Diem Brown Reacts to Cancer-Free News

In her PEOPLE.com blog, Diem Brown, the Real World/Road Rules Challenge contestant recently diagnosed with ovarian cancer for the second time, opens up about her desire for a child and the ups and downs of cancer and fertility procedures.

Getting the call that changes your life ... literally!

I have been in this intense limbo ever since Jan. 4 when my CT Scan showed signs of a mass in my liver, which meant that there was a possible cancer spread.

Being a "veteran" of this now, I understood the doctors' concern because if cancer had spread into my liver, it was more than likely transferred by a lymph node – meaning the cancer could also be in other parts of my body.

Having that much cancer spread seemingly all throughout your body is terrifying! I felt as if I was placed in some sort of cancer maze, where as soon as I was close to an exit, a wall would quickly slam down keeping me stuck inside.

As each day passed and I hadn't gotten an answer from my liver scan, I could feel the light get dimmer and my cancer maze felt never ending.

But then the call came – the call that made me feel like I had a map leading me out of my maze, doors started lifting up and I was finally let free.

The spot in my liver caused some major havoc in my world but who the H-E-double hockey sticks cares ... because with that call I came to find out that the MRI showed it wasn't cancerous! Ahhhhh thank God!!!!

That first breath you let out when you get good news feels almost stolen. Your entire body gets weak as if you were holding up this 100-lb. weight over your head and you've finally been told you could drop it. You feel free! Absolutely freaking free!

You are so used to getting the call that starts with "sorry to tell you this but I have some bad news..." that you then desperately scramble for ways to pump yourself back up to fight. However, this time my doctor's call was different and the call became my release button – my permission to breathe and to keep on breathing!

When you're battling cancer and you hear that your blood results haven't moved since day one of chemo and a scan shows the possibility of a spread, you start thinking, "Come on! Who upstairs doesn't want me down here? Um, God, we need to have a talk!" I'm just playing, but I find I can joke with God when I pray so he doesn't mind that line of questioning.

I've learned so much through all of this and it's so weird how much clarity you can have looking back. I remember back in April 2012 when I first acknowledged the cyst – I was talking to my girlfriends and flat out said, "I'm scared ... I don't wanna do this again. I can't do this again."

I wasn't trying to be dramatic as I honestly felt I didn't have it in me to go through it all again. In 2011, I had finally felt back to my pre-2005 cancer self and then boom, I find out I have to start the whole "cancer thing" all over again ... really?

Overwhelmed but Optimistic

Everything seemed overwhelming, everything seemed too much to take in. The road seemed like this never-ending trail of bad news of things I was scared to do or confront. Realizing your mortality, undergoing more surgeries, coping with the loss of fertility, menopause, and my dreaded relationship with chemo's side effects.

I saw all of the above as an overwhelming and life-altering mountain standing smack dab in front of me. Wishing that cancer mountain wasn't there wouldn't make it go away. I knew that the best way to climb any impossible looking mountain is with small steps not giant leaps. So I tried to NOT combine all of the tasks in my head but instead address the most pressing issues one at a time.

Fertility was my first concern and now I'm happier than I was BEFORE I even had cancer in 2005. I have 10 eggs in some freezer somewhere and no matter what happens in my future no one can take those away from me – they're all mine, dang it, and I will have me some babies!

My situation is not uncommon as we have all been there, standing before what seems an impossible overwhelming battle. We have all gotten to today by pressing forward through our own hardships.

I know some, if not most, of you have experienced getting to the top of your impossible mountain and felt that euphoric rush overcome your body. You can't help but smile with the goofiest grin in the world because you accomplished something you never wanted to do or ever wanted to do again ... but you didn't break. You beat it!

I love the quote, "The strongest steel has to go through the hottest fire." I repeated that quote to myself whenever the questions of "why me?" started to creep into my mindset.

You might not like the cards you have been dealt, but you are who you are because of them. You get a bad hand and it's your choice how you can play it, but I promise if you choose not to fold, you will come out better than you could ever possibly imagine.

The feeling I have right now, at this very moment ... of finally getting my good news is the BIGGEST high in the world and the best reward for all the turmoil of a bad hand.

I want to scream, "I am cancer free!" but second-time-around cancers are a trickier bird. I won't have that specific 100 percent clear moment because of the type of cancer I have. However, that doesn't mean I can't celebrate.

