Sarah Palin: Still not going to be president

So, Sarah Palin said on Saturday that she'd totally consider running for president in 2012, and I yawned. I mean, I giggled a little, and then I yawned, which is the same reaction I've had everytime someone involved in the World Wrestling Federation has declared for office. Then, for a day or two, as the Internet burbled with speculation and as David Broder warmed up his pen, I wondered if maybe I'd missed something -- like all of the other eligible Republican candidates swearing they'd sit 2012 out. But since Tim Pawlenty was still standing, I felt confident this wasn't the case. So why was everyone interested in Palin '12? Couldn't they see what a hoax this was?

Today I got my answer.

The Internet is (finally? again?) throwing an Anti-Palin Party. First, there's this woo-hoo poll that says Sarah Palin isn't so beloved (and is certainly not trusted) by the American people, unless you define "American People" as "three crazies who like tea." The Washington Post not only published a David Broder love letter to Mrs. Palin today, it published

Although Palin is a tea party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a severe hit in the survey. Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, while the percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling. There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks the qualifications necessary for the White House.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out, that means Palin's running worse numbers than that divisive, devilish Hillary Clinton ever did:

To put this bluntly--Sarah Palin is more hated than Hillary Clinton at any point in Clinton's political career, and yet engenders very little of the love that made Clinton a political force.

Things can be put even more bluntly than that, for which we must turn to Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States and Gaffestan, who said this very clearly in that folksy way of his: "Governor Palin appeals to a group of people who are generally frustrated, feel disenfranchised, are very conservative... Tea Party people, but beyond that. She has appeal beyond that as well. But I don't know that it represents anything approaching a significant portion of the population.”

The difference, of course, between Joe Biden's folksiness and Sarah Palin's is that sometimes Joe Biden knows what he's talking about. God love 'im. Remember when everyone on the campaign thought it was going to be Joe Biden who was more prone to embarrass his ticket? Oh ho ho. I love a good proved-'em-wrong moment.

Better than all of this, though: Someone went on Larry King's show (which was minus Larry King, so at least some things are staying normal) and tried to summon the Ghost and Spirit of Ronald Reagan by invoking his name in defense of the Great New Governor Maverick. Sadly, this failed, because sitting next to said summoner was Ronald Reagan's actual, living son, Ron Reagan Jr., who took the opportunity to call crazy where he saw it.

The entire exchange is worth reading, but a quick summary goes like this: Ron Reagan Jr. says his father would not have liked Sarah Palin "because she doesn't have a thought in her head." Pam Geller says this isn't true, that President Reagan would have loved her, and RR Jr. says maybe Pam sholdn't talk about a guy she never met. The satisfying point comes at the end:

Reagan: Is Pam still blathering about me and my father? Oh, you are. You still haven't met him, though, right? You still didn't know him, so you're just sort of making things up as you go along, right?

Geller: You never met him either. You know, you never met him either. Do you think you're making your father proud? Do you really think you're making your father proud?

Oh, yes. Now we have people -- let's call them Palinites -- who have moved beyond just questioning people's patriotism when they disagree. They now question family relationships. Yes, friends, what we've known all along is finally be played out on the bigger screen: to believe in Sarah Palin, you must reject facts and rewrite history.

Luckily, it looks like maybe only a small segment of the country is willing to do that. I'm getting around to making the very same point that TNC made in his post, which is this: Sarah Palin is not a major political force. She is the political equivalent to "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV." Which, by the way, she does now: she plays a political leader on TV, paid for by Fox. She is not now, nor does it seem she ever will be, a real political force in America.

TNC has said he's going to stop treating her as such; I feel it's time I do the same. I'm turning off The Sarah Show except as entertainment. If America doesn't take her seriously, why should I?

Sarah Palin: Still not going to be president

So, Sarah Palin said on Saturday that she'd totally consider running for president in 2012, and I yawned. I mean, I giggled a little, and then I yawned, which is the same reaction I've had everytime someone involved in the World Wrestling Federation has declared for office. Then, for a day or two, as the Internet burbled with speculation and as David Broder warmed up his pen, I wondered if maybe I'd missed something -- like all of the other eligible Republican candidates swearing they'd sit 2012 out. But since Tim Pawlenty was still standing, I felt confident this wasn't the case. So why was everyone interested in Palin '12? Couldn't they see what a hoax this was?

Today I got my answer.

The Internet is (finally? again?) throwing an Anti-Palin Party. First, there's this woo-hoo poll that says Sarah Palin isn't so beloved (and is certainly not trusted) by the American people, unless you define "American People" as "three crazies who like tea." The Washington Post not only published a David Broder love letter to Mrs. Palin today, it published

Although Palin is a tea party favorite, her potential as a presidential hopeful takes a severe hit in the survey. Fifty-five percent of Americans have unfavorable views of her, while the percentage holding favorable views has dipped to 37, a new low in Post-ABC polling. There is a growing sense that the former Alaska governor is not qualified to serve as president, with more than seven in 10 Americans now saying she is unqualified, up from 60 percent in a November survey. Even among Republicans, a majority now say Palin lacks the qualifications necessary for the White House.

As Ta-Nehisi Coates points out, that means Palin's running worse numbers than that divisive, devilish Hillary Clinton ever did:

To put this bluntly--Sarah Palin is more hated than Hillary Clinton at any point in Clinton's political career, and yet engenders very little of the love that made Clinton a political force.

Things can be put even more bluntly than that, for which we must turn to Joe Biden, Vice President of the United States and Gaffestan, who said this very clearly in that folksy way of his: "Governor Palin appeals to a group of people who are generally frustrated, feel disenfranchised, are very conservative... Tea Party people, but beyond that. She has appeal beyond that as well. But I don't know that it represents anything approaching a significant portion of the population.”

The difference, of course, between Joe Biden's folksiness and Sarah Palin's is that sometimes Joe Biden knows what he's talking about. God love 'im. Remember when everyone on the campaign thought it was going to be Joe Biden who was more prone to embarrass his ticket? Oh ho ho. I love a good proved-'em-wrong moment.

Better than all of this, though: Someone went on Larry King's show (which was minus Larry King, so at least some things are staying normal) and tried to summon the Ghost and Spirit of Ronald Reagan by invoking his name in defense of the Great New Governor Maverick. Sadly, this failed, because sitting next to said summoner was Ronald Reagan's actual, living son, Ron Reagan Jr., who took the opportunity to call crazy where he saw it.

The entire exchange is worth reading, but a quick summary goes like this: Ron Reagan Jr. says his father would not have liked Sarah Palin "because she doesn't have a thought in her head." Pam Geller says this isn't true, that President Reagan would have loved her, and RR Jr. says maybe Pam sholdn't talk about a guy she never met. The satisfying point comes at the end:

Reagan: Is Pam still blathering about me and my father? Oh, you are. You still haven't met him, though, right? You still didn't know him, so you're just sort of making things up as you go along, right?

Geller: You never met him either. You know, you never met him either. Do you think you're making your father proud? Do you really think you're making your father proud?

Oh, yes. Now we have people -- let's call them Palinites -- who have moved beyond just questioning people's patriotism when they disagree. They now question family relationships. Yes, friends, what we've known all along is finally be played out on the bigger screen: to believe in Sarah Palin, you must reject facts and rewrite history.

Luckily, it looks like maybe only a small segment of the country is willing to do that. I'm getting around to making the very same point that TNC made in his post, which is this: Sarah Palin is not a major political force. She is the political equivalent to "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV." Which, by the way, she does now: she plays a political leader on TV, paid for by Fox. She is not now, nor does it seem she ever will be, a real political force in America.

TNC has said he's going to stop treating her as such; I feel it's time I do the same. I'm turning off The Sarah Show except as entertainment. If America doesn't take her seriously, why should I?

Chile earthquake triggers Pacific tsunami

Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile’s largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.

SANTIAGO - A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals, and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.

TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the hardest-hit city of Concepcion, where buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Cars turned upside down lay scattered across one damaged bridge.

Residents huddled in streets full of rubble of masonry and glass from destroyed homes. Many were terrified by powerful aftershocks and desperately trying to call friends and family.

Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera said 122 people had been killed and the death toll could climb higher.

Tsunami warnings were posted around the Pacific, including the U.S. state of Hawaii, Japan and Russia.

Telephone and power lines were down in much of central Chile, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage close to the epicenter.

Chile is the world’s No. 1 copper producer, and the quake halted operations at two major mines.

"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it’s like the end of the world," one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged homes and forced staff to evacuate the regional hospital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 70 miles (115 km) northeast of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles (35 km) at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT).

