It seemed like the perfect gimmick: a celebrity porn star would launch her own wine, with her alluring picture on the label.
Savanna Samson did just that, but when it received a score of 90 to 91 out of 100 by wine guru Robert Parker, the project became serious. It turns out Samson, the star of "The New Devil in Miss Jones," has produced an exceptional wine, becoming the toast of two industries: wine-making and pornography.
"I never wanted to just do gimmick. That would just happen with me being a porn star, me having a photographer shoot the label, how risque could I get on the label -- all those things," Samson, the stage name for 31-year-old Natalie Oliveros, said in an interview.
The seriousness of the idea was lining up a respected wine maker. So she convinced Italy's Robert Cipresso -- also a vintner to the
Vatican -- to join the project.
Samson went to Tuscany and tasted dozens of Cipresso's Italian-grown varieties, then she selected a mix of 70 percent Cesanese, 20 percent Sangiovese and 10 percent Montepulciano. She ordered over 400 cases.
"I knew I wanted Roberto to make my wine -- I just love his passion for wine," said Samson.
The result is Sogno Uno, a 2004 vintage of an Italian red wine packaged under the Savanna name with a label of Samson in a see-through gown. It was launched last month.
Parker has been called the most influential wine critic in the world, and a score of 90 to 95 denotes "an outstanding wine of exceptional complexity and character."
"Trust me, I didn't add any points for Ms. Samson's personal presentation," Parker wrote in his review.
NAUGHTY AND SPICE
Samson is one of the biggest names in pornography, having won best actress in the Adult Video News Awards (AVN), the pornographic equivalent of the
Oscars, and another AVN Award for a scene she shared with Jenna Jameson in last year's "The Masseuse". She has made two dozen porn flicks.
The wine "really represents who I am," said Samson.
"There's spiciness -- the Cesanese has the naughty side of me. And yet it's an elegant wine. I love the opera, and I'm a classically trained ballet dancer. And there is some chocolate undertone, which I just love. There's a little bit of sweetness. Like, 10 percent of the time I'm sweet," she said.
She is working on a white wine -- Sogno Due -- that could be out later this year, and also has ideas of expanding into champagne, ice wine and grappa.
Samson, who was raised Catholic in upstate New York, said it was pure coincidence that Cipresso also sells wines to the Vatican. She met him through her husband, a wine merchant.
"My priest said in Mass once, 'Violence or pleasures of the flesh. What is the greater of two evils?' I think we all know the answer. I felt like he was saying that toward me," she said.
Still, she never had her parent's blessing for her career choice as an adult movie star. "They were so devastated. They were terribly, terribly upset."
But while she will continue her film career, wine-making may offer some redemption. "I wanted to do something that my parents could be proud of," she said.
20060319
Don't read this if you get nightmares...
Burglars in Kazakhstan locked a funeral parlor employee in a coffin and kept him there unconscious while rummaging for cash in the shop.
Serik Sarsenbayev said he was on his own late at night when two masked burglars burst into the parlor and beat him until he fainted.
The thieves then nailed him into a wooden coffin and carried on their search for a money safe, he told Reuters by telephone from the steppe town of Temirtau.
He was later freed by the driver of the parlor's hearse.
The thieves made away with the equivalent of $23,000 and remain at large, the daily Express K reported.
Serik Sarsenbayev said he was on his own late at night when two masked burglars burst into the parlor and beat him until he fainted.
The thieves then nailed him into a wooden coffin and carried on their search for a money safe, he told Reuters by telephone from the steppe town of Temirtau.
He was later freed by the driver of the parlor's hearse.
The thieves made away with the equivalent of $23,000 and remain at large, the daily Express K reported.
20060316
Which do you prefer? TV or sex?
When it comes to sex and romance, aging Canadian baby boomers spend a lot more time watching television or surfing the net, according to a new study.
The survey by pollsters Ipsos Reid, commissioned by Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra, found that Canadians between the ages of 40 and 64 spend an average of 15 minutes a day on sex and romance, but can spend as much as five hours a day watching TV or surfing the Internet.
"Later in life, you have a different perspective of what sex is all about," John Wright, an Ipsos Reid spokesman, said on Thursday.
Of 2,500 people surveyed, more than half said they were often too tired to have sex, while 42 percent said they were too stressed out and 40 percent said they did not have time.
Around half of the respondents said when they do have sex it is intimate and tender.
Wright said another yet-to-be released study found that 37 percent of Canadians over 55 prefer a good night of sex to a good night of sleep, indicating that sex is still important to that age group.
"I think the last two decades have opened up sexuality as far as (older) couples engaging in a variety of sexual activities," he said. "There's been much more openness about this... sex shops abound."
