous. She feels just as strongly about her adopted children as she does Shiloh. They are going to adopt again, not sure what country yet.

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Angelina donates 1/3 of her earnings to humanitarian causes.

She has found the place she feels most comfortable, working with these refugees.

She appreciates that so many people never see where their money goes, and is happy to be able to actually see the help she has given.

The UN is not perfect, but is the closest thing we have. 19 million people are under the care of the UNHCR.

She says it is hard to be diplomatic sometimes – “I have a mouth on me sometimes.”

Her position on the war in Iraq: She sees the war as it takes a lot of money out of the pockets of other causes that need it.

Stay tuned for the next segment, and if you are feeling inspired, don’t forget we have links to YeliHaiti and to the Global Campaign for Education in the sidebar.

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