Victoria Fox's Blog, page 218

Carrie Underwood’s mom gets matching tattoos with the family on a whim in Las Vegas

What happens in Vegas, sometimes ends up on Instagram.

Carrie Underwood revealed her mom asked to get matching tattoos while on a family trip to Las Vegas with Carrie and her sisters. 

“When your 74-year-old mother asks you and your sisters to get matching tattoos with her in Vegas, the only questions are, ‘what?’ and ‘where?’” Carrie wrote on social media. “I never would’ve thought I’d see the day that Mama Carole would be gettin’ some ink!” 

Carrie recently wrapped the first few dates of her “Reflection: The Las Vegas Residency” at Resorts World Theatre.

KELLY CLARKSON SHUTS DOWN CARRIE UNDERWOOD FEUD RUMORS: ‘WE DON’T KNOW EACH OTHER’

Carrie Underwood revealed her mom suggested getting tattoos with her sisters while in Las Vegas. (Getty Images/ Instagram)

Underwood looked calm while receiving a tattoo on her foot. (Instagram/ Carrie Underwood)

The “Before He Cheats” singer appeared completely relaxed as artist Darek Riley drew a permanent heart on top of Carrie’s foot.

“Experiences like this make Las Vegas one of the coolest places to live,” he shared in his own caption. “A huge thank you to the Underwood gals for coming by and spending the afternoon in my studio. I am so grateful.”

CARRIE UNDERWOOD GETS SENTIMENTAL TATTOO WITH SISTERS-IN-LAW ON FLORIDA GIRLS TRIP: ‘I LOVE YOU LADIES!!!’

Underwood’s mother, Carole, beamed with pride while sitting in between her daughters, with Carrie on one side and sisters Shanna and Stephanie to the other.

Just last month, Carrie showed off memorable ink received on a girls’ trip with her husband’s sisters.

“Sisters…not by blood…but sisters nonetheless,” she wrote. “God truly showed us great favor by putting us all together. These ladies are strong, kind and faithful and I’m so happy I get to do life with them!!!” 

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The “American Idol” winner showed off her new flower tattoo last month. (Instagram/ Carrie Underwood)

Carrie smiled as she stood alongside the Fisher clan wearing a floral dress. 

“It’s true that you don’t get to choose your family, but if I could, I would choose these exact three women to be my sisters-in-law,” she wrote.

Underwood posted a carousel of snaps from a fun-filled weekend with the ladies, including a trip to the tattoo shop.

She flashed her arm to reveal a delicate sunflower drawn just below her bicep.

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Carrie added, “From the beach to the tattoo parlor, Destin didn’t know what hit it! I love you ladies!!!”

Carrie Underwood and Mike Fisher married in July 2010 and have two sons. (John Shearer)

Underwood met the former NHL star in 2008 during a meet-and-greet following one of her concerts.

The couple announced their engagement in December 2009, and married the following summer.

Carrie and Mike have sons Isaiah, 8, and Jacob, 4.

Following a few gigs with Guns N’ Roses this summer, she’ll return to Vegas for a slew of dates at Resorts World.

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Tracy Wright is an entertainment writer for Fox News Digital. Send story tips to tracy.wright@fox.com.

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‘Customer’ in Supreme Court gay rights case says he never requested wedding website — raising legal questions

A Christian graphic artist who the Supreme Court said can refuse to make wedding websites for gay couples pointed during her lawsuit to a request from a man named “Stewart” and his husband-to-be. The twist? Stewart says it never happened.

The revelation has raised questions about how Lorie Smith’s case was allowed to proceed all the way to the nation’s highest court with such an apparent misrepresentation and whether the state of Colorado, which lost the case, has any legal recourse.

It has served as another distraction at the end of a highly polarizing term for a Supreme Court marked by ethical questions and contentious rulings along ideological lines that rejected affirmative action in higher education and President Joe Biden’s $400 billion plan to cancel or reduce federal student loan debts.

