{Poll} Vote for the most generous FOF celeb!

Celeb scandals abound. But you rarely hear about celebs’ good deeds. Read about 4 charitable FOF stars, and then vote on which one has the biggest heart.

Oprah Winfrey

Her good deeds:
-In 2005, Oprah gave $50 million to the Oprah Winfrey Foundation in Chicago to support education and other programs for women and children in the United States and abroad.

Oprah’s Angel Network, which she launched in 1997, has raised more than $80 million and touched lives in more than 30 countries around the world. Oprah personally covered all administrative costs associated with the charity, so all funds raised could help others. Among other accomplishments, Oprah’s Angel Network worked with Free The Children to build more than 55 schools in 12 countries, providing education for thousands of children in rural areas. The network provided more than $1 million worth of school supplies for 18,000 impoverished South African children and helped more than 1,000 New Orleans families get back on their feet after Katrina.

-In 2007, Oprah invested $40 million and her own time establishing the Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy for Girls in South Africa. The school originally enrolled 150 pupils and has state-of-the-art classrooms, computer and science labs, a library, theater and beauty salon. Oprah teaches a class at the school via satellite. “For many years, people always asked me why didn’t I have children?… Now I know why I didn’t have children,” Oprah said in an interview with CNN.  “Because I  have all of these daughters…These girls are a reflection of me, and I’m 100 percent certain that this school will produce the leaders of tomorrow.”

-Oprah’s lifetime charitable donations estimate: $303 million

Martha Stewart

Her good deeds:
-While serving time in jail, Martha Stewart, an animal lover, created a video on behalf of fur-bearing animals after being approached by PETA. “I used to wear real fur, but, like many others, I had a change of heart when I learned what actually happens to the animals,” said Martha in the video.

-In 2006, she gave $5 million to New York’s Mt. Sinai Hospital for a center on healthy aging. Martha said the donation was inspired by the death of her mother, Martha Kostyra. “About a year after she died,” said Stewart in an interview with ABC NEWS/Nightline, “I was cleaning my shelf where I keep my pocketbooks. And I remember being handed this brown pocketbook. I looked inside, and written in gold inside was a beautiful message from my mother telling me how proud she was of my accomplishments. I’d never seen it before. I’d never thanked her.”

Rosie O’Donnell

Her good deeds:
-In 1997, Rosie O’Donnell used the $3 million advance from her memoir to found her organization “For All Kids.” Since it’s inception, the foundation has awarded more than $22 million in early childhood care and education program grants to over 900 nonprofit organizations. The opening of The Children’s Plaza and Family Center in Renaissance Village, a FEMA trailer park in Louisiana, was another initiative of Rosie’s foundation.

-Listerine donated more than $350,000  for charity on behalf of Rosie’s “Unkissable” campaign. Every time a guest on Rosie’s show would kiss her, Listerine execs would donate $1,000 to charity.

-In 2003, Rosie founded “Rosie’s Broadway Kids,” (Now “Rosie’s Theater Kids”), an organization dedicated to providing free music and dance instruction to New York City public schools or students. She donated all profits made from her 2007 book, Celebrity Detox, to the cause. The organization serves more than 4,500 teachers, students and their family members at 21 schools.

-Rosie’s lifetime charitable donations estimate: $100 million

Barbra Streisand

Her good deeds:

-Through her live performances, Barbra has raised and donated $25 million to different organizations.

-Barbra has donated more than $11 million to her charity, The Streisand Foundation to benefit the environment, women’s issues, nuclear disarmament, civil rights, AIDS research and advocacy.

-In 2006, she donated $1 million to the William Jefferson Clinton Foundation to support former President Clinton’s climate change initiative.

-In 2008, she gave $5 million to fund the Barbra Streisand Women’s Cardiovascular Research and Education Program at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center’s Women’s Heart Center.

-Barbra sold 526 items at Julien’s Auctions in October 2009. Items included a costume from Funny Lady, a vintage dental cabinet she bought at 18 years old and a painting by Kees van Dongen. She donated the $573k in proceeds to her foundation.

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Images via The Telegraph, Martha Stewart, Broadway World and Life

{Poll} Which FOF celeb is the “greenest”?

