Category: Faux Pas of the Rich and Famous

Dear Administrator,
You mentioned brides have read themselves here. How do you know this?  Do they write in, or the contributor writes back? I’d love to hear those stories. I would imagine most are more upset than horrified.

Please give just one example. Pretty please ?  One of my fav stories is the bride that called the cops and they wanted you to surrender the name of writer. I’ve always thought it wasn’t actual police, probably a family member she had call you.

Yes, there have been a few such stories over the years.   One happened on the forum when a female member’s brother showed up in the discussion and presented a completely different perspective on the problem than his sister had.

The story you are referring to happened years ago when I offered an online service selling, autographing and anonymously mailing copies of my first book, “Bridezillas – True Tales From Etiquette Hell”, to specific brides the buyer had designated.    This one particular bride had created A and B guest lists, informed her guests in the invitation that there were 2 guest lists with the A guests invited to dine at the reception and the B guests were given directions to the nearest McDonald’s until they could return later for the dancing portion of the reception.  The guest who bought my book and arranged to have it sent anonymously to the bride was actually an A list guest but she was appalled at the obvious distinction between the guests so blatantly stated.    So, bride receives the book and all hell breaks out.  I received an email from the Vermont State Police claiming that a report had been filed about a “stalker” stalking the bride and I was to contact a certain officer.  I called the number given and did, in fact,  get connected with the Vermont State Police.  I spoke with the officer and explained the situation.   He still wanted the name of the book buyer and I refused stating that he would need to get a court order compelling me to yield that information.   I then contacted the buyer who was appalled that this had gotten out of control and she chose to reveal herself as the buyer to the police and the bride. I never found out the resolution of that or how the relationship between the two women fared.

Another story on the main site that was a fan favorite for several years came to the attention of the bride’s husband whose mother was not presented in a good light.  The original story writer contacted me requesting that I remove the story because her husband was mucho unhappy.

But my favorite story is actor Chuck Norris’ reaction to finding out he and his new wife had been pitched into Ehell by one of his “Walker, Texas Ranger” production crew.   Norris had gotten married (this was in 1999) and I’m not sure if all the production crew had been invited to attend (I think not) but Norris had put their gift registry information on the crew bulletin board.  Nothing on the registry was less than $1000.00.    I don’t know how Chuck Norris found out that he had been featured in the “Faux Pas of the Rich and Famous” section of the site but he was so angry that he called a meeting of all the production crew, yelled “Who is Jeanne Hamilton and how did she get this information?”, and I seem to remember he threatened to fire whoever the person was who had submitted the story when he found out.   The crew person who had sent me the original story emailed me in a panic and to warn that a certain lighting engineer would be emailing me trying to weasel out of me how I got the story. And sure enough, I did receive such an email asking me how I got that kind of dirt on “Chuck”.

Man, where did you get that info from ?  That is juicy!

I played dumb and wrote back,

Excuse me for being slightly confused but what precisely are you referring to?  One of my web pages?  Or an article I posted to UseNet?   I could presume you mean the mention of Chuck Norris in Etiquette Hell, am I right?

A little bit more clarification may yield answers because I am not entirely sure which “Chuck” you are referring to.

This man responded back clarifying that he was referring to *the* Chuck Norris.   I appear to have not replied to that last email since I have no record of having done so.  I never reveal my sources unless compelled by legal means  (and no one taken that step to make me).   With all the funny Chuck Norris memes out there…..

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

….I am probably the only person on the planet who can claim to have intimidated Chuck Norris. I need a meme for this.

Dear Jeanne,

This isn’t exactly my story as it made national Italian media and the heartless idiot in question published it on social media.

As you probably know, the night between 23rd and 24th August central Italy was hit by a magnitude-6.2 earthquake: several towns were completely destroyed, more than 200 people were killed and many more were wounded and left homeless. One of the worst hit towns was Amatrice, in Latium.

Enter vegan “celebrity” Daniela Martani – her claim to fame coming from being a former Bog Brother contestant.
On twitter she asked whether Amatrice was the birthplace of Amatriciana sauce, which contains bacon. She was told that yes, it was.

She then tweeted that the earthquake was karma.

Daniela actually posted it to her Facebook profile and it was then shared via Twitter.  Daniela Martani’s twitter can be viewed at https://twitter.com/danielamartani  where someone screen saved the Facebook post and tweeted it.

Like many celebrity’s caught blathering something inane on social media, Daniela claims her Facebook account was hacked and someone else posted that to her profile.   I had to do some translation but the message from Facebook she appears to present as evidence doesn’t confirm the existence of a hacker of her account nor validates her story but merely acknowledges receipt of her complaint…

“We will contact you as soon as we’ve reviewed the profile you reported because pretending to be someone else…”

This post is in regards to former NFL football player Trent Richardson and how his “alleged” friends and family exploited him to the tune of 1.6 million dollars in just10 months.

The former No. 3 overall pick of the Cleveland Browns in 2012 told ESPN’s Shelley Smith on “E:60” that his family and friends spent $1.6 million of his money in a period between January 2015 and October in 2015.

During that time, Richardson was cut by the Indianapolis Colts and later by the Oakland Raiders. He discovered that people were using his name to open accounts with Netflix (11 of them) and Hulu (eight) and even order bottle service by dropping his name at clubs, even though Richardson doesn’t drink.

“I finally just looked at my bank statement, and I was just like, ‘Where did this come from? Where did that come from?’” Richardson said. “And my guy was sitting there telling me, ‘Man, we was telling you.’ I know he was telling me, but that’s just like telling a kid to stop running in the hall. They’re going to still do it when you turn your back or you leave.

“It’s just one of them moments to where I was just blinded by my heart, by loving everybody and thinking that everyone was for me. I know they love me. I know they do care. But at the time, they took advantage of it.”

Richardson signed a fully-guaranteed deal worth $20.5 million over four years with the Browns in July 2012. He told ESPN that he isn’t broke and can support his immediate family but has shaved off some major costs, such as removing his brother, Terrell, as Richardson’s $100,000-a-year personal assistant.

“He’s such a good guy,” Alabama head coach Nick Saban said. “He’s such a good person, and he wants to please everyone. And I think sometimes when guys have that personality, which is a great personality to have, it makes it very difficult to disappoint anyone with the word ‘No.’”  READ THE REST HERE

 

I would disagree with Trent that his friends and family love and care for him.  I’m sure they do on some level but the bottom line is that they chose to serve themselves at his expense as opposed to looking out for his best interests and having his back.   These were “friends” who saw a way to exploit Richardson’s new wealth and had an expectation that somehow they were entitled to some portion of it.   It’s a sad revelation to discover one’s supposed friends are really not what you thought they were.

Regarding the inability to say “No” in order to please people, my belief is that it can be a kindness to others to tell them “No”.   Saying “No” not only preserves our own boundaries and dignity but applies boundaries to the behavior of others so that you are not facilitating their continued use of bad strategies for dealing with life.   Some people lack the internal strength to tell themselves “No” so by apply external restraint, we actually assist them in becoming better people.   Being a doormat and letting everyone walk all over you is not a kindness to them at all.