Here’s a look at the legal questions surrounding the mysterious would-be customer, “Stewart:”

Protestors outside of the Supreme Court hold signs calling for the cancellation of student loan debt. MediaPunch / BACKGRIDWHAT ROLE DID THE CLAIM PLAY IN THE CASE?

About a month after Smith filed the case in Colorado federal court in 2016, lawyers for the state said it should be dismissed partly because she hadn’t been harmed by the state’s anti-discrimination law. Smith — who did not plan to start creating wedding websites until her case was resolved — would first have to get a request from a gay couple and refuse, triggering a possible complaint against her, the state argued.

Smith’s lawyers maintained that she didn’t have to be punished for violating the law before challenging it. In a February 2017 filing, they revealed that though she did not need a request to pursue the case, she had, in fact, received one. An appendix to the filing included a website request form submitted by Stewart on Sept. 21, 2016, a few days after the lawsuit was filed. It also included a Feb. 1, 2017 affidavit from Smith stating that Stewart’s request had been received.

Two documents Smith filed with the Supreme Court briefly mention that she had received at least one request to create a website celebrating a same-sex wedding but do not elaborate.

The request stated that Stewart and his fiancé Mike were looking for design work on things like invitations and place setting cards for their upcoming wedding. “We might also stretch to a website,” the form said.

Lawyers for Colorado wrote in their brief to the Supreme Court in August that it did not amount to an actual request for a website and the company did not take any steps to verify that a “genuine prospective customer submitted the form.” It’s not clear whether the state took any steps to verify whether Stewart — whose contact information was included in court papers — was a real potential customer.

Stewart told The Associated Press last week that he didn’t even know his name had been invoked in the case until he was contacted by a reporter for The New Republic, which first reported his denial. Stewart, who declined to give his last name for fear of harassment and threats, said he was incredibly surprised, adding he has been married to a woman for 15 years.

Dressed in a bible costume, this protestor contested the conservative majority on the Supreme Court that stood with a website designer who was against working with a same-sex couple.Aaron Schwartz – CNP / MEGACOULD THE REVELATION IMPACT THE CASE NOW?

It’s highly unlikely. The would-be customer’s request was not the basis for Smith’s original lawsuit, nor was it cited by the high court as the reason for ruling in her favor. Legal standing, or the right to bring a lawsuit, generally requires the person bringing the case to show that they have suffered some sort of harm. But pre-enforcement challenges — like the one Smith brought — are allowed in certain cases if the person can show they face a credible threat of prosecution or sanctions unless they conform to the law.

The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, which reviewed the case before the Supreme Court, found that Smith had standing to sue. That appeals court noted that Colorado had a history of past enforcement “against nearly identical conduct” and that the state decline to promise that it wouldn’t go after Smith if she violated the law.

“If there are other places where you can get standing, then legally speaking I don’t think it actually does make a difference,” said Jessica Levinson, a professor at Loyola Law School.

However, it could have affected the case by undermining the credibility of Smith’s legal team, potentially causing the judge to look more skeptically at everything else they filed, Levinson said. It could also result in potential sanctions against Smith’s legal team if it turns out they knew Stewart’s request was false, Levinson said.

Smith’s lawyer, Kristen Waggoner, said Friday that Smith doesn’t have a way of doing background checks on those requesting business nor is it her responsibility to do so. She also suggested it could have been a troll making the request.

While the revelation cannot change the decision, “it’s something that should’ve come up in the litigation,” said Erwin Chemerinsky, the dean of Berkeley Law, “because then what the court should have done is say we have doubts about this, we can’t resolve it, we send it back to the federal district court.”

HAS ANYTHING LIKE THIS HAPPENED BEFORE?

Members of the United States Supreme Court Police stand guard outside the Supreme Court in Washington, DC on Friday, June 30, 2023.Polaris

An error like this — especially at the level of the Supreme Court — is highly unusual, legal experts say. But lawyers have had to walk back statements made to the court before.