FOF celebs have been singing the praises of all things eco, sustainable and energy efficient. But when they’re not in the limelight, which stars stay green?

Read about 3 “eco-friendly” FOF celebs, and then vote on who is truly “greenest.”

Bette Midler

Every day I have to remind myself that cleaning up the environment is like fighting a war. Changing people’s minds and habits is one of the hardest things anyone can do. But, if each one of us does our own part, day after day, we can make a difference.” — Bette Midler

Her greenchievements:
-In 1995, Bette founded the New York Restoration Project (NYRP), a non-profit organization that revitalizes parks in economically disadvantaged New York city neighborhoods. The organization has removed more than 2,000 tons of trash from New York City parks and saved hundreds of community gardens from commercial development.

-Bette Midler and the NYRP are leading MillionTreesNYC, an initiative to plant and care for one million new trees throughout New York City’s five boroughs by 2017.

-She is a recipient of the 2008 National Audubon Society’s Rachel Carson Award and the United Nations Environmental Programme Influential Women of The Environment Award.

Her eco-oops!:
-In August of 2007, Bette came under fire for cutting down 230 trees on her Hawaiian property without a permit.

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Roseanne Barr

“[Macadamia nuts hold] the promise of a brilliant future for this planet…I have a nut farm. I’m growing macadamia nuts… I’m serious about it.” – Roseanne Barr


Her greenchievements:
-This year, Roseanne purchased a 40-acre macadamia nut farm in Hawaii while promoting her book “Roseannarchy: Dispatches From the Nut Farm.” Roseanne said nuts are better than meat for environmental and health reasons: “They’re the perfect protein. They don’t have any carbohydrates and the only fat they’ve got is a lot, but it’s the good kind. So it’s better than beef. No greenhouse gases. Nice nuts.” We knew she was nutty…but not this nutty!

-Later this year, Roseanne will premiere a reality show about her life on the macadamia farm on the Lifetime television network.  The network has ordered 16 half-hour episodes which will feature the FOF comedian Johnny Ardent, her boyfriend, and her son, Jake.

Her eco-oops!:
-Roseanne is  in the middle of a land dispute with her Hawaiian neighbors. They have filed a complaint with County officials that she has been doing grading work on the property, without proper permits. Prior to this, Roseanne sought a temporary restraining order against the same neighbors for harassment. She has said that any land use violations were “a mistake” and going forward she’ll work to comply with regulations.

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Daryl Hannah

“One wouldn’t think that you would have to become an environmentalist or a humanitarian. It’s just natural to treat people and other creatures on the planet with respect.” —Daryl Hannah

Her greenchievements:
-On June 13, 2006 Hannah was arrested when she chained herself to a walnut tree for three weeks (talk about a tree-hugger!) to protest the bulldozing of an urban farm in Los Angeles. She spent some time in jail following the arrest. She was arrested again in June of 2009 when she protested a mountaintop removal in West Virginia.

-Hannah started an online store selling only environmentally friendly goods and a website with environmental news and videos on topics ranging from veganism to biodiesel.

-She is a board member of the Environmental Media Association, Action Sports Environment Coalition and ecoAmerica and co-founded Sustainable Biodiesel Alliance to promote sustainable biodiesel practices.

-She has a green home in the Rocky Mountains made with salvaged materials. It uses solar energy for heating and cooling and features a moss stone couch (that she waters regularly).

Her eco-oops!:
-None we could find!

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Which FOF celeb is the "greenest"?

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Images: New York Restoration Project, Warming Glow, The Distracted Globe
Sources: Mother Nature Network, United Nations Environment Programme, SFGate.com, AP Entertainment

{Poll} Which artist’s works would you hang in your home?

If money were no object, which artist’s works would you hang in your home?

Legendary impressionist Mary Cassatt was born in Pennsylvania in 1844. She attended the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts against her wealthy parents’ wishes. Mary was frustrated by the school’s rules, which forbade female students from painting live models. Eventually she moved to France where she studied the masters and made extra money by copying and selling famous paintings at the Louvre. Edgar Degas, one of the early founders of Impressionism, became Mary’s mentor, and brought her into the fold of the Impressionist movement. Mary is best known for her oil paintings, which explore the intimate moments of women–especially the bond between mother and child. They have sold for as much as $2.9 million.

