Chuck Shepherd
Vietnamese model and Playboy (Venezuela edition) Playmate Angie Vu complained to the New York Daily News in April that her five-plus months in jail in Brooklyn have been "torture" and "cruel" because of her lack of access to beauty care. Vu is fighting extradition to France for taking her 9-year-old daughter in violation of the father's custody claim and is locked up until a federal judge rules. Among her complaints: "turning pale" in the "harsh light," lack of "Guerlain's moisturizer," inability to look at herself for months because glass mirrors are prohibited and "worrying" about being hit on by "lesbians," thus causing "wrinkles." At least, she told the reporter, she has found God in jail and passes time reading the Bible.
Questionable judgment
Chef Mahbub Chowdhury pleaded guilty in April to food and hygiene violations in Swindon (England) Magistrates Court after inspectors found "brown fingerprints" in the kitchen at his Yeahya Flavour of Asia carryout restaurant. Chowdhury was candid about his "cultural" habit of bypassing toilet paper and using his hand to clean himself. The plastic bottle with the fingerprints, Chowdbury said, contained water that he normally used instead of the toilet paper, and his lawyer argued that since the bottle was never actually lab-tested, the brown spots could have been "spices."
Religious messages
• Christian political activist David Barton told his "WallBuilders" radio audience recently that Disney's anthropomorphic characters (e.g., Bambi) are simply gateways to kids' learning Babylonian pagan worship.
• Brooklyn "prophet" Yakim Manasseh Jordan told followers recently that he has arranged with God to bring people back from the dead if they — cheerfully — offer a "miracle favor cloud" of gifts as low as $1,000.
• James David Manning, chief pastor of the Atlah Worldwide Missionary Church in Harlem, in a recent online sermon, stepped up his usual anti-gay rhetoric, warning "sodomites" that God would soon send flames "coming out of your butthole." A gay and transgender support group is fundraising to buy Atlah's building and set up a shelter.
Police report
• The Tap Inn bar in Billings, Mont., released April 11 surveillance video of the armed robbery staged by two men and a woman (still on the lam), showing two liplocked customers at the bar, lost in affectionate embrace during the entire crime, seemingly oblivious of danger. The robbers, perhaps impressed by the couple's passion, ignored them — even while emptying the cash register just a few feet away.
• Andru Jolstad, 26, was arrested on April 16 and charged with using a pry bar to break into the cash boxes of four machines at Zap's Arcade in Mesa, Ariz. Following citizen tips, a cop arrived to find Jolstad on his knees alongside one machine with his arm still inside. His total take from the spree was $18, and he'll likely be sent back to prison from an earlier charge.
• Police in the Augusta, Ga, suburb of Hephzibah arrested a meth-addled Ray Roye for battery and family violence against his wife in March. Roye was yelling about custody of their child, but his wife informed police they don't have a child.
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