The solicitor general, who represents the government before the Supreme Court, apologized in a court filing this year for an “inaccurate statement” made to the court during oral arguments over a 2017 patent case. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote that the lawyer was given wrong information by the United States Patent and Trademark Office, adding: “We regret any misimpression inadvertently created by the answer that was given.”

The court has also included errors in its own rulings. In 2017, ProPublica published a review of several dozen cases in which they found several “false or wholly unsupported factual claims.” Among them was an error in Shelby County v. Holder, which struck down part of the Voting Rights Act. The publication reported that Chief Justice John Roberts included incorrect data in a comparison of voter registration among Black people and white people in certain states.

Associated Press reporter Jesse Bedayn contributed from Denver.

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Iron deficiency rampant in teen girls, young women: study

Nearly four out of every 10 teen girls and young women in the US have an iron deficiency, which can lead to low energy and brain fog, a new study published in JAMA found.

To conduct the study, researchers at the University of Michigan Medical School analyzed blood test data collected over the last 20 years from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, which is a part of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

With 40% of American females aged 12 to 21 likely having an iron deficiency, those rates shot up for those who had low-BMI, were low-income and identified as black and Latina.

The research also found that one in every 17 females in the studied age group have low enough iron levels to be diagnosed with iron-deficiency anemia, which can have a great impact on one’s health if not treated properly.

The most concerning part of these statistics is that the majority of girls and women who have dangerous low levels of iron are not aware as the symptoms are common for other disorders. Standard health screenings for their age groups do not require a ferritin test, which measures iron levels.

Researchers hope that this study will lead to more ferritin tests, which measures iron levels, being ordered for teen girls and young women. Stock Photo/Getty Images

Symptoms of iron deficiency include fatigue, cold extermities, hair loss, brittle nails, cognitive issues like brain fog, decreased athletic performance, shortness of breath, junk food cravings, headaches and sleep disorders.

The ferritin test is typically run most consistently on toddlers, people who are pregnant or those who have a long list of symptoms associated with anemia.

The CDC recommends anemia screening for female adolescents, who are not pregnant, and women every five to 10 years.

“Iron deficiency is an under-recognized problem with adverse impacts, but its symptoms and even those of anemia are normalized in young females,” lead author Dr. Angela Weyand, a pediatric hematologist, said in a press release.

“Why are we not screening for a condition that is highly prevalent, easily diagnosed, easily treated and associated with serious symptoms and increased risk of death if not addressed?”

Iron deficiency can lead to fatigue, cold extermities, hair loss, brittle nails, cognitive issues like brain fog, decreased athletic performance, shortness of breath, junk food cravings, headaches, sleep disorders and other conditions. iStockphoto/Getty Images

The doctor also suggested that medical professionals normalize discussing menstrual bleeding and a healthy period flow. She noted that many teens and young women may be unaware that they are experiencing abnormally heavy periods that might contribute to a drastic iron loss.

Menstruation is a common risk factor, although a quarter of the girls who have yet to begin their periods were diagnosed with an iron deficiency, the study showed.

Dr. Rachel Bercovitz, a hematologist and an associate professor of pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine, told NBC News that a period could be considered heavy “if you’re changing your pad or tampon more often than every four to six hours, or if you have to sleep on a towel or use overnight pads plus period underwear because you leak.”

Iron levels can be replenished by incorporating iron-rich foods into one’s diet or taking a daily iron supplement. iStockphoto/Getty Images

“There are significant consequences especially in the adolescent age cohort where fatigue and poor concentration can lead to poor school performance,” she said. “And poor athletic performance can lead to changes in how girls think about exercise.”

Researchers hope that the findings will encourage medical professionals to order more ferritin tests for young female patients and recommend them to incorporate more iron-rich foods to their diet, such as leafy green vegetables, eggs, beans, meats and seafood.

Experts also advise taking an iron supplement with a glass of orange juice, which helps increase the amount of iron absorbed.

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I have 800 tattoos and can’t get a job — not even cleaning toilets

She’s failed to ink a job deal.

A woman with 800 tattoos says she’s struggling to find gainful employment because bosses cast judgment on her inked-up appearance.