Celebrating My Remission

Would I like to have had some sort of marker or test that showed the chemo fought off everything? Of course! I remember the first time I had cancer, I loved seeing my CA125 blood test numbers go from 500 to 23 by the end of all my chemo treatments because it showed me the progress of it killing the cancer.

Would I like to have a CT scan of my ovary area that showed a change from before and after chemo? Of course! But, as a result of my four surgeries, there is so much scar tissue in that area that a clear ovary scan is impossible.

So although there is no actual test to give me that gives me the 100 percent cancer-free assurance that I had back in 2006, I feel I can celebrate remission just the same. I have done every treatment the doctor has ordered, done every test, every scan and with these clear liver results, I have faith that my treatment worked.

I'm confident in my "cancer-free version" even without a test that exactly proves so. I am celebrating this moment and am ecstatic to say I'm in remission! I may have a few treatments here and there but I'm done with the fear ... I beat the sucker once again!

I know other patients still in their fight can't wait to hear those four glorious words: "You are in remission." Those four lil' words make you feel like you got a new clean slate and are free to do whatever you want in life.

I think of y'all fighting and I promise I'm not just taking my good news liver results and peace out of the patient world. My goal in life has shifted and I want nothing more than to make the road of the patient and the caregiver less ominous. I want to help and I won't stop until I accomplish my goal.

I know how lucky I am and I do not take that for granted! I started a company for patients and their loved ones called MedGift back in 2006 while going through my first battle with ovarian cancer. Now in 2013, I have found things I want to do to make MedGift better and it's all because of the experiences I have had during this second cancer fight. I am on fire with a passion that has never been more intense. I can't wait for y'all to see what I'm up to!

This is my cancer-free version! I am not living in the fear of "What if they didn't get it all?" or "How do they know if there is no test I can do?"

Instead I'm looking out in front of me, clean liver scan in hand screaming, "I'm done! Hello, you beautiful remission you! Now let's go kick some booty because I'm free."

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New whooping cough strain in US raises questions

NEW YORK (AP) — Researchers have discovered the first U.S. cases of whooping cough caused by a germ that may be resistant to the vaccine.

Health officials are looking into whether cases like the dozen found in Philadelphia might be one reason the nation just had its worst year for whooping cough in six decades. The new bug was previously reported in Japan, France and Finland.

"It's quite intriguing. It's the first time we've seen this here," said Dr. Tom Clark of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. cases are detailed in a brief report from the CDC and other researchers in Thursday's New England Journal of Medicine.

Whooping cough is a highly contagious disease that can strike people of any age but is most dangerous to children. It was once common, but cases in the U.S. dropped after a vaccine was introduced in the 1940s.

An increase in illnesses in recent years has been partially blamed on a version of the vaccine used since the 1990s, which doesn't last as long. Last year, the CDC received reports of 41,880 cases, according to a preliminary count. That included 18 deaths.

The new study suggests that the new whooping cough strain may be why more people have been getting sick. Experts don't think it's more deadly, but the shots may not work as well against it.

In a small, soon-to-be published study, French researchers found the vaccine seemed to lower the risk of severe disease from the new strain in infants. But it didn't prevent illness completely, said Nicole Guiso of the Pasteur Institute, one of the researchers.

The new germ was first identified in France, where more extensive testing is routinely done for whooping cough. The strain now accounts for 14 percent of cases there, Guiso said.

In the United States, doctors usually rely on a rapid test to help make a diagnosis. The extra lab work isn't done often enough to give health officials a good idea how common the new type is here, experts said.

"We definitely need some more information about this before we can draw any conclusions," the CDC's Clark said.

The U.S. cases were found in the past two years in patients at St. Christopher's Hospital for Children in Philadelphia. One of the study's researchers works for a subsidiary of Johnson & Johnson, which makes a version of the old whooping cough vaccine that is sold in other countries.

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JournaL: http://www.nejm.org

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Wall Street extends losses as retail, housing stocks fall

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) - "The Avengers," or at least most of the members of the world-saving crew, will assemble on the stage of this year's Academy Awards. Castmates Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, Samuel L. Jackson, Jeremy Renner and Mark Ruffalo will present an Oscar together, show producers Craig Zadan and Neil Meron announced Wednesday. Missing in action are Scarlett Johansson, who played Black Widow but is currently starring in a revival of "Cat on a Hot Tin Roof" on Broadway, and Chris Hemsworth, who plays Thor. ...

