Blogalicious

Last Chance! Enter the PK VOICE contest today!

Ladies! You. Rock. We already have amazing entries that we’re reading through. We absolutely love what you bombshells have to say!

If you still have something you want to share, you have until midnight tonight to get submissions to us. Here’s a reminder of the rundown of the contest:

We’re looking for the next PK Voice! No, you don’t have to get on stage and we don’t have Christina Aguilera as one of our judges. Our version is even more badass. We’re looking for bombshells far and wide to be the voice of PK by sharing on our oh-so popular blog. Have a great story of survival? Sweet! Do something lately that scared you? Perfect. Have an interesting perspective on the latest celeb gossip? Dish. Finding strength within you didn’t realize you had? Yes ma’am, we want to hear from you.

Here’s how it works:

• Choose a topic. Think about what you wanted to hear when going through a breakup. Here are some good examples: celeb splits, survival stories, sage advice, the ex files (reflections on past relationships), finding your inner bombshell, etc.
  
• Write up a post, 500 words minimum.
  
• Submit by emailing your post to claire@pinkkisses.com with the subject “PK Voice” by midnight on May 23rd.
  
• We will choose up to 5 winners, depending on the awesomeness of the entries
  
• Winners will receive these awesome prizes: pk tank, compact, koozie and your very own spot on the PK blog
• To be eligible, you must agree to these Terms & Conditions
  

Ready, set, go!

xx

Ellie & the PK team

The VOICE, bombshell style!

We’re looking for the next PK Voice! No, you don’t have to get on stage and we don’t have Christina Aguilera as one of our judges. Our version is even more badass. We’re looking for bombshells far and wide to be the voice of PK by sharing on our oh-so popular blog. Have a great story of survival? Sweet! Do something lately that scared you? Perfect. Have an interesting perspective on the latest celeb gossip? Dish. Finding strength within you didn’t realize you had? Yes ma’am, we want to hear from you.

Here’s how it works:

• Choose a topic. Think about what you wanted to hear when going through a breakup. Here are some good examples: celeb splits, survival stories, sage advice, the ex files (reflections on past relationships), finding your inner bombshell, etc.
  
• Write up a post, 500 words minimum.
  
• Submit by emailing your post to claire@pinkkisses.com with the subject “PK Voice” by midnight on May 23rd.
  
• We will choose up to 5 winners, depending on the awesomeness of the entries
  
• Winners will receive these awesome prizes: pk tank, compact, koozie and your very own spot on the PK blog

Ready, set, go!

xx

Ellie  & the PK team

oh REALLY?

Lady Gaga once told Cosmo, “I had a boyfriend who told me I’d never succeed, never be nominated for a Grammy, never have a hit song and that he hoped I’d fail.”

“I said to him, ‘Someday, when we’re not together, you won’t be able to order a cup of coffee at the f***ing deli without hearing or seeing me.’”

Wonder whatever happened to that guy.

PK2U,

Ellie

happily ever after: the Kim Kardashian myth

Really, as women, all of our ideas of love and living happily ever after are doomed from the start. The fairytales start young and never really stop. All of our ideas of love come from very unrealistic sources. And yet, happily ever after isn’t that simple.

When it was confirmed yesterday that Kim Kardashian filed for divorce from Kris Humphries after just 72 days of marriage, I was fascinated to see how our typically supportive, inspired community responded to the news. Women were ruthless with no sympathy for Kim. Sure, it’s easy to see that she’s had a charmed life. BUT, that doesn’t stop her from being human. A divorce or breakup is a gut-wrenching, life altering experience no matter who you are. No one, not even Kim Kardashian, goes into a marriage thinking they’ll get divorced.

So, since her unsuccessful marriage attempt is being blasted across the internet, I figured it’s about time we use her story for good. Here are three lessons we can learn from Kim’s not-so happily ever after.

1. diving in headfirst can cause injury. It’s easy. Step 1: you meet a cute boy. Step 2: he thinks you’re cute, too. Step 3: you make out, stay lip locked for the next two weeks and decide you’ve found the man of your dreams. Thing is, when you’re all swept up in the infatuation phase, even huge red flags seem like adorable idiosyncrasies. You need to take a step back and give yourself room to breathe. Take it slow and make sure he truly is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. For realsies.

