Miami Caliente players Anonka Dixon and Tina Caccavale have been placed on probation by the Lingerie Football League for wearing too many clothes during a photo shoot for Miami New Times and New Times Broward-Palm Beach. A league spokesperson tells NBC Miami that the problem stems from the players wearing non-sponsored league gear. "One of the covers has an NFL logo and they had on Rawlings shoulder pads and Nike wristbands," Stephon McMillen says. "They were displaying non-league partners. It's a legal issue for us." Turns out the league didn't like the New Times story that much either; the writer, Michael J. Mooney, has been banned from being credentialed to cover any Lingerie Football League or Miami Caliente events.

Continue ReadingLingerie Footballers Get Probation for Wearing Too Much in New Times

"Red Hot Patriot: The Kick-Ass Wit of Molly Ivins" had its world premiere Wednesday night at the Philadelphia Theatre Company. The play, which stars Turner as Ivins, offers a "complex, nuanced sense" of the former Texas Observer editor "in all her loud messiness," according to Politics Daily. Half the words in the play are from Ivins, and the other half were written by Margaret and Allison Engel. "The day after Molly died I was so upset that her voice was gone that I called Allison and said we have to do a show about her," Margaret says. "I felt she was our Mark Twain, our Will Rogers, and by 'ours' I meant the country's."

Continue ReadingKathleen Turner Plays Molly Ivins in New Play

The AAN Diversity Grant Program, which was instituted in 2001 to help papers add diversity to their newsrooms and to encourage minority journalists to start their careers at alt-weeklies, is accepting new applications. The program offers AAN papers the opportunity to apply for a grant for a diversity-related project or for an intern. The Diversity Committee will award up to four grants of $1,250 each per year; the deadline for applications is April 23. Recent awardee Boise Weekly tells AAN News that the "global culture blog" for the local refugee community it launched with the grant money "would have never happened" without the Diversity Grant. Now that the blog has become a success, the Weekly will keep it going with its own funding. (For all the details, download an application here.)

Continue ReadingDiversity Grant Applications Now Available

Reid, whose "Boiling Point" has appeared in a number of AAN papers, says she is "retiring from regular weekly political cartooning." Why? She singles out the tough market for political cartoons, the relentless deadlines and her impending motherhood as a few of the reasons. "With the peanuts I was earning for political cartooning, I was theoretically doing it for fun -- but I wasn't really having fun anymore," she writes. In addition to being a full-time working mother, Reid says she will be blogging about sewing and style on her Polka Dot Overload site.

Continue ReadingAlt-Cartoonist Mikhaela Reid Ending Her Strip

In a Monday post about the rumored purchase of the Gothamist blog network by Cablevision, the Village Voice's Foster Kamer wrote: "Wonder how [Gothamist publisher Jake] Dobkin's gonna feel with Jimmy Dolan's cock in his mouth?" Dolan, the Cablevision CEO, has a reputation as being aggressive and sometimes litigious. That reputation seems to be well-deserved, as his corporate communications team pounced on Kamer's post with multiple emails and a follow-up call to a Voice editor that said Cablevision lawyers were looking into the post to see if it could be considered defamatory. "As a guy who was once named as a defendant in an employee's high-profile (and ultimately successful) sexual harassment lawsuit, Dolan should understand the difference between what one could and could not get away with when discussing things like where one puts one's penis," Kamer shoots back. "And thankfully, there's no law that's going to force us to take Jimmy Dolan's figurative cock out of anyone's mouth. Least of all ours."

Continue ReadingCablevision Upset Over Village Voice Dick Joke

Finalists for the third annual Los Angeles Press Club National Entertainment Journalism Awards were announced this week. L.A. Weekly received five nominations, including three for former film critic Scott Foundas, who was included in the best critic category. The Weekly's film issue was nominated for "best entertainment publication," and staff writer Libby Molyneaux got a best feature (under 1,000 words) nod.

Continue ReadingL.A. Weekly Gets Five Nominations in Entertainment Journalism Awards

As usual, AAN members are well-represented in the list of finalists for the 2010 James Beard Foundation Journalism Awards, which recognize excellence in food writing. The L.A. Weekly's Jonathan Gold and Westword's Jason Sheehan (who is now at Seattle Weekly) are both nominated for the Craig Claiborne Distinguished Restaurant Reviews, and Gold is also a finalist in the Writing on Spirits, Wine or Beer category. Elsewhere, the Newspaper Feature Writing category is comprised only of AAN members, with two Chicago Reader pieces and one from the Village Voice vying for the top prize. Westword nabs another finalist in the Newspaper Feature Writing About Restaurants and/or Chefs, where it is joined as a finalist by Washington City Paper. And last, but certainly not least, the Houston Press is a finalist in the Multimedia Food Feature category. Winners will be announced on May 2.

Continue ReadingAlt-Weeklies Nominated for a Number of James Beard Awards