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Tunisia protests after government critic shot dead

TUNIS (Reuters) - A Tunisian opposition politician was shot dead on Wednesday, sending protesters onto the streets of cities nationwide two years after the uprisings that swept Tunisia's president from power and inflamed the Arab world.

The headquarters of the moderate Islamist Ennahda party, which rules in a fractious coalition with secularists, was set ablaze after Chokri Belaid, an outspoken critic of the government, was gunned down outside his home in the capital.

Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali, who said the identity of the attacker was not known, condemned Belaid's killing as a political assassination and a strike against the "Arab Spring" revolution. Ennahda denied any involvement by the part.

Despite calls for calm from the president, 8,000 protesters, massed outside the Interior Ministry, calling for the fall of the government, and thousands more demonstrated in cities including Mahdia, Sousse, Monastir and Sidi Bouzid, the cradle of the revolution, where police fired teargas and warning shots.

"This is a black day in the history of modern Tunisia ... Today we say to the Islamists, 'get out' ... enough is enough," said Souad, a 40-year-old teacher outside the Interior Ministry in Tunis. "Tunisia will sink in the blood if you stay in power."

The small North African state was the first Arab country to oust its leader and hold free elections as uprisings spread around the region, leading to the ousting of the rulers of Egypt, Yemen and Libya and to the civil war in Syria.

But like in Egypt, many who campaigned for freedom from repression under autocratic rulers and better prospects for their future now feel their revolutions have been hijacked by Islamists they accuse of clamping down on personal freedoms, with no sign of new jobs or improvements in infrastructure.

HARDSHIP

Since the uprising, the government has faced a string of protests over economic hardship and Tunisia's future path, with many complaining hardline Salafists were taking over the revolution in the former French colony dominated previously by a secular elite under the dictatorship of Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.

Last year, Salafist groups prevented several concerts and plays from taking place in Tunisian cities, saying they violated Islamic principles, worrying the secular-minded among the 11 million Tunisians, who fear freedom of expression is in danger.

Declining trade with the crisis-hit euro zone has also left Tunisians struggling to achieve the better living standards many had hoped for following Ben Ali's departure. Any further signs of unrest could scare off tourists vital to an industry only just recovering from the revolution.

"More than 4,000 are protesting now, burning tires and throwing stones at the police," Mehdi Horchani, a Sidi Bouzid resident, told Reuters. "There is great anger."

Jobless graduate Mohamed Bouazizi set himself on fire in December 2010 in the city, 300 km (180 miles) southwest of Tunis, after police confiscated his unlicensed fruit cart, triggering the "Jasmine Revolution" that forced Ben Ali to flee to Saudi Arabia less than a month later, on January 14, 2011.

President Moncef Marzouki, who last month warned the tension between secularists and Islamists might lead to "civil war", canceled a visit to Egypt scheduled for Thursday and cut short a trip to France, where he addressed the European Parliament.

"We will continue to fight the enemies of the revolution," the secularist leader told European Union lawmakers in Strasbourg.

Belaid, who died in hospital, was a leading member of the opposition Popular Front party. A lawyer and human rights activist, he had been a constant critic of the government, accusing it of being a puppet of the rulers in the small but wealthy Gulf state of Qatar, which Tunisia denies.

"Chokri Belaid was killed today by four bullets to the head and chest," Ziad Lakhader, a leader of the Popular Front, told Reuters. "Doctors told us that he has died. This is a sad day for Tunisia."

DENIES INVOLVEMENT

Ennahda Prime Minister Jebali said the killers wanted to "silence his voice".

"The murder of Belaid is a political assassination and the assassination of the Tunisian revolution," he said.

Party President Rached Ghannouchi denied any involvement in the killing. Belaid said earlier this week that dozens of people close to the government attacked a meeting of his party.

"Is it possible that the ruling party could carry out this assassination when it would disrupt investment and tourism?" Ghannouchi told Reuters.

He blamed those seeking to derail Tunisia's democratic transition after a 2011 uprising. "Tunisia today is in the biggest political stalemate since the revolution. We should be quiet and not fall into a spiral of violence. We need unity more than ever," Ghannouchi said.

