Dog Refuses To Leave Owner’s Coffin After Italy Earthquake!
On August 24th, central Italy suffered from the rumbles of a threatening earthquake with a magnitude of 6.2. Amongst the severe structural damages and destruction of cultural heritage, it has been reported that the earthquake caused the death 291 people, in addition to 365 people wounded and taken into emergency camps. Images of the earthquakes residues have surfaced everywhere, showing the damaging effects of mother nature and the toll it's taken on the victims families.
Among the 291 unfortunate deaths was the 45-year-old dogowner Andrea Cossu who was on vacation in Pescara del Tronto when he was killed by a fallen building. Originally from Sardinia, Mr. Cossu was travelling with his wife when they faced the terrors of the natural disaster.
Mr. Cossu’s funeral was held on Friday, August 26th, inside a gym in Ascoli Piceno, amongst many other late victims when his dog, Flash, was also caught mourning the death of his beloved owner.
Sitting closely to his late owner's coffin with a droopy head of grief, the blond cocker spaniel showed his loyalty to his owner and friend during the heartbreaking effects of the devastating earthquake.
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Relatives of Mr.Cossu told Italian media that Flash and his owner ‘were inseparable,’ and that Mrs. Cossu, who managed to survive the quake, will now be taking care of the animal.
Refusing to leave the casket, the bond between Mr. Cossu and his cocker spaniel was definitely a special one. Aside from being a man’s best friend, thousands of rescue service dogs were used by police and fire department crew to locate possible survivors beneath the masses of destruction and debris throughout the restoration of this natural disaster.
A fisherman didn’t know that he kept a $100 million treasure under his bed for 10 years!
During a storm off the coast of Palawan Island, a Philippine fisherman caught something strange with a boat anchor. Having dived to the bottom, he was surprised to find a huge shell. Inside the giant mussel he saw an enormous pearl weighing 34 kilos (74.9 lbs)!
The new owner decided that this giant pearl would be a great lucky charm. He hid it under the bed of his dilapidated house, where it had lain for 10 years. He couldn’t even imagine that this pearl could be so valuable.
A fire that almost destroyed the house of the Filipino in 2016 changed everything. The lucky charm didn’t protect the house from fire, and, when he moved, the fisherman decided to give the pearl for safekeeping to Aileen Amurao, a Puerto Princesa City Tourism Officer. It’s hard to imagine the fisherman’s shock when he found out a preliminary evaluation of his treasure: $100 million.
In comparison, the Pearl of Allah was previously considered to be the biggest pearl in the world. It’s almost six times less in weight than this beauty. The dimensions of the new record holder are 67 cm in length and 30 cm in width.
The pearl was transferred to the city government and displayed for all the world to see. Now the Philippine city of Puerto Princesa can amaze tourists with more than just its beautiful beaches.
The city authorities are waiting for the official conclusion of gemologists to fully certificate this unique pearl. And it’s possible that after a professional evaluation its value will be even higher.
This planet is 5.4 billion years old, man has occupied it for only 200,000 years. We haven’t been here that long in comparison to the age of the earth, but as a human race, we have done some pretty significant things to change it since we came on the scene.
This is a list of 10 events that have taken place in the last 120 years, causing the world to change into what we know today.
1) THE LIGHT BULB
Thomas Edison invented the light bulb in 1879. This shed a whole new light on the world, as it replaced gas lamps and candles. Humans were coming out of the dark.
2) THE AIRPLANE
The Wright brothers invented and flew the first airplane in 1903. Only one person at a time could fly on it. 221.6 million people flew in a plane last year. Were you one of them?
3) THE MODEL-T FORD
Henry Ford made the Model-T available to the public in 1908. It had a price tag of $905. Last year, automobile manufacturers produced 67.53 million cars, proof that they are a commodity that we can’t live without.
4) THE ELECTRIC GUITAR
Les Paul, invented the first solid-body electric guitar in 1940. Nicknamed “The Log,” the electric guitar changed the sound of music as we knew it. Electric blues, rock and roll and many other genres that we have grown to love would have never been created, with out this instrument.
5) THE ATOMIC BOMB
The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945, effectively ended WWII. Since then, the world has lived in fear and paranoia about similar attacks from weapons of mass destruction. Though we never found any in Iraq.
6) AIDS
AIDS came to the public’s attention in 1982. Since it’s discovery, it has caused approximately 36 million deaths worldwide. It doesn’t get the publicity that it once did, but it’s threat is far from over.