The capital Santiago, about 200 miles (320 km) north of the epicenter, was also badly hit. The international airport was closed for at least 24 hours as the quake destroyed passenger walkways and shook glass out of doors and windows.

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, suspended operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines, but reported no major damage and said it expected the mines to be up and running in the "coming hours."

Production was halted at the Los Bronces and El Soldado copper mines, owned by Anglo American Plc, but Chile’s biggest copper mine, Escondida, was operating normally.

Chile produces about 34 percent of world supply of copper, which is used in electronics, cars and refrigerators.

TSUNAMI

President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave hit the Juan Fernandez islands. Radio stations reported serious damage on the archipelago, where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18th Century inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.

Bachelet, who flew over the worst-affected area, said residents were also being evacuated from coastal areas of Chile’s remote Easter Island, a popular tourist destination in the Pacific famous for its towering Moai stone statues.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a Pacific-wide tsunami warning for countries in Latin America, and as far away as the U.S. state of Hawaii as well as Japan, Russia, Philippines, Indonesia and the South Pacific. French Polynesia was also put on alert.

"Chile probably got the brunt force of the tsunami already. So probably the worst has already happened in Chile," said Victor Sardina, geophysicist at the warning center.

"The tsunami was pretty big too. We reported some places around 8 feet. And it’s quite possible it would be higher in other areas," he added.

An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause "tremendous damage," the USGS says. The Jan. 12 quake that devastated Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was measured as magnitude 7.0.

Bachelet urged people to stay calm and to remain at home to avoid road accidents. "With a quake of this size we undoubtedly can’t rule out more deaths and probably injuries," she said.

FLAMES, LOOTING

Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile’s largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.

Broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick were strewn across roads and several strong aftershocks rattled jittery residents in the hours after the initial quake.

In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the Chilean capital hugging each other and crying.

"My house is completely destroyed, everything fell over ... it has been totally destroyed. Me and wife huddled in a corner and after hours they rescued us," said one elderly man in central Santiago.

There were blackouts in parts of Santiago. Emergency officials said buildings in the historic quarters of two southern cities had been badly damaged and local radio said three hospitals had partially collapsed.

In 1960, Chile was hit by the world’s biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900. The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles (3,700 km) off Chile’s Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Saturday’s quake shook buildings as far away as Argentina’s Andean provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. A series of strong aftershocks rocked Chile’s coastal region from Valdivia in the south to Valparaiso, about 500 miles (800 km) to the north.

The United Nations and the White House said they were closely monitoring the situation in Chile and the potential threat of tsunamis in the Pacific.

A State Department official said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was being kept apprised of the situation in Chile, which she is due to visit on Tuesday on a Latin American tour.

Chile earthquake triggers Pacific tsunami

Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile’s largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.

SANTIAGO - A huge magnitude-8.8 earthquake struck Chile early on Saturday, killing at least 122 people, knocking down homes and hospitals, and triggering a tsunami that rolled menacingly across the Pacific.

TV Chile reported that a 15-storey building collapsed in the hardest-hit city of Concepcion, where buildings caught fire, major highway bridges collapsed and cracks opened up in the streets. Cars turned upside down lay scattered across one damaged bridge.

Residents huddled in streets full of rubble of masonry and glass from destroyed homes. Many were terrified by powerful aftershocks and desperately trying to call friends and family.

Chilean President-elect Sebastian Pinera said 122 people had been killed and the death toll could climb higher.

Tsunami warnings were posted around the Pacific, including the U.S. state of Hawaii, Japan and Russia.

Telephone and power lines were down in much of central Chile, making it difficult to assess the full extent of the damage close to the epicenter.

Chile is the world’s No. 1 copper producer, and the quake halted operations at two major mines.

"Never in my life have I experienced a quake like this, it’s like the end of the world," one man told local television from the city of Temuco, where the quake damaged homes and forced staff to evacuate the regional hospital.

The U.S. Geological Survey said the earthquake struck 70 miles (115 km) northeast of Concepcion at a depth of 22 miles (35 km) at 3:34 a.m. (0634 GMT).

The capital Santiago, about 200 miles (320 km) north of the epicenter, was also badly hit. The international airport was closed for at least 24 hours as the quake destroyed passenger walkways and shook glass out of doors and windows.

Chile’s Codelco, the world’s largest copper producer, suspended operations at its El Teniente and Andina mines, but reported no major damage and said it expected the mines to be up and running in the "coming hours."

Production was halted at the Los Bronces and El Soldado copper mines, owned by Anglo American Plc, but Chile’s biggest copper mine, Escondida, was operating normally.

Chile produces about 34 percent of world supply of copper, which is used in electronics, cars and refrigerators.

TSUNAMI

President Michelle Bachelet said a huge wave hit the Juan Fernandez islands. Radio stations reported serious damage on the archipelago, where Scottish sailor Alexander Selkirk was marooned in the 18th Century inspiring the novel Robinson Crusoe.

Bachelet, who flew over the worst-affected area, said residents were also being evacuated from coastal areas of Chile’s remote Easter Island, a popular tourist destination in the Pacific famous for its towering Moai stone statues.

The Pacific Tsunami Warning Center issued a Pacific-wide tsunami warning for countries in Latin America, and as far away as the U.S. state of Hawaii as well as Japan, Russia, Philippines, Indonesia and the South Pacific. French Polynesia was also put on alert.

"Chile probably got the brunt force of the tsunami already. So probably the worst has already happened in Chile," said Victor Sardina, geophysicist at the warning center.

"The tsunami was pretty big too. We reported some places around 8 feet. And it’s quite possible it would be higher in other areas," he added.

An earthquake of magnitude 8 or over can cause "tremendous damage," the USGS says. The Jan. 12 quake that devastated Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince was measured as magnitude 7.0.

Bachelet urged people to stay calm and to remain at home to avoid road accidents. "With a quake of this size we undoubtedly can’t rule out more deaths and probably injuries," she said.

FLAMES, LOOTING

Local television showed a building in flames in Concepcion, one of Chile’s largest cities with around 670,000 inhabitants. Some residents looted pharmacies and a collapsed grains silo, hauling off bags of wheat, television images showed.

Broken glass and chunks of concrete and brick were strewn across roads and several strong aftershocks rattled jittery residents in the hours after the initial quake.

In the moments after the quake, people streamed onto the streets of the Chilean capital hugging each other and crying.

"My house is completely destroyed, everything fell over ... it has been totally destroyed. Me and wife huddled in a corner and after hours they rescued us," said one elderly man in central Santiago.

There were blackouts in parts of Santiago. Emergency officials said buildings in the historic quarters of two southern cities had been badly damaged and local radio said three hospitals had partially collapsed.

In 1960, Chile was hit by the world’s biggest earthquake since records dating back to 1900. The 9.5 magnitude quake devastated the south-central city of Valdivia, killing 1,655 people and sending a tsunami which battered Easter Island 2,300 miles (3,700 km) off Chile’s Pacific seaboard and continued as far as Hawaii, Japan and the Philippines.

Saturday’s quake shook buildings as far away as Argentina’s Andean provinces of Mendoza and San Juan. A series of strong aftershocks rocked Chile’s coastal region from Valdivia in the south to Valparaiso, about 500 miles (800 km) to the north.

The United Nations and the White House said they were closely monitoring the situation in Chile and the potential threat of tsunamis in the Pacific.

A State Department official said Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was being kept apprised of the situation in Chile, which she is due to visit on Tuesday on a Latin American tour.

Kristen Stewart Serves Jury Duty In Prostitution Case

Earlier this week, "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart was on jury duty, and now details about the case she sat on are emerging. Stewart was reportedly a member of a Los Angeles County jury that was deciding the fate of a man accused of trying to solicit a prostitute.

Stewart sat on a three-day trial; the defendant was found not guilty of trying to pay an undercover police officer for sex. The man pleaded not guilty, with his defense attorney arguing that since he does not speak English very well, he didn't understand the situation he was in with the undercover cop and was therefore innocent.

TMZ further reported that when the trial was over, Stewart asked to keep her juror badge and was allowed to. However, a security guard who posed for a photo with the actress at the courthouse earlier this week may be in hot water for snapping a shot of Stewart.

The security guard reportedly asked to take a photo with Stewart, who did so. The photo was then posted online by the guard's friend's wife before it was quickly picked up by various media outlets and made public. Now it seems that the people involved may have violated some rules and may lose their jobs for taking a picture with the actress.

"Cancelled because unfortunately the photo that went up from Kristen in court was stolen and put on several blogs and got to the media and reached the ears of the court," the wife wrote online. "Right now my husband and the security guard are in trouble for it having gone up and second because it is confidential when celebrities are in court. Now I feel bad. ... I am really scared, because I think it is possible that they could lose their jobs."

