Kardashian sex tape buyer still anonymous

The owner of the reputed Kim Kardashian sex video says the prospective buyer of the tape is not connected to the reality television star.

Steve Hirsch told TMZ.com he has been negotiating with a proxy, who insists the buyer is not Kim herself or anyone associated with her.

Hirsch, who wants $30 million for the steamy video, said, "It made sense the entire time it would be Kim, but it appears it is not."

That jibes with sources in the Kardashian camp who have insisted Kim isn't dealing with Hirsch, although she is anxious to find out who the mystery buyer is.

Hirsch said he was told the buyer's identity and reasons for going to such trouble and expense once a sale is finalized. Hirsch cautioned the two sides are still far apart on price.

Fringe musical mocks Julie Taymor and 'Spider-Man'

To see how far Julie Taymor has fallen over the past year, look no further than the New York International Fringe Festival.

That's where the visionary director and choreographer behind the stunning "The Lion King" has become an object of sniggering and outright goofing during a lively musical that rips her and everyone associated with the Broadway spectacle "Spider-Man: Turn Off the Dark."

"The Legend of Julie Taymor, or the Musical That Killed Everybody!" — with book and lyrics by Travis Ferguson and music and lyrics by Dave Ogrin — is a spirited behind-the-scenes fictional look at the messy birth of Broadway's most expensive show. It is wicked and rollicking.

Julie Taymor — sorry, make that "Julie Paymore" — is portrayed as a crazed, ego-driven maniac who vows to save Broadway with a show about "Spider-Dude" that blends Greek myth with wind machines and 16 golden confetti cannons. She's so driven that she sleeps with the theater owner to keep the show open and at one point kills a man with her bare hands. She also may or may not have burned down the theater on opening night.

"For the scene where Spider-Dude is battling the Gods on Mount Olympus, I need the clouds to come down around the audience with hail and lightning, and I want an actual tornado to form in the middle of the house. Got that!?" Paymore, played by Jennifer Barnhart, asks her minions.

Paymore isn't the only one lambasted by this show. U2's Bono — one half of the "Spider-Man" songwriters — is transformed into a guy named Bruno (Clint Carter), complete with leather jacket, sunglasses and an Irish accent; The New York Post's Michael Riedel becomes Lionel Weasel, determined to destroy the musical; and Johnie Moore plays producer Michael Cohl as an aging hippie with a bong.

The show is one of 194 productions at the festival, which also includes the hot "Yeast Nation," a new musical by the Tony Award-winning team behind the Broadway hit "Urinetown"; "Jersey Shoresical: A Frickin' Rock Opera"; "Facebook Me"; and "Bella and the Pool Boy."

The nine-member cast of "The Legend of Julie Taymor," under the direction and choreography of Joe Barros, is funny and energetic, making up for unevenness in vocal ability. The songs are far better than you might expect, with the best being "Broadway's Burning," ''Boy Falls From The Rafters" — a play on the actual Broadway musical's "The Boy Falls From the Sky" — and "Tweet, Tweet, Tweet!" as the ensemble leaks that the Broadway musical is terrible.

There's a word for this kind of show: impudent. And another one: delicious. A bunch of twentysomethings in jeans and T-shirts are mocking Taymor, Bono and the hubris of "Spider-Man," but they're also asking where art goes when spectacle is all that anyone wants to see.

In that way, the jokey musical is more interesting than the one it's mocking.

2 sisters in Ky. fight for Social Security numbers

For more than two decades, a pair of sisters in rural Kentucky have lived without Social Security numbers, doing odd jobs like bartending and making jewelry to earn cash under the table. One of them even posed as their mother to gain employment.

Now Raechel and Stephanie Schultz want steady, legitimate work, yet the federal government has refused to issue numbers to the women, saying they need more proof the pair were born in the U.S. The predicament prompted the women, who have lived for years on society's fringes, to sue.

"I'm proud to be American but they don't want me," 23-year-old Stephanie Schultz told The Associated Press in an interview at their lawyer's office in southeastern Kentucky.

The earliest years for the Schultz sisters were nomadic. The family traveled through 42 states, never staying too long in one place. Their father found occasional work in construction or at restaurants and the children picked up cans to make a few bucks. They stayed in motels or camped and the sisters' grandparents sent money to help.

"They didn't have no life plan," 29-year-old Raechel Schultz said of her parents, now in their 50s. "It was just all like free hippie style, do what you can to get by. Gypsies."

Raechel was born at a home in Madison County, Ky., near where the family lives now; Stephanie was delivered in the back of a Dodge van in southern Alabama. The births were recorded in a family Bible but were otherwise undocumented.

Their mercurial parents settled into a hardscrabble existence about 14 years ago along the foothills of the Appalachian Mountains, where the family car broke down. The girls were home schooled by their college-educated parents.

The sisters still live with their parents in a weather-worn mobile home in the tiny enclave of Lily. The trailer is perched close to a strip of blacktop winding through the hilly backcountry.

It wasn't until five years ago that they tried to register with the Social Security system. They waited until Stephanie turned 18 because their parents feared truancy charges, Raechel said.