7) THE FALL OF THE BERLIN WALL
The Berlin Wall came down in November of 1989. It marked an end of oppression by the communist government, and brought about the unification of Germany. The structure of Eastern Europe changed considerably.
8) WORLD WIDE WEB
The Web, was created by a British computer scientist named Tim Berbers-Lee in 1989. Most people can’t even imagine life without the internet, because of our complete dependency on it..
9) SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
This terrorist attack on The World Trade Center in New York City stopped the world, as we looked on in horror and amazement at the devastation. 2,977 people were killed. Two other planes were hijacked and many more innocent lives were lost.
I think everyone can remember where they were, and what they were doing when they heard what had happened on this sad day.
10) SOCIAL MEDIA
Social media is everywhere. There are roughly 17 million Facebook users, 25,000 Twitter accounts, and 40,000 active blogs. Chances are, almost all of you that are reading this, belong to one of these social media groups. So be sure to give me a “thumbs up” later.
These are just a few of the many events that have helped to shift and shape the world that we live in. As mankind continues evolve, he changes his world around him with his actions. What will the next 100 years bring?
India celebrates its 70th Independence Day on 15 August 2016!
The country became independent from British colonialism on this day in 1947. The day is celebrated with great fervour across every state of the country, with the capital city Delhi becoming the hub of all celebrations. India's Independence Day celebrations officially take place at the Red Fort.
The history of Indian Independence is laced with the struggle and sacrifice of many leaders and revolutionaries of the country.
The story of India's colonisation began with the arrival of the British East India Company to the country in the 1600s. The merchants who came to trade with India soon began to exercise military and administrative control and by 1757, they had huge swathes of the country under them.
Resentment against the alien company and its unfair rule over the local populace began to grow and in 1857, the first organised revolt against it took place with a group of Indian soldiers rebelling against the British rank in the Barrackpore, Bengal unit. Referred to as the Great Struggle of 1857 (the British called it the Sepoy Mutiny), this rebellion marked a new era in India's freedom movement.
As a direct result of the rebellion, administrative control of the country passed from the East India Company to the British Crown in London. From 1858 to 1947, India was governed by London with representatives in the form of governor-generals and viceroys posted in India. However, several incidents such as the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre, where more than 1,000 people were killed after General Reginald Dyer ordered troops to fire machine guns into a crowd of Indian protesters and the Bengal famine of 1943, which killed up to five million people, only went to alienate the local people from their rulers.
Prominent Indian leaders and revolutionaries such as Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Lala Lajpat Rai, Chandrasekhar Azad, Bhagat Singh, Gopal Krishna Gokhale, Jawaharlal Nehru and Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel took part in the uprising against the British over different time periods, which ultimately led to India's freedom from foreign rule.
In February 1947, the then British prime minister Clement Attlee, announced that his government would grant full self-governance to British India by June 1948 at the latest.
Nonviolent resistance and civil disobedience led by leaders like Gandhi, Patel and Nehru were largely responsible for India's independence. However, independence came with the partition of India into the dominions of India and Pakistan.
On 15 August 1947, Jawaharlal Nehru, India's first prime minister, raised the Indian national flag above the Lahori Gate of the Red Fort in Delhi.
Nehru delivered his famous speech — Tryst With Destiny — in which he addressed the long-drawn struggle and future that lies ahead:
"At the stroke of the midnight hour, when the world sleeps, India will awake to life and freedom. A moment comes, which comes but rarely in history, when we step out from the old to the new, when an age ends, and when the soul of a nation, long suppressed, finds utterance"
Jawaharlal Nehru (Tryst With Destiny)
Although India's freedom struggle has become history today, 15 August still holds great significance in the hearts of millions of people of the country. Most Indians celebrate the national holiday with family get-togethers and by attending patriotic events.
The national flag is hoisted by the prime minister of India on the ramparts of the Red Fort, Delhi, followed by a speech. Other politicians hoist the flag in their constituencies. People fly kites to express their feeling for freedom.
A national holiday is observed throughout the country with flag-hoisting ceremonies, cultural events and parades. Almost all movie channels entertain their viewers with old and new patriotic movies and classics.
Images of a bride walking down the aisle with her father’s heart
transplant recipient went viral this week.
In July 1822, on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea in Tuscany, the drowned
body of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley lay burning on a funeral
pyre. He was 29. When one of Shelley’s friends, the writer Edward
Trelawny, noticed that the poet’s heart had failed to catch fire, he
reached into the embers and grabbed the smouldering organ. Trelawny
later gave the heart to the writer’s wife, Mary Shelley (author of Frankenstein), who kept it with her for the rest of her life.
