With a Little Luck: A Novel

My good friend Caprice Crane's new book, With a Little Luck, is out today. Yay, Caprice!

It's gotten great reviews:

"Crane is one of the funniest writers of popular fiction around. The dialog (inner and outer) is laugh-out-loud, snort-inducing hilarious . . . Readers will want to cross their fingers and spit while throwing salt over their shoulders if it helps Berry reach her dreams. Highly recommended."

—Library Journal

"Fans of Stacy Ballis and Cara Lockwood will appreciate Crane's effortlessly funny style, which is often attempted in popular fiction but is rarely this well executed...Lighthearted and charmingly honest."

—Booklist

"[A] satisfying romantic comedy...[with] real character growth."

—Kirkus Reviews

And even better blurbs:

"Romantic, poignant and funny—this book is a lucky find for lit fans. Caprice Crane is a nimble and gifted storyteller."

—Diablo Cody, Academy Award-winning screenwriter of Juno

"A hilarious romp that oozes charm and giddy fun. Caprice Crane is a true talent."

—Molly Jong-Fast, author of The Social Climber's Handbook

"Witty, fast-paced, and sheer fun. Caprice Crane is a master of dialogue. Half the time I was reading this book I was smiling, which made me look like a crazy person on the subway."

—Jancee Dunn, author of Don’t You Forget About Me and Why Is My Mother Getting a Tattoo?

"Absolutely charming and hilarious."

—Missy Peregrym, star of the movie Stick It and ABC's Rookie Blue

"With a Little Luck scores in humor, head, and heart. In other words, it’s a perfect trifecta."

—Karyn Bosnak, author of 20 Times a Lady (soon to be the major motion picture What's Your Number?)

(Omg, who is that last fantastic blurber?) (I meant every word of it.)

And most importantly, she has the cutest dog ever (who likes to video chat with Bev):

Anyway, check it out, buy it—it's fantastic!

Source: http://www.prettyinthecity.com/blog/2011/7/26/with-a-little-luck-a-novel.html

Bonnie Jill Laflin Bridget Moynahan Britney Spears Brittany Daniel

Mike Brown - Back to Business

Source: http://www.ufc.com/news/Mike-Brown-Back-to-Business

Amanda Swisten Amber Arbucci Amber Brkich Amber Heard

What's Your Number? Website

The website for WHAT'S YOUR NUMBER? is finally up!

http://www.whatsyournumbermovie.com/

And the official Facebook page!

http://www.facebook.com/whatsyournumbermovie

And the official YouTube channel!

http://www.youtube.com/user/OfficialNumberMovie

Also, here's the trailer!

Source: http://www.prettyinthecity.com/blog/2011/5/5/whats-your-number-website.html

Alicia Witt Amanda Bynes Amanda Detmer

Happy Friday

Here's a photo of my niece Lila eating a nectarine:

Don't you love her ears? (The one on the left is a little big.) (My sister doesn't like to talk about it.)

Source: http://www.prettyinthecity.com/blog/2011/7/29/happy-friday.html

Eva Mendes Evangeline Lilly Eve Fergie

Revisiting Evans vs. Ortiz I

Source: http://www.ufc.com/news/Revisiting-Evans-vs-Ortiz-I

FSU Cowgirls Gabrielle Union Garcelle Beauvais Genelle Frenoy

Fantastic victory for Stoner at Laguna Seca

The young Australian who started from second on the grid, dropped to third place at the start and took his time before launching his attack on Repsol Honda team mate Dani Pedrosa on lap eighteen of thirty two. After passing Pedrosa, who was suffering from fatigue and fitness problems, Stoner chased down Lorenzo for nine laps and wasted no time in passing him around the outside of turn one on lap twenty seven. From this point, he controlled the race comfortably, finishing five and a half seconds ahead of the Spaniard. Stoner has now increased his lead in the World Championship standings to twenty points over Lorenzo.

After being passed by Stoner, Dani Pedrosa retained third position comfortably. He knew his fitness would be tested here, at a track that demands a huge physical effort. He has now moved above Valentino Rossi in the Championship standings to 4th position with 110 points.

Andrea Dovizioso who had a great start, jumping from sixth to fourth, maintained this position for the majority of the race. He struggled to maintain his consistency for the long race in Laguna and with three laps to go was passed by Ben Spies. He remains third in the Championship standings with 143 points.

