Recently in Rumors, Hoaxes & Urban Legends Category

Oh, brother! There’s an article on SFGate.com’s Daily Dish about Hugh Jackman using rumors about his being gay to pick up girls.

Jackman: ‘I Used Gay Rumors To Pick Up Girls’

Australian actor Hugh Jackman is glad people assumed he was gay in his youth, because it gave him the chance to act like a “vulture” and pick up single girls.

Rumors that the “Australia” hunk was gay swirled when he starred as gay performer Peter Allen in a Broadway production of “The Boy from Oz.”

The speculation surrounding his sexuality peaked when his actress wife Deborra-Lee Furness took on the role of rumor-crusher, telling everyone that her man definitely wasn’t into same-sex relationships.

More…

What is even more amusing than the article are the comments that people have made. One of them inspired the title of this blog post. I don’t care. I’m still keeping this photo on my hard drive:

Related articles:

• Does Deborra-Lee Furness make Hugh Jackman great?
• Hello, sexy!
• Hugh Jackman’s Wife Does Not Like Gay Rumors
• Hugh Jackman: People’s ‘Sexiest Man Alive’

There’s some buzz going around the blogosphere about a new Internet rumor being spread via e-mail. I haven’t received the message yet. But, it claims — get this — that Barack Obama is the Antichrist!

Here’s an excerpt from the entry about it on Snopes.com:

Obama as Anti-Christ

Claim:   The Book of Revelation describes the anti-Christ as someone with characteristics matching those of Barack Obama.

Status:   False.

Example:   [Collected via e-mail, March 2008]

According to the Book of Revelations the anti-christ is: The anti-christ will be a man, in his 40s, of MUSLIM descent, who will deceive the nations with persuassive language, and have a MASSIVE Christ-like appeal…. the prophecy says that people will flock to him and he will promise false hope and world peace, and when he is in power, will destory everything. Is it OBAMA??

[…]

Nothing in the Bible — in Revelation or elsewhere — describes the anti-Christ as being “a man, in his 40s, of Muslim descent.” In fact, since the book of Revelation was complete by the end of the second century, but the religion of Islam wasn’t founded until about four hundred years later, the notion that Revelation would have mentioned a “Muslim” at all is rather far-fetched. (And even if it did, it couldn’t be construed as a reference to Barack Obama, since Senator Obama isn’t a Muslim.)

Read the whole thing…

I’m somewhat surprised that one of my crazy relatives hasn’t forwarded this to me already. Perhaps they’re a bit more rational than I thought.

The scary thing is that there are lots of people in this country who will believe this crap. For example, there’s the mayor of  Fort Mill, South Carolina, Danny Funderburk:

SC: mayor ‘not sure’ if Obama’s the anti-Christ
by: Pam Spaulding
Mon Sep 29, 2008 at 09:30:00 AM EDT

Should feel enraged or just sigh in resignation that the level of ignorance of the bible-beating bigots right is so prevalent, particularly in elected officials? Take a look at the behavior of Fort Mill, SC Mayor Danny Funderburk.

Fort Mill Mayor Danny Funderburk says he was “just curious” when he forwarded a chain e-mail suggesting Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama is the biblical antichrist. “I was just curious if there was any validity to it,” Funderburk said in a telephone interview. “I was trying to get documentation if there was any scripture to back it up.”

Funderburk apparently sent the e-mail from his business account at Gastonia Sheet Metal where he works as a business agent. The e-mail, which has circulated in the last six months since Obama secured the Democratic nomination, claims the biblical book of Revelation says the antichrist will be in his 40s and of Muslim ancestry. 

More… 

I know this may be old news, but I finally got aroung to searching the Internet for information about the “sexy priest” calendar that is supposedly on sale at the Vatican. To be honest, I thought it was an urban legend. I first heard about this calendar a couple of years ago, but wasn’t able to find it for sale anywhere.

However, it appears to be legit. I was able to find a Web site that promotes the calendar in a very coy manner. The only thing that shows what the calendar is really about are a couple of sample photos.

Here’s what is on the Web site:

the CALENDARIO ROMANO 2009
di

Piero Pazzi

the most typical souvenir from Rome

WHERE CAN YOU FIND IT ?

in all kioscos and souvenir store of Rome and Venice or for e-mail: p.pazzi@libero.it

The price of the CALENDARIO ROMANO 2009 is 10,00 (ten) Euros (fine included).

WHAT IS IT?

The CALENDARIO ROMANO 2007 joint to pictures it also contains generical informations about of the Vaticano State

NOTES ABOUT THE VATICAN

Often tourists, mainly foreigners, don’t have a complete knowledge of the things they see while in Rome, especially concerning the rather confusing Vatican grounds.

This calendar intends to give basic information and some notes on the general characteristics of the Vatican with the hope of sating the thirst for knowledge continually demonstrated by the Eternal City’s visitors.

The Vatican is a true and proper sovereign state, heir of the ancient Pontiff State born following the Treaty of Lateranñ the agreed upon protocol signed between the Holy Sede and the Italian State on February 11, 1929…

More…

The copy just goes on and on about the Vatican without mentioning the subject of the calendar — hot, sexy priests. I suppose that’s something they have to do in Rome in order to avoid controversy.