2. focusing on the idea of happily ever after gets you nowhere. Think about how much we heard about Kim’s wedding to Kris. The planning took over and the wedding itself became the focus, instead of the marriage. It’s so easy to get caught up in the fantasy that you forget about the relationship. I can say that. I’m smack dab in the middle of planning my wedding right now. I totally understand how girls get carried away with the fairytale. That’s why, whenever I start to become a bridezilla, I focus on the marriage. I go back to my wedding mantra: I’ve got the guy. I’ve got the dress. The rest is gravy. We’re also  both taking time to learn about each other’s ancestors and family tree.We’re focusing on the vows, the ceremony and what we want to promise to each other. We’re making our wedding about the joining of our families and the idea that it’s merely a symbol of our choice to build our lives together.

3. it’s never too late to be honest with yourself. Whether you love her, hate her, or don’t care, it must have been incredibly tough to be Kim Kardashian as she was filling out the court paperwork & admitting the marriage had failed. It’s hard enough to admit to yourself that the future won’t work out like you planned it, let alone making it public knowledge. Yet, she sucked it up, signed the papers and filed for divorce. She admitted to herself (and the world) that she made a mistake, and that she’s willing to start over. That takes courage, no matter who you are.

Listen, I get it. At age 6, I was making up stories about my prince charming thanks to Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Disney. Sixteen Candles was my favorite movie as a teenager and I daydreamed about being swept off my feet at my non-existent sister’s wedding. At 20, Ryan Gosling stole my heart in the Notebook. He’s still my #1 celeb crush.

The point: women love the idea of love set up for us in movies and we love hoping that it’ll really be that easy. In reality, we need to remember that true love is messy, happy marriages mean tons of hard work from both parties and lasting relationships are built on solid foundations.

pk2u,

Ellie

lessons from splitsville: celebrity edition

Quick!  Pretend you’re a publicist for a celebrity – let’s call her Barbie – who just went through a split, and it’s your job to draft up a statement for the press.  Go.

…done?  Great.  I’ll bet you wrote something like “Barbie asks that you respect her privacy during this difficult time” and “The couple remain friends.”  Am I right?  Because if you think back to every high-profile split in recent history that doesn’t involve mudslinging, that canned “friends” line always seems to make it into the news reports, whether it’s true or not.  It just sounds good, right?  Very storybook.  “Oh, we’re friends.  Really.  He’s great!  It wasn’t in the stars – we can still hang out – it’s just not like that anymore.”

OK, now think back to the last time you went through a breakup and tried to stay friends (in real life, with your non-famous ex. We’ve hopped out of Hollywood for a moment and snapped back to real life here). While you were in your “we’re still friends” phase and his name popped up on your phone, did you really react the same way you do when any other friend texts or calls, or did your heart still skip a beat?  How about when your phone buzzed and you thought it was him, but it turned out to be someone else?  Would your heart sink a little?  Would you start glancing over at it every few minutes, getting more and more aggravated as the minutes ticked by without him sending word?

What about when a new girl popped up on his Facebook page with flirtatious little wall posts?  Did you have the same reaction you would when a cute stranger pops up on one of your actual friends’ walls?  Did you feel a supportive little rush of excitement for him, or did you suffer a mild to moderate anxiety attack and send yourself into a tailspin?

Let’s be honest: when you’re friends with your ex, you’re not really friends with your ex.  You’re pretending to be friends with your ex, and in doing so, you’re giving him all sorts of power over you.  Sure, we earnestly want to keep our exes in our lives – partly because of the comfort level we established when we were together and the fact that we just miss them when they’re gone, and partly because it seems like the adult thing to do.  But when all it ultimately does is hurt us, the truly mature thing to do is call a spade a spade.

There’s never any reason for name-calling and tire-slashing, but really, let’s not kid ourselves when it comes to “staying on good terms.”  The absolute best way to stay on good terms with an ex is to wish him well and ensconce yourself in the protective coating of the no-contact rule.  It’s the only way to move on with grace and reclaim your happiness without him having any say in the matter.  The whole “the couple remain friends” thing serves but two purposes: in real life, it gives us an excuse to torture ourselves and incessantly press the bruise in the name of being a grown-up (when really, the emotional rollercoaster we’ve placed ourselves on is actually pretty childish) and in Hollywood, it gives celebrity publicists an excuse to end a statement gracefully and hang up on the gossip reporter hounding them about their clients’ personal lives.

