Ginnifer Goodwin Once Upon A Time Interview Listerine 21 Day Challenge

For Ginnifer Goodwin, joining the cast of Once Upon A Time has resulted in more happy endings than she could have dreamed of. Not only is the fantastic fantasy series one of ABC's biggest hits, but the show's popularity has allowed Goodwin to use her celebrity status to bring attention to worthy causes. Like she did on February 5 by helping Listerine kick off their 21 Day Challenge!

To help Americans develop better oral hygiene, and improve access to dental care for children in need, Listerine donated $21,000 after Goodwin's "swish," and will continue to donate every time someone signs up for the challenge on Facebook!

ETonline caught up with Goodwin to talk about this mighty cause and this even mightier season of Once Upon A Time (particularly what you can expect from the introduction of Snow White's mother)!

ETonline: How'd you come to partner with Listerine?

Ginnifer Goodwin: I made some friends at Listerine and they taught me a little bit about oral care. That half of adults suffer from oral disease, that the number one chronic disease among children is oral disease, that we're only taking care of 25% of our mouths when brushing alone and there are more germs in your mouth than there are people on the planet.

ETonline: Well that's a terrifying statistic.

Goodwin: Oh yeah, I immediately had the heebie jeebies when they told me that. So then they offered to donate $21,000 to Oral Health America for my first swish of the Listerine 21 Day Challenge. The thinking is it takes 21 days to form a habit and implementing that into a morning and evening routine, one can assume it will become a lifetime commitment. It's quick, easy, and inexpensive -- plus you prevent so many problems. I really couldn't turn down such a generous offer.

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ETonline: What does it mean to you to have reached a place professionally where you're able to raise so much money simply by rinsing your mouth with Listerine?

Goodwin: It's incredibly humbling, and I'm glad you're bringing it up because it's important for me to remember. A lot of times, I think that what I do for a living has no integrity. Once Upon A Time has changed that to a certain extent because the reaction we get from children out in the world is so fulfilling, I can not even articulate it. There's nothing like being greeted as Snow White by a hyperventilating child versus Ginnifer Goodwin. It makes me feel like Santa Claus. But often times, I feel like I'm so blessed, it's not fair. That what I'm doing is not contributing to the good of the world. That acting is self-centered and elitist in many way, so to be able to participate in something that gives back is so important to me. That's where I really get my rocks off. I like partnering with companies that have really accessible, really easy changes we can all make that create a difference.

ETonline: When you initially signed on to Once Upon A Time, did you, in any way, anticipate it could be as successful, creatively fulfilling and resonant with fans as it has been?

Goodwin: I never dreamed our numbers would be what they are. I knew the show would be special and I knew it was risky, so I knew it would be creatively fulfilling. And I knew I would be a geeky fan of it and that even if it only had a tiny niche audience, I would be jealous watching the show if I wasn't on it. So I knew I had to be a part of it so I wasn't green with envy every Sunday.

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ETonline: Is that what fuels which projects you sign on for?

Goodwin: Sometimes. There's always a different reason. Sometimes I make very selfish choices; like I did Once Upon A Time for my inner 8-year-old and my hypothetical future child. I've done some movies because I would regret them if I didn't, but other projects I've done because they've scared me or if I felt I needed to do a big romantic comedy to help me professionally. Then I'll take a teeny movie when I need to work on myself and become a better actor.

ETonline: I've really loved this season ... except maybe for the pink sweater-set Snow was stuck in for so many weeks.

Goodwin: Oh my god! Thank you so much for hating it with me! I truly kept joking, except I was serious, that I desperately wanted to have an actual bonfire where I burned that freaking costume. Even the costume department despised it in the end. Thank God my character had some off-camera makeover.

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ETonline: Now that she and Charming have their memories back, what's the next hurdle in their relationship?

Goodwin: Thus far, based on what we've filmed, it’s the first time they're realizing that an obstacle could be self-created as opposed to it coming from an external source because he wants to go back and she wants to stay. They're struggling right now with whether or not this particular obstacle is surmountable. Selfishly I hope that Snow White and Prince Charming end up living happily ever after -- I'm not quite sure what our version of Snow White stands for if she's not going to get that.

ETonline: Snow's mother also becomes a major player in the show, via flashbacks, over the coming weeks. What excites you about that storyline?

Goodwin: Snow White has some mother issues, and they have affected her self-definition. I think it's going to be very exciting for the audience to see what has impacted Snow White in her past and that will effect how we feel about Snow White's relationship with her own daughter. And, totally unrelated to actual storylines, I'm excited for the incredible guest stars we have coming up. Like Lesley Nichol from Downton Abbey! Mrs. Pattmore joined our cast!!!! I freaked the fudge out all over her.