He accused secular opponents of stirring up sentiment against his party following Belaid's death. "The result is burning and attacking the headquarters of our party in many areas," he said.

French President Francois Hollande condemned the shooting, saying he was concerned by the rise of violence in Paris's former dominion, where the government says al Qaeda-linked militants linked to those in neighboring countries have been accumulating weapons with the aim of creating an Islamic state.

"This murder deprives Tunisia of one of its most courageous and free voices," Hollande's office said in a statement.

Riccardo Fabiani, Eurasia analyst on Tunisia, described it as a "major failure for Tunisian politics".

"The question is now what is Ennahda going to do and what are its allies going to do?" he said. "They could be forced to withdraw from the government which would lead to a major crisis in the transition."

Marzouki warned last month that the conflict between Islamists and secularists could lead to civil war and called for a national dialogue that included all political groupings.

Ennahda won 42 percent of seats in a parliamentary election in 2011 and formed a government in coalition with two secular parties, the Congress for the Republic, to which President Marzouki belongs, and Ettakatol.

Marzouki's party threatened on Sunday to withdraw from the government unless it dropped two Islamist ministers.

(Additional reporting by John Irish in Paris; Writing by Alison Williams; Editing by Alastair Macdonald)

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Monopoly Drops Iron, Adds Cat Token to Classic Board Game

People Pets

By Amy Jamieson

02/06/2013 at 10:40 AM EST

The votes are in and the iron is out.

After an online vote, the iron token in Monopoly's classic board game has been replaced with a shiny shorthaired cat wearing an "M" on her collar. The feline was chosen by fans in a separate online vote and beat out a new guitar, helicopter, diamond ring and toy robot with 31 percent of the vote.

The sometimes-detested home appliance received the least amount of clicks in a save this token vote that began Jan. 9 and closed Feb. 5.

"Breaking News: The Iron has been eliminated from Monopoly and will be replaced by a new cat token," reads a message posted Wednesday on the game's official Facebook page.

The pretty kitty joins the standard battleship, racer, shoe, wheelbarrow, thimble, top hat and another fair-weather furry friend, the Scottie dog. It will be included in the new edition of the game, which hits stores in mid- to late 2013, Hasbro said.

"We know that cat lovers around the world will be happy to welcome the new cat token into the Monopoly game," said Eric Nyman, senior vice president and global brand leader for Hasbro Gaming. "While we're a bit sad to see the iron go, the cat token is a fantastic choice by the fans and we have no doubt it will become just as iconic as the original tokens."

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Critics seek to delay NYC sugary drinks size limit

NEW YORK (AP) — Opponents are pressing to delay enforcement of the city's novel plan to crack down on supersized, sugary drinks, saying businesses shouldn't have to spend millions of dollars to comply until a court rules on whether the measure is legal.

With the rule set to take effect March 12, beverage industry, restaurant and other business groups have asked a judge to put it on hold at least until there's a ruling on their lawsuit seeking to block it altogether. The measure would bar many eateries from selling high-sugar drinks in cups or containers bigger than 16 ounces.

"It would be a tremendous waste of expense, time, and effort for our members to incur all of the harm and costs associated with the ban if this court decides that the ban is illegal," Chong Sik Le, president of the New York Korean-American Grocers Association, said in court papers filed Friday.

City lawyers are fighting the lawsuit and oppose postponing the restriction, which the city Board of Health approved in September. They said Tuesday they expect to prevail.

"The obesity epidemic kills nearly 6,000 New Yorkers each year. We see no reason to delay the Board of Health's reasonable and legal actions to combat this major, growing problem," Mark Muschenheim, a city attorney, said in a statement.

Another city lawyer, Thomas Merrill, has said officials believe businesses have had enough time to get ready for the new rule. He has noted that the city doesn't plan to seek fines until June.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg and other city officials see the first-of-its-kind limit as a coup for public health. The city's obesity rate is rising, and studies have linked sugary drinks to weight gain, they note.

"This is the biggest step a city has taken to curb obesity," Bloomberg said when the measure passed.

Soda makers and other critics view the rule as an unwarranted intrusion into people's dietary choices and an unfair, uneven burden on business. The restriction won't apply at supermarkets and many convenience stores because the city doesn't regulate them.