In 1889, Louis Édouard Fournier imagined the 1822 funeral pyre of the Romantic poet Percy Bysshe Shelley (Credit: Wikipedia)
I was reminded of the extraordinary afterlife of Shelley’s heart, and
all it says about that resilient muscle as a symbol of the human
essence, by a moving photo that throbbed through social media this week.
Taken by a wedding photographer,
the image is of a bride standing at the altar. She is touching the
chest of the man who had just walked her down the aisle – a man who owed
his life to the heart that was donated to him by the bride’s murdered
father.Jeni Stepien was 23 when her father, Michael, was shot in
the head by a 16-year-old mugger in an alley in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
in September 2006. Though surgeons determined that Michael’s own life
was beyond saving, his family knew that his body possessed the power to
save others and allowed his organs to be made available to those in
need. Enter Arthur Thomas – a 63-year old college adviser who had fallen
into congestive heart failure at the very moment that the Stepien
family’s tragedy was unfolding. Ten years later, Thomas was able to
reunite Michael’s heart with Jeni on her wedding day by walking her down
the aisle.
Bride Jeni Stepien touches the chest of Arthur Thomas, who received her
dead father’s heart in a transplant (Credit: Lauren Demby at Lauren
Renee Designs)
The photos of Jeni Stepien that have fluttered through Twitter and
Facebook this week, capturing her as she reaches out to feel the
heartbeat of her murdered father, seem invigorated by a deep interior
urge to grasp the very spirit of love and life. In this way they echo
the raw power of an iconic image of contemporary art: Mexican artist
Gabriel Orozco’s 1991 photographic diptych My Hands are My Heart
is comprised of before-and-after images of the bare-chested artist
clenching a fist of inert clay into the shape of a crude heart and then
offering it, sacrificially, to the viewer. Orozco’s deceptively simple
gesture at once reaches back to the savage salvaging of Shelley’s heart
two centuries ago and, forward, to the miraculous persistence of Michael
Stepien’s, which beats on.
1. The RMS Titanic was the world’s largest passenger ship when it entered service, measuring 269 metres (882 feet) in length, and the largest man-made moving object on Earth. The largest passenger vessel is now the MS Allure of the Seas, at 362 metres.
2.The ship burned around 600 tonnes of coal a day – hand shovelled into its furnaces by a team of 176 men. Almost 100 tonnes of ash were ejected into the sea each day.
3.The ship's interiors were loosely inspired by those at the Ritz hotel in London. Facilities on board included a gym, pool, Turkish bath, a kennel for first class dogs, and a squash court. It even had its own on board newspaper – the Atlantic Daily Bulletin.
4. There were 20,000 bottles of beer on board, 1,500 bottles of wine and 8,000 cigars – all for the use of first-class passengers.
5. The Grand Staircase on board descended down seven of the ship’s 10 decks and featured oak panelling, bronze cherubs and paintings. Replicas can be found at the Titanic Museum in Branson, Missouri.
6. The staircase at the White Swan Hotel in Alnwick, contains banisters from the Grand Staircase of the Titanic’s sister ship, the Olympic. The staircases are presumed to have been identical.
7. Only 16 wooden lifeboats and four collapsible boats were carried, enough to accommodate 1,178 people, only one-third of Titanic's total capacity, but more than legally required.
8. There were 246 injuries and two deaths recorded during the ship’s 26-month construction in Belfast.
9. Twenty horses were required to carry the main anchor.
10. 100,000 people turned up to see the ship’s launch on May 31, 1911.
11. 22 tons of soap and tallow (rendered beef or mutton fat) were smeared on the slipway to assist its unhindered passage into the River Lagan.
12. The ship made two stops after leaving Southampton – at Cherbourg in northern France, and Cobh (then Queenstown) in Ireland.
13. Of the 885 crew on board, just 23 were female. 699 boarded in Southampton, and four in 10 were natives of the town.
14. The last supper served to first-class passengers consisted of 11 courses.
15. First-class passengers were given a music book containing 352 songs. Musicians on board were required to know them all, in case requests were made.
16. John Jacob Astor IV was the richest passenger on board, with a net worth of around $85m (approximately $2bn today), and went down with the ship. One legend claims that after the ship hit the iceberg he quipped to a waiter: “I asked for ice, but this is ridiculous”.
17. Another notable victim was Benjamin Guggenheim, an American businessman. Realising that the ship was going down, he and his valet, Victor Giglio, reputedly changed into their evening wear while he remarked: “We've dressed up in our best and are prepared to go down like gentlemen." They were last spotted on deck chairs drinking brandy and smoking cigars.