On this high note, the Repsol Honda Team will now enjoy a well deserved break before the next race in the Czech Republic on August 14.

Casey Stoner:
"All weekend we've been struggling a little so we weren't too confident that we could run with Jorge and Dani in the race. However, this morning in warm up we found something I was a little happier with. Before the race I felt relaxed, confident and generally calm, we started a little slower to get the tyres warm gently but also with a full tank of fuel, the bike didn't feel that great. So I was patient and took my time, staying with Jorge and Dani to control the gap and make sure they didn't get too far away. I felt I had more speed but decided to wait and watch. I saw Dani struggling a bit and he started to drop back from Jorge so I had to attack at this point. Once I caught up to Jorge, I watched to see if he made a mistake and kept the pressure on him, then chose my moment to make the move and was able to slowly open up a gap and bring the race home. It's really fantastic to come from such a difficult weekend and get a great win and I'm very thankful to all my team".

Dani Pedrosa:
"I'm very happy with another podium, the second after my come back from injury. I could have predicted this result before coming to Laguna because I knew it would be physically very tough for me and it has been great to keep up with the pace of Casey and Jorge in these past two races. Today, by the middle of the race, I was very tired, almost finished, I couldn't get my left arm strong enough and here at this track you don't rest for a moment, so I had to drop. It's been quite difficult to set up the bike this weekend, I had a lack of grip generally, but the team worked very well. Now we have some holidays and it will be good for me to have some days off to rest and relax my muscles and be back training to arrive fully fit in Brno".

Andrea Dovizioso:
?We knew that it was going to be a tough race because this track is short, with very strong braking and it's also very demanding. I made a good start and I was able to move into fourth position. In the first laps I pushed hard to stay with Casey, Dani and Lorenzo. I was loosing a lot in some corners, such as T3 and T11 and to recover I was pushing in the other areas. I used up a lot of energy and I couldn?t be consistent for the 32 laps. I?m disappointed because today we had the speed to fight for a good result, in fact I lapped two tenths behind the fastest lap, but I couldn?t be consistent. I lost the battle with Spies and this is the first time I've lost a battle this year. The good point is that we were able to be fast. Now we have to focus and continue working, we are third in the Championship and we want to keep on fighting. We will take advantage of the three week break to recharge the batteries and return in Brno more determined. My congratulations go to Casey and Dani?.

Repsol Honda press release.

Source: http://www.motogp.com

Source: http://www.zimbio.com/MotoGP/articles/ltIX3SbepFZ/Fantastic+victory+Stoner+Laguna+Seca

Hilarie Burton Hilary Duff Hilary Swank Isla Fisher

Strikeforce fighter St. Preux once snubbed Bobby Bowden

Ovince St. Preux hits the big stage in Las Vegas tomorrow night at Strikeforce Challengers 17. With 14 pro fights under his belt, he won't be nervous. It doesn't hurt either that he played football in front 100,000-plus during his days in the SEC at Tennessee.

OSP would love to get recruited to the UFC at some point in the future. If offered, it won't be a tough decision. It wasn't as easy when he was a star athlete in high school. All the big guns came after the 6-foot-3, 220-pound linebacker/defensive end prospect.

St. Preux joined ESPNRadio1100's DC and the Sunshine Man on Wednesday to talk about his fighting and football background. He said he chose Tennessee over schools like Miami, Florida State, Notre Dame and Clemson. The decision to turn down Bobby Bowden and FSU was made easier when OSP had a little incident go down at his job.

While St. Preux was working at a Burger King in the Immokalee, Fl. area, his boss got a call asking for the star athlete. The manager asked who was calling and thought it was a prank when the voice on the other end said, "it's Bobby Bowden." The BK boss hung up the phone. That wasn't really the make or break moment in St. Preux's recruitment, but it made for a memorable story. OSP went to have a productive career along sides the likes of Kevin Burnett, Erik Ainge, Robert Peace, Cedric Houston and Gerald Riggs Jr.

Now he wants to be mentioned with names like Jon Jones, Quinton Jackson, Rashad Evans, Mauricio "Rua" Shogun and Lyoto Machida. OSP looks for his seventh straight win tomorrow night against Joe Cason in Las Vegas.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Strikeforce-fighter-St-Preux-once-snubbed-Bobby?urn=mma-wp4911

Ehrinn Cummings Elena Lyons Elisabeth Röhm Elisha Cuthbert

Coker video: Is Overeem ever fighting again for Strikeforce?

