Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Lady Gaga marries mom jeans with side cleavage
Judge: 'Modern Family' star will remain in sister's care
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas issued the ruling after considering a report by child protective investigators that was critical of Winter's mother, Chrisoula Workman. The report found there was evidence of emotional abuse toward Winter, Levanas said, and the agency planned to step in and take its own action if Winter did not remain in a guardianship.
The ruling comes more than six weeks after Workman was temporarily stripped of custody amid allegations she had been physically and emotionally abusive to Winter.
Levanas said the investigators' report found that claims of physical abuse were inconclusive, but an attorney for Winter's sister said they could be proven in a subsequent report. The judge set a Dec. 12 trial date to determine whether Winter should be placed in a permanent guardianship.
Winter has been under the care of her sister, Shanelle Gray, since early October. Levanas said that if the case remains in his courtroom, he will make sure the family works toward reconciliation.
"I guarantee if it stays here, it will get better," the judge said. He said the Department of Children and Family Services could still chose to file its own case, which would remove it from his jurisdiction.
Winter's mother has denied all accusations that she was abusive to her daughter.
Winter's father, Glenn Workman, also filed an objection to the guardianship late Monday, stating he wants a better relationship with his daughter and would be willing to care for her.ade into the messy family dynamics of teen actress Ariel Winter and determine whether the Modern Family star should stay away from her mother, who has been described in court filings as physically and emotionally abusive.
Original story:
At a hearing Tuesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Levanas will consider whether the 14-year-old should continue living with her sister, who has temporary guardianship of the actress.
The judge will have more information to consider than he did on Oct. 3, when he temporarily stripped Chrisoula Workman of custody of her daughter. Workman has denied all accusations of abuse and filed more than two dozen declarations from friends, acquaintances, stylists and others who say they've never witnessed any abuse.
MORE: Winter's mother denies abuse allegations
Winter's father, Glenn Workman, also filed an objection to the guardianship late Monday, stating he wants a better relationship with his daughter and would be willing to care for her.
Winter has been in the care of her adult sister, Shanelle Gray, who was removed from Chrisoula Workman's care in the 1990s amid accusations of abuse. Chrisoula Workman contends Gray was a rebellious teen who left home and that she is contending with a similar situation with Winter, who has been acting since age 7 and currently stars as Alex Dunphy on the hit ABC series "Modern Family."
People on the show's set are concerned about Winter's wellbeing and have been sneaking her food, according to in-court statements by Gray's attorney, Michael Kretzmer.
Gray's filing states Chrisoula Workman has repeatedly slapped Winter and engaged in emotional abuse, including name-calling.
"The allegations made by Ariel are false," said Chrisoula Workman's attorney Anita Gumm. "We really feel she's just a rebellious teen and wants her independence. It's our hope that the court terminates the guardianship. Both parents want Ariel home. Shanelle is not suitable to be a guardian."
Glenn Workman's filing Monday does not address the abuse allegations, but states he believes his daughter should be returned to live with Chrisoula Workman, or that he be allowed to raise her.
"I want to provide for her a calm loving home environment that is a retreat from the glitz and glamour of Hollywood; a place where she can think and relax without any distractions," Glenn Workman wrote. "This whole situation has turned into a circus and places Ariel in a position she should not have to be in."
Kretzmer declined to comment on Glenn Workman's filing.
He has previously told The Associated Press that it is unfortunate that the case became public, but that Winter was removed from her mother's custody for good reasons. "The court granted a temporary guardianship, and I think any rational person will realize that the court simply doesn't see the sky falling but has some basis for granting a temporary guardianship," he said last week.
During a contentious court hearing Workman lashed out at Gray, called Kretzmer a moron and accused Winter of screaming her and hitting her.
"I think what we've got is a situation that's not healthy, at least for a temporary ... basis," Levanas said in early October. He ordered child welfare workers to conduct an investigation and appointed an attorney to represent Winter's interests.
Workman's attorney has also scheduled a deposition of Gray for early December, and a review of Winter's finances will be conducted. Currently, Gray has no access to Winter's money, some of which should be in a special account meant to protect the earnings of child actors.
Gumm and Workman have cited Gray's finances as a reason why she should not be granted guardianship of her sister. But Kretzmer denied last week that money was an issue in the case.
"There's no truth whatsoever to Shanelle obtaining this guardianship for purposes of advancing her career or for some other personal gain," Kretzmer said. "Shanelle is successful and has done very well in her own rights. This is a tragedy for her, too."
Winter has been acting since age 7, appearing in several TV series, including ER and Phineas and Ferb, and movies such as Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, Ice Age: The Meltdown and ParaNorman.
Sourche: http://www.usatoday.com/story/life/people/2012/11/20/modern-family-ariel-winter/1716363/?morestories=obnetwork
U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice meeting
The meeting with Sens. John McCain, Lindsay Graham and Kelly Ayotte on Capitol Hill came as the White House has signaled it may nominate Rice to replace Hillary Rodham Clinton as secretary of State.