Melissa Sloan, 46, who hails from Wales in the United Kingdom, previously had a job cleaning toilets but says she hasn’t been able to find a similar gig because of the art that adorns her face and body.

“I can’t get a job,” Sloan bluntly told the Daily Star. “I applied for a job cleaning toilets where I live, and they won’t have me because of my tattoos.

“People have said I have never had a job in my life, but I have had one once and it didn’t last long,” the mother-of-two added. “If someone offered me a job tomorrow, I would go and work – I would take that offer.”

Sloan first started getting tattoos at the age of 20 and quickly became hooked.

Despite her struggles with employment, the Welshwoman told The Mirror that she still gets as many as three new inkings each week, describing herself as “addicted.”

Despite her struggles with employment, the Welshwoman said she still gets as many as three new inkings each week, describing herself as “addicted.”Melissa Sloan/Facebook

Sloan first started getting tattoos at the age of 20 and quickly became hooked. She has a particular love of facial tattoos. Melissa Sloan/Facebook

“If I make it to 70 I’ll still be getting them,” she declared. “Every bit of skin will be covered even if I’m turning blue, my face is already turning blue — I look like a Smurf.”

Sloan has a particular penchant for facial tattoos and has no bare skin left on her visage. She’s inked over old tattoos three times, creating a multi-layered collage across her face.

“I’ve got three layers on my face. I probably have the most tattoos in the world, and if not then at the rate I’m going on I probably will have in the end — I keep going over and over them,” she enthused.

Sloan has a particular penchant for facial tattoos and has no bare skin left on her visage.Melissa Sloan/Facebook

Sloan believes it’s her facial tattoos that cause people to make snap judgments about her. Melissa Sloan/Facebook

“If I make it to 70 I’ll still be getting them,” she said.Melissa Sloan/Facebook

However, Sloan believes it’s her facial tattoos in particular that cause people to make snap judgments about her.

She told The Mirror that a lack of employment isn’t the only hardship she’s faced.

The mom has also been banned from her local pub and from her children’s school because of her ink.

“I’ve got three layers on my face. I probably have the most tattoos in the world,” she said.Melissa Sloan/Facebook

The mom has also been banned from her local pub and from her children’s school because of her tatts. Melissa Sloan/Facebook

Still, the defiant tattoo lover isn’t backing down and is determined to ink one record — employment be damned.

“I’d like to be a record holder, it’s just something different,” she declared. “I’m trying to get into the Guinness Book of Records.”

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belVita Breakfast Sandwich biscuits recalled after peanut contamination

Mondelez International’s subsidiary has voluntarily recalled two varieties of belVita Breakfast Sandwich biscuits in the US over possible undeclared peanut in the products.

Mondelez Global LLC said on Monday that these products sold at retail stores nationwide may contain undeclared peanut resulting from cross-contact on its single manufacturing line.

However, no other belVita products or markets outside the US were included in or affected by this action, the snack food company said.

Mondelez said there were three unconfirmed reports of possible allergic reaction to date related to these products.

The company said during an internal manufacturing inspection it became aware of the issue as it found the potential presence of peanut protein residue on the line used to make these biscuits.

Mondelez said these products sold at retail stores nationwide may contain undeclared peanut resulting from cross-contact on its single manufacturing line.Mondelez

The recall was being conducted with the knowledge of the Food and Drug Administration, Mondelez added.

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Why red wine has libido-boosting power — for men and women

Popping a cork can help men pop a woody, a new study finds.

It seems to improve the sexual health of women, too.

Those are just a few of the results of a meta-analysis of nearly 30 years of research.

The authors of the new report, published in the Journal of Clinical Medicine, found ample evidence of the ways red wine can help men and women enjoy a healthy sex life.

Polyphenols are the compounds in red wine that take the credit for much of the drink’s libido-boosting power.

In addition to red wine, polyphenols are also found in dark chocolate, tea, herbs and certain fruits and vegetables.