Kristen Stewart has called her turn as a teen runaway-turned-stripper and prostitute in "Welcome to the Rileys" the most personal performance of her career. According to director Jake Scott, audiences will see an entirely new side of the "Twilight" superstar in the indie flick.

"It's an emotionally naked performance," Scott told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. "She really exposed herself in that way."

One way in which she didn't expose herself was in the flesh. While Stewart does show off some skin onscreen, she never appears fully in the nude, nor do any of the scenes play as sexy. Instead they're dark, often sad portraits of a young girl forced into compromising situations and the pitiful men who prey on her vulnerability. Highlighting these story elements, rather than salacious ones, was something Scott set out to accomplish.

"I don't think the film's about a stripper," he said. "I think the film's about a damaged child who happens to be a stripper. I actually de-emphasized that part of it. It's too easy to get caught up and seduced by the idea of the stripper."

Scott and Stewart did do some research in New Orleans. They visited strip clubs and talked to the dancers, learning their stories as a way to present an accurate portrait of a teen in crisis. "Some of them were more reliable than others," he said. "Kristen actually ended up working with a girl who was a very good, useful guide for her. She went and danced in the strip club. She learned the ropes.

"She went for it," Scott added. "She got dirty. I think she was dying to do something like this. I think it comes across, to really investigate something outside of her life realm."

Kristen Stewart Serves Jury Duty In Prostitution Case

Earlier this week, "Twilight" star Kristen Stewart was on jury duty, and now details about the case she sat on are emerging. Stewart was reportedly a member of a Los Angeles County jury that was deciding the fate of a man accused of trying to solicit a prostitute.

Stewart sat on a three-day trial; the defendant was found not guilty of trying to pay an undercover police officer for sex. The man pleaded not guilty, with his defense attorney arguing that since he does not speak English very well, he didn't understand the situation he was in with the undercover cop and was therefore innocent.

TMZ further reported that when the trial was over, Stewart asked to keep her juror badge and was allowed to. However, a security guard who posed for a photo with the actress at the courthouse earlier this week may be in hot water for snapping a shot of Stewart.

The security guard reportedly asked to take a photo with Stewart, who did so. The photo was then posted online by the guard's friend's wife before it was quickly picked up by various media outlets and made public. Now it seems that the people involved may have violated some rules and may lose their jobs for taking a picture with the actress.

"Cancelled because unfortunately the photo that went up from Kristen in court was stolen and put on several blogs and got to the media and reached the ears of the court," the wife wrote online. "Right now my husband and the security guard are in trouble for it having gone up and second because it is confidential when celebrities are in court. Now I feel bad. ... I am really scared, because I think it is possible that they could lose their jobs."

Kristen Stewart has called her turn as a teen runaway-turned-stripper and prostitute in "Welcome to the Rileys" the most personal performance of her career. According to director Jake Scott, audiences will see an entirely new side of the "Twilight" superstar in the indie flick.

"It's an emotionally naked performance," Scott told MTV News at the Sundance Film Festival. "She really exposed herself in that way."

One way in which she didn't expose herself was in the flesh. While Stewart does show off some skin onscreen, she never appears fully in the nude, nor do any of the scenes play as sexy. Instead they're dark, often sad portraits of a young girl forced into compromising situations and the pitiful men who prey on her vulnerability. Highlighting these story elements, rather than salacious ones, was something Scott set out to accomplish.

"I don't think the film's about a stripper," he said. "I think the film's about a damaged child who happens to be a stripper. I actually de-emphasized that part of it. It's too easy to get caught up and seduced by the idea of the stripper."

Scott and Stewart did do some research in New Orleans. They visited strip clubs and talked to the dancers, learning their stories as a way to present an accurate portrait of a teen in crisis. "Some of them were more reliable than others," he said. "Kristen actually ended up working with a girl who was a very good, useful guide for her. She went and danced in the strip club. She learned the ropes.

"She went for it," Scott added. "She got dirty. I think she was dying to do something like this. I think it comes across, to really investigate something outside of her life realm."

Julia Mancuso hopes to regain her timing in Vancouver

Struggling American skier Julia Mancuso got a boost Wednesday by posting the fastest time in an opening downhill training session.

Lindsey Vonn, a winner of the opening four downhills this season, was eighth.

Mancuso, seeking her first World Cup win in nearly three years, sped down the Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 40.17 seconds.

"I've had good training runs this year. I just have to have everything come together for the race," Mancuso said.

Swiss skiers Fraenzi Aufdenblatten and Nadia Styger placed second and third, 0.24 seconds and 0.44 behind, respectively. Overall World Cup leader Maria Riesch of Germany was fourth.

Mancuso posted the first podium finishes of her career in Cortina four years ago on the eve of the Turin Games, when she upset the favorites to win the gold medal in giant slalom.

"Right now, the speed is definitely in a better place for a medal than (giant slalom), but anything is possible," Mancuso said. "It would be a great deja vu if this weekend has some podiums on it."

Overall, Mancuso has one victory and six podium places in her career in Cortina. But last season, her results here were 24th, 29th and 30th.

Mancuso's best results this season were two 10th-place finishes, in a downhill and a super-G.

The session was run in perfect conditions, with hard snow and sunny skies. Still, the last skier on the course, Marie-Pier Prefontaine of Canada, fell through the finish line. She was carried away on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.

Another training run is scheduled for Thursday, followed by a super-G race Friday. A downhill is scheduled for Saturday and a giant slalom on Sunday.

After Cortina, the women have only one more weekend of racing — in St. Moritz, Switzerland — before the Vancouver Olympics, which open Feb. 12.

Julia Mancuso's image, calculated or not, was important to her. Winning an Olympic gold medal with a tiara on her head, reveling in the idea that her coaches called her a "princess," surfing and swimming and being the picture of good health in the waves of Maui, posing seductively in lingerie and ski boots -- it all became part of who she was and is, "probably the most honest athlete out there," according to Chemmy Alcott of Great Britain, her good friend and fellow World Cup skier.

Mancuso was to carry that image into this month's Vancouver Olympics. Mancuso, not Lindsey Vonn, is the only female American Alpine skier with an Olympic medal to her credit, the gold in the giant slalom won four years ago in the Italian village of Sestriere. Mancuso is the skier featured in fashion shoots in outdoors magazines, her hair done up, her clothes just so, the one with the blog and the Web site that features a "shopping" section.

A year ago, though, this was not at all what she was able to project. Her image -- fresh-faced golden girl from the hills around Lake Tahoe, Calif. -- was being tarnished by injuries that led to poor performances, not to mention near collapse.

"She was crying all the time at the end of her races," said Kazuko Ikeda, a former Olympic skier from Japan who now works closely as a Pilates instructor and coach with Mancuso. "People who have known her a long time, they said they never saw her like that, crying so much. It was very hard."

Mancuso enters the Olympics in something of an awkward position. Four years ago, her dominant, aggressive, gold medal-winning performance was overshadowed by the implosion of fellow American Bode Miller, who was supposed to win multiple medals and spectacularly won none. She is now 25 -- in what should be the prime of her career, the same age as multi-medal favorite Vonn -- yet she is coming off two injury-filled seasons, seasons filled with far more pain than progress. In 21 World Cup races this year, she has finished no better than eighth. She has failed to finish or failed to qualify for the second run nine times.

How, then, can she enhance her image in Vancouver when tough times have hit her leading up to what might have been a marquee Olympics?

"Timing is everything," Mancuso said.

Injuries and pain

This is a concept about which Mancuso has thought a great deal over the past few years. Her best season on the World Cup circuit came after her performance in the Olympics, when she finished third in the overall standings -- the rankings that show the most well-rounded skiers on the planet. She seemed to be progressing. No one outside of Europe, where skiing can seem like a lifestyle and Mancuso has an avid following, seemed to notice.

"There wasn't a lot of attention on ski racing because the Olympics were over, and it was like zero attention in the U.S.," Mancuso said. "It's almost like people don't even remember in the U.S. They have no idea.

"Then the next year, I still had some great results, but for some reason, it was really difficult because I was getting a lot of criticism because my year before was so good. And it's always like: How do you balance staying positive with yourself? Because I feel like that had a lot to do with the next year being even worse, because my confidence -- even though I ended up eighth in the world overall, I had a great season -- but it wasn't good enough for some people, and I let that get to me."

Her back also got to her. So did her hip. During nearly all of the 2009 season, Mancuso had one problem or another. Again, the timing. Why, in the season prior to an Olympic year, were her performances deteriorating? From 2006 through 2008, she had 18 podium finishes -- those in the top three -- across four disciplines. In 2009, when she could have built on the image of an Olympic champion as another Games approached, she finished no race better than sixth.