Here’s a breath of fresh — and honest — air: Eva Longoria said in a recent interview that she and ex-husband Tony Parker are “on good terms,” but when asked if they still talk, her response was a simple “no.”  And who can blame her?  She’s moved on.  She seems happy.  And there’s nothing wrong with saying “I wish him well, but we’re not in contact anymore.”

So now, let’s pretend for a second you’re wildly famous, with a closet full of Louboutins, a glam squad and a team of advisers, managers and agents.  Pretend I’m your publicist. Let’s draft up a little statement about your recent breakup:

“(Your name) asks that her privacy be respected during this difficult time.  She and (dude’s name) are no longer in contact, but she wishes him the best.”

See, isn’t that a smarter truth to live with?  And won’t it help you restore the normal, healthy relationship you used to have with your phone… and your sanity… and your confidence?  We think so too.  Now let’s dig into that pile of scripts over there and find a new challenge to conquer.

it’s music monday… let’s dish with adele & chelsea

It doesn’t get much better than this, ladies.  Adele sat down with Chelsea Handler to promote her amazing album 21 (which we don’t even have to tell you about because we know you’ve cried to “Someone Like You” about a billion times and hopefully moved on to the “forget you, I’m over it” territory of “Set Fire to the Rain” & “Rolling in the Deep”), and the interview is adorable.  In addition to being just about the most charming girl we’ve ever seen, she opens up & talks about the boy she wrote the album about, and how she’s handling the split these days:

pk2u,

ellie & amy

it’s music monday: take a bow

Love us some RiRi.

pk2u,

ellie & amy

it’s music monday, so let’s undo it

Love the gorgeous & fiery little miss Carrie Underwood.  She’s kind of a force to be reckoned with, huh?  Just like you.

pk2u,

ellie & amy

so gallantly streaming: we proudly hail our 4 favorite independent ladies

What better occasion than Independence Day to salute some of the best & brightest self-propelled powerhouses America has to offer?  In honor of the 4th, here’s a roundup of four amazing ladies who are fireworks in their own right.

~

Maria Shriver

Given the year she’s had thus far, you’ve got to hand it to Maria Shriver: the lady’s been the portrait of grace in the midst of a rather mortifying scandal. Even though the nation would entirely understand if she completely broke down on camera, she’s thus far chosen to keep her private life private.  No exclusive paid interviews for this proud member of the Kennedy family… and we’re not surprised.  Here’s betting that if she ever does open up about her side of the split, she’ll find a way to do it with dignity and aplomb.  We could all learn a thing or two from this smart, inspiring pillar of strength.

~

GaGa

Love her or hate her, GaGa’s a force to be reckoned with.  When news broke of her split from boyfriend Luc Carl this spring, most of us thought, “She had a boyfriend?” That’s probably because this fiercely unique creature makes a point of defining herself on her own terms and doing things her way while her millions of fans lap up every last drop.  Two years ago, no one had a clue who she was.  Today, she’s ubiquitous.  And although she reins over a pop world largely fueled by AutoTune, the chick has chops.  Loud ones.  And we applaud her for using them, as well as all her other talents, without apology.

~

Sandra Bullock

Let’s just call a spade a spade: Sandra Bullock is a phoenix, risen from the ashes.  During a rather rough time this past year, she managed to make major professional strides (oh, hello, Oscar), adopt a son, and still somehow find time to make a major impact on a devastated community close to her heart.  In her first major television interview after her divorce from Jesse James, she didn’t breathe a word about him; she chose instead to spend her air time educating the public about a school she’d been building in New Orleans.  That’s class.

~

Oprah

This irrepressible force of nature walked away from a sure thing this year, leaving her show on a high note after shooting more than 4,500 episodes to embark on a new adventure: running her own television network.  A survivor of abuse and an obliterator of cultural limitations, Oprah inspires others simply by being who she is. Hers is a career that broke boundaries from the start, and while she credits longtime love Stedman, best friend Gayle and others as being critically important to her success, she’s absolutely built her empire by marching to the beat of her very own drum.  Maybe that’s why musical pals like Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin – not to mention all the rest of us – love and admire her so much.

What independent ladies do YOU adore?

pk2u,

ellie & amy

photos: Time (Shriver, Winfrey), People (Bullock), NY Post (GaGa)

my bologna has a first name…

ellie weighs in on the Weiner

Look, I’m not the kind of girl to sit here and say every politician’s marriage should be perfect. I understand that relationships are complex and that each one is different.

