A well-endowed mistress (financially), pre-emptive vote-rigging allegations in Sri Lanka and weekend movie news

- If only all mistresses were so well-endowed…….financially. YaVaughnie Wilkins finally decided that she’d had enough of being viewed as the “other woman” in her relationship with Oracle Corp. co-president Charles E. Phillips. For 8½ years, the pair had cheated on Phillips’ wife together and Wilkins clearly felt like she wanted everyone to know about her relationship with Phillips and no longer been seen the woman who wrecked his relationship with the woman to whom he was legally wed. Phillips must not have taken her hints, because Wilkins decided to take her message public – very public. She rented out billboards in New York, San Francisco and Atlanta featuring the happy couple. People from the dirty south to midtown Manhattan were greeted this week with the smiling faces of "Charles and YaVaughnie" looking down on them from their giant billboard homes, labeled with the caption reading, "You are my soulmate forever! - cep." Below the caption was a URL directing inquiring minds to a Web site containing personal photo albums featuring the couple at public and private events with friends and family. The site also contains love notes from Phillips to Wilkins. Confronted with a lot of proof that he couldn’t lie his way out of, Phillips finally came clean and admitted the affair with Wilkins in a statement released by his spokeswoman Friday. ""I had an 8½-year serious relationship with YaVaughnie Wilkins," the statement said. "My divorce proceedings began in 2008. The relationship with Ms. Wilkins has since ended and we both wish each other well." Umm, about those divorce proceedings…….Phillips is reportedly still married to his wife, Karen, and the two have a son together. I don’t know many divorces that take two years to complete, do you? The prevailing question at this point is why Wilkins put the billboards up at all. She refused to speak about them and instead allowed her cousin Misha Davila as a de facto spokeswoman. Davila claimed the Web site was created as a gift from Wilkins for Phillips' 50th birthday and that were an attempt by Wilkins to reclaim her version of her relationship with Phillips among friends and family, nor an act of revenge. So if you don’t want to get back with the guy and you aren’t looking for revenge, why do it? Divorce proceedings between he and his wife are ongoing, so you’re not ruining his marriage either. It’s just a bizarre situation and seeing as one New York billboard had been removed and the Web site was no longer active as of Friday, the picture is even blurrier. "Their relationship was always very public and open. He went to family events, she has traveled with him," Davila said. Again, just odd all the way around. This guy took home an $800,000 salary for 2009 and also raked in stock options and other compensation valued by Oracle at more than $18 million. That being said, he’s going to lose a huge chunk of that when the divorce (at some point in the next decade or so, I’m guessing) becomes final. This situation is far too murky, complicated and weird to declare a real winner, but at least it was entertaining…………

- This is just a unique story and I don’t know that we’ll ever hear one quite like it again in professional baseball or any other sport, for that matter. Oakland Athletics prospect Grant Desme was selected selected the 2009 Arizona Fall League MVP just a couple months ago and was considered one of the top prospects in Oakland's system. He was just three years into his professional career and batted .288 with 31 homers, 89 RBIs and 40 stolen bases in 131 games at Class-A Kane County and Stockton last season. Yet after following that up with a stellar showing in the fall league, Desme has decided to abandon his baseball career….to become a priest. Seriously. Desme is retiring from baseball to enter the priesthood, leaving a stunned Oakland organization behind. "We respect Grant's decision and wish him nothing but the best in his future endeavors," A's general manager Billy Beane said in a statement. No doubt, nothing but wishes for success are in order because if Desme felt baseball wasn’t what he wanted to do and that his heart wasn’t in it, then he was right to make the change. Also, if the priesthood was where he felt called, then no one can question his decision and regardless of what faith you practice, you should have nothing bad to say about Desme and his decision. That being said, what do you think Beane’s first reaction was when he was informed about the situation? I wonder if he was waiting for that tool Ashton Kutcher to jump out from behind the door to tell him he’d been “Punk’d.” All told, just a bizarre story and one that I hope Grant Desme doesn’t look back on and regret some day…………

