Exclusive: Maureen ‘Marcia Brady’ McCormick Still Fighting With Eve Plumb, Gained So Much Weight She Couldn’t Tie Her Shoes | Jessica Szohr’s Girl-on-Girl Good Times, Brigitte Nielsen’s Big Night Out | Hypocritical? ABC Bans ‘Cougar Life’ Commercial During Courteney Cox’s ‘Cougar Town’ | ‘Girls Gone Wild’ CEO Joe Francis Strikes Plea Deal
While Maureen McCormick’s five-year stint as “The Brady Bunch” beauty Marcia gave us a glimpse into the perfect modern family, the domestic bliss we saw on TV hasn’t quite translated in the real world.
“I talk to everyone from the show except Eve Plumb (Jan Brady). We all get along, except for Eve,” McCormick told Tarts at last week’s Kari Feinstein Pre-Emmy Style Lounge.
McCormick “joked” in her memoir “Here’s the Story” that she and her on-screen sister had a lesbian affair while working together, which is rumored to be the basis for why they aren’t on talking terms as Plumb was less-than-impressed with the confession. Although it sounds as though McCormick is ready to reconcile.
“It’s such a drag because I loved her,” McCormick said. “I hope we can work it out, she was my best friend on the show. It’s been years since we spoke.”
But on a brighter note, the former sitcom starlet proudly told us that she’s been busy working for Access Hollywood and losing weight, 24 pounds to be exact, although she “isn’t allowed” to reveal her slimming secrets quite yet.
“Its been fabulous, I’m working out all the time and eating really healthy stuff. I had no choice but to lose weight. I couldn’t even bend down and tie my shoes,” she explained. “I was really disgusted with myself, enough is enough. I’m at an age where its really hard to lose it so I may as well lose it now for the rest of life and get it together.”
So what caused Ms McCormick to tip the scales in the first place?
“A really bad family situation that I’m going through right now,” she added. “It’s okay, I’m feeling better now.”
Jessica Szohr’s Girl-on-Girl Good Times, Brigitte Nielsen’s Big Night Out
Just because Jessica Szohr is reportedly dating her “Gossip Girl” co-star Ed Westwick doesn’t mean she can’t swing to the other side when he isn’t around.
Pop Tarts spies spotted the 24-year-old beauty dirty dancing with a hot blonde girlfriend at the Night Vision /Family Guy Pre-Emmy bash at Hollywood’s Avalon on the weekend, before retiring to their VIP table where the ladies kept giving each other kisses and err, playing around.
However, another actress who managed to garner even more attention during the evening was ’80s sensation Brigitte Neilsen, who is rarely ever seen at Hollywood parties and looked shell-shocked by the star-studded event. The original “Red Sonja” was one of the first guests to arrive (seriously, the venue was empty) and the poor thing was embarrassed about being there early and about being so dressed down in her stonewash jeans with wet hair.
“Brigitte seemed so insecure and kept apologizing about her appearance and trying to hide her face while hanging out in the back alley,” a partygoer told Tarts. “She was like a scared little puppy, I think she thought it was just a gathering for Seth (McFarlane, creator of “Family Guy”) and a few friends.”
However that was before a few drinks, or let’s just say perhaps a few drinks too many when raging on top of the banquettes suddenly became the thing to do.
ABC Bans ‘Cougar Life’ Commercial During Courteney Cox’s ‘Cougar Town’
In a strange move, ABC pulled the plug on a commercial promoting cougar behavior during the Wednesday night premiere of Courteney Cox’s new show “Cougar Town.”
Claudia Openkelder, the founder of popular dating website CougarLife.com (for women who seek younger men) reportedly worked directly with ABC on creating an ad that would be beneficial to both parties and after a great deal of negotiations submitted a 60 second spot that got the green light from the network. The ad was scheduled to run during the highly-anticipated “Cougar Town,” when at the last minute the big wigs at ABC determined that while they had no problem with the content of the commercial, they did have a problem with the site itself.
Apparently the TV execs no longer felt it was appropriate to condone a site that promotes cougar behavior. Now, naturally, Openkelder (a cougar herself who also starred in the TV spot) has asked all women to boycott the new series for what she calls sexist discrimination.
Openkelder claimed she was blindsided by ABC’s last minute notification that they would not air the commercial as they were part of the whole creative process, including approval of the storyboards and script.
“It appears the executives at ABC seem a little too insecure to allow the notion of real world cougars to exist anywhere other than in the realm of fiction,” Openkelder said in a statement on Wednesday.
However Tarts has learned exclusively that the commercial will infact see the light of day on NBC and during the Ellen DeGeneres show.
Click to Watch the Rejected Ad
Upon hearing about the launch of Cougar Town, Openkelder felt it was the perfect platform to launch a North American-wide television campaign and even attracted millions of dollars from private investors who realized the potential for such a service.
A rep for ABC was not immediately available for comment.
‘Girls Gone Wild’ CEO Joe Francis Strikes Plea Deal
Joe Francis is no stranger to the legal system, and in order to end his ongoing saga with the government over criminal tax evasion, the “Girls Gone Wild” founder struck a plea deal on Wednesday and agreed to pay a whopping $249,705.
“I’m very pleased, if the judge accepts our agreement with the government, all felony tax charges will be dismissed and I will not spend any more time in jail,” Francis told Tarts in a statement. “I’m happy to finally be able to redirect my attention to the business at hand, which is to provide quality entertainment for our millions of fans around the world. I want to thank Brad Brian, Greg Weingart, Susan Nash and the lawyers at Munger, Tolles & Olson LLC in Los Angeles, and David Houston in Reno. The one thing I’ve learned about myself during this process is that I can be a difficult client, but they are a fantastic group of brilliant legal minds who recognized the truth when they saw it and had the passion to care about what happened to me.”
In 2007 Francis was charged with filing a fraudulent corporate tax return for a company for which he allegedly is the sole shareholder. However his attorney claimed that tax returns for the businesses were prepared and filed by a former corporate accountant without being shown to Francis.
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