Twentieth century Mexican painter, Frida Kahlo, is best known for her colorful and sometimes disturbing self-portraits which have been described as “surrealist” and as “folk art.” “I paint myself because I am so often alone and because I am the subject I know best,” said Frida, according to biographer Andrea Kettenmann. Her paintings capture emotional moments of her life, from her tumultuous marriage to artist Diego Rivera to the (physical and emotional) pain she endured after a bus accident left her barren. They have sold for as much as $5.6 million.

Georgia O’Keeffe was born on a dairy farm in Wisconsin in 1887. She attended a top art school in Chicago and won several student prizes, but eventually stopped painting entirely, and became an elementary school teacher in Texas. There, she began painting again, and those works–abstract flowers, rocks, shells, animal bones, and landscapes–became the basis for her first gallery show in New York. The gallery owner, famed photographer Arthur Steiglitz, fell in love with Georgia and left his wife to marry her. By the 1920s, Georgia was considered one the America’s most important artists. She continued painting right up until her death at age 98. Today her paintings sell for upwards of $6 million dollars each.

Helen Levitt (1913-2009) was a famously reclusive photographer who live and worked in Brooklyn, NY. She was known for her New York City “street photography,” especially her photos of local “children living their zesty, improvised lives,” as noted in her New York Times obituary. Some of her most famous photos were taken in the 1930s, because, Helen said: “That was before television and air-conditioning. People would be outside, and if you just waited long enough they forgot about you.” She took photos for 70 years before her death in 2009 at age 95.

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Images via Girls Explore, The Art Institute of Chicago, Frida Kahlo Foundation, Biography.com, The Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, Laurence Miller Gallery, and BlogArts

{Poll} Which look do you like best?

Amid the sea of beauties bundled in black, these fabulously stylish FOFs stood out at Fashion Week thanks to their colorful coats. Tell us, which look do you like best?

What she’s wearing:
Coat
— Vintage Geoffrey Beene
Turtleneck
Alice + Olivia
Earrings
David Webb
Bag
Lambertson Truex
Boots
Manolo Blahnik
Fur Collar
Paola Quadretti
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What she’s wearing:
Coat — Lilli Ann
Bag
kit + lili
Shoes
— Vintage Ann Klein
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What she’s wearing:
Coat
— vintage
BagBCBG
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{Movies} Best FOF movie performances of 2010

“There are three stages for actresses: babe, district attorney, and Driving Miss Daisy,” says Cindy Pearlman, 46, arts and entertainment columnist for the New York Times syndicate. “That’s a very funny line from First Wives Club, and it’s been true. But these days, Hollywood is waking up. There were great, juicy parts in 2010. Not just the put-upon wife who’s watching her husband go off with some twenty-year-old.” Here are Pearlman’s picks for the best FOF performances of 2010:

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{Poll} Which “transition community” would you consider moving to?

According to The New Retirement Survey, many of us FOFs are not interested in pursuing a traditional retirement of leisure. Studies show that the fastest growing group of entrepreneurs are aged 60 and older. And this year, the The Transition Network, a national women’s organization with the motto “rewiring not retiring,” grew 15%.

FOFs are no longer retiring in the traditional sense. Instead, we are transitioning to new experiences and reinventing ourselves in new places and spaces.

Take a look at these 5 non-traditional “retirement” communities–we’ll call them “transition communities”–and then answer our poll: Which would you consider moving to?

An Artists’ Colony:

Burbank Senior Artists Colony in Burbank, California.


According to it’s website, Burbank Senior Artists Colony is, “the only apartment-rental community dedicated to providing exceptional independent living in a creative, art-inspired environment.” The community has a Hollywood-themed clubhouse, performance theater, art studios, art galleries and classes in writing, poetry, art and technology. We’ll try to overlook use of the word “Senior.”