"The first couple years of our life, Dad didn't get our Social Security numbers, and he said once you don't do that right off the bat, they won't let you do it," Raechel said. "So they just went on with it."

Everyone else in the family has a Social Security number, including an older sister now living in New Orleans who got her Social Security card as a teenager on her second try. She had a birth certificate and a baptismal record.

When the sisters first went to get their Social Security number, "we thought it would be easy," Stephanie said.

This isn't the first time the sisters have gone to court over personal documents. In 2009, the women sued to get birth certificates, took a DNA test to prove they were born to their parents and a judge's order won them the records.

"The Court has no reason to not believe the testimony and finds no reason to suggest the plaintiffs are seeking this relief for an illegal or immoral purpose," Circuit Judge John Knox Mills wrote in his 2010 order.

Despite their lack of Social Security numbers, the sisters have found ways to supplement their family's meager income. Stephanie makes jewelry and paints old furniture to sell at a flea market. Raechel held down work at a couple of area restaurants by posing as her mother. She was at one eatery for seven years, rising to associate manager, but eventually quit out of fear her supervisors would discover her secret.

According to their lawsuit, the Social Security Administration indicated it denied the women's request for numbers because they "have not given us documents we need to show U.S. citizenship." The agency has declined to comment on the suit.

The sisters' attorney, Douglas Benge, said he was told by a Social Security official that the agency doesn't accept birth certificates issued so many years after birth.

"Our complaint with the government is, what else do these girls have to show?" he said.

On its website, the Social Security Administration lists documents that may be used to prove identity, age and citizenship. The accepted records include a birth certificate, driver's license, state-issued identification card or U.S. passport, and it's not entirely clear why they have been denied.

Robert Bruce, who retired as a district manager after 31 years with the Social Security Administration, said recently that the age of the women combined with the lack of official documentation raises a suspicion of fraud.

The sisters see their dilemma as a government overreaction since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

Their maternal grandfather said they just want a chance to work.

"My view is, we're so caught up in administrative procedure, nobody has any common sense," said Norman Turchan, who lives in Indianapolis. "There's a common sense way out of this situation."

When word of their plight appeared on the Internet and in newspapers, their attorney received emails from some questioning the sisters' motivation, saying the Schultzes just wanted government assistance. But both women said they want to work, and that their family has never taken welfare.

"I don't want to bum off the state," said Raechel, who would like to sell real estate.

Stephanie dreams of running a no-kill animal shelter and dabbling in interior design.

"If you have a Social Security number, you can do anything you want," Raechel said.

Special interests gave millions to budget panel

The 12 lawmakers appointed to a new congressional supercommittee charged with tackling the nation's fiscal problems have received millions in contributions from special interests with a direct stake in potential cuts to federal programs, an Associated Press analysis of federal campaign data has found.

The newly appointed members — six Democrats and six Republicans — have received more than $3 million total during the past five years in donations from political committees with ties to defense contractors, health care providers and labor unions. That money went to their re-election campaigns, according to AP's review.

Supporters say the lawmakers were picked for their integrity and experience with complicated budget matters. But their appointments already have prompted early concerns from campaign-finance watchdog groups, which urged the lawmakers to stop fundraising and resign from leadership positions in political groups.

The congressional committee, created as part of the debt limit and deficit reduction agreement enacted last week, is charged with cutting more than $1 trillion from the budget during the coming decade. If the committee doesn't decide on cuts by late November — or if Congress votes down the committee's recommendations — spending triggers would automatically cut billions of dollars from politically delicate areas like Medicare and the Pentagon.

The lawmakers represent a large swath of political ideology and geography, but they have some things in common: They received more than $1 million overall in contributions from the health care industry and at least $700,000 from defense companies, the AP found. Those two industries, especially, are sensitive to the outcome of the committee's negotiations because the automatic spending cuts could affect them most directly.

The committee's co-chairs — Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas — each received support from lobbyists and political committees, including those with ties to defense contractors and health care lobbyists. Hensarling's re-election committee, for instance, received about $11,000 from Lockheed Martin and $8,500 from Northrop Grumman.

Companies like Lockheed rely heavily on government contracts: More than 80 percent of Lockheed's net sales during the first six months of 2011 came from the U.S. government, according to Securities and Exchange Commission records. And in SEC filings two weeks ago, Northrop expressed concern of a "material adverse effect" on its finances had the debt ceiling not been raised.

The other panel members are Sens. Max Baucus, D-Mont.; John Kerry, D-Mass.; Jon Kyl, R-Ariz.; Pat Toomey, R-Pa.; and Rob Portman, R-Ohio; and Reps. Jim Clyburn, D-S.C.; Xavier Becerra, D-Calif.; Chris Van Hollen, D-Md.; and Michigan Republicans Dave Camp and Fred Upton.

The AP's analysis shows the extent to which special interests have directly supported the 12 members during their tenures in Congress, including support from agriculture businesses ($600,000) and labor unions ($580,000). Big checks also came in from the banking and insurance industry.