18. Noel Leslie, the Countess of Rothes, was also on board, but survived. She is mentioned in an episode of Downton Abbey. "Isn't this terrible? When you think how excited Lucy Rothes was at the prospect,” remarks the Countess of Grantham when she hears of the disaster.
19. Two of the nine dogs on board were rescued – a Pomeranian and a Pekinese.
20. Numerous people held tickets for the journey, but did not actually sail, including Milton S. Hershey, founder of the chocolate firm, Guglielmo Marconi, and Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, who died on the RMS Lusitania three years later.
21. The last remaining survivor of the disaster, Millvina Dean, died on May 31, 2009, aged 97. She was two months old at the time.
22. The iceberg was spotted at 11.40pm on April 14, 1912, by lookout Frederick Fleet, who proclaimed: “Iceberg! Right ahead!” Fleet survived the disaster and was a lookout on the RMS Oceanic during the Twenties, before serving in the Second World War. Pranksters placed a pair of binoculars on his grave in 2012 with a note “sorry they’re 100 years too late”.
23. The iceberg was around 100 feet tall and came from a glacier in Greenland.
24. Just 37 seconds elapsed between the sighting of the iceberg and the collision.
25. First Officer William McMaster Murdoch ordered the ship to turn, but it was too large to do so in time. It has been suggested that the ship would not have sunk if it hit the iceberg head-on. Murdoch went down with the ship; a memorial to him is found in his hometown of Dalbeattie, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland.
26. Edward Smith, the ship’s captain, also went down with the vessel. His last words were “"Well boys, you've done your duty and done it well. I ask no more of you. I release you. You know the rule of the sea. It's every man for himself now, and God bless you." A statue of him can be seen in Lichfield, Staffordshire.
27. The ship received six warnings about icebergs during the voyage.
28. A lifeboat drill, scheduled for April 14, was cancelled for unknown reasons.
29. The ship broke in two at around 2.20am on April 15, and sunk, sending all remaining passengers into the ocean. The temperature would have been -2 °C – few would have survived longer than 15 minutes in the water, while around one in five would have died within two minutes from cold shock.
30. Charles Joughin, however, the ship’s baker, reportedly tread water for two hours before being rescued with little ill-effects. He claimed he had not felt the cold due to the amount of whiskey he had drunk.
31. 26 of those on board were honeymooning couples.
32. Musicians played for two hours and five minutes as the ship sank.
33. The SS Californian was criticised for ignoring the Titanic’s distress signals. She was later sunk herself, by a German submarine.
34. The RMS Carpathia arrived at 4am and transported the survivors to New York. 40,000 greeted its arrival at Pier 54.
35.Only 306 bodies were found. The dead were taken to Halifax, Nova Scotia. Its Maritime Museum has a dedicated section that includes a deckchair recovered from the wreck, mortuary bags, and the shoes of an unknown victim.
36. The wreck of the Titanic was discovered in 1985 and lies 370 miles off the coast of Newfoundland, around 12,500 feet below the surface. The marine dive specialists Deep Ocean Expeditions previously offered trips to the wreck using a Mir submersible chartered from the Russian Academy of Sciences - with berths costing $59,000 - but stopped offering them in 2012.
37. The bow penetrated 18 metres into the sea bed.
38. Dozens of films and documentaries have been made about the disaster, the most controversial of which was commissioned by Joseph Goebbels in 1943. Its plot discredited British and American businessmen and features brave German passengers. The epilogue states: "the deaths of 1,500 people remain un-atoned, forever a testament of Britain's endless quest for profit."
39. James Cameron’s 1997 effort is undoubtedly the most successful – it has grossed more than $2bn and won 11 Oscars.
40. The film’s main theme song – My Heart Will Go On by Celine Dion – was the biggest selling single of 1998 and has been covered by Neil Diamond, Sarah Brightman, Kenny G (instrumental), and Miss Piggy from the Muppets.
For 11 years, Chrissy Steltz had been living without a face. After an accident with a shotgun destroyed her face and left her blind, Steltz made incredible strides toward living a normal life. She learned to read Braille and use a cane. She met her boyfriend in a school for the blind. And she gave birth to a son on July 23, 2009. Despite her full life, there was still one thing that Steltz felt she was missing: a face for her young son to look into. To cover her injuries, the 27-year-old wore a black sleeping mask. Now, with the help of a team of generous doctors and advances in technology, Steltz finally has been given a new prosthetic face. Doctors used photographs of her at 16 and aged her features to reflect the 11 years that have passed since the accident. Steltz believed the prosthesis would make her feel better about herself. Despite her blindness, she always has been able to feel the stares of others. But more important to her than self-confidence, Steltz said she wanted the prosthesis "so my son can grow to know his mom looking like a regular person versus a sleep shade."