Linda Proulx, owner of Winnipeg, Manitoba's Love Nest boutiques, said the boomers' preference for watching TV is not such a bad thing. She said many of her customers are baby boomers and senior citizens who have taken a cue from television and decided to rejuvenate their sex life.
"People are spending time watching TV, but it is bringing them into our stores," she said, noting that more television shows have sexual themes. "They're buying the products to maybe help them engage in a more intimate or longer sex act because of something they've seen on TV."
The Ipsos Reid survey found that even though boomers are having less sex, only 28 percent say it is less enjoyable now than it was in their 20s, and more than 80 percent say sex makes them feel loved and appreciated.
The survey by pollsters Ipsos Reid, commissioned by Pfizer Inc., the maker of Viagra, found that Canadians between the ages of 40 and 64 spend an average of 15 minutes a day on sex and romance, but can spend as much as five hours a day watching TV or surfing the Internet.
"Later in life, you have a different perspective of what sex is all about," John Wright, an Ipsos Reid spokesman, said on Thursday.
Of 2,500 people surveyed, more than half said they were often too tired to have sex, while 42 percent said they were too stressed out and 40 percent said they did not have time.
Around half of the respondents said when they do have sex it is intimate and tender.
Wright said another yet-to-be released study found that 37 percent of Canadians over 55 prefer a good night of sex to a good night of sleep, indicating that sex is still important to that age group.
"I think the last two decades have opened up sexuality as far as (older) couples engaging in a variety of sexual activities," he said. "There's been much more openness about this... sex shops abound."
Linda Proulx, owner of Winnipeg, Manitoba's Love Nest boutiques, said the boomers' preference for watching TV is not such a bad thing. She said many of her customers are baby boomers and senior citizens who have taken a cue from television and decided to rejuvenate their sex life.
"People are spending time watching TV, but it is bringing them into our stores," she said, noting that more television shows have sexual themes. "They're buying the products to maybe help them engage in a more intimate or longer sex act because of something they've seen on TV."
The Ipsos Reid survey found that even though boomers are having less sex, only 28 percent say it is less enjoyable now than it was in their 20s, and more than 80 percent say sex makes them feel loved and appreciated.
Don't these guys know how to really curse?
Britain's television advertising regulator has agreed to review a ban on an Australian tourism campaign centered on the slightly risque phrase "bloody hell," officials said on Wednesday.
"It's a bloody good result," Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said after she flew to London to save the campaign.
Britain's Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Center had banned the ads from British television because of concerns over the campaign's use of the word "bloody" and ordered censored ads run in their place.
Bailey said the center had now agreed to review the ban.
The ads begin with characters saying: "We've poured you a beer and we've had the camels shampooed, we've saved you a spot on the beach ... and we've got the sharks out of the pool."
They end with a bikini-clad woman on a beach asking "so where the bloody hell are you?"
So concerned were Australian tourism officials by the British decision that Bailey was sent to London to lobby broadcasters and regulators, along with the woman in the bikini, Sydney model Laura Bingle.
"My faith in British justice and humor has been restored and I am now hopeful that common sense will prevail," Bailey said in a statement issued by her Canberra office.
Bailey had argued that the word "bloody," a very mild profanity commonly used in Australia and Britain, was not generally considered offensive and had been used in other British advertising campaigns.
The A$180 million ($133 million) campaign is already running in the United States, New Zealand and in British cinemas and newspapers, and will also target China, Japan, India and Germany.
The full advertisement can be seen at www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com
"It's a bloody good result," Australian Tourism Minister Fran Bailey said after she flew to London to save the campaign.
Britain's Broadcasting Advertising Clearance Center had banned the ads from British television because of concerns over the campaign's use of the word "bloody" and ordered censored ads run in their place.
Bailey said the center had now agreed to review the ban.
The ads begin with characters saying: "We've poured you a beer and we've had the camels shampooed, we've saved you a spot on the beach ... and we've got the sharks out of the pool."
They end with a bikini-clad woman on a beach asking "so where the bloody hell are you?"
So concerned were Australian tourism officials by the British decision that Bailey was sent to London to lobby broadcasters and regulators, along with the woman in the bikini, Sydney model Laura Bingle.
"My faith in British justice and humor has been restored and I am now hopeful that common sense will prevail," Bailey said in a statement issued by her Canberra office.
Bailey had argued that the word "bloody," a very mild profanity commonly used in Australia and Britain, was not generally considered offensive and had been used in other British advertising campaigns.
The A$180 million ($133 million) campaign is already running in the United States, New Zealand and in British cinemas and newspapers, and will also target China, Japan, India and Germany.