A Farm:

A co-op farm in Baja California Sur, Mexico


Forget mowing the lawn and golfing…How about tending your own farm? Developer Dan Gallagher is planning two farm communities for  in Mexico surrounded by commercial fruit orchards with central co-op farms. The farm will be run by residents of the community. Overflow fruits and vegetables will be sold at a Farmer’s Market outside of the communities’ gates. “The agricultural infrastructure is excellent [in Baja California Sur]. Both of these locations are near popular retirement centers such as Los Cabos and La Paz, providing additional outlets for retiree’s produce as well as recreational opportunities,” said the developer in an interview with Suite101.

A Community for Hippies:

Rocinante in Summertown, Tennessee.

Aging hippies rejoice! There’s a “transition community” just for you. Named after Don Quixote’s horse, Rocinante, the 100-acre community “promotes a simple lifestyle of cooperation.” Residents lease their building site from Rocinante and then must build their own cabin for a “reasonable,” rate “perhaps $30,000 for a basic one-bedroom cabin,” according to the website. The Rocinante community specializes in “making good, loving attention available to the beginnings and endings of life” and has Midwives on hand to help residents make use of “good energy” during the “death process.”

A Cruise Ship:

Waterfront Lifestyles International of Cape Canaveral, Florida


Transition to a life at sea! The former cruise ship, Algeria, is currently being converted to 100 retirement condos. Condo owners will also control 1/100th of the whole ship and have a say in onboard entertainment and the ship’s itinerary. The boat will take ten trips each year to the Bahamas and one big trip to the Caribbean or to Central America. If owners want to have guests, they can pre-reserve one of 12 guest rooms on board.

A College Campus:

Lasell Village at Lasell College in Newton, Mass.


Calling all FOF co-eds. Relive your college days at Lasell Village, a “transition community” right on the campus of Lasell College. Residents are required to complete 450 hours of education programming each year. They can attend classes on campus with undergrads or off campus through travel, museum visits and workshops. Frat parties are optional.

Which wacky retirement community would you most likely move to?

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Sources: Suite101, WOFL FOX 35, WalletPop

{Poll} Worst workout wear trend?

A thong-leotard over biker shorts!? Unitards!? Leg-warmers!? Really…What were we thinking? We can’t take back the fitness fashion faux pas of the 80s but we can make sure they never happen again!

Take our poll: “Which 80s fitness fashion trend was the most ridiculous?” Then, see what other FOFs chose.

Sorry, there are no polls available at the moment.

Images via So Shiny, American Counsel of Exercise, Tone it Up, and Style List

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{Poll} Do you take Vitamin D?

There’s a hot D-bate over Vitamin D going on.

Several doctors we’ve spoken to this year have advocated Vitamin D supplements for bone health, saying that most American women are deficient in this vital nutrient. According to a new report from the National Institute of Medicine, however, Vitamin D supplements are “not necessary for most adults.”

What’s an FOF to do?  Read our conversation with Cleveland Clinic expert, Tanya Edwards, MD, to get the full story. And tell us, below: Do you take Vitamin D?

Do you take Vitamin D?

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{Poll} Results are in..What’s at the top of FOF’s wishlists this year?

Last month, we asked FOFs what they’re most coveting for the holidays. What topped their wishlists?

Dazzling Jewelry! See the rest of the poll results below.

Which of the following would you most want as a holiday gift?

  • Dazzling jewelry (43%, 33 Votes)
  • A killer accessory such as a luxe bag, designer eyewear or a gorgeous scarf (17%, 13 Votes)
  • One-of-a-kind art (17%, 13 Votes)
  • Stylish travel gear or luggage (12%, 9 Votes)
  • A scrumptious gourmet treat (5%, 4 Votes)
  • Knockout exercise gear or apparel (5%, 4 Votes)

Total Voters: 76

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Comment below and tell us: Do you agree?

{Poll} Which book would you bring to a deserted island?

Imagine this: You have been castaway to a deserted island–indefinitely. You have ten minutes to pack and (oh no!) room in your suitcase for ONLY one of these books: The Bible, The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, The Harry Potter Collection and a compendium with every back issue of US Weekly. Which would you pack?

Take our poll and see what other FOFs picked. Then, comment below and tell us about your choice.

Which would you bring to a deserted island?

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Image for collage via Found in Mom’s Basement