- One thing that isn’t a surprise to anyone is that American teens are FAT. It’s not surprising because freaking 67 percent of Americans are either overweight or obese, so why would teens be any different? But while the knowledge that our teens are packing on far too many pounds isn’t groundbreaking, what should disturb all of us is the revelation that one in five teens in the U.S. -- and more than 40 percent of obese teens -- have abnormal cholesterol. Whether it's low HDL (good cholesterol); high LDL (bad cholesterol); or high levels of triglycerides, another type of blood fat, the bottom line is that these teens are getting a far-too-early start on a serious health problem that could easily ruin the rest of their life if it goes unchecked. These statistics come from a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The findings back up the American Academy of Pediatrics's (AAP) 2008 guidelines, which recommend more aggressive cholesterol testing and intervention in kids. The AAP especially recommends targeting FAT and obese kids. At the time of their release, the guidelines stirred controversy because, for the first time, cholesterol tests were recommended for overweight or high-risk children as young as 2 years old. Hearing that treatment with a cholesterol-lowering statin was an option for children as young as 8 who had bad cholesterol, or LDL, over 190 mg/dL, and who couldn't lower their cholesterol with diet or exercise was equally shocking to some people, but those people should belly up to a plate of crow right about now because clearly their stance has no factual backing. Clearly the time has come for children’s cholesterol to be monitored, especially the cholesterol of chunky little Timmy or Ashley whose mom or dad thinks that raising a child on a diet of alternating runs to Taco Bell and McDonalds is a good idea. Memo to you, lazy American parents: Stop shoving unhealthy crap in your kids’ pie holes, start forcing them to get some exercise and pray that they don’t end up as FAT and unhealthy as you…………

- As much as I love claims of cheating and vote rigging after an election, when disenfranchised parties are making those allegations before the election, I like that even more. Pre-emptive conspiracy theories are another notch higher on the Insanity/Paranoia scale and for that reason, they are to be cherished and admired. With Sri Lanka (a special “What up?” to my Sri Lankan peeps) set to hold its presidential election Tuesday, opposition activists say the Sri Lankan government is planning to use vote rigging and violence to win the vote. Campaigning has officially come to a close and the two main candidates in the poll, President Mahinda Rajapakse and former army chief General Sarath Fonseca, have held their final campaign rallies. Both men can boast strong ties to the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels, but it is Rajapakse who is confidently proclaiming victory (perhaps because he and his party plan on rigging the vote?) and in his final rally, he spoke of last year's war victory against the Tamil Tigers and the need to fight corruption. After all, who breaks out the celebratory music and fireworks before voting begins unless their victory has already been stolen, er, secured? If General Fonseca says the ruling party is planning to use violence and vote rigging to disrupt the poll, then I’m inclined to go with his sentiments. Curiously though, in spite of his stated belief that the government wants to deter voters from turning out, he is urging his supporters not to retaliate. Why, General? The only thing that would make this better is all-out brawls at the polls featuring angry, disenfranchised opposition voters clashing with The Man. If the government has the chutzpah to deny any use of violence in the campaign or intentions to use it in the next couple of days, make them prove it. Of course, the fact that four people have died and dozens have been injured in pre-election unrest would already seem to contradict those statements, but whatever. It is good to see elections take place, the first elections the end of the country’s civil war last year. Although the result of the election has already been determined (allegedly), the rigged final voting tallies are expected on Wednesday…………

- Another weekend, another box office triumph for James Cameron and Avatar. On its sixth weekend in theaters, the animated flick about freaky blue aliens netted $36 million, a per-screen average of $11,461 that brings the film’s total to $552.8 million. It handily beat back the horror flick Legion, which opened to a paltry $18.2 million in wide release and doesn’t appear to have a strong, prolonged run in its future. The Book of Eli saw a significant drop-off in its second weekend, making $17 million for third place to bring its two-week tally to $62 million. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson (sorry bro, but you will always be The Rock to me) was the top earner in a family-oriented flick, with his turn as the Tooth Fairy debuting with $14.5 million, good enough for fourth place. Rounding out the top five was Paramount Pictures’ The Lovely Bones, with a tally of $8.8 million, pushing its cumulative total to $31.6 million. The rest of the top 10 included: Sherlock Holmes ($7.1 million, $191.6 cumulative), Extraordinary Measures (I ALREADY WORK AROUND THE CLOCK! – inside joke for those who saw Harrison Ford’s omnipresent promo for the movie during the past two weekends of football) with $7 million in its debut, Alvin and the Chipmunks: the Squeakquel ($6.5 million, $204.2 cumulative), It's Complicated ($6.2 million, $98.6 cumulative) and Lionsgate’s The Spy Next Door ($4.7 million, $18.7 cumulative). Overall there are some very solid movies on this list, so hopefully you were able to get out and see at least one of them this weekend……………