ETonline: You better hope your shows stay in adjacent timeslots. I worry about you should OUAT and Downton overlap on Sunday nights.

Goodwin: Yeah, no. I won't ever let that happen. I will throw myself on the grave of Walt Disney and beg for that to never happen.

For more info on Listerine's 21 Day Challenge, click here! Once Upon A Time airs Sundays at 8 p.m. on ABC.

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787 battery approval should be reconsidered: NTSB

AP

This slide shown on a video screen during a news conference at the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today shows a comparison of an exemplar battery with the Japan Airlines Boeing 787 battery.

WASHINGTON — The government should reassess its safety approval of the Boeing 787 lithium ion batteries, the nation's top accident investigator said Thursday.

National Transportation Safety Board Chairman Deborah Hersman said the board's investigation of last month's battery fire in a Japan Airlines 787 "Dreamliner" while it was parked in Boston shows the fire started with multiple short-circuits in one of the battery's eight cells. That created an uncontrolled chemical reaction known as "thermal runaway" and spread to the rest of the cells, she said.

That's at odds with what Boeing told the Federal Aviation Administration when the agency was working to certify the innovative aircraft for flight, Hersman said. The manufacturer asserted its testing showed that any short circuiting could be contained within a single cell, preventing thermal runaway and fire, she said.

Boeing's testing also showed the batteries were likely to cause smoke in only 1 in 10 million flight hours, she said. But the Boston fire was followed nine days later by a smoking battery in an All Nippon Airways plane that made an emergency landing in Japan.

The 787, Boeing's newest and most technologically advanced plane, has recorded less than 100,000 flight hours, Hersman noted.

The same day as the ANA emergency landing, FAA officials ordered the only U.S. carrier with 787s — United Airlines, which has six of the planes — to ground them. Aviation authorities in other countries swiftly followed suit. In all, 50 planes operated by seven airlines in six countries are grounded.

The groundings have become a nightmare for the company, which has about 800 Dreamliner orders from airlines around the world.

The 787 is the first airliner to make extensive use of lithium batteries. Aircraft makers view the batteries, which are lighter and can store more energy than other types of batteries of an equivalent size, as an important way to save on fuel costs. The Airbus A350, expected to be ready next year, will also make extensive use of lithium ion batteries. Manufacturers are also looking to retrofit existing planes, replacing other types of batteries with lithium ion.

But lithium batteries are more likely to short circuit and start a fire than other batteries if they are damaged, if there is a manufacturing flaw or if they are exposed to excessive heat.

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Miami startup that turns text to video receives $1 million in seed funding

Guide, a new technology startup based in Miami, announced Tuesday it has closed a $1 million round of seed funding from investors including the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Sapient Corp., MTV founder Bob Pitman, actor and producer Omar Epps, and early Google employee Steve Schimmel. The Knight Foundation is supporting Guide through its new early-stage venture fund, the Knight Enterprise Fund.

Led by CEO and founder Freddie Laker and COO Leslie Bradshaw, Guide’s team of seven is focused on turning online news, social streams and blogs into video for users who may be cooking, exercising, commuting or getting ready in the morning. The free application offers consumers a selection of about 20 “anchors” — including a dog, a robot and an anime character — that will read the article and present the accompanying photos, pull-out information and video clips in its video presentation. Revenue drivers for Guide could include in-app purchases, advertising-based anchors and customizations from publishers, said Laker, a former vice president at SapientNitro.

Laker and his team plan to launch a public beta next month, which they plan to do with a splash at the huge technology conference South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas.

Read more about Guide here on the Starting Gate blog. Follow Nancy Dahlberg on Twitter @ndahlberg

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Judge OK’s plan for gay man, lesbian couple to be legal parents of young daughter

A Miami-Dade circuit judge has approved a private adoption allowing three people — a gay man and a married lesbian couple — to be the legal parents of their 23-month-old daughter.

“We’re creating entirely new concepts of families. If you have two women seeking to be listed as Parent One and Parent Two, that does not exclude listing a man as father,” said Miami family lawyer Karyn J. Begin, who represented dad Massimiliano “Massimo” Gerina in a two-year paternity case involving lesbian friends who had his baby.

Maria Italiano and Cher Filippazzo, who married in Connecticut, and their attorney, Kenneth Kaplan, declined to be interviewed.

The women, according to Begin, are longtime partners who unsuccessfully attempted to become pregnant through professional fertility clinics.