The extent of potential conflicts could be even greater than the AP's analysis shows. The AP measured contributions from industry PACs to lawmakers' election committees. But it didn't capture amounts from independent expenditures, such as donations, from defense executives and their families or money given to leadership political committees.

Even still, influence can extend beyond direct campaign contributions. Senate records show that Murray, also the chairwoman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, was named in so-called honoree payments of more than $1 million from lobbyists since 2008. Such honoree contributions are sent to groups associated with members of Congress or for events held in their honor.

Murray spokesman Matt McAlvanah said Thursday that the senator "has made a career out of standing up for working families and against special interests. And that's reflected in her personal story, her votes and the policies she has championed."

Already, even as the final appointments to the committee were announced Thursday, watchdog groups said the panel members will be under remarkable pressure from outside interests. Public Campaign, one such group in Washington, said establishing the committee "will make it cheaper for Wall Street, tax-dodging corporations and special-interest lobbyists to influence the spending cuts and revenue debate in Washington as the focus shifts to just 12 members of Congress."

Bob Edgar, president of the advocacy group Common Cause, said that "with the public already disgusted with Washington in the wake of the debt-limit debacle, it's vital that people have confidence that supercommittee members are thinking about the nation's best interests, not positioning their party or worrying about how their decisions appear to donors."

Public Campaign also called on Murray to step down immediately as head of the Democratic campaign committee.

The White House called such complaints "silly criticism."

"Elected members of Congress are responsible: They take an oath, they are responsible to serve their constituents and their country," White House Press Secretary Jay Carney told reporters this week. "We expect every member on the committee to take that responsibility seriously."

How to Make a Pink Martini for the Ladies

A friend of mine, who is a bartender once told me, " there is nothing like making a pink martini for the ladies, for when you slide this pretty pink hued drink their way, the look on their face is amazing and their eyes say it all; about the appreciation for you". Pink is the color associated with women and you will hardly come across any woman who dislike the color pink. Pink Martini is very popular amongst most women partygoers. This drink is pretty, peppy, vibrant and has a great liberating taste. Pink martini is also a very good option at a kitty party lunch or for a ladies night out. The splash of cranberry or grape juice gives the drink its cute pink. And the clear long cocktail glass or a classy martini glass will show off the light pink hue of this drink. Having talked so much about this drink, you must be wondering how to make a pink martini for ladies. Well... worry not, my friend just revealed the secret to making this fun drink and impressing the women at a party. This article will also acquaint you with all the possible variations in making a pink martini for women. So, here you go...

Pink Martini: Vodka Fruit Mix

You will need

• Cocktail shaker
• 2 ounces of pomegranate juice
• 4 ounces of pink vodka
• Slice of blood orange fruit for garnishing

Fill the cocktail shaker half with ice. To this add 4 ounces of pink vodka and shake well. While you are shaking the cocktail shaker, just make sure you incorporate some juggling skills with the same, (it a good way to impress women at the party). Now, transfer the mixture from the cocktail shaker to a martini glass and add 2 ounces of pomegranate to it. Now, make an incision in the slice of blood orange fruit from the center to the end and place it on the edge of the glass. You can also dip the fruit in powdered sugar to give it a frosty look.

Pink Martini: Gin Mint Surprise

You will need

• Cocktail shaker
• 4 ounces of pink Gin
• Handful mint leaves
• Mint cordial
• 1 part dry vermouth
• 2 ounces of cranberry juice

Fill the cocktail shaker with 4 ounces of pink gin, vermouth and 2 ounces of cranberry. Do not forget to fill the apparatus with ice cubes. Now, shake the apparatus vigorously. Gin was used in the past for making cocktails, apparently vodka seems to be a popular spirit used for mixing. However, gin has a distinctive character and is sort of strong that gives the cocktail a flavor like never before. Try making the pink martini with gin; ladies are sure gonna enjoy it! Now, strain the chilled mixture in a martini glass and add a little amount of mint cordial to it. Place a sprig of mint on the drink and enjoy!

Pink Martini: Lemon Twist

You will need

• Cocktail shaker
• 2 ounces cranberry juice
• 1 part dry vermouth
• 1 ounce Lemon cordial
• Slice of lemon
• 4 ounces vodka
• Fresh cream (if you like it)

Fill in the cocktail shaker with ice cubes and all the other ingredients except the slice of lemon and shake vigorously. The splash of cranberry will give your martini its pink hue. The fresh cream is one of my variations to the drink, it just gives the drink a creamy charm. You can also have an almond flavored vodka added with the creamy charm to enhance its taste. Vermouth a type of wine that gives the martini its dry aspect, that is a dry martini, will have little vermouth and conversely a wet martini will have a significant amount of vermouth. Hence, you can vary the quantity of vermouth according to how you like your martini. Strain the drink in a martini glass and garnish it with a slice of lemon.

Guys, this is one of the ways you can impress women at a party and trust me it can never go wrong! So, learn a few mixing (bar-tending) skills and go ahead and make this pretty pink martini, slide this cutesy drink their way and sweep them off their feet! (wink)