While the dispute plays out in court, "the impacted businesses would like some more certainty on when and how they might need to adjust operations," American Beverage Industry spokesman Christopher Gindlesperger said Tuesday.

Those adjustments are expected to cost the association's members about $600,000 in labeling and other expenses for bottles, Vice President Mike Redman said in court papers. Reconfiguring "16-ounce" cups that are actually made slightly bigger, to leave room at the top, is expected to take cup manufacturers three months to a year and cost them anywhere from more than $100,000 to several millions of dollars, Foodservice Packaging Institute President Lynn Dyer said in court documents.

Movie theaters, meanwhile, are concerned because beverages account for more than 20 percent of their overall profits and about 98 percent of soda sales are in containers greater than 16 ounces, according to Robert Sunshine, executive director of the National Association of Theatre Owners of New York State.

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Follow Jennifer Peltz at http://twitter.com/jennpeltz

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Wall Street slips after Tuesday rally, results eyed

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks dipped on Wednesday as investors, awaiting fresh trading incentives, locked in profits after recent rallies took the S&P 500 to five-year highs.

Transportation stocks were among the worst performers weighed down by an 8.2 percent drop in CH Robinson Worldwide , which dropped 8.2 percent to $61.53 after reporting fourth-quarter earnings.

The Dow Jones Transportation index <.djt> shed 0.6 percent after closing at an all-time high on Tuesday. The index has surged more than 10 percent this year so far.

A 6-percent advance this year so far has lifted the benchmark S&P 500 index to its highest since December 2007, while the Dow <.dji> briefly climbed above 14,000 recently, making it a challenge for investors to continue pushing the equity market upward in the absence of strong catalysts.

"You knew a correction was coming; the question was whether they were going to tease you and get it close and then start selling it off or get (the Dow) up to 14,000 and then start to make a move to the sell side," said Gordon Charlop, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities in New York.

"We got a quick move and it's really just not healthy for markets to go one way, so the idea that a little bit of a correction is due isn't troublesome to me at all."

Walt Disney Co was among the bright spots, up 1.4 percent to $55.07 after the company topped estimates for quarterly adjusted earnings and gave an optimistic outlook for the next few quarters.

According to Thomson Reuters data through Wednesday morning, of 301 companies in the S&P 500 <.spx> that have reported earnings, 68.1 percent have exceeded analysts' expectations, above a 62 percent average since 1994 and 65 percent over the past four quarters. In terms of revenue, 65.8 percent of companies have topped forecasts.

Looking ahead, fourth-quarter earnings for S&P 500 companies are now expected to grow 4.7 percent, according to the data, above a 1.9 percent forecast at the start of the earnings season.

The Dow Jones industrial average <.dji> lost 35.52 points, or 0.25 percent, at 13,943.78. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index <.spx> slipped 3.17 points, or 0.21 percent, at 1,508.12. The Nasdaq Composite Index <.ixic> shed 4.34 points, or 0.14 percent, at 3,167.24.

The benchmark S&P index rose 1.04 percent Tuesday, its biggest percentage gain since a 2.5-percent advance on January 2, when legislators sidestepped a "fiscal cliff" of spending cuts and tax hikes that could have hurt a fragile U.S. economic recovery.

Ralph Lauren Corp climbed 7.4 percent to $177.13 as the best performer on the S&P 500 after reporting renewed momentum in its holiday-quarter sales and profits.

Time Warner Inc jumped 4.3 percent to $52.11 after reporting higher fourth-quarter profit that beat Wall Street estimates, as growth in its cable networks offset declines in its film, TV entertainment and publishing units.

Visa , the world's largest credit and debit card network, is expected to report earnings per share of $1.79 for its first quarter, up from $1.49 a year earlier. Smaller rival MasterCard recently reported better-than-expected results but said its revenue growth could slow in the first half of the year due to economic uncertainty.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum)

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Iran's Ahmadinejad in Egypt on historic visit

CAIRO (Reuters) - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad arrived in Egypt on Tuesday on the first trip by an Iranian president since the 1979 revolution, underlining a thaw in relations since Egyptians elected an Islamist head of state.

President Mohamed Mursi, the Muslim Brotherhood politician elected in June, kissed Ahmadinejad as he disembarked from his plane at Cairo airport. The leaders walked down a red carpet, Ahmadinejad smiling as he shook hands with waiting dignitaries.

