While You Were Out: Carlton Wins DWTS, Bette Midler Gives Career Advice, and Football

So our art folks could celebrate Thanksgiving, this week's "While You Were Out" comes to you sans grid. All the same, we’re pleased to bring you the Verily editors’ quick takes on the happenings of this week!

Thanksgiving Gameday Results Are In

So the Detroit Lions beat the Chicago Bears, the Philadelphia Eagles beat the Dallas Cowboys, and the Seattle Seahawks beat the San Francisco 49ers. But if you ask me, the most exciting news from the NFL this week was when they announced the 2015 Super Bowl Halftime show—the most watched musical event of the year—will feature pop star Katy Perry. Which means, we can expect some fireworks!

—Mary Rose Somarriba

P.D. James Dies at 94

British novelist P.D. James died Thursday peacefully in her Oxford home. James enjoyed a long career writing crime and mystery novels, but her most famous book might be her 1992 dystopian story of mass infertility, Children of Men, which was later made into a 2006 feature film. If you're looking for a holiday read, pick up a P.D. James and offer a moment of thanks for her long life and good writing.

—MRS

Carlton Wins Dancing With the Stars

Alfonso Ribeiro, I mean. Ribeiro, most known for playing Carlton on Fresh Prince of Bel Air, went home with the mirrorball trophy this week. Among his most memorable dances of the season was this one, in which he reprises his iconic dance from Fresh Prince—and spectacularly at that.

—MRS

Much Love for Second-Place, Too

Sadie Robertson, 17-year-old daughter of Duck Dynasty fame, while not the champion, still ended on a high note. After her last dance, judge Carrie Ann Inaba told Robertson, “What I love so much about you is you stuck to your game the whole way through; this [dance] is another example—you doing your thing.” Robertson, sharing the values of her conservative, religious family, confidently and cheerfully insisted throughout the season that she did not want to sexualize her performances. Inaba added, “I think you’re an excellent role model and a representation of what youth should be today.”

Even host Erin Andrews was moved by Robertson. Andrews told her, “I wish I had been like you on the show… everything you’re all about and your smile. If I could do it over, I would be like you,” before getting teared up moments later when Robertson received perfect scores. Robertson may not have won first place, but she sure had some impact!

—MRS

So Wrong But So Good

Last Saturday, Cameron Diaz joined Saturday Night Live actors performing a skit that depict  all-too-common scenarios of college-aged girls returning home for Thanksgiving. “I’m a back-home baller,” the music video goes. “If I want something I just hollar. / I do what I want and I get what I want / because my parents miss their daughter.” It definitely captures how home at the holidays can feel like the land of plenty, that’s for sure. Among many hilarious moments, though, is one when a neighbor asks one of the girls the classic catching-up question “What’s going on with you?” To which the girl can’t find an answer. This holiday weekend, let’s definitely revel in the comforts of home all weekend. But, c’mon ladies—let’s be articulate and thankful as well!

—MRS

Barbie Loses Spot as Top Christmas Toy

This year it looks like Barbie is losing her spot as #1 toy for girls this year. Who’s taking her place? Elsa from Disney’s Frozen. Okay, so pretty similar looking. Baby steps…

—MRS

Angelina Speaks on Wifedom

Angelina Jolie shared some comments this week on how marriage has changed her relationship with longtime partner Brad Pitt. "We have more moments where I say, 'I'm going to be a better wife,'" Jolie said. "'I'm going to learn to cook.' and [Brad] says, 'Oh, honey, know what you're good at.' ... But I do like, 'No, no, no, I'm going to get this wife thing down.' He knows my limitations and where I'm a good wife and a good mom." For more on the benefits marriage brings to the Jolie-Pitts family, read Alana Newman’s take on why Brad and Angelina’s wedding was the ultimate gift to their children.

—MRS

Bette Midler Says to Starlets: Don’t “Sell Sex...Trust Your Talent”

Bette Midler criticized Ariana Grande this week in an profile by the Telegraph. When asked about the pornification of pop music Midler replied, “it’s terrible! It’s always surprising to see someone like Ariana Grande with … a very wholesome voice, slithering around on a couch, looking so ridiculous. I mean, it’s silly beyond belief and I don’t know who’s telling her to do it. I wish they’d stop. But it’s not my business, I’m not her mother. Or her manager. Maybe they tell them that’s what you’ve got to do. Sex sells. Sex has always sold.”

Sounds like when Annie Lennox exclaimed last month,“Sex always sells,” later adding, “it’s not liberating, it’s not empowering. It’s a sexual thing that you’re doing on a stage.”

Should it really surprise us to hear this kind of advice coming from timeless female performers like Lennox and Midler? They certainly lived through sexualized times like ours; it just sounds like they learned that a sexified image is no substitute for talent and doesn’t last. Midler herself says, “I don’t know where you go from all that sex in your twenties...how you sustain it.” For women especially, looks tend to change with age. Instead she shares these words of wisdom for women in show business: “trust your talent. You don’t have to make a whore out of yourself to get ahead. You really don’t.” This, coming from someone who later called herself a “reformed whore.”

—MRS

Another Reason to Unplug from your Phone

A hiker in New Jersey was fatally attacked while taking photos of an approaching black bear on his cell phone. A tragic story to remind us, being too attached to your Smartphone is not always so smart.

—MRS

Speaking of Scary Things in the Woods

Confession: I’ve never actually seen the original Jurassic Park movies. But the release of the trailer for Jurassic World this week has me anxiously anticipating June 12, 2015. The film stars Chris Pratt and Bryce Dallas Howard as two researchers at Jurassic World, an amusement park full of dinosaurs. It seems all is going well—until a genetically modified dinosaur is released into the park. Yeah, not good. Predictable chaos ensues.

I’ve been a fan of Chris Pratt for a while now, so any chance to see (a new and improved) Burt Macklin on the big screen and I’m in.

—Maggie Niemiec

Scott Stapp from Creed Falls Off the Wagon

And I’m not even sure what kind of wagon we’re talking about. The sobriety wagon? The sanity wagon? Whatever it is, his 15-minute cry-for-help video on Facebook this week, otherwise known as his rant about how the IRS and rumor-spreaders are out to get him, tells us our alternative-rock frontman needs some help. Someone close to him, will you help him get to a mental-health professional, please? Then if he could sort through his feelings while doing some song-writing, that’d be great. Because if you ask me, Creed’s best music came during his darker years anyway—you know, way back to the days of the 1997 album My Own Prison. Keep it together, Scott!

—MRS