Instead of giving up, they decided to try again at home and approached Gerina about fathering a child.

“They asked me,” Gerina said. “I was flattered by it. I thought what a great opportunity for me to have a baby.”

A single Bay Harbor Islands hair stylist, Gerina explained why he desires children: “It’s nature — the same reason a woman wants to be a mother.”

Gerina grew up Cagliari, Italy, where he never thought he could become a father. Eight years ago, though, he moved to South Florida and encountered many gay parents raising children.

“It’s not unusual here. Where I am from it’s unusual. I grew up with the mentality that it would never happen,” he said. “When I moved here, I saw gay couples, lesbian couples having families.”

On only a verbal agreement, Gerina gave the women his sperm and Italiano conceived. The lesbians planned for Filippazzo to later adopt the baby and they would both raise the child.

Florida law specifies that sperm donors have no legal rights in artificial inseminations. Thus the hitch: Gerina says he considered himself a parent, not simply a donor. The women, he claimed, “wanted a father for the baby, not just the sperm.”

Two weeks after insemination, Italiano learned she was pregnant. About seven months later, the women called Gerina and asked him to sign a contract.

“When they gave me the paper to sign that I had to give up all my rights to the baby, I didn’t,” he said.

Gerina began to ponder the legal consequences of siring a child. He hired Begin and presented the women with papers of his own.

“My papers said I would have parental rights, a visitation schedule,” he said. “They hated it. They said this wasn’t what they wanted. I said, ‘Now that you’re already pregnant, you should have thought about that before.’ ”

Their daughter, Emma, was born March 10, 2011. “The paternity lawsuit was filed right after the birth of the child,” Begin said.

The three parents feuded in court for nearly two years. A trial was set for Jan. 31, 2013.

A week before trial, Gerina, Italiano, Filippazzo and their attorneys settled the case privately.

Before posing for photos with the three parents and Emma, Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Antonio Marin approved the settlement and the court adoption clerk submitted paperwork for Emma’s new birth certificate:

• Birth mother Italiano, a retail saleswoman, received “sole parental responsibility,” Begin said.

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Jenny McCarthy New Talk Show Interview

While Jenny McCarthy has been acting since 1994, she's undoubtedly found bigger success when being herself. Whether it was as the host of MTV's Singled Out or the author of nine hugely successful novels, her intoxicating blend of no-holds-barred honesty and hilarious histrionics has earned her a loyal legion of fans.

Now, McCarthy hopes to dazzle her devotees with a new VH1 late night talk show, The Jenny McCarthy Show, premiering Friday at 10:30 p.m. But how will she stand out in the overcrowded marketplace? That was just one of the questions I posed when Jenny McCarthy rang me up for a chat!

ETonline: What excites you about this show?

Jenny McCarthy: I'm excited that it's actually different from everything else you've seen. If I were to compare it to anything, I'd say it's like Hugh Hefner's Playboy After Dark, which was a cool after-hours party. I've got a bartender, I've got go-go dancers, there's no script, there's no pre-interviews and the celebrities are in deep sh*t when I start asking questions. It's going to be really off the beaten path from what they're used to. I'm excited for people to see what I've worked so hard to attain at this stage in my life in terms of wisdom and life experiences.

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ETonline: Given your various books and columns, it feels like your fans have really been on that journey alongside you. Was that intentional?

McCarthy: Yeah. It was important for me to always be honest and out there. I feel like right from the get-go I made a point to stay true to who I am, to be honest, to be the girl who doesn't take herself too seriously and I always stuck with that even through the hard times when I wanted to be private. That brought me to where I am now, and I hold true to who I am to this day.

ETonline: You'll be talking about celebrities on your show. What's your take on the current state of celebrity?

McCarthy: I can tell you this, when I first moved out to LA I was hanging around a lot of Playmates and I really had to make a decision as to whether I wanted to keep going in this party-going world or stay focused on what I wanted. After a year, I purposely got into a relationship with a much older guy -- he was 45 when I was 21 -- because I wanted to stay home and not be distracted and get into the problems like Lindsay Lohan has. I mean, the same scene was there, we just didn't have the omnipresence of cameras. I knew back then that I would be tempted like everyone else, but I was going to stay home and watch Wheel of Fortune with my old man boyfriend until I could get a grip on what I was going to do.

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ETonline: When you look at the late night market, it's never been more competitive. How do you deliver on the promise of "different?"