But really, Anthony Weiner? You have a gorgeous, smart, accomplished new wife (she’s Hillary Clinton’s deputy chief of staff) who just announced she’s pregnant with your first child.  You haven’t even been married a year! Were you really so cocky and in need of attention that you had to send totally inappropriate photos of yourself to totally inappropriate girls? Did it ever occur to you that it may not be the best thing to do? Didn’t you think you might end up in a bit of a… pickle?

I’m also not going to sit here and say that Anthony Weiner’s sexting lurid photos of himself has nothing to do with his job as a politician. Sadly, sex scandals are so cliché at this point no one is as shocked as they should be. On its own, this scandal just shows another politician with bad judgment. But should it be more?

What example is Anthony setting for his own kids or anyone else’s? That it’s okay to be a total unethical prick to your family – and your public – because you’re in a position of power? Nope, I don’t think so. I also believe he should no longer be in power. He just lost the privilege to be an elected official representing the American people. He can’t just move on and do his job like nothing ever happened. He’s kept all of America stuck on his private parts, something we never wanted to focus on in the first place, and he’s lied to us repeatedly. Not to mention all of the official time he’s wasted holding way too many press conference denials and crafting sleazy politician cover-up answers.

So, while his sexting didn’t necessarily break any laws, it does break my heart for his wife and make Weiner… a total wiener.

amy weighs in on alec baldwin weighing in on the Weiner

We’ve been quietly sitting on the sidelines this week, watching the Anthony Weiner saga unfold, being completely mortified for his wife and baby on the way, and agreeing not to add to the storm of commentary going on out there out of respect for the family.

But then Alec Baldwin had to go and run his mouth.

In yesterday’s Huffington Post, a site to which we and Alec both contribute articles, he unleashed a rambling series of excuses for Weiner’s behavior, calling him a “busy” and “modern” man and explaining that the digital age in which we live has forced us into replacing sweet, old-fashioned dates with sexually charged tweets and texts… that couples and would-be lovers now gaze at each other over the glow of cell phone screens instead of candlelight. He later backpedaled via twitter, saying “What I have offered on HuffPo is an explanation of, not an excuse for Weiner’s behavior. Big difference.”

Frankly, though, we think publishing this sort of thing in such a public forum less than 24 hours after the nation learned one of its leaders admitted to sending graphic pictures of his hot dog to random women and – oh yeah, by the way, his wife is pregnant – was, at best, an exercise in poor taste.  And it did, in fact, come off as one big long excuse, eloquently but directly defending the politician’s behavior.  An excerpt:

“Like most, although not all, politicians, he probably spends a great deal of time going to meetings, raising campaign funds and seizing upon every opportunity to remind people of how great he is as a public servant and a human being. It’s exhausting. He exists under a constant pressure cooker of self-analysis and public appraisal. Like other politicians, he needs something to take the edge off.”

And then there’s this:

“Weiner is the modern, high functioning man. The fact that he is married is just one, albeit a huge, factor. I know many people who divorce over such issues of online betrayal. Appointment sex with your spouse doesn’t always arrive when you need it most. A modern cell phone, loaded with contacts of willing fellow players, has a table with a red checkered table cloth ready for you at virtually any time.”

Oh, I see.  He’s busy and important and tired all the time, and that gives him carte blanche to be a dick instead of a stand-up guy.  And the fact that he’s married is… oh, y’know, inconvenient.  But you know what?  You’re a bunch of smart cookies.  We’ll let you decide how embarrassing and irresponsible Baldwin’s treatise was on a scale of 1 to 10 by reading it yourself. Here at PK, we give it an 11.

and the wiener is…

There aren’t enough wiener jokes in the world to cover what an embarrassment this whole thing is.  The fact that Weiner has dug his heels in and refuses to resign from his post is an awful shame.  It sets a terrible example for those who look up to our nation’s leaders, far too many of whom are too often embroiled in controversies like this.  And we think defending his behavior by pointing to his oh-so-busy-and-stressful life is just plain irresponsible too.  Nothing makes it okay.  Family is family, and trust is trust.  Betraying both in such a big and shameless way… well, we just think it’s sad.

But enough of our ranting.  What do you think?

pk2u,

ellie & amy

photos: NY Daily News and People