"The whole season was like: 'Do I keep going? Do I not keep going?' " she said. "Something would bring me down right when things were going well again. That was the most difficult part. . . . It was just a long process. What would take most healthy people a day to learn would take me four days or almost a week. It was a two-month period where things really sucked."

The bottom came at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France. She crashed in the super-G. Then, as she approached the finish area in the downhill leg of a super-combined event, nearly two seconds off the pace, she skied off course. She dropped out of the next day's downhill. She was beaten.

"I think it got to the stage where Julia didn't realize that you could ski pain-free," Alcott said. "She was fighting it so much because she loves the sport, and she loves to ski, but there was this block in her. Maybe she couldn't feel it consciously, but subconsciously, there was a big block there."

Into the water

This season, then, has been about removing that block. Part of Mancuso's prescription for healing, be it physical or mental, is heading home -- to Hawaii, where she has lived for five years. There, she takes up the kinds of activities that would seem taboo for world-class athletes -- think stand-up paddle surfing -- and tries to, as she said, "get in the water every day." Alcott, likely Mancuso's best friend on the World Cup circuit, joined her in Maui last offseason and continued her surfing apprenticeship under Mancuso, one that began during a trip to Bali a couple of years ago.

Those lessons, too, give a glimpse into why the pain and suffering of the previous few seasons could eat at Mancuso. She is a natural-born athlete.

"She's not the best teacher," Alcott said. "She just thinks that everyone should be as naturally talented as she is. She's just like, 'Just copy how I do it.' So a couple of times I got stuck out on the reef."

In-season, Mancuso says, she thrives on speed. In the offseason, she thrives on maintaining good health and being outdoors. So she has incorporated time in the water into her regular workout routine. "She works so hard," Ikeda said, "but she wants to figure out how to have fun when she's doing it."

"I don't really need a vacation when I get home, because I'm home and it is a vacation," Mancuso said. "I'm psyched to start working out again and playing. It makes everything a lot easier."

That, then, is the new image she is forging, with her third Olympics just ahead. She is healthy, she said, but now less a princess and more a survivor, just trying to get her timing back. And she has stopped worrying, she said, about what people want her image to be.

"Just by having such a bad season now, I'm able to build off little things and take the good out of it and sort of start over and not even think about what's good for me, what people would say is a good result for me," Mancuso said. "I'm going into it as a new person."

That new person knows a bit more than she did entering the Turin Games. She understands, of course, what it feels like to have a defining moment of your career. She also understands that she doesn't want that moment to define her. Even the people who remember she won gold four years ago might not understand what she has been through since. The complete picture -- the success, the injuries, the frustration, the rebuilding -- isn't part of her public image, not yet. But it is a part of who she is.

"I guess it taught me a lot about what it feels like to win, too," Mancuso said, "because it sucks to be in the position where you don't even think you can win when you leave the start gate. . . .

"I just have to remember: For me, the biggest thing is just to stay focused on myself, and remember that the year that I won two world championship medals, I went into the season not ranked. Anything is possible, and I know that, even if other people don't."

Julia Mancuso hopes to regain her timing in Vancouver

Struggling American skier Julia Mancuso got a boost Wednesday by posting the fastest time in an opening downhill training session.

Lindsey Vonn, a winner of the opening four downhills this season, was eighth.

Mancuso, seeking her first World Cup win in nearly three years, sped down the Olympia delle Tofane course in 1 minute, 40.17 seconds.

"I've had good training runs this year. I just have to have everything come together for the race," Mancuso said.

Swiss skiers Fraenzi Aufdenblatten and Nadia Styger placed second and third, 0.24 seconds and 0.44 behind, respectively. Overall World Cup leader Maria Riesch of Germany was fourth.

Mancuso posted the first podium finishes of her career in Cortina four years ago on the eve of the Turin Games, when she upset the favorites to win the gold medal in giant slalom.

"Right now, the speed is definitely in a better place for a medal than (giant slalom), but anything is possible," Mancuso said. "It would be a great deja vu if this weekend has some podiums on it."

Overall, Mancuso has one victory and six podium places in her career in Cortina. But last season, her results here were 24th, 29th and 30th.

Mancuso's best results this season were two 10th-place finishes, in a downhill and a super-G.

The session was run in perfect conditions, with hard snow and sunny skies. Still, the last skier on the course, Marie-Pier Prefontaine of Canada, fell through the finish line. She was carried away on a stretcher and taken to a hospital.

Another training run is scheduled for Thursday, followed by a super-G race Friday. A downhill is scheduled for Saturday and a giant slalom on Sunday.

After Cortina, the women have only one more weekend of racing — in St. Moritz, Switzerland — before the Vancouver Olympics, which open Feb. 12.

Julia Mancuso's image, calculated or not, was important to her. Winning an Olympic gold medal with a tiara on her head, reveling in the idea that her coaches called her a "princess," surfing and swimming and being the picture of good health in the waves of Maui, posing seductively in lingerie and ski boots -- it all became part of who she was and is, "probably the most honest athlete out there," according to Chemmy Alcott of Great Britain, her good friend and fellow World Cup skier.

Mancuso was to carry that image into this month's Vancouver Olympics. Mancuso, not Lindsey Vonn, is the only female American Alpine skier with an Olympic medal to her credit, the gold in the giant slalom won four years ago in the Italian village of Sestriere. Mancuso is the skier featured in fashion shoots in outdoors magazines, her hair done up, her clothes just so, the one with the blog and the Web site that features a "shopping" section.

A year ago, though, this was not at all what she was able to project. Her image -- fresh-faced golden girl from the hills around Lake Tahoe, Calif. -- was being tarnished by injuries that led to poor performances, not to mention near collapse.

"She was crying all the time at the end of her races," said Kazuko Ikeda, a former Olympic skier from Japan who now works closely as a Pilates instructor and coach with Mancuso. "People who have known her a long time, they said they never saw her like that, crying so much. It was very hard."

Mancuso enters the Olympics in something of an awkward position. Four years ago, her dominant, aggressive, gold medal-winning performance was overshadowed by the implosion of fellow American Bode Miller, who was supposed to win multiple medals and spectacularly won none. She is now 25 -- in what should be the prime of her career, the same age as multi-medal favorite Vonn -- yet she is coming off two injury-filled seasons, seasons filled with far more pain than progress. In 21 World Cup races this year, she has finished no better than eighth. She has failed to finish or failed to qualify for the second run nine times.

How, then, can she enhance her image in Vancouver when tough times have hit her leading up to what might have been a marquee Olympics?

"Timing is everything," Mancuso said.

Injuries and pain

This is a concept about which Mancuso has thought a great deal over the past few years. Her best season on the World Cup circuit came after her performance in the Olympics, when she finished third in the overall standings -- the rankings that show the most well-rounded skiers on the planet. She seemed to be progressing. No one outside of Europe, where skiing can seem like a lifestyle and Mancuso has an avid following, seemed to notice.

"There wasn't a lot of attention on ski racing because the Olympics were over, and it was like zero attention in the U.S.," Mancuso said. "It's almost like people don't even remember in the U.S. They have no idea.

"Then the next year, I still had some great results, but for some reason, it was really difficult because I was getting a lot of criticism because my year before was so good. And it's always like: How do you balance staying positive with yourself? Because I feel like that had a lot to do with the next year being even worse, because my confidence -- even though I ended up eighth in the world overall, I had a great season -- but it wasn't good enough for some people, and I let that get to me."

Her back also got to her. So did her hip. During nearly all of the 2009 season, Mancuso had one problem or another. Again, the timing. Why, in the season prior to an Olympic year, were her performances deteriorating? From 2006 through 2008, she had 18 podium finishes -- those in the top three -- across four disciplines. In 2009, when she could have built on the image of an Olympic champion as another Games approached, she finished no race better than sixth.

"The whole season was like: 'Do I keep going? Do I not keep going?' " she said. "Something would bring me down right when things were going well again. That was the most difficult part. . . . It was just a long process. What would take most healthy people a day to learn would take me four days or almost a week. It was a two-month period where things really sucked."

The bottom came at the world championships in Val d'Isere, France. She crashed in the super-G. Then, as she approached the finish area in the downhill leg of a super-combined event, nearly two seconds off the pace, she skied off course. She dropped out of the next day's downhill. She was beaten.

"I think it got to the stage where Julia didn't realize that you could ski pain-free," Alcott said. "She was fighting it so much because she loves the sport, and she loves to ski, but there was this block in her. Maybe she couldn't feel it consciously, but subconsciously, there was a big block there."