Visiting Cairo to attend an Islamic summit that begins on Wednesday, the president of the Shi'ite Islamist republic is due to meet later on Tuesday with the grand sheikh of al-Azhar, one of the oldest seats of learning in the Sunni world.

Such a visit would have been unthinkable during the rule of Hosni Mubarak, the military-backed autocrat who preserved Egypt's peace treaty with Israel during his 30 years in power and deepened ties between Cairo and the West.

"The political geography of the region will change if Iran and Egypt take a unified position on the Palestinian question," Ahmadinejad said in an interview with Al Mayadeen, a Beirut-based TV station, on the eve of his visit.

He said he wanted to visit the Gaza Strip, the Palestinian territory which neighbors Egypt to the east and is run by the Islamist movement Hamas. "If they allow it, I would go to Gaza to visit the people," Ahmadinejad said.

Analysts doubt that the historic changes that brought Mursi to power in Egypt will result in a full restoration of diplomatic ties between states whose relations were broken off after the Iranian revolution and the conclusion of Egypt's peace treaty with Israel in 1979.

OBSTACLES TO FULL TIES

At the airport the two leaders discussed ways of boosting relations between their countries and resolving the Syrian crisis "without resorting to military intervention", Egyptian state media reported.

Egypt is concerned by Iran's support for Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who is trying to crush an uprising inspired by the revolt that swept Mubarak from power two years ago. Egypt's overwhelmingly Sunni Muslim population is broadly supportive of the uprising against Assad's Alawite-led administration.

The Mursi administration also wants to safeguard relations with Gulf Arab states that are supporting Cairo's battered state finances and are deeply suspicious of Iran.

Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr reassured Gulf Arab allies that Egypt would not jeopardize their security.

"The security of the Gulf states is the security of Egypt," he told the official MENA news agency, in response to questions about Cairo's opening to Iran and its impact on other states in the region.

Mursi wants to preserve ties with the United States, the source of $1.3 billion in aid each year to the influential Egyptian military.

His government has established close ties with Hamas, a movement backed by Iran and shunned by the West because of its hostility to Israel, but its priority is addressing Egypt's deep economic problems.

"The restoration of full relations with Iran in this period is difficult, despite the warmth in ties ... because of many problems including the Syrian crisis and Cairo's links with the Gulf states, Israel and the United States," said one former Egyptian diplomat.

Speaking to Reuters on the sidelines of preparatory meetings for the two-day Islamic summit, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi said he was optimistic that ties could grow closer.

"We are gradually improving. We have to be a little bit patient. I'm very hopeful about the expansion of the bilateral relationship," he said. Asked where he saw room for closer ties, he said: "Trade and economics."

Ahmadinejad's visit to Egypt follows Mursi's visit to Iran in August for a summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Sheikh Ahmed al-Tayeb, head of the 1,000-year-old al-Azhar mosque and university, will meet Ahmadinejad at his offices in mediaeval Islamic Cairo, al-Azhar's media office said.

Salehi, the Iranian foreign Minister, stressed the importance of Muslim unity when he met Sheikh al-Tayeb at al-Azhar last month.

Egypt and Iran have taken opposite courses since the late 1970s. Egypt, under Mubarak's predecessor Anwar Sadat, concluded a peace treaty with Israel in 1979 and became a close ally of the United States and Europe. Iran from 1979 turned into a center of opposition to Western influence in the Middle East.

Symbolically, Iran named a street in Tehran after the Islamist who led the 1981 assassination of Sadat.

Egypt gave asylum and a state funeral to Iran's exiled Shah Reza Pahlavi, who was overthrown by the 1979 Iranian revolution. He is buried in a medieval Cairo mosque alongside his ex-brother-in-law, Egypt's last king, Farouk.

(Additional reporting by Ayman Samir and Alexander Diadosz; Editing by Andrew Roche and Paul Taylor)

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Michael Douglas Has Dating Advice for His Son: Be Courteous

MediaPunch Inc/Rex USA

For most parents, nothing is scarier than the idea of their teen starting to date — even if you’re Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, whose 12-year-old son Dylan is entering that arena.