The full advertisement can be seen at www.wherethebloodyhellareyou.com
20060315
Iraq Edges Closer to Open Civil Warfare
Iraqi authorities discovered at least 87 corpses — men shot to death execution-style — as Iraq edged closer to open civil warfare. Twenty-nine of the bodies, dressed only in underwear, were dug out of a single grave Tuesday in a Shiite neighborhood of Baghdad.
The bloodshed appeared to be retaliation for a bomb and mortar attack in the Sadr City slum that killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 200 two days earlier.
Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, meanwhile, told The Associated Press security officials had foiled a plot that would have put hundreds of al-Qaida men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies, as well as the Iraqi government.
A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al-Qaida fighters were recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Police began unearthing bodies early Monday, although the discoveries were not immediately reported. The gruesome finds continued throughout the day Tuesday, police said, marking the second wave of sectarian retribution killings since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine last month.
In the mayhem after the golden dome atop the Askariya shrine in Samarra was destroyed on Feb. 22, more than 500 people have been killed, many of them Sunni Muslims and their clerics. Dozens of mosques were damaged or destroyed.
Underlining the unease in the capital, Interior Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Thursday to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election.
After the driving ban was announced, the Cabinet said Thursday would be a holiday in the capital, presumably because residents would not be able to get to work. Restrictions on movement also had been put in place on the two weekends after the Samarra bombing in an attempt to quell the violence.
The most gruesome find Tuesday — the 29 bodies dressed only in underwear — was made after police, acting on a tip, discovered an 18-by-24-foot grave in an empty field in Kamaliyah, a mostly Shiite east Baghdad suburb, Interior Ministry official Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. He estimated the victims were killed about three days ago — before the Sadr City attack Sunday evening.
Residents watched, some covering their eyes in horror, others offering scarves and newspapers to cover the bodies as they were pulled from the grave.
An abandoned minibus containing 15 other bodies was found earlier on the main road between two mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods — not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, al-Mohammedawi said.
At least 40 more bodies were recovered elsewhere in Baghdad, in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, al-Mohammedawi said. Police found three other corpses dumped in the northern city of Mosul.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in fighting in Anbar province. The soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, were killed Monday, bringing the number of U.S. military members killed to at least 2,310 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted Tuesday that U.S. troop levels may increase slightly in Iraq in the coming days because of pilgrimages connected to the holiday of Ashura. The holiday, which ends March 20, includes pilgrimages to holy sites in Najaf and Karbala. Increased attacks marked the celebration during 2004 and 2005.
Rumsfeld said Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, "may decide he wants to bulk up slightly for the pilgrimage." He did not elaborate.
Scores of frightened Shiite families have fled predominantly Sunni parts of Baghdad in recent weeks, some at gunpoint. More than 100 families arrived between Monday and Tuesday alone in Wasit province, in the southern Shiite heartland, said Haitham Ajaimi Manie, an official with the provisional migration directorate.
More than 300 Baghdad families — 1,818 people — have taken shelter in the province after fleeing the capital, he said.
North of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday among Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the holy city of Karbala, killing one person near Baqouba, police said.
The sectarian violence has complicated negotiations for Iraq's first permanent, post-invasion government. A caretaker government has been in charge since the December elections and U.S. and Iraqi officials fear the vacuum in authority has fueled the bloodshed.
Once parliament meets Thursday, it has 60 days under the new constitution to elect a president and approve the nomination of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his Cabinet.
After members of all the major Iraqi political blocs met Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, no breakthrough was reported on solving the deadlock over the nomination of al-Jaafari to head a new government.
But in an interview with Fox television, U.S. Embassy Political Counselor Robert Ford seemed guardedly optimistic.
"I can't say that we've had a breakthrough, but we had good talks today," Ford said.
But Iraqis in the meeting said the sides were still so far apart that major Sunni politicians were again pressing for the new constitution be thrown out, despite its adoption late last summer and approval in a subsequent national plebiscite.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraqi forces and civilians, as well as coalition forces, need to provide stability to allow the new government to do its work.
"The Iraqi people themselves are standing at a crossroads," Pace said Monday night in a speech at the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs, "and they are making critical decisions for their country right now about which road they'll take."
The bloodshed appeared to be retaliation for a bomb and mortar attack in the Sadr City slum that killed at least 58 people and wounded more than 200 two days earlier.
Iraq's Interior Minister Bayan Jabr, meanwhile, told The Associated Press security officials had foiled a plot that would have put hundreds of al-Qaida men at critical guard posts around Baghdad's heavily fortified Green Zone, home to the U.S. and other foreign embassies, as well as the Iraqi government.