Into the water

This season, then, has been about removing that block. Part of Mancuso's prescription for healing, be it physical or mental, is heading home -- to Hawaii, where she has lived for five years. There, she takes up the kinds of activities that would seem taboo for world-class athletes -- think stand-up paddle surfing -- and tries to, as she said, "get in the water every day." Alcott, likely Mancuso's best friend on the World Cup circuit, joined her in Maui last offseason and continued her surfing apprenticeship under Mancuso, one that began during a trip to Bali a couple of years ago.

Those lessons, too, give a glimpse into why the pain and suffering of the previous few seasons could eat at Mancuso. She is a natural-born athlete.

"She's not the best teacher," Alcott said. "She just thinks that everyone should be as naturally talented as she is. She's just like, 'Just copy how I do it.' So a couple of times I got stuck out on the reef."

In-season, Mancuso says, she thrives on speed. In the offseason, she thrives on maintaining good health and being outdoors. So she has incorporated time in the water into her regular workout routine. "She works so hard," Ikeda said, "but she wants to figure out how to have fun when she's doing it."

"I don't really need a vacation when I get home, because I'm home and it is a vacation," Mancuso said. "I'm psyched to start working out again and playing. It makes everything a lot easier."

That, then, is the new image she is forging, with her third Olympics just ahead. She is healthy, she said, but now less a princess and more a survivor, just trying to get her timing back. And she has stopped worrying, she said, about what people want her image to be.

"Just by having such a bad season now, I'm able to build off little things and take the good out of it and sort of start over and not even think about what's good for me, what people would say is a good result for me," Mancuso said. "I'm going into it as a new person."

That new person knows a bit more than she did entering the Turin Games. She understands, of course, what it feels like to have a defining moment of your career. She also understands that she doesn't want that moment to define her. Even the people who remember she won gold four years ago might not understand what she has been through since. The complete picture -- the success, the injuries, the frustration, the rebuilding -- isn't part of her public image, not yet. But it is a part of who she is.

"I guess it taught me a lot about what it feels like to win, too," Mancuso said, "because it sucks to be in the position where you don't even think you can win when you leave the start gate. . . .

"I just have to remember: For me, the biggest thing is just to stay focused on myself, and remember that the year that I won two world championship medals, I went into the season not ranked. Anything is possible, and I know that, even if other people don't."

Meghan McCain at UF: Lets return to civility

Meghan McCain called Wednesday for a return of civility to politics, but took some swings at the talk-show hosts that she said were breeding cynicism among young voters.

"We shouldn't let pundits two and three times our age speak for us," she said.

McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain, spoke at the University of Florida to a crowd of several hundred filled mostly with students.

McCain, 25, wrote a blog while traveling on the campaign and currently is a columnist for The Daily Beast Web site.

Her mother, Cindy, made news last week by appearing in an ad campaign supporting gay marriage. Describing herself as a "progressive Republican," Meghan McCain said she believed members of the GOP could support gay rights while also taking traditional Republican positions such as being anti-abortion.

"You just can't be afraid to say 'Yes, I'm a Republican and yes, I'm for marriage equality and these things aren't mutually exclusive,' " she said.

Meghan McCain's positions have sometimes brought attacks from fellow conservatives. She brought up talk show host Laura Ingraham's criticism of her that included a swipe at the size of her read end.

"I was too fat to be a Republican," she said. "It made me feel great - too fat to be an elephant."

But she struck back at Ingraham and fellow conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, as well as liberal television host Keith Olbermann.

"Please, Keith and Rushes of the world, let's pipe it down a notch," she said.

She said the GOP can maintain its core ideals while broadening the appeal of the party. She said she was concerned that the party was pushing a new generation toward being Democrats.

Barbara Walters guest-anchors Sunday's edition of "This Week" from the Newseum studio in Washington, D.C. ... Meghan McCain will co-host Walters' "The View" Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. on ABC. ...

Rosanna Scotto will be busy tonight. First, she'll stop by the Dwight School at 6 p.m. to discuss what it takes to put on WNYW/Ch. 5's "Good Day New York" each day; from there, she'll shoot over to the Waldorf-Astoria to host the Friends of St. Dominic's 29th annual awards dinner, a benefit for the St. Dominic's Home, a nonprofit Catholic social-welfare agency.

Meghan McCain at UF: Lets return to civility

Meghan McCain called Wednesday for a return of civility to politics, but took some swings at the talk-show hosts that she said were breeding cynicism among young voters.

"We shouldn't let pundits two and three times our age speak for us," she said.

McCain, daughter of former presidential candidate and U.S. Sen. John McCain, spoke at the University of Florida to a crowd of several hundred filled mostly with students.

McCain, 25, wrote a blog while traveling on the campaign and currently is a columnist for The Daily Beast Web site.

Her mother, Cindy, made news last week by appearing in an ad campaign supporting gay marriage. Describing herself as a "progressive Republican," Meghan McCain said she believed members of the GOP could support gay rights while also taking traditional Republican positions such as being anti-abortion.

"You just can't be afraid to say 'Yes, I'm a Republican and yes, I'm for marriage equality and these things aren't mutually exclusive,' " she said.

Meghan McCain's positions have sometimes brought attacks from fellow conservatives. She brought up talk show host Laura Ingraham's criticism of her that included a swipe at the size of her read end.

"I was too fat to be a Republican," she said. "It made me feel great - too fat to be an elephant."

But she struck back at Ingraham and fellow conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh, as well as liberal television host Keith Olbermann.

"Please, Keith and Rushes of the world, let's pipe it down a notch," she said.

She said the GOP can maintain its core ideals while broadening the appeal of the party. She said she was concerned that the party was pushing a new generation toward being Democrats.

Barbara Walters guest-anchors Sunday's edition of "This Week" from the Newseum studio in Washington, D.C. ... Meghan McCain will co-host Walters' "The View" Feb. 3 at 11 a.m. on ABC. ...

Rosanna Scotto will be busy tonight. First, she'll stop by the Dwight School at 6 p.m. to discuss what it takes to put on WNYW/Ch. 5's "Good Day New York" each day; from there, she'll shoot over to the Waldorf-Astoria to host the Friends of St. Dominic's 29th annual awards dinner, a benefit for the St. Dominic's Home, a nonprofit Catholic social-welfare agency.

Chynna Phillips in rehab for anxiety

A representative for Chynna Phillips says the 42-year-old singer has entered an undisclosed treatment facility for anxiety.

A statement issued by her publicist, Lizzie Grubman, says Phillips checked herself into the facility "after much thoughtful deliberation."

Grubman says Phillips is "looking forward to her recovery." The statement asks that people respect Phillips' privacy and the privacy of her family.

Phillips, of the pop group Wilson Phillips, is married to actor William Baldwin. The couple have three children.

She is the half-sister of former child actress Mackenzie Phillips, who claimed in a 2009 memoir that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with their father, pop star John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

Mackenzie Philips’s incestuous relationship with her father was something she had to admit the revelation of the fact that it was not actually consensual as she had earlier claimed it was.

In her memoir, “High on Arrival,” actress Mackenzie Phillips revealed details of her incestuous relationship with her father, which she called “consensual.”

“As I was writing the book, I thought, this word, it kept sitting wrong with me, but I used it for lack of a better word, and since then I’ve been schooled by thousands of incest survivors all across the world that there really is no such thing as consensual incest due to the inherent power a parent has over a child,” she said.

Realizing that incest is not the victim’s fault is a difficult process that happens through therapy and can take many years.

“They carry this kind of belief that they may have flirted, that they may have worn a bikini, all this stuff makes them feel, ‘I’m not really innocent,’ ” said Joanne Zucchetto, psychotherapist at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington post-traumatic disorders program.

By definition, incest is never consensual, although often the perpetrator will convince the victim otherwise, experts say. The power dynamics of the relationship between a parent and child are such that it’s always the parent’s responsibility to maintain normal boundaries, even if it’s the son or daughter who makes some kind of initial gesture, said Debra Borys, psychologist in Los Angeles, California.

Realizing that they are not to blame for the incident or incidents is necessary for recovery, but it is also anxiety-provoking, forcing them to confront the sadness surrounding the incestuous relationship, Zucchetto said.

“Part of therapy is to stop victimization by changing your perception of being somebody who is OK to be the slave for somebody else,” said Michael Salamon, psychologist and director of the Adult Development Center in Hewlett, New York.

Of the 60,000 sexual assault cases reported in 12 states in 2000, about 25 percent were committed by family members, according to a U.S. Bureau of Justice report. Family members were involved in about half of the sexual assault cases with victims younger than 11. More recent statistics are not available because the U.S. Census Bureau does not provide information about incest in its statistics on child abuse, sexual abuse and assault.