McCain, R-Ariz., has said he may oppose her nomination because she should have known her statements on the Sept. 11 attack were false.
Rice said in a round of interviews days after the attack the attack may have emerged from a protest outside the consulate in response to an anti-Islam video produced in the USA. It was later learned there was no protest, and the attack was a well-organized terror plot likely timed for the anniversary of Sept. 11.
"The bottom line is that I'm more disturbed than I was before ... about how four Americans died in Benghazi, Libya by Amb. Rice does not to do justice to the reality at the time," Graham told reporters after meeting with Rice.
President Obama has defended Rice, who rose up through Democratic circles to advise presidential candidates on international issues. Under President Clinton, she weighed in on key foreign policy decisions, some of which remain controversial.
White House spokesman Jay Carney wouldn't say Monday whether the president will nominate Rice, but that if he did, she would be a good candidate.
"Ambassador Rice has done an excellent job at the United Nations and is highly qualified for any number of positions," Carney said.
Rice, 48, was born in Washington, D.C., to scholar parents who were themselves involved in policy circles. Her father, Emmett Rice, was the second black governor of the Federal Reserve System; her mother, Lois Dickson Fitt, is an education expert at the Brookings Institution.
Rice received a degree in history at Stanford University in 1986 and attended Oxford before becoming a foreign policy aide to former Democratic Massachusetts governor Michael Dukakis during his 1988 presidential run against George H.W. Bush.
After his unsuccessful campaign, Rice became a consultant at McKinsey & Company, a global consulting firm.
In 1993 she joined the administration of President Clinton, serving at the National Security Council. She held various positions, including director for International Organizations and Peacekeeping, special assistant to the president and senior director for African Affairs.
She was a policy adviser during the genocide in Rwanda and also at a time when the Clinton administration was determining how to handle the emergence of al-Qaeda as a terror threat.
Clinton and his foreign policy staff were criticized for failing to intervene in a serious way to stop the 1994 genocide in which more than 500,000 people were killed, a decision that Clinton would say was the worst mistake of his presidency.
Clinton's foreign policy staff had to fend off criticism it failed to do more to nab al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden prior to Sept. 11, 2001. According to former ambassador to Sudan,Timothy Carney, when the Sudan offered to help the United States capture bin Laden, Rice and counter-terrorism czar Richard Clarke advised against it. Later, the 9-11 Commission said no credible evidence existed that Sudan would have made good on its offer.
Following the election of Republican George W. Bush, Rice joined Brookings in 2002 as a senior fellow in the Foreign Policy and Global Economy and Development program, where she offered analyses on failing states and global hunger.
In 2004 she served as an adviser to the presidential campaign of John Kerry. In 2008 she was asked to advise then Sen. Barack Obama on foreign policy matters.
In January 2009, Rice was confirmed President Obama's permanent representative to the United Nations.
Rice is married to ABC News producer Ian Cameron. They have two children.
Rice made headlines in September when she was dispatched by the White House to discuss the administration's response to the attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi in which Ambassador Chris Stevens was killed.
Rice insisted the attack emerged from a protest outside the consulate in response to an anti-Islam video produced in the USA.
It was later learned there was no protest, and the attack was a well-organized terror plot likely timed for the anniversary of Sept. 11.
Former CIA director David Petraeus testified on Capitol Hill that his agency informed the White House from the beginning that the attack in Benghazi was determined to be an organized assault by al-Qaeda-linked terrorists.
However, Rice appeared on several Sunday talk shows and insisted the attack was prompted by the video. She recently said she was only relating the intelligence information she was handed by the White House, and Obama defended Rice, saying it was not her fault.
Petraeus testified that the CIA report he approved was apparently altered to downplay the terrorist angle.
Reuel Marc Gerecht, a former CIA operations officer and now an analyst at the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies, says Rice's performance after the Benghazi attack raises a red flag.
"These officials are supposed to assess these things for themselves," Gerecht said. "If you see a situation where a consulate safe house is being attacked by mortars and organized teams, that should tell you this was planned before that video came out."
Rice knew the narrative that would satisfy the White House, Gerecht said. Included in that narrative is that al-Qaeda is losing ground, public sentiments toward the United States are improving in the Middle East, and the attack was not connected to U.S. foreign policy. But she still would have had access numerous news reports that contradicted that narrative, he said.
"If you want to take the president's approach, then Susan Rice is shockingly guilty of being dumb," Gerecht said.
Rice was to appear Tuesday with acting CIA Director Michael Morell, said the White House.
During an interview Monday, McCain said he would ask Rice "the same questions I've been talking about on every talk show in America." Asked whether he thinks she's still unfit for secretary of State and what he was hoping for, McCain interrupted and said, "I'm not hoping for anything. She asked to see me and I agreed to see her."
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)