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The Accident :In March 1999, Steltz and her live-in boyfriend, Will O'Brien, threw a party at their home, where some of their friends were drinking. Someone found a stolen shotgun under the sofa and began to fool around with it. The last thing Steltz would hear before the blast went off was, "Oh, don't worry. It isn't loaded." The gun went off and took two-thirds of Steltz's face with it. Steltz Wakes Up Without a Face. Her boyfriend came in the room shortly after.
"I don't know if you have ever seen like a wounded animal trying to get up," O'Brien recalled, "That's what I saw. I saw an injury that nobody survives, except somebody really strong, and she was trying to get up."
Steltz was rushed to the hospital, where she first encountered Dr. Eric Dierks, a maxillofacial surgeon.
She went into a coma and was hospitalized for six weeks. She had no idea what had happened to her once she regained consciousness. O'Brien broke the news to her that she never again would see or smell. She would also lose part of her hearing and her taste.
According to Dierks, "The blast itself removed the contents of her left eye socket, removed her nose and the supporting mid-facial structures and damaged her right eye to the extent that she lost vision."
Steltz still lives with dozens of pellets from the shotgun blast lodged so deeply in her brain that they never can be removed. The blast removed Steltz's eye sockets and sinus cavity, making prosthesis a better route than a face transplant. Undeterred, she worked with doctors to find a solution by rebuilding portions of her hollow bone structure, the first attempt at this type of operation for an injury as extensive as hers.
"It's unique to have an injury of this magnitude to the middle part of the face that removes the vision of both eyes, that removes the nose yet allows the injury to the base of the brain to heal," Dierks said.
Doctors removed damaged tissue, opened a breathing passage to her nasal cavity, drilled dental implants into her facial bones to fix magnets to the tips. They used bone from her right leg, skin grafts and dozens of screws and metal plates so that her prosthetic face could snap on and snap off.
The prosthesis itself was the work of maxillofacial prosthedontists Dr. Larry Over and Dr. David Trainer. They began by creating a plastic mold of Steltz's face. Next, they poured flesh-tone silicone into the mold to form the facial features. It was baked to seal in texture and color, and then painted to reflect the natural flaws of the human skin.
The doctors also ensured Steltz's face came complete with makeup: They baked eyeliner, eye shadow and mascara directly into the mask and poked eyelashes into the silicon with tweezers. They took care to ensure the results were as real as possible.
Getting the eyes down was of monumental importance, Over said.
"If you drew a clock around the colored portion of the eye ... is that little glint in the same position in the left as it is on the right?" he asked. Steltz's procedure cost nearly $80,000, according to Dierks, but her health insurance refused to cover the cost, saying hers was an aesthetic procedure.
"This is certainly not a veneer on a front tooth," Over said. "It's just as much of a medical necessity as an arm or a leg." The doctors and staff who worked to reconstruct Steltz's face donated their time and services so that Steltz could have a face.
The results?
Friends and family gathered to witness the reveal of her new face at the doctor's office. Steltz's friends and family broke into tears. It was the first time she had seen her daughter's face in more than 10 years. Later that afternoon, in a more familiar setting, Steltz revealed her new look to her son, who's only ever known his mother's face in a black sleeping mask.
"It's going really well," she said. "He's not minding it one bit."
Steltz thinks her year-old son actually sees his mother now when he looks at her new face.
Steltz said she also feels like a regular blind person now. Armed with her new look, she went out on a recent shopping trip with her sister and was delighted to discover she no longer felt the stares of strangers.
"To be looked at as a plain Jane," Steltz said, was exactly what she wanted -- "to be treated just like everyone else."
Lion attacks toddler on LIVE Mexican TV Show, tries to snatch child form mother's arms!
This is the terrifying moment a baby is attacked by a lion on live TV as handlers desperately try to prise its jaws open.
The incident, which very nearly ended in disaster, occurred during the filming of former Mexican programme Con Sello de Mujer.This clip from the show, which was last broadcast in 2007, recently went viral after re-appearing online and features a toddler and a lion cub in the TV studio.
The child was not harmed.