Polyphenols have powerful antioxidant properties, which prevent free radicals and other chemicals from causing oxidative stress that can damage cells.

The polyphenols in red wine seem to have a positive effect on reproductive health, new research finds.Getty Images/iStockphoto

Oxidative stress is linked to numerous health problems, including cancer, heart disease, stroke, arthritis, immune disorders, emphysema, Parkinson’s disease and other conditions, according to Medical News Today.

Vitamins A, C and E, as well as beta-carotene, lycopene and lutein, are also potent antioxidants.

The research revealed that the antioxidants in red wine can improve vascular health, allowing more blood flow, which helps maintain an erection.

Red wine also can improve levels of testosterone, the hormone responsible for sex drive in men and women.

“Fascinatingly, women consuming moderate (one to two glasses a day) red wine showed higher … scores for sexual desire and [vaginal] lubrication with an overall improvement in sexual function compared to teetotaler women,” the authors wrote.

The researchers also found that the presence of ethanol in red wine, and its interaction with polyphenols, may also play a part in how red wine affects the reproductive system.

Both men and women seem to benefit sexually from the compounds in red wine.Getty Images/iStockphoto

In summary, the report authors found that “red wine, if consumed in moderation, can be potentially beneficial for patients with erectile dysfunction as well as can positively influence reproductive function through mechanisms that depend on the vasorelaxant properties of red wine and its antioxidant properties.”

The key part of those findings may be in the word “moderation.”

The National Institutes of Health states that “adults of legal drinking age can choose not to drink or to drink in moderation by limiting intake to two drinks or less in a day for men and one drink or less in a day for women when alcohol is consumed.”

More research is needed, the study authors wrote, “to confirm the precise role of both EtOH [ethanol] and polyphenols in the field of male and female sexual response.”

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Video reveals what happens to used hotel soap: ‘Bringing my own’

TikTok users aren’t feeling too bubbly after learning what happens to half-used hotel soap.

A Science Insider video recently pulled back the curtain on one of Clean the World’s recycling soap factories, which breaks the old ones down, disinfects them and molds them into new ones.

It is unclear whether the video was taken at the recycling operations center in Orlando, Florida, or Las Vegas, Nevada. 

“Hotels throw out millions of bars of used soap every week,” a Science Insider reporter says in the video. “But they don’t have to go in the trash.

“The used soap comes from thousands of hotels around the world, adding up to about 1.4 million rooms.”

The process starts when the used bars are placed into a machine called a refiner, which grates the used bars and cleans any dirt and hair left on the top layers.

The video takes place at a Clean the World recycling soap factory.TikTok/@scienceinsider

The soap is then transformed into noodle-like strands.TikTok

The refiner then pushes out even noodle-like strands, which are then heated and mixed into water. They are also bleached for seven or eight minutes to kill bacteria. 

The sanitized batch then travels to another refiner before being molded into good-as-new, individual bars of soap.

Uploaded last month, the TikTok has more than 22.7 million views — and thousands of comments from users not feeling soap-er stellar about the process.

Then, the soap is put into new molds. TikTok

The recycled bars of soap are now ready to use!TikTok

“Aaaaand I’m bringing my own soap,” one person declared.

“Way simpler to stop using solid soap in hotels and just use the liquid one in sealed dispensers attached to the wall,” someone else suggested.

“The idea of someone’s pub hairs making it in just rubs me the wrong way,” another shuddered.

Meanwhile, others called the recycled process “amazing,” “genius” and “really smart.”

The Post has contacted Clean the World for comment.

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Hey, Remember When Owen Wilson And Pierce Brosnan Teamed Up For An Action Thriller?

“No Escape” is regularly bashed for being racist and culturally insensitive, and it’s easy to see why. Even before the uprising kicks off, Owen Wilson treats the hotel staff with contempt and walks the streets giving the locals the side-eye. It’s a classic case of the “ugly American” trope, which sits uneasily with the film’s portrayal of its nameless location and its people. There isn’t a single Asian character with a role of any note, which is problematic. By not really treating Asians as humans in the first place, the insurgents might as well be a horde of zombies. To make matters worse, coyly refusing to name the destination gives the impression that the filmmakers don’t really care about the culture or politics of the region, reducing the all-too-real horrors of a bloody uprising to a high-concept basis for the action.