McCarthy: A talk show is difficult because the formula is always the same: there's a host and there's guests. Really what you can change is only so much. So, I don't have any pre-interviews, which forces real conversation. Then, I have the guests out there for the entire 30 minutes. We have a pre-party, so it's a total party for 2 hours. I wanted go-go dancers. There are no sexy girls on TV anymore. What happened to the trampoline girls from The Man Show? I also have a very sexy man DJ and a very sexy man bartender right next to me, so I am pleasing all sexes and preferences.

ETonline: So you'll be drinking during the show?

McCarthy: Heavily, yes of course.

ETonline: Are you concerned about keeping yourself composed, or are you hoping to wake up and not remember the previous night's show?

McCarthy: [laughs] I'm kind of hoping that eventually does happen because it will be hilarious. But I also have to be sharp because when you're hosting a show, there's a lot of multi-tasking that needs to be done. All systems need to be working, but I am Irish and young and I like a cocktail.

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ETonline: Most people have a long list of the booze they can no longer drink after bad experiences. What are yours?

McCarthy: Bacardi was the first thing I was ever peer pressured into drinking when I was in 8th grade and threw up for 2 days, so I've never been able to drink that again. I've also discovered I'm allergic to beer and wine, so Vodka is kind of my only choice right now.

ETonline: Who are some of your dream guests?

McCarthy: To give you an example of the kind of oddity I want, a dream show would be Rebel Wilson and Tim Tebow. Me and Rebel and Tim Tebow would be a classic half-hour of television as we drink and play games.

ETonline: Besides oddity, what do you want people to get from your show?

McCarthy: 30 minutes of release. A relatable, entertaining time that doesn't make you feel like you need to take a shower afterwards. Just a good fun party that you're given VIP access to.

The Jenny McCarthy Show premieres February 8 at 10:30 p.m.

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MTA unveils interactive subway map

Now you can get up close and personal with New York subways.

The MTA rolled out an online interactive map today that’ll allow users to zoom in, or fade back, on an image of the system.

Before, users could only pull up a fixed PDF image. That option is still available.

“The subway map is one of the most popular tools we provide on our Web site, and we want to make it as easy and convenient as possible for visitors to the city and New Yorkers alike to get the most out of the map online,” said MTA spokesman Paul Fleuranges.

MTA.info

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Can’t find time for play? Try scheduling it

If your resolutions for 2013 include achieving a better work-life balance, your calendar holds the key to your success.

But, to pull off your goals, you’re going to need to turn the traditional way of thinking upside down.

Most people schedule their work commitments on their calendars and squeeze in family, friends and fun around it. Instead, schedule your work around your personal life, say Michelle Villalobos and Jessica Kizorek, speakers, personal branding consultants and co-creators of Make Them Beg, a professional self development program. For example, they suggest you block out gym time, reading for pleasure time, coaching your kid time and date night. Even a person with almost no flexibility in his or her work schedule can block out 15 minutes for a walk rather than eating lunch at their desks.

“You have to plan for play. Otherwise work expands and there’s no time for play,” Kizorek says. Today, it’s easy to stay a little later at the office or work through lunch because there’s always more to do. Using your calendar effectively can help you with boundaries.

Villalobos says once you put “play” into your schedule, it helps to get people who are important in your life to keep you committed. For example, she blocks out three hours twice a week on her calendar to paint. She has asked her boyfriend to help her stick to that schedule.

Realistically, there will be times when you have to reschedule a fun activity because of work demands. “At least you know what you missed so if you don’t do it, you move it to another day,” Villalobos says.

If you’re in a relationship, experts advise letting your partner participate in creating your calendar. A friend of mine sends his spouse an electronic invite to his poker night signaling that she has the night free to schedule her own fun activity.

Scheduling everything may seem rigid. “That’s the opposite,” Villalobos insists. “By putting things on your calendar, you can focus on what you need to do in the moment. It allows you to be far more present.”

With more people converting to electronic calendars or hovering between paper and online options, how we coordinate our schedules is in flux. But for balance, it’s often better to track personal and professional in one place.

Sharon Teitelbaum, a Boston-based work-life coach, says to calendar all important life events including birthdays. It may sound like common sense to calendar your son’s birthday, but people forget and schedule business travel, she has found. She also advises putting work events in your calendar as far in advance as possible and tasks that lead up to them. “You don’t want to agree to host a dinner party the weekend before a work retreat.”

For many busy people, the traditional way of scheduling needs to change from calendaring a due date to creating a timeline. If you have a big project you need to have completed by Feb. 15, Teitelbaum says break it into weekly tasks leading up to that date. “People vastly underestimate how long things take and the number of interruptions they have to contend with,” she says.