At the start of the video everything looks to be under control as two handlers sit with the wild animal on a lead and talk to the show's presenter. In between the two parties is a mother, who holds her young daughter in her lap. The lion cub sits on the floor and appears to be quite calm until the baby starts to whine - a sound that sends it into a frenzy. Without warning, the lion suddenly jumps to its feet and lunges at the little girl, grabbing hold of her leg with its sharp teeth. The attack causes the baby to scream in terror, which only aggravates the situation as the female handler calls for calm.
The trainer can be seen wrestling with the lion's face while trying to force it to let go of the child. Meanwhile the toddler's mother, who appears shocked, pulls her baby towards her as the lion tugs her leg the other way.
Eventually the two trainers are able to prise the lion's jaws open and pull the little girl's leg free.The male trainer then heads off with the cub as the woman pulls the baby's trousers up and gives her a hug.The clip concludes with the handler then giving the mother a hug to apologise for the incident.Con Sello de Mujer was a show primarily aimed at women. It ran from 1998 to 2007 and touched on topics including health and beauty.
Such is the wattage of both Monroe and John F. Kennedy that rumors of
their affair have kept tongues wagging more than 40 years later. Though
there has never been official confirmation of any of Kennedy's
dalliances, there are indications he was unwilling to cede his playboy
lifestyle to the conventions of marriage. Of his supposed conquests,
Monroe tops the list. A sultry version of "Happy Birthday" sung by
Monroe to Kennedy at Madison Square Garden in 1962 was supposedly the
impetus for their affair. Monroe died later in 1962 of a drug overdose, but tales about her
alleged fling with the President grew increasingly tall. FBI Director J.
Edgar Hoover tried to prove that the man on a secret FBI sex tape of
Monroe was Kennedy, but he lacked definitive proof. Others claim Kennedy
was involved in her death. Needless to say, the rumors are even less
substantiated than the affair itself.
2. marion davies
Marion always said that she knew Hearst for a while before she became an actress, but their relationship went public when he gave her first top-billed film, Cecilia of the Pink Roses, financial backing. She became one of the most famous actresses in the world soon after. By the mid-20s, their relationship and glamorous social life overshadowed her acting career. The forbidden lovers never married because Hearst's wife's divorce settlement demands were too high, but Hearst did will 51% of his fortune to Marion when he passed. She got married to Horace Brown 10 weeks later.
3. jessica hahn
Jessica Hahn's story certainly is not that of a passionate love affair. On the contrary, her interaction with the once mighty PTL leader Jim Bakker was an ordeal for she claims to have been drugged with GHB and raped by ministers Bakker (husband of Tammy Faye) and John Fletcher after being invited to a telethon in Clearwater, Florida. The church secretary harbored the secret for seven years (she was paid $265,000 to keep quiet) and it was only until the religious empire worth millions (PTL stood for Praise the Lord not Pass The Loot, but may as well have) was under investigation for financial misconduct that Hahn's story made front page news. Hahn told Larry King in 2005 that she returned all the money back to the church, but did score a million dollar payday posing for Playboy back in the '80s. Jessica also admitted to having plastic surgery and stated that posing nude helped her deal with a lot of the emotional problems that she had. Apparenty, being naked and unashamed had been part of this woman's salvation.
4. marla maples
When the New York tabloids unearthed the adulterous relationship between
model/actress/girl next door Marla Maples and real estate billionaire
Donald Trump it caused quite a sensation. For one, it understandably set
off wife Ivana, who once stepped to the mistress Maples when they ran
into each other in Aspen and proclaimed, "You bitch, leave my husband
alone!" Secondly, the tabloids frothed at the mouth that one of the
city's icons was in such a salacious escapade, with the New York Post
running the now infamous headline "Best Sex I've Ever Had," attributed
to Marla in reference to the bedroom antics between her and The Donald.
(She called the quote an outright lie the following day.) Somehow,
Maples and Trump were able to get past it all and got married in
December 1993, two months after the birth of their daughter. The union
lasted until 1997 when the couple divorced. "Marla's a good girl," Trump
reportedly said at the time. "But I wanted out."
5. ashley dupre
Before meeting then New York Governor Eliot Spitzer, Dupré was a
struggling singer who worked as a call girl on the side. But when
Spitzer's patronage of the Emperors Club VIP attracted federal attention
in 2008, Dupré found herself catapulted into the limelight along with
her former client. Hers was the first MySpace scandal, and Dupré found
pictures of herself taken from her profile and plastered around the Web.
Spitzer resigned in disgrace, but Dupré garnered almost equal face
time.