This is a bizarre position for Scott Coker. The Strikeforce CEO is technically under the umbrella of Zuffa. In a recent interview with SI.com, Dana White swore up and down that he has absolutely no hand in decisions with Strikeforce. Yet when you watch or listen to Coker talking about the future of his fighters and future cards, there seems to be a hesitance about answering questions. That could be the nature of the business or he simply can't promise anything because its out of his hands.

Coker did a 12-minute interview with AOL.com and had some interesting takes on what comes down the road for Dan Henderson and Fedor Emelianenko. A small part of the convo revolved around Alistair Overeem and his future with Strikeforce.

"I mean that's something we're going to sit down with his manager Bas [Boon] and have a conversation about," said Coker (8:00 mark).

That's not a yes or a no, but it seemed pretty curt. White recently said Overeem is definitely sticking around so it was odd for Coker to ride the fence on the question.

Coker also explained that Overeem sort of forced the bold move in the Strikeforce heavyweight Grand Prix. When the Strikeforce heavyweight champ and tourney favorite said he was out for a fight on Sept. 10, Strikeforce had no choice but to replace him.

"We've been very good to Alistair. We've been very patient. It just didn't work out," Coker said. "If we could've took this fight to October or November we definitely would've done it."

Coker said between the busy UFC schedule, Showtime's boxing slate, the Floyd Mayweather fight in November and MLB's World Series, there weren't many dates that made sense.

On other matters, Coker said Fedor vs. Hendo is not a make or break fight for either fighter's future with Strikeforce. Even with a Henderson loss, he definitely wants to keep Henderson around. He's jazzed about Marloes Coenen vs. Miesha Tate being the first female title fight under the Zuffa banner. Coenen was a no-show at the Thursday press conference. Coker joked that he had no idea what happened calling it a "makeup issue or breakfast issue or wardrobe malfunction."

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Coker-video-Is-Overeem-ever-fighting-again-for-?urn=mma-wp5140

Ashley Olsen Ashley Scott Ashley Tappin Ashley Tisdale

Scott Coker Discusses Overeem vs. Werdum, Gina Carano's Health Status - Strikeforce

Scott Coker Discusses Overeem vs. Werdum, Gina Carano's Health Status Video by Strikeforce

Source: http://mmalice.com/strikeforce/scott-coker-discusses-overeem-vs-werdum-gina-caranos-health-status-video_0d2529a6d.html

Ashanti Ashlee Simpson Ashley Greene Ashley Olsen

Tate grinds her way to women?s 135-pound title, finishing with a side choke

Miesha Tate wrestled with the boys in high school, so there's little mystery to her game. She wanted to get Marloes Coenen down, and down often.

After spending 10-plus minutes on her back, a warn down Coenen found herself in a nasty arm-triangle choke in the middle of the fourth round. Referee John McCarthy called a stop to things at 3:03 of the round giving the Strikeforce women's bantamweight title to Tate.

At just 24 years old, Tate (12-2) may be the future of the division, but the women's 135 class has another young lady in her mid-20's. Sarah Kaufman, 25, beat Tate back in 2009 on a Strikeforce Challengers card and will probably get the next crack at the title holder.

Tate's explained that her experience with the boys in high school was the genesis of this title run.

"It made me tough. It's a big, huge reason why I'm here today," said Tate, who wrestled in Olympia, Washington. "That toughness got me through that fight. Marloes is no joke."

Her recent path to the cage was far from easy.

"I had a good start to my training camp, a rough finish. That's what makes the heart of a champion, it's tough times. Tough times only make you tougher," said Tate.

Coenen (19-5) is a very solid fighter with good striking and submission skills, but her stiffness on the feet and lack of� side-to-side movement killed her chance of defending takedowns. She was too often a sitting duck for Tate, who was good on 5-of-6 takedown attempts.

Source: http://sports.yahoo.com/mma/blog/cagewriter/post/Tate-grinds-her-way-to-women-s-135-pound-title-?urn=mma-wp5198

Carla Campbell Carla Gugino Carmen Electra Carol Grow