Former “Growing Pains” star and outspoken evangelical Christian Kirk Cameron learned the hard way that the Internet is basically like quicksand — the more you struggle, the worse it gets. Last month, Cameron balked at the abysmal score for his new film, “Saving Christmas,” on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, so he called his fans to action to improve the score by flooding the site with good reviews. Of course, Rotten Tomatoes doesn’t really work that way, but that’s beside the point. What happened instead? Cameron instead encouraged online pranksters to go to town, pushing the film to the No. 1 stop on IMDb’s 100 Worst Movies list, determined by user ratings on the film database. And unless he can encourage his fans to start voting down “Birdemic: Shock and Terror” so its ranking dips below the 1.5 stars “Saving Christmas” currently has, it’s an honor he’ll hold for a while. When Mark Wahlberg was 16 years old —before he became Marky Mark and, I’m assuming, hooked up with the Funky Bunch — he was a bit of a bad seed. So bad, in fact, that he was convicted of assault and tried as an adult, serving 45 days in prison. Well, now he’d like all that wiped off his record, according to a petition he’s submitted. “I am deeply sorry for the actions that I took on the night of April 8, 1988, as well as for any lasting damage I may have caused the victims,” he writes in the petition. Those actions, by the way, involve assaulting a man while attempting to steal beer outside a convenience store and then punching another man in the face while he fled. My question is, where was Donnie Wahlberg during all of this? Instagram is a great venue for making personal confessions or proclamations of love, or just releasing news. And it looks like Jessica Simpson decided to do all three in one very simple photo, stating quite bravely on the site, “I love carpet.” No links, no hashtags, nothing to muddy the message. So, there you have it.
Back in October, following revelations that “7th Heaven” star Stephen Collins had allegedly confessed to molesting young girls, the wholesome family drama was understandably pulled from cable network UP TV’s schedule. Well, last month they tried to quietly slip them back onto the lineup, but fans understandably weren’t having it. “We brought the show back because many viewers expressed they could separate allegations against one actor from the fictional series itself, as it turns out they cannot,” a statement from the network reads. “We will be taking the show back off the air.” One Direction and “The Hobbit” star Sir Ian McKellan both stopped by “The Graham Norton Show” to basically start a mutual appreciation society. After McKellan recounts the time the boys failed to turn up for a visit to the New Zealand set of the film series, he and Harry Styles get down to expressing their true feelings for one another. “You’re amazing,” Styles says, to which McKellan coyly replies, “So are you.” And then there’s some cuddling and it’s adorable. Follow Ned Ehrbar on Twitter: @nedrick