A senior Defense Ministry official said the 421 al-Qaida fighters were recruited to storm the U.S. and British embassies and take hostages. Several ranking Defense Ministry officials have been jailed in the plot, said the official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the information.
Police began unearthing bodies early Monday, although the discoveries were not immediately reported. The gruesome finds continued throughout the day Tuesday, police said, marking the second wave of sectarian retribution killings since bombers destroyed an important Shiite shrine last month.
In the mayhem after the golden dome atop the Askariya shrine in Samarra was destroyed on Feb. 22, more than 500 people have been killed, many of them Sunni Muslims and their clerics. Dozens of mosques were damaged or destroyed.
Underlining the unease in the capital, Interior Ministry officials announced another driving ban, from 8 p.m. Wednesday to 4 p.m. Thursday to protect against car and suicide bombs while the Iraqi parliament meets for the first session since the Dec. 15 election.
After the driving ban was announced, the Cabinet said Thursday would be a holiday in the capital, presumably because residents would not be able to get to work. Restrictions on movement also had been put in place on the two weekends after the Samarra bombing in an attempt to quell the violence.
The most gruesome find Tuesday — the 29 bodies dressed only in underwear — was made after police, acting on a tip, discovered an 18-by-24-foot grave in an empty field in Kamaliyah, a mostly Shiite east Baghdad suburb, Interior Ministry official Lt. Col. Falah al-Mohammedawi said. He estimated the victims were killed about three days ago — before the Sadr City attack Sunday evening.
Residents watched, some covering their eyes in horror, others offering scarves and newspapers to cover the bodies as they were pulled from the grave.
An abandoned minibus containing 15 other bodies was found earlier on the main road between two mostly Sunni west Baghdad neighborhoods — not far from where another minibus containing 18 bodies was discovered last week, al-Mohammedawi said.
At least 40 more bodies were recovered elsewhere in Baghdad, in both Sunni and Shiite neighborhoods, al-Mohammedawi said. Police found three other corpses dumped in the northern city of Mosul.
Also Tuesday, the U.S. military reported the deaths of two more soldiers in fighting in Anbar province. The soldiers, assigned to the 2nd Brigade Combat Team of the 28th Infantry Division, Pennsylvania Army National Guard, were killed Monday, bringing the number of U.S. military members killed to at least 2,310 since the Iraq war started in March 2003, according to an Associated Press count.
Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld hinted Tuesday that U.S. troop levels may increase slightly in Iraq in the coming days because of pilgrimages connected to the holiday of Ashura. The holiday, which ends March 20, includes pilgrimages to holy sites in Najaf and Karbala. Increased attacks marked the celebration during 2004 and 2005.
Rumsfeld said Gen. George Casey, the top U.S. military officer in Iraq, "may decide he wants to bulk up slightly for the pilgrimage." He did not elaborate.
Scores of frightened Shiite families have fled predominantly Sunni parts of Baghdad in recent weeks, some at gunpoint. More than 100 families arrived between Monday and Tuesday alone in Wasit province, in the southern Shiite heartland, said Haitham Ajaimi Manie, an official with the provisional migration directorate.
More than 300 Baghdad families — 1,818 people — have taken shelter in the province after fleeing the capital, he said.
North of the capital, a roadside bomb exploded Tuesday among Shiite pilgrims headed on foot to the holy city of Karbala, killing one person near Baqouba, police said.
The sectarian violence has complicated negotiations for Iraq's first permanent, post-invasion government. A caretaker government has been in charge since the December elections and U.S. and Iraqi officials fear the vacuum in authority has fueled the bloodshed.
Once parliament meets Thursday, it has 60 days under the new constitution to elect a president and approve the nomination of Shiite Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari and his Cabinet.
After members of all the major Iraqi political blocs met Tuesday with U.S. Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad, no breakthrough was reported on solving the deadlock over the nomination of al-Jaafari to head a new government.
But in an interview with Fox television, U.S. Embassy Political Counselor Robert Ford seemed guardedly optimistic.
"I can't say that we've had a breakthrough, but we had good talks today," Ford said.
But Iraqis in the meeting said the sides were still so far apart that major Sunni politicians were again pressing for the new constitution be thrown out, despite its adoption late last summer and approval in a subsequent national plebiscite.
Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Iraqi forces and civilians, as well as coalition forces, need to provide stability to allow the new government to do its work.
"The Iraqi people themselves are standing at a crossroads," Pace said Monday night in a speech at the Baltimore Council on Foreign Affairs, "and they are making critical decisions for their country right now about which road they'll take."
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