As dubious high concepts go, “No Escape” is a brutally efficient thriller once it gets going. One scene in particular, involving a perilous leap across rooftops with children in tow, made me so unbearably tense that I almost skipped forward. With kids of my own, there were occasions when I genuinely feared for the family’s lives.

The action is relentless and grim, with Owen Wilson getting beaten up a lot and plenty of atrocities in the background. It’s an ugly experience that might prove too depressing if it wasn’t for the sadly fleeting appearances of Pierce Brosnan, who has fun doing his lascivious and disreputable thing from “The Matador.”

Is it worth your time? That very much depends on your sensibilities. The crude portrayal of its supposedly anonymous location leaves a sour taste and will be enough to turn many viewers off. For those able to put that to one side, masochists will probably delight in a very intense and claustrophobic survival thriller.

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Christian Bale Was Warned American Psycho Would End His Career

Patrick Bateman in “American Psycho” is one of the great horror characters of any era, one that perfectly summed up the “Greed is Good” ethos of the ’80s. With his anonymous job on Wall Street, conspicuous wealth and materialism, and complete lack of human empathy, Bateman was the man for his time and place. When it comes to the film adaptation in 2000, he also foreshadowed the modern phenomenon of FOMO. Preoccupied with securing reservations at the trendiest Manhattan eateries and waxing lyrical about the most mainstream pop imaginable, his desperation to win acceptance in an environment where he is often mistaken for other financial drones is palpable.

Johnny Depp was interested in the role as early as 1992, but by the time director Mary Harron first landed the gig several years later, Leonardo DiCaprio was the name on everyone’s lips. Harron always had Christian Bale in mind for the part, but he wasn’t in the studio’s plans at all. Conversely, Harron absolutely did not want DiCaprio:

“Leonardo wasn’t remotely right [for the part]. There’s something very boyish about him. He’s not credible as one of these tough Wall Street guys… I did not want to deal with someone who had a 13-year-old fan base. They shouldn’t see the movie. It could’ve gotten us in a lot of trouble.”

Although DiCaprio would later portray another Wall Street monster in “The Wolf of Wall Street,” he patently wasn’t right for the role at that stage of his career. That didn’t concern the studio, however, who announced him in the lead to Harron’s disapproval. Her refusal to meet with DiCaprio resulted in her getting dumped from the project as a list of other prospective directors was drawn up. Several including Danny Boyle, Martin Scorsese, David Cronenberg, and Stanley Kubrick were considered before Oliver Stone took over.

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The Succession Scream-Off Between Hugo And Greg We Never Got To See

In case you somehow forgot, “Succession” season 4 episode 3 is when patriarch Logan Roy (Brian Cox) finally bites the dust. The episode — which is considered to be possibly the best episode of the entire series — centers less on Logan dying, and more on the way everyone in the Roy inner circle reacts to the news. This includes business associates who are far less emotionally invested in Logan’s passing, and are instead working overtime to make sure the news doesn’t hurt anyone’s bottom line.

“When Logan dies, there’s a sense that the story of his death was leaked and maybe it was Greg when he was flirting with a reporter,” Fisher Stevens said to set the stage. “I had a scene written and we also improvised like crazy where I confront Greg telling him he’s a f***ing a-hole, he was the one who leaked the story, I’m going to f***ing kill him,” he said. But remember, Hugo Baker is a short, brown-noser of a man, while Cousin Greg is an absolute giant. As Stevens said:

“I’m 5’8″ and he’s 6’7″ and I’m just looking up and screaming at him. I was Joe Pesci on him. And he then just destroys me back in a very Greg way, calling me so small. It was this funny back-and-forth. I thought it was pretty good.”

Maybe one day we’ll get to see it, because that sounds pretty amazing. 

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