Zucchetto, who treats adult victims of incest, said therapy typically lasts five to seven years. Still, the timeframe varies widely from person to person, much as a physical injury, said Virginia Revere, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

“Some people have better systems of rejuvenating than others,” Revere said.

Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips, lead singer of the The Mamas & the Papas, and his first wife, Susan Adams. She is the sister of Jeffrey Phillips and a half-sister of Tamerlane Phillips, actress Bijou Phillips and singer Chynna Phillips. She was named after her father’s friend and singer Scott McKenzie.

At age twelve, Phillips formed a band with three of her classmates and was spotted by a casting agent during one of their performances. She was given an audition for a role in the 1973 hit film American Graffiti, which she won.

In September 2009, Phillips’ memoir High on Arrival was released. Phillips appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for an hour-long interview. She told Winfrey that she first tried marijuana when she was 11 years old, and that her father did drugs with her and injected her with cocaine.

During the interview, Phillips read excerpts from her book. She said that at the age of 19, on the night before her first wedding, “I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father. “Both reportedly were under the influence of drugs at the time. Phillips then told Winfrey, “It became a consensual relationship, “describing her participation as “sort of Stockholm Syndrome, where you begin to love your captor.”

Phillips said the incestuous relationship had happened gradually for ten years, and that she ended it when she became pregnant and did not know who had fathered the child. She stated that her father paid for her to have an abortion, “and I never let him touch me again.”

Chynna Phillips in rehab for anxiety

A representative for Chynna Phillips says the 42-year-old singer has entered an undisclosed treatment facility for anxiety.

A statement issued by her publicist, Lizzie Grubman, says Phillips checked herself into the facility "after much thoughtful deliberation."

Grubman says Phillips is "looking forward to her recovery." The statement asks that people respect Phillips' privacy and the privacy of her family.

Phillips, of the pop group Wilson Phillips, is married to actor William Baldwin. The couple have three children.

She is the half-sister of former child actress Mackenzie Phillips, who claimed in a 2009 memoir that she had a decade-long sexual relationship with their father, pop star John Phillips of the Mamas and the Papas.

Mackenzie Philips’s incestuous relationship with her father was something she had to admit the revelation of the fact that it was not actually consensual as she had earlier claimed it was.

In her memoir, “High on Arrival,” actress Mackenzie Phillips revealed details of her incestuous relationship with her father, which she called “consensual.”

“As I was writing the book, I thought, this word, it kept sitting wrong with me, but I used it for lack of a better word, and since then I’ve been schooled by thousands of incest survivors all across the world that there really is no such thing as consensual incest due to the inherent power a parent has over a child,” she said.

Realizing that incest is not the victim’s fault is a difficult process that happens through therapy and can take many years.

“They carry this kind of belief that they may have flirted, that they may have worn a bikini, all this stuff makes them feel, ‘I’m not really innocent,’ ” said Joanne Zucchetto, psychotherapist at the Psychiatric Institute of Washington post-traumatic disorders program.

By definition, incest is never consensual, although often the perpetrator will convince the victim otherwise, experts say. The power dynamics of the relationship between a parent and child are such that it’s always the parent’s responsibility to maintain normal boundaries, even if it’s the son or daughter who makes some kind of initial gesture, said Debra Borys, psychologist in Los Angeles, California.

Realizing that they are not to blame for the incident or incidents is necessary for recovery, but it is also anxiety-provoking, forcing them to confront the sadness surrounding the incestuous relationship, Zucchetto said.

“Part of therapy is to stop victimization by changing your perception of being somebody who is OK to be the slave for somebody else,” said Michael Salamon, psychologist and director of the Adult Development Center in Hewlett, New York.

Of the 60,000 sexual assault cases reported in 12 states in 2000, about 25 percent were committed by family members, according to a U.S. Bureau of Justice report. Family members were involved in about half of the sexual assault cases with victims younger than 11. More recent statistics are not available because the U.S. Census Bureau does not provide information about incest in its statistics on child abuse, sexual abuse and assault.

Zucchetto, who treats adult victims of incest, said therapy typically lasts five to seven years. Still, the timeframe varies widely from person to person, much as a physical injury, said Virginia Revere, a clinical psychologist in private practice in Mount Vernon, Virginia.

“Some people have better systems of rejuvenating than others,” Revere said.

Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Mackenzie Phillips is the daughter of John Phillips, lead singer of the The Mamas & the Papas, and his first wife, Susan Adams. She is the sister of Jeffrey Phillips and a half-sister of Tamerlane Phillips, actress Bijou Phillips and singer Chynna Phillips. She was named after her father’s friend and singer Scott McKenzie.

At age twelve, Phillips formed a band with three of her classmates and was spotted by a casting agent during one of their performances. She was given an audition for a role in the 1973 hit film American Graffiti, which she won.

In September 2009, Phillips’ memoir High on Arrival was released. Phillips appeared on The Oprah Winfrey Show for an hour-long interview. She told Winfrey that she first tried marijuana when she was 11 years old, and that her father did drugs with her and injected her with cocaine.

During the interview, Phillips read excerpts from her book. She said that at the age of 19, on the night before her first wedding, “I woke up that night from a blackout to find myself having sex with my own father. “Both reportedly were under the influence of drugs at the time. Phillips then told Winfrey, “It became a consensual relationship, “describing her participation as “sort of Stockholm Syndrome, where you begin to love your captor.”

Phillips said the incestuous relationship had happened gradually for ten years, and that she ended it when she became pregnant and did not know who had fathered the child. She stated that her father paid for her to have an abortion, “and I never let him touch me again.”

Lindsey Jacobellis : Olympic snowboarding to be biggest, best yet

Four years ago, an American snowboarder named Shaun White wowed Olympic crowds by spinning his way to gold above the halfpipe, one of the marquee events of the Winter Games.

In Vancouver, Olympic snowboarding promises to be even bigger.

The halfpipe will be bigger, the air will be bigger and even a once-diminutive White, who's been spending more time in the gym, will be bigger.

No longer on the fringe of the mainstream sports world, snowboarding is now taken more seriously than ever.

"He was a pretty small guy - you see him now, the guy has worked out,'' Canadian halfpipe coach Tom Hutchinson said of White.

"He's gotten big because he realizes that the crashes are getting so hard. You need to be in good shape.''

If all goes according to plan at the Vancouver Games, Canada's snowboarding medal haul will be bigger, too.

White, back to defend his title, is an action-sports star whose presence in Vancouver will grab lots of attention.

But not to be lost under the mountain of hype is a Canadian snowboard team packed with podium potential in all three Olympic disciplines: halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross.

Team Canada will be led by Jasey-Jay Anderson, an alpine elder heading into his fourth Olympics, and a pair of women, Maëlle Ricker and Dominique Maltais, who have been burning up World Cup snowboard-cross courses.

Riders from Canada's supporting cast are also expected to snap up podium spots and help the country reach its Olympic snowboarding goal of five medals.

Since snowboarding debuted in 1998, Canada has won just two Olympic medals in the sport.

Ross Rebagliati won the first-ever Olympic snowboarding gold at the 1998 Nagano Games in giant slalom, even though he briefly lost the medal after testing positive for marijuana.

Canadians will again be looking to Maltais, who captured the 2006 bronze in the first Olympic snowboard-cross event, to win hardware in Vancouver.

Her unbridled discipline, sometimes referred to as NASCAR on snow, proved to be a popular addition to the Olympic lineup four years ago.

Four riders at a time attack the same narrow, treacherous track in the elimination rounds, offering spectators a spread of explosive crashes and daring moves.

Canada's medal hopes will also rest on the shoulders of Ricker, No. 1 in World Cup standings.

Ricker and third-ranked Maltais have reached the podium together in four of the five World Cup races this season.

Each of the Canadian men also have outside shots at the podium: Robert Fagan, Drew Neilson, Mike Robertson and François Boivin.

The courses are steeper, the banks are sharper and the snowboards are better, Maltais said.

"It just makes us faster,'' she said. "It was a new discipline and it just keeps improving.''

Fagan said the riders will be carrying a little more beef compared to 2006.

"Some of the boys walking around - for sure they could be hockey players,'' said Fagan, who spends more time in the weight room than ever before.

"Crashes happen all the time ... you need to make sure you're bouncing back really quick and the gym is the key for that.''

American Lindsey Jacobellis made headlines four years ago when she lost the gold medal while showboating on the second-last jump of the final.

Sensing a comfortable lead, Jacobellis reached down, grabbed her board as she sailed through the air. The hot-dogging trick threw her off balance and she fell on her back.

Jacobellis, who scrambled to her feet to salvage the silver, will be a gold-medal contender in Vancouver.