Julie Morgenstern, who created the Balanced Life Planner for Delray Beach-based specialty retailer Levenger, says that even on a daily basis people don’t plan realistically. “By bravely recognizing the limits of each day and how long each to-do on your list will take, we can see in advance what will or won’t fit into our calendar, and become more strategic,” she said.

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Miami Gardens fights ‘no snitching’ code after string of murders

The Sunday school teachers at New Beginning Missionary Baptist Church in Miami Gardens are well-versed in Biblical tales such as the Good Samaritan or Noah’s Ark.

But this year, a police officer will preach to the youngest members of the flock, telling them about a contemporary version of the Golden Rule: to respect their neighbors and their neighborhood, and to report wrongdoing rather than uphold the informal no-snitching code.

In a city that saw 25 people killed last year — grandfathers, mothers, fathers, a college-bound freshman — city leaders and community elders have not only been grappling with how to stem the violence, but how to shift a pervasive culture of not cooperating with police.

So far, this year, three people have been killed in Miami Gardens — a man killed on New Year’s Day, a 15-year-old boy who was shot multiple times and a man killed Sunday night after a Super Bowl party.

At New Beginning, a working class congregation, the head pastor is hoping to start small, with a monthly visit from a Miami Gardens police officer.

“It is very necessary,” said senior pastor Eric Readon, of his nontraditional approach. “It’s not just about preaching Jesus, we need to change our methods to get to these kids. We need to save them before they go in the wrong direction.”

Even as overall crime rates have steadily declined in Miami-Dade County’s third largest city — and Florida’s largest predominately black city —Miami Gardens is burdened with a high murder rate per capita.

In the past five years, Miami Gardens has ranked among the top Miami-Dade cities with the highest murder rates per 100,000 residents. In 2011, the city was second in murders per capita in the county, with 24 murders. First was nearby Opa-locka, according to statistics compiled by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. By comparison, Hialeah, which is roughly double the size of Miami Gardens’ population of 110,000, had four murders in 2011 and seven in 2012, according to records.

Miami Gardens Mayor Oliver Gilbert, a lifelong resident, said his city, as with many communities, is not immune to crime.

“We won’t allow an entire community of people to be identified by the horrible actions of a small minority of people,” said Gilbert. “Most of the people in Miami Gardens are great decent people. This isn’t a bad area because some bad things happen here.”

And so clergy members called for an end to the violence at a press conference, police hosted meetings with local crime watch groups and at an all-night prayer vigil last month, pastors and city leaders memorialized the victims killed in the city last year.

Among the casualties:

An eight-month pregnant mother who succumbed to her injuries after being shot on her boyfriend’s porch. The unborn baby did not survive.

A Carol City high school football player who was gunned down while he sat in a car in front of his friend’s house. On the same day, blocks away, a 26-year old woman was walking on the sidewalk when she was approached from behind and was shot several times in the head and torso.

A local car wash owner was killed while trying to stop a robbery; a corrections officer was shot dead in front of his home.

Lost are the days when neighbors bought into the idea, “I am my brother’s keeper,” said Bishop Sylvester Sampson, whose son-in-law, Andrew Johnson, the corrections officer, was fatally shot near Northwest 211th Street and Northwest 27th Avenue in his driveway.

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Nashville Sneak Peek Clip Elevator Hookup

Coming hot on the heels of their best episode to date, Nashville is turning up the heat even further this Wednesday with a brand new episode that forces Rayna to confront her feelings for Deacon -- and ETonline has a sneak peek of all the between-floors action!

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In I've Been Down That Road Before, Rayna is thrown for a loop now that Deacon has joined Juliette's band and can't help but think that maybe he'd be better off in her bed! Especially after the two share a steamy kiss in the elevator! WATCH!

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Nashville airs Wednesdays at 10 p.m. on ABC.

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Slain sniper was penning new 'gun history' book

FORT WORTH, Texas — A publisher says a former top Navy SEAL sniper and best-selling author who was fatally shot at the weekend had a second book in the works.

Sharyn Rosenblum says Chris Kyle was working on "American Gun: A History of the U.S. in Ten Firearms" with co-author William Doyle. Rosenblum is a spokeswoman for publisher William Morrow.

Kyle's book, "American Sniper," written with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice, was released last January. As of Tuesday morning, "American Sniper" was Amazon's No. 1 seller.

Rosenblum says no release date has been set for the new book.

AP

Chris Kyle, a former Navy SEAL and author of the book 'American Sniper'.

Kyle left the Navy in 2009 after four tours of duty in Iraq, where he earned a reputation as one of the military's most lethal snipers.

Eddie Ray Routh has been charged in Kyle's killing Saturday.

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