For Dupré, taking
down the sitting New York governor provided a short-lived career boost.
After her illicit assignations with the guv were discovered, her songs
were downloaded millions of times. Of course, that didn't mean they
were good, and none of the notoriety has translated into any further
commercial success.
6. rachel uchitel
Rachel Uchitel never set out to be the catalyst for the most spectacular personal and professional downfall of recent times. She never attempted to entrap her man or set him up in a tawdry kiss-and-tell. Yet it was her steamy text messages to Tiger Woods that set in train the public disgrace of a man who had been promoted as the most squeaky-clean, family-friendly sportsman of his generation.
In late 2009, The National Enquirer published a story that alleged that Uchitel had had an affair with Tiger Woods at the Australian Masters, an allegation Uchitel denied to the Associated Press. However, Uchitel is reported to have been photographed by the National Enquirer checking into Tiger Woods' hotel while in Australia in 2010. She later scheduled a news conference to discuss Woods' alleged affairs, but she and her attorney Gloria Allred cancelled due to "unforeseen circumstances". According to Lisa Bloom, a CBS news legal commentator and Allred's daughter, Uchitel was given a cash settlement to cancel the news conference. Uchitel had another alleged affair, with married actor David Boreanaz. In May 2010, The Huffington Post released text messages to support the affair allegations. Uchitel initially stated that she was not involved with Boreanaz, but later admitted to the affair. During a May 14, 2010 appearance on TMZ Live, Uchitel discussed Boreanaz and "her new life as the most famous mistress on the planet". She denied extorting him over their alleged affair.
7. leann rimes
It was a wrap for Grammy-winning country star LeAnn Rimes' rep as one of
America's sweethearts when she surprised fans in late March of 2009
with rumors of an extramarital affair with actor Eddie Cibrian. The
two-timing allegedly began four months earlier while shooting the
Lifetime TV movie Northern Lights in Calgary, Canada. The fact that Cibrian, who has appeared on CSI: Miami and Ugly Betty,
was married with two sons, didn't help either. The svelte singer's
six-year marriage to husband Dean Sheremet ended and the backlash from
fans started. "I don't think the way I did it was right," she admitted
later to Shape Magazine about her new relationship. The
cheating couple did, however, try to do the right thing when they got
married to each other this past April. Let's see if the still
lovely-looking singer can get back some of the luster she lost after
folks started calling her a LeAnn "Two Times."
8. michelle mcgee
When it comes to describing tattooed-head-to-toe fetish model/San
Diego-based stripper Michelle McGee, "freaky" might not cover it. Far
from the type of girl to bring home to mom (unless your moms is, say, a
circus-performing ex-porn star), this alluring illustrated woman caused
quite a stir with a Nazi-themed photo shoot and racially charged tats
like the "W" on the back of her left leg and the "P" on her right, which
doesn't stand for "Wet Pussy," as first thought, but "White Pride." Who
would cheat with a chick like this? Why a celebrity biker, of course,
one who was inexplicably married to goody two-shoes Sandra Bullock.
Jesse James, star of reality show Monster Garage, watched his
nearly five-year marriage go up in smoke just one week after Bullock won
the Best Actress Oscar in March 2010. That's when Bombshell McGee
dropped a bomb of her own and 'fessed up to In Touch Magazine
that she had a 11-month affair with the motorcycle mechanic she
nicked-named "Vanilla Gorilla." The un-PC tease went on to admit regret
for her insensitive body work, saying, "I make a horrible racist Nazi. I
have too many colored friends." The most shocking revelation of this
whole messy episode? McGee was reportedly raised Amish.
9. rielle hunter
Hunter has been an equestrian, a bit-part actress, a filmmaker and
even the inspiration for a novel. But history will know her as John
Edwards' "other" woman. After Edwards hired Hunter to produce a series
of documentaries on his 2008 campaign for President, the two began a
romantic affair that continued until the National Enquirer
revealed the couple's liaison at a Los Angeles hotel. More salacious
still: Hunter had a child, with no father listed on the birth
certificate.
An Edwards aide,
Andrew Young, quickly claimed to be the unnamed father of Hunter's baby,
and despite an alleged promise to marry Hunter, Edwards quickly
distanced himself from his mistress. Now Young says he is disillusioned
by his former boss's actions, and he's writing a book claiming that
Edwards is the actual father of Hunter's child — and that the couple
recorded a sex tape together. For her part, Hunter has declined a
paternity test, but she is reportedly angry at how Edwards' wife
Elizabeth has cast her in the media. The Edwards family has not
commented on Young's allegations.