Pierre Vaultier of France has dominated the men's field this season with four golds and a silver in five events, while Americans Nate Holland and 2006 Olympic champ Seth Wescott remain top threats.

Heavy lifting in preparation for the Olympics hasn't been reserved for just the athletes, as warm temperatures and heavy rain have been melting snow off the hills of Vancouver's North Shore.

Organizers recently started pushing snow from higher elevations and hauling it in by the truckload to cover bare patches on Cypress Mountain, the site of all Olympic snowboarding events.

Regardless of the course conditions, Canada is expecting results from its snowboarding team.

Canada Snowboard received $8.2 million from Canada's $117-million Own The Podium program, created to help athletes win more medals than any other country at the Games.

The only sports to receive more funding are alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and long-track speedskating.

Canada's parallel giant slalom team invested a chunk of its share into designing a new mechanical plate system, which connects the bindings to the snowboard.

Anderson said the new equipment allows the team to ride faster around the gates.

"I know we're way ahead (of other countries) on the board side and on the plate side,'' said Anderson, 34, who has long struggled with technological problems.

The alpine racers have also added more power to their frames.

Alexa Loo's trainer told her to gain 10 pounds over the summer, but after months of stuffing her face and cramming in more workouts, she fell a couple of pounds short of the goal.

"Eight's a lot for a girl to put on over a summer,'' said Loo, who could surprise and hit the podium in the wide-open women's field.

"I did my best.''

Anderson, the reigning world champion, Matthew Morison and Michael Lambert, a star of MTV Canada's reality-TV show Over The Bolts, are all medal threats.

But they will likely have to beat a pair of strong Austrians - Benjamin Karl and Andreas Prommegger - on their way to the podium.

When asked recently about which country has the strongest team in parallel giant slalom, Karl, the World Cup points leader, only wasted half a second before giving an answer.

"For sure, the Canadians,'' Karl said. "There are three riders who can win every time.''

The evolution of snowboarding is even more evident in the halfpipe.

Boarders will drop down the seven-metre ice walls of Cypress Mountain's "superpipe,'' about a metre-and-a-half taller than the pipe at the 2006 Turin Games.

The superpipes enable riders soar higher - sometimes more than six metres above the top of the wall.

Athletes love the wider transition zones, considered safer than their predecessors.

"If it's done properly, it's so much more progressive,'' said U.S. podium contender Gretchen Bleiler, the 2006 Olympic silver medallist.

"You can drop in with so much more speed.''

Americans dominated the halfpipe four years ago, winning gold and silver in both the men's and women's events.

Top U.S. riders like White, Louie Vito, Bleiler, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark expect to grab more medals, but the international field has been narrowing the gap.

In a few short years, the Chinese women's team, led by 2009 World Cup champ Liu Jiayu , have become a force.

Japanese riders like 2009 world champ Ryoh Aono and Kazuhiro Kokubo have developed into podium threats on the men's side.

Kokubo (bronze) and Switzerland's Iouri Podladtchikov (silver) joined gold-medal winner White on the podium at last week's Winter X Games.

"This year it's different - everyone's caught up,'' Bleiler said.

Any Canadian medals in the deep halfpipe fields would be considered a surprise.

The women - Sarah Conrad, Mercedes Nicoll and Palmer Taylor - and the men - Jeff Batchelor, Justin Lamoureux and Brad Martin - will have to really step it up for a podium spot.

The biggest difference in halfpipe has been the rapid development of new tricks.

White won halfpipe gold in 2006 with back-to-back 1080s - three full spins.

At the X Games, he landed back-to-back double corks and a Double McTwist 1260 in a single run. The difficult - and dangerous - moves involve multiple flips while spinning off-axis.

White, the man to beat in Vancouver, can't believe how much pipe riding has advanced.

"This year's been crazy because I've changed my run like 10 times because of the progression of all the riders around me,'' he said in an interview.

"It's come so far."

Lindsey Jacobellis : Olympic snowboarding to be biggest, best yet

Four years ago, an American snowboarder named Shaun White wowed Olympic crowds by spinning his way to gold above the halfpipe, one of the marquee events of the Winter Games.

In Vancouver, Olympic snowboarding promises to be even bigger.

The halfpipe will be bigger, the air will be bigger and even a once-diminutive White, who's been spending more time in the gym, will be bigger.

No longer on the fringe of the mainstream sports world, snowboarding is now taken more seriously than ever.

"He was a pretty small guy - you see him now, the guy has worked out,'' Canadian halfpipe coach Tom Hutchinson said of White.

"He's gotten big because he realizes that the crashes are getting so hard. You need to be in good shape.''

If all goes according to plan at the Vancouver Games, Canada's snowboarding medal haul will be bigger, too.

White, back to defend his title, is an action-sports star whose presence in Vancouver will grab lots of attention.

But not to be lost under the mountain of hype is a Canadian snowboard team packed with podium potential in all three Olympic disciplines: halfpipe, parallel giant slalom and snowboard cross.

Team Canada will be led by Jasey-Jay Anderson, an alpine elder heading into his fourth Olympics, and a pair of women, Maëlle Ricker and Dominique Maltais, who have been burning up World Cup snowboard-cross courses.

Riders from Canada's supporting cast are also expected to snap up podium spots and help the country reach its Olympic snowboarding goal of five medals.

Since snowboarding debuted in 1998, Canada has won just two Olympic medals in the sport.

Ross Rebagliati won the first-ever Olympic snowboarding gold at the 1998 Nagano Games in giant slalom, even though he briefly lost the medal after testing positive for marijuana.

Canadians will again be looking to Maltais, who captured the 2006 bronze in the first Olympic snowboard-cross event, to win hardware in Vancouver.

Her unbridled discipline, sometimes referred to as NASCAR on snow, proved to be a popular addition to the Olympic lineup four years ago.

Four riders at a time attack the same narrow, treacherous track in the elimination rounds, offering spectators a spread of explosive crashes and daring moves.

Canada's medal hopes will also rest on the shoulders of Ricker, No. 1 in World Cup standings.

Ricker and third-ranked Maltais have reached the podium together in four of the five World Cup races this season.

Each of the Canadian men also have outside shots at the podium: Robert Fagan, Drew Neilson, Mike Robertson and François Boivin.

The courses are steeper, the banks are sharper and the snowboards are better, Maltais said.

"It just makes us faster,'' she said. "It was a new discipline and it just keeps improving.''

Fagan said the riders will be carrying a little more beef compared to 2006.

"Some of the boys walking around - for sure they could be hockey players,'' said Fagan, who spends more time in the weight room than ever before.

"Crashes happen all the time ... you need to make sure you're bouncing back really quick and the gym is the key for that.''

American Lindsey Jacobellis made headlines four years ago when she lost the gold medal while showboating on the second-last jump of the final.

Sensing a comfortable lead, Jacobellis reached down, grabbed her board as she sailed through the air. The hot-dogging trick threw her off balance and she fell on her back.

Jacobellis, who scrambled to her feet to salvage the silver, will be a gold-medal contender in Vancouver.

Pierre Vaultier of France has dominated the men's field this season with four golds and a silver in five events, while Americans Nate Holland and 2006 Olympic champ Seth Wescott remain top threats.

Heavy lifting in preparation for the Olympics hasn't been reserved for just the athletes, as warm temperatures and heavy rain have been melting snow off the hills of Vancouver's North Shore.

Organizers recently started pushing snow from higher elevations and hauling it in by the truckload to cover bare patches on Cypress Mountain, the site of all Olympic snowboarding events.

Regardless of the course conditions, Canada is expecting results from its snowboarding team.

Canada Snowboard received $8.2 million from Canada's $117-million Own The Podium program, created to help athletes win more medals than any other country at the Games.

The only sports to receive more funding are alpine skiing, freestyle skiing and long-track speedskating.

Canada's parallel giant slalom team invested a chunk of its share into designing a new mechanical plate system, which connects the bindings to the snowboard.

Anderson said the new equipment allows the team to ride faster around the gates.

"I know we're way ahead (of other countries) on the board side and on the plate side,'' said Anderson, 34, who has long struggled with technological problems.

The alpine racers have also added more power to their frames.

Alexa Loo's trainer told her to gain 10 pounds over the summer, but after months of stuffing her face and cramming in more workouts, she fell a couple of pounds short of the goal.

"Eight's a lot for a girl to put on over a summer,'' said Loo, who could surprise and hit the podium in the wide-open women's field.

"I did my best.''

Anderson, the reigning world champion, Matthew Morison and Michael Lambert, a star of MTV Canada's reality-TV show Over The Bolts, are all medal threats.

But they will likely have to beat a pair of strong Austrians - Benjamin Karl and Andreas Prommegger - on their way to the podium.