“I’m trying to digest it all, and I’m just trying to remember what it’s like to be in a teenage romance,” Douglas, 68, told PEOPLE at Thursday’s New York premiere of Zeta-Jones’s new film Side Effects, sponsored by Cinema Society and Michael Kors.

“And what I remember scares me as a father!”

Actually, the doting dad says he set relaxed dating rules for Dylan, because his son is so responsible.

“I’m not the over-protective dad,” says the Oscar winner. “Dylan is a great kid and I trust him. He’s having fun and conducting himself very well.”

And does the star of HBO’s Liberace biopic Behind the Candelabra — who gets to kiss Matt Damon onscreen — determine which girls Dylan can or cannot date?

“I don’t have much say in it. I keep my mouth shut,” said Douglas. “But I like his choices so far.”

Douglas, who has been happily married to Zeta-Jones, 43, for 12 years, has one piece of advice to give to his son about courting women: always be courteous.

“Unsolicited advice is a hostile gesture. I remembered that from a long time ago,” he says with a laugh. “But I want him to know to always be polite and respectful and just don’t try to hard. If he asks me for specific advice, I’ll have a long talk with him.”

As for his own relationship with Zeta-Jones, “Catherine and I are doing well,” he said. “She is more beautiful than ever inside and out. I support her with everything and she is simply the best.”

– Paul Chi

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Bullying study: It does get better for gay teens

CHICAGO (AP) — It really does get better for gay and bisexual teens when it comes to being bullied, although young gay men have it worse than their lesbian peers, according to the first long-term scientific evidence on how the problem changes over time.

The seven-year study involved more than 4,000 teens in England who were questioned yearly through 2010, until they were 19 and 20 years old. At the start, just over half of the 187 gay, lesbian and bisexual teens said they had been bullied; by 2010 that dropped to 9 percent of gay and bisexual boys and 6 percent of lesbian and bisexual girls.

The researchers said the same results likely would be found in the United States.

In both countries, a "sea change" in cultural acceptance of gays and growing intolerance for bullying occurred during the study years, which partly explains the results, said study co-author Ian Rivers, a psychologist and professor of human development at Brunel University in London.

That includes a government mandate in England that schools work to prevent bullying, and changes in the United States permitting same-sex marriage in several states.

In 2010, syndicated columnist Dan Savage launched the "It Gets Better" video project to encourage bullied gay teens. It was prompted by widely publicized suicides of young gays, and includes videos from politicians and celebrities.

"Bullying tends to decline with age regardless of sexual orientation and gender," and the study confirms that, said co-author Joseph Robinson, a researcher and assistant professor of educational psychology at the University of Illinois in Urbana-Champaign. "In absolute terms, this would suggest that yes, it gets better."

The study appears online Monday in the journal Pediatrics.

Eliza Byard, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian & Straight Education Network, said the results mirror surveys by her anti-bullying advocacy group that show bullying is more common in U.S. middle schools than in high schools.

But the researchers said their results show the situation is more nuanced for young gay men.

In the first years of the study, gay boys and girls were almost twice as likely to be bullied as their straight peers. By the last year, bullying dropped overall and was at about the same level for lesbians and straight girls. But the difference between men got worse by ages 19 and 20, with gay young men almost four times more likely than their straight peers to be bullied.

The mixed results for young gay men may reflect the fact that masculine tendencies in girls and women are more culturally acceptable than femininity in boys and men, Robinson said.

Savage, who was not involved in the study, agreed.

"A lot of the disgust that people feel when you bring up homosexuality ... centers around gay male sexuality," Savage said. "There's more of a comfort level" around gay women, he said.

Kendall Johnson, 21, a junior theater major at the University of Illinois, said he was bullied for being gay in high school, mostly when he brought boyfriends to school dances or football games.

"One year at prom, I had a guy tell us that we were disgusting and he didn't want to see us dancing anymore," Johnson said. A football player and the president of the drama club intervened on his behalf, he recalled.

Johnson hasn't been bullied in college, but he said that's partly because he hangs out with the theater crowd and avoids the fraternity scene. Still, he agreed, that it generally gets better for gays as they mature.

"As you grow older, you become more accepting of yourself," Johnson said.

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Online:

Pediatrics: http://www.pediatrics.org

It Gets Better: http://www.itgetsbetter.org

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AP Medical Writer Lindsey Tanner can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/LindseyTanner

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