10. MARIA BELEN CHAPUR
Who, exactly, is the Argentine woman about whom South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford had waxed so poetically in his e-mail missives?
A 41-year-old former TV reporter, Chapur admitted on June 28 to being
Sanford's object of affection, but details about her remain hazy. A
divorcée living in Buenos Aires with her two children, Chapur said
someone "hacked" her e-mail last year. Her short statement asked for
privacy and offered no further details about her life.
Chapur might
be keeping quiet, but Sanford can't seem to shut up. In a June 30
interview with the Associated Press, he called Chapur his "soul mate,"
although he said he'd "try" to fall back in love with his wife.
11. CAMILLA PARKER BOWLES
An on-again, off-again relationship gets a little more attention when
it's with Britain's Prince Charles — and especially when one of those
"on" periods was during his marriage to Princess Diana. Lurid (and
bizarre) conversations between the two were leaked in 1993, which didn't
help Camilla's cause. Married at the time as well, she kept a low
profile in the press but eventually divorced her husband and married her
suitor after Princess Di perished in a tragic car accident.
The pair had a
low-key wedding (by royal standards) in 2005, and the royal family has
gradually accepted Camilla into its ranks. Though she could have opted
for the title "Princess of Wales" like Diana's, Camilla chose to become
the Duchess of Cornwall instead. She has been lauded for her charity
efforts on the royal family's behalf.
12. MONICA LEWINSKY
After the White House intern conducted an infamous affair with
President Bill Clinton in 1995 and 1996, Lewinsky's name became a punch
line. Though Clinton initially denied their relationship, Lewinsky was
called to testify before the Starr commission and contradicted the
President, leading to an impeachment trial (and an eventual acquittal)
in the Senate.
Lewinsky summed
it up well: "I'm well-known for something that isn't great to be
well-known for." Lewinsky remained a minor celebrity, appearing on Saturday Night Live
and hosting a short-lived reality-TV show. But for the past five years,
Lewinsky has kept out of the spotlight. In 2006 she graduated from the
London School of Economics with a master's degree in social psychology.
13. ELIZABETH TAYLOR
In what could be considered the original Hollywood love triangle, singer Eddie Fisher married Elizabeth Taylor in 1959 after leaving his wife, Debbie Reynolds, for her. At the time, the couple also had two young children together (including Star Wars actress Carrie Fisher). What made the situation even worse is that Debbie and Liz were also best friends. "We had a lapse of time when she took Eddie to live with her because she liked him, too," Debbie has said of Liz, adding, "She liked him well enough to take him without an invitation." In a weird twist of fate, Liz ditched Eddie for her Cleopatra co-star and long-time love Richard Burton in 1964. Debbie and Liz went on to reconcile their friendship sometime in the late '60s and kept in touch until Liz's death in 2011. Debbie has even likened the scandal to another modern romance, saying, "I was just like Jennifer Aniston with Brad Pitt when he fell in love with Angelina Jolie."
14. Anne Boleyn
It's the rare woman who is so desirable that she ends up cleaving a
church. But Boleyn's insistence that she would be a mere mistress to
Henry VIII caused a rift that began to split the Anglicans from the
Catholics. Though Henry courted Boleyn for years, she refused his
advances, requiring that he annul his marriage to Queen Catherine of
Aragon first. Pope Clement VII delayed granting the annulment, leading
Henry to create the Anglican Church of England. The Archbishop of
Canterbury finally nixed Henry's first marriage, clearing the way for
Boleyn to become Queen at last.
Ironically, and
unfairly, Boleyn would end up executed after being accused of having
affairs with a number of men, including her brother. Historians
generally agree that the charges were shams, sparked by rivalries among
the court and Boleyn's inability to give Henry a male heir. She was
beheaded at the Tower of London in 1536.
15. Lucy Mercer
Hired as a secretary by Eleanor Roosevelt, Mercer ended up having an
affair with Roosevelt's husband. Eleanor discovered love letters between
Franklin D. Roosevelt and Mercer in 1918, when the presidency was just a
distant ambition for her husband. Fearing for his political life,
Franklin convinced Eleanor to stay married, promising he would avoid
seeing Mercer again and that the two would sleep in separate beds.
Franklin didn't
keep his promise. With help from the Roosevelts' daughter Anna, he
continued to rendezvous with Mercer, and she was in Warm Springs, Ga.,
the day Franklin died. (Eleanor was conspicuously absent.) Mercer died
in South Carolina in 1948.