When asked recently about which country has the strongest team in parallel giant slalom, Karl, the World Cup points leader, only wasted half a second before giving an answer.

"For sure, the Canadians,'' Karl said. "There are three riders who can win every time.''

The evolution of snowboarding is even more evident in the halfpipe.

Boarders will drop down the seven-metre ice walls of Cypress Mountain's "superpipe,'' about a metre-and-a-half taller than the pipe at the 2006 Turin Games.

The superpipes enable riders soar higher - sometimes more than six metres above the top of the wall.

Athletes love the wider transition zones, considered safer than their predecessors.

"If it's done properly, it's so much more progressive,'' said U.S. podium contender Gretchen Bleiler, the 2006 Olympic silver medallist.

"You can drop in with so much more speed.''

Americans dominated the halfpipe four years ago, winning gold and silver in both the men's and women's events.

Top U.S. riders like White, Louie Vito, Bleiler, Hannah Teter and Kelly Clark expect to grab more medals, but the international field has been narrowing the gap.

In a few short years, the Chinese women's team, led by 2009 World Cup champ Liu Jiayu , have become a force.

Japanese riders like 2009 world champ Ryoh Aono and Kazuhiro Kokubo have developed into podium threats on the men's side.

Kokubo (bronze) and Switzerland's Iouri Podladtchikov (silver) joined gold-medal winner White on the podium at last week's Winter X Games.

"This year it's different - everyone's caught up,'' Bleiler said.

Any Canadian medals in the deep halfpipe fields would be considered a surprise.

The women - Sarah Conrad, Mercedes Nicoll and Palmer Taylor - and the men - Jeff Batchelor, Justin Lamoureux and Brad Martin - will have to really step it up for a podium spot.

The biggest difference in halfpipe has been the rapid development of new tricks.

White won halfpipe gold in 2006 with back-to-back 1080s - three full spins.

At the X Games, he landed back-to-back double corks and a Double McTwist 1260 in a single run. The difficult - and dangerous - moves involve multiple flips while spinning off-axis.

White, the man to beat in Vancouver, can't believe how much pipe riding has advanced.

"This year's been crazy because I've changed my run like 10 times because of the progression of all the riders around me,'' he said in an interview.

"It's come so far."

Caydee Denney : Skating pairs have complicated relationships

SPOKANE, Wash. — Boy meets girl. Boy picks up girl. Boy tries to not drop girl on her head.

This is the world of pairs figure skating and ice dancing, the beautiful sports where a woman and a man skate in perfect unison across the ice.

But how do these pairs hook up, how do they stay together and what is the secret to success?

Pairs skating — one of the few athletic pursuits where men and women compete as equals — turns out to have a lot of parallels to relationships in real life. Not the least of which is the potential for conflicts while in proximity to very sharp objects.

Pairs meet by accident. They are matched up by coaches or friends. They seek each other out on the Internet. Despite the success of the movie "Blades of Glory," pairs are always a male and a female, and the risk of decapitation during a skating routine is minimal.

At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane in January, all manner of pairs were on display. The most successful was Caydee Denney, 16, and Jeremy Barrett, 25, who won the U.S. senior pairs title and will be competing in the Vancouver Olympics.

ELLENTON — As a child, Amanda Evora idolized Olympic ice skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi.

Mark Ladwig’s mother dressed him in shorts with long johns underneath to get him on the ice as a child.

And Caydee Denney’s mother made her stand in a chair — well, a makeshift podium — as a toddler and hung a medal around her neck as if she’d just won Olympic gold, just like her favorite figure skater — Tara Lipinski.

The pairs skaters reminisced about their childhood dreams at a news conference Thursday inside the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex.

After years of preparing for the chance to compete in the Winter Olympics, Evora, Ladwig, Denney and Jeremy Barrett will represent the United States as the country’s pairs squads in Vancouver.

The Games begin Feb. 12. The pairs competition is Feb. 14-15.

“We’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I want to look at it as a celebration performance,” said Evora, a Bradenton resident. “Getting to the Olympics was our goal, and we haven’t really competed against all of the athletes we are going to be up against. So the only thing we can do is skate our hearts out.”

The quartet departs from Manatee County on Monday.

Before they leave, Evora and Barrett will take part in a private dinner reception Saturday at FineCraft Custom Cabinetry Inc. in Sarasota.

The pairs earned their Olympic spots by finishing first and second at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships last month in Spokane, Wash.

Since returning home, there’s been nonstop media attention and practices in front of hundreds of fans. But despite the hoopla, the skaters have remained focus.

“It’s been a little bit more of a challenge,” said Barrett, of Venice, who won gold in Spokane alongside Denney. “Like last week, we had 700 or 800 people coming in to watch us practice when we are used to zero. It was different, but we are still getting our job done. The goal is to go over and skate well. We want to skate like we did at nationals.”

At the Olympics, perfecting a routine is only part of the job. Superb choreography, music and costumes will also decide who lands gold.

“I think that is very important now at this level, to raise (the artistic) part of the skating,” said Denney, of Wesley Chapel. “The artistic side of it is really important, and it’s fun to play a character when I am out there.”

As for her favorite skater, Denney met Lipinski for the first time at Nationals.

“It was amazing just to talk to her and meet her. She’s a very noble person,” Denney said. “It was an honor.”

Now, Denney and the rest of the quartet have the opportunity to do what Lipinski accomplished in 1998 — win gold at the Olympics.

Caydee Denney : Skating pairs have complicated relationships

SPOKANE, Wash. — Boy meets girl. Boy picks up girl. Boy tries to not drop girl on her head.

This is the world of pairs figure skating and ice dancing, the beautiful sports where a woman and a man skate in perfect unison across the ice.

But how do these pairs hook up, how do they stay together and what is the secret to success?

Pairs skating — one of the few athletic pursuits where men and women compete as equals — turns out to have a lot of parallels to relationships in real life. Not the least of which is the potential for conflicts while in proximity to very sharp objects.

Pairs meet by accident. They are matched up by coaches or friends. They seek each other out on the Internet. Despite the success of the movie "Blades of Glory," pairs are always a male and a female, and the risk of decapitation during a skating routine is minimal.

At the U.S. Figure Skating Championships in Spokane in January, all manner of pairs were on display. The most successful was Caydee Denney, 16, and Jeremy Barrett, 25, who won the U.S. senior pairs title and will be competing in the Vancouver Olympics.

ELLENTON — As a child, Amanda Evora idolized Olympic ice skating champion Kristi Yamaguchi.

Mark Ladwig’s mother dressed him in shorts with long johns underneath to get him on the ice as a child.

And Caydee Denney’s mother made her stand in a chair — well, a makeshift podium — as a toddler and hung a medal around her neck as if she’d just won Olympic gold, just like her favorite figure skater — Tara Lipinski.

The pairs skaters reminisced about their childhood dreams at a news conference Thursday inside the Ellenton Ice and Sports Complex.

After years of preparing for the chance to compete in the Winter Olympics, Evora, Ladwig, Denney and Jeremy Barrett will represent the United States as the country’s pairs squads in Vancouver.

The Games begin Feb. 12. The pairs competition is Feb. 14-15.

“We’ve been thinking about it a lot, and I want to look at it as a celebration performance,” said Evora, a Bradenton resident. “Getting to the Olympics was our goal, and we haven’t really competed against all of the athletes we are going to be up against. So the only thing we can do is skate our hearts out.”

The quartet departs from Manatee County on Monday.

Before they leave, Evora and Barrett will take part in a private dinner reception Saturday at FineCraft Custom Cabinetry Inc. in Sarasota.

The pairs earned their Olympic spots by finishing first and second at the U.S. Figure Skating National Championships last month in Spokane, Wash.

Since returning home, there’s been nonstop media attention and practices in front of hundreds of fans. But despite the hoopla, the skaters have remained focus.

“It’s been a little bit more of a challenge,” said Barrett, of Venice, who won gold in Spokane alongside Denney. “Like last week, we had 700 or 800 people coming in to watch us practice when we are used to zero. It was different, but we are still getting our job done. The goal is to go over and skate well. We want to skate like we did at nationals.”

At the Olympics, perfecting a routine is only part of the job. Superb choreography, music and costumes will also decide who lands gold.

“I think that is very important now at this level, to raise (the artistic) part of the skating,” said Denney, of Wesley Chapel. “The artistic side of it is really important, and it’s fun to play a character when I am out there.”

As for her favorite skater, Denney met Lipinski for the first time at Nationals.

“It was amazing just to talk to her and meet her. She’s a very noble person,” Denney said. “It was an honor.”

Now, Denney and the rest of the quartet have the opportunity to do what Lipinski accomplished in 1998 — win gold at the Olympics.